A silk purse would've been better

I finally heard from hubby who took a moment out of his busy eating schedule in Spain to write to me via Skype.  Much of this missive concentrated on his culinary experiences. There is always something new in that department, or more like some part of an animal that you never thought could be eaten.  He is a great fan of a good pig's trotter, so I shouldn't have been too surprised by his eating pig's snout pieces as an aperitif (not so bad, according to him).  He met his match the next day though, when the starter was sow's ears.  (He was assured by his hosts that they were cleaned beforehand, but can you be sure?) In his words "I will not rush to do that again!".  He got his reward later though, the main course was braised rabbit - always a winner in his opinion.

Lend me your ears!

This all took place in a hill-top town called Albalate del Arzobispo on Sunday for 'lunch' (15:30 - 17:30!!)  On the way back they passed through Belchite, a town that was razed during the Spanish civil war and which has been left untouched as a memorial.  Just to annoy me, hubby sent me these photographs from his playing with panoramic shots:

Albalate del Arzobispo

Belchite at dusk

Other that that not much to tell from Illawong. Still house hunting, still have not found anything suitable, still spending hours on the computer searching for something.

I have also started looking in all the cupboards and storage spaces, where we just stuffed things in when we arrived and now we have to deal with it especially if there is not much storage space in our future abode. Oh, the joy of moving house!  We are going to have some seriously hectic weeks ahead of us. 

G'day

I have had a little blog break, mainly because I have had nothing to write about that could possibly be of any interest to anybody, but now I am back on track again ( I still have nothing especially interesting to write about, though).

We did a work shop last week in my art class -
painting with a palette knife - and although it
was a little hard at the beginning, it was a
 very enjoyable technique to use.

Today was double painting lesson to make up for the one I missed last week when hubby was leaving for Europe and we had a few things to do before that. He has now been almost a week in Spain and every time I hear from him he ends his mail with "When do the Spaniards sleep?".

They (the Spaniards) might have a work meeting at 9 in the morning after having been out for dinner and  having tapas and stuff to about 2 in the morning the night before. Then they work until maybe 2 in the afternoon and then go for lunch until maybe 3:30 and then back to work until eight or nine when they might go home, but in hubby's case, it is out to a Tapas Bar again. He is loving it of course, but .....

Our UK visitors are going home tomorrow and I expect them back any moment now from the Hunter Valley where they went for two nights.

They took me out for a cinema night before they went there and I picked Anna Karenina. I felt very bad for C, the husband, but he struggled bravely on and sat through the whole film.  I was a little disappointed, even though my favorite actor, Matthew McFadyen, was in it.  I am not a good film critic but all I can say is that when I go to the movies I don't want to see a play. If I want to see a play I go to the theatre.

I have started seriously looking for houses to rent and all day Saturday was spent doing house visits in torrential rain. I have seen a few good ones but since they were empty and ready to be moved into immediately we probably couldn't take them. Unless we pay double rent for a month which we would like to avoid. Also they all seem to be carpeted and I hate that. So the search goes on.

Went to a wedding....I think...

Our visit to Melbourne was really a whirlwind visit. We arrived there and picked up the car at the airport and were out of there at three o'clock maybe. We then had to pick up son since we had his suit, and then off to our motel, where we all changed clothes in record time.  On top of everything our son was going to be filming the wedding and had to be there reasonably early. The wedding was at five!!


The venue where the wedding was held was lovely and the bride and groom looked gorgeous just like it should be.

Unfortunately I forgot my camera and they didn't do photos of the extended family so, this is all I can show that proves that I was there (I really should've gotten my hair cut, but didn't have time before we went). I don't quite have a paper bag over my head - like I said in the previous installment - but I might just as well have had one; it would have been an improvement.

The day after the wedding we met up with our son for lunch in St Kilda, and also had a walk along the Esplanade where they have a great arts and craft market. I love going to those. It was very hot though, around +34 °C, so beer was very much needed.

Everyone is having an early night, tonight and have gone to bed. Hubby is off to Europe tomorrow and our visitors are off to Noumea.  I think I will watch another episode of Monarch of the Glen. It is a  series I just stumbled across at the library and it takes place in Scotland where I spent two years. I love the accent and the scenery. Why don't you check it out? Yeah, and good luck with the Scottish accent!

I'll leave you with a word of Scottish wisdom..."Whit's fur ye'll no go past ye"

Going to a wedding

...but I have nothing to wear. Why didn't I think about this beforehand! Why do I leave things to the last minute?  What am I going to wear?? I know this  event is not about me but still...it is going to be a long night, finding something suitable! Maybe I'll have a look on this website and see if I get any good ideas. I will put photos on here when we get back. If you see Cinderella in the back with a bag over her head it will be me.... but again it is not about me.

But what will I do if I ever have to be the mother of the bride or groom!! They have whole websites with clothing etc for mothers of the bride, it is just too stressful to contemplate. So let's think about something else.

We have had UK visitors for a few days but tomorrow they are off to New Caledonia to visit friends. I would really like to go there too, and maybe we can fit that in during our five-year Australia adventure.

