Celebrations

Happy New Year to everyone, especially my loyal readers - Maggie, Lorraine and Colin, Renee, Kim, and Lynda plus everyone else who reads it when I prompt them to. I'm hoping that this year will be freer and healthier than the last one. And please -  some normal seasonal weather.  I reckon last year's summer morphed into a winter that lasted well into December, bypassing autumn and spring entirely! 

Celebrations were put on hold early December when I came down with the flu after my Melbourne trip, and had to cancel a few Christmas lunches. Decorations went up and I use that term loosely - not for us the flashing lights, Christmas wreaths and huge Christmas tree. Instead, we have a slim artificial table-top tree that stands about 60 cms from the base to the holy koala that sits atop and which I bought in Fitzroy, making it almost 25 years old. 

In the entrance hall I threw a few silver beads across the table and arranged my collection of Father Christmases. I especially love the bakelite Santa in his sleigh that mum always put on top of the Christmas cake she faithfully baked each year in November. Hmmm - a tradition sadly no more in our household. But I celebrate by placing this decoration front and centre.  It must be at least 60 years old if not more.  And that's it for decorations.

We had friends around for a Christmas Eve drink in the afternoon and that put us in the mood for the evening's performance - our FaceTimed concert with Sharon in Perth and Kate and Kim in Melbourne with Steve and me in South Australia. It's an annual affair that always has its surprises. 

This year, I played Oh Christmas Tree on the recorder and it is a truism that you simply cannot laugh and play at the same time - a result of the laughter I distinctly heard coming from Perth and Melbourne. Steve played Go Tell it on the Mountain on the clarinet - a bravura performance as he had only practised a few times. Kate and Kim sang Oh What a Beautiful Morning from Oklahoma as they tugged on pretend reins and looked around them at the imaginary countryside. And, in what I thought was an amazing coincidence, Sharon sang Oklahoma in front of the videos she had taken of all the wheatfields she had passed when she was in the wheatbelt for work during the year. Kate did a veritable tour de force dressed in a crepe paper outfit and toting a furled umbrella (gun) as she sang You Cain't Get a Man with a Gun from Annie Get Your Gun.  After all this merriment, the evening's talent collapsed into a karaoke session that lasted for another hour! We were all exhausted but happy, fuelled no doubt by the cocktails we had drunk. 

Sharon and Kim enthralled by my performance.

I'm reciting a poem and Sharon and Kate join in.

And so to Christmas Day. A quiet affair with just Steve and me. Present opening showed us how wonderful friends and family are when they give you such thoughtful presents (books, liquor, face creams, body creams, hand creams, an apron, favourite sweets - and a hedger!). Lunch was crayfish, prawns and salads. The afternoon was spent in a walk to the beach and a nap. Dinner was leftovers.

Looking festive though Steve refused to put his sandals on.

Putting my hedger to work on Boxing Day. 

A couple of days of rest and then it was celebratory time once more. My birthday. Let's forget the number and concentrate on the fun. I had lots of phone calls from friends and family and then we headed off to our favourite restaurant Thai Days in Goolwa. Always lovely food. Steve had asked for a window seat when he booked, saying it was for my birthday. But it was a lovely surprise when, at the end of our meal, they delivered a champagne glass of icecream, cream and strawberry syrup to me, saying 'Happy Birthday from us'.  

My birthday photo - at least Steve has his shoes on! 

Massaman curry - so tasty.

A delicious surprise.

And now to New Years Eve. Our celebrations were so low-key as to be almost non-existent. I made a mojito cocktail, we had a roast chicken and I made a Norwegian Meringue Cake that has to be the sickliest (though incredibly yummy) dessert I have ever made - think two layers of a meringue topped slab cake smothered in a honey, cinnamon and cream custard then drizzled over with more custard, honey and almond flakes. I will never make it again.  We were asleep by 11 o'clock. 

Terrific but calorific.

You may have noticed a preponderance of photos of Steve and me together in this blog, something we rarely have. I decided to get out the tiny tripod and attach it to my camera, set the timer, and race over to position myself next to Steve before the camera clicked. I always think the photos never look that natural, but, you work with what you've got!  Here's our New Year's photo.

So, Happy New Year. Let's hope there's more travelling in 2023. I'm already planning on another Melbourne visit to celebrate Kate's 50th birthday in September.  Stay tuned.

Melbourne Meals, Memories and Mayhem

Off to Melbourne

Back in August I booked a trip on The Overland train to Melbourne for November. I hadn't visited Kate or Kim for over three years so was looking forward to it immensely. I picked up the train in Murray Bridge (just over an hour from home ) taking a couple of hours off the almost 11-hour journey from Adelaide. [I have cheated with this photo from Wikipedia as it shows the train chugging out of Adelaide]. At Murray Bridge the train pulled into the station, an attendant jumped out, called the name of each of the six passengers who were getting on with me, gave us a seat number and took our luggage. How easy was that! 

