Cairns

I flew up to Cairns yesterday evening.

I farewelled Brandy and Whiskey, who seemed supremely uninterested in my departure, apart from noting that I had given them their dinner at lunchtime, and made my way to the SkyBus terminal at the station.

In the end I brought my large pink suitcase, rather than the bag and small suitcase I had intended to bring. It seemed more sensible, although it seems to be strangely unwieldily.  As I was approaching the bus stand, it was definitely pulling to the right. While I was battling to keep it on track a little old man, who really should have known better, pushed past me and dashed to the bus waiting at the departure stand. I wasn't particularly bothered. I was in absolutely no hurry whatsoever. However, the staff were bothered and told him in no uncertain terms that he shouldn't push in and he should queue nicely.

It seemed he was in a hurry, thought the bus was imminently about to leave and was worried that he was going to miss his flight. The staff were un-bothered by any of this, told him he would have to wait his turn and made him stand behind me.

As it happens, the bus wasn't leaving for another ten minutes. He had narrowly missed the one before. But it was just as well we were nice and early. The bus was very full.

He leapt off the bus with amazing agility when we pulled up at the airport and disappeared. I wonder if he made his flight.

I definitely made mine. I was at the airport early and the flight was delayed. I was a bit worried about getting to my hotel before reception closed, but sent them a message expressing my concern and they replied telling me how to get in after hours. No need for concern at all

Airside, Tullamarine

The flight was entirely uneventful. I was at the front of the plane, sitting alongside an older muslim couple who offered me some of their Iftar dates when they broke their fast. They seemed a bit surprised that I knew about Ramadan and Iftar. I didn't tell them that I am reading Nadiya Hussain's recent book Rooza, which is Islamic recipes from around the world for Iftar and Eid. I borrowed it from the library, liked it and bought the ebook so I could reread it on the plane.

I made it to the hotel just as reception was closing. My room, as I had requested, was on the ground floor, so no need to drag my heavy, grumpy suitcase up flights of stairs. I slept remarkably well. And now I am back at the airport, waiting for my lunchtime flight to Tokyo. 

There is still nothing to do at Cairns International Terminal. Very little in the way of food and drink options. Few shops. However, they have upgraded their device charging portals since I was last here. They are everywhere. And they work!

Much too early for wine.
This was a remarkably nice cappuccino.

I may need to replace my suitcase. It turns out that one of the wheels is damaged, which explains its wish to pull to the right and not to wheel smoothly. I am beginning to wish I had stuck to my original plan and brought the two smaller bags

I didn't make it to the Japanese Class yesterday

We had just a little bit of weather

 

I was very pleased I wasn't in that rowing boat, although I suppose we could have gone body surfing

It didn't last long but by the time it passed over I had already sent an apology to the sensei

Frittering Time

I went into work on Friday, confidently expecting it to be my last visit before heading to Japan at the end of this week, followed by a stint of long service leave. I knew that the Garden Club was gathering in the garden at 3:30 to plant seedlings but didn't feel that I could leave early on my last shift just to go and plant seedlings. I had a good day and left, telling everyone that I would see them when I got back from Japan and reminding them that I was taking leave for a few weeks.

I came home across the stadium concourse, which I don't normally do. But the trams were terminating at Spencer Street and it seemed the easiest option. I was not expecting anyone still to be in the garden at 5:45 but in fact several people were, so I dropped in to chat to them.

This is the tomato plant that I bought in Bunnings about a month ago. It has more than doubled in size and is obviously very happy in my "winter garden". It even has a couple of tomatoes on it. I am thinking that I might actually use the space as an indoor garden next spring and put a few cherry tomato plants there and see what happens. I might expand my herb collection too, although the vegetable garden on level 4 has a wide variety of herbs I can use

I have been watching with some interest the number of postings on my social media feeds which quietly berate retirees for wasting time, not cleaning and tidying their homes, not doing useful things, in fact, frittering their time away, sitting about, reading social media feeds and not accomplishing anything remotely useful. I don't investigate these things in any detail because I am certain that they will want me to download apps, give them lots of my money and encourage them to nag me for ever. In fact, it doesn't take long to sort my place out, it is usually reasonably tidy and anyway, if I want to fritter my time away on the internet or gazing out the window, or watching tv or reading library books or sitting about in the sun - then I will do

Large yacht heading out of the harbour

Teeny, tiny sailing boat, pottering about on the harbour

Morning sky, turning the world pink

Sometimes, when I am coming back from the La Trobe Street tram stop, if the weather is nice and if I have nothing pressing to do, I stop and sit here for a while and just watch the water.

