Revenge is sweet

• So many reasons to gloat:
  
  the sight of "wimpy" so graciously accepting his gong from the Insitute of Neo Cons. in Washington (that influential but misguided, non think tank of far right, black suits) then bagging Australia and dumping on the new Rudd govt. policies in his acceptance speech...very endearing!
  
  the sight of poor Brendan, of the 7% preferred status, struggling to hold it all together
  
  seeing the fab four caught out: Lord Downer being his glorious, absent, patronising self; Vaile lobbying in the Middle East; Tuckey on his cruise; Costello sleeping or web surfing on the back bench.......it doesn't get much better than this!

But more importantly...... Great to hear news that Davey eventually overcame all obstacles and got to Vietnam, loved his time there and is now safely back in London.

We detected the first signs of early Autumn in the air in Sydney this long weekend (Canberra's birthday weekend) a great three day break for us, especially enjoyable for the day we shared with Clare exploring the foodie delights of Cabramatta and later on the wondrous Harris Farm shop at Broadway. Breakfast at Coogee this morning doesn't come any better: fresh figs and my handmade bircher muesli topped with Danny's greek style passionfruit yoghurt.

I felt like I deserved my long weekend this week as I have started to do a bit of work for the department. I haven't chased this work..it found me! So far I think I have committed to a couple of days a week of interesting, relatively stress free work.

We were lucky enough to catch Miss E this afternoon straight after her bath. She loves her penguins with the bell, a great distraction when getting dressed, and knows already not to put them in her mouth. Miss E loved eating Thai for lunch today: stir fry tofu and vegetables with ginger...she loved it all.

Soapy clean from her bath, milk soft skin, lots of happy smiles, a perfect time for a walk on the grass at dusk. I predict she will be walking on her own sometime in the next month or so.