Road trips

Greetings Dear Readers,

I have been on two fun road trips lately. The first one was down to hubby's home state, Victoria. We spent a few days with his old friends from university, something we do every year now. The house was in Point Lonsdale which had a nice pier and lighthouse. We also did some touring around the area. It also involved good food and wine of course, even a train trip from Drysdale to Queenscliff on the Bellarine Peninsular Railway for hubby, was factored in.

After that we went to Melbourne for a family lunch and caught up with hubby's uncle as well. He's a natty gentleman whom it is always fun to meet up with. Just before having lunch with the family we went for a drive to the Dandenong Ranges and visited a Rhododendron park which was beautiful, but oh, so cold.

My sister in law also took me to see her yarn art in Bonbeach. It was great! It seems to become very popular now, covering stuff with knitting or crocheting. I saw a whole caravan totally covered somewhere on our second trip.

The second trip took me all the way to Queensland. Our daughter had a job-related meeting there, so we decided to make it an outing. It also meant that we could pick up our son on the Gold Coast with all his photographic equipment so he could join us for the last three days. He had had a "shoot" of a CEO and it was done in a couple of hours.  Hubby had to work and our daughter's boyfriend as well so it was only the three of us but we had good fun.

The two siblings

A nice door in Nimbin, the heart
of the marijuana growing.

One of many beautiful beaches on the Central Coast

And another

These "moms" both had little joeys in their
pouches but they were very camera shy.

This has been sitting here unpublished for a few days because I was going to add on to it and sort out the photos but it never happened so here we go. I'll get it out there and write more another time. Until then, take care and be kind!

Back to normal (almost)

G'day'!

Day two of the wedding in Senegal

Lion Island, where we went last Sunday with a friend from  Spain who is
visiting.

I have now been back in Australia for a few weeks. I flew from Senegal to France and had a pleasant visit with friends and I was also able  to run some necessary errands. Hubby had to go back to work so he flew straight back to Australia.
The first afternoon my host and his wife drove us up to Villard de Lans to visit old friends which was great. I usually catch up with them in Sweden in the summer but this time we missed out.

I know, the three bottles of wine in front of me doesn't look so good but I had help.

The next day my host family had organized a delicious meal with the neighbours.

In the picture we are missing hubby of course and also Dang and of course the G family who were away.

 Our last two nights in Dakar we spent at a very comfortable hotel and just enjoyed the pool and the drinks and the food. The breakfast was to die for. We needed a little bit of pampering.

At night there was a cool band that played nice, mellow jazz.

The security at the hotel was just as serious as at the airport. The luggage had to go through scanners and we were also searched. There were also snipers up on the roof. All this seemed a little exaggerated I thought, since Dakar generally is very safe but I guess it is so the precious businessmen and politicians and other important people can feel safe.
The only unpleasant thing that happened was that hubby got his phone stolen one of the first days, but these days  that could really have happened anywhere.

We did feel a little bit conspicious when we checked in with two of these trolleys. 

We had our own luggage, our daughter's luggage,  our daughter's friend's luggage (she was leaving later that day) and all the wedding gifts and left-over food and wine from the wedding.

After Dakar and Grenoble,  I went back up to Sweden again but this time I stayed in a hotel near the train station. I wanted to visit with my mother and tell her about the wedding.
Incidentally, I stayed at Hotel Eggers where I had worked many, many years ago. It hasn't changed much, it's still very La Belle Epoque with very friendly personnel. I recommend it, especially if you want to be right in the city centre.

Let's see, what else has happened since I got back here. Well, our youngest daughter and her boyfriend who have lived with us since they moved to Australia from Chile have moved out and into their own place in town. It is a bit empty all of a sudden.
We have also had some visitors which is always fun.
Next I am looking forward to my painting group starting up again next week. I have not done much painting since I was there last. I think I need the inspiration of being in a group.

So leaving you now with a saying from the man who was the first president of Senegal.
We went to visit the island, Fadiouth where he was born. It is built on sea shells. Another quirky fact is that the population is 90 percent Christian which is unusual in Senegal, a strictly Muslim country.

Just one last anecdote before I post this. I almost didn't get to go back to Australia. When I tried to check in they noticed that my visa had expired, last year. It is an electronic visa so there is really no way I could have known. Plus I have permanent residency so I didn't worry about another visa
 but apparently it is just good for 5 years if you travel. If you stay put in Australia I think it is permanent.
 Anyway, they had to call Canberra and check if it was ok to send me on without a visa and after a very long wait they ran me onto the plane. Once in Sydney I was taken to a Border Control office (the ones you see on TV) and I had to hand in a temporary application and then apply properly when I got home. But here I am so all good!

Tabaski

Tabaski, or Eid al-Adha, is a big Muslim holiday celebrating Abraham's sacrifice, not of his son but of a sheep, and we just happened to be in Dakar at the time of this festival. We have been seeing massive amounts of sheep around the place, for sale with a lot of bleating going on. We saw young boys taking the sheep to the beach to wash them so they would look nice and clean for the sale. We also saw people traveling on buses and in cars with sheep on the roof.

