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!