Sometimes, there are things to do. Such as Sunday, when I met Simon at the Alphington market, and the travelling cat was there:

And Monday, which was a public holiday, when I met Wendy for lunch and we had fish and chips round on the Newquay Promenade and then I met Lindsey in the evening at the Quarterhouse for dinner

Lunchtime view

Evening drinks

Sometimes, things crop up unexpectedly that do need me to engage with the world and actually do things. Such as yesterday, when I went back into work for a few hours because there were things that unexpectedly needed to be done and there wasn't really anyone else available to do them.  

And sometimes, I choose not to do things that are in my calendar, such as the Probus meeting this morning. I have decided that Probus is not right for me at this time. I won't actively resign at this stage. I may change my mind. But I don't feel the need to go to meetings for now. It is very tempting not to go to my Japanese class this evening. I have already done a Japanese class today, an online one at 8:00. But I probably will go to this evening's class. It's the last one for this term and a revision session of the things we have done over the last seven weeks.

Talk about worrying about people who let entire mornings, afternoons or days vanish without noticing. I think I should worry that eight whole weeks have disappeared so quickly!

Freyja and Simon came around yesterday after work and we went to Dokutoku for dinner. They are helping to look after the cats while I am away. Wendy is also helping and everyone needed to be shown where things are. I am not doing very well on the whole "Becoming a Hermit" front!

Some creatures don't care about any of this.
They think snoozing through the day
is what is supposed to happen 😀

Just for a Change - a Food Filled Weekend

You may remember that, towards the end of last year, a group of people came to our community vegetable garden who had sourced a large number of native edible plants and helped us plant them.

The warrigal greens have been absolutely thriving. Likewise, some of the native herbs. The saltbushes are very happy. The pepper berry tree is establishing itself as is the lemon myrtle bush. The (not native) lemon tree, which was rescued from a pot in which it had been very unhappy, is positively thriving among its native companions.

However, the humans in the garden are not experienced in growing edible native plants, nor really in cooking and eating them. So the Grow people came back on Saturday morning and talked us through some of it. They also made saltbush crisp breads for us to taste, and both lemon myrtle and river mint teas. They harvested bunches of warrigal greens and sprigs of saltbush and a very few of the lemon myrtle leave sand encouraged us to take them away with us. I do pick some of the warrigal greens when I am in the garden. They're a sort of native spinach and I use them as spinach.

I brought a bunch of warrigal greens and a bit of saltbush back to the flat with me and used it in a pasta sauce I made for Saturday dinner with some cherry tomatoes I had been given, mince I had in the freezer, a red onion I had bought at the Alphington market the previous weekend and some fettuccine, likewise from the market. Oh - and some cream cheese, which needed using and which I stirred through just before I added the fettuccine. It was very delicious.

During the afternoon I wandered around to The District and visited Woolworths and the Asian supermarket. I *might* have had some ice cream before coming home again. Maybe :-D

The weather changed overnight and it was quite wet on Sunday. I went to the Dennis station in the morning and met Simon there with Ziggy. I oh-so-nearly forgot to get off at Dennis station. Usually on Sunday mornings I am going to Alphington, which is two stations beyond Dennis. Fortunately, my attention was re-focussed when the train announcement said: We will shortly be arriving in DENNIS!!!!

I borrowed Ziggy from Simon (who walked home through the park; it wasn't actually raining at that point) and made my way to Daylesford where the Sunday Lunchers were meeting at Gillie's place. We had a delicious lunch of a charcuterie plate, baked creamy chicken and leeks with potatoes and green beans, then poached pears to finish. It was a lovely afternoon and the fact that it was raining didn't impede our conversation at all. Then I drove back to Freyja and Simon's place and Simon generously drove me back to my place. It was still raining!

I am not expecting this week to be as interesting from a food point of view, although there will, of course, be food. I am planning roast chicken pieces for dinner tonight and tomorrow, which will certainly be delicious but which can hardly be described as interesting! I want to run the freezer down a bit so I can sort it out and see what's still in there, so I am mainly planning to "shop" from existing supplies this week and next. I do, however, need some more vegetables and milk, plus I need to go the library. I have a couple of books to return and one to pick up. I shall head out shortly.

