Perfect Day

Today was a lovely day. For no particular reason as Forrest Gump would say. The yard is tidy, the pool is crystal. The sun shone at 28 degrees Celsius and a westerly breeze zephyred through providing cooling relief. Even the parrots appreciated the respite.

Baby Crimson Rosella taking respite in the shade

I lucked out and scored breakfast when I visited my sister this morning. I don't go over as often these days. No horses to feed over there any more, they're now standing head to tail in the shade swatting each other's flies. So our Saturday vigils have sort of faded a bit. But it was gorgeous, eating corn pancakes, eggs and bacon under their pecan tree with the breeze, just glorious.

Came home and rescued a Blue Tongued lizard who had found his way inside and looked a little confused with the 'texture' of the carpet. No I didn't pick him up, well I did but with the safety of a towel just in case he decided to nip. He didn't he was pleased to be released and I have no more Christmas beetle carcases to vacuum, he took them all and then promptly poo'd on Clare's carpet.

No not the baby I rescued.
One that's been resident in our garden for a while.
The juvie was just about 8 inches long. This gorgeous thing was about a foot long and some.

Clare's crashed on the couch after a big night out with Elvis "Blue Hawaii" twanging on the TV. Adam's taken off to house-sit (read plug in the PlayStation and play Call of Duty on the Plasma screen with a case of Coopers cooling in the fridge) so I thought I'd upload a few photos that were still sitting in my iPhoto library from my Melbourne trip a few weeks ago.

I store my pics on Flickr but because I upload so many, I have a "Pro" account. It's cheap, just $24 US a year and I can upload as many as I want. So, my account has expired and had to pay my annual dues which I did so, online.

Within seconds I receive an email from my bank:

Dear MS HELEN E BAINBRIDGE,

Unusual account activity detected on your MasterCard® card

To protect your account we have temporarily blocked your MasterCard® after monitoring systems detected unusual activity on your account. The block will prevent you from using the card to make purchases or withdrawals while we investigate these suspected fraudulent transactions.

We have sent you this email because we were alerted to this activity at a time when it would have been
inappropriate to contact you immediately by telephone.

At first I thought it was spam, but called the number and sure enough it was Westpac bank saying that someone had made an unusual withdrawal.

Apparently it's common for credit card fraudsters to withdraw a small amount to 'test' the validity of the card. For some reason, there was a transaction fee of $1.10 on the new Flickr subscription which was drawn separately to the subscription amount and MasterCard were onto it in a flash.

Nice to know they're protecting my interests although it's a desperate fraudster who tries to raid my MasterCard, I think after my Christmas online spending I'm maxed out!

Anyway, all good. it's 3:44, time for an ice cold Horton's Semillon and a leg dangle in the pool . .

Lilly dips, oh yes she does.

C'mon you didn't expect a picture of me in the cossies did you? Fat chance . . .