Jamie Oliver's Super foods

Jamie has another TV program which started the other night. I like his food and enjoy cooking it, although I don't always follow exactly to what he does.

This is the greenery that I picked from the garden this evening. Lettuce, parsley, mint and basil.

Jamie did a (cant spell the word I want) dish using brown rice, parsley, mint, pomegranate and feta. 

Of course I forgot to buy feta but I was sure that I could get around that.

This was tonight's dinner, I added some cooked chicken in place of the feta. It was nice for a change. I didn't know if I could buy a pomegranate but yep, there they were in the supermarket. Our neighbours had a tree and their daughter and I used to eat then straight off the tree when we were kids and end up with wine coloured juice dripping off our hands. I don't know what they did with them except eat them raw. They are quite nice to eat but hard work to get at all the seeds.

Happy Halloween

A few weeks ago I bought a big bag of lolly pops ready for tonight. I also bought last weeks some chocolates and a box of chips and popcorn, I thought that might counteract the sweets.

I had a big bowl at the front door ready. About four we put out candles and small pumpkins to let the kids know that they could come to the door.

Many of our friends wont have a bar of Halloween. We tend to think that its great and we like to see the kids dressed up.

They started coming a from five thirty every few minutes or so. The cutest ones were four little girls aged from about two and a half to four, mums and dads wee with them and also dressed up.

Just when we thought we were going to run out and Warren suggested that we ration things by only giving one of two, there were no more. It is almost dark with street lighting so we took our things inside and enjoyed a couple of chocolates ourselves.

The kids were all polite and thanked us. They ranged in age from the two and a half to probably fifteen/sixteen.

Animal Kingdom

The year seven science that I attend are studying the Kingdoms. Animal, plant, Fungi and the other two (which I cant remember).

Things were going as normal with three boys trading comments and names with one other boy. The single boy was asked to go out with the regular teacher as she had something to show him. He didn't want to go at first, he probably thought he was going to get into trouble but she assured him that she thought he would like what she had to show him.

The class was given by a pre service teacher. A few minutes later the boy and teacher came back into the room followed by a duck, this was a wild duck not a domestic duck. The atmosphere in the room changed dramatically as all the kids were focused on the duck. I was a bit worried how they would handle it (the duck) but twelve thirteen year olds just wanted to be up close and personal with the duck. The lesson was halted for awhile.

One kid asked if he could pick it up and then did so, the duck was passed around from student to student, some preferred to look at it from a distance and some were happy just to pat it. The duck has obviously been hand reared and had followed a teacher from the creek that runs through the bottom of the school. They had taken it back but the next group who went to the creek for a class was followed as well.

The name calling and snide remarks to each other subsided for almost all of the rest of the lesson. The duck went to sleep while the kids watched a video on the classifications in the kingdoms. The teacher had told them that there was to be no talking while they watched it because the duck was asleep and they were pretty quiet.

Maybe we should have an animal in each week.

Nanowrimo 2015

Its almost that time again. Last weekend I re-signed and made a donation, now I am ready to go on Sunday which is Nov first.

This year, I have decided to write a tongue in cheek  book. I have titled it the ABC of Aging and it will be either my own experience or experiences that I have heard about.

Using the Alphabet with its 26 letters, I figure that each chapter should have around about 2000 words, which will get me my total (50,000 words) for the month.

I have thought about some of the things that I can comment on such as Arthritis, Aches and Aids.

Going to work this morning with both hands on the steering wheel, I felt an itch on my knee, I removed my hand and scratched it. Placing my hand back on the wheel, I experienced an ache near the base of my thumb. Oh no, there's that dreaded arthritis! By the time I got to work the ache had gone away but tonight on the way home it started to ache again.

Warren bless his cotton socks massaged some of his sprain massage oil into it and it feels a bit better but still the ache is there when typing. Maybe I should stop but then IT has won.

I am hoping to have enough material, thoughts or just plain waffle to make the 50,000 words by the last day in November.

This will be my sixth Nanowrimo, the first one was our experiences about living and working in China, the second one was based on a few stories from my Grandfather that I had been told as a kid. The last three was a trilogy about a widowed young mum and her sisters in law. Each one I have started I have "won" which just means that I completed writing 50,000 words before the end of November, not that mine was selected as the best story.

