Bit of a warm end to January here. 30 degrees both days this weekend and tonight will plummet to 17 - definitely Queensland weather, but at least it is not humid. Things are drying off really rapidly which is good in one respect as it frees up the gardener from mowing and he will hopefully be able to get on with some of the other things I would have liked to get done, like starting to build up the walling around the edge of the future terrace area, maybe even installing a step so it is not just a potentially lethal slope up to the terrace surface. It would also help get rid of the various piles of sand and stuff as they could be distributed ahead of laying the pavers, but it may yet have to wait a while. A few of the fruit trees are not coping at all well with the heat and I may have lost a couple I suspect, due to not being here to water them.
Yesterday involved a bit of hall business and catching up with everyone who had to be ignored last weekend and keeping the dog company. The idea was to get most of that sorted before the heat arrived.
Today was supposed to be sitting indoors waiting for the heat to go away, and maybe getting some sewing done. No such luck. Pitt Street in the rush hour here all day. Went into town to get away from all that socialising and popped into the dig to collect my fry pan and containers. More socialising, sigh. Then the gardener, then caroline's husband looking for a spare sheet of ply and ... so much for a relaxing day.
I have bandicooted out some baby new potatoes which are parboiled, and waiting to be tossed in butter with garlic, rosemary, salt and pepper for dinner.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Sunday, January 22, 2012
The Dog Trials
Crack of dawn Saturday. A line of smoothcoated border collies along the fence. Advanced panic driving me on as I take the ute down to the Rec Ground shed to set up for the morning of the dog trials. So panicked, I am there half an hour early as I can not settle to read my book.
Urn on? check. Table cloths in place? check. Crockery set up? Check. tea and coffee, milk, sugar? Check. Cups? Check. then the ladies descended and started to play games.
How many sandwiches jo? Well you ladies have been doing this a lot longer than me, what do you think? Well you are in charge, how many are we expecting? Well, 20 they said, so I thought two loaves of bread, since we have savoury scones and x's rock cakes to go with them... NO, we usually have at least 4 loaves of bread and ... and so the it went on all day. Surprisingly, we ended the day without tears, and all the punters were happy, as you can see:
Our former organiser had been ferried out from her nursing home to take money for us and so was ensconced on pride of place to do just that. Apparently she had such a good day she was blithely unconcerned that her blood sugars were rather too high!!
That night they fended for themselves, but as I had their icecream in my freezer they called up to get that. Then they panicked as they had insufficient bowls for their dessert so I sent some of mine down, and then they called back up to tell me we were only expecting five for lunch on day two. This was a rather nasty shock as we had catered for 20, but I gritted my teeth and was pleasant and said in a fairly pointed jest that we probably needed to work out a way of getting firmer figures next year.
Next morning the dog population was significantly reduced as so many had been eliminated in the trials the previous day.
so I got in very early and made up the sandwiches (to avoid squabbles about how many we needed - no more sandwiches if there is no more bread, I thinks to myself), and even had the morning tea biscuits and slices arranged before the ladies arrived. They were a little miffed so I soothed their souls with cups of tea and leftovers and then the flood arrived. Not five. But 12 people paying up front for lunch. And the panic set in. I had to exercise considerable tact to avoid them rushing, lemming-like into Oatlands for more food.
I presented them with the second egg and bacon pie. And the bucket of icecream to supplement the fruitsalad and cream. And the frozen berries to make a second choice. And the (well, you can imagine - thank heaven for stockpiling is all I can say).
The end result was happy punters, fairly happy commmitee, and very happy president and Treasurer as we are now $640.00 richer! And the local IGA which supplied some of the food for free has had a free plug on local radio to thank them for their generosity (I cornered the local reporter when he came out to talk to the organiser of the dog trials).
So hopefully, the committee will also be thrilled, and our creditors as well, as we should be able to clear all our debts apart from a moral debt to the former organiser who had been paying a fairly hefty amount out of her own pocket in some of the previous years efforts ...
Urn on? check. Table cloths in place? check. Crockery set up? Check. tea and coffee, milk, sugar? Check. Cups? Check. then the ladies descended and started to play games.
How many sandwiches jo? Well you ladies have been doing this a lot longer than me, what do you think? Well you are in charge, how many are we expecting? Well, 20 they said, so I thought two loaves of bread, since we have savoury scones and x's rock cakes to go with them... NO, we usually have at least 4 loaves of bread and ... and so the it went on all day. Surprisingly, we ended the day without tears, and all the punters were happy, as you can see:
That night they fended for themselves, but as I had their icecream in my freezer they called up to get that. Then they panicked as they had insufficient bowls for their dessert so I sent some of mine down, and then they called back up to tell me we were only expecting five for lunch on day two. This was a rather nasty shock as we had catered for 20, but I gritted my teeth and was pleasant and said in a fairly pointed jest that we probably needed to work out a way of getting firmer figures next year.
Next morning the dog population was significantly reduced as so many had been eliminated in the trials the previous day.
so I got in very early and made up the sandwiches (to avoid squabbles about how many we needed - no more sandwiches if there is no more bread, I thinks to myself), and even had the morning tea biscuits and slices arranged before the ladies arrived. They were a little miffed so I soothed their souls with cups of tea and leftovers and then the flood arrived. Not five. But 12 people paying up front for lunch. And the panic set in. I had to exercise considerable tact to avoid them rushing, lemming-like into Oatlands for more food.
I presented them with the second egg and bacon pie. And the bucket of icecream to supplement the fruitsalad and cream. And the frozen berries to make a second choice. And the (well, you can imagine - thank heaven for stockpiling is all I can say).
