BTONDAMF!!!
I have had such a fantastic couple of weeks
On Christmas day I went with ironicshell, Ironicshell Jr and shadowlands for a picnic at the Botanical Gardens. Lots of other people had our same fantastic idea. It was a fantastic idea because it was a really good, relaxing way of having some fun, particularly if you only have a few people. We ate, they chased away the evil swans from me, and played with Tess' new toys. Tess had issues about getting her iDogs or whatever they're called back.
That evening Aline and Tess kindly offered to help me with my gardening, so we tidied up the outside area. Then I made brandy filled goodness foodstuffs involving frozen plum pudding and hard sauce. I also had spot of bother with neighbours which I've previously posted about
Boxing day I got up early to get food ready for family to come. I hit upon a beautiful recipe for grilled haloumi and the best part is that it was so easy!!! I also had fun with inventing new salads. Salads are my thing. They are so yummy and so easy and you can do so many fun things with them. Boxing Day Lunch was of No Doom which is always a good thing, in spite of catty comments about the state of the lawn (stupid whipper snipper broke). I need to have more dinner parties. I shall come up with a dinner party plan at some point, but maybe not for a month or so.
Explaination of Mum not believing I could pack quickly.
Post Lunch:
Mum: We should clear up so that we can drive you to the train
Pennie: Yeah, that would help, especially since I still need to pack.
Mum: What? You haven't packed yet? *insert Mum comments*
Pennie: Hey, I am the Queen of Packing! It will not take long
Mum: Well, Granny and I can do the dishes and clear the kitchen while you pack and then we can keep ourselves occupied while you finish
Pennie: Did you not hear me say I am the Queen of Packing? I will be finished much earlier. It will only take me 15-20 minutes.
Table and Bench Area: Begins to be cleared by all including Pennie
Dishes: Are commenced during this time
Packing: Begins a little later
Packing: Is done
Dishes: Are still not done
Misc Random Items usually forgotten by most others: Remembered
Pennie: I told you so
Speaking of Mum - she used to try to get me witchy items for my birthday to show that she accepted it, but she'd always be way off the mark. I think she's now given up and just goes for the aromatherapy books because she's now done that two years running.
Anyway, was dropped off at Richmond station with absolutely NO flaking out on Mum's part who usually promises stuff and then renegs. Caught train to Frankston. shadowlands wonderfully picked me up and took us to the beautiful beach house in Rosebud. It was a very nice house with lots of lounge space and enough bed space and some outdoor space too, and it was only two blocks walk from the beach. In fact it took longer to cross the highway than it did to walk to the beach
The beach was a lovely beach. The first evening we went to have a paddle, only expecting to be able to go for a couple of metres as we were wearing clothes. 10 minutes walk straight out later.... it was still thigh deep. There were lots of crabs and octapi and mussels and fish and shells and seaweed and it was very pretty. Because it was so shallow it was very warm too. Yay! The same deal happened the next day, when we had to walk out so far to get to where it began to be deep, that the people on the shore were very very small and I couldn't see them without my glasses. The only bad thing about the beach is that it was too narrow and we had to sit on the spinafex grass on the sand dunes which wasn't too comfortable.
On the Tuesday we went to the beach during the day, but in spite of our best intentions, some people went lobster red, and we decided that it was too hot for beach during the day. This lead to a pattern of doing adventuring stuff early morning, sitting in front of the air con with closed windows and curtains during the middle of the day, and waiting until it was cool enough to go down to the beach. We had debates over when this was - some people said the official UV danger period ended at 3 so that was okay, I was of the camp that 4-5 was better as the sun was much lower. In spite of this, and a bottle of sunscreen I still got slightly burnt at 5pm of all times! not too badly though and only on a small patch on my back. Vitamin E fixed it quickly.
