We thought it might have been a bit of a rest day today but two year olds wait for no one. Charlie had a good night's sleep which was overdue so it has been a quieter day. Grandpa and Grandma have arrived so there will be more Christmas presents a bit later. I am just waiting for Evie to wake up and then it will be another session of sand shovelling and sand eating. Grandma got some full on smiles out of Charlie.
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| Laughing boy |
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| What is in my face? |
We got up at 6:00am to be ready as anything at 8:30am for the ferry to Sorrento. The Queenscliff side has had a huge makeover with a restaurant. It may even be a wedding venue now with beach views across to Queenscliff. We arrived around 10:30pm and had a bit of a beach play for the kids until 1:00pm. Then it was a good barbie lunch of snags, rissoles and rice salad. We saw the new kitchen and they saw the new babies. There were many children more than 10 at least. We weren't fast enough to get our planned 4:00pm ferry so let it go. We were still queued on the road when it took off. The car park was filling up again but I could not believe it when we got to the gate and they told us the 5:00pm was also now full and the last car just went in. We have two very noisey kids here in case you can't hear. OK we will get the rust bucket out for you, if you want that one. It can take a measlly 22 cars. We'll take it . It was still a 12 hour day as we got back here at 6:50pm.
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| The Pointers |
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| Safety Beach |
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The days are merging here as you have to think which day was that on. Today was different in that I started with the delayed CT-Scan. No coffees for 24 hours for this scan, which we remedied quick smart afterwards, by crossing the road to the Waurn Ponds shops and getting a coffee, a tea and a babycino. Around lunchtime was the trip to the adventure playground. There are no slides or equipment that Asher will hold back on now. The higher it is then that is ok. Compared to Evie who will go on the slide but someone has to go with her.
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| close swinger |
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| outdoor music |
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| side by side slide ride |
We have been to the Spiegeltent on a few occasions and this time it was for the kids. The classic Peter Pan was on with six performers who were mostly acrobats but who did get out the guitars towards the end. Asher and Evie were a good age for thisd show and when Capt Hook got eaten by the Crocodile Evie puts up her hands like "Where did he go?" The pub meal afterwards was probably just a bit to long for Asher but Evie had a good afternoon sleep earlier so she was ready for anything, although I don't think she was to impressed by the ferris wheel she went on.
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| decking out the deck chairs |
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| Ferris Wheeling |
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| A make believe booth |
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| Tinker Bell |
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| down ward dog |
We have forgotten what heat is around here. The air con survived and Evie who was next door had a reasonbly good sleep. We moved her downstairs where this room has the ceiling fan. Charlie and Laura's room also has the fan but being upstairs can get a bit hotter . Everything has cooled off this morning so we are back in business. Evie has been to the playground already and Charlie has had some kick kick sessions on his back. It seems that we are all off for an early afternoon nap before we had off to Collendina.
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| Two in the bed and the other one said 'Rollover, Rollover'. |
After a long day of travels Evie and Charlie have made it to Clifton Springs. Car hire delays meant that Rick never made it here as his flying visit window closed without getting out of the airport. Laura drove the hire car and arrived around 5:00pm. Earlier in the day we had Asher over at the beach on a hot day but the shallows were the place to be. So far we have opened the remaining Christmas presents and now need to think about some food for hungry kiddies.
James and Heidi were up at 5:30am so Estelle could get some brekky and repack the car for the drive around to the dock. They left at 6:45am but were there in a quick 35min with no traffic around. We had desribed the channel markers and which ones to be on alert for. I was not sure if you could pick anyone out as it passed but it is possible. The telescope was clearer when you know where to look. So at the top level, at the back of the boat, below the stacks and emerging from a line of dark glass windows you can pick out Heidi and Estelle in the video but it is brief and near the end of the film as I put down the video then and switched to the telescope. I could clearly see them and spied Heidi raise her one arm, with Estelle in the other. James made it out then as well. For them it was hard with the eyes only, to pick individual houses on the shore.
