Weekend! Weekend! Weekend!

Yep, loving these two days off. Not that they are exactly off, with reports due next week, but fuelled by French Earl Gray tea from T2, I'm in a good place with them. So good, that I had friends over for a casserole last night, and went to Cabramatta for salt & pepper squid today. After that, to the most confronting movie I've ever seen - makes me ashamed to be a white Australian, but what to do? "Samson & Delilah", by Aboriginal director Warwick Thornton.

Mum's new toys

I've had a flurry of activity recently. Maybe spurred on by the kind gift from our Government to "stimulate" the economy, I've been patriotically doing my bit. I'd been thinking about changing my car for a while - it has never given me a minute of trouble, but common wisdom says to change over while it is still worth something. So, seduced by the thought of airbags, central locking, four doors, keyless entry with a panic button (non of which my green lancer coupe has) I did a deal. Now I'm enjoying zipping around town in my little silver four-door Micra with airbags, central locking etc etc. Even better, the dealer paid for the rego & Greenslip & tinted windows, so grateful were they to have my business. So what do you do when you've just saved money? Spend it! It is good for the economy....so I bought my pride & joy, an Eee-PC. Now I can check my e-mails & Skype with Paull anywhere from the kitchen, backyard or the local coffee shop- I just put my tiny, weeny little computer into my tiny, weeny little car and off I go.......

Oh what a night..

Well, day and night, actually. A group from school went to The Rocks ( a beautiful old part of Sydney near the harbour) to celebrate the upcoming marriage of one of our number. We started at 1pm at the Lowenbrau Cellar for a hearty lunch, some beer steins, pretzels and schnapps. We then visited a few of the historic pubs in the area, listening to jazz at the Hero of Waterloo (where the band are octogenarians), watching football (St George lost!) at another, and ended up back where we started at about 10pm. I managed to survive this good ol' Aussie pub crawl by following these rules from the book I am reading (and enjoying) at the moment: The Lost recipe for Happiness by Barbara O'Neal.

Isobel's Rules For Drinking

1) Eat a lot. Then eat some more.

2) Pick one kind of alcohol and stick with it the whole night. No exceptions.

3) Every hour, on the hour, drink a big glass of water.

4) Eat some more.

5) If you're gonna do shots, never do more than one per hour.

6) When you get home, drink a big glass of water and take an aspirin.

Worked for me!

Oh what a beautiful morning....

Oh what a beautiful day....

That's always been my favourite song from Oklahoma - oops, is it bad to have a favourite song from Oklahoma? (note to Paull & Eliza: we took you to see it when you were very young - and you loved it!) I was reminded of it today when I woke up early, for a Sunday, took a cup of tea and my book back to bed, then just had to get up and go for a walk.

The sky was blue, just the slightest hint of Autumn in the air; the river was a mirror, kookaburras were laughing; I let the dogs free on the cricket ground, and the three of us ran and ran, just because we could; early tennis players were warming up on the RSL courts. Friendly people, with and without dogs, greeted us as we passed. Pelicans floated on the creek; "crazy bottle guy" peddled by on his tricycle, collecting any discarded bottles as he went....and I wondered - does he call me "crazy dog lady"??

Lunchtime found us down by the river with a seafood grill from the world's best fish 'n' chip shop and a bottle of Henksche Semillon (that I won in a raffle).

Oh what a beautiful day!