Coffee, food, more coffee, more food and just a bit of wine

And there may not be much more to say about the last couple of days than that!!!

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I was peacefully sitting about on Tuesday morning, enjoying the sunshine pouring into the flat in East Melbourne, when The Builder said that Austin's best pal Zoy had put on to Facebook that he (Zoy) had gone into work in town only to find that he wasn't actually rostered on - and did anyone fancy a cup of coffee.  So I replied that we were about and would love to meet for coffee.  Half an hour later we were sat outside the coffee shop below that flat having coffee with a slightly surprised Zoy, who is recovering from a hip operation but looking fit and feisty for all that.

Zoy ambled off on his bicycle (allowed to pedal but not walk, and certainly not, yet, dance) and we pottered off in the sunshine through the park, past the museum (really must go in one day and have a look - haven't been in since it relocated some years ago into its parkly setting) and on to Lygon Street where we were to meet Chris and Kate (also looking fit and feisty, although not having undergone recent hip operations) for pizza at Papa Gino's.  Kate is now 85!!!!  Chris is not.  Although she does seem to have "retired" since we last saw her ten months ago.  Must do something about that unreasonable state of affairs.

We ambled back to the flat, The Builder's feet complaining all the while (he is resisting my very kind offer to have his feet amputated and replaced with unfeeling wooden facsimile feet), where eventually rocked in Ian, accompanied by Ant, and then Lindsey.  We walked the HUGE distance to the Prince Patrick across the road, where we also found Simon and Yvette loitering.  The Prince Patrick is a VERY unprepossessing pub, in urgent need of a lick of paint.  I would have walked straight past it as a danger to shipping and digestion - and missed a real treat.  It's lovely inside.  And serves delightful food.  And just a little wine.

Then Simon and Yvette returned whence they came and the rest of us repaired to the flat for a little more wine.  And other things to drink.

We're in Mt Martha now.  We hijacked Ian's car yesterday and moseyed on down late morning.  Ian's peugeot is a delight to drive but it does really rather want to RUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN.  You aren't allowed to run fast on Victoria's freeways.  This was disconcerting both to the car and to me.  I am used to being able to drive at about 115 km/h and the speed limit in Victoria is 100 km/h.  Couple this with giving me a car with a powerful engine meant that sticking to the speed limit required considerable concentration!!

We have had more food and more wine.  The Builder and Tony have been playing snooker.  I have been playing with little Martha from across the road (Martha is a delightful, little grey doggie, not a horrible small child).  I have been eating peaches.  All is good :-)

All is even better.  We discovered, when we got back from lunch on Tuesday, that my camera battery charger wasn't charging the camera batteries.  This was not entirely convenient.  We fiddled with the charger to see if we could persuade it to play.  We broke it ;-(  So we went into Mornington yesterday afternoon to see if Dick Smith could be persuaded to sell  us a new one.  The child behind the  counter looked very worried and said we might be better going into Frankston and visiting Ray's Camera Store.  Going into Frankston and visiting any stores at all was not anywhere on my list of things to do yesterday afternoon and we were pondering whether it might not be easier (and cheaper) just to buy a basic camera until we got home, when Tony came in and asked why we didn't visit the camera store in Mornington just up the road.  So we did.  I now have a charger with bits to charge just about every kind of battery camera in the whole known universe.  It would still have been cheaper to have bought a basic camera - but the new charger looks quite robust.  And I like my camera!!!

It was William's 6th birthday yesterday.  Matthew and Belinda have bought him an electric drill!!!!!!!

Not sure what we're doing today.  But I expect that food and wine will play a part at some point!