Ouf, it"s over...finally

I am not a fan of the silly season and I am quite glad it is over. I don't want to be a spoilsport for all the ones who love Christmas and everything that goes with it i e shopping, fretting, partying, going broke, drinking too much, eating too much and spending a fortune on decorating and gifts that sometimes don't even get used. The getting together with family is nice though but so sad if you don't have family near by or not at all. Oh, well it is over now and we can move on.

Here in our neighborhood Christmas decorations are quite tame but just a few streets away it is crazy. I actually read about it in our local paper. How two families, or rather the men in these families, have a competition going, and each year brings on more that the year before. Last week-end we were invited for dinner near this particular street and after dinner we all went for a little walk to have a look.  Cars were parked several streets away so we expected it would be amazing and it was. In one garden there was a snow machine so the lawn was completely white. Another had a bubble-blowing machine and then of course there were the reindeers and sleighs up on the roof  and......wait for it...... the Christmas kangaroos and Christmas emus! Only in Australia!

Hubby is off work for a few days and we are hoping to have a few outings. Fortunately we don't particularly need anything so we don't have to deal with the Boxing Day sales' crowd.

We have had seriously hot weather for about a week (almost +40°C) but Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were wet and cold. Today, Boxing Day, we are back to nice and sunny, so all good.

Time for left-over lunch and a dip!!  See ya!

Rainy Monday, just love it!

When you live in the land of almost perpetual sunshine, it is quite nice to wake up, on a Monday morning, and hear the gentle rain outside. So today will be a day to do chores inside.

Last week when I was going to take hubby to work our windscreen was covered in this. It was like an alien had tried to draw us a map of how to get to his planet. But in fact it must have been the cockatoos again, they are just wild here in the morning.

Yesterday my SIL and her two boys went back to Melbourne after a great week here. Last minute we managed to go to the Menai craft market and then they set off for the long drive back.

 Hubby and myself went to the annual party for his work. It was in a great spot called the Castle in Oatley park. We didn't know this place but it was quite close to where we live.There were lots of little children, the youngest only three weeks old. Hubby had a great time instructing the children about strategy with the water guns, and together with another 45+ "boy" they taunted the kids and then subsequently had to  defend themselves against the kids.  The kids were too many and took them down, I think. It looked like great fun and everybody got soaked.

I had a great time with the some of the moms, as you can see.

One good thing about Australian parks and pick nick spots is that they always have barbecue facilities and they are usually kept in good condition. So you can always throw a few "snags" on the barbie.

Jamie Oliver, aka hubby, trying to cook with his eyes closed it seems.

The day before we met up with only son at the Swedish end of the year party. It was great to catch up with some of the Swedish girls I have met in the past and to buy Swedish candy, yum. Unfortunately the food had run out so instead of having lunch there we went to a beach called Collaroy and had lunch smack on the beach, it was divine.

I don't know if you can see the details of hubby's shirt. It was made by his sister, and it has little trains on it. It will definitely be up there with the favorites together with the one he got from eldest daughter this summer. It was from Senegal and has little atoms on it. Stay put for a photo of him wearing that one next time it is casual Friday at work.

It was a busy week, we also fitted in going to Paddington Market. It is a great market and I think I will try to go more often.

When SIL is visiting we always try to do some painting as well and this time was no exception.

She is working on a commission and it is from Cyprus, so very vivid colors.

 We also managed to find time to go  to a Renaissance concert. We have friends from Grenoble who sing in a choir in Bundeena led by a Dutch opera singer, Desiree Regina, and they had invited us. It was really very nice and my SIL and myself, who were the only ones going, thoroughly enjoyed it. I was quite glad though, that we didn't "force" the boys into coming. It wouldn't have been their cup of tea. 

I really can't put it off any longer. I have to strip beds and get laundry going and the other Monday chores so, take care and more next Monday!