A little while ago I bought some floor stickers to cover the stained and cracked kitchen tiles.  Replacing them with new tiles would be expensive, logistically difficult and would need authorisation from the Building Management people (who might have ideas about colour and style). Stickers seemed the way to go, so I went hunting for sticker tiles which were specifically designed for floors (so not the flimsier stickers I used on the splash back in Eilish Court). I have started sticking them. I will need help to slightly lift the dishwasher to slide a couple of stickers under its feet. And I will also need help to move the fridge to sticker under it. But I am quite pleased with progress:

I have done more since this photo was taken but I thought I would show you the contrast between the stickers and the original tiles.  I'll see how well these tiles cope in a high traffic area. If they last well, I'll get more for the bathroom and maybe even for the Sunset Strip/Winter Garden.

(Belated) Weekend Report

We made quite a rush on the airport at the end of last week. Emily, Andre and the children arrived from Canada on Thursday morning, not long after Lindsey had returned from Hobart. She collected them with her car and took them to their holiday dwelling. On Friday afternoon, Ant, Jess and their children arrived from Sydney. Ian collected them and took them to their weekend retreat. At a very similar time, Ruth and Andy, cousins who are usually to be found in England, arrived from Hobart, having first had a two week touring holiday in New Zealand. No one was available to collect them so they made their own way to East Melbourne and I met them at The Flat and let them in.

Lindsey, Ian and I escorted them to Kinyoubi in Smith Street for an early dinner. And then I went home. I needed an early night - the rest of the weekend was likely to be busy!

Saturday was a busy day. Fortunately it was also a nice day, weatherwise - for many, many people were meeting at the Collingwood Children's Farm to celebrate the twins' second birthday.

I had never been to the children's farm and was looking forward to visiting (although I am not usually particularly comfortable in the company of lots of very small children!). And it was lovely. We had a large marquee in a paddock for the party so were separate from other visitors, although we could go out and mingle and look at the animals at will. Getting there proved to be something of a challenge. Seemed simple enough. Tram to Johnston Street, bus along Johnston Street to the farm. Except that it was also the Johnston Street Festival that morning and the road was closed. I walked along until the road wasn't closed any more and was just reading a sign at the bus stop which said that it was out of commission when a bus turned up, and stopped. I got on it! It was much easier getting home. Freyja and Simon gave Wendy and me a lift to the station and we caught a train back into the city. Wendy went into the city and I went to the supermarket and then walked home. No street festivals to avoid.

Somehow, I seem not to have taken any photos at the party. I did take this one of a shop on Johnston Street, but it wasn't very relevant to the purpose of the journey

I had a quick turn around at home, tidying, preparing and getting organised before Ruth and Any arrived at my place to inspect it and to have dinner.  I have to confess to you all that I am never going to win medals, prizes or honours for sweeping. Or even for carpet sweeping. I have an uneasy feeling that the only way my flat is ever going to be free of cat fur is if I get rid of the cats. And I don't think they want to leave!

The weather was much less clement on Sunday, although it was only damp when I met Freyja and Simon at the Alphington market. We had lunch in a cafe called Poke the Bear, not far from their place. Personally, I feel that poking bears is a bad idea. It's likely to have the same outcome as poking crocodiles. However, should you be invited into this bear's den I would encourage you to accept the invitation. It is really cute. The food was delicious too (it has menus for omnivores, vegetarians and vegans so suited all three of us).

It was a good weekend.

Happy 20th Birthday to the Blog

Ten years ago I wished the blog a happy tenth birthday and then said:

I wonder if the blog will still be going in another ten years.  And if it is - I wonder what it will be telling us

And here it still is, trundling along. 

Ten years ago I knew we were heading back to Australia later in the year. I had absolutely no idea that ten years on I would be living in a flat in Docklands with a water view. Whenever I had come to visit Docklands I had thought it would be a lovely place to live (ignoring the scoffers who said it would be a dire place to live) but assumed that it would be well out of my reach, especially with a water view.  Turns out it wasn't out of reach and that I was right; it is a lovely place to live. 

I hadn't expected to be living on my own, although Jim and I knew that it was very likely that he would die before I did. We had had lots of discussions about it so when the time came there was a plan which could be put into action. I absolutely hadn't expected the dementia. Fortunately we had had the discussions before it became impossible to discuss serious things with him and, again, I more or less knew what he would have wanted had he been able to say.

