Benedict is coming home

Benedict will come home for good on Friday, just 6 big sleeps away :-)

I saw him today and he was very sweet. Now he's neutered he's calmer and even more affectionate than he was. I think his hormones will be all over the show for a while but the important thing is he's fixed.

The sewer repairs in my street will still be a work in progress. Importantly the part outside my place is fixed (there is still cleaning up, and sealing to be done). This week they'll drive most of the steel required into the final stage of the repair. It progressively gets further away from my place, and Benedict will cope with whatever is left to do after this week. He's shown he is resilient.

He really needs normal now, he's ready to be re-homed and it's hard to shut the door to the room he lives in behind me. For the first time today he spoke to me. He has a lot to say when I shut the door behind me too.

I'm reeling at the incomprehensible brutality in Paris today.

Two weeks ago on the eve of the rugby final, I stopped at a Persian take away a suburb away from where I live. The 2 men there, both from Iran, asked me if I've be watching the game. I explained to them I wasn't really into rugby but had become interested in the world cup.

I asked the man who served me how long he'd been in NZ. 30 years it turned out. I smiled and told him I often found people who had migrated to NZ were often just as passionate - if not more so, about the All Blacks.

The other man appeared with my dinner. He said to me "if more people talked about food, music and sport, we'd have less war".

Simple yes, but I think there is some truth in that.