Those were the days

I put this as the title because of hubby. There is a house down the street from us that seem to be leased by several young men. In the front of the house are two or three or more cars, maybe one up on blocks with the tyres off. There are also two motor bikes, and on Friday afternoon when we come home the boys are standing outside with beer cans in their hands. They are doing boy things like kicking tyres and smoking and being generally loud with loud music blaring out into the street. To hubby, who lived in a similar place during his university years it seems like heaven. He has very fond memories of having shared houses with people., and when he talks about it it always ends "those were the days".

I have never had this experience and when he goes on about it I don't quite get it. Maybe it's an Aussie  thing!

Saturday we went to the Opera House to see a play called Vere. It was wonderfully sad but also very funny, brilliant and thought provoking. It is about a physicist who gets Alzheimer and ....... well, I won't tell you any more in case you get a chance to see it. It is based on a true story, I learnt that later when I read the program.

Hubby is trying to make a little video here of me sending
greetings to a friend in France, but it took a few tries.

In the theatre next to us there was a kiddie play about Angelina Ballerina. There were lots of little girls all dressed up in tutus, very cute!

You have to be very careful when
taking pictures of little kids. I waited
and waited until finally she turned her
back.

This is actually hubby but he melts in to the
bridge foundation very well, doesn't he.

After the theatre we met up with J, our son, in Kirribilli and had Thai dinner and then we went down to get some shots over the harbor but from the other side of the bridge.

Yesterday, my sister-in-law and two of her boys came up from Melbourne. So far we have only eaten, talked, dipped in the pool, and played Upwords, but soon, manjana, we'll  go somewhere, do something.

It is pretty hot today +34°C so you don't feel like making too much of an effort. I think I will offer some ice cream soon to my house guests, it is really very hot, but not this one, I don't think!

A Swedish expression that my grandmother always used when  for example she was putting jam on an already sugared cake or something said loosely translated 'One good thing does not ruin another good thing'. I think these ice-cream makers are working on this principle too.

Quiet Monday

The week that was, was relatively busy. We had to go up to Canberra last Thursday, to the Swedish Embassy to renew my passport. We thought we would be there for ages but it was very quick. I didn't  even have time to catch up on Swedish gossip properly. Maybe just as well, since the magazines were a few months old .
Then we took the coast road back. This way we could stop by and see our friends who live in Manyana. It is a very idyllic little beach resort. My friend had prepared dinner which was very nice and we had a lovely visit. After that it is a two and a half hour back so we don't see them very often.

Friday night we went out for drinks to the Como pub. It seems to be the thing to do here, go out for drinks on Friday after work and I think it is a nice way to get the weekend started. Nobody can drink very much since most people drive so it is very civilized. Many pubs or hotels as they are called here have courtesy busses on the weekend, taking people home if they are over the legal limit to drive.
This particular hotel is very impressive with beautiful water views.

Hubby had to work this Saturday and I was invited in to the neighbours across the road for coffee.
They had invited five or six families and also the family that just moved in next to us. It turned out the wife is Norweigan and we had a nice little chat in Swedish-Norweigian. They are missionaries and normally stationed in Albania and speak the language fluently. They are in Australia for some rest and recuperation since the husband had health issues.

I have just been out to water my veggies and they are doing so well. For lunch I had beetroot from the garden and yesterday we had a stir fry with only vegetables from the garden.

Life is good

Dear readers,

Just sitting here thinking about how good life is.

Woke up to a beautiful sunny day. Picked some zuccini from our veggie patch. I swear they grow while you are looking at them.  Also noticed that two big palm fronds had fallen down in the night and I wasn't sitting near the pool so I didn't get injured. Had a great day yesterday with friends in Bundeena over a leisurely, delicious lunch that took us well into the evening.

Visiting professor from Indonesia

The super-cute napkins

Yes, there was also a little grappa tasting

At the Bundeena ferry

Then in the evening we watched two episodes of Borgen. I had not known about this little gem before. Only discovered Season One in our local library recently and just love it. Now I just have to lay my hands on Seasons Two and Three.

