Friday. Finished up work a bit early on Friday and left around 17:45.  Had an ok run, although somewhat slow going down the Clyde due to a very slow Canberran not using the slow vehicle pullout bays and causing a very long bankup of cars behind them.  Saw the rocking horses this side of Nelligen in a few different places.  The Nelligen Pub was packed which was pretty cool.  It actually looked really nice with lights over the beer garden.  Bit of a tense drive up the highway once it got dark but made it without hitting anything.  Had a couple of drinks with Kit and Pete and chatted for a while which was nice.  Slightly late night but not too bad.

Saturday.  Slept relatively well.  It is So. Dark. there though.  I'm used to suburban light and our hallway nightlight flooding the house with light. 

Bit of a slow start waiting for everyone to get up and ready. Then had to decide on a plan of attack for the day.  In the end we decided to head up to Ulladulla for brunch.  Went to Ocean Vibes and I had a nice eggs benedict with bacon.

Then back to Kit and Pete's. 

Kit and I went off to the Milton Show, but I'll post that separately.

Got back and did animal stuff.

Kit still has a heap of guinea fowl and chickens, but no ducks or turkeys anymore.

Vicki is stubbornly refusing to die, but is definitely feeling her age.  They've still got Jasper the dachshund, and Biscuit and her two sons Oreo and Mr Floofy.

This is Toby, an old horse of Chloe's.  Kit still has Scout and Ricky as well.

Then had a quick shower and headed up to Mollymook to the Golf Club for dinner with Travis and Temika (no idea how to spell her name haha).

Kit and I shared some duck spring rolls (with barely a skerrick of duck) which were quite nice, and a Hawaiian schnitty which was pretty average.

Stu had some seafood by the sea

Then back to Kit and Pete's for a game of Kismet.  I actually got *two* Kismet's but could only count the first one of 3's, not the second one of 6's :)  Kit won in the end.

Sunday.  Hot and sweaty overnight.  Really need to bring a fan to their place in summer heh.

Biscuit in the middle with her two crumbs - Mr Floofy on the left and Oreo on the right

I waited for a while for everyone else to get up, and found some Lego to play with.  Didn't get time to build all three, just the chicken (or whatever it is), after pulling apart the unicorn. 

Also found there's three missing pieces.

Left around 10:00, via the Scottish Restaurant.

Got a photo of a couple of the Nelligen Rocking Horses

Then we listened to a very depressing talk that Cory Doctorow did recently on Enshittification.  Remember the Good Old Days when Google was actually GOOD??? Now it's been enshittified along with everything else on the internet (and even in the real world) and it makes me just want to be a hermit and get offline.

Also.  All. The. Teslas.  I started to look for them on the way back.  Must have passed literally dozens of the things...

Friday - 6.9.24

Out the door at 9am, but had to get some extra things for Jeff's "hamper". Then we needed to get breakfast. So it was after 10 by the time we got away from Canberra.

Lake George shining

Stu put on an audio book - The Easy Life in Kamusari.

At the Nattai River hill we were passed by a hoon. I was disappointed there wasn't police on the other side of the hill (there often is). When we got to the M7 turnoff in Sydney there was a bit of a traffic jam and we were in the wrong lane to turn onto it, so that was a bit stressful. We were finally able to merge in and when we got to the pyramid there were police cars and the same hoon pulled over and under arrest (literally saw him in handcuffs on the ground haha).

Stopped at Ourimbah for petrol and lunch.

New freeway and overpasses at Hexham

I'll miss the old bridge at Hexham

Then just drove on. Mostly finished the book.

Arrived in Port Macqaurie just before 6. Dumped our stuff then headed out again.

Went out to Potty's for drinks and pizzas. Most of the family was there so that was nice. The kids were very loud heh.

Saturday - 7.9.24

Didn't sleep very well - the pillow was too thick and the bed too soft. I did go and get my own pillow which helped, but kept getting a sore spine from the soft bed.

Got ready then went out for a good long walk around the beaches which was pretty nice.

Folly, on Windmill Hill

Butcherbird

Nobby Head

Oxley Beach

Flagstaff Lookout

Town Beach

Oxley Beach

Waves crashing off Oxley Beach

Town Beach

There was a small formation of vintage aircraft flying around

Port Macquarie Observatory

Gak gak birds!!