What else?.....I have been to a pub reunion with the Swedish ladies' group which was fun. I must try to go more often. The problem is, it is just so far away. It was a bus and a train and a ferry and a bus ride to get there but it was worth it! I was picked up afterwards by hubby who had been to  our son's place with the  UK visitors to try to find the cat that we are supposed to take care of but again they couldn't find it. It is in the nature of cats to be indifferent and independent and certainly not appear just because three adults stand around for two hours calling for him.

Until I get back from Melbourne, dear friends..........take care and enjoy the weekend.

Cat sitting ... but no cat!

Greetings from my little speck of dust in the universe! If you want to understand what the title refers to you must read on!

It's Monday morning again and hubby came back on Friday after what seemed like a fun and very hot time in Wagga. I mean hot in the meteorological sense of the word. So hot that hubby got a slight heatstroke and had to leave a golf game that he had looked forward to very much and go and have a rest and a few glasses of water (oh, and a beer,  of course). This golf game was supposed to take place for those who wanted to participate after the conference was over and before everybody left. It was a nice course apparently but it was 40+ °C and anybody would have had the sense to stay out of the sun except the proverbial "mad dogs and Englishmen". Sometimes they are also fanatical golfers.

Saturday we went house hunting. It is such a stressful thing to look for rental properties here. Most of the time it is on Saturday and the time given is, e.g. 9.30-9.45, for one property, and then you have to rush over to the next, which might be from 10.00-10.15 etc, etc, and you can maybe get in three visits in the morning if you are quick and two in the afternoon if they are not too far apart. This time we concentrated on a place called Bundeena. We both like it and have friends who live there. But...and there is a big but...

It is very far or it seems very far and when there is a lot of rain you have to take an even longer route. So it is a bit isolated even though once you are there it seems lively and fun. The only rental places were unfortunately not near the beach but rather high up close to the National park and we both feared that it would feel a bit isolated. So back to more house hunting soon but not next week end because we are going to Melbourne for a niece's wedding!!

Sunday our son came to leave us his cat to look after since he has a lot of travel for work to do.....but he didn't bring the cat?!  To his defence I have to say that he hadn't forgotten it but it didn't come home the night before and after being up "since sparrow's" looking for it, he finally had to leave without it. Now we are going in to get it tonight or whenever it feels like coming back. I hope we are not in for something complicated, like having to drive an hour every night to try to "catch" it and an hour home.

Just had a call from our UK friends who are traveling around Australia. They are coming back here tomorrow, a few days earlier than expected, before they go on to New Caledonia where they are going to meet up with friends. They sounded overwhelmed with the driving distances here in Australia. I often feel the same way. You drive all day and look at the map and though you might have driven 800 or 900 km it is really nothing. It is such a BIG country.

Two weeks ago I went to two exhibitions with my friend from Melbourne who tries to come up to Sydney every time her husband has to work here.

One was at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Both M and myself enjoyed this show immensely, I mean who wouldn't when you can look that skinny.

The other was an exhibition with Francis Bacon at the Art Gallery of NSW. I must say that although I am glad I went I found his paintings a little disturbing and I felt quite sad for him as a person.

Home alone

Yes, it is Monday morning and I am home alone and will be for a week. Hubby has gone to a conference in Wagga Wagga. Sometimes, if the conference is in an interesting place I tag along but this time I decided to stay home. Not saying that Wagga isn't interesting but......

The weekend finished last night with a barbeque at a house of one of hubby's collegues.  It was an old  redecorated house and it was very nice. I think we were the oldest there, there were lots of young couples with their first baby and the host and hostess are also expecting a baby any day soon. It brought back memories of when we had our first child and used to take him everywhere, to parties, pubs and restaurants etc. Luckily he was a very good sleeper, and if he was awake he was a happy baby.

When the second child came along she turned out to be a night owl so as long as you put her somewhere where she could observe what was going on she was good as gold so we continued bringing them along.

However, when the third child arrived it became a bit cumbersome to bring all three so we bit the bullet and got baby sitters. I  found it a little difficult to leave the kids with others in the beginning but realized it was silly especially since the kids seemed happy.

On Saturday we had to get out of the house because of the noise since they also drill on the weekend. (If you are a new reader here, let me just explain that we live across the street from a building site where they are excavating to build underground garages for a new apartment block)

We had a nice oyster and fish lunch at Mike's and then we went for a walk in the National park in Kurnell. I had wanted to visit the Kurnell art gallery that my art teacher runs together with some other local artists for some time, but it is only open on the week end, so I had never managed to do it. There are always things to do on the week end.

Anyway, after a visit to the gallery we went for a walk in the park. It is the point where Captain Cook arrived on the ship Endeavour and all along you can read about him and the other crew members who came with him.

One was a Swedish botanist, a follower of Linné, his name was Daniel Solander. He was based in the UK and worked together with another famous botanist called Sir Joseph Banks. Bank's name is quite noticeable here, ie Bankstown, and the flower Banksia etc. Solander has also given name to a part of the Kurnell park where you can do whale watching.

Until next time ......