Berry beefy men in skirts

The Tartan Warriors discussing strategy, no doubt!

Yesterday we went to the Berry Celtic Festival and it was a real treat.  There was everything you could possibly want. There were different bands marching and playing bagpipes, and Scottish dancing, and stands for the different clans where you could buy clan paraphernalia or get to know fellow clan men.

They frequently have highland games here in New South Wales since many of the original arrivals to this country came from either Scotland or Ireland or other places with Celtic origin. These particular highland games consisted of caber tossing. and lifting and running with big, very heavy rocks, and another variation of throwing a heavy "thingy" backwards over your head, very high, over a bar, like a pole-vault bar. I think it was called "weight for height".

I can now confirm that they do wear underwear under the kilt.

There were several different bands playing and some had dancers as well.

I almost managed to join a band.

The whole family dressed up and ready for the festival.
Mom and Dad didn't want to be in the photo though.

It was also nice to walk around a visit all the different stands. There was also fiddle playing and very mournful singing.

I also enjoyed the weaving and  the one-hundred-year-old knitting machine for socks. My thoughts obviously went to my sister-in-law who loves all that crafty stuff.

Just as we had walked out we could hear over the loud speakers that there were 20 frozen haggis up for grabs. We almost walked in again but stopped ourselves. Both of us remembered when we lived in Scotland and had our first haggis. Certain things are just better enjoyed in the country where people know how to cook them (and even then it is iffy) and in that certain ambiance in which you have it.

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Another example of this is frogs legs. I liked it  when we lived in France but wouldn't go out of my way to cook up frog's legs here in Australia.

Leaving you with some photos from the dinosaur museum in Canberra. I went there last week with our son to renew his passport. No take that back, we went to the embassy for the passport and to the museum for fun photos. The passport formalities were over so quickly that we had time for some sight seeing and wine tasting and lunch in an Irish pub as well.

"A man never knows how to say goodbye; a woman never knows when to say it." -Helen Rowland

I am beginning to think it is true, since this blog entry is becoming very long, sorry about that. Here it is- goodbye!

White week

Having a white week now and again, or even several can only be good and healthy I thought. White week meaning of course that you don't drink wine or beer or other spirits for a week or maybe longer. Then I saw this poster, advertising the Temperance Movement, when I visited the museum in La Perouse and I started thinking differently. Do I really want to end up like these ladies? Hmmm! They look a bit stern and maybe not so attractive.

The reason we went to the Bare Island Fort, La Perouse, which is a part of Sydney on Botany Bay where the first ship came in, is that they had a re-enactment of the French arriving a bare six days after Captain Cook's arrival. La Perouse was the name of the French captain.

Don't let history get in the way of entertainment! 

They had people dressed up in the uniforms of the Napoleon army and also the soldiers of the British army. As far as uniforms go I like the French better but you can judge for yourself. There was canon and musket firing, and by the way this is when the expression "pull your finger out " was minted, an expression frequently used here in Australia.

Here we have the British Army.

And this is the glorious French Army. Sadly their ships
disappeared after their 'defeat' in Australia somewhere
near the Solomon Islands.

 We were told a lot of other interesting words and expressions that hailed from this time. Like "a square meal" which was a meal after battle served up on square wooden plates. This was after they had eaten next to nothing or just what they had in their little pouches. Another snippet was that the reason you call a bayonet a bayonet is that they were originally made in Bayonne, France.

Bare Island was used for the main action scenes in the second half of the film Mission Impossible II, starring Tom Cruise.  I wonder what 'our Nicole' thought of that.

After a walk around Bare Island we had our customary seafood lunch and then we had a quick walk through the museum.

Looks pretty scary, doesn't it!

We tried to take a selfie but someone took pity on us.

If you have been reading here  before you might remember that I mentioned how the birds can get quite aggressive and here is how one cyclist is protecting himself. Don't think it would work if the pelicans attacked but they never do, they seem placid and friendly.

When we came home we heard on the news that there had been a demonstration in Sydney because of the new budget.  As usual it seems to hit everybody except the untouchables "up there". We'll see what happens next.

It is glorious sunshine outside so I need to go out and do some garden chores. Until next time, be good!

Regrets

....I've had a few, but then again, too few to mention....la, la la.

Has to be sung in a Frank Sinatra voice, of course. But seriously,  thinking about it I want to "mention" a regret that I have and that is the fact that I didn't keep a diary when the kids were little. Now when I have all the time in the world to sit and think back I don't really remember too much, unless I look at photos of special events. But all those little funny things and cute expressions that they came out with, I don't remember them so well or not at all. And if I remember something I still don't always remember who said it or did it. Oh, well, that's the way it is, I guess, and no use crying over spilled milk.