Then I tried to find coffee and breakfast. I'd already passed one busy cafe at Town Beach but wasn't ready to get stuff yet. I found one other cafe but they didn't have any nice pastries just a couple of cakes/banana bread type stuff. Looked for a few other cafes but they didn't look the sort to do takeaway coffee. So #fail. In the end got some snackages and coffee in a can from the Foodary.

Annie stopped by to drop off a dress (I don't own dresses lolz). It was a bit big but looked marginally ok. Stu thought I should wear it.

Then we headed up to SWR, and finished the book on the way. It was kinda funny. Nice story.

Kempsey Northern Gateway Sculpture

At Jeff and Ruth's we arrived in time for morning tea (everyone was already there, so that was a bit stressful), and they put on a slide show which was pretty cool.

Jeff about to go through the slide show

Then we headed off to lunch - The Old Bank in Gladstone. They'd setup a table outside under a big tree overlooking the river - absolutely lovely setting. Had a pretty awesome lunch there. And there were lots of speeches hehe. And there were two snakes. Or the same snake doing the rounds. I thought it was Sally's leash that was moving, and things weren't computing, and everyone thought I was having a seizure or something. But I hope I didn't step on it (I don't think I did). Left after 3.

Family photo

Ruth and Jeff

Arancini balls

Chicken sausage rolls

Prawn platter

Green tree snake (take 2 - the other one that I nearly trod on got away before I could get a photo)

Beef tenderloin I had for lunch

Annie reading her poem

Jeff's birthday cake

Happy birthday!!

The plan was to go back to Jeff and Ruth's to get changed to go for a swim. But then it was decided to drive around the beaches to see which one would be the best. But then it was decided which beach they were going to go to, but noone told us, and most of them didn't come back to Jeff's. This made it Too Hard, so I just stayed with the Stu's.

Then back to Port for dinner of snackages (still full from lunch). Watched some Big Bang Theory then to bed.

Sunday - 8.9.24

Still too soft a bed to sleep very well. Woke up at 5.

Got ready then headed out to Potty's for coffee. We were first there which was nice.

Had breakfast at The Scottish Restaurant then tried to get petrol. But if you're coming from the restaurant side it's incredibly confusing and we drove around a couple of times and in the end came in through the back cause they made it too damned hard.

Put on the next Kamusari book which we got most of the way through (Kamusari Tales Told at Night).

Hexham Bridge

Had lunch in Ourimbah, and got petrol in Marulan.

At Lake George (which is still very full) a wallaby on the side of the road started moving onto the road. Stu slowed down, gently, then rapidly, then to a hard stop. We were lucky we didn't hit the thing. The dude on the right didn't slow down at all and zoomed past us while we were stopped. If the wallaby had kept crossing the road it would have been hit. In the end it went back off to the left. So that was a bit rattling.

Home a bit before 6.

This view coming into Canberra never gets old!

Friday.  Kit was desperate for some company with friends, so we headed down.  Left around 18:00, getting Scottish Restaurant drive through for dinner on the way.  

Otherwise a fairly uneventful drive and we even managed to find the driveway in the dark first go when we arrived at around 20:30.

We met Biscuit's seven new little crumbs (9 days old).

Chatted for a while, and not tooo late a night.

Saturday.

Who wouldn't want to wake up to this crap every morning?  Literally the view out the bedroom window when I woke up.

Found myself some leftovers that I'd brought down for breakfast. 

Then did all the animals.  There's still Arthur and Frankie the cats, Vicki, Biscuit and her seven crumbs, and Jasper.  Eight ducks (down from fourteen as she sold six of them that morning), about seven or eight guinea fowl, about thirty chickens and a couple of turkeys.  Then Scout and Ricky the horses, Al and Kerry the alpacas, and I dunno like twenty or thirty sheep.  And don't forget that little cow (bull) above.  There were two.  Now there's one.  And a freezer full of the other.

Headed down to the beach, walking all the way along Kioloa and part way up Shelly Beach and back.

Picked up some pies on the way home for lunch.  I started a jigsaw in the afternoon.  We found some luv-a-duck in the fridge, so had that with some spring onion and cucumber in rice paper rolls (not as good as peking duck pancakes but who cares).  Then chatted and went to bed at normal time.

Sunday.  Did the animals first up.  Then headed into Batemans Bay for brunch.  

Eventually left a bit after twelve.  Did some food shopping on the way home so didn't get home til after 15:00.  Exhausted.  And just in time to do my end of weekend routine.  

Monday morning Kit and Pete went off to work and we went home.

We did go and find Old Blotchy though which is just off the road on the way home.  What a spectacular tree!