Nanowrimo stands for National November writing month.

Storms.

It is storm season and we had a bit doozy last night. We heard the thunder while we were watching TV and it got a bit closer. We shut the computer down and pulled the plug before we went to bed. We lost a computer a few years ago so now it thunder is close we usually do that.

Within a few minutes it was very loud and quite a bit of rain. Just picking up my book to have a read in bed when the lights went out and the fan and clock shut down, it was a power out. As we were already in bed, there was no point in getting out candles and other lights. I found it hard to get to sleep as we are used to sleeping with either the ceiling fan or the A/C going or both. The lightning was also shining through the bathroom window every few seconds it seemed. Very dark as no lights and then a crash of thunder followed by a flash of light.

At 1 am, the lounge room lights came on as well as the A/C and radio. So much noise and activity. I got up and switched things off and was able to sleep after that. The lawns look fresh his morning but not a great deal of evidence, other than that, of the storm.

Apparently we can expect more storms this afternoon and evening. Hopefully we won't lost power until after I have cooked dinner at least.

Grease

Well we got to the musical on Saturday afternoon and it only took just an hour to drive and find the place. Even though it is not far from here, none of us know it, I think I have only been there once before.

The bottom stalls where we had tickets were on a flat surface, I expected that it would be raised a little so that you could see over peoples head in front but not to be. We were in the last row before the stepped seating (prices were the same  guess it was first in, best seats). Fair bit of necking craning to see it all but it was mainly the singing and dance anyway that are the best parts.

The show went for fifty minutes and then an interval, Warren bought an ice cream for us but he missed out as he only had a $20 note on him. That's what happens when we all get so used to using a card (he made up for it after when we went to Maccas). The interval was 20 minutes and it finished about 4 pm. It rained fairly heavy just about all the way home but I don't think we had had very much rain just enough to water the lawns.

The small threatre apparently has lots of shows or artists come, I grabbed a program that went from Sept to Dec and most weekends there was something on. Cheaper than going into Brisbane but of course they wouldn't get the big productions but certainly worthwhile seeing what they will having next year.

I like Sundays

Sundays being the day of rest, we often just have the day at home which means I can potter and get  lot of things done.

I slept in a bit and then spent some time on the computer. Looking for glue sticks in my sewing room (this is what I was doing when the chair broke)I sorted and threw out some unwanted things (two bags to the bin) yay I found them and then  decorated my hat for next week. Also found the material that I bought for costume, washed that ready to go. Made it up but I do have a couple of seams that need to be changed, so still some work to do on that.

I mended a chair cushion and my pillow case that had a split seam, both took less than five minutes and had been waiting for a few weeks.

I also turned up some book covers that needed one seam sewn around the outside and then the ends turned in, there were six of those, they are now done.

I made a pizza for lunch, using a base that I had made last time and was in the freezer. Used up the last of the ham, while the oven was on I also made two small chicken pies, that's tonight's dinner and I preped an egg and bacon quiche that we had with salad for dinner.

Watched some cricket on TV during lunch, then cleaned the kitchen. Being Sunday and a day of rest, I rested on the bed while I read the rest of my book and had a twenty minute sleep.

Did the ironing (that sounds impressive but there was only two of Warren's handkerchiefs, a shirt and pair of pants for me)

I printed out a pattern and instructions for a tote bag that I plan to make for a Christmas gift.

Started knitting a teddy bear, haven't done much knitting lately too hot but I can make the teddies as they are quite small and its not so much sitting on me. I have lots of stuffing to put into them plus lots of wool so now I just need to knit the outside.

Got the washing off the line, washed on Saturday but too damp to get in before we keft and then of course it rained, which gave the clothes a good rinse.

A very productive day and oh and I didn't spent anything. Taking a challenge this month to see how many no spend days we can do in the month. I am up to sixteen and hopefully today will also be a no spend day

Anh Do

I have just finishing reading this book. It is a gripping, at times sad funny tale of one of Australia's funny men. 

He makes his living now as a comic and he certainly tells a good story.

One particular story is about how his younger brother was dressed as a girl for two or three years. I had heard this before but didn't know why. In the book it is explained. When they arrived in Australia and were put into refugee housing, this was several years ago and not as many people. A church group was told about this family but somehow the structure of the family was mixed up and for the Do family a clothing package arrived for a couple and one small boy about three and a small girl about eighteen months old. 