Another huge regret, more recent, is that I started playing Candy Crush Saga on Fb and can't get anywhere. I see friends reaching 200 and more and I am still down there on 30 and can't budge, it is so annoying, but I refuse to buy "stuff" to get further. Thank goodness I never got into serious gambling!

I promised to tell you about White Cliffs. Well, it all started many years ago when I read in a Swedish magazine about a family from a small town in Sweden who packed up and went to live their dream, opal digging in Coober Pedy, living underground. When I told people in my art group that I wanted to go there and see it, but that it was too far for just a long week end, someone told me that you could always go to White Cliffs. It is closer and can be done in a long week-end (with a lot of driving!).

White Cliffs is also an opal mining town, but smaller than Coober Pedy with just over 100 permanent residents but more including tourists and occasional fossickers of course. It has a primary school and a pub and even a golf course (it cost two dollars for members and five for non members to play and there was a little box where you could put the money) and a motel ...underground... where we stayed.  I was very anxious about that since I suffer a bit from claustrophobia but in fact it all went very well. We stayed two nights even though I had made preparations to sleep in the car if I panicked.

Twinkle-toes?

Here I am descending to our bedroom from the star-gazing area, you should have seen the stars - breath-taking! Turned out my shoes shone in the dark which I had never noticed before, but it came in handy when going to the toilet in the night. There were no en-suite bathrooms, so you had to roam the corridors until you found the communal bathroom and toilet. For some reason I ran into a woman my age every time I was up to go to the toilet!! We became good friends in the end.


We met and talked to many friendly and interesting people who had come to White Cliffs as tourists and liked it so much that they had moved up there with their families. They had all the mod cons there underground, and the kids went to the primary school and then they went to boarding school when they were older, subsidized of course by the state since they lived in the Outback. I asked one woman about shopping and she said she was "the" expert on-line shopper in White Cliffs. She would place an order and the merchandise would arrive by postal truck once a week from the nearest bigger town about 100 kilometres away. They had four small children so I guess she needed quite a lot of stuff. 

The Dish

On the way back to Sydney we stopped in a place called Parkes, famous for the big dish. For you who have seen the movie, this is the dish! We had some fun there, me in the gift shop and hubby reading all the info in great detail and also watching a 3-D film. It was very advantageous to weigh yourself, I think hubby weighed 32 kilos on Mars.

We went to the cinema yesterday and saw The Grand Budapest Hotel; hubby liked it and I didn't dislike it. Thank God we had free tickets from our lovely neighbour. We were almost the only ones in that theatre because everybody else was there to celebrate the 4th of May, Star Wars Day. 

It is getting cold here now at night and the house is only heated in the kitchen and the bedroom, the rest of the house was 15 degrees when I came down this morning. Outside is glorious sunshine so I am going out now to warm up. 

May the Fourth be with you!

Long week-end

Friday was Anzac Day, hence a public holiday. We had a lovely visit from hubby's second cousin and his wife. They have been up here several times but not to this house, so they came for lunch and spent the day. In the evening we went to the Como pub.

Here is hubby unsuccessfully taking a selfie

Due to the long weekend and also Easter school holiday the Como Hotel was pretty packed, and the courtesy bus was very busy. It's a bus for people that have had a drink or two too many and can't drive home. They get taken home, courtesy of the pub, but not unless they can prove by a breath analysis that they have had too much. You are not supposed to treat it as a free taxi ride! I like the idea and I hope it is not too shameful to be dropped off and everyone seeing it in your street. Maybe people give a slightly false address, close to home but not in front of the door.  I might avail myself of this service sometime ... purely for research purposes of course.

Yesterday we had a surprise visit by our son and went for a very long drive to a motor bike museum with more than 700 motorbikes and memorabilia, a veritable gold mine if you like that sort of thing.

Like kids in a candy shop

I was out of there in half an hour and then I had time to sit and read two gossip magazines and play with my phone and write in my diary and speak to the owners and check out their merchandise. All that and more before the boys finally came out.

We had seen signs for a winery and arrived there quite late but was made to feel very welcome by the Hungarian winemaker. We sat for over an hour and tasted his delicious wines and heard his life story. I love hearing peoples' stories.

Needless to say we came home with quite a few bottles and we look forward to tasting them

Until next time, when I will tell you more about White Cliffs,

Back from the Outback

Four days without phones or internet!

I didn't think I could do it, but in fact it was quite nice. But I must admit that on arriving home we hurriedly unpacked the car, and then, without speaking, both of us rushed to our computers and logged on. So here I am, back on line, greetings fellow geeks!!!