Things we did:
- Went to the beach every day
- Because we went late enough in the day the roads cooled down enough so I didn't have to worry about pesky things like mixing sandy feet and shoes, so could walk barefooted without burning my feet on the road
- Went on the ocean kayak
- Got lots of exercise by walking out to the deep parts every day
- Lounged about in the shallow parts where it was only ankle deep so you could lie down and still not be covered
- Did sudoku (wouldn't you know I got burnt because I was too absorbed in my sudoku to remember to re-apply sunscreen)
- Made sandcastles
- Went hunting for fish life
- Lamented the stupid 38 degree weather every day (only the last day was cool and Wednesday was passable enough to actually get out during the middle of the day)
- Hid inside during the middle of the day
- Watched Firefly, Bewitched and other assorted DVDs
- Read some bad chicklit I found about the house
- Played lots and lots of games
- Took up knitting. I'm beginning to make a beautiful fluffy wrap
- Had beer o'clock to help with the stupid heat
- Not handle the heat badly. Have everyone get cranky
- Have lots of cool people drop in and out all week. Lots of fun people to play with
- Discovered that there are other early risers, namely belinda_egtdbp gabyvarius and Mr pezzae
- Get in a smug group with other early risers (eg "Kat, hurry up, get ready, we've been up for hours, we want to go out NOW! before it gets hot. We've already had time to have breakfast, shower, 2nd breakfast, firefly, rummy AND plan what we're doing for the day")
- Accidentally wake late risers, but only because we didn't have anywhere much to go and talk...
- Went to Arthurs seat during the only semi hot day. Found extremely cheap tea room. Went on Chairlift. Went to lookout. Went to craft shop and bought beautiful wooden bowl. Went on walk around top of mountain. Went to sea beautiful gardens with Ricketts Sculpture, native plants, beautiful smelling pine trees and even more look outs. Discovered we went the wrong way because the last 500 metres was uphill
- Went berry picking. Ate lots of free berries. Was not as picky as the others as to the strawberries I picked. Yum yum yum strawberries fresh off the plant. Picked lots. Went and did some strawberry wine tasting back at the shop. Bought some strawberry liquour. Bought 2nds strawberries. Had lots and lots and lots of strawberries. Topped it off with a beautiful sundae with real vanilla ice cream
- Went to the carnival. Went on bouncing castle with a bouncing slide. Fun fun fun! Went on dodgem cars. Fun fun fun!
- Went to the Ashcombe maze on NYE morning. Went early because of forecast of 42 bloody degrees. First hedge maze was easy. 2nd was hard and we went around in circles constantly. The rose garden was also a maze with very pretty and sweet smelling roses. Went to see all of the other pretty gardens on the property. Tried to solve all of the riddles they gave from the clues around the garden. Due to shade of gardens, avoided heat. Went to have lunch inside. Went home approx 1pm. Discussed that the 42 forecast was a mistake, because it wasn't too hot
- Spoke too soon
- Was evil heat
- Had a low key NYE evening. Fish and Chips. Songstar and Dance Dance on the playstation. Was very bad at songstar because I didnt know the songs. Better at DDR.
- Drank all evening but in small quantities and slowly so didn't really get tipsy until about 11
- Some people drove down to join us, but were a fairly small bunch.
- Went to the beach at 11.45 with the rest of Rosebud. Saw that everyone was paying attention to the so called Total Fire Ban by setting off their fireworks.
- Went out onto the sandbar to count in the new year
- The group next to us counted to early. Oh well. We had fun anyway
- We sang pub songs at the top of our voices. Some drunken teens thought we were good. Um... yeah...
- Saw all the fireworks and flares going off around the bay. It was so extremely pretty. I couldn't have thought of a better way to bring in the new year.
- Got the influx of Happy NY texts when we got back to the house
- More people arrived
- Was a fairly early evening, although late for me. After falling asleep at 10pm every night for some unknown reason I was still wide awake at 2
- Woke up the next morning. Was muggy as all hell
- Went for a walk on the beach. Lots of grotty people had left beer cans and fireworks on the beach. Was disgusting. helped others clean up
- Cool change came through. Yay!!!!!!!!
- Too wet for anyone to bother going outside, so spent all day playing games
- Dance Dance was brought out again. I became hopelessly addicted. Spent all afternoon playing and still didn't get tired.
- Left this morning
- Got influx of happy birthday messages this morning. Thanks everyone!
- Opened up the presents I have so far
Yay btondamf!
