And he clicked his ruby red slippers together...

... and I'm back to normal again. Phew!

Caught a tram into town today to go to the bookstore to buy an impromptu present for my Smaller Half. I bought her Shaun Tan's Tales From Outer Suburbia. It's a kids book, but entertaining for adults too, if you don't mind the whimsical and fanciful. I now have my eye on another of his books, The Arrival. It has no words at all. Yes, it's a picture book, but let's call it a graphic novel for young readers.

While I was in the bookshop I ran into one of my Esteemed Colleagues who had recently read some of this stuff I spew forth. She was kind enough to say complementary things about it! Thank you Esteemed Colleague! And may I also say thanks for carrying me through the first half of the year - your expertise in tutes was invaluable. Anyone who can diagnose agammaglobulinaemia right off the bat is okay in my book.

Then this evening we took our Secret Cat into the vet because she'd produced an unpleasant bloody mess on the floor. I was going to post a picture, but ... yuck. Of course all the alarm bells ring, but at this stage I am hoping she just has worms. Poor little thing is 16, equivalent to an 80 year old person. The vet is very good. He listens carefully and you never feel like he is trying to rush you. He may have picked up that we were both in some kind of health field because he started talking about tumours and euthanasia and so forth in a very matter of fact way. Not brutal or careless, but respectful of our intelligence and ability to understand what he was talking about. (He was saying that the bad outcomes are still unlikely at this stage. Fingers crossed)

Anyway, as we were about to drive off a little old man appeared at the window of the car. It gave us both a nasty surprise. If we lived in L.A. I would have just shot him dead and driven off, but here in Adelaide it's not the done thing, so I got out to help him. Turns out he was a little old Italian gentleman in his 70s or 80s and his car had been sideswiped by a truck, peeling off the right front corner like a banana skin. He was a bit thrown I think, as he seemed a bit overwhelmed so I took him into the vet clinic and asked to borrow their phone, we called the police, I had to do most of the talking because he was so very deaf, then I waited with him until the police came. He couldn't see very well in the dark and he was worried that the police wouldn't find us, but they did. His wife clasped me by the hand and told me what a lovely man I was, and they insisted that I give them my phone number. So sweet. Turns out he came to Australia back in 1952. He was a stonemason in Italy, but couldn't get much work there because it was always raining in summer or snowing in winter where he lived up in the mountains. So he came to Adelaide! I hope it all worked out okay in the end. His car was pretty banged up.

So, my advice to you if you're feeling down is to give someone else a present, get complemented unexpectedly, be given help by someone, and give help to someone else who needs it. It turns the world the right way up again!