Actually, if you saw how full the car was inside maybe the
sheep had the better spot.

Apparently a real nice sheep can be quite expensive. If a man has several wives he would have to buy a sheep for each one of his households and sometimes it would create a lot of aggression if one happened to get a bigger or better one than another. Someone also said that they even have a sheep beauty contest but I take that with a grain of salt. There is also the expense of buying new clothes for the event, so the tailors are kept very busy. It really is a very big occasion.

Sadly, now it has all gone quiet here in the neighbourhood,  all we can hear from up on the roof terrace  is heavy punching. I think they are cutting and dividing up their sheep next door. The blood has to run off into the ground, into a big hole, so this is done outside the apartment in the sand roads. They estimate that 3 to 4 million sheep are slaughtered in connection with Tabaski.

Most houses including apartment buildings have roof
terraces which is such a good idea in this sort of
climate.You can hang out laundry to dry and have
barbecues or just sitting enjoying the evening. As
you can see we even had a jacuzzi on ours but
we never used it. So much to do, so little time.

From what we were told, the men go to the mosque in the morning and then when they get back the slaughter begins. Son and hubby went out during this quieter period and were welcomed by several families to help with the preparation and told much more about the festival and the traditions.

The neighbours across the street from the house where we were staying were very friendly and invited hubby and our son in to taste the very first parts that they barbecued. It was the kidneys and liver etc. The thing is that you are encouraged in Tabaski to show hospitality towards the poor and needy and strangers, and it must have been in one of those categories that hubby and son fitted in.

Hubby with the far more elegant neighbours. 
Several family members had traveled long
distances to partake of this festival.

Wedding Senegalese style

It's getting towards the end of our stay here in Senegal, just as we are getting the knack of the haggling and chatting etc. Oh, well, I guess we just have to come back. Another very good reason to come back is that our elder daughter has married a Senegalese man and they will be living here in Dakar.
The wedding was in fact a three-day affair, first the civil ceremony at the Town Hall (and of course special dresses for that)

The man in the middle is the Mayor of Dakar and he held a stern but
well-meaning talk much longer than one is used to at a civil ceremony.

Then the religious ceremony the next day, with a long white dress for the bride etc, followed by a delicious buffet dinner and special cake made by the bride's girlfriend (she is a cake maker by profession) and lots of dancing at a hotel.

Luckily other people took pictures of the
event and I am hoping to be able to swap
out this blurred one eventually.

The wedding cake symbolizing the couple's
love of travel.

We had actually stayed there for a few night when we first arrived so we knew it was very nice. The reason we moved out was that our younger daughter and her boyfriend arrived from Australia and so did our son and two of the bride's girlfriends from London. We rented a house where we were able all to fit in. And where toilets had to be flushed with buckets of water and the A/C only worked in some bedrooms but not in the two communal living rooms. It was very hot and sticky! This is the worst season for humidity so next time we will aim for January and onwards.

The house has the obligatory roof terrace where hubby is right now checking out the sheep slaughter. Today is the Tabaski, a big Muslim holiday celebrating Abraham's sacrifice, not of his son but of a sheep. I will have to write that in a separate blog entry and just try to keep to the subject of the wedding here.

This brings us to the third day of the wedding, a Yendu which was held at the groom's surrogate mother's house.

The closest family and friends were supposed to wear clothes in the same
material, so here we are, sweat patches and all.

The street was closed off and chairs set up under a party tent where a group of dancers from the area that they come from danced accompanied by spoons and sticks hitting plastic buckets and blowing whistles. It was great, what a sound and what energy!

But before that we all ate together out of big plates of rice and meat and spicy sauce. We foreigners got spoons but normally you eat with your right hand, your left being used for "you know what".

There is so much more to tell, about our traveling in Senegal but I am keeping to the subject of the wedding here.

I did it!

I did it!  I mowed the lawn, all 3000 square meters of it. I was actually shamed into doing it by my neighbour starting up his lawn mower while I was sitting around enjoying a good book. I wish someone could have taken a photo as a proof. Anyway, it is very satisfactory to look out and see it all done. I am very brave these days and drive around on speed 4, which sure does the job a lot quicker than it used to. Unfortunately it is like house work, it has to be done over and over again. And also it does have some crop-circle aspects as well as tufts but that is because I ran out of petrol and couldn't do the last touches.

Just to show you some of the lawn, there is much much more
around the back.

I suppose you are correctly guessing that I am in Sweden now. In fact I have been for several weeks but the first weeks were so busy that I didn't have time to write anything here. Hubby was here as well as elder daughter and younger nephew, and even my mother for a few days. However, it is getting increasingly difficult for her to be anywhere else but in her cozy home so we had to take her back sooner than expected. The weather was horrible as well and has been the whole time so far. It was only yesterday that it cleared up a bit, hence the lawn mowing.

So the weeks with the family were spent doing all sorts of things, berry picking, jam making, shopping and board-game playing as well as painting and cooking and (hubby) doing house repairs.

After a visit to the Skärhamn Aquarelle Museum, where they are
having a Disney exhibition.

Oh yes, and cake baking too!

