G’day!!! It is a rainy dreary morning in Townsville—I think it rained a good part of the night which makes everything look great but is not good for the cane crushing……and since our lives revolve around cane crushing now or the inability to do cane crushing when it needs to be done we don’t like the rain today!!! Chris just left for the southern mills after a fruitless search for his bluetooth hands free headset for his phone. I do not remember seeing it on the counter where he keeps all his “stuff” and he insists that is where it was. I did organize some stuff here yesterday but I would have left that alone. My suspicion is that he left it in one of the billion of places that he has been in the last couple of days but that does not help at all. They are very strict about using hands free if you are driving so I guess he won’t be making many calls on his trip there and back today. He was a little bit in a tizzy or as much as Chris gets in a tizzy!!

So I guess today I will wait for the rain to stop to go out since I don’t even have an umbrella—guess that should go on the list that is ever growing!!! I also have lost a pair of shoes that I was positive I packed so i think I have to pull everything out today and search all the nooks and crannies, suitcases, bags, etc. When we checked in in Detroit my own suitcase was over 70 pounds so I was cramming stuff in Chris’ duffle and I have a feeling that they might be lurking around in there or at least I hope so!!! They are a favorite pair!

Yesterday Lorrae came and got me and we went to her house for lunch and conversation and tea. We don’t seem to run out of things to talk about that is for sure!! We talked a lot about the words that they say differently than Americans and how the language is changing a lot here because of all the American tv and influences. Last night I saw advertised Australian Idol so I guess that is universal! We had a nice couple of hours–she is taking such good care of me!!! One of her friends who works in the mill in the Laboratory (one of those words that we say differently) is coming up on Friday so she wants me to meet her so that will be another person to meet!!! The kids went back to school yesterday so she went to pick them up and they came in in their school uniforms complete with the floppy hats which are a required part of the uniform and they looked very Australian!!

I think that Chris is trying to plan a nice weekend for us since it is our 26th anniversary on Friday—-he has a mill (maybe 2–can’t remember now) in an area near the Whitsundays Islands and Airlie Beach so we are going to go there on Sunday and I wlll hang out at the hotel on Monday while he works. He was there in March when we flew down and said it was beautiful. We went out to dinner with a couple that lives there last week so we might get together with them while we are there outside of the work thing–we will see. Anywho—it will be nice to have a change from being here for a couple of nights.

Well the day looks like it might clear off a bit out there so I had better get a shower and get my day started!!! More later!!!