It is a very sad day when your own children have no sympathy for the traumas of yet another birthday.

One of my lovely colleagues has pointed out that I am now the same age as my eldest daughter, and as a concept this seems a little hard to come to terms with..., but I shall just have to do it.

Still, it's a nice day when I have the prospect of a quiet dinner, and wine, chocolate and flowers on my desk when I arrived at work this morning.

To my delight, I can understand many of the lyrics in the new collection, as I take a musical "Tour de France", and the music soothes the soul when traffic is heavy on the Monash.

Of course, getting this extra music has made my previous technology for portable music completely unable to cope, so I bought an iPod Touch to house the new collection, and to provide a way of putting my whole music collection in the one place, for easy listening.

Now, G has discovered the game playing capabilities of this new machine, and I am having a hard time getting it back as he tries to beat my record score in Bejewelled.

A little bit of rain on Sunday night, but too late to alleviate drought stricken pastures and crops. We headed off to see the World Cup Rugby League match between Australia and England at the Docklands stadium. Unlike our previous expedition to that stadium to watch rugby, this time the weather conditions were much nicer, albeit a little humid.

To us, relatively new to the game, the virtual walk over by the Australians was unexpected. The "rain" of tries scored by the Aussies in the 52-4 scoreline was made more exciting by Billy Slater's solo run from the back of the field to score a try, with a nimble sidestep or two to wrong foot the solitary defender who had a chance to stop the run.

Unlike an AFL match, there was no team song at the end by the victorious team...Advance Australia Fair just isn't that sort of song....

We have become aquainted with the couple who are the new neighbours, and the charming young man happens to love to ride mini bikes. Consquently, when we are visiting next door, we often hear the put, put and roar of B doing circuits around his back yard.

Last weekend, we were visiting, and he excitedly told us about his new purchase on the most well known internet trading platform of a new bike, which was bought for the princely sum of $400. This was such a bargain that two of his mates bought one each, and so, last Saturday afternoon, there were three hot pink mini bikes on display in the back yard.

There had to be a reason that they were so cheap!

The tale does not end there, later in the afternoon, at the end of our gardening adventures, as we sat quietly enjoying a drink and waiting for the home delivery of pizza, B's partner announced over the fence that the guys had not returned from their first ride on the new bikes, because they were at the police station.

In Victoria, it is not possible to register mini bikes, and therefore there is a hefty fine for riding one on public land and roads. Add to this a fine for not wearing a helment, and for one guy, riding without a licence, and providing a false name, which resulted in a loss of his car driver's licence. The $1000 dollar fine was bad enough, but losing his driver's licence is another thing entirely.

In the meantime, I must smile cheerfully when someone suggests prawns, or fish and chips or a seafood platter...

I first experienced symptoms some years ago on holidays in Queensland, with a rash after eating prawns every day for a week, but recently I've had more serious symptoms such as tingling all over. The fact that the symptoms are getting worse each time means I have to be careful in the future.

The reason that the diagnosis is only preliminary is that prior to the previous incident, I had eaten seafood for three meals, so it is not certain exactly what was the cause. I now have to reintroduce each item gradually to determine if there are any ill effects.

Perhaps I have already consumed one person's lifetime allocation of prawns already, and I should feel grateful that I could eat them for as long as I have?

Sadly, a little over nine weeks ago, Eugene disappeared, and was found a day later, the victim of a car accident. Dad was devastated at the loss and made plans to get another one when more became available.

A few weeks ago, he announced that he thought Tatiana was pregnant, and sure enough, on Monday evening, 7 little siamese arrived in the world, nine weeks to the day since Eugene's departure,

Now, of course this raises a dilemma...Another cat would be very tempting, but I have a hurdle or two at home to overcome first!

The stress of sudden illness takes it toll on dear friends. May God be with you all.