The family were grateful for the clothing and although they had two boys they used the clothing and dressed the younger one in dresses until the father was employed and they no longer got the care packets.

Its a very good read.

Banks can be.........

Funny (and that's not the haha kind) annoying and frustrating.

Last month our credit card was compromised ($3400 plus $104 for an overseas transaction).

As soon as I noticed it I rang the bank. They jumped into action which was great, our cards were cancelled immediately and new ones issued. It did mean that we were without cards to draw funds for almost a week, thank goodness I had opened an account at another bank a couple of years ago and could draw from that or go into a branch.

As Warren is the primary card holder which p......es me off no end as it is or should be equal, he had to go into the bank to activate our new cards. This 3.5K was still sitting on our account as owing, Warren spoke to the bank and was told it would or could take up to three weeks to be resolved.

Three weeks and one day he contacted them again and was then told that he hadn't requested the bank to do anything. He reminded them that I had rung "Oh, yes Sir but your wife is not the primary card holder" Again he reminded them that they had cancelled and issued new ones on my (secondary holder) say so. They said that they could then do it and it would be resolved in three working days. That was on a Tuesday, we gave them until Friday before we checked the bank balance online.

Finally the bigger amount was returned to our account and the following day the lesser amount. Two days later neither the taking off nor the return of the money was on our account, its as though it didn't even happen.

Of course with me being the secondary holder I am not even supposed to operate the online banking Pfffffff!

There was a Fall!

The morning started well as well as early. Young Aidan was visiting and he had asked for an apple and there was none in the fridge. I know that I needed to go and do some grocery shopping so I went early and was at the shops a few minutes after eight o'clock. Not too many people around so I was done and home again before nine.

Shopping done and put away, washing done and hung out, lunch cooking even morning tea over so I thought I would have a couple of hours in my sewing room. I have my costume to make for Melbourne Cup and time is ticking away.

I thought I would at least get my hat done. I had the cards ready to glue and my hat ready plus glue gun, then it was just a matter of finding where the glue sticks are to get started. I am sitting on my chair when I heard a noise and then I was on the floor! One of the legs had snapped. There were five wheels on the bottom of it and one had broken through.

This was how it had happened, broke and then pitched me forward.

Warren has glued it back on with super glue but I am not using it!

I can't work at my machine in my sewing room without a chair! Back out to the shops again, this time to Office Works. Now Office Works is one of those shops that I love to go to and I could spend a bit of money there on things that I like but no longer have much of a need for now.

I know that they have chairs and I was very good, I only stopped and looked at the new tablets and computers as they were on the way to the chairs.

Oh boy was there a choice but I dismissed the student chairs, the weight was very high nor was the comfort in sitting for a couple of hours. I didn't really want one with arms but I had to compromise. The stronger looking chairs did have arms. 

Lots of things to consider when buying a new chair, the comfort time of sitting, the weight it will endure, the width of the seat, the material, the adjustability and of course the cost. 

Prices ranged from $135 to $225, these all had chrome base and wheels and then I noticed that one of them had arms that could be pulled up which was a bonus for me, it was also the cheapest. 

The chair came in red, black or white. I didn't want a white one. Te box stated that it was a two person lift so I grabbed a store walker who located a black one and hoisted to on to his shoulder and walked to the counter where I paid and then he delivered it to the car for me.

Warren put it together for me when I got home and he informed me that it doesn't have chrome wheels, it just looks like chrome!

No time to use it as we were out this afternoon hopefuly tomorrow I will give it a good work out.

Lunch and left overs.

On Tuesday we had our house sitters came for lunch. We had met them before but this was the first time that they have been to the house. Silly me, I suggested they came for lunch but then I realised that I didn't know if they couldn't eat certain things or what they liked/didn't like.

As it was hot and they were coming after an arranged meeting so weren't exactly sure when they could get here, I had cold meat and salads.

Three different types of meat, some hard boiled eggs, potato and coleslaw with bread rolls and a sponge roll to have with coffee. Thankfully they were easy to please and didn't have any allergies.

However because I had prepared quite a bit of food we had plenty left overs so that was dinner for us as well.

