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...
I've been challenged to drink a slab of beer this weekend ..... reckon I can do it...? Don't know what the price of failure is.....
Well we had plans. We were going to do food shopping. We were going to go to the book fair. We were going to go out to dinner.
In the end we only went out to dinner. The rest of the day I spent fighting with Google Maps to get our itinerary finalised and maps organised for printing. Also had a look at the online JR trip finder thingie and got a whole stack of possible train trips organised. Only to find that JR changed their fares and timetables in March, but the utility said it had data from December. Doh! So the trains I've looked up might not be right.
Dinner was nice. We met up with Helen and Ian at the Asian Cafe in town. The initial service was a little slow, but once they took our order the food came very fast. And it was really really good too. We got five things and they were all excellent. But then tried to find somewhere to buy ice cream for dessert. Walked all around Civic but nothing was open (although we probably could have gotten something at Cafe Essen or My Cafe).
And so ends another weekend. A week of frantic work ahead of me ....
Friday I snapped this:
Yesterday was quite a busy day.
Went into town to spend lots of money on the Stubie. He got an Olympus E-420 digital SLR camera. He actually wanted an E-620, but that's not due out til April - after our Japan trip. He also got a couple of pairs of jeans and some underwear. Had lunch in the Canberra Centre - where I had a full roast pork meal for $8 - and it was very nom-worthy!. And then we tried to spend a DJs gift card we got for our wedding. Man that was hard work. Who knew spending money in DJs could be so hard. Unless you want to spend $300 of course :/
The rain yesterday was very cool, although we still need more of it! Hint! Hint!
(in the morning Mt Ainslie was gone, in the afternoon it was decorated with a rainbow)
For dinner we went down Northbourne Ave to find some places in the Entertainment Book to use our card for. The first place we went to (Zipp) claimed to be fully booked at 7:30pm, even though the place was only about 1/3 full. hrmmm. So went up to Breeze. The food was good enough and the service was quite good, however yet again, we came across an Entertainment Book restaurant that didn't give the deal specified in the book. We were supposed to get "buy one main course get one free", which would have been worth $28, however they only gave us a $17 discount. I wanted to say something, but Stu is more allergic to confrontation than I am, so we just gave no tip. Which made me feel a bit sorry for the dude cause he was actually pretty good. <mails the Entertainment Book people>
Then we toddled off to see The Reader (via dessert at Baskin and Robbins), and got home very late.
Today was a bit quieter. Got a bit of house tidying and Japan planning done. Did our food shopping.
And that was it really.
Less than two weeks to go! Wheeeee!!
So Friday night we left work early and headed down to the coast.
The eastern side of the Great Dividing Range, especially closer to the coast, is remarkably green at the moment.
Arrived in Bateman's Bay around sunset.
Got to the house, but decided to go back to Batehaven for dinner. Went to Ra-Cha, which we'd been to before (where previously we waited *forever* for takeaway service), but this time it was better. Ordered too much food, considering that I'd had a big lunch and several wines and beers. Oh well.
Got back to the house and was bedazzled by all the stars! So much better than even Canberra.
Got settled in, then played some Mario Kart on the Wii with Dave. I did pretty craptaculour to begin with, but then got the hang of it and was mostly equalling Dave and even won a bunch of races!
We'd been waiting around for the spa to heat up, so when it finally did we hopped in. Except it was far *too* hot! Oops. The cold spa next to the main one offered some relief so was pouring water from that one all over myself heh. Stayed up til about 1:30 and chatted (well Dave did most of the talking heh).
Saturday morning at 6:30 it was raining, so that didn't bode well. But by mid morning it had cleared up beautifully so we went for a walk down to get the papers.
Came back and then just vegged out. Stu mostly read and slept. Dave and I played Wii Play and did a 750 piece jigsaw in 2.5 hours.
Later in the afternoon we went for a walk to buy ingredients for dinner.
The weather started closing in, and saw this cool waterspout out in the ocean..
By the time we'd gotten dinner and got back to the house it had started raining.
Stu cooked dinner and we all got stuck into some beer. I lost three games of pool to Dave before deciding I'd rather play him on the Wii where I had half a chance of beating him ;)
Much beer goodness and Stu's good cooking later.
The spa had cooled down significantly by later in the evening, making it just pleasant. So we all hopped in. And stayed there til 2:45 .. oops! The poor dog (who doesn't like to miss any action) was completely wasted from trying to stay awake with us!
Sunday was grey and miserable, so we just stayed in and did pretty much nothing. Did the big sudoku and some crosswords. Played Wii. Had leftovers for lunch.
Then cleaned up and came home.
So it was just a lovely relaxing weekend. A bit tiring on account of staying up half the night ;) But very peaceful. Definitely need to do it again some time!
Not too much else this weekend. Did a bit of house tidying, unpacking, towel washing, in-tray clearing, ip blocking, kitchen cleaning, Khan special features watching, etc. Stu cooked another of his fantastic curries after I nagged asked him to use the cauliflower he bought a few weeks ago :)
Didn't get the puddle cleaned - was too cold outside, and it was raining, although did have another go at cleaning the front gutters yesterday. Have slept in winter pjs that last couple of nights - craziness!!
Japan planning went backwards this week after people changed their minds. Still hoping to have flights booked by Tuesday though....
I didn't blog anything particular for this year's blogiversary, which also
happened to be the fifteenth anniversary of the January 1994 bushfires that ripped through Como/Jannali. Those fires were closer to home (literally - about 300m away) and destroyed our church and several of our friend's houses, therefore having a massive impact on me to this day whenever I see bushfire images.
But only one person died there that day.
The
weekend bushfires in Victoria were epic sad.
135 lives lost so far. And that's sure to rise.
Kinda puts my crap day at work into perspective...
So Stu had his book club here tonight. I mostly stayed out of the way, but I think everyone enjoyed themselves.
It did mean that last night and tonight involved lots of cleaning, so the house is pretty tidy now :)
And it was so hot today and we still all sweaty after everyone left, that of course we just jumped in the pool :) Was awfully refreshing :)
Finished the book of Star Trek: The Motion Picture today, so will have to watch the movie this weekend!
Spent a couple of hours this afternoon trying to plan out much of the work for the next couple of months. It's going to be crazy, with several projects all running at once. I keep telling them I can only juggle three balls at once.. (although even that is pushing it :/ )
Today was quite relaxed. Slept in a bit, just generally hung around. Started playing Roborally until Ralph and Ali and the kids came over. Played a bit of eco Fluxx and then had lunch (leftover lamb roast and potato with cheese on a roll).
After lunch finally left Sydney and dropped in to visit David and Yvonne. Saw some random photos from their Romania holiday and the Unanderra derailment. So that was all very pleasant.
Then finally came home, getting home just on dinner time. Used a big pile of Lizzi's tomatoes for a pasta sauce, was very nice.
And so that was my weekend. It turned out to be a very nice, if very hot and humid weekend. I don't think Stu could have dealt with it - it was people the entire time. And not his people (his people are more ok than my people). But anyway.
As per usual I don't want to go to work tomorrow...
