INNALOO: Residents plead with an immovable Payton L. Inkletter not to flush away his genius and get bogged down into the long drop of toilet humour.

Be all that as it may, meanwhile:

In other news…

31^st January 2009:

Saturday: Gerraway! It couldn’t be Sarrerday, or Sarrerdi to be more dinkum! Well whatdayaknow, it is! Having had a very late walk, dawn was not that far away. I uploaded a couple of day’s worth of this very diary, before tackling the kitchen while the house could be open in the cool of the morning, to let out the heat from the hot water of my hand and machine dish washing. I noticed about this time that my right eye, my somewhat gammy eye, was a third blood, the white of the eye that is, and I looked somewhat like I imagine the writer from the black lagoon must look like. I had this happen a year or two ago, and if I recall, it has only been these two times.

Then I retreated to the back yard to water and tend to the bamboo culms needing directing and tying, before eventually hitting the sack mid-morning. I expected to be woken by the alabaster dragon about half three to drive her and Pa pree Inkletter to the local shops and over to Girrawheen for the usual Saturday round of non-essentials, but she must have had a rare pang of concern for me and let me sleep another hour, forgoing the shopping, so that I could drive and function tonight.

It was hot, humid, and stormy over the ranges, and we got ready for visiting the Chocsons up at The Vines. We left soon after six o’clock, dashed to pick up Pa pree, then called at the local shops for some supplies for the Chocson visit, before dashing back for Missus Inkletoobusytoremembereverything to jab herself with her Byetta needle, giving her one hour before needing to eat. After this, we headed along Marshall Road east toward the hills along the beautiful rustic Whiteman Park southern boundary. The Walyunga National Park to Ellenbrook area was dark and ominous, and lightning was flashing, and that’s where we were headed! As we turned into Millhouse Road we encountered something rare – heavy rain in bright sunshine, such was the alignment of the elements. It was still raining, much lighter, minutes later when we pulled up at the Chocsons’ place at The Vines, Babies Ink&Peggletter having already arrived, this being their first ever visit to this Chocsons’ place in this neck of the woods.

And what a treat the Babies got! In addition to seeing the kangaroos coming for bread at the fences before the rain, they had Reeve giving them not only a tour of his magic garden full of herbs, vegetables, grapes, you name it, worm farms, compost, you name it, but also half of the things growing in it, from straight produce to cuttings, root pieces, you name it, potted up and ready to go. And what a treat we all got, for Rocci had cooked up a vegetarian storm this time, and it was derishus! Babies Ink&Peggletter brought the starters, exotic dips and exotic crisps such as beetroot, and Janny brought the desserts to kill for such as stewed rhubarb and apple, and a poppy seed sponge cake with icing to die for you’d get high just thinking about. Not to mention the +paytontedwithlove+ cocoa drinks I made for Reeve and myself, managing to drop the whizzer in the process, landing it hard, yet somehow it ran like it hadn’t happened afterwards. Maybe the cocoa had preternaturally infused its powers into the whizzer?

I asked Reeve, a great word lover, whether I was the victim of a mondegreen with my ‘nounce’ of the other day, when I wrote of my being happy that Janny can have a professional with some ‘nounce’, Samantha the wonderful shrinking doctor, listen to her life stresses and strains, and he instantly put me right, informing me I meant ‘nous’. Then it all came back to me; if only it never left!; I would have saved ages googling for ‘nounce’.

We later played Absolute Balderdash, and while wussyberger Reeve watched on with Pa pree from the relative safety and sidelines of the lounge, Rocci demonstrated she was full of absolute balderdash, and cut it with the best of us. Reeve won’t be given the luxury of being a sideliner next time (if I have anything to do with it – I’ll think of something he cannot endure, such as withhold his +paytontedwithlove+ cocoa), especially given his great gift for creativity with language. We left about half eleven, in humid conditions, given the drenching the landscape had had on this hot summer’s night.

I was as tired as all get out, and would have preferred Janny to drive if her leg allowed. Anyway, with a mustered full focus we arrived home safe and sound, on a busyish Saturday night roads, just after midnight, having dropped Pa pree home first. I was so exhausted I couldn’t walk, brush my teeth, nothin’. I hit the sack with Janny before two.

+paytontedwithlove+