Kazza the Blank One

After Mum's party the other weekend we headed into the city to see Vivid.

Except not quite.

A month or so ago David asked if we'd be interested on going on a harbour cruise on the night of Mum's party.  At the time it sounded like a great idea so I said yes.  For some reason I thought it was going to be on the Friday night, so was a little worried when I realised it would be the Saturday that we'd all be too tired to feel like going out afterwards, but he'd already asked Mum if she'd be interested in going out, and she was, so ok.  Then Stu got sick.  Then I got sick.  But we still had weeks to go, we should be fine, right.  Hint: we weren't.  So neither of us really felt like a long day and night.  But the other catch was, it was going to be a surprise for Mum and Kellie that we were going to take the cruise.  They thought we'd just be going to see Vivid.

So early evening D/K/S took Stu with them by car into the city so they could check into their hotel.  Mum and I took the train.  The roads were epic chaos.  The train was crowded and noisy.  So that was fun for all involved.  Took about the same amount of time to get to our meeting spot.

Then we wandered down to Darling Harbour.  Through the crowds.

Had a very slow wander north.

The walk to King Street Wharf was agonisingly slow.  Did I mention the crowds?  They said to be at the wharf by 19:10.  We made it by about 19:15.  It was only at this point that Mum and Kellie realised what was up.  Except we then had to stand there for like 25 minutes because they were running late. 

They were meant to leave at 19:30 but it was more like 19:45.  Any excuse for fifteen minutes less serving drinks I guess.  Yeah it was "all you can drink" (to RSA).  Except.  They crammed the boat full of people, and while there were bars on every level, it was still like a fifteen minute wait to get drinks.  I waited right at the beginning and luckily they gave me two because it would have been pretty annoying otherwise.  Noone else bothered. 

The sweetie wanted a seat.  David wanted an outdoor spot.  So we found an outdoor spot in the corner.  I went and queued for my drinks.  Stu tried to find somewhere to sit.  He eventually found somewhere but he said it smelt of vomit.  Hurrah.  While I was queuing for drinks we departed, and they cranked the music.  Luckily I carry around ear plugs with me whereever I go now (after the Dark Matter in the Pub debacle) so I survived.  Sculled my two small wines and then set about taking photos (I did go back for another drink later, it was more like a ten minute wait, but they would only give me one that time).

So the view was great, but it really wasn't what any of us were expecting.  I was expecting the boat to be more like what it was when it was a Captain Cook Cruises boat.. like this..

(John Wilson, shipspotting.com)

I thought we'd just get to sit around up top.  Yeah nah.

We probably would have been better off just taking a regular ferry (like we did last time).  

Still, after a couple of wines and using earplugs, I had a bit of fun. 

So then headed for home, having not really seen much of Vivid itself.  Oh well.

Last weekend was Mum's 80th birthday party.  I got there a bit early but so did other people which made things stressful beause we had a lot to do (mainly I wanted to get some nice portrait photos of Mum, but that didn't really work very well, because, stressed).  Oh well.

The village setup the room really nicely.  

We had a slideshow going on that TV.  There was over 2000 photos on shuffle so that was a bit of fun.

Pretty flowers

I thought it might be nice to get photos of people as they arrived because that would probably make for better photos than at the tables with more clutter in the background.

Lunch was roast lamb and veggies

With profiteroles for dessert

I had hot chocolate which was quite nice

Next up we had a "trivia" round with twenty questions about Mum which Ken's table won with 19 out of 20.

Then it was time to cut the cake!

Someone gave Mum an orchid which was very pretty.

All in all the day went really well and Mum had a wonderful time.

Since Quest Cronulla Beach was so hot, I didn't sleep very well, which meant I was up in time to go watch the sunrise.

I was expecting a few joggers/dog walkers to be out and about.  But no, at 7:00 the place was PACKED.  It was really crowded!  

It was a pretty nice sunrise though.

Then around 7:40 the clouds rolled in, going from glorious sunshine to eerie clouds!

Last weekend we stayed at Quest Cronulla Beach.  I picked the place because it looked nice and it was at the beach so I thought the sweetie would enjoy being at the beach and he could maybe go do some birdwatching.  Yeah that didn't happen.  The only time he actually got to the beach was on the Friday night.

It was a very nice room, very well appointed (even a washing machine and dryer!), lovely view to the water, clean and comfortable.

Well except for the minor detail of the thermostat not letting you set it lower than 22C so I was HOT and had trouble sleeping (and couldn't open the window because there's so much street noise on a Friday and Saturday night).

The only other complaint was the bath/shower which was quite high and I banged my leg trying to get out of it without slipping on the bath.  hrmm.

Sunday.  14th.  Got back from Sydney and went to Chris's to get some stuff for dinner (kievs!).