So I think what the blog is telling us is that we should seize the day, have the discussions, get the paperwork in order, Be Prepared but be flexible as well. And above all - have fun.

Shall we aim for another 10 years? A celebration of Meanderings' 30th birthday in February 2036.  

Time

Today marks six months since I picked up the keys to my New Life in the City.

Monday will be six months since Brandy, Whiskey and I moved in and had our first night sleeping here.

Tomorrow will be twenty years since I wrote my first entry on the Meanderings blog. A Sunday afternoon shift at the Psalter Lane library, sun shining, few visitors and me looking to see what this blog thing was that I had been invited to explore by the computer system. (I didn't know then, really, what a blog was.)

If I am surprised to note that it is already six months since I picked up the keys to the flat (and I am) I am astounded that it has been twenty years since the genesis of Meanderings, both that the time has passed and that I kept at it. My attention span doesn't normally run for two decades.

Time is a funny thing. It has been passing at speed this week. Whole days have been vanishing without me properly noticing them. 

I did very little on Sunday. I managed to stagger out of the flat to go to the supermarket for some cat food and that was pretty much it. 

I went to work on Monday, which was more challenging than it ordinarily is. Trams aren't running along Spencer Street for two weeks while they repair the tracks.  So I took a tram up Collins Street and changed to the 86 at Gertrude Street in Fitzroy. I intended to  change in the city but I got on a tram which I knew intersected with the 86 at Gertrude Street, so figured I might as well stay on. 

Yesterday I finally gave in and went and bought a carpet sweeper for my two rugs. I had a carpet sweeper in Eilish Court. I didn't bring it because I knew the flat didn't have carpets. I did not want to buy another one. I really didn't. Moving is expensive enough without replacing things that you absolutely DECIDED you weren't going to need and now find that you do. My broom does sweep up the cat fur but it doesn't do a very good job of cleaning the rugs. The carpet sweeper does - and picks up quite a bit more cat fur. Money well spent, I suppose but if I should ever be foolish enough to move again I am going to take absolutely everything with me and sort it out once I am settled 😂

I met briefly with Freyja while I was at her end of the city and came home on the City Circle tram. If you catch a tram which was primarily intended for tourists, it should not be surprising that tourists use it. It does surprise me, though, how many people use it. I wonder if there will be as many visitors over the winter.

And now today is also in serious danger of disappearing on me. It is only mid-morning but I am still not dressed, nor have I yet done anything particularly useful. I had better put myself into gear and get myself moving!

Yes? Did you want something?

I am busy.
I am watching my favourite TV show

Food

 I've had quite a foodie couple of days.

Julia and Travis gave me a gift token for Dokutoku for my birthday last December. I deployed it on Thursday evening.

Lindsey came around and we had an early dinner. Even at 6:30 it was very busy (it's not very big) so I was glad I had booked a table. And we had their wagyu sukiyaki menu to share. It is thinly sliced wagyu beef, with a plate of tofu, mushrooms, cabbage, carrots and konjac noodles, with rice on the side. You cook all. this in a simmering bowl of a soy sauce based broth and it is very delicious. It also comes with a raw egg which you are supposed to beat in your serving bowl and use as a dipping sauce.  I did not do this. I didn't really need to. Lindsey did but gave up after a while. The food was saucy enough with the cooking broth.

I have experience eating in Dokutoku (it is right next door to the front door of Victoria Point, the building I live in). I did not wear one of my best shirts to dinner!

Lindsey almost never seems to spread
Japanese sauces over her clothes

Yesterday I went to a cooking class in Abbotsford that Freyja and Simon had bought me for Christmas. It was a cooking with native ingredients class and we made damper with river mint, barramundi cooked in a banana leaf with samphire and lemon myrtle and garnished with finger lime,  then kangaroo with a pepperberry salt and vegetables. The chef made a Davidson plum sauce to go with the kangaroo. We made a sesame paste to have with the damper flavoured with saltbush and samphire. Everything had garlic or black garlic. I don't think I learned very much, although I have never cooked kangaroo before and I hadn't cooked with fresh lemon myrtle leaves. But it was very interesting and I had a good time. And, of course, delicious food to eat.

