If you’ve been following this blog a while you’ll know that our mate Toothless Johnno earned his nickname when, while eating his lunch he broke a tooth. Placing the broken false tooth on the picnic table he continued munching his roll. To ruin his day completely an opportunistic wattle bird swooped down and devoured the tooth. I guess that’s what you call ‘one fell swoop’.

While camped at Whorouly in North East Victoria, we were visited by a family of friendly magpies who greeted us every morning with a tuneful chorus. We tend to work on the theory that magpies have extremely long memories (supposedly about 20 years and obviously a better memory for faces than I’ve got) and won’t attack people who are nice to them. Thus, we greet every magpie with a smile and a cheery “Hello Maggie”.

Toothless on the other hand, reckons they swoop him when he’s cycling. And is it any wonder, when your magpie greeting is a loud “Piss off ya bloody vermin!”?