Had invited Karen, Mark and Zoe up for the weekend again - and Alex et al were coming up to stay in Bendigo. And had also asked Nin & Clare for lunch on Sunday - so it was going to be a full house on Sunday...
Arrived in Inglewood just after 12 - and as we were unpacking a car pulled up and a lady asked if we lived here. Happened that her mum had the 2nd oldest house in Inglewood after ours and did we have any friends who might be interested in buying it, as it was now up for sale.....Well, we'll keep it in mind. Walked down to the butcher after this - as I was planning on some type of roast in the bbq for our big Sunday lunch. Unfortunately he now closes at 12 (used to close at 1pm on a Saturday) - so I came back empty handed
Saw that the windows were still boarded up in the dining room and upstairs where Ken was fixing them up. However there was progress as some replacement/new/fixed windows were in the hallway waiting to be put in.
Karen and Mark arrived soon afterwards, and K and I wandered down to the IGA for supplies...ie bought a couple of rolled pork roasts and some sausages, vegies, etc for lunch tomorrow and some yummy cheeses, antipasto stuff for lunch today
Reminisced about our holiday in Italy last year - as we were there together exactly a year ago - so had a picnic type antipasto lunch out the front on the camp chairs complete with Italian wines. It was also surprisingly warm - with the sun out, and some of us (myself and Justin were even in t-shirts)
Just sort of pottered around - didn't do any "work" today , made up the beds, tried to get rid of the rather bad smell in K & M's room - something dead in there??, made up the fires in advance for tonight, and read the papers a little bit on the veranda in the sun. Very nice.
K, M and I went off in seach of the house for sale 2 streets back - think we found it, but wasn't sure - as it was a Victorian with a 60s type extension
When we got back, we found J showing Miles and Mary around - as Miles had wanted to validate his student's drawings of the house. And he found some mistakes ie door opening the wrong way, wrong shape of the veranda roof etc. They also told us that the Passing Clouds winery and house was up for sale - we kidded Mark that they should buy it....
After M & M left the others also played a bit of footy down on the road
After footy, K, M, the girls and I went for a drive to Passing Clouds to check it out. Passed a mob of grazing kangaroos on the way. M thought the vines looked a lot of work, needed cutting back, but who knows.... if they win tatslotto....
After Passing Clouds took M to the lookout, although it took a bit of finding, I couldn't see properly out of the back seat, took a few wrong turns, and then missed the actual lookout sign once we were on the right road. As it was, the sign had been removed for some reason, so I didn't feel too bad. Walked up there, and the "tower" was still blocked off by hazard tape. The girls wanted to go up, but we wouldn't let them. It was a very clear, sunny afternoon, but a chill was starting to be felt in the air,as it was around 5 or so by this stage
Off to the Empire for dinner tonight - luckily J walked down and booked as we thought we would be 11 for dinner - as it was we were 10 as Becky couldn't come. A, P & A joined us also
Then back to our place to the dining room for a roaring fire and more guitar playing by J. We all retired to bed relatively early, and both K& M and J & I had fires in our rooms - very cosy.. and it certainly warmed the rooms up.
I woke up early as per usual, and went and bought the Sunday paper, and also started on the lunch in the kitchen. Chopped up the "mediterranean" vegies, peeled and chopped the potatoes, and made up a batter for the clafoutis (it's funny when I was shopping with K yesterday I was saying that I was going to make a clafoutis for lunch today, and K had said that she had been thinking of making one to bring down.... - simpatico!!) I had wanted something relatively simple that I could cook on the bbq - and even though I haven't made one before - thought this was just the ticket
J wandered out after 8, and made me a toastie cheese sandwich for breakfast (nice but naughty). So lunch was basically done - good
He then started cleaning out the dining room fireplace - putting the ashes in a plastic bag, and the bag melted- as the ashes were still hot. we were most surprised by this - as the embers had obviouslsy remained alight all night! So, he fanned the ashes and resurrected the fire - got it roaring again in readiness for our lunch guests
Put the pork on the bbq around 10 - thought 3 hours should do it - as I had planned to sit down at 1pm. Got the girls to set the table, picked some flowers, and it all looked nice
Anyway, best laid plans..... N&C arrived just before 1pm with kids and Victor - so we gave them the grand tour inside and out. - as they hadn't been here before. A & P arrived soon after. Back into the dining room, and V asked if we had a hospital in Inglewood, I thought he was making conversation, but also asked if he was feeling alright - and was somewhat surprised when he answered in the negative. He had forgotten to bring his insulin and was feeling decidedly unwell. I rushed off to advise Clare, and J drove the 2 of them to the hospital. J came back soon afterwards and told Nin that he should go and pick them up in 20 minutes. Unfortunately Nin forgot, and C & V had to walk back (luckily not too far) the other thing was that the BBQ gas cylinder had run out at some stage, so the cooking had stopped - which meant that lunch was certainly going to be after 1pm.