Friday was good too even though it poured with rain almost all day and was very windy. I was supposed to meet a Swedish friend in the QVB and then maybe go for a drink. The Christmas decorations were already up everywhere and the Christmas tree in the QVB is decorated with 144 000 Swarovski crystals and 60 000 Christmas lights.  It took 72 people 40 hours to install it.

We made our way to the restaurant where the SIS dinner was going to be held. It was in a Greek restaurant called Aesop's and the owner seemed very pleased to have two tables full of Swedish "girls". We were given plates to throw on the floor while dancing the traditional Greek dances. The food was typical Greek and very plentiful and yummy. It's just that I am not good with eating very late. I had terrible heart burn all night and had to more or less sit up to sleep, so I paid the price.

Until next time,  take care!

Compliments, I think?

My first husband (RIP), who was American, used to say "Hey, you look like a million dollars!" when he wanted to pay me a compliment when we were going out. In retrospect I think that was a suitable compliment. The US being a capitalist society, what bigger praise can you give than saying that someone looks like a million greenbacks, right!

Hubby, an Aussie by birth, might say "You scrub up well.", or "She scrubs up well." about some sheila to whom he wants to pay a compliment. I am guessing that this expression dates back to pioneering times when the wives were out there working in the fields getting all hot and dirty in the strong Australian sun. Maybe once every now and again there was a reason to wash up and dress for some festive occasion and that's when this compliment was minted.

This is a lady we saw at the Steamfest in Maitland that we went to and doesn't she "scrub up well"?

The Brits, being known for their romantic streak (tongue in cheek here), would maybe refer to their sweetheart as "a rose by any other name" in a Shakesperian way. Or else they would just say that "she is fit", and everyone knows what that means.

I learnt it the hard way. We were in Tuscany with some old friends, and the older son and I got separated from the others for a while after we parked the car. This young man is a real charmer and every time we passed a girl he would check them out and sometimes he would say "She's fit".  I stupidly thought he meant it in its actual meaning i.e. sporty, athletic, slim, etc, and sometimes I couldn't really see how he could consider them fit and athletic as they were walking along smoking, tottering on very high-heeled shoes with a drink in their hand.  That's when I was told what it really meant. Now this was a few years ago and by now the Brits may have come up with other expressions for pretty girls.

So after the horrendous bush fires we are now experiencing torrential rainfalls. Hubby spent Saturday morning helping the neighbour, packing up her huge china cabinet since the rain was up 20 cm in her living room. Amazingly enough we have been spared but I am watching the pool flooding over at the moment so maybe we are next. Anyway, five houses in our street had to have emergency help this week end.

Maybe it doesn't show up so well here but the water level is very high and  I am very nervous.

These three Aussies worked together in Grenoble and here they are in Sydney.  I think the two visitors have to learn to adopt the Aussie dress code.

We had planned to "throw a shrimp on the barbie" i.e. have a barbecue, since some of our old Grenoble friends are visiting but instead we had a cosy indoor meal wishing we had had an open fire place.
Here is what we had for dessert!

Pavlova, the favorite australian dessert.

Fascinator

My lovely neighbor came in one morning while I was still slouching around in my nightie, and asked if I could lend her a fascinator?!?!  My mind went blank and I desperately tried to think what a fascinator could possibly be. It obviously had to be something really fascinating.  She had made a vague gesture towards her head and then when she started talking about going to the horse races with her girlfriends I began to suspect it had to do with her dress.

Here is a link to fascinating fascinators.  I want to go out and get myself a few of these, some of them are gorgeous. Just look at number four, isn't it precious!

The week has been fun. A friend from Grenoble is here visiting some other friends in Sydney so we managed to meet up for lunch at the Museum of Contemporary Art and then we took a ferry to Manly and went for a walk to another little beach where we saw water dragons.

These little cute bottoms belonged to some French girls who were enjoying Manly.

Today was Saturday and hubby and I went for a little drive and ended up having lunch at Sublime Point Restaurant.  It has been refurbished and looks great. It has a wonderful view over Thirroul and Wollongong.

