Been to Melbourne and back!

On 13th March, I flew to Melbourne for a friends 50th birthday. It is going to be one of those years as this is the year my cohort turns 50. KISA elected not to go which is a shame, as it was a fabulous weekend. . He caught up on some work and watched highly unsuitable DVDs without his lady wife giving him "looks" over the tops of her glasses. I suspect he had a lovely weekend too. I also suspect there was pizza and beer involved. Hmmm..
I landed in Melbourne city central about 2.30pm and went to visit the workplace of an old mate P who works in a travel agency. We had a quick catch up and I hung out in a bookshop till he finished work, so I could catch the tram home with him. As PJ were mine hosts for the weekend. We got home about 6, just in time for drinks in the coutyard, which P's partner J had looking just beautiful. The light was perfect so I took a few shots. J said the recent hot weather had taken its toll, and the strict water restrictions don't help either. I thought it looked beautiful.

All tended with greywater and love.

Isn't the light lovely? This is looking back towards the kitchen

Good friends, good wine, Friday night, and a great weekend ahead. Doesn't get any better than this.

Another shot looking back to the house. The light was going now. Must be time to get ready to walk the two blocks to the little Italian restuarant they took me to. It is cheaper to eat in Melbourne than here! It was a BYO too, so we took a couple of bottles of the good stuff. Great night, late night too!

PJ's house is something special. It is an old terrace from a long time ago, 1800's at least, which for Australia is VERY old! This shot was taken in the dining room, which in its original time was the kitchen. The old wood stove is still there. All shined up and looks like all it needs is a match! If you open the oven though, you will find the phone books..

This is the lounge room.The fireplace has the most beautiful tiles in front of it. And chesterfield sofas. It all looks very museumy but is a very warm, cosy, homely, welcoming place. I love it.

PJ have just done up their kitchen. It looks really good especially that red glass splashback. Jess would have loved that.

The hallway towards the front of the house. It is kind of a long skinny house, very different to a tropical house. It is very close to the city which loosely translates to it is worth a lot of money! I think it is worthy of a magazine shoot. PJ are incredible housekeepers, I felt ashamed of my housekeeping while I was there.

This is the bedroom I stayed in. It was very pretty and the bed was comfy too.

This is the front of the house, it has lots of character. The front windows are stained glass.

And this is the best part of the house. When KISA saw this house for the first time, he loved it before he even went inside! P is a Yorkshire boy.

On Saturday morning, P took me to the South Melbourne markets. It was fabulous, the food for sale was wonderful, and much better quality and cheaper than at home. Living in regional Australia sucks sometimes. We had lunch at this paella place. It was SUPERB!

Of couse we had to have it with Sangria. It had started raining about an hour previously and gotten quite cool so it was nice and warming eating paella and sangria. It was the first decent rain in Melbourne for months, so everyone on the street was happy and laughing and getting wet with much joy. It was a happy atmosphere. The surrounding gardens just drank it in.

These steaks were two inches thick. Just look at them! This one is for son 17 if he is reading this. These made me think of you..

PJ's furkid, Jesse. He was all tuckered out after the outing J took him on while we went to the markets.

Saturday evening was The Magsters 50th Birthday Occasion Dinner. It was held in the mayors room at the Hawthorn Town Hall. The Magster has some serious connections. It was a great night, with a full three course meal and wine. Thank you dear friend and I hope you have a wonderful year. This was the only shot with the knife that was fit to print.

Three girls of 9A1E1. Who would have thought back then we would ever be going to each others 50ths! After a great night we all went home to crash lateish. We all met up again for brunch the next day in the botanical gardens. I forgot to take my camera. PJ and I hung out afterwards in the gardens, and went to the shrine of remembrance where we caught the monthly service, It was a very moving thing and a magnificent building if you are ever in Melbourne.

P was cooking up a storm for dinner. This apple pie was made with home grown apples. Someone kind of stuffed up the pastry (she who can't be named) so J went out for Pampas. The afternoon light in this kitchen is superb. If I ever write my cookbook, I will be doing the photos in PJs kitchen. Note the essential cooks tool on the right.

Salmon in lime and coriander marinade on cous cous with salad with lemon vinagrette, sourdough rolls followed by apple pie. Good food - good wine - great company. Thank you guys for a wonderful weekend.

P and I started our first job together at 17 in 1977. Our group of "bank Johnnys" had some wild times. I, of course, am too mature to divulge any dirt on P on this blog. That and the fact that P has more dirt on me than I have on him!

Yesterday was P's 50th birthday. Hope you had a great time at the greek restuarant. Love you guys!

I was brave and shaved!

Well the big day arrived. Time for my Shave for a Cure. To honour Jess and raise money for the Leukemia Foundation. So this is what I looked like last Sunday after no hairdressers for 3 years.

I don't think it has been this long since high school. And it is HOT! Like wearing a fur coat all the time! Take it OFF! So my sister A, and Jdubya's son M and I went out to the terminal for the big Shave Event. M went third out of four shavers. He tried a mohawk for starters.

Looked pretty edgy..


Then he tried this "popular with the 3 year olds" style

Then he just went all the way!

Me next..cut off the pony tail to give to the wig makers. Julie from the Leukemia Foundation said they find it hard to get hair that is at least 7cm long and natural, with no colouring in it, just like mine.

Then out came the clippers. They tickled..

There is a really good reason they don't let you near a mirror till it is all done!

Pooh opted out. He is such a chicken.

KISA, me and M post shave. KISA has the longest hair today.

Not for long though. As soon as he gets home the clippers arecoming out!

These are all the brave ones at todays shave. Lots of people came to eat the "free" BBQ. They had to donate for lunch so will be keen to see how much they raised.

