Kerry's "Letter from Australia" - June 2007 Well this month started well, NOT!!!! We have been letting Diesel have free run of the property because he doesn’t run off. I went to pick Holly up from school (I only do this Mondays because she has guitar lessons and there is so much to carry) and in doing so met the boy next door who had just got off his school bus outside of Holly’s school. Anyway I offered him a lift home and as we pulled into his driveway I saw Diesel running about on their land. I got out to pick him up just in time to see him pinning one of their free range chickens to the floor (they wander all over their place and are only put in at night to protects them from the foxes). I dashed over there but by this time he had let it stand up (debatable description more like a tipsy wobble) and as it wobbled off he gave chase. I managed to grab him before he got it again. The ensuing chaos and shouting of the situation brought the neighbours out of their house. I made profuse apologies on Diesel’s behalf and offered to buy a new chicken should this one die of shock! While having him round the collar and taking him back to the car, we (male neighbour and I) discovered several deposits of hens feathers on the ground. So it obviously wasn’t the first time he had caught it and let it go again. I phoned up full of trepidation the next day to ask how the chicken was, apparently it had recovered its composure if not all of its feathers (a remark was made about probably being cold at night). The upshot of all this is Diesel makes for next door at every opportunity, so now he is only allowed out (other than for walks on the lead) when night falls. Talking of chaos, Holly’s school invited a city school down to see what a country school was like, the country children were told they could bring in any animals of theirs that represented country living i.e. no dogs or cats (thankfully that was Diesel out). The result was 2 Clydesdale horses, a sheep, a bearded dragon, 2 gecko’s, a blue tongued lizard and a budgie plus the chicken that the school keeps anyway. Can you imagine umpteen kids and all this lot in a school playground (not a large one at that). Holly said it was great fun, I don’t know if the teachers thought so too!! Then there was the saga of older daughter, I received a frantic call from South Africa saying she had either lost or had her cash point card stolen (it later turned up fully intact) and could I cancel it and order a new one. I cancelled it immediately but they wouldn’t order a new one on my say so. So Lauren had to ring them, not a great idea because she forgets things until the last minute, suffice to say it took her a week to do it and by the time it arrived and I had sent it, she was desperate for money. She borrowed a bit from her boyfriend to tide her over and then asked if I could sent an international transfer to her boyfriends account as he was now running short (she has no account over there, too much red tape for a foreigner, easier to use her cash point card and I can top up her account as and when). I duly did this with the details she had given me, paid the fees and off it went. Another week went by and still no card or money at the bank, all attempts by myself (this end) and Lauren (that end) to find the reason for the delay were thwarted by bank staff saying in S.A. it takes longer!! Then a week after that my bank phoned to say the money had been returned to my account less the South African Bank charges, because the account number was wrong. Now you would think that being desperate for money, Lauren could have taken two seconds to check the number she had typed was correct wouldn’t you, but oh no, not my daughter!!! So it had spent the best part of three weeks whizzing round the world at my expense. KIDS eh!!! The cashpoint card still being missing for over three weeks, I ran a check through the postal service and the lady who answered said it had arrived in S.A. two weeks previously and she enquired as to where it was going, when told it was a Uni, she said “Get your daughter to check the Uni post room, when items are sent to an institution, it is usually their fault for the delay not the postal service” When told this she hot footed it down to the post room but it wasn’t there, luckily her boyfriend was with her and he asked the post room to check the other campus, sure enough there it was languishing in their post room. All’s well that ends well. Just as you are enjoying some warmer weather, it is starting to get much colder here. My gloves are out!! Until next time, Love Kerry