I had read about someone who makes extra mashed potato when they have it and then she makes potato cakes from the extra.

I get sick of the same foods, two meals are okay but no more than that so I decided to give the potato cakes a go.

There wasn't very much mayo on the potatoes so I just mashed them and then I added the coleslaw as well, this was made from cabbage, carrot, apple and onion so I figured it would be okay. Added them together with the rest of the rice flour that I had about a quarter of a cup and formed them into patties, round them in flour and lightly fried them.

Two lots of lunches for to take to work and no waste, what a bonus. The original recipe had half potato and half cheese but I forgot that!

Grease the musical

Each morning as I go to work I listen to a Sunshine Coast radio station. They have a pretty good mix of music and chat and don't laugh too much. I find that some of the teams on radio laugh a lot and to me its annoying. I don't know how I got onto this radio station but in the mornings just after 7.30 they have a trivia quiz, which I like to test myself on.

The station that Warren usually has on in the mornings also has a trivia but once the listener who has rang in gets one wrong its all over. Sunshine coast one goes until the time is up, people who call in can win $1000 if they get all 10 questions right and they do get $10 for each answer that they get.

Anyway, last week the announcers were talking about Grease being played at Caloundra  about an hour north of us. I didn't know when as they didn't add that bit so when I got home I googled it (yay for Mr Google).

It was to be on this weekend only for three nights and a Saturday matinee.

Bookings tickets became a nightmare. I could do it on-line or ring the box office which was only available Mon to Fri from nine to five. Select five tickets and went to do the rest only to have a blank screen come up, I do it again, this time it tells my that my session has timed out. Wow, I had gone from one screen to the next and timed out! Really!

There was a spot where people could contact them by email so I wrote an email, tellin them that I was disappointed that I couldn't book on-line. They replied giving me another site, I think it was the same one! Nope, not a cracker.

Yesterday as I was going to work, I asked Warren to either ring them or try on-line.  Having a coffee after work, he suddenly remembered that he hadn't rung, it was 5.05 pm. I thought that we could give the on-line booking another go, he seems to have more luck with some things than I do.

This morning at 7.30, he tried and got a little further than I had, I told him that I would ring them when the box office opened. He insisted and persisted and finally after a bit of swearing, forty five minutes later he was printing tickets.

Now all we have to do is get there on Saturday and remember to take the tickets, I hope its a good show.

Google Box

What a program! We didn't watch it last year when it started. I mean, who in their right minds would watch people watching TV and commenting on it in their own homes.

We watched the first program this year and loved it,it is so funny. I havent decided who are my favourites as they are quite different.

We were tired last week as didnt want to sit up and watch so Warren recorded it and we watched it on the weekend. One of the programs that they were commenting on was the new one called The Verdict. Again it is a show that we havent watched as they have advertised it "as a talk show with some of the finest minds in Australia". On the ads, it shows some of those that are on and it is embarrassing to think that "they" consider them some of our finest minds.

All the groups on Google Box had similar thoughts on the show.

One woman who really calls a spade a spade asked her friend "What was the criteria to be on the show, did they have to be dick heads?"  I agree with her.

Wont be watching The Verdict but will continue to watch Google Box when it is on.

Christmas Decorations.

I know people have been talking about Christmas decorations being out in stores for awhile but I haven't really taken much notice, until yesterday. I went to my favourite shop Spotlight and got the material that I wanted (and a couple of pieces as well that wasn't in the game plan but will make some great Christmas presents).

After I wandered down into the homemakers area as I did want to buy some soap mould and in that corner of the store was row after row of Christmas decorations. One shelf had Santas sitting up the top, there must have been thirty or more, the Santas looked to be about 80cms high, then there were the lights and the tinsel as well everything else.

It is still over two months to Christmas. I am doing a couple of things early as I will need to post them early. From Spotlight I went across to Woolworths to pick up a couple of things and they had Christmas cakes,mine pies and puddings. I did buy a small pudding and some packs of mince pies, they are now in the freezer. I do like the Christmas fruit mince pies and I bought the pudding as they has single serves ones and that is all that Warren and I need so bought it while it was available.

I don't put our Christmas decorations up until December first, even then I don't do too much.

Its October!

