Last day of the old year and a night of drunken revelry in the streets of Parattah to look forward to. I imagine Seb will find it a little disconcerting and will keep us all awake as he lunges to protect us from assumed threats. Shadow should sleep well nevertheless as he was quite worn out by our walk.

Despite having a bank and three cottages to clean today I managed to get two loads of washing done. I am starting the New Year with a clean house and clean clothes at least. The clean house is down to my friends coming to visit me yesterday and me realising I really should do something about the mess. And so I did.

Ran out of my favourite dish washing sponges which was a pain, but discovered they are now made from recycled materials and come in white, with a dull green scouring backing. Why anyone would think white was a good choice is beyond me. The first time i use it it will look grubby! At least it came in a multiple pack so I have a good supply laid by now.

In case you were wondering where i got to, apart from the housework, I have given up on the computer for a bit as the download has once again been slowed, and that, in combination with the wildly variable weather we are having has meant it is nigh on impossible to load anything as the signal keeps disappearing as well. So I have been reading, working and getting the house in some semblance of order.

But since the dogs are now walked, and I am tired, I plan to head off to bed and find the new year when I wake up. First, though, I have to bring in the last load of washing once it is dry (which would have been any minute now except the breeze has dropped and so it may be marginally damp when it comes in.

Hope you all had a good day yesterday - I did! The  morning consisted mainly of lazing around eating chocolate and walking the dogs alternately. Since I had to go out in the afternoon I took them for their long walk at lunchtime while the roast was cooking and we got back just as it was done to a turn. Beautiful succulent organic pork loin, with a waldorf salad to balance it out (a bit).

During the morning a friend mentioned her mum was in Hobart Private at present, so I left early, intending to go visit her (her husband was my dad's boss and the families have always been close, at least while we were growing up). Got to the hospital but she was out on day release apparently, so I headed over to Barb's where we ate ourselves senseless, had the traditional present-opening and played Christmas games (like a list of letters, each of which represented the first letter of a word in the title of a Christmas Carol). I got 18 out of 25, had never heard of two of the remaining ones and the rest were blindingly obvious once you knew the answer....

It was raining at theirs so I was quite hopeful it might have rained here too. But I got to Bridgewater and it was dry there. Then wet again at Bagdad, and so on all the way home. Sadly a possum failed to make it to Boxing Day as it double back after I had swung around to avoid it. Clearly darwin's law at work. The next one tried to do the same thing but I had allocated a bit more space this time so it survived.

Got up this morning and the little darlings had taken advantage of my absence to leave the gate open once more (good thing I had kept Shadow within the range of the light when I let them out for their run last night). Did some housework today as Barb and Co are coming up to visit on Tuesday. Will keep plugging away at it for the next couple of days and it should be under control. Tomorrow I will do some lawns though as the next day is forecasting for 25 which will be a bit warm for that sort of exertion.

Tomorrow I have two cottages to clean, so it will be necessary to fit it all in around that.

I'm not entirely sure what happened to yesterday - put it down to a blond moment....

Today was a day for going into Oatlands. First to clean the bank. Second to get the last minute grocery requirements to tide me over tomorrow. Then on my return from that trip I had a text from an old school friend who I have not seen for 40 years saying she was in Oatlands - so I dropped everything and went in to have a coffee with her and chat about old times. Got home and was just considering cracking a stubby (to make sure it tasted good enough to serve tomorrow, you understand) when the phone rang and it was my boss saying he had guests in two cottages and why hadn't they been cleaned? EEEk. I am sure he told me they were booked out over the break, but there you go.

So once again I dropped everything and drove into town, made up beds frantically and cleaned us minor messes (at least last night's guests were tidy) and had the done in time for the guests to return. Phew.

In between all this I did two loads of washing and changed the sheets so I get to wake up Christmas morning in clean sheets (a special treat - I do love lavender scented bedding), but have a pile of stuff to put away.

The stubbies have now been opened and i am eating pretzels and relaxing after Seb's long walk (Shadow was given the day off), and wondering what is for dinner.

So - Merry Christmas to Australia's poorest citizens. Cutting funding to homeless shelters and a Bill to reduce pensions - all in the last day of sitting before they break up to go home to their opulent homes to stuff their faces with all that is good in this life. Sickening isn't it.

Me I cleaned the bank then went home before heading in once more to clean the cottage as the guests were showing no sign of leaving at the time i was done at the bank. Since there were no time pressures I climbed on a chair and removed  the vent of the kitchen exhaust and gave it a good scrub as it was looking pretty manky. Then home again to walk the dogs a couple of times before their dinner time.

It was pretty hot today and Shadow was looking a bit droopy so I left him behind when Seb and I took the long walk, with the result we went further than usual (poor Shadow tends to get slower and slower and eventually stops when he has had enough), and as a result it is quite relaxing here tonight - Seb has collapsed and gone to sleep. Smidgen has another furball so has been given a dose of paraffin, and Esther is staying well out of sight in the box by the window, in case I feel inspired to dose her as well.

The promised showers have been occasional isolated spots of water, not enough to settle the dust even, so I may take the washing to the laundromat tomorrow as I do not want to risk running out of water over the Christmas break.

If I had a child under the age of 30 who lost their job in the next couple of years I would be very deeply concerned. Morrison for Social Services? With a priority for Child Welfare? I am speechless with horror. We will be seeing forced labour camps before long.

That said, I had a very lazy day today - took the lawn mower up to a friend who managed to free up the blade that had wedged itself under the middle spinning bit, but by the time i got home it was too darn hot to even contemplate exercise, so I retired indoors and drank lemon barley water.

Our long walk this evening was conducted after a cooler breeze had started up and was blessedly snake-free. Now we are all waiting for it to cool down enough to go to bed.

What a week of horrors - the latest being a WA woman murdered by her son because she was unable to get him into a psychiatric facility when she asked. Seems to me our mental health services are failing badly - whether due to incompetence or being under-resourced - and a good hard look at the way we are dealing with mental health (its cause and effects) needs to be undertaken.

I went into town to clean a cottage today but it was already clean. Popped into another cottage to turn out a light my colleague had left burning and discovered she had walked off the job before it was finished (lucky I checked as a guest is due in this evening). So I emptied the bin, cleaned the bathroom, distributed toiletries and cleaned up in the kitchen before heading home once more.

A cool morning seems to have segued into a hot afternoon and Smidgen is out there somewhere, having made a break for it when I was trying to convince Seb to go back indoors. I expect he will turn up in due course, but I would rather he not be out for this long.

Today was the last day in the Community Garden for the year (I will be in and out over the break but not spending a full day there as I have been doing). So we set to and weeded all the beds (remarkably weed free), pulled out anything that was going to get over-excited and engulf its neighbours, and sprayed the paths - salt and vinegar so it smells like a fish and chip shop once more.

Things are coming along very nicely there, though the bags Eleanor thought would be ideal for growing potatoes in have proven less than successful (mainly, I suspect, because they were filled with garden soil with no additives) and had dried out badly. The two that were past redemption have been pulled apart and the miniscule potatoes came home with me. The other two were given another good soaking in the hope they will keep on going till the New Year. I am not holding my breath.

Dog walking was amusing tonight as everyone has been heading into town for the Christmas Parade (no, I am not going - bah humbug and all that - as standing for at least an hour to watch badly made floats go by does not sound terribly fun to me). So a passing parade of motorcycles with antlers and tinsel kept me amused on the way home. No rabbits tonight, fortunately as I was off in a revery again, but at least the knee seems to be falling back into place and is now only sore on pressure, so clearly nothing seriously wrong with it.

Pizza for dinner as it is Friday.