June 2006
This month: The Boy from Oz > Wollumbi > Judy & Vicki's 60th > Guest Chronicler
> Botany Bay
Wednesday 28 - The Boy from Oz
Here's a treasure for the seniors amongst us. It's Judy, Vicki and Jill being serenaded by none other than the Allen Brothers: Peter Allen (think THE Boy from Oz) and Chris Bell (had to do a google search on 'Allen Brothers' to unearth that one). Actually, the girls, aka 'The Teens' were joined by the Allen Brothers in entertaining the workers at Pa's factory Christmas party one year. Yes, singing!! I would guess that to have been the early 60's...
We rub shoulders with the rich and famous in this extended family, no doubt about it. (Not to mention being full of hidden talents). Speaking of rich and famous, how excited were we to have 'Our Nic' married in Manly? - just round the corner!! It was all redirected traffic and helicopters for us. We were proud as punch that she chose our little corner of the world to say "I do". Pa and I felt like joining the adoring fans lining Darley St with heart-pounding expectation, but decided a private showing of "The Nugget" (in the warm comfort of our own lounge room) should suitably distract us from the close-range nuptials we'd be missing.
Sunday 25 - Wollumbi
Due to the busy schedule we keep here in Manly I've been a bit slow in reporting about my week off recently. Vicki and I went on our annual bible-study retreat, this year renting a cottage in Wollumbi in the Hunter Valley. The first couple of days were overcast and mostly wet, which suited our purposes fine. We blasted the icy-ness out of the house with the airconditioning turned up full bore and 'slightly' rearranged the lounge room furniture to make it all a bit more cosy. We soon discovered that they do things a bit differently in the country when our hostess Jean charged into the house unannounced, much to our astonishment, and relief that we weren't a honey-mooning couple getting to know each other on the lounge room floor. She was pretty bowled over by our redecorating efforts, but graciously informed us that she would be away for the rest of the week and wondered might we like to pay now since we wouldn't be seeing her again. Our eagerness to pay couldn't have been greater, being the means by which to make her go away. Thankfully there-after we had the place to ourselves. Well, aside from the plumber re-tiling the main bathroom... but due to the small mercy of the long weekend he only ended up being there for 3 days.
So aside from going to the Wollumbi markets with Ju Ju on the public holiday, enjoying lavender scones at a lavender farm, and the best hamburger and chips lunch in a cosy cafe one day, we were pretty much immersed in bibles and books for the week. Oh, and I made a nice horsy friend by means of carrots and apples in the paddock next door. We had a real bonding moment on the 4th day when he allowed me to remove all the farmers friends from his mane. From that time on he would whinny joyously at the mere sight of my approach. It was a truly tearful farewell when we had to part on the last day...
How's the serenity?
The ground was covered in frost each morning
Stopping on the way to the lavender farm to soak up the countryside - no, I haven't got the mumps, I'm sucking on a lolly...
Vicki and Judy waiting for their cuppas on market day...
Horsy just ensuring that the camera isn't something to be enjoyed orally
Tuesday 20 - Judy & Vicki's 60th
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUDY & VICKI!!!!!!!
Ju Ju and Vicki turn 60 today! Pa and I rang them this morning to sing 'happy birthday' in our best morning voices and when I told him they were turning 60 he said "Good God. How old does that make me?" Well, 92 and a bit, roughly - but who's counting? Anyway, the said twins are officially 'seniors' which means bargains galore (discount movies and shows, um... $1.10 day trips on public transport, and... other things I'm sure). We all know the girls love a bargain, so it's all up from here really.
Now here's an interesting thing I have discovered since my epic scanning-all-the-old-photos ordeal began. See if you can work it out by comparing the following two pics:
This is Christmas 1950 - (10 over 6 and carry the 1... so the girls were 3 1/2 here)
As it so happens, this was also Christmas (2002)
Did you spot Vicki's closed-mouth smile and Judy's open-mouthed one? And there we have a clue to working out which is which before the age of about 18. Think this is 'mere co-incidence'? Here's another one to convince you:
Yes, I know, there's always a high wow-factor, here at marniemoo.com... While we're on the subject of birthdays which, lets face it, is really about getting older, here's a cool Garfield comic I saw the other day:
Feel free to use the message board below to send birthday wishes to the new seniors (or express your awed wonder at my discovery, or to express anything at all really...)
Friday 16 - Guest Chronicler
WHO’S MINDING THE SHOP WHILE MARNIE’S AWAY?
As you may or may not know, Marnie has been away on a week’s holiday. But since we know you all wait with bated breath to see what new adventures have befallen our hero, Leonard of Manly, I’ve appointed myself guest chronicler for this week.
Leonie has been the stand-in minder and daily companion and I’ve been going round on a part time basis, spending the occasional morning with our hero and the odd evening as well.
I’ve tried to record Len’s activities visually but I warn you, I’ve taken most of the shots with my phone so they’re not up to Marnie’s super duper camera standard. Then again, her super duper camera doesn’t play the Samba when somebody phones her, so the honours are even.
De rigueur fashion for chilly mornings. A plaid blanket and a green beanie.
Also not up to Marnie standard is the quality of outings that we’ve been taking him on. Marnie, after all, takes him to exciting and exotic places: the Casino to see Tom Burlinson impersonating Frank Sinatra; Centrepoint Tower to admire panoramic views of Sydney; Beautiful Port Botany, gateway to the south and a bustling, burgeoning container port, full of activity and glamour, alive with the mystique of travel to foreign and romantic places, like Wollongong.