I know this just by driving down the streets. One thing that I love about living here in SE Queensland is the jacaranda trees.

It seems that as soon as October arrives,these trees flower. This particular one is just across and down the next street a bit. I see it every morning while I drive away from home. There are many many of these trees in and around Brisbane. They are dotted around schools as well. the colours are great and seeing them always gives me a lift, I'm not sure if its because of the colour or the nicer weather but I love seeing these out in flower. The flowers last quite awhile as well so we will be able to see these for another few weeks at least, then the real hot weather starts.

Turkey, Brie and Cranberry

Yum, this was one of my favourite sandwiches to buy for lunch when i was working in Canberra nearly twenty years ago. It wasn't your usual run of the mill sandwich filling available just anywhere so about once a fortnight I would go a little further and meet a friend at the bus terminal to have lunch and this is what I would order.

I had forgotten all about this sandwich filling until we droppen into a very small township for lunch while we were in Tasmania. We had settled on driving to this town and then stopped for lunch. It was smaller than I had thought and we were thinking that we would have to go onto the next place as we hadn't seen any cafes/coffee shops/bakeries. Then bam! there was a grey corrigated iron place with a flapping sign out the front announcing coffee. That was good enough for us even though we had to do a uey to get there.

 (Its funny how things come into play in our unconscious minds, we are doing poetry at school and one of the things are using the sounds as words, I put bam! without thinking but reading back over what I had written realised it was because of yesterday's lesson, just dont ask me to spell the word, it has a nice ring though when its said)  

The menu options were small with only five sandwiches on offer and a soup but I had seen what I wanted, turkey brie and cranberry! Warren decided to go with that option as well, sometimes we order the same to make it easier and quicker.The sandwich was quite a bit dearer than I remembered paying in Canberra but that had been several years ago.

Our coffees were delivered in a very short time closly followed by our lunch. I hate it when ordering a meal/snack and a coffee and the drinks come out but then there is such a wait on the meal that I hve almost drunk my drink before the meal comes, I want to have them together so that was very nice for the two to be served within a minute or two.

Well, it may have cost $13 but what a spread! It looked like sour dough bread so quite a large sandwich with turkey and brie inside, it had been lightly toasted, just enough for the cheese to be pliable and a little runny when the sandwich was cut (had to cut it as the size was quite big) cranberry sauce was on the side served n on of those chinese type scoop spoon and then a salad on the plate as well. The plate was the size of a dinner plate. Yum! It was so nice.

That nice in fact that I have done the same for our lunch a couple of times since we have been back. Mine doesn't look quite the same but the taste is pretty good and its cheaper.

The deli where I have been buying cold meats have been cutting the meats a little thicker which is great, so two slices of turkey meat is plenty and I bought some Tasmania brie on special a bottle of cranberry sauce plus bread and done. At home cost is about  $3 each

Snakes in the neigbourhood

Even though we are officially in spring, the weather is quite warm.Warm enough to bring out the snakes. Les, across the road had a one metre snake in the back yard this morning. Luckily for them the owner of their house and the builder of ours was next door doing some up grading to that house and he came over and disposed of it.

It was a brown snake, one of the deadliest and Brian  dispatched it pretty quickly. As there is a creek at the bottom of the street its not surprising that snakes are around although I have never seen one here except the  little tree snake that was on our back patio a few months ago. Even though the animal zoo hospital came and collected him, I don't think they could have done too much for that one.

Warren has put some sealer around the garage door just in case the brown snake has any siblings around

Replacement (2)

Last year we ad ceiling fans put in the bedrooms and living areas. They were all the same except we bought a different one and a better one for the lounge (we thought). While yes, it was different, black blades instead of white and bigger, it wasnt the best. Warren didnt like the light, coudnt read without another light on in the room and I didn't like the strings for controls (it reminded me of an old fashioned toilet cistern)

Having coffee on Saturday morning we were talking about the fan (yep, riveting conversation) and headed out to buy a new one, that we would make sure that it ticked all the boxes.

This is the replacement with five blades, giving more wind, two led lights and a remote control so no strings!

Of course then we needed an electrician, electricity is too scary to muck around with, so Waren rang the guys who came last year.

We did have to pay a call out visit and then so much per fifteen minutes.

Curvy blades.

and then with the light on.