Things that did not happen:
- Doom
- Heavy Drinking
- Tears
- Dramas
- Sitting around being bored
- Sitting around being miserable
- Debauchery
- Late nights
On Christmas day I went with ironicshell, Ironicshell Jr and shadowlands for a picnic at the Botanical Gardens. Lots of other people had our same fantastic idea. It was a fantastic idea because it was a really good, relaxing way of having some fun, particularly if you only have a few people. We ate, they chased away the evil swans from me, and played with Tess' new toys. Tess had issues about getting her iDogs or whatever they're called back.
That evening Aline and Tess kindly offered to help me with my gardening, so we tidied up the outside area. Then I made brandy filled goodness foodstuffs involving frozen plum pudding and hard sauce. I also had spot of bother with neighbours which I've previously posted about
Boxing day I got up early to get food ready for family to come. I hit upon a beautiful recipe for grilled haloumi and the best part is that it was so easy!!! I also had fun with inventing new salads. Salads are my thing. They are so yummy and so easy and you can do so many fun things with them. Boxing Day Lunch was of No Doom which is always a good thing, in spite of catty comments about the state of the lawn (stupid whipper snipper broke). I need to have more dinner parties. I shall come up with a dinner party plan at some point, but maybe not for a month or so.
Explaination of Mum not believing I could pack quickly.
Post Lunch:
Mum: We should clear up so that we can drive you to the train
Pennie: Yeah, that would help, especially since I still need to pack.
Mum: What? You haven't packed yet? *insert Mum comments*
Pennie: Hey, I am the Queen of Packing! It will not take long
Mum: Well, Granny and I can do the dishes and clear the kitchen while you pack and then we can keep ourselves occupied while you finish
Pennie: Did you not hear me say I am the Queen of Packing? I will be finished much earlier. It will only take me 15-20 minutes.
Table and Bench Area: Begins to be cleared by all including Pennie
Dishes: Are commenced during this time
Packing: Begins a little later
Packing: Is done
Dishes: Are still not done
Misc Random Items usually forgotten by most others: Remembered
Pennie: I told you so
Speaking of Mum - she used to try to get me witchy items for my birthday to show that she accepted it, but she'd always be way off the mark. I think she's now given up and just goes for the aromatherapy books because she's now done that two years running.
Anyway, was dropped off at Richmond station with absolutely NO flaking out on Mum's part who usually promises stuff and then renegs. Caught train to Frankston. shadowlands wonderfully picked me up and took us to the beautiful beach house in Rosebud. It was a very nice house with lots of lounge space and enough bed space and some outdoor space too, and it was only two blocks walk from the beach. In fact it took longer to cross the highway than it did to walk to the beach
The beach was a lovely beach. The first evening we went to have a paddle, only expecting to be able to go for a couple of metres as we were wearing clothes. 10 minutes walk straight out later.... it was still thigh deep. There were lots of crabs and octapi and mussels and fish and shells and seaweed and it was very pretty. Because it was so shallow it was very warm too. Yay! The same deal happened the next day, when we had to walk out so far to get to where it began to be deep, that the people on the shore were very very small and I couldn't see them without my glasses. The only bad thing about the beach is that it was too narrow and we had to sit on the spinafex grass on the sand dunes which wasn't too comfortable.
On the Tuesday we went to the beach during the day, but in spite of our best intentions, some people went lobster red, and we decided that it was too hot for beach during the day. This lead to a pattern of doing adventuring stuff early morning, sitting in front of the air con with closed windows and curtains during the middle of the day, and waiting until it was cool enough to go down to the beach. We had debates over when this was - some people said the official UV danger period ended at 3 so that was okay, I was of the camp that 4-5 was better as the sun was much lower. In spite of this, and a bottle of sunscreen I still got slightly burnt at 5pm of all times! not too badly though and only on a small patch on my back. Vitamin E fixed it quickly.
