I know there are podcasts and channels and blogs out there with mega followings. The Retiree's Occasional Blog of Time, after 10 years of typing away, has managed to go passed 100000 views on the last day of the year 2024. I had been following this count for a month now wondering if there was enough time to do it this year and it went down to the wire. Well I still have a few hours left but the mark has now been set. The next 100000 will be another 10 years. Happy New Year Year.
Yes it was the meeting of the Clancys across the way at Sorrento. Nothing like a boat ride to change the scenery and all the Grandies got right ino it. We stayed on the top deck on the way over and used the playground below on the way back. As we pulled in the dolphins put on a show for the kids. Tim & Julie did a good job of getting the rotunda at the top of the hill positioned near the playground. I think there was more chocolate eaten than the chooks that were ordered from the town. Keep it simple. Chicken in rolls with a bit of salad finished with fruit cake. We wandered down to the beach for a paddle and watched our boat come in which was the signal for a hasty cleanup and short walk to the ferry. The walk ons far outnumbered the people in cars. It has room for 700 walk ons to sit down. The terminal on the Sorrento side is under construction. Something I had not seen before is the ocean video wall, very engrossing.
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| riding a seahorse |
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| where are those dolphins? |
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We seem to be having a Christmas Party complete with presents under the tree for every day of this week. This time it was Great Grand Parents day and it only worked because we could secure next doors house for the sleep over. Two huge chickens were completely demolished straight from the spit and the afternoon was spent over at the beach. Conditions were improving the later we stayed however most of these kids were out on their feet, although they did get a second wind when Uncle James stirred them up with a monster chase. We are running around right now trying to get ready for a ferry ride and as usual these cats are hard to herd. Maybe I can be late for the ferry! Oh well I will have to stay back and watch the cricket.
I seem to be a day late again but this week has been full on. Collendina has never seen the likes of this tent before after Bianca unveiled it yesterday. It only took five of us to get it squared away and it comes with its own lighting system. You could hold a party in that thing. Speaking of parties today is another party day and James is getting the spit going with two giant chooks mounted. One of these was not cooked on Boxing day. Evie and Charlie have settled in and have the run of the place and are getting on well with Estelle. The Disney (Santa) audio box seems to be a hit with renditions of Frozen and other films.
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| Tent Town |
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| that hair |
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| chook on a spit |
I got some video of the pool action. It seems there are problems with floaties in the pool especially bugs and more importantly lady bugs. The first little while sorted that out then it didn't seem to matter. I have never seen so many water pistols. The long shooters were tricky to fill. It took Estelle a while to hold the end submerged yet be able to draw the tube back all the while getting shot at. Kaia was happy to splash about and Asher had the shoot and run strategy. We will see what the other cousins can do soon.
The cool change came in but when the Sun came free it turned hot. So we wandered down to the beach however the previous winds had churned the water dark so Estelle was not much interested in waterplay. The trusty bucket and spade was all the go. It took 15 minutes for us to convince her not to stamp on the castle straight away. After a while a village appeared long enough to decorate them all after a shell hunt. Another wind change sent us off to the showers. Just found a quiet moment to unload some video.
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| Village People |
This bizarre medico infused Christmas continues where I have gotten the dentist to put down his eggnog so as to swap his deck chair for his dentist chair. Hopefully it is worth it as I cannot feel anything much two hours later. I called into Barwon Heads where the playground there is going off beside the river. The whole thing was about Estelle's idea of a Ferris Wheel ride to mark the occasion however it was not opening up until midday so filling in at the playground for an hour was a good option. I tried to drink my coffee with a straight face but no matter what I did it stayed lopsided. I headed back here for some short time off (Ferris had a whole day off) while the grandies were going around with Ferris.
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| swinger |
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| sizing up |
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| sister act |
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| who's driving the boat? |
This was one of the best ideas to keep kids occupied and cool while the heat was on in the kitchen. And when you literally throw in about 10 new water pistols then the game is on. These are not your midget variety pee shooters these will drill you from across the courtyard. Kaia liked splashing about as well and James being the biggest kid kept them all occupied while the food was being prepared. Even later it kept them going for more time until they finally needed a rest. Best $50 you could spend. I haven't sat in it yet.