We have the bookcase here from Nana Beryl's unit and some of the books that went with it. When she was a girl you had to wash your hands before touching the Modern World Encyclopeadia. Now the problem was that one volume was missing. I started the Internet hunt for Vol 7 and sure enough Santa brought it here yesterday. What a clever Santa.
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| Christmas Sunset |
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| Arrgh there be one eye closed |
With only two for lunch it was easier to make sure it was hot hot. We spent two hours on the porker and the crackling was perfection. The Turkey roll was also melt in the mouth so it is a good thing we are not eating again until just now. Asher and Estelle have been opening presents all day long so what is a few more. I have to leave room for the pud. All the guests are not here today so there is no mention of presents just yet.
We seem to have half a days energy at the moment then it ebbs away. So for two days it has been a windows, top deck and court yard cleanup effort. I took the flyscreen door from the upstairs deck after last Summer as it was fused in a few places. We will put it back for this Summer with all four wheels freed using a bit of spray and a sledgehammer. The spider count is 408 dead and Humans 0 from the courtyard cleanup. They love this area but hey have to go. Our QLD visitors are not coming today due to more COVID issues with blocked ears and babies not liking that situation on aeroplanes. I never enjoy the ear popping either.
The rains are back so that means a good time for more scans. I spied a nice looking album that was covered in Cartographics but the contents were tricky. It was turn of the century stuff, some Darwin, some Tweed Heads and some Melbourne. The album was thick and would not lie flat on the scanner glass. The photos could not be easily removed as they were mostly fused in place. By pressing each page and rotating them as well, eventually there were reasonable digital copies made.
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| I like the cover |
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| Marie form Darwin needs an ambulance |
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| Nana adventuring in NT |
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| Tony's sister Teresa visiting New Rd |
I remember watching the The Ladies No 1 Detective Agency on Foxtel some years back. There were only six episodes made yet this book is the 12th in the series and I don't think this one made it to the TV. You would describe them as your more simplified story lines and after some of the mega plots I have been reading, it makes a change to not have to go back and read that bit again or have your nose in the dictionary half the time.
I did manage to do some window cleaning, using the robot that is. It has been a year since it was used but for the very large windows and hard to get at balcony glass it works well. I only use it on the inside and for outside it the hose as usual.
I promised myself I was not going to mention COVID in any converstaions, that was a year ago. The nights seem to be the problem at the moment. I had a lot of sweating which has triggered a rash problem. Maybe I should not be writing this blog in the morning until I have had a chance to warm up. I was feeling much better yesterday afternoon and we even wandered down to the beach for an hour. It's house cleaning time. I had the very temerity to suggest that we ease up on cleaning some parts of the house this year. That's like suggesting to have Christmas without Santa or a tree with no decorations. A totally preposterus idea. I interrupted this garbled rant to go for a walk down the beach. I sat in the water for a few minutes but it felt cold when I know it is not. The walk was short but restorative except for the March flies.
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| This boat is a bonus now when you are walking along. |
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| This was after the 3:00pm witching hour |
There are two of us here with COVID now so there arn't many hugs being handed out at the moment. So the best place to find some cheer is with the Grandies. The other day Asher and I were waiting outside the nursing home with a few tunes playing in the back ground. The strings on my air guitar could do with some tuning.
It's a hard COVID day here. There is some anti viral medicine going around but I cannot have it as you have to be at least 70 yar old. It took me half the day to not feel cold but at the moment I can at least type a few words. Four hourly panadol and water lots of it, is the approach so far. The whole event is similar to the bad flu cases I had during Winter. This is not even flu season.