We watched a National Geographic documentary on the firefighters of Notre Dame which was a lot cheesier than I would have expected from National Geographic. Then to bed.

Monday.  Took a while to get to sleep (coughing) but otherwise mostly slept from like 20:30 to 6:30. Bit of a catchup and bits and pieces morning then trying to figure out How Stuff Works and looking at messes in the afternoon. Stu cooked up a nice puttanesca for dinner, then MacGyver, sorting out my email from the past few weeks, and 3 Body Problem episode 6.

Tuesday.  Took ages to get to sleep (no good reason) and awake early. Busy day of All The Crap and not getting anything useful done. TV dinners for dinner, MacGyver, choosing photos from the 1300 I took on the weekend to blog and 3 Body Problem episode 7.

Wednesday.  Slept mostly okish I think. Busy day of All The Crap and not getting anything useful done. Although I did get almost three quarters of an hour between interruptions this afternoon to work on some decommissioning work which was nice. Stu cooked a nice teriyaki chicken with cauliflower rice for dinner, then MacGyver, backing up my computer (twice) and the last episode of 3 Body Problem. Interesting series, but ultimately unsatisfying because there's no end to it.  Probably there's going to be like four seasons of it.

Needs some greenery ;)

Thursday.  Slept okish. Bits and pieces morning then got stuck into decom work which was great.. only to get bothered by Everything Everywhere All at Once which put a stop to the decom work. Had a couple of other tables eventually turn up at drinks. Chrissie gave me a lift home (and to work in the morning) which was lovely, as the sweetie didn't want to come out on account of like SIX EPIC NOSE BLEEDS during the day. Made a couple of pizzas for dinner and MacGyver.

Friday.  Disturbed sleep for a while due to Stu not sleeping. He eventually got to sleep and slept much of the morning. Only like four nosebleeds over the course of the day. hmmmm.  I got to do a bunch of decom work which was good. Kievs for dinner, MacGyver, then I watched Red Dog which was sweet (I later looked up the parents' photos - they got to see the Red Dog statue in Dampier in 2012).

Saturday.  Meh sleep, slept in fairly late. Got ready and headed out to meet up with Ken and Jeanine in town. We ended up at GreenHouse cafe for brunch and we had a lovely morning and good long catchup.

Greenhouse Eggs Benedict - house-made hollandaise and spinach served on English muffins, with bacon and jamon ($26)

Just missed getting out of the car park in under two hours, so wandered through BigW and JB as well. Got home then it was a bit of Dotz but then just getting ready to head out to the club (by myself because the sweetie was worried about bleeding everywhere). Stopped in at the dodgy Homebase in Queanbeyan to use up my store credit. Bought some candles and glowsticks and a few other bits and pieces. And I will never set foot in that store again.

Then out to the club for Ian and Chris's annual formal night. Supposedly their last which would be sad. Dinner was amazing. Bed a bit after 22:00.

Chris always makes the place look so nice!

Very yummy vegetable soup!

What a pleasant dinner view

A rather spectacular roast pumpkin

All the veggies, and some cheesy chicken

Lamb and All The Gravy

Pavlova

And other desserts

Sunday.  Went and packed up the leftovers and did some washing up then came home. Pretty tired though even though I mostly slept ok. Did a bit of house tidying and then put on my cds and listened to random music while photographing and dismantling Vic's City Lego (Stu went out for lunch with Tom).

Two other things.  The last two weeks windoze has actually remembered my folder settings in both Windoze explorer and in Chrome!  I'm stunned!  Also.  Some Chrome update (or windoze, who knows) has fubared up form entry fields (at least on my blog) - they no longer have a rectangle around text fields, but only three sides and no top.  Like how stoopid is that???

Last Friday (12 June) we headed up to Sydney for the weekend.  Left around 9:50.  

Fairly uneventful drive.  Stopped at the Scottish Restaurant on the Federal Highway so Stu could have some breakfast.

Lake George all sparkly in the morning light

Yayyyy a hanging rock on the Hanging Rock Road sign!

Stopped at Sutton Forest for petrol and a pitstop.  Went via Broughton Pass.

Got lunch at Engadine Scottish Restaurant.  Then Stu dropped me off at Mum's and he went off to check in to our hotel and have a little lie down.  At Mum's I backed up her computer and we did some party and photo stuff.  Then I hopped on a train to Cronulla and had some beer on the balcony which was nice!

After a while we went out for a wander.  Walked along the promenade down to south Cronulla beach.

Walked most of the way down Cronulla Street before coming back to Shire Kebabs for a meatlovers pide.  We had to wait about 25 minutes for this, and scoffed it down in like 5 minutes!