• AFL has finished for the year with my lovely Saints in fourth place, which is an improvement from 9th last year
• The Hawks were a surprise winner of the AFL grand final, after Geelong had been the form team all year long. The Hawks supporters might tell you something different...
• An enjoyable afternoon watching the grand final with our lovely neighbours...
• A small moment of embarrassment at Auckland airport involving a (very) small apple, meant that I am $200 Kiwi dollars lighter than I should be. (Plus foreign currency charges) (And the amused chuckles of my colleagues....)
• A house warming for C & Y at the weekend, with so much food left over that we had to go back yesterday to eat some more food!
• My step mother is finally home after almost four weeks in hospital following her fall of 4.5 metres in September. Walking, talking. WHich in itself is a bit of a miracle.
• Warm, dry weather at the weekend reminds us that summer is on it's way, and parched crops in the North of the state will be struggling, even more.

I was fortunate that my hosts were mindful of the importance of the business end of the AFL season, had their TVs on so that those of us who were interested could keep track of what was happening at the MCG.

Last night, the Saints turned on a stellar performance in defeating the Collingwood Magpies by 34 points, and move into a Preliminary Final next week against Hawthorn. Driven by a desire to give Harvey one last tilt at a Premiership, the Saints may yet play in a grandfinal on the 27th September.

In an apparently equally intriguing and tension ridden game, the Wallabies went down to the All Blacks in Brisbane in a tight 24-28 result. Regular SMS updates during the evening meant that I did not miss out on all of the excitement.

She connected the laptop to the aerial, then sat down on the skylight, which after twenty something years had become somewhat brittle, and fell four metres into the dining area, hitting a piece of pottery and a  bookcase on the way down. The fall resulted in three cracked vertebrae and lacerations which required stitching. As a result she will be in hospital for a minimum of two weeks, under strict orders not to move.

When I think of what could have happened, I think she has been very lucky not to have been injured more seriously.

As always, the dry with of my Uncle R, came forth in a telephone conversation with my Dad, not more than a few minutes after the ambulance had been called, when he said "That's a most unorthodox way of entering a house...."

My Dad, another exponent of dry humour, in yet another phone call shortly after, when asked whether she had left for Sydney said, "Well, she's about to leave the house, but there's a change of plans and she's going in the worng direction!"

My call to a customer service officer which ended being diverted to another country, resulted in a conversation which went something like this...

Customer Service Person: "Aaah, so I've been hearing a bit about Australia lately...."

Me (surprised) : "Oh, in what way"

CSP: "The number of problems you are having with  "insert name of former  wholly owned government airline", and I don't know that I would want to fly with them...."

Me : "Thank you so much, I am about to get on a flight (run by the former wholly owned government airline), and I very much appreciate you reminding me of this...."

CSP: "You're welcome"

You dear reader will be happy to know that my business trip to Sydney, on the aforementioned airline went safely, despite my misgivings....

Not for me the remedy of a few glasses of something, freeing up the tongue, that option is much more likely to send me to sleep. There is a phenomonen called flight or fight response where fear freezes everything, or alternatively, one can react at a high level of awareness, articulation and even demonstrate incredible sporting prowess... I admire friends who can talk the hind leg off a dog (so to speak) and I am normally happy to be a contributor to a conversation, but it is only occasionally that I am fired up enough to be that articulate person that I dream of being. As I lay awake at night, not far off sleep, I know that despite all the rehearsals in my mind, sometimes the words just don't or won't come. Does it mean that the time is not right? Maybe, but time passes, and I need to remember that wars are not usually one with one battle, much more likely with a series of small wins, without necessarily having a grand victory. Or a fantastic speech.

In the scheme of things, maybe the ability to write things down might be a consolation in most areas- one can pre-prepare for the important stuff, and in my observations of others, one does not have to be a so called "great" communicator to get the message across, for when the message is expressed with sincerity and honour, the meaning behind simple words will somehow have more effect, and small influencing actions might in the long run have a much greater influence.

At three quarter time, it was clear that the 16 goal target was indeed achievable, and the excitement of being at the game when despite all the odds, they made the top 4 was an incredible feeling.

Just a pity that they have to play Geelong in the Qualifying final tomorrow, who have the much better form going into the finals, and who look invincible. However, strange things can happen in finals campaigns, so one never knows... However, the good thing is, we have a second chance, whatever happens tomorrow.