Results matching “Malua Bay”

Happy New Year... For Some...

The last week of our break was overshadowed, quite literally, by the catastrophe of the bushfires. I watched them get closer and closer to Kit and Pete's place, then it skirted round their town, but they're not out of danger yet. It's still very close to David's place at River Island. It got very close to DC's place at Malua Bay, and Fiona's place in Newcastle. @CLBradley's place at Kangaroo Valley is still under threat. Lisa's family lost a farm house and a camper. Connor's inlaws' land was burnt out, but the shed was ok. Chloe's land got burnt out and their shed and tractor are gone, but the house they are building was untouched. And that's just people I know. People have died. Many homes, farms and historic buildings have been lost. The toll on the bush and the wildlife is incalculable. The smoke we've been breathing for the past few weeks is the remains of millions upon *millions* of plants and animals. It's utterly devastating and heartbreaking. I really fear that this weather is the new "normal" and wonder if it will ever properly rain again...

So New Year's Eve was very hot and very windy, and I was *super* nervous about fires starting. We were going to go out to the club but decided not to. EffanC also decided not to go, so we went over to their place instead as conditions eased.

So it was fairly quiet evening of just chatting and watching the Sydney fireworks. Even David joined us after his shift finished which was nice.

The smoke got thick again as the wind changed in the evening. My first photos of the new year are of the smoke on the way home..

It was a pretty late night so Wednesday, New Year's Day, was a slow, quiet day. Did a bit of photo processing, blogging, some jigsaw, and we watched Die Another Day in the evening.

Thursday ended up being another quiet day. Didn't get a whole lot done. Stu signed up for Disney+ and we watched The Force Awakens in the evening. Of course our introduction to Disney+, literally the first thing on the screen, was Error 43. Fricken useless.

How cute are these!? Stu got them in the mail (before Australia Post stopped deliveries because of the smoke).

Friday with the cooler weather I took the opportunity to check on the gutters. They weren't too bad. David also couldn't help himself and pulled apart our cooler and gave it all a good scrub. Bestest brother ever!

After lunch Kit called. They were in Canberra - they'd come up Thursday night with all the animals (two dogs, a cat, two birds, three frogs and a snake) leaving behind the chickens and the fish. They came over in the afternoon and just chilled out for a couple of hours which was nice. Pete had a lot of fun watching the wedding videos, while Kit monitored the fires and social media. We dropped their car back at her mum's and had a drink.

Then Stu picked us up and we all went to Bella Vista for dinner.

We had Garlic and cheese foccacia to share $9 which was delicious (Kit said it was the best cheese and garlic bread she'd ever eaten heh).

For dinner I had Vitello Saltimbocca: Veal escallops with sage, Prosciutto and mozzarella cheese in a white wine reduction sauce served with creamy mash and green beans. ($35)

Then back to our place to chat for a while. It was nice that they felt they could just come and hang out and relax with us. We think they made a sensible decision getting to safety ahead of the predicted craziness on Saturday.

So Saturday. The hot north-westerly winds picked up again, fanning the flames of all the fires going on at the coast. I was tense again. I spent the morning putting away all the Christmas decorations. Didn't get much done in the afternoon, although I did finish blogging our Melbourne trip, where we went and saw Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Link is here - http://kazza.id.au/oz_holidays/ - if you wanted to have a look (last entry is first on that page so scroll down to see it in order). We watched Casino Royale in the evening.

The wind did blow all the smoke away for the day, but it came back again around 10pm.

And when I say it came back, I mean it *really* came back. We could smell it as soon as it hit, and it was swift and all consuming. In the morning it was like waking up in hell... the phone wouldn't get the white balance right, I had to fiddle with the DSLR to get this.

Played through an escape game on my phone, but otherwise only got little bits and pieces done during the day.

In the evening a bunch of us went over to Rob and Lyn's for dinner which was lovely. The temperature had cooled down significantly so it was nice outside, just very smoky, so we stayed inside, which was a lot hotter. But had a very pleasant evening. Rob cooked some quite delicious steaks and there was heaps of other food.

So back to some sense of reality on Monday. My "essential" todo list kept me going til 10pm but then I couldn't get to sleep (a mosquito buzzing around certainly didn't help, not to mention where the f@#$ did it come from, given there's no standing water anywhere in Canberra at the moment). So today was a bit of a zombie day, but was able to do lots of cleaning which was good. And tonight processed photos, and have spent an hour writing up this entry.