But no matter, we had champagne, and K had also gone down to the IGA earlier and bought some pre lunch nibbles ie chips, dips, nuts etc
During this the bloke who had given us the old photo of the hosue showed up with a couple of other people and J showed them around also....and then Sarah showed up with Curtis - they had been in Castlemaine for the weekend and thought they'd drop in. Didn't have enough chairs (or room) for them at the table - so they sat on the couch. it was all very festive - and I thought if I could do this on the bbq - for 18 people, then a few more for Christmas wouldn't be too hard....something to think about anyway...
The kids also disappeared down to the IGA to buy some marshmallows to toast on the bbq - very popular
Lunch finished around 4.30 or so - and N, C K and I had a quick walk around Inglewood to show them around a little bit. saw that the old Railway Hotel, which was now a private house was for sale - so we wondered for how much...C asked if Rory might stay overnight with Fraser - and of course that was fine. Cesky was a bit put out, perhaps not so much that she wasn't staying for a sleepover, more so that she was missing out on something... had to talk her around and invite her up for another time.
Although we had used plastic plates, and the kids had plastic glasses, we ended up using just about every plate, glass and bowl in the house - so there were a lot of dishes to be done in the little sink. and it was taking ages to boil up the water on the BBQ .... So for that reason J fired up Clancy's hot water machine t give us some hot water to do the dishes
Although I thought we wouldn't feel much like dinner, M had for some reason promised the boys some pizza from the road house. So he went up to buy some, J had then independently said he felt like pizza also - so K called up M and asked him to buy 4 pizzas - and we all hoed into them (so much for me not feeling like eating much...)
And of course had another fire in the dining room to keep nice and warm
The girls disappeared to watch a dvd in their room on Z's laptop, and the boys watched Around the world in 80 days on the portable dvd player in the dining room on the couch which we had made up as a bed for them.
Went up to the veranda after dinner as J had a new "app" on his mobile which detailed where the stars were. He trained the telescope on a point and asked if we could identify what it was. i didn't think we would be able to - but because I could make out rings around the 'star" I correctly guessed it to be Saturn and was quite chuffed at seeing - so were J & K.
For whatever reason didn't sleep well, woke up around 3am and didn't really get back to sleep again - or if I did, then only fitfully. So I was a bit tired all day. Got the girls up at 8.30, as we were taking them to a 10.30 movie session.
J, M & I went to have a look at the Railway Hotel house around 9am, J & I on our bikes, and Mark drove slowly behind us. Looked around a bit, and sawa man with a large dog pottering around in the garden. I went up to have a chat, the boys characteristically hung back, until I waved them over, as the man had invited us in to have a look if we were interested. He had already told me that it was sold (or at least in the process) to an artist, Told us that it had 19 rooms, and he had been there for 10 years and was still doing it up. Had a large cellar which we went down into - and he told us that there had been a tunnel for the towns people to come through when the pub was closed for some sly grog. Gordon had also told us that there was a tunnle for the railway workters to sneak across from the railway for some similar sly grog. Both were closed off. As J said - givne that this was a gold town, and that there would have been plenty of miners, these people did what they knew and dug various tunnels - including the one apparently from our house to Jennings store.
K and I took the girls into Bendigo at 9.30 to see Pirates of the Carribean 4, the boys had wanted to come too, but there wasn't room in the car, and anyway, I thought that they could play together back at the house. Met up with Alex & April, a April had wanted to see the film with the girls. While the girls watched the film K and i wandred around Bendigo. Alex had recommended walking around the Arts district - so we did so, and also stopped in the Bank cafe for a coffee and bruschetta - very nice. Walked around the gardens also, up the tower, and then headed back. Had told J & M that we'd bring lunch home with us and - as it was cool (but sunny) we thought that pies would be good. So stopped at Gillys pies and bought quite a few, then ack to the cienma to pick up the girls and back home to Nimmitabel by about 1.30
Was surprised to find a new path in the front. Mark had said that he and J were sitting around drinking beers, but really, they's been quite busy, cleaning up some old bricks, and then using them to outline a path. They'd also put the new mulch out the front where I'd re-planted the irises when I'd come up by myself a while back.
F & R also helped, watered the irises out the front and wet the bricks - M spoiled them a little by bribing them with lollies for their help. They also made a base/cubby for themselves out of scraps of metal etc
So we had our pies on the veranda, and then packed up to go back home to Melbourne - got home around 5.15 - I napped along the way - as I was pretty tired.