Saving things for best

I grew up in a house hold that had a few things for "best". I especially remember a dinner set that Mum had that was Autumn shades which only came out at Christmas time when other family members came for Christmas. As Dad was one of three boys in the family that meant every three years as Christmas was shared around.

I really didn't like it when it was our turn to host as the Good dinner set had to be brought out and every piece washed and dried, guess who was home on school holidays and got that job under threat of death or worse if anything got broken. It was heavy too. Mum tried to give it to me years and years later and I turned it down saying that it didn't fit my colour scheme. I think it was a wedding present to them.

Some of this "only using for best" has grown up with me and rubbed off on me. Now that I am aware of it, I try to over come it. I  do have three dinner sets but none of them are special or kept for a particular reason.

Warren had a ring made for me when he worked in Cambodia, its a beautiful ring and yep, I have kept it for best or only when I go out so this ring in twenty years has not had that much of a showing. I put in on a few weeks ago when I was going out to lunch and I realised it was only the second time I had worn it this year.

Why am I keeping it??? It should be worn so since then I have worn it every day. I think if a stone falls out then I will get it fixed or stop wearing it if it cant be fixed but at least I will have the pleasure

of wearing it. It has two sapphires, two rubies and a diamond in the middle. Warren has always been concerned that the stones are not real but that doesnt bother me.

Oh, my goodness, my hands have gotten wrinkly, not sure when that happened!

Replacements

I have never really liked the curtains in our spare room. This room is used for guests and our house sitters when we have them.

They are on a draw string but only draw one way. This window doesnt get the sun so that is not an issue. There is a lace and block out behind the yellow. These curtains have been hanging here for approx eight years.

This is the second window in the room, it is above the bed and does get the sun in the mornings therefore the same curtain material could not be used for this one. Although it (the red) matches the bed linen, it is still not what I want for this room.

Saturday I decided to go shopping for new curtains at a new store Curtain Wonderland. I had only just heard that they had moved into the area and we were heading to Spotlight, where we bought our last curtains earlier in the year. I can make curtains but why go to all that bother when I can buy them ready made for approx the same price.

New curtains on a silver rod so they can slide either way, they are long to the ground as well. Curtains bought, washed, ironed (yes, ironed!) and hang in one day. It's amazing what gets achieved when there is no football.

I haven't completed the smaller window yet as that does require some cutting and sewing. It also cost me a bit more than I intended to pay but much happier with these and no need to get new curtain for another ten years or so.

Looking out for kids

On my way home, I called in the petrol station to fuel up for the coming week. Petrol was cheaper than it had been for awhile so it was busy. I pulled in behind two cars that were filling and waited for my turn

While I was waiting a small car pulled alongside of me and go to the pump first as the cars in front of them had paid and gone.

A woman in her thirties got out followed by a boy about seven, later two small girls got out of the car, they looked about four and two. While mum was busy filling the car the girls were running and skipping between the pumps and the cars.

They and Mum were probably confident about where they were but when I needed to move my car up to the pump it was bit worrying as to where they were. No way would I let kids out of the car while filling at a service station, just so dangerous.

I was glad to see them drive away before I did.

Bathurst

Its that time of the year again when Warren spends a whole day in front of the TV, watching cars go round and round.

I went out (after watching the start). The start can and has had spectacular stacks and while I should feel embarrassed and awful about seeing stacks, I feel that car racing is part and parcel of that.

The first crash and out was the girl team, there had been oil dropped on the track and she had dodged some but spun out anyway, straight into the wall crumpling the front. It was drive able but couldn't turn corners.  

Twenty six cars and fifty drivers started this morning and it had only just finished before I got home, over for another year.

Rugby (NRL) Grand Final

Last Sunday was the other code of football and while we don't follow it, just help knowing a bit about it. It was ironic that it is predominately a New South Wales sport, this year at finals time the two best teams were from Queensland. The Brisbane Broncos and the Townsville Cowboys. The game was still held in Sydney.

We were interested in the outcome and so at first were switching back and forth to at least keep up with the scores. Not looking too good for the Cowboys, it was 16 to 12 for quite some time.

