Freyja and Simon have arrived

When I originally offered to collect Freyja and Simon from the airport on Thursday, the plane was due in at around 08:30.

Quite some time ago Freyja told me that the flight times had changed and their flight was now due in at 06:20.  This obviously didn't register with me, perhaps because it seemed so unlikely. I said I would still pick them up - and promptly forgot about it.

Until Freyja and Simon were about to leave Manilla for the final leg of their trip, when I noticed that my diary and Freyja's schedule didn't agree!

Right. If their flight arrives at 06:20, by the time they get off the plane, go through immigration, collect their bags and get through customs, it's likely to be 07:15, perhaps 07:30.

I decided that if I left at around 6, we would probably all get to the landside coffee shop at about the same time.  This was made even more likely when their flight was delayed by about 20 minutes.

Off I set.  It was a lovely morning for a drive.  Sunny, crisp, frosty.  The ice lights were flashing on the freeway near Gordon. The car made a strange alarm noise as I passed the ice lights.  Turned out it too was warning of ice.  Have never noticed an ice alarm on the car before!

I had a good run down and was approaching the airport when they sent a message to say that they were landside.  I then spent around 15 minutes driving round and round and round in the carpark looking for somewhere to leave the car!!  The overhead indicators of possible parking spaces all lied 😢

Eventually I found a parking space and set off to the arrivals hall, leaving a breadcrumb track so I could find the car again. Freyja and Simon were peacefully in a coffee shop waiting for me to appear. We waited while I had coffee before setting off back to Mount Helen.

It was a good run back.  We called in to the Maccas in Rockbank for breakfast and then made our way to Lindsey and Ian's place where Jim was waiting for us.

Rupert and Hugo came to see who was coming in.  Oh good.  Frannie is here.  Oh, said Hugo.  This is exciting. There are new people to bounce on and play with. Oh my God! said Rupert.  There are strangers on board!!!!!!!! He backed away, barking. He was brought round with a liberal application of scooby snacks 😆

We had lunch down at our place and then took Freyja and Simon to Anne and Ross' place where they were staying for the next couple of nights.

I went to work on Thursday.

Yesterday was a public holiday in honour of the AFL grand final which is this afternoon. I'm not sure why it was thought it was a plan to have a holiday the day before the footy final, apart from the fact that it meant that people could go and watch a footy parade through the city centre.  Why ever,  Jim, Freyja, Simon and I took the opportunity to go to visit Stella and Tony.  There was a surprising amount of traffic on the roads - and not everyone was heading into the CBD to watch the parade. There was a LOT of traffic heading towards Ballarat. There was also a LOT of rain, although I think that it didn't rain on the parade in Melbourne.

Stella and Tony seemed to be in good form, and were pleased to see Freyja and Simon. We had lots of yummy food for lunch. Meaty food for the omnivores, veggie and vegan food for the vegetarian and the vegan.  Lots of delicious salads on the side. Then we headed back to our place, where Freyja and Simon became our first overnight visitors.  Our spare bedroom has finally fulfilled its Proper Purpose!  (Although this did mean that I didn't have anywhere to put the ironing, which usually sits in a pile on the spare bed.)

A quiet day in prospect today. I think it is unlikely that I will watch the footy, even if we could get channel 7 on our TV. Freyja and Simon might - but it would have to be at someone else's house (our TV signal is too weak to pick up channel 7 with any reliability, and it doesn't stream live footage to the Apple box)

Freyja, Stella, Simon, photo by me

Freyja and Stella, photo by Freyja

Tony, Simon and Freyja, photo by Freyja

Simon, having randomly run up Mount Buninyong, photo by Simon

Simon and Hugo, photo by Freyja

Sunday Lunch

My plan for lunch on Sunday was to prepare food that we could cook on the barbecue and, as much as possible, to use food that we had in the freezer.

We had beef strips that I bought in Costco.  Excellent.  I can do a beef teppanyaki on the hot plate on the barbecue.

We had chicken thigh fillets. Cool.  I can do chicken skewers on the grill bit of the barbecue.

We had prawns.  Ooooh. I can do prawn gyoza - not on the barbecue.

We had lots of vegetables (not in the freezer; in the vegetable bowl). I can make a vegetable salad.

We had rice.

We had edamame beans.

We did not have garlic or ginger (an unusual state of affairs in our kitchen).  We had soya sauce and sesame dressing. We had a little sesame oil.  Not enough. We did not have spring onions

We hit Woolies and got garlic, ginger, spring onions, more sesame oil. We got yakitori sauce (I didn't know that existed until I saw it on the shelves - it's lovely!). We picked up sweet soya sauce and a few other bits and pieces.

The lady at the checkout scanned all this and then asked what I was going to use it all for. I said I was doing a loosely Japanese themed Sunday lunch for some guests.  She looked worried.  "Are you sure they like raw meat and fish?" she asked. I assured her I intended to cook the food we would be eating :-)

Alas.  Sunday dawned wet and windy and quite chilly.  I abandoned the barbecue plan. After all, everything that I was intending to do on the barbecue I could just as easily do using the stove and oven.

