79 DAYS AND COUNTING We booked another cruise so we're going back to beautiful New Zealand in December. We'll visit a couple of new places and this time we hope the ship will be able to enter Milford Sound. Last time, the weather didn't cooperate so we didn't get to see the beauty of that area. This time we'll be sailing on the Golden Princess which looks really nice. A fair bit larger than the previous two Princess ships we've been on but I'm sure the experience will be just as nice.
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WE'RE BACK FROM OUR CRUISE What a great time we had on the SUN PRINCESS during our cruise to Fiji, New Caledonia and Vanuatu. The ship was lovely and the crew were marvellous. We ate far too much but when you see the food choices, it's hard to resist - not to mention all of the beautiful desserts and cakes. It'll take me months to work it all off. We visited a number of Fijian villages and were welcomed by everyone. We enjoyed the cultural side of things as well as fresh coconut straight from the trees. We went on a boat ride on the river to visit the church and school then on to another village. Only 4 passengers to a boat and it was pretty fast once we got going. Each village had a little market selling items to tourists. I bought a few sarongs, a necklace and a wooden souvenir. The beaches were beautiful and on Dravuni Island there's only about 200 inhabitants. You can walk the length of the island in about 20 min...
OH, MY ACHING BACK
This week we bought a new TV cabinet, however it came as a flat pack. It's taken us hours to put it together but finally it's in place and looking pretty good. It's supposed to have two drawers but we needed an extra shelf with a little more height so have utilised the drawer space to accommodate the home theatre amp. I'm pretty pleased with the result but boy, my back is really suffering. NO MORE FLAT PACK FURNITURE, unless it's something as simple as a book shelf.
CRUISE TO NEW ZEALAND, NOVEMBER 2014 How time flies. We waited months for our holiday to come around and here we are now and it's all over. A two week cruise on the Dawn Princess from Melbourne, around New Zealand and back. It was so good and we enjoyed every minute, even when the Tasman Sea got a bit rough. The ship was lovely, the staff were welcoming and always seemed happy. The food - well what can I say, it was out of this world. It's hard getting back to doing my own cooking and cleaning after two weeks of rest and relaxation. A cruise is certainly a great way of getting away from it all. Nightly shows kept us entertained and they were excellent. The regular singers and dancers were very professional and the guest entertainers who came on the ship were varied and we enjoyed them all. I took hundreds of photos but will post only a few here. Docked in Auckland The Atrium with lounge areas, bars an...
BAKING TODAY: COCONUT BISCUITS Makes about 30 1 cup SR flour 1 cup coconut 3/4 cup sugar 125g butter, melted (4.5 ounces) 1 egg, beaten Blanched almonds and glace cherries for decoration if you wish Combine flour, coconut, sugar. Add melted butter and egg, mixing well. It can take a while as there seems too much dry ingredient, but keep going and I tend to use my hands at this point. Pick up about a heaped teaspoonful of mixture (it's quite sticky), roll it on your hands and place balls onto a lightly greased tray. Gently press each with the tynes of a fork. Decorate each with an almond or half cherry if desired. Bake in a moderate oven about 10 minutes or until golden. Cool on tray. The decoration can be left off completely and, if liked, the mixture can be shaped into small balls and tossed in extra coconut before baking. One time, I made larger biscuits and they were lovely so you can make as many or as few as you like, just bake until they're gold...
HOME FROM HOSPITAL: After 8 days in hospital John came home last Friday after serious open heart surgery to replace a heart valve. He now has two mechanical valves pumping away in his chest and is feeling much better than he has for over 12 months. Amazing staff at The Austin Hospital in Melbourne. Everyone looked after him so well and the intensive care nurses, well what can I say but to thank them for their care. Quite a scar but it'll heal and John will be as good as new.
HAPPY 65th BIRTHDAY JOHN Celebrating his 65th birthday on 5th May. This morning, I got him his favourite apple cake and put a candle in it. He really enjoyed it for morning tea. Happy Birthday John - enjoy the cake In the evening, we had a family dinner and afterwards a proper birthday cake complete with candles. A very enjoyable day.
