My Spy

I took Aidan to see this movie earlier in the week. I had seen the shorts and thought that it looked good. Sometimes the only best bits are in the shorts but not this one, it was a really good and funny movie.

Mainly about a nine year old girl who turned the tables on a couple of spies. I know some kids who can do deals but this kid was good, real good!

Great colour names

Shopping for wool two or three months ago, I bought some large 200gm balls of wool. At the time I had no plan but at the start of the tennis, I decided to crochet 30cm by 30cms squares and eventually make them into a blanket. I used the first ball and got two squares and almost a third.

If I wanted to make a blanket, I would need more wool as I only had one ball of each.  I took the band's down to Spotlight with the dye number and name of the colour. This was a first for me to go with an actual plan in  mind.

The colours are called Aqua, Mint, Royal and Peacock, so blues and greens.

I started with the Aqua, I need five squares from each colour which will make the end result about 120 x 160 or 4 x 5 squares. I may do a strip of cream between each and around the outside.

I am on to the last ball now, peacock which is on the left. I will have it finished by the time the Aussie Open (tennis) finishes next week. I do get a lot of crocheting done while watching or at least listening to the tennis.

I am also making slippers and set myself a task of 25 pairs, I think I am on to pair 15.

Rain!

Such a lovely noise to hear. It started raining last Saturday and while it hasn't rained all week, we had had milder weather with several days being overcast.
The rain has helped with the fires and also the drought areas although the effect won't be felt for several months yet.
Last night after we went to bed, the rain was quite loud and we had Lucy come into our bedroom, I guess she had not heard rain that loud before and as she is frightened of storms, it stands to reason to think she was scared of the noisy rain.
Again we have been lucky where we live as the rain is welcome but down south only a hundred or so mms away they have had floods!

A yak day.

Make that a kayak day which we had yesterday. Half an hour from home is a cache on a shelly outcrop up a tree. We were kayaking there a few months ago and had just loaded the kayaks after a paddle when my phone dinged to say there was a new cache. We had been within 400 metres of it but certainly weren't going to unload and paddle out there again as we had already paddled a couple of kms.  It was put on the back burner for awhile.

Last school holidays we had a plan in place to go and get it, however the sea was rough and so it was shelved again.

Great day yesterday for getting out of the water, Warren checked the tides and yep we could get out there and the tide would hopefully help us back.

Mine is the purple one off to the left.

We only had 1200m to paddle except 200 metres out the wind came up and we weren't going anywhere or least not in the right direction. 

We had to turn back and Warren ended up towing me for the last bit back as if I took a rest the water moved me further down. At least I didn't fall in, Sheridan got out of her kayak when the water was about thigh high, she said she could see the bottom, a wave knocked the kayak into her leg and over she went.  I was wearing long pants to guard against sunburn and the bottoms of my pants got wet and the waves did come over the front at times. Today I have a sore neck just from muscle use that I dont usually use. 

The Power of One.

We were watching tennis played in Adelaide last night and jt finished early and they ( the TV organisers) brought the movie forward by half an hour.   Have not watched a movie on TV for a long time and this one started at 9pm.

As we had both read the book but years ago, we decided to sit up and watch it.

What a powerful movie and in a way, a horrible movie because of the violence and treatment of the black population in Africa. I don't think it was based on a true story but I'm sure many of those things did occur.

Tennis

Because Warren is volunteering at the tennis, he got free tickets, two by two in the daytime and one by two night games. Australia team was playing but they weren't giving away those tickets as they were expected to sell out which I think they did or came close.

We elected to see Canada versus Greece which was the very first game of the newest competition.  It kicked off at 10am and we caught the 8.38am train.

The format was eight teams in Brisbane, eight in Sydney and a further eight in Perth. Top seed Nadal and his country's team played in Perth, second seed in Sydney and the Aussie team in Brisbane. It was a round robin, two singles and a doubles. Our guys won all three each time and therefore went straight into the quarter finals and today against Great Britian, they went 2- 1. Our young Alex had a three hour twenty minute singles match and lost it then he backed up for another three hour doubles match which he and Nick won, so nail biting.

 It is a great venue there are no poor seats at all. This was taken at the night game which Sheridan and I went and saw Greece and Germany.

Our Aussie team.

My Op Shop Bonus.

I always like to check out what the local op shop has on offer. I have bought containers suitable for caches before as well as did one covers and sheets that I have turned into the backs of quilts.

A couple of weeks before Christmas, my crochet tutor was looking for chocolate wool and being summer not in the shops. It was suggested that there may be some at op shops. I have never considered that op shops would or could have donated wool.

I bought two bags of wool that were there, one had odd balls, the other had bits and pieces. They were $3 and $2 so not a lot of mobey if I couldnt use them.

The second bag had a mess in the middle, it looked like a cat had been playing with it. Now Warren in the past has sorted out wool for me before, so I asked him if he could do something about it. It took him a couple of hours and then he presented me with lots of small balls of wool.

I have just finished crocheting slippers with it and pretty much used all of it.

Oh, photo is quite dark but there are nine pairs of slippers in the box.  I like to place one inside the other. They are designated for a charity. It is also part of my 20 challengers for 2020 to crochet 25 pairs, I am figuring that I will knock that over by the end of the tennis. The pattern that I have been using is called one hour slippers, well, I am getting faster but it does take me more than one hour. Good value though to get nine pairs for $2.

Trains

Yesterday we had free tickets to the tennis. Tickets include free public transport. Our train got in at Roma street where we needed to change trains and platforms with only five minutes to wait, then it was an easy walk to the tennis centre. All good. 

Warren was staying on so I left about 2pm, it was hot and I knew it would take me about an hour and a half to get home.

I hadn't bother to check the timetable as two lines come in, both heading to the city about fifteen minutes apart so most I would need to wait.plenty of room in shade.

I had taken my tablet to read a book but I didnt get it out for the first short trip. Again I had to change platforms but from the monitor, I had three minutes. The escalator was going the right way, halfway up another passenger says the train is here, hurry. Wow, a quick three minutes, I hurried to the open door with the conductor about to blow her whistle. Got out my book and it was announced Milton, what? Maybe a new station, next Auchenflower, oh shit, I was on the wrong train, not sure what line but it wasn't my train home. Got out and went to find a train going to the city. Phew, only five minutes away. No harm done.

Got on the right train and three stops later, an announcement was made that the train would terminate at the next stop. No shade on the platform and it was a twenty minute wait for the next one. Not happy Jane.

Trip took me two hous and twenty minutes and the car was really hot when I got in it. We have a windshield thing and did put it in the car a few weeks ago but of course we havent go used to actually using it yet.

New Years Eve at the beach

We wandered over to the beach front again and while walking, we couldn't go where we wanted to go. I spied a cafe and while it was a bit early for lunch or even morning tea anytime is coffee time.

After I gave the order the girl asked my name and I said Vicki, and she came back and agreed that the payment machine could be finky, not a word I would use and realised she didnt hear me properly. Her offsider gave her a hard time of it and we all had a laugh.

There was a big order just before mine so I was expecting a wait. Seating was outside and they had a big doggie bowl of water but of course Lucy never drinks when we are out but we showed it to her.

Looking around the cafe, I realised it had been a shipping container.

It was nicely done and seats under canopies with a playground alongside.

Sunsets

Just can't beat a good sunset.

A little later.

Taken up the coast a few months ago. 

But my all time favourite, if I can find it

This one was taken in Hangzhong.
Just realised that they have all been taken over water.

Wishing you all the best for 2020.