I have been batting away COVID for three years only to stumble now minutes before the Christmas lunch. Debbie spent hours organising that outing. Thirty four people for a sit down two course meal. In the end I had a bit of ham on toast. Those Village People are to blame for this. We tried to get out of going to their Christmas Dinner. COVID is rife thru the Village they said but it will be OK they said. People who have it will not be at our function. Besides this could be the last one. Numbers are dwindling, our caterers have left us now, please, please come it may be the last one. OK then. We sent the boss a message on our way back here about getting COVID from her function, she said yes sorry about that. I have appointments this week for CT scans trying to do something about my fingers but maybe that is gone until next year.
Driving over the Westgate as we have been doing a lot lately, if you look down from the Williamstown lane you can see enormous white hangers fanning out into different directions. This is Grazeland. It is not gourmet dining. It is a cross between eating at the showgrounds and queuing at a food truck. There must be 50 different eateries here. We went to one of these places in Copenhagen. We could see people milling around across the river, so we get over there and it is food, food every where. Last night we had seafood paella and an African barbie. It would be a cold place in Winter with the wind blowing off the water. You would hope that hygiene and food source standards were good as I was reading yesterday that tainted spinach had been released thru NSW and Victoris leading to a hundred cases of hallucination and delerium. I wonder if any spinach was being served to nana Beryl last week.
Debbie is good at shopping under pressure that also means I shouldn't be there. (She is good at doing most things under pressure.) Last night we had a Christmas Dinner with the Village People. Nineteen meals were delivered around the Village because that lot had COVID positive tests and could not attend. The meal was quite good and all you could drink was part of the deal. It seems that these events may be limited now as the caterer is not coming back after doing them for the last 10 years.
This mornings shopping was a success. In the meantime I did some more photo scanning and also got to the very bottom of the huge bag of stamps I was given for my birthday. It took me the best part of 10 weeks to get thru that lot and I selected many stamps from it for inclusion in the collection. So I think it was good value.
We tried the Williamstown beach this afternoon for the first time since buying into the Village. With 25 km/h coolish winds from the south east we did not even step onto the sand. Instead we went back to watch some cricket on the TV.
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| Blue skies but cool breeze |
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| This is one of the better birthday stamps. A mint specimen worth minimum $40. |
The first no phasement was Debbie's older bike which has been at Williamstown but not ridden for a couple of years. I'll just pump up the tyres and we will be on our way. Wrong. The tube blew out with not much pressure as the tyre delaminated. Also the handle grips had decomposed into a type of rubberised glue. We took it to the Spoke & Sprocket for an overhall but there is no ride today. So we drove to the Maritime Museum since we can't ride there only to find that it was closed . We thought it was Wed thru Sun but it is only open Wed and Sun not in between. That was no phasement two. No phasement three is all the COVID cases flying around this village and the Christmas Dinner that is being decimated tonight. There are two cases in our court alone and the table we were on is gone so we have been put in with the staff.
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| bicycle bits |
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| Cafe Cirino |
Quite some time back Debbie arranged to go to the nursing home Christmas Luncheon with her Mum. Since then the Asher babysit was arranged but with some tag teaming we pulled off a tight schedule. Firstly Asher was picked up at 7:00am but starting out from Williamstown, that is not so bad. She arrived here at 10:00am but there was only time for a 30 min play. We packed off to Werribee for the lunch but there was still time for a 30 minute book reading session with Nana Beryl before they went into the dining room. I took Asher off to the Pacific Fair, a humungus shopping centre in Werribee. We found the playground there and there was just time for a 30min session with all the other kids. After searching for a sandwich with no luck, I settled on the Coffee Club, as they are always prompt on getting the food out. Asher was in 7th heaven with her chicken nuggets and chips. It's a good thing her mother wont know. There were 10 nuggets. She ate seven, I had one and then she filled up with chips and sauce. We waddled back to the car and got back to the nursing home at 1:45pm. We played ball games outside the home with a ball she found in a paddock. Debbie got the latest health report from the nurse so we made it back to Williamstown by 3:00pm where Asher and Debbie still both asleep. Phew!
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| The Elf on the Shelf |
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| yahoo |
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| She grabbed this ball from inside the cage |