Popped across the river at Batemans Bay to get breakfast at The Scottish Restaurant, and got a look at the new bridge.

Then back up the Clyde, which flowed pretty well, even behind caravans.

Traffic ground to a halt a kilometre or two outside of Braidwood.  But we went through anyway (and not round the back) because I wanted a couple of photos of the buildings in Ned Kelly.  Really need to walk the street and do it properly though.

Got stuck in slow moving traffic in Bungendore too which was all a bit painful.  But finally made it home ok around lunch time.

Slept really well - we managed to get thinner pillows which made a big difference.

In the morning had another wander around the property.  This time with aeroplanes and bubbles.  

After a leisurely brunch we kitted up both horses to give them a workout.  

I did have another go on Ellie, although didn't end up trying to trot with shorter stirrups.

Kit worked on Ziggy for a bit.  Look how tiny he is compared to Ellie!

Had a late lunch of noodles, then the sweetie and I went down to Myrtle Beach.  The headland was spared from last year's bushfires which is nice, because this is one of the prettiest bushwalks there is.

We knew from the weather reports that the water would be rough.  Doesn't look like it in the photos but it sure was.

We thought we'd walk along to the next beach to see if the conditions were any better there, but the tide was up and waves were occasionally crashing over the rocks, so we were like yeah nuh.

Stu did go in briefly, but I didn't think it was worth the effort

I liked this tree on the way back.

Back at Kit and Pete's it was beer o'clock, then we had lamb chops and salads for dinner before having an early night.

I didn't sleep too well - the pillow I had was way too thick so I wasn't very comfortable.

Sunrise sure is pretty there though!

In the morning we got to meet more of the menagerie.

The grey geese are Galen and Gabrielle, and the white one is Solomon.

There's three guinea fowl, three young turkeys, three geese, a duck or two, and a whole lot of chickens.

Two goats - Beavis (brown) and Butthead (black).  Or Knock Knock and Muffin (don't know which one's which).  

Ellie and Ziggy

And all the geep!  Some of them are *very* pregnant.

Kit cooked up a bunch of her chicken's eggs for peeps for breakfast.

Then we all went for a wander around the property.

A little creek at the bottom.

Pete and Jasper on the quad bike.

The lower paddock and round yard.

The pond.  Vicki had So. Much. Fun. jumping into this over and over and again.

Entrance to the round yard.

Late morning the sweetie and I went for a drive.  We went down Bawley Point Road all the way to the end and got out at Kioloa.

I might have caught this lizard.

Then we headed back to Bawley Point and ordered fish and chips from the takeaway.  

Wait what?  

I thought that was pretty funny at the time.  But the service was so amazingly SLOW I was certainly feeling like a Karen by the end of the wait.  Especially with the barking dog going off nearby.  Seriously I can't get away from barking dogs at the moment.  We ended up having to wait about half an hour for our food, by which time I was pretty cranky.

We headed up the road and had our lunch in a park near the beach.  

By now it was well after 2pm and we'd had a big greasy lunch, which wasn't going to bode well for going out for dinner.  hrmmm.

Went down to the beach for a bit.

Finally got back to Kit and Pete's and we saddled up Ellie and took her for a bit of a ride. She was behaving herself quite nicely (apparently she can be a bit stubborn and difficult sometimes).

I even had a bit of a go.  Unfortunately she's a ex pacer, so she doesn't trot, she paces, which is quite odd to ride.  Also the stirrups were too long for me (stoopid stumpy little legs).  

Packed up the horse and gear, got ready then headed out for dinner.  We all went up to Ulladulla to the ExServos club because Pete wanted steak for his birthday.  Scott and Sarina came too which was nice.

You can never have too much gravy!

Because Stu and I had had such a big late lunch, we got a pizza to share for dinner.  I had two pieces which was just about the right amount!  (note that was an itty bitty Henkell bottle for scale).  I may have helped finish off a couple of other dishes though, and we brought home a whole heap of leftovers.  

Then we went back to Kit and Pete's and had a game of Kismet.  Pete, C and I all got Kismets, but T won.

Then called it a night.

Three weekends ago we headed down the coast for Kit and Pete's wedding.  We left on the Thursday after lunch.  I was still sick and coughing and had been in bed all morning.  Hurrah.  

Driving down Smith's Gap we saw the fires over at Braidwood.

This was the last weekend we were to see blue skies this year.  As I write it's been three weeks since we saw properly blue sky (except maybe a day or two).