Our Easter trip started with a visit to our son who had just gotten back from India and Indonesia. He served us  a type of coffee from Indonesia called Kopi Luwak,  that had  passed through some rat-like animal and come out the other end. Sounds weird, I know but it tasted good.

Can you see the little rat face on the package?

Sorry the text is a bit blurred

Our second stop on the way was Orange, where our friends from Grenoble live now. It was great to have a little visit with them and see their new house (and to indulge in foie gras and oysters and French cheeses.)

We managed to get off to a relatively early start the next morning,  because we knew we had a very long drive ahead of us. Our final goal was a place called White Cliffs, 1300 km from Sydney.

Orange, our first stop should been have only three or four hours from Sydney but it took at least twice  that long due to the Easter traffic. However, once we got out in the Outback it was pretty empty.  Only an occasional emu, majestically walking by.  And of course, loads of kangaroos, but sadly most of them as road kill.

I am going to break up this blog into two parts because I was told by someone that sometimes they don't have time to read a very long entry and that it is easier if they are shorter. So more to come soon about the actual destination which was great.

Back soon, take care!

Omg, I think I am a bogan

This is an unknown Bogan drinking VB in his singlet and thongs.

It's true....hubby got a book for his birthday about being a Bogan and what it entails and I think I fit right in there. This word Bogan was not familiar to me when we first arrived here in Australia but now we live in an area of Sydney called the Shire that is supposed to be the home of the typical Bogan ... and I like VB, short for Victoria Bitter, a type of beer favored by Bogans, and my favorite shoes are thongs (or flipflops).  These are all things typical to Bogans, apparently.

Here is a test you can take to check out if you are a Bogan or not. It turned out that I was only 25% Bogan, so not really qualifying after all. I don't know where I went wrong.

I would just like to add that all this is a little bit tongue in cheek. I really don't believe in dividing people up in classes like this.  Here in Australia you have so many different types of people and Bogans are just one of them.

I can't believe it is almost Easter, time passes way too quickly. Soon it will be time for me to return to the old country and have a visit with my elderly mother and nephew and friends in Sweden, yay!

I feel I have to tell you something. Just because I take photos of beautiful boats doesn't mean we have one. In fact, I wouldn't know what to do with one if they gave one to us. It is just that it makes such a typical picture of Bohuslan on the west coast of Sweden where I come from.

I am off now to buy cat food. Yes, we are cat sitting again while our son is in India for work and hubby loves it.  Until next time xxxx

The party is over....

.... or at least the party-like atmosphere that has enveloped our house the last month. Everybody has gone back home. In fact the last people to go were our Swedish visitors and they had to go to the airport by taxi since our car has broken down.

The car problem started on our elder daughter's last day. She was leaving in the evening on Saturday so since we had all day she wanted to go for a bush walk with her Dad. I dropped them off and was to pick them up later in Bundeena where the Coastal Walk ends. I must do the walk someday, judging by the photos it looks gorgeous. The problem is I am always involved with dropping off and picking up or staying home planning lunch.

Wedding Cake Rock. I tried to find a website for this rock
but they only directed me to beautiful wedding cakes.

Start of the walk

Anyway, after the walk and lunch we had to get back so G could pack. The car's steering packed it in in the middle of the Royal National Park and the car stopped and didn't start. It had happened before but it always started, so we waited... and waited. Nothing happened so I managed to flag down a car with a very nice couple who took me and elder daughter all the way home,  since it was on their way. Hubby stayed with the car and we were supposed to call rescue as soon as we had a signal for the phone.

Fortunately we forgot since our company was so pleasant.  The girl was a stripper and the guy was probably her agent and also boyfriend. They had loads of wigs and make-up in the car. The girl pointed out that she was a high-class stripper, and we really had an interesting conversation about stripping. They were on their way to do a gig at a buck's night. Anyway, we didn't make the call and just as well because hubby walked in just minutes after us. The car had started again and he had made it home.

So it's been a month of cooking, eating, touring, playing cards, having hair cut, shopping, swimming, talking and lots more.

We also went to the Sydney Fish Market. 

Family photo with hubby's brother and sister with husband

It will be hard to get back to our usual routine. It is autumn here now in Australia which really only means that it is a bit cooler in the morning. We still use the pool and people still go to the beach. It really is an amazing climate.

On a more serious note, you have probably heard by now about the earthquake in Chile. Our younger daughter is up in the Andes right now for her job and they didn't feel anything up there. It was really the northern part of Chile that was worst hit this time. It's a worry though. It must be so scary when it starts shaking and things fall over and there is nowhere to go.