We're now into the final week of this dreaded period, traditionally the most intense time. Jews traditionally observes more stringent traditions during this what is known as "The Nine Days of Av" being the nine days of the month of Av to the anniversary of the Temple's destruction. I follow no traditions except my own set of "traditions" which is based on personal experiences. Indeed this is how "traditions" evolves in the first place, only that we human tends to adopt the "one size fits all" approach and imposes the traditions on everyone else forgetting that we are all individuals and what works for one may not necessarily works for another. The Jewish traditions, for example, would have been based on the personal experience of a certain Rabbi or other religious leader, and for whatever reason, he decides the traditions which works so wonderfully for him should work for everyone else, hence he imposes them as religious dogma. For example all Jews are commanded to fast on Tisha B'Av, but I do not fast, I just adopt my own personal "traditions" that works for me.

Having said all that, the last few days has been relatively quiet, no major incidences just many "minor" incidences which in itself individually are not unusual but the frequency of them are, more than we usually contend with!! For example being woken up by Sally in the middle of the night one time too many I decided to throw a sickie from work yesterday. That morning turned out to be near the coldest on record being only a degree above freezing. The days are sunny and relatively warm but the nights are freezing cold. Such is life on the west coast, no rain during winter just freezing cold nights.

Next week they are planning on installing a footpath along one side of the street - OUR side!! It will mean a certain amount of interruption of access to our house at least by car, not really sure how it will work out or for how long. It seems certain to create problems for the Silver Chains carers who visits Sally three times per week but I am sure it will not be the first time they will encounter a house with construction works outside!! If I can figure out when the construction of the path reaches our property then I may throw a sickie or catch public transport. But being coincident with the last of the three weeks it will be interesting how it all pans out. When it is finished it will make it easier for me to maintain the front lawn, not only because there will be less of it, but the edgings at the bottom of the driveway where it is all bitumen is a pain in the arse with the lawn growing directly into the bitumen making it almost impossible to pull out - the path which will run directly adjacent to the street will take care of that little problem!! The rest of the driveway is concrete and raised a bit about an inch or two so is easier to maintain the edges.

The football tipping..... so far my tipping seemed to escape the curses of the three weeks aside from the points variance and unexpected loss by the Magpies on the 1st week. This week the Magpies faces a tough opponent in Hawthorn, and well the Essendon/Geelong match is hard to pick as well, that is tonight when we also submit the points variance, so I played it safe and chose a low value, and Essendon to win. I remain loyal to my Magpies at least for this week!! ;)