Pooh had a good day out and wore my ponytail home. The flowers are from the Leukemia Foundation for being such a media tart. The press were there too so shall post the link to the newspaper tomorrow.

I got a cap, a bandana, and a certificate as well. Went off to the bank afterwards and banked my donations so far. All up I have raised $15 short of $5000. My goal was $5000 so I am thrilled with that. People are incredibly generous. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

So when KISA came home, I gave him a clip too, and he did something he hasn't done for 10 years. He completely shaved off the beard and mo. So this is us today. I should be arrested, he looks too young!!

Safe and sound - back to your regularly scheduled programming

Now that Hamish is bullying Yeppoon and Bundaberg instead, it is time to post some pics for this week. Dad went prawning this week, so dropped us in a little bundle of prawns. I made rissotto as there were not a lot, and made the stock from the shells. It was superb.

On Friday morning, I had morning tea with two old friends from the hedonistic days of the Commonwealth Bank employment (late 1970's). Catriona lives in Tasmania now and was visiting for her dad's 80th. Rhea and I are now responsible women. I think Catriona is too...we had a great time catching up, the time sure flew. The weekend started with bubbles on the deck and this fabulous sunset. It should have quit while it was ahead!

Why does this man look so sad???

Because we had 3 inches of rain in 3 hours on Saturday, and his sparkly pool from last weekend overflowed and filled with dirt..AGAIN!

It is raining hard and very windy, but it is hard to capture in a still picture.

This was taken this afternoon. This is what a cyclone looks like from 150 km away. It is directly offshore but it is not really excessively windy

The breakwater at the harbour was closed, as the waves were crashing over the top.This was low tide as well.

Looking south. There were a few intrepid surfers and two kite surfers out. We watched them for a while.

Spent the weekend mostly inside, which is what you are supposed to do in a cyclone. I was reasonably scared last night when Hamish was a category 5 and headed straight for us. So kind of relieved that he has stayed at sea, though it was a bit of an anti climax after you do all the preparations. However ,really, lots of people don't bother to prepare and they are the ones whose stuff flies into your walls and windows and smashes up your house, so even though we had cleared up our yard did not mean we would have been ok. So all in all a lucky escape..so far. Cyclones can do a 180 turn very easily as well so we are keeping an eye on him.

Cyclone update

Well it is 11.30pm. Hamish has intensified to a category 5 which means it should do some serious damage. It will probably pass by us out to sea and we will get the winds on the edge. So far the rain and wind has been intensifying all day, and we have had some water in downstairs again. The pool of course has overflown, and is full of mud again. Sigh, at least it was clean for a week! The forcast is that it will be at its worst at 10ish tomorrow morning, so we are going to bed and hopefully get some sleep. Will take some photos in the morning and put them up. The house feels snug and tight. We are safe.

Hamish Harrassment

Hamish is harrassing us.
Cyclone Hamish that is. We have about 24 hours to get ready, and it may all be for naught. Though at the moment he is still making a beeline. We didn't have to do too much really. And we still have things to do that I am leaving till a little closer to this evening. So far we have refuelled the cars, filled the spare gas bottle, bought some rope and masking tape, and some tinned fruit. I keep a reasonable stockpile of food so we didn't need to buy food. We have big water containers for camping, so we filled those, so we have 80 litres of water ready. Of course we have 40,000 litres of water in the backyard for toilet flushing etc and laundry if we need to.

We have frozen down all the tuppaware boxes full of water to put in eskies for food storage if we get prolonged power loss. After Cyclone Larry, Innisfail was without power for 2 weeks!

Have put the important papers etc in zip lock bags and we are gathering precious things and putting them on our bed. Then later these will be put in a garbage bag lined suitcase. We have yet to put away the outdoor furniture and fridge and freezer and to pack suitcases for a flee if necessary. The biggest problem with this threat is we are having king tides at the moment and in 24 hours time there is a high tide so we can expect a storm surge, like a tsunami. In 1918 a cyclone hit here and the storm surge followed, and 31 people drowned. We should be above the storm surge level so are not expecting flood.

Three doors down is renovating his house and currently has his roof off and all the tin is lying on the ground beside the house. Most damage is done by flying roofing iron, including deaths.

Later we will criss cross the glass with masking tape and upend the tables across the big panes in the lounge and dining room. Then we will set up some mattresses in the bathroom with an emergency kit so we can sit the storm out in there.
Heavy rain started about a half an hour ago and the wind is picking up.

This week in pictures

It was KISA's 4 year anniversary of working at the terminal. So I made a morning tea for him to take in on Monday. Chocolate Jaffa Cake andChorizo mini quiches. I also made a lemon slice and some meatballs. It was a hit I think.

Friday night, bubbles and tilba chees and biccies. Great way to end the week.That smoked tilba is KISA's favourite.KISA received a couple of polos from D who lives on an island far far away. He loves this one best..

After nearly two weeks KISA finally got the pool looking inviting again. So I took him out for a treat! Mmmmm Magnummmm...The ocean didn't look so good today, still dirty from all the rain.Did I mention that we like Magnums?The marina was looking very nice though, it has been a while since we saw this much sun.Saturday night was candlelight night. New tradition since we are in no danger of being unexpectedly invaded by lanky young men who would be nauseated by such a display.Sunday morning KISA cooks breakfast..every week. Best meal of the week, yummm..Of course the lawn had to mowed AGAIN because it grows six feet a week. That may be a slight exaggeration.I made curried lentil soup and bread for lunch, and it will do for several more workday lunches as well. In the afternoon, we went to Seaforth to see the olds and drop Jdubya's dining set to his old. The soon to be bald chick. Eleven days to the big shave. Have raised nearly $4000 of $5000 goal. Very happy about that.

Seaforth is always lovely. Needs no words.

A quiet peaceful weekend at chez nous. Hope yours was lovely too.