Updates

Mike: He's now better from his adventure of a few weeks ago. The scars on his hand don't really show just how nasty it was. I think he may have been watching a little too much of the Olympics though. Yesterday after swimming lessons he was awarded a "gold metal" and was pleased as punch but afterwards said, "They forgot the flowers."

The diet: I've decided to include a photo of the chocolate stash so I have a record of just how much chocolate there is. I am managing okay by being careful with the diet but had a "shocking" experience with the old dryer this week. It's getting on in years and the electric shock it gave me was enough to make my little finger numb for a while afterwards, so it's now at the dump. I'm very impressed with the replacement. No telling it how long to dry, I just press the "start" button and it automatically dries the clothes until it detects no moisture then stops. Very environmentally friendly.

The swans: Sadly the lone cygnet did not seem to survive. I suspect one of the local non-native wildlife got to it. Good news though is that they've hatched more cygnets. There's now three and they seem to be doing fine. I don't know how they do this when we've had frost (in August)! It's that global warming problem again.

Anika: Those who read her blog would know she's busy with schoolwork and not blogging. She's keeping to the rules reasonably well and has just managed to survive one of the busiest weeks in the program. There were a few late nights the last few days, and I had to tell her on Friday that it was Friday and not Thursday. 12 days to go.