We were supposed to cook in pairs but there was an odd number of participants and they got me to cook alone to accommodate my nut allergy. This meant that the second chef came to help me with chopping things while I was using the mortar and pestle. My very own sous chef, with excellent knife skills 😊 It also meant that I had double portions of food, because everything was organised for two servings. I didn't eat both portions. I brought the extras home (by invitation, I didn't just help myself).

I was very pleased with my cook of the kangaroo. It was pretty much perfect. Although let me assure you that I will never do it that well again. I don't eat a lot of kangaroo, it not being one of my favourite meats, although it must be said that kangaroo that is lightly smoked and then gently fried with rosemary, garlic, olive oil and butter is rather nice. We had it with purple potatoes, taro and mushrooms also gently fried in oil, butter, garlic and rosemary.

Our ingredients came pre-prepared.
This is the dry ingredients for the damper

lemon myrtle, samphire and lemon zest
for the barramundi

vegetables to accompany the kangaroo

banana leaf parcel

revealing lovely barra

damper flat breads

cooking the vegetables

Perfectly cooked kangaroo
(to my surprise!)

The afternoon was enlivened by one of the participants collapsing while the chef was demonstrating how to cook the damper. Her partner and another participant (who I assume was a nurse or a doctor - she knew what she was doing) sorted her out and all was well.  But it was a bit disconcerting - the chef nearly burnt his damper!!

I came home, got changed and pretty much immediately went out again to meet Freyja and Simon at Hamer Hall for An Audience With Tony Robinson (Blackadder, Time Team, amongst other things). It was very funny, very informative and very entertaining - although I could have done without the angry, white, racist man/men heckling from the bleaches whenever indigenous history or culture were mentioned. No need for that at all.

I bailed at the intermission, not because I wasn't having fun but because I was getting very tired. I wouldn't normally engage with a day that starts with an online 8:00 Japanese lesson for an hour, contains a 2pm cooking class for 2.5 hours in Abbotsford and then finishes with a 7:30 theatre engagement in the city for another 2.5 hours. Very poor planning on my part, I agree, but that was just the way it was. Only having the first half of an audience with Tony Robinson was better than having no halves.

Freyja tells me that there was no further heckling in the second half. I surmise that he/they had taken the chill pill that the host had suggested they take, or that they had buggered off home or to the pub, or that perhaps they had been invited to leave

The river from Princes Bridge,
a little before 9pm

I don't often go into the city in the evening. It was very busy. The trams were packed. There were people everywhere. There was an Indonesian (I think) festival in Fed Square and Freyja and Simon went to a different part of Fed Square to watch a footy match on a big screen after the show. It was, of course, Valentines Day and there were obviously other things happening around the place. It was all quite buzzy.

I started writing this at 7:30 on Sunday morning. It is a beautiful morning. And I am looking at a very rare day when there is nothing in my calendar, nothing I have to do, nothing urgent that I should do. There are, of course, lots of things that I could do, that need to be done. But nothing that absolutely has to be done today (Though I should perhaps iron my clothes for work tomorrow)

Back at Ghost's Place

So this week has been more or less a "rinse and repeat" of last week.

I came to Ghost's place on Saturday afternoon. Bourke Street was nearly as busy as it had been the previous week. It might be weather related - it was a lovely day for a trip to the city. I'll have to check in autumn and winter and see how many people are about.

I met Wendy at the Alphington market on Sunday. It too was quite busy. I couldn't buy very much; I was in the car but I wasn't taking the car from Northcote to my place. Anything I bought, I had to carry home on the bus and tram and I didn't have my granny shopping trolley with me. I could, however, buy vegetables for this week.

Wendy and I tried to have lunch in Kissaten but the kitchen was closed because of a power cut. So we went into Clifton Hill and had lunch in Rubber Duck, which I haven't been into before. I would definitely go again. My eggs Benedict with a side of mushrooms was very big and very tasty. I didn't need anything much to eat for the rest of the day. Just a tuna and cucumber sandwich in the evening.

There were two potato rösti under all that

I am planning, after the public holiday in March, to take my long service leave, with a view to retiring after that. Obviously, if I am not going to work twice a week, I need other reasons to leave my flat. Garden club - tick. In person Japanese classes once a week - tick. Sunday and other lunches out, from time to time - tick. What else? Someone suggested Lions or Probus. Tony was a member of his local Probus in Mornington and really enjoyed it. He and Stella went on lots of outings and adventures. I looked into Probus in Docklands and discovered there is a group that meets in the Docklands Community Hub by the library. I sent in a membership application, was accepted and yesterday went to my first meeting. There were several other new people. They meet once a month, followed by lunch. They do lots of other things - walking group, book club, film group, other things. I have registered to go on a day trip to Beleura House in Mornington in a month or so.

