Home & Family TO BE FIXED – Page 16

PhotoHunt – Messy (& a snake)

29 December, 200725 February, 2012 Anne S

Here is a photo of Frankston beach – it’s a bit messy due to strong winds, and general rubbish that people have thrown away … litterbugs annoy me! Gotta feel sorry for that poor seagull too 😦

And now to freak my Mum out even further, here’s a photo of our infamous visitor on 23 December – he wanted to come join the party, but we were happy to give him the whole house to himself until the snake catcher appeared on the scene! Nigel took this photo as the snake catcher was disturbing it to get a good grip on him to pick him up. Welcome to the only red-bellied black snake I hope to ever see this close … ever! In fact, add all other venomous snakes into that mix as well !!! I’ve actually had nightmares during the night a couple of times dreaming of snakes slithering over me while I’m sleeping, which certainly makes a change from spider nightmares – I hadn’t realised it’d freaked me out so much, but obviously my subconscious was freaked out big time!! 😮

Christmas Ornaments, Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Works in Progress

A bit of Christmas stitching

26 December, 200725 February, 2012 Anne S

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas Day – here in Sydney I spent a lovely day with Brenda & Nigel, and Brenda’s sisters, nieces and cousin. As always Nigel did an awesome job with the food, and we all ate like Kings. The rest of the day was spent, in my case, stitching in front of the TV while we watched Scrooged and the final episodes of the Vicar of Dibley. I’m glad I went prepared and took a wee LHN design to start – it gave me something to do while everyone else was snoozing at odd times during the afternoon. And if I’d got all the DMC threads to hand, I would have almost finished it!! My needles were definitely smoking yesterday (and until 3am when I got back ‘home’ as I still couldn’t put it down). Here’s my progress so far – I just need to buy some more DMC (3371, 739 and 3011) then I can get it finished. Unfortunately I took a drive out to the shops today, forgetting that everything is still closed for Boxing Day, so it will be sitting unfinished for a wee while now as I’m back to work tomorrow.

Necessities Sampler by Little House Needleworks

Seeing as I can’t finish my LHN piece, I have no choice but to start one of my CA Wells pieces … which means I have to start concentrating on my stitching again yikes!!

On Christmas Eve I managed to finally put the finishing touches to a couple of ornies that were stitched during the first part of last year. I really really need to get back into my stitching routine so I can stitch a few more for next year! Anyway, here are the latest ornies in their finished state (I forgot to take a photo of one, which I gave to Kerrie at the weekend).

And here are two that Mum stitched for me, that I’ve also finally finished into ornies:

I’ll finish this post with photos of my friendly flatmates right now – they’re both so incredibly friendly and cuddly … the photos were taken from their visit onto my bed this morning 🙂

Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Round Robins, Works in Progress

Christmas with a Bite!

23 December, 200725 February, 2012 Anne S

My mail has finally started arriving in Sydney, after having a detour into Melbourne first – which means my Quaker Friendship Sampler has arrived home at last. I have to admit, I prefer other choices of colours after stitching on everyone else’s samplers, but I do still love this one … with its bright cheery colour! I’ll have to wait to post a piccie, because I’ve left it at Brenda & Nigel’s. Actually, I might pop over to the SAL blog and see if I can snaffle a piccie that Becky took of the finished sampler (cool, thanks Becky for post that piccie so I can borrow it!!):

Which also brings me to another job that is way, way overdue … believe it or not, I haven’t forgotten that I have promised to give away my original chart, and I made a quick list of all the people who originally put their hands up to go into the draw. Well I can finally advise that Judith is the lucky recipient of this chart, and in the New Year I’ll get it into the post for you (it’s currently packed up, so just as soon as I can get to it, it’ll be on its way to you).

Thanks for your patience everyone who put their hands up to go into the draw!

Which brings me to the next one … after finishing It’s Halloween by The Drawn Thread, I’m putting that chart up for grabs now as well. It has slight creases in the chart, but the chart is totally legible – it is just showing the strain of all that travelling between house sitting jobs in Melbourne!! Anyway, please leave a comment that you’d like to put your name in the draw, I’ll pull another name out of the hat (or via the list generator, anyway), in a couple of weeks time.

