False start

This morning I woke up in time to go to my Op Shop tour in town. Or so I thought. Dad offered to drive me into town but no matter which way we went, the traffic was awful! Eventually Dad drove me to Paradise to catch the bus but I knew that I would be late as the bus left at 9.30.

I got into town just after 9.30 and started walking towards what I thought was Whitmore Square. It turned out to be Light Square so I rang Dad to find out where I should be going. He explained that it was over the other side of the city. There was no way I would make it.

I found a CIBO and sat down to wallow in my skinny decaf cappuccino. I was disappointed that I missed the tour but decided to have a look around town instead. I wandered to the Myer Center and spent ages looking through Myers. Dad came in to meet me for lunch which we had at the David Jones food court.

We walked around and looked at a few shops before deciding to try our luck at the Amococo tent. We walked over to Rymill Park and bought our tickets. We had to wait half an hour which was ok. Dad had a coffee and we sat on the second hand lounge chairs in the tent outside waiting for our turn.

When our colour was called, we lined up, took our shoes off and waited to get inside. Once we were inside, we were amazed. From the outside, the tent looked pretty cool with these domes that looked like Islamic designs from some mosques. It was made of silver plastic with panels of coloured plastic. From the inside it looked like stained glass. It was just beautiful.

We slowly walked around the tent looking at the various spaces and shapes and colours and taking some photos. It took us about 20 minutes to walk through and find our way back to the exit. It was much better than we expected and not what we expected at all. Definitely worth the $2.

From there we walked back to the car and headed home. I spent the afternoon watching some TV before walking to Woolworths to pick up some supplies for dinner. I bought a ham bone, some chick peas and stock to make a ham and vegetable soup. I chopped everything and got it on the boil while I continued to work on my earrings. They were really fiddly but I slowly made progress.

I stopped to have some dinner and watched some more Tudors with Dad before finally finishing the earrings. Overall I was really happy with them. They were the most complicated things I had made. I headed to bed about 11 and finished my book - Leaving Microsoft to Change the World - which was about the founder of Room to Read. It was an amazingly inspiring book and makes me want to get into more NGO work. About midnight I finally fell asleep.

Kate Ceberano

This morning I woke up reasonably late and started working on a new earring design before Kate arrived with Jessie the dog about 12.45. We went for a walk down to the lakes and did a couple of laps before heading to the cafe for lunch. We sat there for ages chatting and drinking coffee.

Before we realised it, it was 2.30 and it was time to head back. I picked up some stuff and then we drove over to Burnside Primary School to pick up Luke. Kate then dropped me at the chiropractor for my appointment with Malcolm while she did a few things at Burnside Village.

I got out well before her so I started walking to their place up Kensington Road and she would pick me up. I got all the way up to Hallet Road and probably within 300m of their house before she finaly caught up with me.

Back at Kate's place, I had a shower and then Stan cooked us dinner before Kate's friends Alexandra and Kerry came over. About 7.30 we headed into town and found a park off Rundle Street. Poor Donna who was supposed to be meeting us drove in but couldn't find a park so she drove home again and had David drop her off. Eventually she caught up with us as we stood in the line waiting to get into the Speigeltent.

While we waited, I popped over to the bar and bought a bottle of bubbles which the bar lady gave me in an ice bucket with 4 glasses to take back to the girls. This definitely made the wait more bareable although I only had a couple of sips of Kates. Eventually the show before ours finished and we headed into the Speigeltent. It was the first time I had ever been in there and it was beautiful with mirrors on the walls and wood panelling and even a bar inside!

Kate Ceberano took the stage with her brother who played lead guitar and her band. She started with a few classics of hers and a couple of covers before throwing it open to the audience to choose songs out of a hat. She even did a Divynls song which was pretty funny. Some of her really old songs came out of the hat and it was funny to watch Phil, her brother, calling out the chord changes to the rest of the band who obviously hadn't played them for a very long time if at all. Kate was very funny and entertaining and the show was a lot better than I expected. We all really enjoyed it and said that we wished it had been longer than it was.

After the show finished, Donna headed home in a taxi. The other girls and I headed to Cocolat cafe for a coffee and a couple of chocolates - yum! Alexandra drove us back to Kate's place and then Kate drove me home about midnight. I was exhausted but it was a good night out.

