Be very, very careful, we’re hunting possums….

The possum man…let's call him Neville…rang me at work to advise he was at my house and 'going in' to set traps. "How many possums are there?" he asked. I said as far as I knew only Mervina. This threw him slightly until I explained that was her name. "Uh huh," he said. It seems not many people name pests. I explained it was a Jones family tradition. We name everything…hence Flo the 50kg cement chook (chicken) in my garden, Maurice, the big cement frog, Terry the old ram’s skull and Murphy the snail riding cement gnome. I could go on but I suspect you have the picture. My mother had a cement flamingo called Monique and I would have taken her but for the fact that her metal legs bowed then broke under the weight of her cement body and she looked dumb without the legs.

Anyway…where was I? Oh yes…Neville then went on to ask was I sure it was just the one. Well no Nev, to be honest they all look the same to me – like a really big, rat with a long black tail. Neville tells me that apparently you can tell. I'll take his word for that because I don’t want to check and I simply don’t care. Anyway he says there are probably 2 as they are couples. Yes, how frigging cute. Possum romance. And no, I'm not writing a were-possum love story. I'll leave that up to some other crazy person. Anyway, my job is now to check the traps and alert him as soon as Mevina and partner are nabbed. I admit I am looking forward to the little bugger leaving Chez Amarinda. I can only stand so many surprise jump-outs in a week. She is becoming too big a smart arse and as far as I am concerned one of us at Chez Amarinda is more than enough. They catch her and take her to the home of someone you don’t like…okay, no, they don’t…I asked if they could…they relocate the fat rat.

I was in charge at work for a large percentage of the today. This was excellent – no, not because I wanted to prove what a great worker I was so people could look at me with management potential…huh? No, it was excellent because I still haven’t worked out all the whiz bang things my mobile (cell phone) can do and it gave me time to read the instruction book. From my understanding I can call Mars while ordering pizza and writing my blog. You never know when that could be handy.

I got sent something today that I had to look into and apply for as part of a contract. You know when you are reading stuff but none of what is written on the page is actually taking hold in your mind and all you can hear is white noise in your ears? Yes, that’s is me when I really am bored with something and I just go into the I-don’t-want-to-deal-with-this-who-can-I-hand-this-to-zone. I am exceptionally good at ignoring things then acting vague when someone says ‘but I sent/told you that’….thankfully I was the dumb look down pat.

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Sandra Cox – who is she? You already know? Good. If not she is a talented multi-published author that has a new release out today. I have read many of Sandra’s books. They are excellent. Black Opal is released today at Cerridwen Press. You will not be disappointed if you buy this book and may I suggest you check out the other Sandra Cox titles on offer. How? Click on the cover and you will be magically taken there.

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Black Opal…the excerpt

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She stared intently at the computer screen. She'd broken the code and figured out her father's password. It'd been easy. The warden said her father had written her name and the word amulets in his own blood before he died.

Scanning the screen, she read:

'Legend has it that out of all the mortals on earth five women found favor with the gods:

Sophia whose face was pitted and ravaged by pox,
Pelagia who had the body of a woman and the mind of a child,
Olympia a poor widow with children to feed,
Helen, who lost four of her children to the plague and begged the gods to spare her remaining child, and
Zoe, a young queen whose village was razed and plundered and, she herself taken as a slave.
Moved, the gods created five special amulets in the form of armbands for the women to wear on their forearms.
For Sophia an amulet forged with beauty and creativity.
For Pelagia an amulet forged with knowledge.
For Olympia an amulet forged with wealth.
For Helen an amulet forged with healing and
For Zoe a golden amulet, with a black opal at its center, forged with power.'
The air conditioning in the room was cold enough to leave goose bumps but Victoria Price didn't notice. The black leather chair creaked in protest as she leaned back, her breath leaving her lungs in a hiss.
The pain in her hands made her glance down. They were fisted so tight the moon-shaped crescents in her palms, where her nails dug in, were filling with warm red blood.

Sandra has a blog of her own. Click here to see it. After you peruse Sandra’s I suggest wander over to Anny’s for further enlightenment and Barbara has some very wise words on her blog.

www.freewebs.com/amarindajones/
Go ahead: Live with abandon. Be outrageous at any age. What are you saving your best self for?