Yesterday I spent the entire day in my PJ’s and managed to get loads stitched on Snapperville … and I have to say it was the most amazing comforting feeling to be stitching again. I have really REALLY missed my stitching, and it helped to bring back a feeling of normality to my day. Uunfortunately I don’t have any Weeks Dye Works Hazelnut thread, or DMC 434, here with me, so I can’t put the finishing touches to this piece. Boohoo. I may have to take it with me on Christmas Day to Brenda and Nigel’s where one of my other kitted up projects is holding DMC 434 so I can get it finished. Right now, though, I just have the door left to be stitched in the final block, along with the final part of the border (a few swirls and one more tree). Fingers crossed this will get finished before the end of 2007!

Today no stitching was done, but instead we had a very social occasion out at Kerry’s place (Brenda’s best friend). Now, Mum, please do NOT read any more of this paragraph, as you’ll have nightmares for days!!! Nicely fed on a lovely BBQ, a couple of us were still sitting outside chatting about our previous European travels, while the rest of the group were inside the house … all of a sudden the guy opposite me says “oh my goodness, there’s a snake!” – I turned around in my chair, and sure enough there was a bloody great snake slithering over the porch, and it disappeared straight through the door into the kitchen! Thankfully no-one inside startled it, and no-one got hurt, but all of a sudden here was a mass exit of bodies coming back outside the doors carrying out all pets. Next thing Chris (the husband) put his steel-capped boots on and armed with a spade went back inside to keep an eye on it, along with Nigel who was armed with his camera to help keep guard (I’ll put some photos up just as soon as I can get hold of copies). A phone call was made for help, and eventually (about 3/4 hour later) the snake man arrived to remove the unwanted red-bellied black snake, who was about 5 feet long, and a very decent size in width. It’s the first snake I’ve seen in the ‘wild’ since moving to Australia, and hopefully the last one!!! It’s the first one Kerry’s ever seen, either, which makes me feel better that it’s not ‘normal’. Anyway, it was rather exciting and gave us something to chat about for ages afterwards … not to mention the humour when I nearly peed myself as Nigel dangled a rubber snake in front of my nose shortly after – payback is going to be a bitch for him one day!! 😉

Anyway, after seeing a bit too much of Sydney’s nature, it was time to head back home to chill out and relax … and in case I don’t get chance before the “big day”, I wanted to make a very quick post to say ………

ALL THE BEST TO ALL MY ONLINE FRIENDS, AND YOUR FAMILIES, FOR THE FESTIVE SEASON – MAY YOU ALL HAVE A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR, AND I WISH YOU EVERY HAPPINESS FOR 2008. IT’S BEEN A PLEASURE MEETING YOU ALL, AND I LOOK FORWARD TO CONTINUING OUR RELATIONSHIPS NEXT YEAR. WITH HUGE HUGS AND LOVE, xxx

Home & Family TO BE FIXED

Still here …

8 December, 200725 February, 2012 Anne S

Just no time to sit at the computer … commuting is really taking it out of me, and I don’t seem to have any real spare time these days. So 1000 apologies but I’ve had no time to catch up on emails, or blogs, or anything really … I’ll be back again when I have more to share, and time to share it!

In the meantime, I can say I finally have a PO Box in Sydney now – after a major error from Australia Post (that I don’t have time to go into now) … I’m sorry I don’t have time to post an email to everyone just yet, so I’m posting the new address here in the interim (I’ll do proper change of address notices as soon as I get chance to breathe). My new mailing address is:

(same name obviously)
PO Box 688
Mascot, NSW 1460

Now I’m off out for the day shopping with Brenda – I’ve decided last minute to go to our work’s Christmas party tonight, and need to buy a top (all my summer clothes are in storage in Melbourne, so I’m desperately in need of clothing right now!) – and I’m off to Quakers Hill to find kiwi munchies and L&P!!

Will be back soon with an update hopefully … no stitching done yet, though, so not a great deal to show and tell … although I did complete the finishing off of two quilted wallhangings for Christmas – will take a photo as soon as I can.

Hope everyone out in blogland is surviving the last few weeks before Christmas – I may not be online, but you are in my thoughts! {{hugs}}

Home & Family TO BE FIXED

Work

24 November, 200725 February, 2012 Anne S

A very quick post before I get dressed to head out to the post office … I haven’t made mention of how the new job is going, so here goes …

Work is OK – to be honest I’m still unsettled where that’s concerned, but it’s more to do with the circumstances than anything else. The problem is that there are so many projects and changes happening in our department, and resources are so thin, that I haven’t had much time for someone to sit with me and show me the ropes. I keep getting taking into this meeting and that meeting so that I can get an overview of what’s happening around the place, but that just seems to be confusing me more when I’m not technically involved in the project work itself.