Stay safe everyone...

Coast Weekend, June

Went down to the coast for the long weekend.

Sights on the way down..

Climbed that mountain (Majura) the other week

Wind turbines

Cute farm house

Braidwood Poplars

Finally got a photo of this mansion in Lilli Pilli. Noticed it for sale the next day, although couldn't find anything online for it.

Other strenuous activities included..

Eating pizza (a large Big Mama)

and a medium margherita with feta. Leftovers were consumed over the next two days.

Eating chocolates (and drinking beer)

Watching the surf

Walking the Benny

Watching the birdies

Doing a jigsaw

Drinking beer

Going in the spa. Sleeping. Crosswords, kenkens and sudokus. Cooking bacon and eggs. Eating lots of junk food.

And watching the weather change

As usual, a lovely weekend.

April Coast Trip

As you'd have guessed from yesterday's entry, we went down the coast on the weekend.

Nice quiet weekend as always, with jigsaw-ing, spa-ing, swimming, walking, star gazing, drinking beer, eating pizza (and plenty of other junk food). Even got a swim in the ocean at Myrtle Beach on Saturday - water was a bit chilly but not too bad.

Malua Bay Sunrise

Setup the iPhone to record the sunrise this morning. But it was very cloudy so it's actually not all that interesting (although if it had been sunnier I would have been worried about damaging the sensor pointing it into the sun for so long).

I took 2522 photos over seven hours. But the resulting avi generated by PhotoLapse was over 2Gb so nothing would open it. So culled down the number of photos to 1756 and redid it (you're not missing much). Also recorded a bit faster - 20fps. So a minute and a half of video.

Coast Weekend

Headed down the coast again this weekend. Some other people were invited but they ended up not coming, so it was just us and Dave.

As usual, very relaxing, doing such things as..

Whale watching from the kitchen window..

Documenting Benny..

Doing a jigsaw..

Going for a walk along the beach..

..in the rain..

Eating lots of pizza.. (we felt a little guilty getting them deliver it when it was *pissing* down with rain from the storm.. oops..!)

And enjoying the spa..

Not much today, as the sweetie needed to get home early.

Birthday coast trip

Friday night, somewhat later than usual (7pm), we headed down to the coast. Stopped in at the Scottish Restaurant for dessert (maltesers sundaes - yummm). The place was bogan central though ..

Arrived at the house probably a bit before 10pm. I was almost asleep at this point, have spent the better half of the afternoon drinking at a work party. But Dave arrived we decided to heat up the spa, so had a couple of beers while playing Flight Control HD!! I really need a lot more practise at that game! And no, I'm not going to spend ~$700 on one! Spa'ed til quite late.

Saturday morning I had a long sleepin (til 10:30!!) and had a leftover slice of pizza for breakfast. Started one of the house's 750-piece jigsaws while enjoying the view. (and Dave put on Queen at Wembley so was singing along to that :):) )

Went for a walk down to the shops to get a paper.

In the afternoon we experimented putting up a couple of Dave's tents to see which one he thought would be better to take away on his next bike trip. He decided this one (even though it's bigger and a bit better) is too much of a pain for one person to put up and take down.

Later on, Stu and I went for a walk by ourselves along the cliffs and back along the rocks.

Came back and we opened the Stone's Green Ginger Wine (which Dave had decided he should get me to try on a previous trip), and I finished off the jigsaw. Also had a go at hooking up the camera to the Eee PC, but was quite frustrated that the computer wouldn't see it :(

Then we headed into Batemans Bay to find some dinner. We liked the look of Barkala Tapas bar, so went in there. We got the $35 banquet which was five courses, as well as some champagne (as you do). There was some foccacia style bread and a dip, then a tartare (salmon) dish, then a duck salad (which was pretty awesome), then beef cheek (sooo tender!) and a mushroom dish (probably my favourite - soo tasty!). Yum yum yum :) Enjoyed it :)

Then stayed in the spa the latest I've ever stayed in.. oops.. :) Love that spa :) Even though I was well and truly a prune at the end of it heh.

This morning had another long sleep in. Had a toasted cheese sandwich for breakfast and sat with binoculars looking out at the ocean.

Had a go at connecting the camera to Stu's laptop and that worked, and then suddenly realised that the Eee PC has an SD card reader! Win!!

Spent quite a bit of time on the crosswords, then tidied up and came home..