How I love train travel. The rhythm of the rails rocked me gently into a restful repose as we passed by the bloated Murray River, through rain-soaked pastures and onto the Victorian border. We sped up. I ate my picnic lunch. I read. I closed my eyes for a brief nap. And then... a thunderstorm. We slowed down to a crawl. And then... a lightening strike that took out all the oncoming signals. We stopped - for an hour. Gone was my feeling of contentment and the joy of watching the countryside roll past. Finally on our way again, passing through Nhill, Dimboola, Horsham, Stawell, Ararat and finally Geelong. I arrived almost 90 minutes behind schedule, but luckily daylight saving meant it was still light at 8 o'clock. Time for a yummy meal at Kate and Kim's local Taiwanese restaurant.

At home with Kate and Kim

Staying with Kate and Kim was a delight. Their Art Deco apartment is comfortable and tastefully decorated. 

Dinner in the courtyard was a suitably delicious meal. 

Out and about

The next day it was off to the Prahan Markets. What fun we had. 

I became addicted to a Turkish flatbready-y item called gozleme and a Greek custard slice. 

Here is the lady in the process of making the gozleme. 

And here it is - a lamb and herb gozleme with a cashew and pumpkin salad. (No sighting of the Greek custard slice because it didn't stick around long enough to pose for a photo!) 

I always buy a jam when I'm away and wasted no time in picking up a Rhubarb and Cinnamon one I spotted. Then it was off to Essential Ingredient, an over-priced but wonderful emporium of kitchen gadgets, utensils, crockery, spices, oils, flours, and sweets! We spent hours ooh-ing and ahh-ing and buying!

On the way home we felt the need for a pick-up - especially as Kate had forgotten her keys and we had to wait for Kim to come and rescue us. Honey, cinnamon sticks and star anise were a nice touch.

Another day we trained to Coburg to the A1 Bakery where we had a delicious lunch surrounded by the gorgeous fragrant Middle Eastern bakery smells. I loved this community garden we passed on the way.

  

One day I explored my old Fitzroy haunts but some of the shops I remember had gone and, to me, there was an air of neglect about the whole place. I guess Covid has really knocked it about though the cafes and restaurants seemed to be doing ok. In the city I popped into the ever-reliable Book Grocer and bought two 1930s Golden Age of Crime Detection books from two authors I had never heard of but who were as popular as Agatha Christie back then. On Saturday afternoon I went to the movies with friend Michael. He had already seen, but knew I would love, the documentary 'Lost Melbourne',  a rather sad look at all Melbourne's gracious Victorian/goldrush buildings that were demolished in the 1950s because they looked oldfashioned. Evidently, the arrival of TV and then the Melbourne Olympics coming up made the city look dreary and they needed to modernise, so they started to knock buildings down and replace them with square glass structures.  It was great photography and commentary and ended on a positive note by showing all the buildings that had thankfully escaped the wreckers' ball.

I liked the flowers outside the Town Hall, and the toy soldier lent a festive air to the mall.

Weather Alert

And then the holiday took a turn for the worse as the temperature plummeted. It rained, the wind blew and I froze - as the forecast had been for humid and warm weather my wardrobe was understandably on the summery side. I had to make do with Kate's hoodie and tracksuit pants for the rest of my holiday. Of course Kim compensated by making me the best omelette ever and a yummy cocktail. 

And some more goodies.

The holiday ended with the purchase of a new little kitten - named Buster - a real cutie who nearly came home in my luggage.

Homeward Bound

But fate wasn't done with me yet. I arrived at the station at 7:00am with a number of other bewildered souls to discover that there was to be no train. It took ages to work out what was going on - evidently some people had been notified by the rail company that flooding had caused a derailment and the track was not repaired at this time and that we were going home by coach!!!! I had not received an email so had no idea that I could have altered my ticket and stayed a few more days. It was freezing on the platform and we were to stand around for another two hours while the rail company got organised. 

The decision was made to take everyone who was going directly to Adelaide in one coach and those who were getting off on the way (that is, me) on a second coach. And therein lay the seeds for my eventual flu. My coach stopped at every stop along the way, driving into each town, making sure there was no-one at any of the railway stations (even stopping for 20 minutes for a no-show). And then we had to stop to buy lunch then afternoon refreshments and the whole trip took simply ages. The airconditioning was freezing and all I had was a cardigan. No wonder I shivered. The only bright spot was that no-one sat next to me. Poor old Steve had been patiently waiting for me at the station for over 2 hours. The returned traveller was tired, cold, exhausted and annoyed. Hmmm. I will not be doing that again anytime soon. And then I was struck down with the flu and am still recovering! Bah humbug. 

Kate sent me a photo of Buster yesterday. What a sweetie.