Last week there was one person supposed to be sitting with me, but she kept getting interrupted – but she was the only staff member available as the other two were on training courses all week (plus they’ve been accepted into a new department, so they’ll both be leaving anyway shortly hmmm). It will get better once I can get my head around what it is that I should be doing. I was doing some computer testing of a new computer integration system last week for a while, so at least that was something – then inbetween times I potter and try to answer the simpler queries that come through that I don’t need help to answer. I must say, though, it’s an extremely friendly team I’m working with, and the office environment is great! And it’s quite nice not to be chained to a phone anymore! 😀

The first couple of days I felt like a fish out of water – it was a culture shock to move from a staff of about 400 to a staff of probably 1000’s. Moving from an office building of 2 dedicated floors, to an area housing 5 separate office blocks, all housing my company’s staff … that was a shock in itself!! I most definitely felt like a very little fish in a very large pond!! It’s been wonderful meeting people that I’ve been dealing with over the phones for years – one girl came over and introduced herself with a big kiss and a hug … she used to work in the job I’m now doing, and we had a great rapport – she’d sing “take the shackles off my feet so I can dance…” to me and we’d both have a giggle. Anyway, I’m sure as time goes on the work will get more interesting as I can contribute more to the team … and learn the ropes a bit more. I’d better hurry up as two new team members are likely to be joining us very very soon, and in January I’ll be one of the longest serving members of the team … hahahaha.

Rightio, it’s now 8.04am, which means it’s time to jump into the shower and get dressed – for today I open up a PO Box so I can start receiving all those bills that have been piling up in Melbourne. I still need to get to the Mascot PO at some stage after opening my account today to pick up the actual keys, though – but one of the other girls at work also moved from Melbourne and has a PO Box there too, and she’s offered to pick up my mail for me at the same time if I give her a key (she drives to/from work) … I might take her up on that offer, as I think it will be a good half hour round trip for me to walk there and back at lunchtime, and in winter it will be fine, but right now it’s stinking hot and sticky …

And that reminds me of another difference between Melbourne and Sydney – the weather! Melbourne is well known for its four seasons in one day … Sydney, I realised on my first day here, is like Auckland to me but with much higher temperatures. Sydney is more ‘sub-tropical’ in that it has a high humidity level. The first few days here nearly killed me, and we’re not even in the height of summer yet – yikes! Thank goodness for airconditioning, is all I can say!! I dunno how I’ll survive when I move into a place with no aircon …

Rightio, time to get moving to the Post Office – then my next challenge is to find some new sandals/shoes for work and two new tops (my summer clothes are still goodness knows where in my storage unit in Melbourne ho-hum) – then I’m settling in front of the TV or my laptop to watch a DVD or two and stitch … my goal to finish blocks 1 and 2 of Snapperville, as I’m really close to doing that … that will then leave me only 2 blocks left before it’s finished yippee 😀

Home & Family TO BE FIXED

The daily drudge

23 November, 200725 February, 2012 Anne S

Well, what can I say, I’ve survived 1 1/2 weeks of living and commuting in Sydney … there are a number of differences (both good and bad) between Melbourne and Sydney that I’ve experienced so far, but I’m getting a handle on things and starting to feel a little more settled.

The biggest shock to my system is having to leave home at 6.25am to catch the first of two trains at 6.47am – eventually I finally walk into my office building at 8.00am pretty much on the dot … it’s quite a ‘quick’ trip (in comparison to the one going home) because it’s an express train with limited stops. To get home it can take me 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours after leaving work … that means between 3-4 hours travelling time each day being wasted sitting on public transport, whether it be standing shoulder to shoulder with dozens of other commuters on the actual train or standing on the train platforms waiting for the next train to arrive. Oh how I wish it wasn’t so crowded that I could make better use of that time by stitching, but as it is I count myself lucky if I can find enough space to put my book up in front of me for reading!!

One difference between Melbourne and Sydney is their trains … Melbourne have single-level carriages, while Sydney have double-level ones – doesn’t make any difference, though, in both cities they’re all overcrowded at peak times, and I’m certainly not doing the trip each day for the enjoyment factor!

