Long Weekend

Last weekend was a long weekend in Victoria . It was an extra, extra long weekend for me. It was also quite busy.

I don't usually work on Thursdays and wasn't working last Thursday. I had a (much delayed) haircut and visited Stella and pottered in the garden and mostly had quite a gentle day. The weather was glorious.

I was up at Rupert and Hugo's place overnight. It's been a while since I have slept up there and I had almost forgotten about being joined on the bed by two Great Danes and being more or less shoved out of bed. I am usually joined overnight by two cats, usually getting on towards morning. Two cats, however, don't take up quite as much room as two large dogs - although they do sometimes seem to think they are entitled to more bed space than I think they are!

So a relatively early start for me on Friday, which was a public holiday for the AFL Grand Final parade. The Grand Final itself was on Saturday. Mind you, it wasn't as early a start as it has been over recent weeks on the days I have needed to be at work by 7:30. I don't think there are any more shifts coming up which start at 7:30. I have turned off the 4:30 am Get Up and Go To Work alarm!!

I pottered around at Hill House and at Tani. I visited Stella. I did a bit of food shopping. A bit of tidying up. A bit more pottering. A peaceful public holiday for me.

Saturday saw me making my way to Mount Martha. Freyja and Simon have hired a van, ready for their moving day on Thursday. I had prevailed upon them to meet me at Jenny's place to collect the cabinet which had been left in her garage nearly a year ago when we finished clearing out Stella's house.

I left a little early so I could call into Tully's on my way there. I had expected Tully's to be quite quiet, assuming people would be preparing for their Footy Final Parties. It was absolutely packed. Ridiculously so. I asked the woman at the till if she had expected it to be this busy because I had not. Oh yes, she said. Remember the strawberries and chocolates!. Strawberries and chocolates? These are not typical footy final foods. People usually have hotdogs and meat pies.

I thought nothing more of it and drove along the coast road to Jenny's house. I mentioned the strawberries and chocolates and the crowds at Tully's. It seems that someone has mounted a Tik Tok campaign to encourage children all around Melbourne to persuade their parents to drive them to Tully's and to buy extortionately expensive cups of strawberries in a Belgian chocolate sauce. The campaign has been successful. Very successful. Never mind that you can buy strawberries and chocolate sauce at your local supermarket at a fraction of the price, without having to drive all the way to Mornington as a side expense.

Weird!

Mind you, I had driven all the way to Mount Martha just to watch Freyja and Simon lift the cabinet into their hired van and then to have a cup of tea with Jenny, before heading back home. But I didn't buy a cup of strawberries and Belgian chocolate sauce for $12.50 while I was doing it. I had considered staying in Melbourne at the flat overnight but had decided that there was nothing to be gained by that and went straight home.

Where I was reminded that most of my dislike of sporting events is caused by the unnecessary levels of noise they generate. The people in House #6 were hosting a Grand Final party. In their garden. With the radio on very loudly. And with the accompanying screams of delight when their team scored and the boos and howls of despair when the other team scored. I knew when the game had finished and who had won when the radio and guests went inside and peace returned to Mount Helen, broken only by people singing the club song of the winning team. The only thing I didn't know, listening to all this, was exactly how close the score was - although I had gathered it was quite close by the number of happy and despairing yells.

On Sunday, Freyja and Simon came up in the van with some kitchen furniture that they think probably won't fit in their new flat and the cabinet they rescued from Jenny's garage. I need to get a skip so I can clear all the rubbish out of the garage and then we're going to set it up properly as an adjunct kitchen. They are intending to bring their garden stuff up as well. I don't need extra garden stuff but it's better here than being got rid of, just to be replaced when they upgrade from a third floor flat to a place with a yard. I can find a use for most of it.

While they were here we had a vegan pie with roast potatoes and veggies. I was very pleased with the pastry. I made it with flour, an olive based vegan spread and oat milk. It was lovely and soft and fluffy. I will definitely make pastry like that again!

Yesterday I went for a 9:15 appointment on the other side of Ballarat for a breast screen. I got there, as requested, 15 minutes early so I could fill in forms and get ready. They handed me a pre-filled form, got me to check and sign it, took me through - and by 9:15 I was in the cafe with a cup of coffee and a toastie. So I went to the local Bunnings and got some bags of potting mix and came home. I went to Rupert and Hugo's place for lunch, visited Stella, went back to Rupert and Hugo's place to give them dinner and then went to Melbourne Airport to collect Lindsey from her return flight from Perth where she had been all week. She did say she would take the train to Ballarat, arriving at around 7.  I was reluctant to turn out to meet an evening train. If I had gone home and sat in front to the TV I would have been deeply resentful about having to get back up and go out again. I would much rather trot down to the airport without coming home in the interim.

So that was my extra, extra long weekend. And now my week begins again (my weeks usually start on Tuesday) and it is raining. We haven't had any proper rain for ages.  And I am about to head off to take Lindsey to collect a hire car to keep her mobile until her car gets out of hospital.

Rupert and Hugo enjoying the spring sunshine
and a small marrow bone each