Gillie, Chris and John arrived, although not Irene who is somewhere in Europe. And we had what was more or less an Oriental tasting menu (I introduced peanuts and lemongrass into the menu; we were mostly in Japan but with Vietnamese and Malaysian influences).

Until we got to dessert. I had loads of little oranges in a bag that a colleague at work had given me. They are not very sweet so you wouldn't just eat them.  I have made jars of marmalade but still have lots left.  So I made a marmalade drizzle cake for dessert.  An abrupt move to the UK to finish our feast. Chris, John and Gillie made it properly British by having a cup of tea instead of wine with their marmalade cake. Jim and I did not !

I hope they enjoyed their visit and lunch.  Jim and  I did. And the rain had cleared by lunch time but it was still cold and windy. I stuck with Plan B and cooked in the kitchen.

Barbecue

Sunday, you may remember, was snowy, blustery, cold.  We had sleet and hail, rain and wind. We also had a barbecue lying about, inconveniently and in pieces, in the garage.  Jim decided that he would start to put it together.  After all, there is not much point in spending hundreds of dollars on a barbecue only for it to languish, in bits, in the garage.

Putting a large barbecue together is really a two person job, even if the second person is merely shining a torch on the dark bits you can't see. From the point of view of marital harmony it is usually better if the assistant is not your spouse. However, I was the only available assistant and we managed fairly well until we reached a point where you needed unadjustable spanner. We do not have an adjustable spanner. Lindsey and Ian do.  I rang and asked if we could borrow it.  Proceedings came to a temporary halt.

Lindsey and Ian came down and picked us up, bringing the adjustable spanner with them, and we all trundled out to Clunes to have lunch at Bread and Circus. The weather had cleared sufficiently that we could sit outside (under cover) to have our lunch.

We came back after lunch and carried on with the barbecue assembling.  All went well until we reached the point where we had to connect the gas hose to the gas point for the side burner.  We could not connect it.  No matter how we tried it would not screw together.  We gave up, poured a glass of wine and retired from barbecue building for the evening.

Monday dawned sunny, dry, still and relatively warm. Jim wheeled the barbecue out into the courtyard, where we could see much better.  Still we couldn't connect the gas pipe to the side burner.  Much swearing and yelling ensued. I went off and dusted the cobwebs off the outside windows.  Suddenly there was a cry of EUREKA.  The pipe had for reasons unknown finally decided to screw itself to the side burner.  Much jubilation!  Putting the rest of it together took a matter of minutes.

So now we have a functioning barbecue.  And we are still married 😂 All we need now is slightly warmer weather so we can use it

It's not a good photo but it gives you an idea. I'll try and get a better one at the weekend

The Weather Dogs Have Come Out To Play

The weather in Melbourne towards the end of the week was lovely. Warm, sunny, daytime temperatures of low to mid 20s.  In Ballarat it reached the high teens and the low 20s. I began to consider putting away the heavy duty winter clothes and perhaps digging out some short sleeved shirts.  I wasn't going to go quite as mad as putting away the lightweight winter stuff, but the heavy weight things were beginning to look unnecessary.

When Gwen, Jim's mother, died, she left her children a little money. Jim and I put aside his share of her money for fun or not absolutely necessary things. We didn't want to fritter it away on day to day expenses.  Jim decided that he would like a chop saw, so we got one.  We also decided that when the weather warmed up a bit we would buy a nice, gas-fired barbecue. Something sturdy that would last for a while. Last week the weather looked as if it was starting to warm up. Barbecues Galore had a sale on this weekend. We thought we should take advantage of it.

Yesterday morning we woke up to clear blue skies and a still calm day.  About ten minutes after I had noticed that, the wind suddenly picked up.  Black clouds approached. The rain fell.  By lunchtime the temperature had plummeted. When Lindsey picked us up to go barbecue shopping, the rain was icy. When we went to pack (squish!) the barbecue boxes into her car, it was hailing.

We took the barbecue boxes back to our place and then went to Bunnings and to Delacombe. It was cold, and wet, and windy.  Horrible, it was.

During the evening the hail turned to sleet.  The sleet turned to snow.  We woke up this morning to this:

I have definitely attracted the attention of the Weather Dogs, who have come out to play with enthusiasm :-D

Fortunately, it doesn't matter that it is definitely not barbecue weather for the barbecue is in a zillion pieces in the garage and needs assembling.  And I hadn't got around to putting the heavy duty winter clothes away. Jim and I have our thick, snowy jumpers to hand. Although the sun is shining at the moment, it is very cold outside and the Weather Dogs have more clouds to play with.

A quiet life

It's been a fairly quiet few days.

