This is viv, our cat, with his tail up in defiance despite being well out of his comfort zone. You see, we’d just gone down the park for a quick kick of the football and he followed us all the way. I tried to catch him to take him back to the house, but he’s quite good at staying out of reach.

Anyway, he ran around alternately looking fierce and terrrified – way too much excitement for a little boy. We headed back up the hill making sure he could see us and hoping therefore that he would follow.

At first, he stayed down among the trees, but in a stroke of good fortune a Crow decided he was either a bit of a threat or possibly an entree, and it swooped him with a loud caw. They were out of view just over the brow of the hill, but I think they actually engaged for a moment, before another crow came and Viv rocketed out of the trees and up the street toward us, straight under a parked car for shelter. He meekly followed us the rest of the way home – panting from either stress or tiredness. Naughty little boy!

Why, why, why? What is it with golfballs and beaches? This photo of Point Cook beach takes in a group of eight golf balls. The nearest course is Sanctuary Lakes, some five kilometers away.

I often find golfballs when snorkelling off Williamstown, but at least there you’ve got some nice grass and a large population, so it’s conceivable that someone has just had a bit of fun belting the odd ball out to sea. Here though, there is some cut grass roughly 80m away behind a huge stand of trees, nearer grass is very heavy ‘rough’, it would take a pro to group the balls like this with no other obvious strays.

Ok, so it’s not one of the world’s great mysteries, but it has me flummoxed… why are they there?

This pic is of a rich, comfortable armchair overlooking the Royal Arcade. On the table is my (sadly) empty coffee cup. The lucky ones among you will recognise Koko Black.

A couple of times recently we’ve found ourselves in the vicinity of one of Melbourne’s Max Brenner shops and have braved the inevitable queue to order, then the long wait for the ‘goods’ to arrive. Not bad when they come, but it’s a real machine.

By contrast, on the weekend we dropped into Koko Black – it was busy and yes, there was a queue to be seated, but only a short one after which we were ushered up to the coffee lounge where we sank into these fantastic chairs and watched the comings and goings in the arcade below. The drinks are fabulous, probably not better than Max Brenner, but the service, the place, the whole scene is another world. I shouldn’t be touting for them – it’s busy enough as it is! Go to the one in Lygon Street instead!