Intruder alert

This morning I awoke to what sounded like a coin dropping on the kitchen floor. For a minute I thought there might be a burglar in the house, but anyone who's visited our place knows that the creaking symphony of floorboards would make it impossible for anyone to enter undetected without the ability to levitate from room to room. I relaxed, decided I must have imagined it, and settled back for another half hour of semi-oblivion. Then I heard some other, unidentifiable noises. Something made me get out of bed (if only this would happen every morning) to investigate.

I opened the bedroom door and saw quite a large squirrel hesitating in the kitchen window. As I advanced he (or she?) jumped out onto the balcony... but not very far. He actually just stood there looking at me, rather defiantly I thought. Unfortunately my camera was not to hand but I swear, it showed no fear. We'll have to stop leaving the window open at night. Probably for the best, as my friend Sarah climbed through it once and into the house when her key to the back door wouldn't work (because I left our key in the lock on the inner side), so it would be no problem for any passing levitating burglars to jump through it and steal the 4 valuable things we own.

There are collections of various currencies all over the kitchen so the squirrel must have been examining one of those, although I'm surprised the money is what caught its attention (rather than the overflowing bin, or the bananas/loaf of bread sitting on the bench?). A pair of them live in a tree right next to the balcony and they long ago worked out how to open the communal rubbish bins on the outside stairs. Maybe they're now moving into Phase 2 of their scavenging operations: money can be stolen and then exchanged for goods and services.

Anyway, photos of St Petersburg coming up when I next have to chance to sit on flickr for hours labelling the damn things. We are in Caen, France this weekend for Candy from Toowoomba's marriage to her Frenchman. Apparently there will be karaoke. What does one wear to a karaoke wedding on the French coast?