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I think it is the first time we have delayed cooking up a large meal by one day across to boxing day. At least there is some cricket you can have playing in the background. For some reason Debbie was wanting to try some new recipes from Jamie Oliver. Later as she was getting thru the instructions she goes 'what was I thinking' but it all worked out well. The air fryer was playing up but we wedged the door shut and it cooked the crackle to perfection. The other highlight has to be the hollowed pumpkin, the hallowed hollowed pumkin and you could also eat the skin. The present opening was reasonably quick and good timing to allow for the pud which we had steaming away for an hour.
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| note pumpkin |
We have had lunch for two which was a whole snapper and likely caught just down the road. I saw one of these wash up on our beach once with a large bite out of it. The preparations are now on for tomorrow. I've carved the lid out of a large pumpkin and it looks like leeks are going to be used to help fill it. I have heard of nirvous leaks and short leaks but I have never seen kitchen leeks and this big as well.
We have had the grandie early morning phone calls and it is too exciting for words and they will tell us in person tomorrow. Debbie was looking back to10 yar ago and back then we hosted 23 people for a hot lunch and 17 again that night and we thought doing lunch for 6 adults and three kids tomorrow was a big effort. I have opened a Christmas present for the Grandies before they could see it. As in the video below it only took a second to install. However one innovation we are trying is the foam mattress that is underneath. The prediction is 38° tomorrow. There's always the beach.
We have been doing some more cleanup ready for the Grandies and this time the garage got the treatment and now there is a tidy pile of stuff that will be going out on the naturestrip for the council. Some of it is perfectly good like a rolled carpet and fold out Sun lounges with matresses. I went down to the beach for a final inspection as there was a large canvas square left behind for the last four days that was bothering me. The good news is that someone else has hauled it away and it would have been heavy now that it rained last night. The bad news is that there is a huge pile of stuff in its place and has been labelled as a dog toy library. Now this is looking a lot like the pile we have just assembled in the garage. So the cynic is saying lets take it down the beach and leave it there. It must have arrived yesterday and I wonder how long it will stay neat.
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| Large abandoned canvas. That rock is my snorkel table. |
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| surfboard and bicycles not included |
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| dog box |
This could be a case of opening Christmas presents early. It is actually part birthday present so that is my excuse. We have a new replacement coffee machine as the old one gave up. I have completed the training manual, put it thru the activation cycle and produced my first brew. The certificate of competency is in the mail but I did not venture into the realm of grinding beans with notes of chicory. I stuck with the PODS technology eg (Please Order Drink Separately) just like in the shops. I used to know people from work a decade ago that would order coffees at least twice a day sometimes three per day. We are more like getting coffees on bike rides. This machine is fully computerised with a touch screen and I have added a brew with my characteristics saved as a permanent option. Ah the technology. I have also added a babycino with choco powder. The next version of these will have WIFI capability so you can start the process from your watch.
I did a longish ride some weeks ago and came across Cafe 42. I made a mental note to get back there and check out the inside. It is a mad time to be finishing some Christmas shopping however we were out and about in this area so we called in for some morning coffee. This building used to be something else, most likely to do with wharves and unloading boats some yar ago. Now it looks over a beach and a small harbour to one side. It is a very picturesque spot and we need to revisit again for a proper sit down meal. If you were staying for a swim bring your own shade as there is none. This is the small beach as the bigger one is two hundred metres back also with no shade.
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| North beach |
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| Rippleside beach |
Six hours later there has been a harvest of apricots. We took four out of five apricots off the tree just now. They had lady bugs biting them so we got them off quick smart. Who would have thought Lady Bugs would be the culprit and the barriers were not keeping them off. One was suitable for eating immediately and was savoured all the way down. The taste is improved on the shop variety. Not sure if we will get to the point where there are so many you start making jam.