Ross' 37th Birthday! A super lazy day

Today I didn't do much at all. I spent the morning in bed and then spent the afternoon on the computer catching up on my blog and looking at a few other things. Dad and I watched more of the Tudors and decided that we would go out for tea to celebrate Ross' 37th birthday.

I made a few pairs of earrings before we walked up to Oakden Central hoping that it was open as it was a public holiday for the Adelaide Cup. It was open and it was schnitzel night so Dad and I each had a beef schnitzel. It was delicious. We walked home again and we were happy that we had left the heater on as it had been a miserable cold day all day.

I made some more jewellery while we watched some more of the Tudors. About 10, both Dad and I were half asleep so we headed to bed. It was nice to have a low key day! Happy Birthday Ross!!

Brunch and catching up with extended family

This morning I drove over to King William Road to meet Stan and Kate at Jones The Grocer for brunch. It was delicious and surprisingly it was a nice day. After breakfast, we left Stan and Luke and Kate and I walked up and down King William Road trying on some clothes but neither of us made a purchase - unusual for us!

On the way home we zipped into Burnside Village to pick up some bread and we chatted for ages over a coffee before finally going back to Kate's place. I hung out there for about 1/2 an hour before it was time for me to go and pick Dad up. I managed to find my way back to Woodhouse where he was all packed up and just finishing up with the group he had been camping with.

We drove into Stirling and had a coffee and a snack before driving home again. We were both knackered so we each had a rest for an hour or two before it was time to get up and go again. We were on our way to Annette's place for dinner.

Neither of us really felt up to it but once we got there it was really nice to catch up with family again. Diane and Russell (my cousin) were there as well as Annette, Ed, Rowan and Narelle. Ed cooked up a BBQ and we braved the cold to eat outside before moving inside to chat the night away. It was great to catch up with everyone again. Particularly Diane and Russell who I hadn't seen for 12 years.

I drove Dad home about 11 and we both fell into bed exhausted after a good night.

Weekend by myself

With Dad gone, I had to amuse myself today. After a leisurely sleep in, I got organised and headed out about 11 to see some of the craft shows that were linked to the Fringe. First stop was the Wevers Guild of SA. As I walked in the church hall where the exhibit was being held, I was clearly the youngest there by many decades but I was surprised that a lot of there wor was really contemporary and not just granny rugs and knitted jumpers. Some of the woven scarves were exquisite! A lot had already been bought and although I couldn't bring myself to pay over $100 for a scarf, they certainly were beautiful. Some of the woven art work was interesting too as was the felt work. I entered the raffle (which was kind of mandatory) and then headed out the door.

Onto the next exhibition which was the Embroiders Guild of SA. A similar set up to the last but this time you did have to pay $5 to get in. I have always loved embroidery I think because Mum did a lot of it when I was a kid. Some of the work was beautiful, particularly the Japanese inspired art works with gold and silver thread. There were your usual daggy cross-stitch samplers as well but the majority of the work was very high quality and quite unique. I made my way through the exhibit and into the main house where I got talking to a lady who was into collecting embroidery tools - ok, this is where I had to draw the line. I made my escape back into the real world.

Having had my culture fix for the morning, I drove to Harbortown to do some mindless window shopping. I walked around for ages but with no purchases. I did buy some more raffle tickets to help the paraolympians. So in total today I entered three raffles.

I was getting hungry by this stage and I knew I wanted to cook pasta for dinner so I went in search for good fresh food. I meant to head up to Burnside Village but missed the turn onto Greenhill Road so instead I tried my luck at the Central Market. As I pulled in, it was 3pm, and of course what time did the market close - 3pm. So I walked back to the car and joined the queue to get out of the carpark and paid $1.70 for the privilege.

I drove up to Burnside Village and bought a nice piece of lamb fillet, some fresh pasta and some putanesca sauce to make dinner with. While I sat and had a coffee and some sushi, I checked my phone and there was a message from Kate inviting me around for dinner. They didn't have anything planned so I said I would bring the food I had bought over to cook. I popped home and grabbed my beading stuff before driving over to Kate's place.

Kate and I did a bit of beading while Stan cooked dinner (again). We ate pasta in the lounge while watching the NAB Cup semi-final between St Kilda and Freemantle - a complete whitewash with St Kilda thrashing them. After the footy I headed home again. So much for my quiet day by myself! Thank god for good friends.

