Nimmitabel: A Work in Progress: Anzac Day Long Weekend 23

Anzac Day Long weekend, and I had organised to have my haircut by the fabulous Michelle at MGM in Inglewood.

Given that the appointment was for 10.30 on Saturday morning, and that Justin didn't feel like driving up on the Friday night, I decided to catch the 6.24pm train from Southern Cross after work.

It worked a treat, I firstly rang up V Line to see if I could use my myki card, and yes I could, and I also reserved a seat while I was at it. ( I found out later that there was a 1st class carriage, nobody mentioned that to me, I would have liked to take it, maybe next time)

Bought some sushi for dinner, and caught the train from Flinders Street the one stop to Southern Cross.

Southern Cross Station photo from the internet

Found my seat in Carriage B - and settled down doing the Friday Age Tough, and then the Thursday Age diabolical sudokus on the 2 hour trip. The train conductor growled at me a bit, said I needed a paper ticket for a reserved seat, but I said they didn't tell me that at the VLine contact centre (they didn't, just said that quoting the reservation number would be sufficient) Anyway, got to Bendigo around 8.30pm and then caught the connecting V-Line coach to Inglewood at 8.45. I must admit that I was a little worried in case I missed the connection. Was already working out that I could call Damo & Nicole if stuck in Bendigo, or see if I could catch an Uber out to Inglewood etc. As it was, the connection was seamless - although I was a bit cross that I had to shell out some more money for the coach ticket ($5). I thought that the myki ticket should have covered it all.

Anyway, arrived in Inglewood around 9.30, and watched a couple of Monarch of the Glen episodes which I had on dvd - a much bigger renovation project than ours!

Saturday morning, and I pottered around a bit, went and organised a smoked brisket dinner with Jim the butcher, and also got rid of those pesky sliding kitchen cupboard doors next to the window. I had previously put some of the electrical appliances in there, and we had to keep moving the doors - to access different appliances, quite a nuisance.

the before shot with those pesky sliding doors

Got me a tool to lever ( Justin, note this tool was not a chisel) off the running/sliding track

levering off the track

Levered off the tracks quite easily - aren't I clever!

tracks

one of the doors off the tracks

now without doors - hoorah

now organised with electrical appliances and tea/coffee

and finally the banished 3 x windows in the scullery

And then went and had my haircut, and was as always very pleased with the result.

Justin showed up during the cut - and went back to the house to organise sandwiches for lunch. I also got to chatting with another lady getting her haircut there - and somehow got to talking about our spare fridge. And yes, she subsequently took it off our hands for her daughter - we were thrilled!

Kim came and got the fridge in the later afternoon, and of course Justin had to make sure it was nice and clean before hand

cleaning the fridge

So we can walk around freely in the kitchen again - good!

Watered the garden a bit, including the poor yuccas out the front, and then up to the veranda for some pre dinner nibbles and drinks. Given the lovely weather indulged in an unseasonal G&T.

G&T for me - with my new haircut

Jim arrived with our smoked brisket around 6.15. I spied him walking up from our eyrie on the veranda. We had also put some potatoes and carrots in the oven to roast

Roast vegies

Stayed up on the veranda a bit longer as Justin was serenading me with his guitar, and Jim said the brisket would keep good and warm for at least 1/2 hour.

many layers of foil over the brisket

a blurry photo of Justin serving up the vegies

the brisket revealed

about to be cut

my dinner plate

When we were ready we went back downstairs, served up the dinner and went and ate it in the dining room with a cheeky bottle of local red (actually it might have been a Spanish red ).'

The brisket was lovely - very tender and tasty, terrific with horseradish and English mustard. So a lovely dinner, and then we watched a rather confusing film - "71" about the "troubles" in Northern Ireland. It was the eternal question, we weren't sure who was with who, who was double crossing who, some of the actors looked similar, long floppy brown hair and Zapata mustaches, and then the thick Irish brogues didn't help matters either. I was somewhat scathing (but maybe because I didn't really get it) of the film and Justin apologetic (feel free to dispute this Justin), but he did say that it had got good write ups. A shockingly boring Icelandic film called Rams had also received glowing reviews - but my sister and I were both numbed into oblivion by the soporific experience of that film - so you can't necessarily trust reviews!

Sunday, and leisurely breakfast outside in the sun. Cool, but lovely in the autumn sun.

After breakfast did some watering, and Justin decided that he wanted to fix up the cubby house as there were some rotten weatherboards

Taking out the old #1

taking out the old #2

just need painting now

Justin also did some more oiling of the fence posts, and I organised more of the dvds.

I then helped out with the oiling too, as it was such a beautiful day, too good to be inside.

oiling the wooden part of the fence

And I planted that small nectarine tree that I'd bought from Noi a couple of months ago, and which Denise had been minding so she could water it, and it wouldn't die in the heat of the Summer. I replaced a plum tree which had died

dead plum tree

new nectarine tree

Dinner was a repeat of last night (there was plenty of brisket) and we made up some new roast vegies

And Anzac Day breakfast on the Monday was outside also - once again a beautiful day - reading the electronic papers.

breakfast in pjs

Of course, I had to make some Anzac biscuits, and then we went to the Anzac Day march in Brooke Street, followed by the service at the War Memorial

service at the War Memorial #1

service at the War Memorial #2

Back to the house around 12, and we finally put up those Victorian light shades that I'd bought. Perhaps a bit big for the light fitting - only afterwards I thought they could go on the front downstairs lights, but they were such a nuisance to put up, we might leave them there for a while.