DOWN UNDER WELL MANDY IS NOW UNDER THE WEATHER

as I seem to be pulling through the worst of the bronchitis Mandy is now going downhill fast so I've recommended an early trip to the doctor as there is so little time left before we leave for Cuba a week tomorrow. We got the Cuba tourist cards today and the e ticket etc, I'll check through the rest of the documentation as we get ready to go, I bet Sue has already started her packing, we haven't even thought of it yet. What another dreary miserable week it has turned out, it's also eerily quiet a work with the amount of emails and calls dropping off each day and less and less people in the office. I got yet another of the Atlas trams from China, it arrived within a few days of ordering, the post in China seems to work very well, I've never had a problem over the years with anything there. I've never heard anything back from my pen pal Li, I can't imagine whats happened, perhaps it was remarrying and getting a flat not leaving enough time to write in English, perhaps one day I'll get back to the coal mine villages of Handan province.

The DVD editing has gone well and I'm ready to make the first of the Australian Perth DVDs which I've just finished putting some sound on, I had to look up one of my early Perth films to get a half realistic soundtrack, hopefully I won't have too many hassles putting it on Youtube, often find that people claim spurious rights over sounds of buses and cars but then that is 'modern' music and what it sounds like, a collection of noises at random.  I think there will be three volumes from this excercise, after Perth WA there will be Brisbane and other areas of Queensland, one trip to Adelaide, a couple of visits to Canberra and a single trip to Tasmania. We seem to have posted cards to just about everyone who has sent them, nothing up yet but we have a tree inside and out and a santa gnome that Yvonne bought us which looks quite smart by the lamp at the back of the settee, amazing really but then it is a M&S gnome after all.

I took a trip down to the Stobart Port this lunch time as it was sunny but by the time i got the camera out it had started to rain and was pretty darn cold to boot, anyway a few stills to lighten up tonights missive.