Get this year over

 Just when you think we are putting this behind us new restrictions are clamped on limiting gatherings to only 15 which means our baby shower crowd has to be rethought.  We are still seeing out the year with six of us here. I tried the snapper again on the basis of observing James' handiwork and by all accounts it was just as juicy. One thing I noticed with the thermometer in both cases went to the opposite end of the scale ie 88 Celsius which was super hot.  We walked off the tea with a very mild, low tide groyne walk.  

Superb

2021

more food

Snapper the 2nd

9:30 pm

Servant of Empire

 I took this book with me to QLD and it seems like it has taken an age to read it. Not that it is a bad read but it is an 800 page epic, full of political scheming that has so many characters you forget who is aligned with who and this is Vol 2 with the last book still to go.  

After our cleanup next door on the 28th, the next family arrived on the 29th, so our timing was perfect for the use of their house, although I wonder if they had bent their schedule to suit ours.  I asked them how the house was and  "It was perfect" was the reply.  So I guess we have passed the initial test, as we have designs on borrowing their house some more, for a fee.  We slipped in another question about how long they were staying for.  So far that 3rd weekend in January is looking clear.

Beach Warm Walk

 Today was declared a rest day although we did have one visitor for afternoon drinks being Janet from the previous Bacs era. The balcony was just the place.  Earlier in the morning I went over to the beach and did a wade thru to get some salty water into my sore spots. Also there was a later beach walk around 6:00pm as the tide was out and the southerly was cut off by the cliff so was quite pleasant. Much rubbish was picked up. This was the largest haul yet so there must have been some extra partying. 

Old BACS week

Kentucky garbage

This nail seems to have settled back in place

Let's go to the video tape

 I did not have a lot of time for video during the two days but did manage to get a sample of the goings on. Asher is still a bit croaky and coughy.

Clean Up

 It is a good thing the garbage man paid a visit today. We used three large yellow bins and three brown garbage bins to cram in our two day feasting refuse.  The clean up went well and the few bath towels from next door were washed, dried and back in position before they knew it. Some clumsy foot person fell over during the clean up and laid down for a rest on the driveway. How inconvenient. All up the weather was good, the food was even better and a good time was had by all. 

I was expecting a parallel step - that's my excuse.

Seafood Snapper

Snap Snap Snapper

 I think James could get a weekend job as a party chef.  This time it was the 3 kilo snapper that was prepped, stuffed, coated, wrapped, baked, boned and consumed. This was all done on a little webber which is the first time we have done anything major on it other than barbecuing.   Joshua went up to the fish shop for $80 worth of potatoe cakes and chips and all of it disappeared. The weather was cooler but still good for nine holes of golf  with all the carts included, as well as Finska and front yard cricket with a little bit of crazy warm water, cold wind swimming thrown in.

budding sparky

43 golf balls collected from the water

Finska

Snapper

crazy swimming

The Spit is a Hit

 James and Heidi have perfected this cooking on a spit business.  The time on the roller roaster has been reduced to a mere 3 hours and the use of the wood from the apple tree is the secret ingredient.  There was beef and chicken spitted together and the taste was  excellent.  The party moved out onto the lower deck and many beers disappeared however now the next morning issue is to get on time for the 11:00am golf but that is right next door.

Straight to the pool room

Asher in the middle

Group shot

Boxing Day Beach Day

 Asher's voice was a bit croaky with her cold but she managed to help unwrap everyone's presents. We had another hot dinner after our traditional Christmas lunch but managed to get to bed by 11:00pm.  This morning the hordes from the other side arrived by ferry and the lunch was reasonably light, considering the spit will be fired up for tonight. Moving into next door was ok with at least 15 positions found for sleeping bodies.  The afternoon was spent on the beach where a few beers went down. Right now it is getting boisterous outside this room with the billiard table in full use.

The Chair has it

Pud

Lunch under the awning

Beach time

buckets of fun

Big Lunch for Two

 I am informed that this is the first time that Christmas lunch for two has been served.  We did not hold back on the amount to be cooked with turkey, chicken and pork. Plenty of leftovers for the coming hordes. I opened a large present this morning which is a genuine His Master's Voice record player that is almost a copy of the Thorn unit that was a casualty of the big move. The other present was a bone china cutlery set in a heavy duty box made for a king.  We are about to walk off lunch down by the beach.

At last more teaspoons

with all the trappings

His Master's Voice

Clean Scene

 If this house was any cleaner it would be invisible. The spider plague has been attacked head on and I dare a spider to show a leg.  I believe they are all dead now anyway. The extra beds have been placed and next doors has been examined for possible extra sleeping. There is plenty of unused space that inflatables can be used and there is a queen mattress that we have spare that can be carried across as well if needed.  The outlook from that side is interesting. They can see into our courtyard from one small high mounted window. 