This C-130 water bomber (N134CG) had just left HMAS Albatross.  

We stayed at the Springs Shoalhaven, quite close to the wedding venue.  Pleasant enough place.  It had a pool although I didn't have a swim (Stu did).  Both those beds were *very* soft.  I took the single to give myself a bit of distance from the sweetie with my coughing.  

We chilled out for a bit, then went next door to the Ex Serviceman's Club for dinner.  It had a lovely aspect, facing north over the golf course.  At the far northern end of the golf course was the venue for the wedding. 

Pasta I had for dinner

Spent half the night coughing.  Of course.

Stu thought it might be nice to have room service breakfast on the Friday, so we ordered that the night before.  Unfortunately because I'd had so little sleep I really wasn't hungry when it turned up at the appointed time.  It was nice enough though and I would have enjoyed it on another day.  

I pretty much spent the morning in bed.  We were waiting for word from Kit to see if they needed our help transporting anything or setting anything up, but they were running late and a bit frazzled.  In the end the sweetie and I went into Nowra to get some supplies (I still wasn't very hungry) and stuff for the wedding.  Then we headed all the way down to the end of Greenwell Road to have a look at the water.  That was quite nice.

Dropped the sweetie back to the motel, then met up with Chloe, Katie and Kit so we could all get our nails done.  I've never had my nails done professionally before.  

The result!

Picked up the sweetie, then it was off to the rehearsal.  There were quite a lot of people there and it was a little bit chaotic, so took quite a while to get through.  

Dropped off the sweetie again, then to Kit and Pete's to load up the car with food.  Swung by the motel on the way back and got Stu to drop me at the venue with all the gear/food.  He'd had a rotten time at the Ex-Serviceman's club - it was super noisy and crowded and he had to wait *forever* for food and couldn't even go get another drink because otherwise he'd have lost his table.  Poor thing.  Then he headed back to the motel while I stayed at the venue.

At the venue four of us girls stayed in the "Bunk House", while Kit stayed by herself in her own room (at Chloe's recommendation to get a better night's sleep).  

Chloe got us some takeaway burgers for dinner (and very nicely got me a kids meal so it was a lot smaller ;) ).

Chloe and Audrey made up little bubble blowers.

And Katie and Kit made up decorations.

I supervised ;)

I slept on my inflatable mattress.  Or rather, I *didn't* sleep on the mattress.  I was so stressed about my coughing/snoring keeping Katie awake, that I couldn't get to sleep til very very very late.  And then I woke up early.  I think I might have gotten about two hours sleep.  How to recover from a cold - get lots of rest.  Yeah right.  Vowed never to sleep in the same room as anyone else (aside from the sweetie) ever again in my life.

Anyways.  I'll leave the day of the wedding to the next post.

This magpie was hand raised by the owners of the venue, and hung around while we cleaned up.  Very cool.

After driving Pete's ute back to their place late morning, with everyone's cars full of *stuff* that we'd spent all morning packing up, we finally headed home.  

We couldn't even see Smith's Gap through all the smoke.

This was leftovers of a massive antipasto platter that we had at the wedding (I put it in the fridges overnight, everyone thought I was mad heh).  We didn't need to do any food shopping that week - we just ate this all week!

Monday into BBT season three, photo labelling.  Tuesday and Wednesday rinse and repeat.

Had this on Tuesday.  It's been in the freezer since before I moved to Canberra.  Since before iPhones were invented.  Before social media was a thing.  The world has changed around this little ice block.  Then I ate it :)

Thursday was a long pub lunch for Jeff's farewell.  First appearance of Bernadette in BBT in the evening.

Friday met up with the sweetie for a drink (joined by some of his colleagues) and dinner (Kimchi because the sweetie wanted KFC).  

Then I left the sweetie home alone and drove down to Kit and Pete's.  Kit was finishing up her last assignment for the year.  So she finished up that, then we had a drink and went to bed.  After meeting this little monster.  He looks like George but is nothing like him.  I mean he's nice enough and all, but *really* doesn't like being picked up.  And he eats *everything*.

Saturday morning Pete cooked breakfast - turkey egg and bacon mcmuffins with hash browns.  Yum yum yum.

Then went and said hello to all the animals.

Then headed out to pick up some feed for Kit's horse.  There were birdies.

Went and visited Jet.  He's quite pretty.

Back to Kit's.

