When Padma went to the post office yesterday to pay the next twelve months' mailbox fee, she also picked up a 2026 calendar for the kitchen. "If it's Monday, it must be lentil soup; if it's Tuesday, it must be Chinese stir fry ..." She is such an impulse-buyer: I had expressly told her to wait until June to get it at half-price!
While there, she met an elderly acquaintance whose friend in Sydney is bedridden with advanced pancreatic cancer. This elderly acquaintance now drives to Sydney once a week and also phones her each night to talk to her over the phone. Human kindness at its best! But here comes the kicker: his friend has now registered him as one of her NDIS-carers and the government pays him a fat professional fee. Next thing I know he'll get himself his own ABN! Human kindness monetised! Ka-ching!
By the way, that kitchen clock emits on the stroke of each hour the sound of the bird shown. All the birds are European ones unknown to me. Mercifully, they stop calling during the night; in fact, I can even shut them up during the day by putting my hand over the light sensor.
That's just about all I can still shut up in my own house these days; everything else is up to the gods and whatever mood Padma is in.
Speaking of which, I have just joined the 3-Day Challenge which may make me a little short-tempered and abrasive in the next few days.