Another difference between Mel and Syd is that train tickets in Mel are issued for 2-hour time periods or all day travel, and stations are separated into zones of travel. There used to be 3 zones, but now there are 2 – you could buy a ticket for travel just within one zone or between all zones, for one set price. This is great value if you spend a fair bit of travelling and want to pop out at a couple of different stations – you can hop on and off as much as you want … and something else I LOVE about Mel transport is that the same ticket covers you for not just trains, but trams and buses as well! In Syd you pay sector fares for your journey instead, and basically buy a one-way or return ticket … you leave the station at your destination point and that’s it, your ticket is finished. This can be a cost-effective way to travel is you just want to travel point-to-point, but not in other ways.

Take last Monday as an example … Monday Mum returned home, so she came in on the train with me in the morning – when I spoke to the gentleman in the ticket office about my personal options for buying a ticket (I wanted to buy a weekly ticket, but needed to travel two extra stops to drop Mum off at the airport, then return to Mascot again to start work), I had to pay $17.40 for a one-way ticket to the International terminal (bearing in mind it normally costs me $16.80 for a return ticket to work for the day!!) … then I had to buy another ticket just for two stations away at another $13.40 (yikes!!
), followed by another $8.40 to return home again at the end of the day. Daylight robbery, is all I can say!!! 😦

Talking about Mum, unfortunately the poor love got stuck at the airport from 8.00am until 4.30pm due to a cancelled plane service to Christchurch and people having to now travel via Auckland (darn-it) … eventually though she got home, but is no doubt even now still recovering!

Before Mum went home we had some wonderful social outings – it was Brenda’s birthday last Thursday, so we went out to a Malaysian restaurant at Castle Hill for a delicious dinner with all of us plus one more of Brenda’s closest friends (who I like a lot) … then on Friday we had a BBQ at home with some of Nigel’s work colleagues. This weekend I’m being a lazy slob and hoping to get a tiny bit of stitching done, so no social outings for me this weekend! I get home too late and too tired to do anything during the week, so I need to start making use of my spare time. Tomorrow, though, my first job is to head out to the local Post Office to open a PO Box at Mascot so I can organise my mail to be redirected (it’s been piling up in Melbourne for a couple of weeks now!), and pick up my Sydney “e-tag” for the toll roads here. Yes, that’s yet another of the differences between Mel and Syd (cash toll booths and many toll roads).

Anyway, I’m feeling a bit wrecked, so I might call it a night – I started off writing this quite eagerly, but my eyes are half-closed already and my mind has become extremely foggy … so time to sign off before I fall asleep in a pile of drool at my keyboard!!

My apologies to people I owe emails to, and also for the fact I’m not blog reading much at the moment … with my lack of spare time blogs are a bit of a low priority for now – hopefully, though, things will change eventually 🙂

Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Travel

Farewell to Melbourne … but hello eastern coastline!

14 November, 200725 February, 2012 Anne S

Before I do anything else, let me post a piccie of Tannia, Mum, Fraze and Jason (and me) from our pub night out – for some reason WP won’t let me edit my last post whatsoever, so the formatting is totally screwed up, and a couple of piccies missing ho-hum …

Rightio, back to the story we go …

My final day at work in Melbourne was very very sad – I was mortified that the my fellow Hotliners had done a small collection for me (which never happens for a secondment as technically you’re not ‘leaving’) … so I was very unprepared when a sign went up saying the presentation for Anne was about to start … yikes!! I was so overcome emotionally I could hardly say anything, and got all teary-eyed. Their gift for me was perfect – I got given a book of Sydney street maps for driving (which was christened on my way into the city on Saturday night) and a $50 gift voucher from Visa so I can use it anywhere … to say I was stunned and touched is a definite understatement!!

Anyway, we didn’t do too badly by getting on the road by 1pm (I finished work around 12 noon, although I only answered about 4 phone calls all day – I brought mini chocolate bars in for everyone in the building and spent 2 hours walking round handing them out and saying farewells to everybody … gotta love that! haha). As we’d been up since just after 4am, we decided not to push things on the first day of the journey, and drove as far as Sale before stopping for a leg stretch and drink (I also paid my RACV membership which had expired and got printouts of a driving map for the next day). After that we just drove to Lakes Entrance, arriving around 6pm, where we paid for a cabin with ensuite at one of the Big4 Holiday Parks. We unpacked the car which was basically the entire back seat jam-packed right up to the top of the seat head rests haha, and then wandered over for a walk up the river inlet and over to the beach to see what “90 mile beach” looked like. It was nice and invigorating having that walk, as we’d been feeling like death warmed up just moments before being over-tired. We finished the day with a chicken salad and bottle of wine while watching So You Think You Can Dance on TV … and so endeth our first day travelling. One highlight of the day for me was seeing an echidna on the side of the road (alive).