So last but not least I want to tell you about the book that I have almost finished . It is called Half the Sky, and it is non fiction, written by a husband and wife team. It is unusual for me to read non fiction. When I read,  I want to dream myself away, and that is difficult to do with hard facts. However this was such a good book and I strongly recommend it.

Until next time ...stay fascinating!

False economy

Had to take the car to the dealer this morning since we are still under warranty. The window on the the driver's side has not worked for a long time so we made an appointment for Monday. Of course, sod's law, in reverse, it started working again on the weekend. But it was just temporary, when I took it in it had returned to not working. Anyhow, they had said we could have a rental car from them but it was going to cost 50 dollars. I thought, "Hey, I can save us fifty dollars, I'll cancel the rental car and just wait for it to be done. I can go somewhere and sit and read."

Bad move! The guys at the Ford place kindly asked what I was going to do since the car wouldn't be done until 5 o'clock. They suggested the Westfield Shopping Centre in Miranda. This was once the biggest mall in the Southern hemisphere. The boss got one of the guys to drive me there. I went to the art shop and got some random stuff, 90 dollars. Then I had a coffee, 5 dollars. There is a great cheese shop there as well so I got some Norweigan goat cheese and some French Comte, 26 dollars. Continued, to buy a pair of summer trousers, 39 dollars, and then needed a cold drink, 3 dollars.
By this time I had also sat down and read several chapters in my book and had a long conversation with a Swedish friend  on the phone and it was still only 12.30.  I felt that I had to go and see a movie to make the time pass quicker so I did. I saw a real chick flick, 12 dollars. After that it was time to start the trek back to the Ford place. I am so glad I saved the 50 dollars by not taking the rental car!!!!

The weekend was great. We had friends driving down from Orange, NSW for the weekend. S the husband and I worked together as English teachers in France. They came to Australia a few years before us but we lost touch but thanks to Fb we found each other again.

Saturday we went to Kurnell, Captain Cook's landing place, and then lunch in the best fish place ever in Cronulla. Hubby then took them on a ferry to Bundeena and I drove there and picked them up and then we drove down the south coast. The weather was not as clear as usual but nice anyway.

Sunday we had a barbecue, and now we have to eat left overs for a week again. And to make matters worse I discovered two dishes in the fridge that I had forgotten to bring out!!

A and P and M. A is the daughter of our good friends who lived in  France when we were there.

Hubby playing at being granddad

Now I am off to watch a new episode of the Big Bang Theory, yay!

Aging... but not gracefully

Well, I guess I have gotten used to the phone calls offering funeral insurance or life insurance and asking if we have made plans for our retirement etc. I guess that is ok; everyone should make some sort of plans for these events.

However what gets me is when, instead of getting toy catalogues in your mailbox for Christmas shopping, you get catalogues about buying things like raised toilet seats, magnifying glasses for those difficult small prints... They also have toenail cutters you can use standing up and recliner covers. These are only a few of the things you can buy to make your old age comfortable. I get that one will eventually need them but I don't feel like I am there yet. Somehow they must have sussed out that I am getting there though.

This week was bad in that sense. I had a conversation with a little old lady sitting waiting for her ride, leaning on her walker, and several times she slipped in "we" when she was talking about something that referred to her and me, like"Yes, it really is hard for us to get up that hill these days". She was talking about a little incline up to the next road. After a while I asked her how old she was and she said: "90". So now I am in the 90"s crowd!

Then I was on the train into Sydney and a kid stood up for me!!! It was so sweet and polite and thoughtful, but up to now I have stood up for my elders. Gosh, what is happening?

I also raised the age level a lot last week end when I went to a barbecue. It was a friend's 40th and the  average age was that and down and a lot of little kids. Most people seem to have kids quite late these days and there were quite a few couples in their 40s with babies.  The drive home takes about an hour and I left in time not to have to drive in the dark or even worse at dusk because I can't see very well then. OMG, I am getting old!!

