Good morning Everyone, and very many thanks for your sympathy and kind thoughts for Mitch.
I am concerned about how he will cope with the wedding. Does anyone know how to operate a high definition digital videocam? Perhaps I can ask him to just set it up in his tripod and press Record, and not even consider editing it until his self esteem is in a better place.
The husband of a friend of mine also went walkies when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and I believe that in the long term he did her a favour. How could anyone, when asked by someone that they loved enough to have spent the past 30 years with, refuse to go shopping for vegetables for her to eat when she was too nauseous to face the trip herself? We used to houseshare with them in London, didn't see them for over 15 years, and when they came to visit us in Oz I found, to my amazement, that Barry was still in the same place mentally as he had been the last time I saw him - still an immature, lazy, selfish git.
As for karma - absolutely believe in it, and have been privileged to actually witness the payback on one occasion which was sweet indeed. On a good day I can feel sorry for the wrongdoers - what sad lives they must lead. Not sure that I will be able to extend my charitable feelings towards Tess (Mitch's ex) next week.
Thank you again for all your support - really must pack for trip to Melbourne. Had hoped to restrict luggage to my swanky new black and pink backpack on wheels, but have, so far, stuffed pillow and towel in; leaving very little room for undies and wash kit
Kerren - enjoy the party planning (I do: some of the time

). Are you having a cake? All three tiers of the wedding cake Mark II have been baked, but we did have a little whoopsie with the bottom tier. Unbeknown to me, it was stored in the oven (only place guaranteed to be dog proof). Jess was at work. John was cooking dinner for us all and turned on the oven to warm up. He went off to feed DianaMoo and the pacas and I noticed the smell of burning bakelite. Checked saucepan handles, saucepan bottoms - where on earth was the smell coming from? Fortunately the oven was also housing the remains of top tier Mark I, which was sitting on a plate with an old knife, whose handle had melted, creating the smell and alerting me in time to save cake Mark II.
Usually I hate the thought of international flights, but this time, the thought of 12 hours stuck in a baked can with wings - totally unobtainable, no matter what may transpire - is highly appealing

Not to mention eating food that I haven't had to plan, purchase, chop or cook.
xx