March

This month: Up the Parra River > The Snooker Night > Visitng Cousins > Bills! > Palm Beach to Ettalong > Here we are in Manly

Tuesday 28 - Up the Parra River

Yesterday Pa & I went for an adventure up the Parramatta River. After a week of rain last week (not complaining) we were delighted to find Monday to be a fine day ripe with nautical opportunity. Having never made the trip myself, it was a surprise to find how narrow and shallow the river becomes by the time you arrive at Parra and how undeveloped it seems to be also. I was expecting high density housing all the way along. We could have been floating up the Murray-Darling (or some other Australian river out in the middle of nowhere). Great!! Of course the city harbour part of the trip is spectacular too. Enjoy this small selection of pics...

Sometimes a pic just begs to be black & white - Pa on the Manly ferry

Seagull on the aforementioned Manly ferry

It took me a while to realise that this collection by the river wasn't actually organic matter

The rivercat arriving at Parramatta wharf

Heading back towards the city

No label needed

Waiting for the ferry back to Manly - what an adventure...

Monday 27 - The Snooker Night

So, we had a snooker night. Dad & Trish and the Flanagans came over on Saturday primed for the game. Well, me and Pa were at least. I cooked a great pasta (unless everyone was just being nice...) - don't all sportsmen eat pasta before a big game??

The definite highlight of the night was the dessert, by which I ruined 6 people's ability to ever eat watermelon again with my attempt at 'watermelon blamonge'. Actually 5, because Pa was really into it (bless him). I did what the recipe said but it wasn't happening. It wouldn't set so I popped it in the freezer and by 9 o'clock there was enough frozen bits to give a small impression of firmness. I can't believe I actually served it up... especially when Trish said, "Ooooh, what are these floating bits? Nectarine?". "Floating bits?? What the... Lumps of cornflour?? Eew!! Pa! Stop eating that!!" Oh God. If I ever smell watermelon again, I'm likely to puke. Plan B? Easter eggs!

Pa prepping for the big night. Now, keep your head still, follow through, and gently!!

Pa on the night, preparing for a winning, still-headed, follow-though-ing, and gently (!!) stroke - with intense concentration

Trish with the jegro (that's the polite word for jigger)

This is a face that dad pulls that will be seen at no other time than during a game of snooker. It's really quite fascinating and a great topic of conversation.

OK. Maybe I didn't do too good for my team (me & Pa) because I wasn't really taking it seriously enough. (Head still, follow through... what was the other thing?? Oh yer, "gently"..., maybe next time). Then again, maybe the port just tipped me over the edge. Now that I think about it, maybe I couldn't concentrate because I was worried about whether the blamonge was stiffening in the freezer....

And then again, maybe it was the footwear...

Flano, being a great umpire and bending the rules a wee bit for the ladies (not that it helped me in any way, but Trish was really coming along by the end...)

Leonie preferred to spectate which was actually great because she really thought every shot was a winner and that was good for my morale (especially finding out what a crap watermelon blamonge maker I am on the same night as forgetting all my during-the-week snooker training).

The happy loosers!

Friday 17 - Visiting cousins

It's great living with Pa because he gets so many vizzies and therefore by default, so do I. (Some of us have to cope with being default visitees)...

This week we had Heidi, Karen and Annabelle all come to stay. It was a lively gathering of extended family - a rare delight. Annabelle is totally adorable as you can see in the pics and rather takes after her grandma Sandy... check out the likeness:

Baby Sandy

Annabelle

What a cutie

We enjoyed a delicious Thai takeaway during which Pa had to fight to get his fair share of sweet-n-sour prawns due to the other prawn-lovers at the table who shall remain name-less. It was touch-n-go for a minute as to who would score the last one. Of course Pa came out on top because who will stand between a Pa and his prawn.