We'll see how this goes. Everyone was very friendly but I'm not really a meeting person. I'm not fit enough to head off on 5-10 km walks around the city, although that may change now that the local physio has me under control. I have absolutely no interest in films or card games. I do like food, you will be amazed to hear. I could perhaps be persuaded by the monthly Sunday lunch. I'll give it a proper go and see how I get on.

I didn't go to the lunch after the meeting. I came back to Ghost's place. The tram trip here was enlivened by a small truck blocking the tram tracks near the museum. The tram turned right and was brought up short by the small truck, thus blocking the intersection. We were stopped for around 10 minutes, which was enough to cause a considerable build up of traffic along Nicholson Street. I can't imagine that the truck driver actually intended to cause afternoon traffic chaos. Tram drivers are quite scary when they're annoyed - and our tram driver was definitely annoyed. It didn't really bother me. I wasn't in any hurry and I figured the truck would move eventually. Which it did.

And now this morning has settled in. I will head back to my place later, sort my cats out and then head to my Wednesday evening Japanese class.

Freyja and Simon are due back on Friday evening. My plan is to drop around on Friday morning to play with Ghost. But I think that this will have been the last overnight stay. For now.

Good morning, from Northcote

Ghost's Place

You find me this morning at Ghost's Place in Northcote.  Her people are in Aotearoa / New Zealand and I am sharing cat sitting duties with a friend of theirs. Ross is not available - he has gone to Aotearoa with Freyja and Simon.

Sunrise over the Dandenongs

I wonder if I can push the door open
far enough so I can go out?
Spoiler: Not this time

I came over on Saturday, more or less at lunchtime. I have no idea why but the tram was jammed and Bourke Street was packed. Gertrude and Smith Streets were unexpectedly busy. I had intended to get off the tram at Queen Street and take the bus to Northcote but there were too many people for me to get off with my (little) suitcase. This wasn't a major problem. There are plenty of options for getting off the tram and connecting with the bus. I got off at Clifton Hill, by which time many of the people had gone.

Ghost was very pleased to see me - or, more accurately, the supply of cat treats. She had plenty of biscuits in her bowls but she was impatiently waiting for cat treats.

I was reunited with Ziggy the car and drove to Station Street for a visit to Oasis, the Lebanese cafe and grocery store. Chicken shawarma for lunch, spanakopita for dinner.

Lindsey came over mid-morning on Sunday and we went to the Alphington market, which was also on the busy side. Mind you, the weather was very pleasant all weekend. Sunny, warm but not too hot, light breezes. There had been some rain overnight so everything was fresh. We had lunch at Kissaten and then went to the Bunnings in Fairfield. I needed a new toilet roll holder and, while I was there, I picked up a mature tomato plant, plus a mint and a thyme plant. The tomatoes in the community garden are finished and it is possible that I might get some tomatoes from a plant on my Sunset Strip. It's called a "winter garden" on the floor plan and it gets very warm. I'll test it to see how well it does as a "winter" garden. Mind you, it is still summer and March is often reasonably warm. See how we go.

I went to work on Monday. I am working on Mondays and Thursdays for five weeks while Mike the Practice Manager is away, then I am planning to take my long service leave. It is VERY confusing for my poor brain, working on Mondays and Thursdays after so many years of working Wednesdays and Fridays. I am struggling to remember what day it is and where I am supposed to be. This is further complicated by my overnight stays at Ghost's Place twice a week for two weeks. I am paying very close attention to my online calendar.

Tuesday morning view from my place:

I came back to Ghost's Place yesterday, this time catching the bus from Queen Street. It was a real (bus) trip down memory lane. The bus goes through so many places that I have lived in, hung around in, studied in throughout so many different stages of my life. 

There is a bus stop right outside Ghost's Place, which is very convenient. 

I must remember that today is Wednesday and that I have a Japanese class in the city at 5:30. I need to get back to my place and sort my cats out before that. But it's only 8:00 so there is plenty of time. I shall have a cup of coffee and ponder the day ahead.

Ghost, pondering the sunshine: