Shortly before 10pm last night we discovered that we'd be having an overnight house guest - a Catholic Priest (and Linda's uncle!) from Salzburg, Germany. He is, of course, in Sydney for World Youth Day - despite being 73 years of age.

A major tidy-up had us semi-ready for the arrival of Tony at around midnight. He doesn't speak very much English, and we can't speak a word of Geman, so communications were rather strained.

Once upon a time this little cafe, Rouge, was one of the most promising new businesses in Parramatta.

The owner was energetic and had aspirations of franchising his idea of French-inspired coffee shops all over Australia. The service was mindblowing, the cakes and pastries top-notch, aand the coffee was sublime. He was on a winner in my books.

And then he had a career change. The cafe was sold and is now onto its fourth owner.

I've come back here this morning - the first time in a couple of years. Gone is warm and welcoming atmosphere. Gone is and feeling of professionalism. Gone is the great coffee (I'm currently TRYING to drink a horrible flat white). Gone is the big range of cakes and patries. Gone is the ambient music (replaced with an LCD TV blasting at full volume).

Gone is my consumer dollar, too.

I think I'm caving in to the urge to join the masses with the iHype (iPhone). This is despite the obscene data prices being charged in Australia at the moment.

I've just worked out how I could get an iPhone and "save" myself about $50/mth. Here I present my my iPhone Transition Masterplan. For the record, I'm a heavy data (esp email for phlogging!), low voice call user. Current spend is $98/mth for my two services with 3 (Three Australia)

1. Dump my K850i and $69/mth capped plan with Three.

2. Keep my $29/mth data account for the USB HSDPA modem.

3. Buy new iPhone handset outright from Optus and have the it unlocked for $80.00.

4. Shove the SIM card from the HSDPA modem in the iPhone.

This will give me:

Upside: $29/mth for 3GB of data plus 15c SMS and voice calls at 35c/30sec plus 25c flagfall. Based on my outbound voice calls (about $10/mth at the rates just cited), I'll be up for a shade under $40/mth - saving me about $58/mth.

Downside: I will lose my main mobile number, which I have had for the last 10 years :-/

Off to have her baby (#3!). Of course, this calls for yet another afternoon tea.

Dozens of muffins, cookies, crisps, cheese/cold meats/crackers, donuts, popcorn and more.

Renee seriously over-catered! There's enough food left over to feed another 30 people.