Don't want heart attacks? Got 17 cents?

1. Australian politics has self-immolated again. I can't even begin to describe the current nonsense. Let's just say we're about to have our sixth prime minister since 2010 (or fifth, as one of them did it twice). Perhaps we could try not having a government for a while. I think the sun would still rise.

2. News from my mother, part I
"He's auditioned to go on Pointless as he had such a good time on something called Dating In Your Undies."

3. Some brief information in order to set up the next part
My mother's brother died last year. His wife, Ann, is carer for her elderly mother, with no help from her sisters. Ann went on holiday to Greece a couple of weeks ago, which necessitated putting her mother in a temporary respite home as none of the sisters would take her. While Ann was away, her mother died. My mother went to the funeral on Tuesday.

4. News from my mother, part II
"I said to Ann, did you get home in time to see her? And Ann said, no, she got home yesterday and only found out last night that the old lady had died. The sisters hadn't called her to tell her. Ann had been thinking of having an extra night in Singapore and just as well she didn't, she would have missed the funeral all together. I mean, what a family."

5. On dodging a bullet
Earlier in the year, I was interviewed for a job that I really wanted, corporate services manager at a not-for-profit shelter, but never heard back from them. Rude! Anyway, my weekly quiz team includes a journalist from the local paper. He said to me last week, "You dodged a bullet there. You know the CEO who interviewed you? She's apparently done a runner, not turning up to work, not answering calls, and the woman who got your job is stuck running the show."

6. Update on some things I hadn't reported in the first place
We now have a working oven and a new letterbox.