Then back to the hotel to collapse. Problematically the thermostat wouldn't go any lower than 22C which I found way too hot, and we couldn't open the window because it was so noisy from all the Friday night people out and about and partying.  At 2:00 it was quiet enough to open the window, and I closed it again around 6.  So I didn't sleep very well because I kept waking up sweating.

Since I was awake early I thought I'd go watch the sunrise.  I thought maybe a few people would be out and about, but the place was CROWDED.  Like middle of the day crowded.  It was insane.

This is a Bali Memorial.

Picked up a coffee for the sweetie at Nextdoor, then went out again and got some stuff for breakfast at Cronulla Bakehouse.

Then I headed off to Mum's.

Problematically some people arrived early which stressed me out because we had lots to do.

But the party went really well!

Margaret and Skip, D/K/S and Stu and I went back to Mum's for a bit, then we headed into town to see Vivid.

The "cruise" David booked was actually just a party boat, so not really what we were expecting, but it did have a nice view.  

Escorted Mum home and picked up our car and back to the hotel to collapse into bed.  Rinse and repeat of hot room but even more street and party noise on a Saturday night.  Slept in til 8:38!

Then we got up and headed off around 9:45, stopping at Heathcote Scottish Restaurant for breakfast.  It was COLD!!!  This was INSIDE!!  And it was a fifteen minute wait for food too.  Painful!

Dropped in at Avon Dam which I'd never gotten to before, but Stu wanted to find some birds.  He never did find a rock warbler though.

Had a late lunch at Sutton Forest Scottish Restaurant, then home to collapse.

8.6.26

Late Monday afternoon a couple of weeks back we went out to Hall Cemetery where apparently some bird had been seen.  I don't think Stu found it.  We did find other birds, but not 100% sure what they were.

Google thought this might have been a juvenile golden whistler

And it thought this might be a female golden whistler.

And it thought this was a yellow rumped thornbill

Except I'm not going to blog about that for now, because it really needs its own two or three (or more!) posts!

Sunday.  7th.  Leftover Dumpling Inn for dinner then we watched Turner and Hooch which I probably haven't seen since it came out at the movies or maybe shortly thereafter.

Monday.  Various coughing fits overnight. Lay in bed for a few hours in the morning, then a quiet day. Got some Dotz done which was nice. And we went out to Hall Cemetery so Stu could try and find some birds.

Found one!

I finished watching Pleasantville that I started watching the other night. Sounds like Toy Story in places, thanks Randy Newman. Leftover Dumpling Inn for dinner and Stu put on an episode of a YouTube birder he follows. Then episode three of 3 Body Problem. I'm still coughing, except my belly hurts too much from all the coughing so I can't cough properly.

Tuesday.  Took ages to get to sleep (coughing too much) and also coughing throughout the night. Logged on to work in the hopes of having a quiet day catching up on emails. Sent an email to the desktop guys thanking them for their help with the proxy rollout, and how smoothly it went. Like 30 seconds later (actually about fifteen minutes) people are complaining about the proxies not working. I literally jinxed it. Sigh.  Spent all morning stressed out about that, but Ward and Con helped and we fixed it by lunch time. Then watched a firewall upgrade for a chunk of the afternoon. Called it at 16:00. Leftover Dumpling Inn for dinner then more bird documentaries over dinner.

Wednesday.  Coughing for chunks of the night. Got to do a bit of decom work which was nice. Cooked up a potato bake and some veggies for dinner which was nice too. MacGyver then 3 Body Problem episode 4. Felt like I might *finally* be starting to feel a bit better and coughing a bit less.

Thursday.  Still awake for ages coughing overnight sigh. Nothing much morning but a nice quiet afternoon of prepping decoms which was nice. 

Tested out the external flash on my new camera.  Bizarrely it literally won't let you use the external flash unless you enable "shutter sounds".  Like WTF?  What a bizarre setting to have to enable for it to work.  The shutter sound is an artificial "clunk" like old mirrored cameras would make.  It's kinda nice in a way because without it the camera is utterly silent when it takes a photo.  But I also like being utterly silent when I'm taking photos.

Made a pepperoni, a cheese, and a potato and rosemary pizza for dinner, then MacGyver and 3 Body Problem episode 5.

Friday.  Packed up and headed off to Sydney!  As I said, that'll be another few posts.

Cake 2 out of the Australian Women's Weekly Childrend's Birthday Cake Book - Hickory Dickory Clock!

So start with one rectangular butter cake (I had to go hunting around for a tin the right size and found one at Woollies).

I tried making a meniscus...

It didn't help much..

Turned it out to cool

Once cooled, cut out bits of it to make the clock shape.  I probably cut too much off the sides.