I guess it's time to go out and buy a Honda Gold Wing (it is known as a couch on wheels)! When we are out and about traveling, we see many people our age touring on comfie motor bikes, recapturing their youth maybe or living the dream that they've always had.

Hot springs and tall ships

Good morning! It's Monday morning and hence it is blog morning!

The week was quite hot, up above +30°C (today it is very chilly though) and we have got the pool going again and have had a few delicious dips. I just love being in water; the weightlessness is magic.

Also magic were the hot springs we discovered on our latest trip. We didn't even know about them so it was really an added bonus. The one in Lightning Ridge is very hot, around +40°C so you feel like your skin is peeling off but after a while it is great. However, you shouldn't stay in too long though; you would probably pass out. 

This was our first experience of the Artesian Bore baths. We went there after dinner,  and then home and slept like babies.  Sorry about the bad quality of the photo.

The baths are mainly frequented by Eastern Europeans sitting in large groups, chatting around the pool, especially in the evening (it's open 24/7, and it is free).  One of the ladies started talking to me in her language, and I realized I probably looked a bit Eastern European.

I went into Sydney a few days ago for the big Navy Parade. There were 3000 sailors parading through Sydney from the ships moored in the harbour for the Fleet Review. They all looked a little bit the same after a while until the Indonesian Navy came by. They were a happy lot and lifted the sombre atmosphere a little.

After the parade I went to Darling Harbour to see the Tall Ships and I was mesmerized watching a young girl climbing up and un-doing the sail on Little Endeavor. It was worse than a circus act. I hate heights so anything like that makes me break out in a sweat. I couldn't leave until she was safely down again.

This bridge opens up in the middle and permits the tall ships to sail into Darling Harbour.  Hubby does miss the monorail which crossed this bridge and also opened up though.

Now I must go out and see if my tomato plants have grown since last night, so cheerio for now.

More Outback

When you drive in to Lightning Ridge you are met by this Big Emu called Stanley but it was not the only emu we saw. The real ones were everywhere along the road, fortunately not as roadkill which was the case with wombats and kangaroos, but standing there serenely looking at passing cars.

The emu, or the DHINAWAN, is very significant to the Aboriginal people. He takes the role of the father, mother, teacher and provider. The female emu lays the eggs and the male emu sits on the nest of eggs until hatching and then raises the chicks until they can provide for themselves. The emu is also a totem for some families in the area.

Our first venture on Sunday was to the local market where we met a very interesting American lady who came to LR over 20 years ago and was involved in the Historical Society. She told us many interesting stories.

One thing I always try to find out when we are traveling around Australia is if there are any of my fellow countrymen there. In this case yes, she told us of The King of the Swedes and how there was an article published in a Swedish newspaper that led to a few Swedish families moving to LR to try their luck. 

Astronomy monument with different flags to honour astronomers from these countries

In the afternoon we went on a bus tour and the guide was a goldmine, oops, I should say an opal mine of information. He told of us "Alex" a Polish miner, who had been imprisoned for over 4 years for murder, here in Australia, but after being completely exhonorated he came to LR to mine. He was also interested in astronomy and built this monument in honour of Copernicus, a fellow Pole. It is all built in concrete all made possible because he had befriended the concrete truck driver and got all the left over stuff when the driver cleaned his mixer. He was also an expert tequila distiller using all the cactuses growing around his home. Sadly the still exploded and he died leaving many miners at a loss. He was the only one who knew how to make tequila!

This castle was built completely by hand, stone by stone by Amigo, using material from his mining. After almost having finished it he had had enough and now he lives behind it with his 63 cats which he feeds from road kill that he collects and barbecues for his cats.

These are four of the sixty three cats.

Just wanted to add these last photos as well. They show how every bit of scrap metal and other things are used to make these living quarters and some people live there for years. Some were more like a normal house and according to the guide had all the mod cons. They lease the land and in most cases build as they go along, so no mortgages and then it is just the yearly fee for their claim. Sounds very tempting!

This the church with the dunny conveniently located outside, all in corrugated metal.