Day 68: One day closer to retirement

Day 68 (11 Feb) Monday, and it's off to work. The new semester starts soon and there does still seem to be so much to do. No time to sleep in. 

The birds, at 6.12am

At 6.12am, it was a range of outdoor chores while the kettle boiled and the bread toasted itself. The birds were out and about and being quite tame. As a person of a certain age, many of us have childhood summer holiday memories of feeding the lorikeets at Currumbin Bird Sanctuary on the Gold Coast. I know mum has some black and white photos of us tucked away somewhere, difficult to see under the blanket of loris and bread and honey. It really is quite lovely to have them coming and going from the backyards. They fly between the neighbourhood seed trays, picking and choosing the profferings. I can watch them all day...but there is work to do so it's feed and run. 

There is a whole lot of work to do between now and Friday but commitments elsewhere will minimise time in the office this week. Tomorrow is the presentation in Brisbane, Wednesday is one of those all-day work gatherings...a day to plan for the year (when all one wants to do is to retreat to the office to get on with more pressing matters; I may tweet my way through it). 

The office, again, at 6.12pm

Not surprisingly then, 6.12pm saw me in the office (again), though I have tried hard to offer a variation on the angle. OK, it's still at the desk, at the computer, answering emails or doing some level of admin, perhaps on the phone again. The writing I want to do has to wait until I get home...I'm really going to become quite self-conscious about this 6.12pm shot. 

It started raining again as I left the office around 9.40 tonight, not welcome for that run down the highway. Even less welcome, the five semi-trailers playing tag team racing just south of Caloundra. 

The Pope has resigned, that's today's big news. Six hundred years since the last pope resigned, as opposed to die in office, the news has dominated the airwaves and twitterverse the last hour or so. He's 85. I'd like to retire I think, to write...before I go up in a puff of smoke.

I guess I'm one day closer to retirement than I was yesterday...