Sorry, this is not a photo of Lara Bingle (of "So where the bloody hell are you" fame), it's a photo of the back end of my car. I park down by the water at the Hobart Regatta Grounds (my car has a better view than my office!) and some mongrel cut a corner and swiped the back bumper then took off without leaving a note. All I know is that their vehicle was white. Because they didn't leave a note I now have to pay the excess (fair enough) but I also loose my no claims bonus (this stinks). They reckon I'm at fault because I can't supply the name of the other party. I was about one kilometer away at the time, so how can it be my bloody fault?!?! I'll have to go and get a quote to see if it's worth claiming on. It doesn't seem to be too badly damaged other than the slice out of the plastic and they might be able to plastic weld that up. I had no idea the bumper was full of foam. I wonder if the car would float?

I couldn't believe my eyes the other day when I saw a wild rabbit munching on the weeds in my back yard. If I lived near the bush I could understand it, but I'm only a 10 minute walk from the beach. I guess there is some bush about a 10 minute walk in the other direction, but it's still a long way through suburban streets for a little bunny to hop. I told Emma and Brad but I don't think they believed me until they saw him for themselves. Then the next day there were two! They both stayed around for about a week so I was under strict orders not to cut the grass weeds as it was the flowers that they were eating. Unfortunately I haven't seen them for a few days now, so I cut the grass on the weekend. They are probably in someones tummy now!

Well, that's 2007 over and dusted. From a share trading point of view, it has been interesting and a very steep learning curve for me, however at least I havn't lost a heap of money. It's bee n seven months now since I started this stupidity and I've finished up the calender year $50 down on where I would have been if I had just left the same a mount of money in the bank. That's not a bad thing really, however the shares that I'm still holding are all (except one) performing very badly. If I were to sell them now I would take a fairly significant loss. Here's hoping that 2008 brings a bit more joy. There were times during 2007 where I was well and truly ahead of the cash interest, I just couldn't maintain that pace. Here is the end of month graph showing the ups and downs of the past seven months.

Last summer I got sucked in by the talking Beefie and Boonie dolls , so this year I though I should get hold of the new talking VB Warnie doll. He arrived today, but the instructions have left me a bit disappointed. It looks as though he only talks during the Commonwealth Bank one day series and will be silent after the last match. It also looks as though they have gone back to the "sit him in front of the telly and he will talk when we tell him to v ia funky noises from your telly" mode. That didn't work too well with the first Boonie doll so it will be interesting to see how he performs. He does n't have a mobile phone so at least he will have to talk and won't be able to resort to txt'ing! Last years dolls spoke when you least expected th em to, but this one looks as if he will only chat during the games. He doesn't even have a button you can press to wake him up if you get a bit bored. The price has doubled from last year, but you only have to buy one carton of beer. I'm not that keen on VB so I ring my parents and they give me the code fro m one of their cartons!