Day 2 saw us driving up the coast with a bit of a side trip. I’d been advised Mallacoota was a nice spot to visit, and I have to say they weren’t wrong, but before we got there we took a side trip to Marlo … a very small and peaceful hamlet, we were thrilled to see our first pelicans in the wild when we drove down to the water’s edge. I got a bit camera happy there, but loved every minute of it. I have to say, too, I wish I’d had the guts to also take a photo of some of the local fisherman as they looked like they’d just walked off the set of Deliverance!! Picture the long flowing beards and look of Z-Z-Top, and you’d have the image perfectly created!!

After Marlo we drove on to Mallacoota – it was a fair detour off the main highway, but it was just lovely. It’s definitely somewhere I could have stayed a night or two and enjoyed the peace and tranquility of the area. Here I found another stuffed duck to add to my collection (actually the dog here, Dusty, can obviously sniff out a ‘toy’ at 1000 paces ‘cos I caught him with his snout in the bag last night, with jaws around my poor duck – it’s now residing on a top shelf in the wardrobe away from his drooling jaws LOL), and I grabbed a cappuccino to take away so we could sit and have lunch and refreshments down on the lakefront watching yet more pelicans and their antics. They made me laugh when at one stage there were four of them lined up at the fishing station begging to be fed fish scraps – it was too funny!!

From Mallacoota we took one more quick detour before returning to the highway, to Gypsy Point – mentioned in the tourist info it’s supposed to be a great haven for bird lovers, and it was lovely and secluded with a small like in the bush setting … definitely a place to ‘get away from it all’ and relax. Here we managed to see some Galah’s up close (although they’re really common in Victoria too, Mum hadn’t seen them that close I don’t think).

After that we continued on hugging the coastline via Eden, Merrimbula, Perrimbula, and Tathra, before finally settling in at Bermagui for the night … but I’ll leave the tale there for another night, as it’s way past my bedtime before my alarm goes off at 5.50am tomorrow!

Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Melbourne

Arrived in one piece!

14 November, 200725 February, 2012 Anne S

Here we are in Sydney … 1190 km after leaving Melbourne, we’re really here!! In fact we arrived on Saturday night, but I haven’t had time to post until now. It was a great trip, with some exquisite scenery and wildlife that we encountered along the way. Parts of the trip were a bit boring, but you’ve gotta expect that driving across such a vast land mass. I’ll share a few photos of the journey just to give you a tiny taste of what we saw etc in another post (in fact, I think I’ll do a few separate posts to make uploads easier).

Firstly, though, I want to share some words of belated thanks to Jenna, my northern twin … weeks and weeks ago she sent me the most awesome card in the technique of quilling, and I just love it to death. I was parading it around the office showing it to anyone who would stand still long enough, then had it sitting on my desk all day. Unfortunately it arrived on the day when I was moving housesitting jobs and it got packed away – and I couldn’t blog about it immediately as I didn’t have internet access at the time. I did take a photo that night, but in no way does it do it justice (I really should take another photo in daylight!). I can finally share it, though … isn’t it the most perfect thing for a duck lover like myself? I just adore it to bits!! I’m going to get a wee frame for it to keep it protected – thanks so much again Jenna, I totally adore it! 😀

Rightio, now back to the travelling news etc … in fact, I think I’ll do a separate post for each day, and I’ll start off with snippets from our final week in Melbourne.

As I’ve already mentioned, we managed to get to see Tannia and Bill performing the week before we left – it was a wonderful listening experience, and the time flew past. I have to say the food was also great – and the company just as great. Thanks again Tannia for your friendship – while we only start meeting each other recently, I hope the friendship continues, and I look forward to the day when we can catch up once again 😀

On the Sunday before we left, I took one more day of annual leave so Mum and I could have a “free day” to go back out to the Mornington Peninsula and Arthur’s Seat to see how the gardens have changed, and see the roses in bloom. It was absolutely pelting down with rain, and I found out later there were flood warnings out past the area where we were … but we decided to brace ourselves and get out in the abysmal weather and still have an enjoyable day out. The winds were quite blustery so Mum’s umbrella ended up inside out a couple of times – and she was holding two umbrellas over me while I tried to take some photos of the roses – we didn’t let the weather get us down, and we had a really lovely time together as always. I’m very lucky to have a really close relationship with my Mum! Here are some photos I took that day … including a funny one of Mum!