I'm working a different pattern in September, four days instead of three and Wednesdays off. I am quite enjoying the extra day but I must say that I am looking forward to going back to three days after my holiday in October. I do enjoy being a Part Timer :-D

Last Wednesday Jim and I went into town to do a few things.  We came back to Hill House to find Steve the Horse Man in the bottom paddock. He was trying to catch a mare and foal to take back to his place. He had the mare but the foal was proving to be a more difficult prospect.  In fact, the foal had attached itself to a different mare, Not the Mother. Every time Steve got anywhere near it, the Not the Mother ran off and the foal went too.  Jim went to help. So you have The Mother tied to a tree, stamping her feet, jumping up and down and showing her displeasure at having her baby stolen very vocally.  You have the Not the Mother rushing about with the foal.  The other horses were shut in the top paddock. Eventually they managed to get the Not the Mother into the top paddock too.  Jim shut the gate with the foal on one side and the Not the Mother on the other. Then the foal squeezed through a tiny gap between the gate post and the fence and took off up into the top paddock too.  Everyone sighed.  The Mother mare was released and also took off up into the top paddock.  

Rupert and Hugo had been watching all this from the windows of the house and the back yard.  I was in the front yard patrolling the fence line. The eagles came wafting over to watch from on high.  The magpies and rosellas retired to the relative safety of the trees.  Eventually, the Mother and the foal were corralled together and were persuaded onto the horse float by means of tasty treats. The Not the Mother was extremely angry that her adopted foal had been taken away but eventually calmed down.

Peace and quiet returned to Hill House.  The eagles went away. The magpies and rosellas resumed normal activity.  All was good.

And that was probably the most exciting thing that happened last week. For Jim and me, at least.  We've been up at Hill House all week and had a very quiet weekend. I made marmalade and a passionfruit and lemon curd with some passionfruit that I found in a bag on the kitchen table. The oranges and lemons had come from one of the receptionists at work. We dropped out to Elaine to the farm shop and I went down to our place to make sure all was well.  Apart from that we have done very little.

And now it is Monday morning. Rupert and Hugo have retired back to bed after their breakfast and a run about.  And I should get organised to head to Melbourne.

It's getting noticeably lighter in the mornings and the evenings are getting longer. The trees are blossoming. The ground is beginning to warm up.  Its too cold overnight to start putting tender plants out and it's a bit too early to start sowing summer seeds.  But nearly.  Nearly.  I'll be away for three weeks in October.  I need to decide whether to sow seeds before I go or whether to wait until I get back.  Perhaps I'll do both.  Two sets of sowings

Another Sunday ...

... Another Sunday lunch out!

We had a lovely lunch with Pat last Sunday. She went away for several weeks over the winter and it was the first time we had caught up since she got back. She certainly did us proud.  Four courses! She had a good time while away and certainly looks good on it.  I don't mind winter weather. I enjoy the snuggly jumpers and the random weather and Lindsey and Ian's wood burner. Our central heating keeps us warm but it's not as cosy as a wood burner.  But I can see the attraction of going somewhere warm for the worst of the winter weather.

The working week was quite pleasant too.  I was working some extra shifts so stayed in Melbourne for most of the week.  Lindsey came and went.  Jim stayed in Hill House. I was without a car so moved about by public transport -although I did borrow Lindsey's car to go to East Ivanhoe to collect my new glasses.  I can drive at night again :-D  I enjoyed my morning trips on the tram.  I had to leave quite early so was ahead of the traffic.  The trip to work from the flat usually takes about an hour, door to door by tram. It takes about 45 minutes if you catch the 07:00 tram!  I enjoyed my walk along Smith Street in the afternoons as well.  There's a Japanese pantry,  an organic fruit and veg shop, a scoop shop (where you buy things by the scoop so you can get a tiny amount of sweet paprika if that's all you need) and a Chemist Warehouse where they stock my favourite brand of toothpaste.  They used to sell it at our local IGA but don't any more.  Or you can just wander along and window shop and not buy Japanese curry pastes if you don't need them.  I was quite shocked to wake up on Sunday morning to hear that there had been a mini riot at the other end of Smith Street in the very early hours overnight, although Lindsey tells me that it used to have a rough reputation.

Yesterday was Fathers' Day in Australia. Lindsey, Jim, Rupert and Hugo made their way down to  Mount Martha .  I drove Ian's car down, via Tully's and the Booze shop. Lots of people turned up. We had another picnic style lunch. I think we may need to coordinate what people bring a bit better in future.  We had LOADS of food and therefore LOADS of leftovers. Although I think people took away a lot of the left over food.  Tony had put in a request for egg sandwiches so I made those. I also took some cronuts from the Bridge Mall market.  I think that Rupert and Hugo think that preparing for a lunch Mount Martha is an exhausting affair. They got in the car to go back home and promptly went to sleep, only really waking up when we turned off the freeway at Warrenheip.  I came back with them all.  Ant took Ian's car away for this week.

And now here we are, poised at the start of another working week.  Jim is off to Hill House later. I am off to Melbourne shortly. I have another couple of extra shifts this week.