All in all, apart from probably a little too much alcohol last night, had a very relaxing weekend away :)

Coast Weekend

Had a nice weekend at the coast last weekend.

Headed down Friday afternoon/evening.

Stopped for pizza in Malua Bay at the Sandy Foot Cafe. Decided to eat in, and had a "Big Mama".

The others had arrived just before us, but they let us have "our" room.. very sweet of them :)

Proceeded with the challenge of a keg in a weekend. But I didn't have to put too much effort into it - got quite a bit of help from Dave and some from Stu :) After a bit of Wii Sports Resort we had a spa til 2:30 until the dog really needed to go to sleep.

On Saturday morning I started a 3D jigsaw of a church and had an early snack lunch before heading up to Myrtle Beach for a swim. It was *soooo* beautiful!! Except for all the seaweed on the beach, but that was a totally minor thing. The water was beautiful and warm and crystal clear, I was kicking myself I didn't bring our snorkels. We caught a little (1.5cm) fish in our hands, and a similar sized squid or cuttlefish baby. And a little black worm thing. One of the best ocean swims I've ever had.

Headed back to the house for more food and jigsaws. I finished the 3D one and started on a "mystery" one - it comes with a story and you have to look at the picture (once it's finished - there's no picture on the box) to solve the mystery. Finished that while the others cooked up a storm on the barbeque. We finished the keg at 6:30pm - WTF?? :) Good thing Dave had brought some kirin :) Ate dinner by candlelight for earth hour (even though supposedly candles produce more greenhouse gasses than electric lights - fail! heh) Only stayed up in the spa til 12:30 :)

Sunday I started another jigsaw - one I got off freecycle recently. Played a bit of Wii as well (Super Mario Bros for Wii - still didn't like it any better the second time around). Cleaned up and headed home mid afternoon (via The Scottish Restaurant). It was so fricken humid at the coast that it was bliss to sit in an air conditioned car for a while! Was pretty grumpy that I missed the airport open day. Think I'll cancel whatever plans I have next time.. But otherwise a very nice weekend.

Family Coast Trip, January 2010

This trip was organised last year, and they wanted us to come for a whole week, but we both would have gone stir crazy, so just went down Wednesday morning to Saturday morning.

Arrived around lunch time, and made ourselves some toasted sandwiches. The house is huge - lots of living space, three full bathrooms, but only four bedrooms. Very well equipped though.

Some time after lunch some of us headed down to the local beach (the little one at the north end of Malua Bay area). Went for a snorkel and saw lots of cool fish, and then had a good long swim with a giant stingray - was awesome! Then it decided to swim away, so I couldn't keep up with it :)

Came back for beer o'clock, and had a couple of awesome roasts (pork and lamb) for dinner. Unlocked all the cups on Noah's DS, and later we watched Star Trek.

On Thursday it was quite overcast. It was Lily's birthday so we went to Mogo Zoo (see separate link for pictures). Note to self: don't try to go to any of the keeper talks next time! All the hoards of people were mostly doing the same thing in the same order, so you just couldn't move in the place. The pathways are all so narrow and it was stiflingly humid and a bit rainy and so we all got peopled out very quickly. So much so that we didn't even have the energy to see all of the zoo. Headed back to the house for a big lunch of stirfry and chicken kebabs.

Got completely bored out of my brain in the afternoon. Was totally kicking myself that I didn't bring jigsaws or other things for me to do. And whenever I went anywhere near the Wii, all the kids would jump up and want to play too (even when they were all otherwise occupied). Since there were only two wiimotes, it wasn't very practical to play with more than two. It was all a bit frustrating. Had a bit of a meltdown and went and hid for a while.

Later in the afternoon sat around and nibbled junk food while having a little party for Lily.

Had some beer, then they got chinese takeaway, but we were all still full from lunch and the party that we didn't get much. Tried to teach Potty Monty Python Fluxx but he just didn't "get" it so that was a bit of a fizzer. Had some wine and watched some of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, and started to feel better.

Friday we headed down to the Tomaga River with the boat. Except Stu and Annie kept on driving past the turn off, so we thought they'd missed it. Waited and waited for them to realise they'd lost us and turn around but they never did. So we went driving to try and find them. Eventually we saw them and thought they were following us, but then they turned off *again*. We couldn't understand it and it was very frustrating. Eventually we gave up and went to the river. The others turned up shortly after - turns out they'd just decided to go for a drive. It would have been nice if they'd told us they were going to do this so we didn't stress out about it :/ Not happy Jan!