Chloe came over with three of the kids, and we had a bit of a wedding planning session.  Went through the todo list and discussed all the things.  And did a trial run of the table decorations.

When it cooled down later in the afternoon we went back to have a ride of Jet.

I even had a little ride.  But because of the design of the saddle, changing the stirrup length is too hard, so I could only just reach the stirrups with my toes so it wasn't very comfortable, and I certainly didn't feel stable enough to do anything other than walk.

Came back and looked at the sunset and had a drink outside with the girls.

Pete cooked a nice dinner of chorizo and mushroom pasta.

After dinner we played Kismet.  With the snake.  Kit won the game.

And I got snake kisses.

Played a couple of games of Monty Python Fluxx.  Kit won a game and Pete won a game.

Sunday typed up wedding planning notes.  Then we went into Husky for lunch of fish and chips.

And for a walk along the beach and rock pools

I thought these looked pretty colourful

Then we went back to the house.  I packed up all my stuff and went home.  I nearly hit a tortoise that was just standing in the middle of the road on Macs Reef Road or Bungendore Road.  And it rained.  A lot!

Didn't feel like going food shopping, so the sweetie ordered Chong Co delivery - several meals worth so we could have leftovers all week :)  Watched Goldeneye in the evening.

Monday night the sweetie was home so he cooked dinner - salmon with a tartare sauce he made himself.  Very nice and very much appreciated.

After dinner and photo labelling I wanted to have some *fun* with Vic's Lego (after it all just being work so far).  So I started on the Cinderella Castle, because it was almost complete (likely because girls take better care of their things than boys do).  The palette sure is different to boys Lego too.

Tuesday lunch had lunch with Chrissie which was nice, although fairly brief.

Tuesday the sweetie was home but he didn't cook dinner.  We had leftovers.  

Then I finished the castle.

Wednesday the sweetie was home but he didn't cook dinner.  We had pizza delivered. 

Instead of photo labelling I spent all evening typing up all the notes from the last chat Kit and I had had about the wedding.  

Thursday we were going to go to Dumpling Inn with Hannah and Rita, but someone had the idea we should try Pizza Artigiana.  So we did that.  We had three very nice (and very thin!) pizzas - Patate e Salciccia - PAOLA - thinly sliced potatoes with mozzarella, Italian pork sausage (I think they forgot that ingredient) and thyme ($20); Quattro Formaggi - SANDRA - mozzarella, provolne, gorgonzola, and shaved pecorino ($20); Prosciutto Crudo - AMBRA - tomato base, prosciutto, mozzarella, rocket, parmesan and balsamic vinegar ($21).

And a nice Rocket and parmesan salad - rocket lettuce with shaved parmesan and a balsamic vinegar and virgin olive oil dressing ($10).

And we might have gotten the nutella pizza (which I don't think is on the menu).  

Friday I took a random day off, so used that do a bit of houseworky stuff, and then get ready to go down to the coast.

It was crazy windy on the drive.  All the wind turbines at Tarago were shut down.  I was a bit nervous about a tree branch falling on the car (and we did have to round a small tree partially blocking the road).  (edit: a father and son died when a tree fell on their car in Victoria on Sunday night :( )

Had dinner and just chatted when we got there. 

Pete has a new fish tank with nine neon tetras (Clone 1-9), six male guppies (red spotty tail 1 and 2, yellow spotty tail 1 and 2, blue and grey 1 and 2) and a sucking catfish (Dyson).

And Petal was very excited to see us.

Kit has a new snake.  She wants to call it Richard.  Pete wants to call it Monty.

And three of these are still going something like eighteen years later..

Saturday morning was more animal stuff.

Then we headed out to have a look at the wedding venue and ask questions and take notes.

Had lunch at the Australian Hotel in Nowra.  $10 for quite a nice steak (better than the Rashay's $5 ones).

Then we all went to the zoo.  It was still crazy windy.  I'll save that for another post.

Pete made pizzas for dinner (epic thick with toppings heh)

Chatted and played a game of Kismet (I won, somehow).

Sunday morning I showed Kit the bridesmaids dress.  We debated the best way to fix the problems with it.

Then I sat down and went through the wedding planning notes with them.  Well I tried to.  I'd been wanting to do it all weekend but getting the two of them to pay attention for more than thirty seconds at a time was like trying to herd cats.  Super frustrating.  So we left a lot later than we'd planned to, and just got chips and snacks at the servo for a very late lunch.

Got home and the house was freezing (10C when we got home, minimum of 6C).  Had chicken kiev for dinner and super stressed out by Apple.

