Term three was a busy term again as judged by the number of guests—we had 35 people stay with us, which is down on last term’s record 46 guests, but still significantly above our average of 25 a term!

We were pleased to see some familiar faces returning to us.  The mob at Coomealla Health Aboriginal Corporation made several referrals again this term, and our mate Frenchie, who is the driver from that region, came to stay a number of times.  We wish him all the best with his long-awaited trip to France, his birthplace, after an absence of several decades!

Shobie and Luffy have now well and truly settled in, and their efforts in the vegie garden are being appreciated by all.  Kinta especially enjoyed the fruits (vegies?) of their labours for the first couple of months, in which he single-handedly decimated our garden.  Fortunately, Luffy is a handy sort of bloke, and so we now have a protective fence in place.  We also have a handsome woodshed to keep our firewood dry, again thanks to the efforts of our Mr Luff.

Kinta soon turned his attention to the washing line, when he figured out that pulling things off and dragging them around the lawn was a fun game!  A bit of innovation was required once again, and soon the washing line was festooned with colourful balloons.  To Kinta’s surprise, the next time he tried to play his new game, the washing popped violently in his mouth!  He quickly grew tired of pulling down our towels and sheets.

Not content with wreaking havoc on the garden and the washing, Kinta also decided to go on a little excursion outside the property.  He turned up in North Melbourne at the lost dogs’ home, and has since then become the proud new owner of an identifying microchip.

Now, Kinta does like to hog the limelight, but we  residents have been up to some exciting things ourselves this term! In August, Asher starred in Melbourne Model the Musical, a warmly received parody about the new economics-driven system that has been introduced by the University of Melbourne.  A few weeks before that, Ash wrote and produced his own short play, called Meg has a Fork, which was also performed at the Uni.

Renée and I have been flat out organising our  wedding, which is in just a few weeks now.  Somehow we managed to find time to produce a Life Story on Film (our company makes these for private clients: www.lifestoryonfilm.com) to celebrate Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday.  It was commissioned by a charity called MaAfrika Tikkun, of which Mr Mandela is Chief Patron, and we interviewed a wide range of Australians, including Malcolm Fraser, Jeff McMullen, Cathy Freeman, and some “at risk” kids from the Western suburbs.  Renée and I found that there were a number of parallels and lessons that Australia can learn from Mr Mandela’s experience.

Also this term were the Beijing Olympics.  We temporarily put aside the house rule about not having a TV in the living room, since we reckoned that this would be one time that the box would be useful for bringing people together and stimulating conversations.  We enjoyed watching some great Australian performances, as well as some inspiring individual feats, such as  those of Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps.

Last but not least, this term we said farewell to Sarah, a long-standing resident of IHH.  It wasn’t a sad day, however, because Sarah was marrying a terrific bloke called Phil, with whom she is now living.  We wish them all the best!