We took him to Manly Library to hear me talk to a bunch of school children about what an all round good fellow I am. And, just in case that wasn’t exciting enough, we also took him to that well known Northern Beaches tourist mecca, the Harbord Tyre Centre. (Photo supplied - see below).
And we threw in coffee at Michelle’s as well! No effort was spared to make his week an enjoyable and excitement packed one.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Last Saturday it was, in the inelegant but eloquent phrase coined by Marnie’s father, pissing pickhandles. Leonie moved round to Len’s place and took him to the movies in the afternoon. I don’t know what they went to see but Len probably doesn’t either. If any of you really want to know, ask Leonie.
Saturday night I volunteered to cook us some chicken satays, otherwise known as chook on a stick. Carried away with culinary fervour, I was bent over the griddle plate that I had taken with me, turning satays over so they got those diagonal sear marks on them and forming clever diamond patterns on the chicken when Leonie came out from the sunroom and mentioned that there was a little smoke in the kitchen. I looked up and realised that I couldn’t see the back door. The kitchen looked like the inside of a Turkish bath. Luckily the smoke detector in the living room doesn’t seem to work (that is a piece of luck isn’t it?). We opened the back door and I flapped tea towels through the smoky haze. But the chicken was nice and the smoke cleared eventually. Round about Tuesday, I think.
We noticed that there’s an exhaust fan in the kitchen ceiling. Be handy if there were a switch for it somewhere but I guess you can’t have everything.
Sunday night I went round and we watched the Rugby Test. At half time, Len announced that he was going to bed and off he did go. I assume the test wasn’t gripping him. Mind you, I can’t say I blamed him. It was a pretty fair assessment of the Wallabies’ performance. I think some of them went to bed at half time as well.
Not sure what Leonie and Len did on Monday but on Tuesday Len and I went to the Skiff Club for lunch, working on the principle that a week without prawns in it just isn’t a week. Len said that the plate of prawns was much too much for him and suggested that I have some. Note the word “some”. I managed to get one before he inhaled the rest.
A week without prawns in it just isn’t a week
But Wednesday was the big day. That was T- Day - the day when we all went to the Harbord Tyre Centre. We didn’t warn him in advance as we thought the excitement might be too much for him. We also didn’t stay long because I said we didn’t want to tyre him out (tyre him out, oh god that’s priceless!) and Leonie suggested that we had brought him in for a retread.
Oh dearie me, what a pair of hilarious thigh-slappers we are when we get going.
Bugger Tom Burlinson, this is an outing!
You can see from the photo how delighted he was to be there. Then, when we thought it just couldn’t get better, we had coffee at Michelle’s! Oh frabjous joy! Kaloo Kalay!
Spot the ghostly photographer reflected in the window
The excitement rose to fever pitch that night, with our visit to Manly Library. At the end of my talk Len said he was enthralled by my wit and erudition. (See if you can find the false statement in the last sentence. Here’s a hint. It’s the entire sentence.)
So that’s been the week. Rugby Test, smoked satays, smoked kitchen, prawns and the ubiquitous salmon. And, of course, the Tyre Centre. He’s been in good spirits, and he and Leonie have been watching the early evening quiz shows, screaming “Take the money! Take the money!” at greedy contestants who always go that one step too far and lose the lot.
Marnie’s back next week and she’s got a lot to live up to. We’ve really raised the bar with our visit to the Tyre Centre. Top that, Moo.
Flano
Wednesday 7 - Botany Bay
Welcome to June. Already! It's certainly cooling down, but hasn't the rain been great? Especially for those of us who are a bit lazy in the watering-the-garden department - only thing is the weeds love it too.
Yesterday Ju Ju arrived back from a trip to Perth to see Phil and her mob (and an extra-curricular stay in Adelaide for a bit of fun) so Pa and I went to pick her up from the airport. We decided to go a bit early and have lunch in Botany which we found inspired in us a patriotic urge to sing 'Cos we're bou-ound for Bot-anny Bayyyyy' (altogether now). So we drove the length of Botany Road, singing away... not really sure what I was expecting to see - Captain Cook and all his merry men? - Well at the least I was hoping to spot some water, I mean it is a Bay isn't it? We got to the end of the road upon which we hit one whopping eye-sore of a port - not a glimpse of water to be seen, turned around and headed back to the pub for lunch. Now you never can tell what sort of food you will encounter in a pub. Looks can be deceiving (...i before e except after c...?), and forgetting that, I wasn't really expecting much as I placed our orders. WELL. Pa may well be dragging me back to Botany just to re-experience his "best lunch ever". It was Dory with crispy skin, grilled I think, on a bed of well hydrated mash potato with basil. I knew we were onto a winner the minute I saw it, but the proof was in the way the plate didn't really need washing after Pa had had his way with it. Yep.
Seeing that we were still too early to pick up mum, I decided there simply MUST be some water about, so we went a more "scenic" route along the bay, catching sideways glismpses whilst zipping along at 90kms amid semi-trailer city. Not quite what I had in mind. We finally found a turn-off to a boat ramp which sounded promising... and there it was. It's really quite beautiful if you don't look behind you at the port - however, there happened to be a rainbow to soften the stark effort of all that concrete and metal.
Port with rainbow
Pa with port and cap
... on the flip side: Botany Bay 
Mum in Perth with Matty & Ben
... and with Phil
Home
Pa's Corkboard
Original Artworks
Archives 2006
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
Photo Albums
Family Fiasco '06
Hong Kong '06
Bellingen '06
Xmas '05
Springett mob
UK Hanlons
Berowra Bush
Dunk Wedding