Fishy fare for the end of 2011

'The Gang'; the usual suspects, or whatever we should be called, gathered at my place yesterday evening. There were seven of us....two had passed on and one is in care at a nursing home. I think we are all hoping to be around next NYE, but who knows? We raised our glasses to ourselves and those no longer able to attend.

Front..Wendy, Margaret Carole Rear... Kev, Dennis, Joy and Ralph

My prediction that there would be copy-cat car burnings didn't hold up....nothing reported. In Western Australia there were a couple of parties out of control, a few arrests, but no injuries. The cops were pretty pleased with things. Strike that, reverse it. There were six cars torched in a Sydney car park last night. I knew we could do it!

Helen and James are spending the long weekend with friends at Margaret River a pretty wine growing region. I must revisit Margarets myself soon. Martin, our son, rang today from Melbourne. He is feeling a little rough after NYE celebrations last night, but happy to be back on the payroll at Coles.

My new car has a fault which is intermittent. I cannot cause it to happen and so the dealer has said that it is perfectly OK. I hate being treated as an elderly idiot. One fellow when writing down the symptoms of the fault asked me a series of questions more suited to an 18 year old. Not only that but he was addressing me in a loud, can you hear me old fart, voice.

I had to stop him and inform him that I am not deaf and I have a wealth of experience with machinery and have even built two cars from scratch. That shut him up.

I will leave the car overnight with them and if they test drive it several times each day the symptoms should show up.

I didn't win the $31M lotto game last night. As Charlie in Willy Wonka said...'I just thought you would want to know that'.