Simon Butcher

Entertainment was provided free of charge by Riley the dog, who interestingly has been trained so well that he can recognise and respond to written cue-cards. I don’t consider this a small feat — truly something that doesn’t do itself justice in a photograph.

This is quite a contrast to last night’s activities, where I was dragged out by our truly hilarious and hyperactive financial controller, who is also over here from our office for business, for a dinner which never actually got beyond appetisers in a nice jazz place called Brown Street. We eventually moved on to a Dutch bar just off Main Street here in Greenville to get away from the noise once we were joined by a couple who worked for the company in the UK before my time.

Last night truly was zany, in the best possible way, yet it felt a little odd because it reminded me entirely of a common night out on the town back home in Brussels, but completely out of geographical context.

The past two nights have been complete with some excellent electrical storms, the likes of which I have not seen since the eighties, when my sister and I used to be practically pressed against the back door watching the lightning and rain pass over-head. Melbourne used to have some fantastic storms back then, often lasting significant amounts of time, but I suppose that the drought conditions have since buggered that up completely.

Y’know, Fireflies are really bright…