Mid-afternoon, I was summoned to the kitchen. Tracey, the nurse manager had gone out to buy a cake for my birthday. As it was so hot she decided to buy a box of icy poles (ice lollies) instead. Then she saw an ice cream cake. A Freddo Frog, child's party cake. She bought that instead. We had ice cream for afternoon tea on Friday!!!
We had a Japanese Feast for dinner. Lindsey and Ian took Jim and me to Kambei, which is a Japanese restaurant opposite Sovereign Hill, for dinner. Tony always commented that the restaurant was invariably closed whenever he went past it. This was because we tended to take him past it in the middle of the day. It is open for lunch at weekends, but only for a couple of hours. It is indisputably open on Friday evenings and was quite busy.. We all had the tasting menu. Sashimi, (wagyu beef slices for Jim and me, rather than salmon, tuna and kingfish - Jim doesn't eat raw fish; I do but not in that sort of quantity) with little spring rolls, and bowls of tasty things; tempura vegetables and prawns; miso soup; black cod; wagyu beef in a delicious sauce with rice; little creme caramels. Wine, of course. It was extremely delicious.
On Saturday Jim and I spent a couple of hours cleaning Tani #1. The bulk of it is done, apart from the steam cleaning of the carpets. There are all the tedious little things to do now, like sweep the garage, dust the skirting boards, wipe down the windows. Oh, and clean the laundry which hasn't been touched and which has all the cleaning stuff in it. Jim and I went to the garden centre for some potting mix and some plants for the little garden bed out the front of our lounge room. Lindsey and I went to Buninyong later in the afternoon for their Twilight Christmas Market. As we were getting ready to go it started to rain. When we got there there was a brief, almost tropical downpour. I was wearing a rain jacket and a hat. Both got soaked!
The market was bigger than it had been last year. I was supposed to be Christmas shopping but instead bought lots of plants for the new herb tub that we bought a few days ago, plus a few more for the front and back gardens. I did get a few Christmas things, plus some stuff from a pop up shop hidden away in a secret corner of the back car park. It is selling Australian spices and syrups and Aussie themed cups and other lovely things. I could have spent a Great Deal of Money in there but managed to restrain myself. A bit :-D
Yesterday Lindsey, Ian, Jim and I had planned to go to the St Anne's winery near Myrniong to inspect their Christmas market. Ian decided not to go. He wanted to carry on with his ambitious watering project in the hope that he might get it finished by Christmas. While I was in Hill House looking at the carpet steamer with Lindsey, Jim stayed outside to watch Ian's progress. Lindsey and I came out, ready to head off. Cattle-astrophe! There was now an unexpected water feature where the pipes were supposed to go!!! Not mains water, fortunately. Water from the tanks. Still not good, but not quite as disastrous as holing a mains water pipe.
Jim and I decided that we weren't being very useful just stood there watching Lindsey and Ian trying to sort it all out, so headed off to Myrniong to check out the market. It's a good market. I had one of the best souvlaki I've had in a long time from one of the food trucks. Jim enjoyed his bucket of chips and his small glass of wine (made by the winery). He didn't have a proper lunch because he had not long had a proper breakfast. I managed some actual Christmas shopping :-D We had a good wander around. And then headed back to Ballarat more or less as Lindsey was arriving. I think we saw her car heading towards Myrniong on the freeway.
We called at the Mill Market on our way home (it's an antique/junk/knick knack place at Warrenheip), then Jim put on his grubbies and went up to help Ian while I did some sorting out at Tani #2.
Lindsey went on to Mount Martha. Ian went to Melbourne. Jim and I went up to Hill House to look after Rupert and Hugo. We are not often there overnight on Sundays. It was very odd to wake up this morning and not have to rush about and head off to Melbourne. Mind you, there are things to do. Packages to collect from the post office. Packages to post from the post office. And Jim and I are planning to use Lindsey and Ian's carpet steam cleaner, hopefully to good effect, at Tani #1 later today.
 |
| Christmas has arrived outside our front door |
 |
| Sunday Sunset from Hill House, Mount Helen |
No comments:
Post a Comment