It's raining men!

Young men that is. Son 18 is home for the summer. To celebrate he had all his mates over for a spot of backyard cricket and a BBQ. I have known most of these boys since Grade One! They have all grown into lovely handsome young men. After a few ales Son 18 became very happy and chatty and lovey lovey. Just like when he was a little boy. Why is he sitting on the floor?? So he can raid the liqour cabinet. Not much in there except the musk lolly liquer that Chic gave me. That would do, though we had pink loo water soon afterwards.

In honour of Ants 18th birthday party taking place on an island far far away, they played some of the drinking games the English cousins taught him.

Still smiling that cheesy grin. Took them up to the clubs about nine and they got back about 3.30am. Got up for lunch.

Been a bit of a cooking weekend, and cleaning up the downstairs..again! Made pizzas with the new pizza tray Nette gave us last weekend. This one is creamy garlic fish. It was very good! Made a tomato, ham, cheese and mushroom one too. No photo, none left either!

Made two batches of chutney, this is the first batch. Got about 18 jars all up, and today my face is red and swollen, must have taken in too much chilli vapours when it was boiling! Will make it outside in future.

Made rum balls for Christmas, put away in the fridge to mature.

Also made the Christmas pudding, also put away to mature. No photo till Christmas Day and it is sealed airyight in that pudding tin.

A New Home!

KISA and I have bought a unit. We settle on the 12 th January. Then we will sell the one we are in now. It will be an emotional wrench, as we have put so much of ourselves into this place, and it the longest I have lived in one house in my whole life. But it is too big for just the two of us. It is a lot of work to maintain, and a lot of expense, considering there are just the two of us. This house is best for a family with kids and works well for that. With the time and money this move will free up, we hope to camp a lot and travel a bit. As part of a longer term plan, the massive reduction on the mortgage this will entail, will help us to save hard for KISA to take an early retirement.

We mostly only use the top floor of this place now, and aside from slightly smaller bedrooms, we are not giving much up at all. The pool will be replaced by a spa which will sit on the patio, and unlike the pool, can be used all year around. It will also require much less maintainence, and cost less to run. We mostly just sit in the pool and drink bubbles anyway!

This is the front aspect of the house. It is one of 4 on a large block, a regular sized small house, just has very little land. It has a double garage and 3 bedrooms, ensuite bathroom, and a main bathroom. It has a water tank and a solar hot water. It is a brand new, virgin house. This is the lounge area. Every room is air conditioned. This room faces east so will be cool in the summer. It is sheltered from the morning sun by the patio roof and away from the afternoon sun.

This is the main bathroom.

The kitchen area, it is all open plan kitchen dining lounge.

Rear windows and door off living area.Note the huge lawn to mow..;-)

Kitchen again.Will have to keep it tidy!

Lounge area

Plans of the house.

We are very excited! So one last Christmas in the old house, as the boys are home for the holidays then the next stage of our lives begin.

While we were away....

Well we haven't really been away. Life has been pretty quiet lately. We have been inside sheltering from rain, or inside sheltering from heat, and doing nothing much. So a few photos to keep you going. Eunice went to Scotland and brought back these presents for KISA. Neither are available here. Actually she brought back THREE bottles of HP Fruity Sauce, and TWO packets of KP Dry Roasted peanuts! KISA is very happy! One packet of the KP Dry Roasted Peanuts is all gone, and they were carefully rationed out.

Dorothy's tree is flowering. Starting at the top and is slowly being covered in these lovely blooms. On a dark night, the tree looks like it is glowing! We have taken 12 cuttings and are trying to propogate them. We want to make a hedge.

We wandered up to the Eimeo Pub for a coffee last Sunday. It was a beautiful afternoon.

Quite the relaxing place to be. Only 7 more days of Movember. Then we can return to our regular facial hair style.

Heard fireworks last Thursday night and got this shot from the back deck. I suppose Santa was arriving at Mt Pleasant. He is early.

On Friday was a social barefoot bowls game wih KISA's work. We had quite an enjoyable time. I started to get the knack of it and even won a few ends. Inside on the honour boards, I saw my dad's name everywhere. He is a gun bowler. Keeps it to himself though!

Nette travelled up from Brisbane to attend a funeral of an old friend. She spend a lot of the weekend hanging out with us. We went to Ants for breakfast on Saturday. Most of the time we hung out at home relaxing. KISA and I got some gardening done.

Been a quiet life!