Things we did:
- Went to the beach every day
- Because we went late enough in the day the roads cooled down enough so I didn't have to worry about pesky things like mixing sandy feet and shoes, so could walk barefooted without burning my feet on the road
- Went on the ocean kayak
- Got lots of exercise by walking out to the deep parts every day
- Lounged about in the shallow parts where it was only ankle deep so you could lie down and still not be covered
- Did sudoku (wouldn't you know I got burnt because I was too absorbed in my sudoku to remember to re-apply sunscreen)
- Made sandcastles
- Went hunting for fish life
- Lamented the stupid 38 degree weather every day (only the last day was cool and Wednesday was passable enough to actually get out during the middle of the day)
- Hid inside during the middle of the day
- Watched Firefly, Bewitched and other assorted DVDs
- Read some bad chicklit I found about the house
- Played lots and lots of games
- Took up knitting. I'm beginning to make a beautiful fluffy wrap
- Had beer o'clock to help with the stupid heat
- Not handle the heat badly. Have everyone get cranky
- Have lots of cool people drop in and out all week. Lots of fun people to play with
- Discovered that there are other early risers, namely belinda_egtdbp gabyvarius and Mr pezzae
- Get in a smug group with other early risers (eg "Kat, hurry up, get ready, we've been up for hours, we want to go out NOW! before it gets hot. We've already had time to have breakfast, shower, 2nd breakfast, firefly, rummy AND plan what we're doing for the day")
- Accidentally wake late risers, but only because we didn't have anywhere much to go and talk...
- Went to Arthurs seat during the only semi hot day. Found extremely cheap tea room. Went on Chairlift. Went to lookout. Went to craft shop and bought beautiful wooden bowl. Went on walk around top of mountain. Went to sea beautiful gardens with Ricketts Sculpture, native plants, beautiful smelling pine trees and even more look outs. Discovered we went the wrong way because the last 500 metres was uphill
- Went berry picking. Ate lots of free berries. Was not as picky as the others as to the strawberries I picked. Yum yum yum strawberries fresh off the plant. Picked lots. Went and did some strawberry wine tasting back at the shop. Bought some strawberry liquour. Bought 2nds strawberries. Had lots and lots and lots of strawberries. Topped it off with a beautiful sundae with real vanilla ice cream
- Went to the carnival. Went on bouncing castle with a bouncing slide. Fun fun fun! Went on dodgem cars. Fun fun fun!
- Went to the Ashcombe maze on NYE morning. Went early because of forecast of 42 bloody degrees. First hedge maze was easy. 2nd was hard and we went around in circles constantly. The rose garden was also a maze with very pretty and sweet smelling roses. Went to see all of the other pretty gardens on the property. Tried to solve all of the riddles they gave from the clues around the garden. Due to shade of gardens, avoided heat. Went to have lunch inside. Went home approx 1pm. Discussed that the 42 forecast was a mistake, because it wasn't too hot
- Spoke too soon
- Was evil heat
- Had a low key NYE evening. Fish and Chips. Songstar and Dance Dance on the playstation. Was very bad at songstar because I didnt know the songs. Better at DDR.
- Drank all evening but in small quantities and slowly so didn't really get tipsy until about 11
- Some people drove down to join us, but were a fairly small bunch.
- Went to the beach at 11.45 with the rest of Rosebud. Saw that everyone was paying attention to the so called Total Fire Ban by setting off their fireworks.
- Went out onto the sandbar to count in the new year
- The group next to us counted to early. Oh well. We had fun anyway
- We sang pub songs at the top of our voices. Some drunken teens thought we were good. Um... yeah...
- Saw all the fireworks and flares going off around the bay. It was so extremely pretty. I couldn't have thought of a better way to bring in the new year.
- Got the influx of Happy NY texts when we got back to the house
- More people arrived
- Was a fairly early evening, although late for me. After falling asleep at 10pm every night for some unknown reason I was still wide awake at 2
- Woke up the next morning. Was muggy as all hell
- Went for a walk on the beach. Lots of grotty people had left beer cans and fireworks on the beach. Was disgusting. helped others clean up
- Cool change came through. Yay!!!!!!!!
- Too wet for anyone to bother going outside, so spent all day playing games
- Dance Dance was brought out again. I became hopelessly addicted. Spent all afternoon playing and still didn't get tired.
- Left this morning
- Got influx of happy birthday messages this morning. Thanks everyone!
- Opened up the presents I have so far
Yay btondamf!
Things that did not happen:
- Doom
- Heavy Drinking
- Tears
- Dramas
- Sitting around being bored
- Sitting around being miserable
- Debauchery
- Late nights