EASTER 2014 We had a lovely Easter dinner today after the boys had their Easter Egg hunt. I think they've ended up with enough chocolate to last them for months so I won't be buying them any more for quite some time. Back to school for them on Tuesday and I expect Jackie will be happy to see them go so she can get the house back into some sort of order.
LOVELY ROSE I noticed this lovely rose in my garden this afternoon and just had to get a photo of it. It actually started off as a yellow rose and has ended up this colour which looks very delicate. It actually survived a week of very high temperatures up to 45ºC which is 113ºF. Lots of my other plants wilted in the heat but I've come to realise that roses are hardy and none of mine suffered too much during the heatwave. I think I'll be putting in more roses instead of other plants. I haven't lost a single rose in years whereas other plants have come and gone.
YARRA VALLEY CHOCOLATERIE AND ICE CREAMERY What a lovely day we had today, the last day of 2013. We went to the Yarra Valley Chocolaterie and Ice Creamery in Yarra Glen. After having a look through the glass into the area where they make the chocolates, we wandered around admiring all the various packs of chocolates which could be purchased. Viewing into the area where the chocolates are made So much to choose from It was hard to pull ourselves away from the counter where they sell individual hand made chocolates Finally, we decided to have an ice cream which we really enjoyed. Lachlan had a rich chocolate one, Corey had strawberry, Jackie enjoyed honeycomb and I had my favourite, rum and raisin. Yarra Glen is a lovely little town and the surrounds of the Chocolaterie is really nice. Well worth a visit.
MY VEGGIE GARDEN - OH, HOW IT'S GROWN Not so long ago, I put in seedlings for lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, peas, beetroot and onions and in no time at all it's grown. I'm thinking I may have put in too much but I didn't expect it all to grow so well. I've already been using some of the lettuce and looking forward to being able to pick a few tomatoes and have fresh carrots on my plate. I've just noticed pods on the pea plants so I'll relive my childhood by picking those to shell.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME Not quite my birthday, but yesterday I was given an early treat of high tea at the Skyhigh Restaurant on Mt Dandenong by our oldest daughter and grandsons. It was a beautiful, warm day and the view from the top of the mountain was fairly clear. We could see all the way to Melbourne and beyond to the bay. These are a few photos taken while we were there including the lovely afternoon tea that was served to us with as much tea and coffee as we wanted. We ate so much, we didn't need dinner that evening. It was a really lovely family time.
JUST CALL ME FARMER IRENE I'm trying my hand at growing vegetables - first time ever. I set up two raised garden beds and had veggie mix soil delivered which I had to cart from the front of the house around to the back. It took me 2 hours to do it but it's done now and I had the aches and pains to prove it. I went to the garden centre this morning and picked up a variety of vegetables including tomatoes, lettuce, beetroot, seed for carrots, onion and peas. I also bought a few cantaloupe (rock melon) seedlings just to see if I could grow those plus a couple of strawberry plants. I got a bit carried away as I only have a small space to grow all of these but it'll be interesting to see what is successful and what isn't. I've put down snail bait, lots of it, to deter the hungry snails we have in the garden. Hopefully this will be a great success since I've put in so much work to get it started.
SHOPPING This afternoon I went shopping with my daughter as she wanted to buy a new bedroom suite. We'd both seen a bedroom setting in a store's catalogue and fell in love with it, that was until we had a look at it in store. Not as good as it looked in the photo but she found another suite, very similar but better quality, in the same store. Somehow, this was meant to be as this other suite was on sale, the last day of the sale, saving a lot of money and they actually had one in the warehouse so she can get it delivered this coming week. Sometimes you have to go with the flow and you end up with what you're meant to have.
REPAIRS ALL DONE At long last, the repairs from our termite invasion are complete and what a difference to the room. I actually like it better than before and I loved the way it looked before. At least, after spending all that money to repair the damage, we have something different. I'd hate to have spent all that money and have it looking exactly the same as that would almost be like spending thousands of dollars on nothing. Before and after.........nice new carpet, curtains instead of vertical blinds and new paintwork makes such a difference to this end of the family room / kitchen / meals area.