Tonight I caught up on last week's photo labelling, as well as getting a good head start on this week's.  Was in a completely different mental state and was able to process all my photos from the past week.  I was so stressed out last night my brain couldn't *see* what I was doing.  Blinded by rage???  

So no movies at all this week.  Just a lot of feeling cold.  And a lot of pizza.  And a (mostly) nice weekend away.

It started the Wednesday night.  I did all the prep for a beef stroganoff.  So the beef, mushrooms, bacon, onion and garlic, frying it all up so the only work on the weekend would be plugging it in, filling up the slow cooker, and letting it go all afternoon.

And by the end of it, on a weeknight, I still managed a clean kitchen!

Friday evening we headed down the coast.  I snapped a picture of one our new trams.

Drive down was uneventful.  We listened to John Williams the entire way that Stu had downloaded on Spotify.  Couldn't enjoy the scenery though cause it was dark most of the way.

We'd booked to stay at an Airbnb in Sussex Inlet.  Neat little apartment, quite spacious, and a well equipped little kitchen (stovetop but no oven, washing machine/dryer but no dishwasher).  Although previous reviews weren't wrong about rock hard pillows (I brought my own), incorrect wifi password (it was correct in the notification Stu got just before we arrived though), and lack of privacy from a useless curtain on the window above the door, with a view straight from the flat above into our bed (but noone was staying there so not really a big deal).  Pretty much just collapsed into bed (after Stu had a shower that was barely a trickle).

In the morning I went to have a shower, only to find no water at all.  The taps in the sinks were still running slowly, but even they stopped after a flush or two of the toilet.  My first stay at an Airbnb and THIS is my experience??  I smsed the number we had but got no response.  But Stu used the app a while later and got a response within a few minutes so that was ok.  The cleaner said feral kids think it's funny to turn off the water at the street.  (I had asked Stu to go check that earlier but he hadn't gone out to the street).  So they turned it on again and it was ok.  Although a lot of bubbles all through the pipes made for some interesting noises.

I'd been chatting to Kit about it as well, and they weren't doing much better with their water.  They have solar hot water, but it had been rainy, and with so many people in the house they were getting slightly warm at best.

Had some breakfast then went for a wander around Sussex Inlet.  Just walked down to the inlet, north along the river, then back through the town.  It was only 22C, but with the humidity it felt a lot hotter :(

Then we drove to the hall where the party was being held so I could setup the slow cooker.  The hall is quite lovely.  Poured everything into the slow cooker and asked Pete to stir it every hour or so.

Went back to see Kit and Pete's new house which is pretty cool.  Pete has an EPIC shed, and there's heaps of room for all the animals.  Although the dogs didn't like being relegated out the back heh.

We didn't actually see Kit - she was out with Mel.

Headed off again.  We went into Huskisson to have some lunch.  So much fried goodness.  Oh and some salad.

Wandered down to the water to have a look.  

Drove down to Hyams Beach to have a look.  It was full of people.  Yuk.

Then we went for a bit of a drive south, and ended up in Booderee National Park, in the Jervis Bay Territory.

Drove around the loop through Jervis Bay Village, and Stu was like - oo look the Federal Police :)

Stopped at Scottish Rocks and wandered down to the beach, then wandered all the way along to Hole in the Wall, then walked back along the road (because it was cooler out of the sun).

We drove to the end of the road at Murray's Beach, but didn't get out, because it was getting quite late.  We were going to be late for the party, so did the long drive back to Sussex Inlet.  Had a shower, then back to the hall for the party.  The stroganoff was still quite liquid which was a bit disappointing.  Probably shouldn't have used all the stock that I did.  Or at least added a bunch of corn flour.  People did seem to like it though.  Would have done better with something to soak up the juices.

So not only is there quite a large hall, but there's a huge open area all around the hall, including a playground for kids.  People spread out all over the place, meaning the hall was only sparsely populated heh.

And there were some very friendly horsies.

Party food.

And there was some dancing (see what I mean about the hall looking empty!).

I may have called it a night once Bohemian Rhapsody was played and sung along to :)

Came back to crash.

In the morning we dropped by the hall to pick up the spoon I'd left behind, although we didn't stay to help clean up because Stu was anxious to get home to do some uni work.  So just drove home, home by lunch time.

Quite a nice weekend, although I did feel a bit grumbly on Sunday afternoon that the weekend was nearly over and I hadn't had any time at home.