Heidi even managed to rouse the sleeping water-dragons with delicately hurled cubes of cheese onto the ocean-side lawn. They must have been waiting in the bushes for the last couple of years (for their once-regular-supply-of-cheese-care-of-grandma), because there wasn't a sign of them and then there was... three in all.

Everyone loves to swing with Pa

It's sheer pleasure...

The other exciting news of the week is that Pa ventured downstairs to practice his golf swing. We sat down with a cold drink afterwards, reflecting on the wonderful-ness of it when Pa said, "last week I really thought I'd never come down here again because I was feeling weak and shaky". That really made me feel warm and fuzzy. He had a bright pink ball which he aimed to hit with the other balls (there's probably a technical way to describe this practice but Pa's napping at this moment so I can't check), and anyway, he hit 3 in a row. The crowd went wild!! Check out the photographic evidence:

Oh, and one more thing. My lettuces are going off! Check out this baby...
I can feel a salad coming on.

Tuesday 14 - Bills!

Just testing out my 200mm lens that I can now use with my digital camera because I got a lens adaptor on ebay. (Isn't ebay great? Press a few buttons and it arrives on your doorstep). Now I can take photos without 'being-in-your-face', so to speak.

I thought this pic might look nice in black and white...

Bills!

Monday 13 - Palm Beach to Ettalong

We've just come home from A-Big-Day-Out and are settling into some quiet/nap time.

How's the serenity...?

Today Pa and I drove to Palm Beach (it's a long way from Manly - 'when will we be there??') and caught the ferry over to Ettalong where we met up with various of the Wood's mob (Ian, Sandy & Heidi) and had a lovely lunch at the Ettalong Club where there's no need to book cos it's as serene as Bonny Doon during the day. Pa & I feared for our lives on the ferry ride over... I calmly sourced all the exits and life-jacket locations wondering how I would manage 2 life-jackets under one arm and Pa under that other, as we plunged watery valleys and rose to similarly watery peaks. Thankfully that was the pre-lunch ride or it may have got messy.

Pa and I are learning the fine art of ordering entrees for lunch. Either most people have better metabolisms than us, or.... well.... how DO people eat those enormous platefulls of food that restaurants think you must have? Do we look like we need enough food for a week? As it happens, I have inherited Pa's tendency to not want to waste good food (especially when one is paying good money for the a-fore-said food) and so, if it's on the plate, we'll do our darn best to eat it. There's only so many times you can do that in one week though... and so, it's pretty much entrees from here on.

Actually, being a highly sensible mob, we all ordered entrees (except Ian, but to be fair he ate an entree-size portion of his feed-him-for-a-week plate of pasta) and felt well satiated by the end of the meal. Great food, but beware the re-visiting garlic (you'll enjoy it for hours to come!). I told Pa that we'd take mints next time when he asked if I might have one to spare.

Pa and I are looking forward to having Heidi stay (and cook us dinner) tomorrow night, so stay tuned for some pics of Heidi in situ...

Palm Beach ferry wharf

Having a cuppa while we wait for the ferry

A fine looking pair

What a pretty sky!

What a lovely smile!

Wednesday 8 - Here we are in Manly

Wow, at last I have the pleasure of launching the long awaited, much anticipated, hard-to-believe-it-would-ever-happen marniemoo.com!! (How excitement).

So, here we are in Manly (me and Pa) enjoying the ocean breezes (sometimes howling gales) and gorgeous sunsets (complete with western-facing, pre-sunset sauna - soon to be days of the past with the installation of an airconditioning unit), and full of the joys of being home. Well strictly speaking it is Pa who is 'home' but I feel similarly, having grown up just down the road a bit... maybe it's cos I was born in Manly. It's in the bones...

Well now... there are lots of pics to catch up on.
Firstly, the moving in to the 'entrance' of the house. Previously uncharted teritory is now a rather bright and airy bedroom complete with lemon wall paint that has thankfully managed to erase the memory of the previous wall colour which I think was originally named 'toilet green'.

Before