Bronwyn complained that the water smelt funny. So this afternoon I got the ladder out and had a look in the tank. There, floating in the gloom was a full sized possum. A rather dead possum. OK, I'll stop there. I managed to fish it out with a shepherd's crook, plus a fishing net for the, um, bits.

Bronwyn phoned around, and soon we had her dad and brother Allen with a pump truck. Allen drained the tank, and then climbed in with a broom and hosepipe to sweep up and clean the tank properly. Quite a bit of leaf mould in the bottom too. It hasn't been emptied since it was put in, and that was about 1985. Having emptied and cleaned the tank, Bronwyn had already organised the local water guy to bring a tanker load in. So now we're down to half a tank, but at least it's clean...

Rachael has been working flat out trying to finish her assignments.
It's the end of term, and the assignments tend to come in a group. So she spent last week writing an epic on genetically modified insulin. Yesterday was a treatise on the Council Of Trent. Not sure what she's doing today, but she's still stuck in the office trying to finish it.

Didn't have band rehearsal last week. The Auckland Symphony was playing Mahler's third. Our conductor was keen to be there, and invited the band, so a group of us turned up in the city to listen. Mahler's third is about 80 minutes long. It's the longest classical symphony. So there were moments when I began to drift off a bit. But plenty to keep us awake otherwise! David Bremner was playing trombone. He's amongst the best in New Zealand. I met him in the bar afterwards. Long hair, huge beard, random T shirt and I think it was beach shorts. Nice chap.

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