We figured that Val and George hadn't been to Inglewood for about three and a half years - what with one thing and another - they had seen the new wallpaper in the dining room, but that was about all of the "current renovations"
Anyway, this time the stars aligned and we made a weekend of it
There was a bit of traffic when Justin and I drove up, but not too bad
Val and George had gone up earlier - and so missed any traffic
They stopped at the Bridgewater pub - and were pleasantly surprised by the renovations - (new to them beer garden)
However George had said they needed to have the grand reveal from us re our renovations - so we gave it to them a bit quickly, as we needed to get to the pub for dinner before the kitchen closed. Yes, it closes at 8pm, but that means that you really have to have your orders in by just after 7.30pm....
Luckily (for us) it wasn't too busy, and we put our orders in just fine. George and I both had a chicken parma, and Justin and Val had pizzas (which took quite a bit longer than the schnitzels)
Came back and had a few drinks at home too
I had a haircut at 9.30 on Saturday morning - and saw George in the garden on the way there - with a breakfast of champions - rollmops and a bottle of beer!
I also noticed that the lemon tree on the left - was looking extremely parched - so checked the watering system - and it didn't seem to be working on that side of the garden - grr.
My hair took quite a while - so came back at lunch time in effect - which was an antipasto array - cheeses, pate, dips etc - very nice. Sadly no one took a photo of my "new" hair - beautifully blow dried quite straight - i said to them it would never look that good again...(until the next haircut)
I set up the hammock for Val to read in - and she also befriended the local magpies
So had a pleasant afternoon
Justin did some work on the canoe - another coat of epoxy
A surprising (or not) meeting occurred when I just happened to go out onto the street outside the house
A car pulled up with about 4 people inside - they got out and said hello - and said they knew exactly who I was - through the Restoration Australia Show. They also said they loved the house etc. One of them - then said he was a paranormal investigator and would love to come to the house with a medium and their investigative equipment. I thought it could be interesting - don't really expect them to find anything - but would be good to watch - so I said yes, - they were very excited by this. Given that we're pretty busy over the coming months - we made it a Saturday in late May - so we'll see what happens....
Bought a barbecue chicken for dinner, and had salad etc with it - nice and easy because it was hot
I was rather keen to watch a movie outside - as the weather was perfect for that - had cooled down a bit
We had wanted to watch Cinema Paradiso - projected on the wall - but we have a blue ray disc, and that couldn't play on my old lap top
So we watched Up instead - was lovely
And there was a slight breeze, no mozzies - just perfect - Val and George very much enjoyed it also
Sunday, and Shane came over to have a look at the sprinklers - as I'd also seen that the new juniper bush was also very parched
He found that that the heads were blocked - so said he'd fix them up, and also come and water the juniper and lemon tree by hand for a couple of days to get them back on track.
We also discovered another couple of problems. George pointed out that the very expensive wooden benchtop had bowed
And that the cellar was slightly flooded - even though we put a sump pump in at great expense - the motor didn't kick in because the float didn't work - had sunk....Not good enough
Will either have to get onto the builder or the Builders Insurance ....
However on a positive note George seemed to have fixed the problem of the lack of hot water - or at least intermittent hot water in the bathroom upstairs - he took something out of the shower head - so now it is fine, and the pressure is improved also
To change the subject we saw a couple of lizards - this one looked like some type of dragon
George got a bit close, and it scurried up a tree quite quickly
And we also saw a blue tongue lizard near the garage water tank
And speaking of wild life - Val discovered what had been eating my delicious strawberries - bloody harlequin bugs
We went to Bendigo - Langley Estate after lunch - and saw the Velvetones - a 4 piece acapella group
It was lovely, and we saw Thomas and Simone also
There were some drinks in the lounge afterwards - but we could only really stay for one - as we had to get back to Melbourne - and it was around 5pm by this stage
