Variety...

 They say variety is the spice of life and today held that very element. Michele drove me to the station and as all three of us were going in different directions during the day. I was meeting Anne Marie for lunch in the city. The train journey was different from those experiences in NYC. The frequency of the trains was not an issue for me as Footscray has a number of different lines that run through it and a train was arriving as I purchased my ticket. The cost of the ticket has seemed much higher than the $2.50 price that is NYC subway ticket and thinking about it is as $6.80 for a day ticket meant that I could travel all day in zone one which is a fairly  large an area but nothing in comparison to traveling from one end of Brooklyn to the other end of the Bronx for $2.50. The other big difference it seemed to me  apart from the trains mainly traveling above ground (the "loop" underground of 5 stations is so minor) was that people were talking to each other. The seats face one another and take up much more room it would seem but this seems to encourage people to talk and carry on conversations- not in loud voices but chatting to each other. In the compartment I was in there were about 4 different quiet conversations going on. Not many people were asleep either and only a few people had music devices playing- none were so loud that you could hear them. Other commuters were reading, doing crosswords and talking on their mobile phones but not too loudly. An interesting start and finish to my lunch journey. The lunch was lovely too- the company and the food.

A view not of the vege garden

 Michele had spent her time gathering gardening materials to begin work on the vege/herb patch.

The happy gardener with lettuce seedling

 It was Kate's 12th birthday so we all (Sue Michele and I) traveled to Patterson Lakes to join in the celebration. Kate had her favourite meal of roast lamb and a chocolate ripple cake- my favourite too so i was pretty lucky.

Some day I'll get a photo of Lynne when she is not cooking!

Getting the birthday watch working

The boys inspecting the pool developments

The shy birthday girl while we sing Happy Birthday

9 candles plus 3

Chocolate ripple cake- low calorie

The birthday girl, dad and brother

He thought I couldn't get a good photo. Ha!