There has been a daily apricot inspection here. It is a time comsuming business requiring the bird brain alarms to be switched off, the bug barrier shields to be taken down and the fungus fence feature to be disabled. I got close enough to get a picture thru the netting. I have read that from the look of these it may be time to pluck them from the tree, although the guy saying this has had no apricots on his trees this year, so why am I reading his advice. The nearby nectarines are getting some colour as well but for them it is a shiny red half of the fruit. There is also some action on the strawberries which seem a bit late to me. The one single corn plant has a stalk but I noticed lady bugs and small black critters on it.
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| ours are definately on the orange end of this scale |
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| These seem an odd shape |
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| critters are stalking this corn |
I swam from groyne to groyne this morning. The tides were high at 9:00am and I got down around 9:30am. The water clarity was good and you could see 20 metres. I did not see any fish but there were shellfish on the bottom that must have broken free and they looked big. I am out of practise at this but made it across. The going is clear further out. The thicker grass seems to be closer to the shore. Last night we went later at 6:30pm for an hour. The cruise ship Regatta came thru for some entertainment and Debbie is now officially semi-retired. We just have to get her to stick to it so we had a celebratory drink to that.
This is an ideal beach day. I have just comeback from a quick cleanup walk and there are only one ot two dog walkers this morning and the rest is sand. This is most likely the last day for five weeks that that will be the case. Maybe tomorrow will be quiet but after that it is the busy season. The beach is cleaner than most at the moment. The tide line had the usual wrappers, plastic tops and ciggie butts. There was a foam pad and a can in a saltbush but they could not fool me, I fished it out of there and a nearby dog walk suggested I get a long handled grabber which I do have one of for certain situations. He was impressed but let me do all the picking up. I meant to put the bottom pic up yesterday from the Cannoli bar.
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| Under the Grapevine |
We have a double grandie day today not to forget we have to get back for cards tonight as well. It was an earlier 7:00 am arrival time so we brought our breakfast. The routine is to walk to the playground, followed by the coffee shop. They had their special Italian Christmas cake on offer so we had to try it. This was very nutty. These sessions were two hours but as we got back everyone was quite tired. The significant change was that we all had a nap for 30 minutes and there was even time to make this entry while it was all quiet on the Grandie front. While I was dozing a teddy bear appeared on the couch.
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The Karcher machine has been out and the whole driveway area and retaining wall has had a water blasting and if that wasn't enough the various courtyard bricks also got the treatment today. I poisened the weeds sticking thru a few days back and now they have been blasted away but the roots would have been soaked in it by now. We made our way to Willie and have received the Christmas chocolates however there is a note saying we have a present as well. The first thing Debbie sees is a plant that has died out the front so the gardening continues to extract it. Other news here is that the foam rocket ship from Estelle's launcher has made it back from the neighbour's yard.
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| Christmas Window |
It's not Christmas unless there is pud. We heard rumours it is 40° today so we decided last night that lighting the gas for four or five hours today would not be a good thing. So we started at 5:00pm and had it hanging in the shower at 9:30pm last night. We have never tried the 'make it on Christmas morning then eat it in the afternoon approach' as there was too much going on. I think it was Julie who said her Mum keeps it in the fridge. That is a lot of fridge space and doesn't that mean reheating is a lot harder. Since we have been here the shower head of choice has been the upstairs one and trying to carry a boiling dripping cloth full of hot steamy pud up two flights of stairs is a tricky business.
Isn't there some theory that everyone is after a house with a white picket fence. That is fine until it is time to paint it. I swore off painting when I moved here and I guess six years is a good run without any paint jobs. We did have paint jobs but we paid a neighbour to do the painting including this same fence. I think we just did a better job than him. This fence is old and has been repaired previously and we have now scrubbed off any rust stains and painted them over. We had all that was needed paint, sand paper, brushes and some original old painting clothes. It should last another three yar before all the whole thing will need to be replaced. In parts there is no wood left at the very bottom of some pickets. It was a 5 hr job with rising temperatures the whole day. Don't get to close for an inspection.
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| before |
