Day 104: Well, yes Blinky Bill has a belly button! This confirmed by the vet this very day, no hernia no cancer - belly button! I have had to work through a lot of grief at the fact that I won't be a father, but I suspect I would go crazy from the stress and raise a neurotic child if parenthood was to be my fate. At least the dog is oblivious to these neurotic subtleties and only thrives upon his fabulous existence. I don't think he has even noticed that not EVERY dog has 2 daddies and no mummy!

And speaking of parenthood, the couple next door welcomed their baby son this morning. I saw her yesterday in the garden and she had a definite look of "enough is e-bloody-nough", so its good the little fella has made his appearance. Its rather nice really, I don't imagine we will ever be bosom buddies with them (ironically boy in German is Bub, pronounced Boob), but its kind of cool to imagine being a background fixture, 'der Australischer nachbar' in this child's growing up. I generally feel quite isolated from the other children in my life, due to distance or one reason or another.