It was fantastic to get back home to Australia a week ago.  We didn’t get in till the early hours of Saturday morning and spent a couple of hours turning taps on, opening the fridge door and closing it without having to lift baskets of food out to get to what I wanted, flushing the toilets, pressing a button to turn the kettle on. And our huge bed!   Bliss!

The next day, despite the jet lag, we had a lovely time in Manly celebrating the launch of our friend Linda’s new book, Salvage in my Sarong (details on http://www.facebook.com/Sailinginmysarong).  She had asked me to give a small speech as we had met her and Bill on their boat, Lati, in Greece.  I would normally have been terrified to do something like that but was too tired to get nervous! Wished I hadn’t burbled quite so much but apparently it was just what she wanted.

The next few days were spent catching up with a few friends and wandering around our house exclaiming how big it is! National broadband has been installed while we have been away and for the first time we have UNLIMITED internet! Luxury.  As we are never in one place for too long, we have never managed to get on a contract we could afford before so this is a real treat. I will be downloading vast amounts of rubbish for the next few months.

Then Black Wednesday came where we watched the results of the US election in horror. We couldn’t believe it when the UK voted to leave Europe but for so many people to vote for such  sexist, racist, ignorant, misogynist  is beyond belief.  He and his followers have made a mockery of all that we thought we had achieved in the last 50 years.

And to make a bad week worse, it was really sad to hear about the death of Leonard Cohen. We all had the Songs of Leonard Cohen album  when we were young although we laughingly said his stuff was music to slit your wrists to!  One of the  albums  on my night-watch sailing  playlist is Famous Blue Raincoat by  Jennifer Warnes ,  his amazing songs, her amazing voice.

I used our unlimited internet to listen to all those songs I’d forgotten and all his recent ones that I’d never heard before.   He always seems to have the right words at the right time.

There is a crack, a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.