They said to mix a tablespoon of cocoa powder with a tablespoon of water in three quarters of the Vienna cream to brown it up.. but it made it way too dark, I think probably only a teaspoon of each would be enough.

I also dropped the single drop of magenta food colouring into some water so I could control the amount of pink in the pink quarter of the icing.  I really didn't need much!

I started with the chocolate icing

Then filled in the pink stuff

This is two packs of Smarties.  I would have needed another three or four to get enough pink ones..

I just used my own colouring instead

Next I used the black "writing icing" to write out the licorice bits (we both hate licorice).  But it's a gel so it goes everywhere.  Not ideal.  Also, Chris didn't have Freckles, but even if he did they wouldn't have fitted, so I just used cachous instead.

You'll note there are no prune mice, because as I've said previously, we're not fans; or licorice bullets, because we both hate licorice.

This is what it's supposed to look like... 

Nailed it..? ;)

Sunday.  31st.  Leftovers for dinner, MacGyver, then I watched the first episode of Attack on Pearl Harbour: Minute by Minute, which was interesting, but they didn't bother to put any subtitles on the Japanese dude talking, so had to turn on CC to get them.

Also.. Chris found me a six fingered kangaroo!  Compare the pair!

Monday.  1st June.  First day of winter.  Slept okish til 3:27 then awake for over an hour. Stu barely got any sleep all night coughing and spluttering. Culled Mum photos all morning. Stu managed to get a few hours sleep after taking some cough suppressant. Then as he was making his breakfast (lunch) he said the hot water had basically run out. Confirmed by the solar app showing no hot water spikes since Saturday night. Sigh. Come to think of it my shower this morning was a little cold for the amount I normally turn the taps on for. I only checked the relief valve on it a few weeks ago. Tried again and warm (not hot) water leaked everywhere. We've powered it off for a bit, you never know a reboot might fix (spoiler: it didn't help). Why is everything so trash these days?? The previous hot water system lasted 25 years. This one lasted 10. Finished the second pass cull, down to 2468. hrmm. Leftovers for dinner then MacGyver. 19:00 is bed time right? Watched the second half of the Attack on Pearl Harbour documentary.

Tuesday.  Slept mostly okish. OMFG yes I have the power to summon clouds!!!  I'd put a thing in to 6 Star Hot Water and Plumbing last night, and luckily someone came in the morning to replace the thermostat and element in the water heater (he reckons it'll be one or the other so they usually replace both, and he replaced the overflow valve as well which was always dodgy and he said they should be replaced every five years (it was ten years old) - hot water yayy!! Did a bit of catching up at work. Felt like maybe I was getting a sore throat. By evening I was definitely feeling like I was getting sick. Sigh. Got 1/5th the way through cropping/enhancing photos for the slide show.

Wednesday.  Awake from like 1:30 to 5:30. At least that's what it felt like, but I think I got maybe an hour of sleep in there somewhere. Definitely a going back to bed and resting kind of a day. In bed much of the day. Not sleeping of course. Well Stu said I did sleep for a few minutes here and there (he's still not really any better either). Watched a documentary on the Oklahoma City bombing. TV dinners and MacGyver (finished season 3).

Thursday.  Took ages to get to sleep then somewhat restless. Felt like trash again so in bed all morning. Gave up around lunch time because my back hurt too much from lying down. Watched 9/11: One Day in America. Crust pizzas for dinner and into season 4 of MacGyver. Plus Disney+ is trash - it keeps logging me out. I think I'm getting sicker. I was counting on a two day cold like I normally get. But no, a full on chesty cough. Sigh.

Friday.  Took some Codral "night" which I think did help me sleep. Still felt pretty blerf today though. Actually managed to get more sleep late morning. Watched a 9/11 documentary (the plane that hit the Pentagon) and The People vs Larry Flynt. Kievs for dinner then MacGyver.

Saturday.  Slept somewhat okish. Still feeling blerf. I did finish the work I wanted to do on Mum's slideshow so there's that. Also pulled apart some Lego while listening to the Classic 100. They accidentally posted the winner on Instagram/Facebook which was a crackup. They deleted the post shortly after. Dumpling Inn for dinner (complete with long hair in the shredded beef ewwww) because neither of us felt like cooking up the veggies in the fridge (that I got from Chris earlier in the week), then Dancing with the Birds which was pretty cool. 

Stu got some extra so we could have another two or three nights worth of dinners, on account of we haven't been shopping in forever

Sunday.  Awake for chunks of time in the night coughing. Slept in til 7:40 then lay in bed most of the morning listening to the Classic 100. Bit of Lego dismantling in the afternoon. Also felt enough energy late in the afternoon to put some stuff away from the bookshelf in the lounge room (that needs to get moved so the aircon can get put in soon).