Jo-Co and co 25 & 26 July 2015

Another great, but rather cold weekend.

I started off by giving Fraser an early morning lift to school so that he could catch the bus with his buddies to play hockey in Geelong.

last hockey game of the season

 Madeleine, Basil and I took the ute to Inglewood loaded with yet more furniture.  A chest of drawers, a hall table, and a sideboard - all kindly donated by Alex and Prue.  Justin took the passat to Geelong to pick up Fraser and then continued onto Inglewood.

Mad and I arrived around 11.30, had a quick hello to the Op Shop ladies, deposited a few bags of clothes, and bought a couple of things also.  Our deposits were very well received with a number of jumpers selling even before they had been priced.

And then I was onto Michelle's to have a haircut at 12 noon.  Justin came and got a haircut also once he arrived.  He has to look neat for his next circuit

Afterwards, Justin and Fraser moved the furniture in - the new hall table in the downstairs hallway.  The "old" hall table in the upstairs hallway

new hallway table, ex Alex & Prue's, ex, ex Ocean Grove

The sideboard temporarily in our bedroom.  We need to figure out where it will go in the dining room.  I thought where the organ is.  But Justin wants to keep the organ.  I guess it could go on the other side next to the bookshelf.  Would just move the chess table and the drinks trolley

sideboard without the back attached

And the chest of drawers upstairs in the red room.  They wouldn't stay still for me to take photos (or the phone camera was too slow).

Justin in coat walking up the stairs

Fraser with back of drawers

Justin again

Fraser carrying a drawer

Fraser carrying same drawer, and Justin bringing up the rear

Justin in motion

Justin again

Justin and I went to the IGA for some supplies for dinner, and I made the sugar/spice/chilli syrup for the mulled wine.  Our Scottish Melbourne neighbours had brought us some a week ago, and it was delicious, so I asked for the recipe.  As it was, we didn't end up having any this weekend.  But the syrup keeps, so will have it next time

about to crush the star anise, cloves, cinnamon & chilli

need to dry fry it, then add sugar and water etc

We thought Caitlin and family (Brad, Grace & Harvey) would arrive around 4pm, but it was closer to 6pm as they had also stopped off at the IGA for supplies.

Luckily we had put the chickens on the bbq, and  were happily roasting when they arrived.
Showed them around the house and garden as they hadn't been here before.  Caitlin then chopped up some potatoes while I started on the sticky date pudding

Then into the dining room with some bubbles, a fire, and some appetisers - cheeses and some persimmon paste that I made from our Glen Iris persimmons, some dips, nuts etc

one of Justin's roaring fires

Let there be (candle) light

me with my new haircut and candles

pre dinner nibbles

Fraser giving us the look with Grace in the background

Brad & Caitlin

Dinner was a bit hectic, as the chicken were ready before the potatoes, and greens,  But oh well, it was lots of fun and all tasted good.

Dinner #1

Dinner #2

a forced grin?

forced grin #2?

more natural

And after dinner there were marshmallows stuck on sticks in the fire.

Justin & 2 marchsmallows

Fraser about to bbq a marshmallow #1

Fraser about to bbq a marshmallow #2

the perfect specimen

And I also roasted chestnuts on the open fire (like the song), or actually in foil on the coals.
Burnt a few though.  The non burnt ones were quite nice, sweet and sort of pasty tasting

Warrnambool chestnuts

Justin amused the guests with something on his phone

what is he showing them #1

what is he showing them #2

And we had a visiting dinosaur

dinosaur in training

real dinosaur #1

real dinosaur #2

dinosaur without head

The kids big and small disappeared to bed, while us adults stayed up and chatted, and Justin brought the guitar out and we had a bit of rowdy sing-a-long, with Caitlin and Brad also strumming a bit.  We were surprised by how late we went to bed - almost 3am.  Haven't been up that late in many years!

after dinner #1

after dinner #2

Given the lateness of our going to bed, we had a slow start in the morning .  Fraser and I were the 1st up, and we had some toast and eggs for breakfast.  The others got up over the next few hours

Fraser and Harvey played with trains

all boys love trains

Caitlin and Grace looked at our Grand Adventure book in the kitchen

fascinating reading

  
We all went for a walk around town.  And it was freezing, the average temperature during the day was only 7 degrees.  And it was windy, so there was a wind chill factor on top of that.  We also didn't light a fire during the day, as we weren't sure what we were going to do.

Came back from our walk and Grace, Brad and I played uno in the dining room - all rugged up of course.  My hands didn't work properly when dealing the cards - they were too cold..

Thought we might make pizza for lunch, but what with the dishwasher on, I had to wait to make the dough in the breadmaker, and wouldn't have considered bought bases.  As it was Grace had a bad cough, so Caitlin and Brad unfortunately had to go before lunch (although it would have been around 1pm).  Had a farewell photo in front of the house

Me, Caitlin, Brad, Harvey & Justin

I also planted the mystery bulbs that Xavier and I had dug up in Glen Iris a few weeks ago

Lots of mystery bulbs

Justin, the kids and Basil left soon afterwards, and I left in the ute around 3pm.  Thought I'd have some peace and quiet reading the newspaper, but it got too cold, so I packed up the fridge and left. Took me about 40 minutes in the ute to get comfortably warm.  I don't recall being this consistently cold in Inglewood before.