Breaking with tradition we left for Inglewood on Friday morning rather than Thursday night (after dinner/traffic). That said, there was still a bit of traffic on Saturday morning.
Justin was driving - and was watching the petrol gauge and kilometre range go down, not seemingly in proportion to the kilometres travelled.
We initially had a range of 142km which should have easily got us to Ravenswood, but it kept going down exponentially, so we decided to fill up in Gisborne
I sat in the car while Justin paid - and watched a couple of CFA volunteers rattle cans for the Good Friday Royal Children's Hospital Appeal. Not many people stopped to pay, so I asked Justin to get some cash out at the Service station to give to them. He forgot, but stopped to chat with them, and was surprised to see that they accepted digital payments via a qr code to be scanned. If I was them I would have had a big sign displaying this, and yes Justin gave them some money via this method
Back on the road, and this time the kilometre range increased as the kilometres travelled increased - very strange indeed. I think it started with a range of about 800km, and then went up to well over 900km - despite having travelled 40k or so
While we were on the road, we had a call from Michelle, saying that her and John were in Bendigo, and could drop in
Our ETA was around 1.15, and they arrived soon after - It was lovely weather, about 25 degrees, and sunny and blue - so we sat out in the rotunda - and had a glass of wine. they had already eaten, so we didn't have lunch til after they left around 3 or 4pm or so
I should also add that the garden was looking very lush -= and needs to be weeded/cut back, but I can't do that at the moment
Justin went up to the Mark's tasting room at 5pm to practise his set with Mark and David, while I stayed home and napped/read.
Justin got back around 6.30 and made salmon for dinner and we watched a movie the Jumanji sequel - which was reasonably amusing.
Saturday, and Justin dropped me off at Terry's around 9am (I can't drive as I had my hip replaced the previous week, and can't drive til the surgeon says its ok to, I am also hobbling around on crutches, and need to wear high compression socks to ward off blood clots, in fact I'm a bit of an invalid at the moment)
That said, I was able to sit at Terry's kitchen table and chop up zucchini etc for ratatouille
Arlene then started deboning a leg of lamb - and good thing I'm not the queasy type - but it did seem somewhat reminiscent of my recent operation....
I then deboned a leg also - did a pretty good job too (first time I'd done it)
Terry gave us his delicious eggplant parmiagiana for lunch, and I called up Justin soon afterwards to come and pick me up
Fraser and Rileigh arrived after 2pm, and we showed Rileigh around - as it was her first time here - although she was familiar with the house through this blog etc
They then had a look around town, and afterwards drove up to Melvilles Caves as it was another beautiful warm day
Justin and I went back to Kingower around 3pm for a sound check - and I helped Terry plate up some of the desserts
There was some sort of motorcyle rally going on outside our house when we returned around 4.30pm
Back to Kingower around 6.15. Rileigh was very keen to see a kangaroo, and we saw a few in the distance - must admit didn't want to see any too close to the car
Sat at the front left hand table with Steve & Denise and Maile & David
Was another lovely evening - cream cheese nibbles on arrival, stuffed mushrooms for entree, ratatouille with Italian Easter lamb for main, and 3 x finger food sweets - date biscuit, Turkish delight, & apple cake for dessert.
I think that Fraser and Rileigh enjoyed themselves
Music started a bit later than normal - around 9pm. First up Justin, David and Mark playing good old standards together
By the time Mark stared playing it was getting close to 11pm and I was flagging (the operation had made me more tired) - so we unfortunately had to leave. We're normally one of the last to go
Fraser drove back so that Justin could have a few drinks - and we saw a kangaroo by the side of the road, which then jumped into the bushes, Rileigh was in the back seat, so didn't see it
Bit of a sleep in on Sunday morning - Justin made me bacon and eggs which was nice, and I was surprised to see that the kids left reasonably early before 10am,a s they had a lunch with friends back in Melbourne. I was so pleased that they came - especially to the Music night. We had also discussed the possibility of them coming back soon to paint the upstairs hallway/bee room
Another beautiful day on Sunday - Justin fixed up the kiwi watering system - as one of the sprayers had been chopped off by a mower
And while I sat in the rotunda a very relaxed young magpie came and hopped around my feet
Thought we might go and drop in on Terry around 3 or so - had a nice chat and thanked him for a lovely night. Stayed an hour or 2, had a G&T, and left 5ish for home
Thought we'd have a picnic dinner in bed - biscuits, cheese, olives dip etc - very nice
Given that it was so early, we watched a double feature - Meet the Millers to start - and that was reasonably amusing, and the Gold with Zac Effron which was definitely on the harrowing side
Monday, and the weather had changed - it was now rainy and overcast (but not too cold). Tidied up a bit, and also took photos for Fraser and Rileigh as to what would need to be moved in the bee room in order to paint
And I was surprised that up in the top hallway Vic seemed to have painted part of the wall a pale egg shell blue. Justin thought it was the plaster - Vic hasn't responded to my question yet, so we don't know
Left for Melbourne before lunchtime - wasn't too much traffic