Our program finished and there was nothing else that we wanted to watch so we did the last twenty minutes of the game. Finally the was a break through brought on by a very clever underhanded pass and some-one scored a try right on the full time buzzer. Making the score after 80 minutes 16 all. JT (Jonothon Thurston) had to kick it through to win the game. As the try was scored way out on the wing, it was a pretty difficult thing to pull off. The ball sailed through the air with everyone holding their breath, it was looking good and then the ball hit the inside of the post so no conversion! It was still a draw.

The way that the NRL determines draws at the finals by the Golden point, which I don't quite understand but it seems that they play until one team kicks a goal. Good old JT made a magic pass (this was after Brisbane had a chance and missed it) and then there was a goal making the Cowboys the winners 16 to 17.

I did have a soft spot for the Cowboys as they had not won a premiership in years besides its an Aussie culture thing to go for the underdogs.Go the Cowboys!

A Knight in Shining Armour

Or just Warren to the rescue. Back in Tassie when we went to the local supermarket to buy a microwave meal or something similar only to find that they had closed early (or early to us), there was a small Chinese restaurant.

We went in there and ordered a meal but decided to take it back to our cabin. We sat down to wait and a group of young girls came in and also sat at a table  ( they looked Chinese). After a few minutes there were screams and chairs being turned over and a lot of quick movements.

A spider had crawled from under the table and on to the top, hence the screams. It looked like a Huntsman (which is harmless but scary as they are big)

Warren moved over and grabbing a menu, he coached the spider on to it and then took him outside, I opened the door so it was a quick trip, and deposited him into a pot plant.

The girls were very thankful and changed tables. From previous experience we know that Chinese girls do not like any creeping crawlies.

15 year old boys

Wow, our news is certainly full of 15 year old boys at the moment, a shooting a terrorist attack and break ins. I know several 15 year old boys and I look at them and think that I just cant see any of them doing things like that.

Oddball

Thats the dogs name and also the name of the movie that we went to see this afternoon. Its a kids movie and released for the holidays. I had seen the shorts and thought hat it would be goos plus it had Shane Jacobson in it which should have made it a top movie and I was not disappointed.

I was a bit worried at one stage though when the dog was missing and I was hoping that nothing bad had happened to him when Warren leaned over and hissed to me "Its a movie!"

It was based on a true story set in a seaside town/city west of Melbourne and it was around the rescue of Fairy penguins. Very enjoyable, there was one other person in the theatre when Warren and I went in.

Edinburgh tattoo

This was on TV on Saturday night and it has always been on interest to us especially as we have been there. Warren was lucky enough to have had tickets given to him while he was stationed in England way back when. The same year when I visited him in England, we toured and Edinburgh and the castle was the first stop.

The parade ground where they do all the moves and drills become the bus parking for visitors when the Tattoo is not on.

This year was called East meets West and there were a couple of pipe bands from China, highland dancers, a mixed group from USA, Canada and Australia. The whole show went for an hour and a half and was good entertainment.

When we visited the Castle, the thing that I remember most was the graveyard for the soldiers dogs which I thought was sweet,it was very well attended too. The Castle itself is very impressive, I loved the cobblestones as we walked down the streets. I do have plan to return to England and Scotland in particular.

AFL Grand Final

Warren's team the Hawks (from Hawthorn Melbourne) was in the grand final yesterday and of course it was a must watch. The Hawks have been in the last four grand finals and won two up til the match yesterday and they pulled that one off too, so three in a row.

We have been watching the Marnbrook footy show on Thursday nights for most of the year, its very entertaining and they have former and current players on. It is an Indigenous program and not on the regular channels. Most of those on their panel choose West Coast Eagles to win.

West Coast are a Western Australian team and had o travel to Melbourne for the final on the other hand though Hawks had played two prelim finals in the West and traveled over there.

It was reported that more than 20,000 fans came across, Virgin put on extra planes to cope and then there were forty buses that left in convoy. 98,765 was the total to be at the game.

Ellie Goulding sang at the opening. My favourite player for Hawthorn won the best on ground, he is a little demon and has a big tattoo over his chest of an eagle, can see the wings of it on his upper arms.

Most of the players got their kids involved after, one guys baby had been born earlier in the week and he was nursing him when he collected his medal.

It was a good game although Hawks were in front the whole game.

Footy is over for the year what we do on Saturdays now?  