Ashcombe Lavender Gardens & Maze
Of course we couldn’t go and not sample the rose petal scones – which were divine! (plus some plain ones)

I think this one is from the Myrtle family?

Of course I got all excited when I saw a row of ducks waddling in formation across the lawn – I finally managed to get a quick photo when they stopped for a bit of preening!

Enchanted Maze Garden
It was nice to see the cottage garden all filled in with flowers, and leaves on the trees 🙂

And the piece de resistance:

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On the way home we called in to see our good friend Sharon, along with Pete and Erin – as always it’s a pleasure to spend time with them … Sharon was the first stitching friend I made in Melbourne, and it was sad to say goodbye – but it’s not for good as Sharon is hoping to come visit me in Sydney, which will be wonderful! Both Mum and I adore her, and even though we didn’t see each other that often, I will miss being able to pop over and say “hi”. Sharon spoilt me rotten with some farewell gifts, which I forgot to take a photo of, and everything is now packed up – as soon as I unpack everything again, I’ll take a piccie – I especially adore the birdie ornament, it took my breath away – but everything was very thoughtful and touching … Erin kindly took a photo of the three of us ladies together – I’ll check that Sharon is OK to add the photo to the blog and hopefully I’ll be able to post that later as well 🙂

OK, that’ll do for today – there’s so much more to write, but I have to run to get ready as we’re heading out to catch a train to Katoomba today. Dragonfly Dreams, here we come!! 😉

Home & Family TO BE FIXED

Bye-bye to Melbourne

7 November, 200725 February, 2012 Anne S

Sorry, no time to write … am frantically trying to pack up the boot of the car etc ready for a 4am wake-up call to finish off the final packing and heading off to work for a 6am shift (the final one!). Then tomorrow lunchtime we take the journey up north … will try to write more either on the road or in Sydney – just haven’t had time to sit at the computer this week at all. I promise photos etc very very soon!!!

Now I’m off to pack up the laptop for the journey as well … hooroo!! 🙂

Home & Family TO BE FIXED

A little bit AWOL

2 November, 200725 February, 2012 Anne S

Sorry I’ve been absent for a while – things are pretty hectic around here, and to top things off my modem has been playing up and not working … tonight is the first time in a week I’ve managed to get the darned thing connecting hmmm.

Anyway, this is just a really quick post to let you know I haven’t fallen off the planet just yet – I’ve been spending my spare time catching up with wonderful friends in Melbourne … last Sunday we had a ladies day out at Tannia’s home, with Mum, Sharon, Tannia and myself, and had a fantastic day out – as always, Tannia was the perfect hostess, and it was a great day in great company 🙂

Yesterday we hiked all the way over from Airport West to Lilydale to catch up with Frazier’s folks, which was another great visit. We also caught up with Phil & Dawn, friends I made through Frazier a few years ago – they’re always great company, and the favourite of all of Frazier’s friends that I’ve met to date.

Tonight we spent a couple of hours in the storage unit in Highett before treating myself to a new duvet cover set in the sales at Myer at Southland shopping centre, then trekking out for almost 2 hours doing 15km/hour in peak hour traffic back to Airport West to feed the menagerie before heading straight out the door again to head back into the city. We met Frazier and Jason for dinner at a pub where Tannia and her DH play – it was wonderful to finally see and hear them performing together … Tannia has a magical voice, and it was truly a pleasure to spend the night out there. I hope it won’t be too long before we can catch up again 🙂 It’s been one of life’s treasures getting to know Tannia over the last year … and I hope there will be many more to come with our friendship 🙂

Tomorrow it’s back to work time, then I’ve been given Sunday off as annual leave, so we’re heading to the other side of the city again to Arthur’s Seat and the Mornington Peninsula to revisit the Enchanted Maze Gardens and Ashcombe Lavender Garden. I’m really looking forward to seeing how different the gardens look now the flowers are in bloom (especially the roses etc). Alas, then it’s back to work again right up until leaving on Thursday … ho-hum …

I have a few photos to share, but it’s now almost 1am and the alarm is going off at 7am, so I’d better call it a night – I’ll upload some piccies during the week hopefully and post again before we hit the road, as I have some lovely gifties to share – and one especially is very out-of-date as I received it weeks ago and didn’t get chance to blog about it immediately. When you see it, you’ll understand why it gets shown off to everyone that will stand still long enough, though 😉

Rightio, off to sleep I go … fingers crossed the modem connection returns later … hope you’re having a good week – my apologies for not blog reading at the moment, but things are a bit frantic around here of late …