The end result was happy punters, fairly happy commmitee, and very happy president and Treasurer as we are now $640.00 richer! And the local IGA which supplied some of the food for free has had a free plug on local radio to thank them for their generosity (I cornered the local reporter when he came out to talk to the organiser of the dog trials).
So hopefully, the committee will also be thrilled, and our creditors as well, as we should be able to clear all our debts apart from a moral debt to the former organiser who had been paying a fairly hefty amount out of her own pocket in some of the previous years efforts ...
Thursday, January 19, 2012
OK, so its not Sunday and I missed last week altogether and ... But I now have my laptop back so life is good.
Today I took the day off work and headed home last night. The day was spent cooking endless food
with the result my fridge looks like this.
The egg and bacon pies look like this (there are two of them):
Tomorrow night will be peeling endless potatoes, boiling new potatoes, boiling eggs and making mayonnaise to turn the latter into potato salad. Also shifting furniture down to the recreation grounds. That means that, after all that, and spending two days serving meals, washing up and being 'in charge' after this week at work, I will not be posting this Sunday either unless a minor miracle occurs ...
Today I took the day off work and headed home last night. The day was spent cooking endless food
with the result my fridge looks like this.
Tomorrow night will be peeling endless potatoes, boiling new potatoes, boiling eggs and making mayonnaise to turn the latter into potato salad. Also shifting furniture down to the recreation grounds. That means that, after all that, and spending two days serving meals, washing up and being 'in charge' after this week at work, I will not be posting this Sunday either unless a minor miracle occurs ...
Friday, January 13, 2012
New computer ...
Sorry for the protracted silence. The computer went in to have a service and was found to be infected badly. So I now have a desktop as well as a laptop, but the laptop is still being fixed ...
So lots to catch you up on I suspect.
Am busy cooking this weekend as the Dog Trials are next weekend, rather unexpectedly. So it is egg and bacon pies at dawn for me. Recovered from last week's heat wave, but still catching up on lost sleep. The committee is going strong and our first meeting I pushed through all the business that needed to be dealt with but may have upset the Vice President a bit, I suspect...
Will fill you in on Sunday when I have had a chance to catch up with myself.
So lots to catch you up on I suspect.
Am busy cooking this weekend as the Dog Trials are next weekend, rather unexpectedly. So it is egg and bacon pies at dawn for me. Recovered from last week's heat wave, but still catching up on lost sleep. The committee is going strong and our first meeting I pushed through all the business that needed to be dealt with but may have upset the Vice President a bit, I suspect...
Will fill you in on Sunday when I have had a chance to catch up with myself.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
New Years Day
So - 2012 then ... Wonder where the other 12 years got to. I remember when I was younger and I worked out how old I would be when the turn of the century came around, and concluded i would be nearly dead by then I would be so old. And here we are 12 years later and I am still here. One of the real pleasures of the Hall committee is that i am the youngster of the group - by at least a decade and often quite a bit more. While this has its down sides, it does make me feel a bit better about the aging process.
Today was started at 2 am when the sounds of hammering and thumpings arose which caused minor alarm but then I went back to bed. Turns out the local lads have repeated their efforts of the last three NYEs and painted the road (again), removed and defaced 'for sale' signs (again) and left several inches of rubber on the roads (again). As Alison and i said as I helped her remove all the 'for sale' signs from her front fence, it is time we showed them how it is done. So perhaps next year she and I will give them a lesson in how to bring the NY in with style, (if I can stay awake that long, lol).
Barbara and Lucas came up for lunch and a sticky beak a the hall. Then Barry and Eleanor called around (by invitation - Barry is an architect) and provided a bit of advice/confirmed my views on why the hall was leaning and how best to deal with it -as well as what additional research might be desirable (like getting into the roof space - something I have avoided so far). So now I can be a bit more confident about the various 'solutions' proposed by my councillor Vice President whose approach to building solutions seem a little gung-ho. With any luck I will win solely on the basis of cost, as his solution (run tie rods across the hall at intervals, and jack it up to level) will cause more problems than it solves in my view and (fortunately) in Barry's.
Then they all wandered off again and left me with the dog and one cat. Smidgen has been returning late for a few nights. Last night was justified as the neighbour's dogs got stuck in and he went to ground under Alison's house. Not sure what his excuse is today as he has to be about somewhere but is not responding to calls. Will leave the laundry window open for him and hopefully he will be back some time soonish.
Today was started at 2 am when the sounds of hammering and thumpings arose which caused minor alarm but then I went back to bed. Turns out the local lads have repeated their efforts of the last three NYEs and painted the road (again), removed and defaced 'for sale' signs (again) and left several inches of rubber on the roads (again). As Alison and i said as I helped her remove all the 'for sale' signs from her front fence, it is time we showed them how it is done. So perhaps next year she and I will give them a lesson in how to bring the NY in with style, (if I can stay awake that long, lol).
Barbara and Lucas came up for lunch and a sticky beak a the hall. Then Barry and Eleanor called around (by invitation - Barry is an architect) and provided a bit of advice/confirmed my views on why the hall was leaning and how best to deal with it -as well as what additional research might be desirable (like getting into the roof space - something I have avoided so far). So now I can be a bit more confident about the various 'solutions' proposed by my councillor Vice President whose approach to building solutions seem a little gung-ho. With any luck I will win solely on the basis of cost, as his solution (run tie rods across the hall at intervals, and jack it up to level) will cause more problems than it solves in my view and (fortunately) in Barry's.
Then they all wandered off again and left me with the dog and one cat. Smidgen has been returning late for a few nights. Last night was justified as the neighbour's dogs got stuck in and he went to ground under Alison's house. Not sure what his excuse is today as he has to be about somewhere but is not responding to calls. Will leave the laundry window open for him and hopefully he will be back some time soonish.
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