Went for a little putter up the river on the boat with Potty

Stu and I swam across the river to get to the sand flats on the other side, but hadn't considered how hard the shallow muddy reed beds would be to get across.. oops. But saw lots of shell fishy thingies, and a soldier crab (a dog had scared all the birds away). Crossed the river again downstream where there were no reeds :)

We left some time before the others, and couldn't get the key to work on the front door (it does work, but is very fiddly). Wandered around the back of the house to see if there was another lock it would work on, only to find the back bathroom door wide open .. oops..

Nibbled on some random food. Later in the afternoon Potty and I went snorkelling again, but it was quite rough, and lots of churned up gunk in the water, so couldn't see much (not that there was that much to see anyway - most of the fishies must have been in hiding).

Finished off the beer. Kerry made pizzas for dinner, but none of us were particularly hungry. Watched Flightplan on tv.

Saturday morning was pack up and go home. The fridge was still *full* of food - probably enough for another week :/ So of course half of it got thrown out :/ I won't mention the dishwasher incident. *sigh* Was only too glad to go home basically. Although we did stop into The Scottish Restaurant so Stu could get some brunch. Finally home around lunch time.

2009 Year in Review

This will end up being my year in review post. When I actually get around to writing it ;)

Just putting a placeholder here cause MT is pretty crap at back dating across months.

So. 2009.

Certainly not as *big* a year as 2008.

We've been in our house over a year now, but it's still not really "settled". We did buy a nice big dining table, but that's about it. We still haven't fully organised the rumpus room (although shelves are finally on order!!), and so "my" hobby room has been held up because of that (and because I've been too lazy to try and Freecycle all the crap that's been dumped in there). We've only put hooks in the wall for one thing (my big Lego mosaic) so most of our pictures are still waiting for somewhere to go. The spare bedroom has continued to be really really useful, and we've had a steady stream of people staying the night (mostly my brother heh). The pool has been *brilliant*. Mostly got the hang of taking care of it, so hopefully we don't get any algal blooms this year.

Work has been variable again this year. The first half of the year feels like a bit of a blur. I got a couple of big projects completed mostly on schedule. The second half of the year was mostly working on the one thing, which we tried but failed to get into production by Christmas. All through the year it was just insanely busy. Not as insane as Stu's work though. He was essentially doing three people's work and the stress of it all was taking a toll on his health. So when an ex colleague had a positition advertised, she said he should apply. Which he did, and he got it. So a new year and a new job for the sweetie.

Our big holiday of the year was a trip to Japan for two weeks. It was a significant challenge to try and organise because we went with a total of six people. In the end Nat and I did the majority of the planning which worked reasonably well. The holiday was *fantastic*!! - had a really great time. Wish we could have stayed longer - at least twice as long would have been the bare minimum I think.

Went to Sydney a few times - in January over the long weekend while Stu played in Cancon - just caught up with lots of my friends and family. Also in October for a primarily touristy weekend - even stayed in a hotel! And then for Christmas and again for New Years. Went down to Malua Bay with DC three times in March, April and October. Mostly just us and him, but we did get Neil down for the October weekend. And to Kangaroo Valley for Chris B's 50th which was a lot of fun.

Our fish tank numbers remained stable at seven. We did lose a huge number of fish in the heatwave in February (where we had three consecutive 40C days with no cooling down at night). All the julis, all but one of the adult multis, and all the tetras and the other little fish died. The young multies and my angel were the only upstairs survivors. I replaced the tetties with some leopard danios. The multis grew up and have been breeding like rabbits. Stu brought home the three julis he had at work and got some leleupies too. The kribs downstairs I think need to have their tank rearranged, as they just sit there and do *nothing* all day. Guppy breeding has slowed down dramatically too, not sure what's going on there, maybe needs some new genes..

Fairly quiet Lego year. Made a nice big mosaic of Australia, and now my mosaics have a hanging place in the spare room. I dug out and sold a bunch of Space Lego which cleared a little space - but have a long way to go! And over Christmas built the Star Destroyer and Millennium Falcon to have them on display together.

