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Life is back to normal back home.  On Thursday I did all my washing from my trip and caught up with my mail which had been stopped while I was away.  It was nearly all bills and credit card statements.

I also looked around my garden and saw that one of my San Juan Magnolias was in flower.  I planted the first one for Margaret about 10 years ago but a friend ran it over while backing out of my driveway. He was very upset and finally found a replacement after many months of looking.  By then the snapped off stump of the first one had begun to re-sprout so we ended up with  two.  They only flower occasionally so it was great to see the newer one in flower.

These are deciduous magnolias from California and have great difficulty with our southern hemisphere seasons and high humidity.  They only last a couple of days so it took a photo on my phone.  The flowers are about teacup size on a spindly shrub.

Friday was a Meals on Wheels day which, as I had a long round, took quite a long time.  I spent the rest of the day playing with my new toy, a new 11.1 inch notebook computer running Windows 8.1 which also doubles as a Windows Tablet.  For years I have used Linux based operating systems and more recently Android tablets.  The new toy will replace my 15 inch laptop which will now run my printer and scanner and replace the old desktop running windows XP which will become a file server running Linux. 

I am using the new toy to write this Blog and it is quite good.  I will probably use my Android tablet when camping as it is much lighter and has an inbuilt 3G Sim for internet connection.  I also have a Linux based 10 inch notepad which I normally use to surf the internet as it sits nicely on my lap when I am laid back in my big armchair with Louis sleeping next to me. 

Let's see that's three portable computers, a table, a desktop computer plus Margaret's old laptop.  I guess that will do for now.

 The one in the middle is the new toy.

This morning I went on my normal Saturday ride with my bicycle club.  We normally cause chaos when we meet as there are five groups riding.  Today my group of SOFs (Silly Old Farts) had 35 riders.  We had a great 24Km ride and all five groups got together for the ARSE (After Ride Social Event) which we have once a month.

 Looking from where I parked my car - one way

 The other way - Ian rides a $100 chain store bike and can out ride many members on their $2000 plus racing bikes.  I love his basket on the handlebars.

 The ARSE

Louis has had his walk and I am going to have an afternoon nap.