Lunch at Woodford Pub.

We both worked really hard this morning, me starting nanowrimo and Warren in the garden raking and shoveling. As a reward for our efforts we decided to take ourselves out for lunch. Problem was where? Morning tea time was spent discussing where, a couple of places were dissed as being too far as we still had things to do, finally we chose Woodford but it would have been too hot at the coffee shop so the pub won out. Its over twelve months since we have been there.

This is the side of the pub, its a bit topsy turvy, I think it probably started as a small building and has been added to and added to over the years.

It was very popular at lunch no tables except either upstairs or on the verandas in front of the rough and ready bar, so called as guys can go there for a drink in their work clothes as long as they are wearing a shirt.

We chose the veranda as it was cool and there were not many smokers.

We ordered two entrees and bread, we have been before and their meals are BIG.

Spring rolls, Salt and pepper calamari and a bread (which came out looking like a pizza. There was a salad on each plate so we shared. It was more than enough. The calamari was thick slices and the best I have ever tasted, it was melt in the mouth.

This was what we brought home of the bread/pizza. With a salad it will go down very nicely for dinner.

Its funny but I realised today that we go out for lunch, rarely if ever we just go down to the local places for lunch. It is a real, go somewhere, if we do lunch. Woodford for us is a nice easy drive about thirty minutes away from home, we travel out the back way so quiet roads for about half the way, bit narrow and windy but its unusual to see more than one car on the way. A nice country drive with a pleasant meal at the end then get up and walk out, no prep, no dishes no hassle, of course the bank card does take a bit of a hit. Yes, it would be cheaper to eat at home but we do that the rest of the week.

Just an update on Nano, I wrote 1707 of my daily quota this morning, did want to do 2000 so may do some more later.

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.