Travel bags

Six kilos can get darned heavy after a short time. Against my better judgement I was persuaded to leave my trolley suitcase at home and take a bag. Warren thought that my trolley bag would be a bit big for the plane and we didn't have to carry it far did we? Car to the airport and then car again. He forgot about the loong walk to the terminal, the loong walk on the tarmac and then the walk up the stairs to the plane. We flew Jetstar and opted to only have carry on.

Years and years ago we took an overseas trip, all five of us and we given cabin bags to use. These bags have been used on many many occasions and these are what we took to Tassie. However as we were going to the plane in Brisbane and carry these damned bags (no wheels on them!)I said to Warren I was going to buy a wheeled bag that would be suitable to carry on the plane and I would buy him one too if he wanted (out of my wages!) He said yes please.

No shops that sold luggage or bags until we got to Launceston and then I was in luck. Strandbags had a sale on. We had gone t one shop that I thought may have have wheelie bags but they didn't so I walked out and then couldn't find Warren. He had dropped back to ask where we could find such a place. She directed him to Strandbags.

This was the trolley bag that I bought for me, it is a little pink so Warren wont use it. He has used the one that I bought myself in Shanghai a couple of times. His is a grey one which he took on the plane on the way back as it had the computer in it. We came back with Virgin and had 23 kgs each to put in the hold.

The trolley bag really didn't hold any more than the soft bag but it was so nice to wheel it rater tan carry a dead weight. My grey bag didn't make it home, it still has some life in it but just not in my life.

I will use both trolley bags to store winter clothes until next season.

Freycinet National Park

This was our transport to view the park. It was touch and go whether we could go or not due to te weather. We thought we could go on the Monday but the pilot had been busy and had had to take the day off as a rest day, by law he is only allowed to fly for six days then he is required to est for at least a day. Problem was that Tuesday the forecast was not good so we had to wait and see.

A storm complete with thunder went through sometime Tuesday morning and we got a phone call to say that ten o'clock looked okay to get up if we wanted to go. We were only about twenty minutes from the air strip so we packed up and drove down. The weather was good with blue skies and white fluffy clouds. The plane is tiny, only room for four people.

We opted for a 45 minute flight costing $175 each but so worth it.

The above photo is Wineglass Bay so called because of its shape and also years ago when they used to slaughter the whales there, often the water was the colour of red wine. Jason the pilot gave a commentary while he was flying as well.

Early closures

We found many places closed early while we were in Tassie. Our first experience of this was with fuel. We drove into Burnie, it was the only time we has booked ahead and we were looking for the caravan park where we had a motel room booked.

We did have dinner with us, a couple of microwave meals but as we were at a seaside town, we thought fish and chip would be the thing. Warren said that we should get fuel as well because the car's red light had been on for a few kilometres. We had passed a service station a few kms back and so we drove there, it looked deserted even though an hour earlier it had been doing a roaring trade. Sign on the door, closed at 6pm. Damn! so we headed into town and saw two more with the same, luckily there was a woollies servo open just across from the fish and chip place. I hadn't realised that the need was quite so desperate but apparently Warren was a bit concerned that we wouldn't have made it back to the caravan park.

On Sunday we drove out of Hobart to Richmond and then across to the East Coast before heading north and decided to take a break and thought that coffee overlooking the sea would be nice. We parked and walked across the road to a cafe, door was locked! It was 3.30 in the afternoon but they closed at 3 o'clock! It was a tourist town surely. Luckily for us there was a tavern and bakery a couple of blocks away that was open until 4pm, we just made it for coffee and a welcome break.

Finding a motel at Bicheno, we saw a sign advertising the motels with sea views from all rooms and only $79, sounded good so we drove in and found the reception. Warren walked over , it was locked and boxes etc were in the reception area. Again there was a sign advising bookings could be made at a caravan park but we decided to pass as it looked a though no-one had stayed there for awhile. We headed to another caravan park and got a cabin. Venturing across to the local shops for something to cook or heat for dinner as the cabin had a microwave as well as a stove and cooking facilities.  Yep, it was closed at 5.45pm!

I guess we are just so used to places being open and accessible for much longer hours. There was a Chinese restaurant next door and we got a meal and took it back to the cabin, there was enough for the next night as well.