I didn't manage to get back to work last week.  Lindsey said that the systems were up and functional but not actually better and I might be better to stay inBallarat, play with the dogs and come back this week.  By which time, you might hope, the system will be up and running properly.

So that is what I did.

It was quite nice having a few days off.  We pottered around, checked in on Tani no uchi every now and then, kept the dogs fed and watered.  But it did serve to remind me that I do quite like going to work for two or three days a week.  Adds a level of interest to the week, plus a semblance of structure.

Lindsey and Ian were away for the weekend, using some of their Adventure and Experience vouchers that they got for their respective 60th birthdays last May.  Vouchers usually have a shelf life of 12 months, so they needed to get a wriggle on if they were going to use them all before they expired.  It was unfortunate that they were away THIS weekend, though.  Jim and I had plans to visit Mount Martha on Saturday, although that was easily moved to this coming Wednesday, which is a public holiday.  We were not keen to try and rearrange our Sunday plans, however.  It had taken WEEKS and WEEKS and much negotiation to get Sunday organised and there was no realistic chance of  rescheduling it.

Fortunately, Ross rode to the rescue, offering to cover Sunday and Sunday night.  So at around 9, Jim took me down to our place where I set to organising tomato soup, roast chicken with veggies then fruit and chocolate.  Ross turned up at Hill House at about 11 so Jim came back down to our place.  And then turned up Irene and Gillie, then Chris and John, ready for a catch up, some food, some wine for those not driving, and a good chatter.  It was good to see them. They were our first  guests who were not family!  The sun shone and showed off our light, bright new abode beautifully.  We organised our next luncheon gathering before everyone left to go home.  It was a good way of doing it. It's easier to pin people down when they are all physically present.  Next time at Gillie's place in Daylesford.

If there is one thing I would say to my 25 or 30 year old self, if I could,  it would be that she should tell her then husband to pull his head in when it came to the subject of dishwashers.  He hated them (he still does). He wouldn't let us have one.  When we were given one he banished it to the laundry and wouldn't let me use it.  Eventually the donors took it away and gave it to someone else who did use it.  So I have never had a dishwasher.  I have run across them in holiday houses sometimes. My present husband doesn't have a hatred for them. He has indeed had and used dishwashers in other places. But we couldn't have one in Tupton. The only place to put one would be where the washing machine was and if I had to choose which to wash by hand, it wouldn't be the laundry!!!  Lindsey and Ian have one at their place, which I have used with enthusiasm.  And Tani no uchi has one.  It made doing the dishes after a three course Sunday lunch a doddle. Of course not everything could go in. But it takes no time to wash just a small number of dishes, while the machine trundles quietly along sorting out the bulk of them. By morning tea time you wouldn't have know there had  been a luncheon party at our place - apart from the new stock pot sitting on the stove simmering away making chicken stock and the surprising number of left overs.

I wonder how the systems are at work this week ...