We also had a nice visit from our friends up north. They had been down to the south of Sweden for an inauguration in Lund and stopped to visit us on the way back, which was very much appreciated.

I know, this is not going to win any prices for quality and
composition but I had to include it.

And of course our time in Sweden started with hubby's brother and sister-in-law coming for their first visit. In fact they arrived the same day as we did but stayed one night in Gothenburg so we could pick them up after having been out to the cottage and starting up everything first. Other than the car not starting immediately, the water pipes in the cottage having burst and some major part having to be replaced, and the tractor/mower breaking a drive belt, all was all good.

Just some fish and chips in Henån before the in-laws return
to Australia.

It always feels a bit trivial and frivolous though writing about my little experiences when so many things are happening in the world. All day yesterday and the night before we were hearing about the truck that drove into a crowd of people in Nice killing over 80 and injuring many more while they were there celebrating the 14th of July. Then came the military coup in Turkey, where more that 200 people have been killed.

Before that we had Brexit with all its implications. And not to forget the European Football Cup that went on for quite a while, and almost was won by France but not quite, shame really, I was quite into it at the end.

So me writing my little diary here is really only to keep track of what we are doing, since things are so easy to forget or if not forget at least mix up in time, and of course to keep in touch with kind readers.

The big plan now is going to elder daughter's wedding in Africa in September. Hopefully the whole family can attend. There will be more about that later.

Hubby going back to Australia.

Now it is time to drive in to Gothenburg for a visit with my mother and maybe a little outing if she is up for it.

Cheerio!

... how nice to be in England

Loved all the chimneys.

We arrived at Heathrow two days ago and were met by our dear friends and taken out for breakfast, a perfect arrival but it almost didn't happen. We had booked a taxi for one o'clock in Sydney and thought we had plenty of time but when it hadn't arrived at one twenty we started getting a little worried because with Sydney traffic you never know how long the trip to the airport will take. So we rang and it turned out that the taxi we ordered had not found our place?!? (never heard of GPS?)  so we had to book another one for immediate departure. That one arrived and it was tiny, we almost couldn't get all our luggage in. By the way when I called and booked from the beginning I had specified that we had a lot of luggage. Anyway, after an unpleasant ride in a stinking car driven by a  chain smoker we got to the airport in time. After that it was smooth sailing except that I must have had a brief blackout because I had packed our Vegemite stash in my hand luggage so it was all seized and thrown away at the security check in. I dearly hope that the staff divide up the loot after their workday or give it to charity.

The next day we divided up our group in a boys' group and a girls' group. The boys spent all day at some car or rather transport museum called the Brooklands motor museum and racetrack and my girl friend took me to Watts Gallery and artist village in Compton, which was great.

Does it get any better than this for a young boy?

The Member's Building at Brooklands even had a Barbara Cartland Reading Room

Loseley House

We had lunch in Loseley House built in Tudor style and owned by the More-Molyneux family since the 17th century. Then on to the Fircroft Summer Exhibition, with lots of lovely jewelry, art, pottery and a wonderful garden with sculptures.

The day finished off nicely with meeting up with the boys of the family, that we have seen growing up.

The next day had a clear train theme. We went from Sheffield Park to East Grinstead on the Bluebell Railway. Guess who was very happy! And even I didn't mind too much, there is so much history connected with the railways in Britain.

There were lots of village fetes due to the Queen's birthday.

Next time I write here we will be in Sweden, so stand by dear readers!

Second attempt

Don't you just hate it when you have written a long story or e-mail or paragraph and you feel quite happy with it and then, bam!, your computer crashes and all is lost. I know, I know, I should have saved and saved and saved but sometimes you get carried away with your writing and forget, ok!
So last week-end when we came home from our visit to Blacktown Medieval Fayre I went almost straight to the computer and wrote a blog about it, while it was fresh in my memory.That blog entry is now gone somewhere into the unknown  and this will be a pale second go, with probably not as many details.

So this medieval festival that we went to was held in Nurrangingy reserve in Blacktown. It is a beautiful park with lots of space for such an event. There were ladies and knights and witches and monks and many buxom wenches as well as jesters and of course Robin Hood and Friar Tuck and many others. They also had stands demonstrating wood carving, blacksmithing, crafts and cooking.

The most exciting of all in my opinion was the jousting with a participant all the way from France. The knights jousted for a lady to whom they gave a ribbon, and Sir Michael from France was particularly gallant and kissed the hand of the lady he had chosen in the audience. It was very romantic!

This is the youngest participant, she is only eight years old. She
did very well even thought her mother has to run next to her.

This is the Best Dressed competition that took place just before
the jousting.The young man second on the left won the Best-
Dressed Women's category. I think the lady next to him should
have won, and I think so did she.It actually looks like he just
borrowed some of his mother's old hippy clothes.

Lady Catherine in all her splendor

I'll say goodbye for now and go and do some gardening. Right now in Sydney we have glorious sunny days but very cold nights and mornings, the coldest was 8 °C and let me remind you that many houses in Sydney have no heating so it is quite nippy.

However don't let that put you off coming to visit since it perfect for sightseeing.
See ya!