Bombs

Like it has always been there

A different view

Beach Inspection

It has mostly been raining for the last two days however I got to check out the beach this morning.  There is a small washout over the spillway however it was not too destructive. There have been big changes in managing the excess dried sea grass that washes up.  Before we went away there was a concerted scrape and bury clean up.  Since then it has been realised that the amount of grass is just too big so it has been lifted out and gathered in huge mounds hidden at the back of the vegetation, except for one pile at the side of the rock groyne.  The beach itself is looking very clear.  

At the far end near the Dell I was expecting the walkway to be walkable. Fat Chance.  They said two weeks for completion, that was at the start of December. It looks like all tools have been put away for Christmas.

Still no walkway

Little Dell view

grass mountain

Asher takes a bow

 The videos were in a backlog state again so I have done a few hours worth mainly from our week in QLD.  The other big item today was the Christmas Pud.  We would normally have this hanging for at least a week but as usual with this year everything is out of kilter but it is ready just in time.  There was also some video from Pascoe Vale the week before showing the new deck and some ballerina action.

Proper Pine

 For the last twenty yar we have had the same tree in a box but this year the traditional pine has been resumed for that authentic smell.  It arrived as a special delivery from the North Pole at midday. We did not get the decorations on until just now.  The underneath is a bit threadbare but there is still three days of shopping madness to go.  We have other new arrivals as well like bears, boxes, hangings and some gnomey things.

bears

boxes

Pining for a tree

A lovely Christmas spider - deceased

Asher Slam Dunk

 We gathered at Pacino's Italian where I waded thru a large helping of meatballs. This Christmas eating has started early.  I think I was mostly sleepy thru the whole lunch however the disco toilet woke me up nicely.  Asher did the rounds from chair to chair but using the underneath of the table.  It was obvious we made ourselves at home when the presents came out but in the end we left it fairly tidy. I made it home in time to mow the lawns and get the bins out not to mention a bank up of email.

Babycino with marshmellow

What cricket?

The Mantra at Tullamarine is still half a hotel.  We got here about 7:00pm and the restaurant is still closed as well as the gym as well as the pool.  Complain complain.   OK at least we can watch some cricket.  I could not find it and I was thinking there is some kind of COVID cancellation going on like most other things.  It wasn't til I logged in this morning to see the scores and that it was all over.  We did get some spaghetti from DiCaprio's so it wasn't all bad. It was a good thing our plane was a direct flight from Brisbane as many of the flights were going via Sydney. I don't recommend flying interstate a week before Christmas and with the constant natter about border crossings closing up again.

A quick pop in for the RRR ((Rick's Rocky Road)

All COVID signage was ignored in QLD. It was mostly impractical anyway.

Rooftops and Redcliffes

The rooftop bar was open last night. Our room is directly beneath the rooftop bar and we could hear the goings on, so paid it a visit. In the lobby there are rules about only two people in the gym at a time as well as in the lift and the stairwell.  We went up top with 10 people in the small lift which opened out to 200 people on the roof.  This morning we did a beach walk for 45 minutes down to the next point.  There was much activity with volleyball, judo and Christmas parties.  I am filling in the last minutes of our late checkout at 11:00am. The Sunny's cafe below has a good breakfast and they included it in our booking. I would recommend this hotel but get them to add some shade around the pool.

Perfect strangers on the roof

a bit art deco

up the garden path

Deception Bay

 We did a complete tour of this Bay taking 5 hours or so.  This included Bribie Island which we were checking out as a venue to stay over but does not make the grade. It has a bridge across to it so has been over urbanised and not worth a stay.  We made our way back making numerous stops like at places called Fartengeorge and also Burpengary. We checked out some gated communities over looking the water but we no longer need to wonder what it is like to look over the water. The strip here at Redcliffe and Margate is very cafe friendly with bike tracks along the foreshore and not far  from the airport.

Best house in the street

Worst house in the street

Margate

 Debbie had a meeting at 7:00am so I had to vacate for an hour or so.  Pure Bookkeeping is always on and we have had system sales everyday we have been away so there should be no complaints.  I went down to the lagoon which was spilling over with tidal water this time.  Back in the room we spotted two koalas in the nearby tree. We got the ferry at Dunwich after the big breakfast at the Fruit Barn Cafe.  We did not see this area much, so will check it out better next time.  The beach at Margate is completely water logged at high tide. We have a balcony looking down on it and right now it looks good. There are huge Norfolk Pines along the road.  There is a rooftop bar and pool but no shade so we are on our balcony with dip and biscuits.  We have bought fruit for breakfast. There is a small kitchen but we wont use it.

Laguna

Koala or two

Margate today

Margate HeyDay