Hypnolarious

I slept late this morning (again) which I think is becoming normal. Dad was busy doing things for the camp coming up so I amused myself doing this and that. I drove up to Ingle Farm and bought myself some sports socks as the one pair I bought with me, Black had chewed a hole through them! I also bought some fresh ham and hommus for lunch.

After lunch, about 3, Dad was ready to go up to Woodhouse so we drove up the freeway to Stirling and then Dad showed me how to get to the Woodhouse Scouts Camp from there. I just hoped I could remember it when I had to pick him up. I helped him unload his gear and had a bit of a look around the site which was beautiful before heading back home.

I had a shower and got ready to go out and meet Stan and Kate so that we could go to this hypnotist show called Hypnolarious - part of the Fringe. I picked Stan and Kate up and we arrived early so we walked along Hindley street before we found this little Tapas bar where we stopped for a drink. Obviously they were doing flamenco lessons upstairs as the sound of people's feet could be heard as we sipped our drinks.

We almost lost track of time so we walked quickly back to the Chaos bar where the show was being held in time for it to start. Obviously we didn't know we should have arrived earlier for the dinner which we had booked because as soon as our main course was served, the lights went off and we ate in the dark as we watched the show. It wasn't too bad though.

A number of people volunteered from the audience. I almost did but missed out. In some ways I am glad I didn't. Out of the 10 people on stage, I would say that 7 were truly hypnotised. A couple of people left the stage soon after he started as they were obviously not hypnotised. Other than that, it was amazing what he had the people do. He had one girl convinced that a man in the audience was wearing her shoes so she went and found him and took his shoes off him and wore them back onstage. Then he told her they weren't hers and she need to go look again so as this girl came past our table, Kate told her that the hypnotist had her shoes. This backfired on Kate as he then told the girl that Kate had her shoes so she had to give them to this girl. It was pretty funny really.

There were also the usual tricks where he made them think the audience was naked, that their shoe was a phone and that they were all part of a Ricky Martin concert. One trick I thought was pretty amazing. There was a big guy up on the stage and the hypnotist made him lay on the floor and told him to be really stiff like a rod. A bunch of guys from the audience picked him up and balanced him on two chairs. He managed to keep his body upright. Next he asked a lady from the audience to stand on top of him! He didn't move at all. The guys then lifted him off the chairs and placed him back on the floor and when he "woke up" he didn't know anything about it. I thought that was pretty impressive.

Normally I guess I would be a sceptic with things like this but seeing it in real life definitely made you wonder. It was a pretty godo show and we stayed around to have another drink afterwards. None of us were ready to go home so we walked down Hindley Street and found the Apothecary - a tiny little bar/ restaurant. We had coffees (well Stan had an Absynth) and chatted about the show before heading back to the car. I dropped them off and headed home about midnight. It had been a great night.

Alice in Wonderland

This morning I slept in until 10. I forced myself out of bed and actually went for a walk down to the other lakes at Northgate. On the way back I stopped in to pick Dad up and we walked down to the Lakeside cafe for a coffee and I had some breakfast. We sat there for quite a while before walking around the lakes and back home.

I had got an email saying that my new passport was ready so we drove into town to pick it up. The new passports are beautiful with a different scene on each page. I did laugh out loud when I was flicking through and came across a page with a bunch of netballers on it! While we were in there we also went to the Central Market and picked up some sausages and other bits and pieces for a BBQ dinner.

We dropped the food off at home and then headed up to Tea Tree Plaza. Dad made an appointment for the optometrist next week to try and get contact lenses and we had a coffee before heading to the cinemas.

It was the first day that Alice in Wonderland had been released in Australia and although we went at 4.30, it was still pretty busy. The movie was in 3D and it was the first time Dad had seen a 3D movie. The movie itself was pretty good but there were big long stretches where not much happened. I also didn't think the Aussie actress that played Alice was that good either. It definitely wasn't worth the $35 we payed for both tickets but I am glad I have seen it.

After the movie we drove home and started on the BBQ. Dad cooked the sausages while I made a quick salad. We had venison, buffalo and goat sausages. The buffalo was my favourite and the goat was my least favourite. After dinner we watched some TV for a while before heading to bed.