I awoke to the sounds of Mr Gisbert “squeaking" by our front gate! He does this often in order to attract attention. I have had many such “conversations” with him while I have been sanding the fence in the past week, and have learned all about his new squeaky toys. But I wish he wouldn’t do it quite so early in the morning. But probably just as well that he did so this morning, since Jackie had to catch an early train to Toulouse to meet up with a friend Stuart who was going to stay with us for a few days.

So, having got up, I decided to watch the AFL game between Sydney and the Western Bulldogs. If Sydney won they would go to the top of the table above the Hawks; if the Dogs won, they would join Sydney in equal second place. It was a nerve wracking game, with eight changes of lead, until the Dogs kicked the winning goal with 2 seconds to spare to take out a 4 point victory, and leave the Hawks by themselves at the top of the table with 44 points, with five teams (probably six after tomorrow) tied for second place on 40 points - the tightest competition at this stage of the season in living memory.

As the footy finished, news came through that the polls had closed in the Eastern States in the 2016 Australian National Election (a double dissolution election where all the Senate seats are up for re-election, so who knows what the outcome will be). It was almost as exciting as watching the Swans-Bulldogs game, with many changes of lead. The Labor Party skipped out to a lead after a few hours, but then the LNP Coalition pegged them back as the Western Australian results came in. At the end of counting for the day, the LNP had a slight lead in the House of Representatives (where the Government of the day will be decided), but no one had an absolute majority which would enable them to claim victory. Importantly, however, the Labor/Greens team had a good early lead in the Senate counting. So even it the LNP (Liberal National Coalition) grabs a small majority in the House of Reps, they will have to deal with an even bigger deficit in power in the Senate than they had before the Prime Minister called the Double Dissolution election. In retrospective, not the cleverest of moves. It will be interesting to see how it pans out over the next week.

Once counting finished for the evening (in Australia) we dragged ourselves away from the screen to go to Weldoms to pick up some items needed for finishing a few things in the house before the Barge Arts Expo. As we left the front gate, we were given a good reminder of why we called the house “la Maison de la Rose”, as we saw the roses in the front garden coming into full bloom. It is an amazing rose bush, with pink and yellow roses appearing on the same branch.

Having done our shopping at Weldoms and Intermarche, we noticed a gathering of cars in the Intermarche carpark. The suits and frocks and the decorations on the cars showed that it was a wedding party, gathering together before their traditional run through the town with lights flashing and horns tooting. We passed them on the way out of the carpark, and after I parked down the road at MusicZone for Rita to get some hired equipment for the Barge Arts Expo, they came past flashing and tooting. I joined in the tooting and got some waves and return toots. A traditional part of Saturdays in Moissac.

After we got home, Rita started preparing the bedrooms for guests staying in the house over the Barge Arts Expo weekend (including good friends Stuart and Christine), while I headed down to the main kitchen to fit handles to all the cabinet doors. I forgot just how many handles there were, but after a couple of hours and 28 handles later, they were all finished. Gives the kitchen a much more finished appearance, and it’s also useful to have handles on the doors!