Movies

The Reader - a bit disjointed but interesting
Star Trek - really good, although changed too much cannon for my liking
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince - a lot of fun, but a bit weak as a movie compared to the book
Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea - very sweet
Up - pretty good, a bit dulled by the 3D glasses
Avatar - beautiful, but killed by the 3D glasses

Books (this is possibly not all of them)

Shere by Michael Crichton
all the TOS Star Trek movie books
Unreliable Memoirs by Clive James
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Roald Dahl Fizwizzing collection (except the autobiographies)
Inner Space by Nathan Elliot
The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
The Daily Coyote by Shreve Stockton
First four Little House books by Laura Ingalls-Wilder
Clear and Present Danger by Tom Clancy
The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial by William Kotzwinkle
It Sucked and then I Cried by Heather Armstrong of Dooce.com
Watership Down by Richard Adams

Other snippets

Had some car trouble - battery was only a year and a half old, but kept dying, probably because of the central locking draining it. NRMA battery dude who eventually replaced it after Christmas didn't seem overly competant
Got frustrated with the *crap* sold at computer fairs - most of which simply does not work
Went to a balloon fiesta in March. Still haven't been up in one!
Went to the Darwin exhibition at the museum with DC
Saw The 39 Steps at the theatre with DC
Two dust storms - dust so fine the pool filter won't get it out
Several anime nights
Got a Wii and spent many many hours playing on it
Two work trivia nights that our table won, so we got nominated to run the next one. But it was cancelled at the last minute due to lack of interest. Also came second in the TAMS trivia night at the stadium.
Hard drived died, so got a new one and have been trialling Windows 7
Had a Monty Python night - watched the three movies and drank Holy GrAil
Frustration with my hosting provider, who did an upgrade and broke my captchas. Then they did something else that broke logging in October and that hasn't worked since. For me, it's a case of you get what you pay for (which is nothing, so I can't complain).
Went to Air Guitar championships with Nat - extremelly noisy - would take ear plugs if I went again
Went to Newcastle for Stu's grandmother's funeral
A couple of fondue nights (cheese/chocolate and meat), and Singstar afternoons at Windy's. Did a couple of chocolate fondue nights here with ourselves and friends.
Went to the snow twice on consecutive weekends - a Sunday then a Saturday - both times with Steve W.
Had a hanami festival in our front yard under our blooming cherry tree
Went to Floriade Nightfest
My highschool penfriend, Pirjo, from Finland, came to stay with us and we went out to Tidbinbilla to see the kangaroos up close
Hottest November on record (we completely skipped spring and went from winter to summer)

So there you go. Happy new year everyone :)

Weekend away

Had rather a late start on Saturday. We headed out around 12pm to do our shopping, but of course being Anzac Day, shops weren't open til 1pm.. not even Coles (which I thought might have opened round 12). So had to waste a bit of time before doing our shopping. Stocked up on supplies, came home, got ready, and eventually headed out the door round 3:50pm.

Had a nice easy drive down to the coast, arriving just after 6pm. Whereupon it was decided it was beer o'clock. We cooked a store-bought quiche for dinner (I mustn't have been with real men ;) ). Eventually got in the spa and stayed there for the next five or so hours. Ooops. :) DC mostly kept up with me drinking-wise. Not quite, but I was still impressed :)

(3.6 servings per package??? who divides quiches up like that??)

Mine, DC's and Stu's efforts (one Quadruppel beer is the same alcohol content as two heinekens)

Sunday was a bit of a sleepin (as you do). Spent a good chunk of the day doing a jigsaw of Neil's. And later played some Super Mario Galaxy. It was ok, but was really only one player so not as much fun (oh, played a bit of Lego Star Wars too, but really don't *get* it).

Dinner was a lamb roast with lots of veggies, and our wedding cake for dessert. And a Mount Majura Pinot Gris, which was very fruity. Watched Mythbusters and Iron Chef and Rockwiz and then fell asleep when Dave put on Keating the Musical. So abanoned that and got in the spa. Where we turned off the lights and sat and just watched all the stars. Was extraordinarily pretty. Stu and Dave saw the same shooting star, but I missed out :( Was determined to stay there til I saw one, but in the end Dave wanted Ben to get some sleep, so I got booted :)

Today we played some Mario Kart, went for a walk then cleaned up, and left for home. Dumped our stuff then headed straight back out again, this time to Ding's for a very civilised dinner. He'd been cooking up a storm all afternoon - he did a pretty amazing paella with mussells and calamari and prawns and crab and chicken and saffron. Jo also did a highly nomorific salad. Definitely ate far too much :) And had some Mount Majura Pinot Noir. And then there was dessert. !! Definitely need to have more dinner parties. Need to get a dining table...

Anyways. So that was the weekend. Think I need a weekend to recover from my weekend...