High School reunion #2 13 & 14 June 2015

Well, we had so much fun the 1st time, that we did it again 2 years later.

Yep, another high school reunion, slightly different cast, but just as fun.

A few months back on Easter Sunday, Justin and I went to Darren and Gail's wedding, where I got to talking with Greg and Wayne.  They were interested in the house, so I said I'd invite them all up for a weekend.  It took months to organise, and in the end it was only Darren & Gail, and Greg & Tori who could come - but we all had a good time.

Justin and I drove up on Saturday morning.  The car had been playing up a little bit on the drive up and back the week before, faltering/losing power etc.  But because I'd got home so late after picking Justin up from the airport, I'd sort of forgotten about it.

Anyway, Justin was driving this Saturday and he certainly noticed it.  We stopped for petrol as is now our habit at the new Caltex at Ravenswood (cheaper petrol than Melbourne).  The car started up again, but when Justin was revving it, it conked out.  Justin started it up again, and revved again, and it conked out again.  This happened three or four times, and then we called the RACV, and twiddled our thumbs for an hour.

Meanwhile I had to organise for someone to pick up the pork from the butchers - as I'd ordered it the day before - just to make sure that they had some.  That was all fine, and when the RACV man came out the car was infuriatingly all fine also.  Just a sporadic problem, so have booked it in with our Melbourne garage.  Anyway, luckily we were able to drive onto Inglewood, and didn't have to worry about being towed.

Arrived not long before Darren and Gail, and had a pleasant late lunch by the succulent garden.

After lunch Justin retired inside to do some work/nap

retiring after lunch

 While Darren enjoyed our hammock in the sun

Darren getting comfortable in the hammock #1 

Darren getting comfortable in the hammock #2

As you can see from the above photo, Gail and I went for a bike ride.  But I didn't really take any photos of that.  Went off road through the bush tracks, and then on a small bitumen road. Wasn't quite where I thought we were, but didn't matter you couldn't really get lost.

Saw a very young shaky legged lamb that looked very cute

shaky legged lamb

Got back around 4.30, and had a civilised cup of tea up on the veranda, to warm up a bit, while waiting for Greg and Tori

tea for 3 (4 actually)

Greg and Tori arrived just after 5, and we showed them around (as they hadn't been here before) and started getting dinner ready.

 Justin cooked up the pork on the BBQ (too much hassle to monitor the pizza oven) with the vegies, and made a salad.  I prepared the vegies, made a red dip, and a sticky date pudding.

Justin also prepared a lovely roaring fire in the dining room (he confided later that the fire set off with such a roar that he worried that the chimney might catch fire - it didn't)

admiring the fire

smiling by the fire #1

smiling by the fire #2

Nibbles and prosecco were in front of the fire

pre dinner drinks and nibbles

Tori and Greg

J drinking prosecco

Dinner was good, the pork was perfect as per always, and the room was actually warm.  You could really tell the difference when going into another room.  It makes a huge difference when you use hard wood for the fuel.

I say that the room was warm, but all of the "soft" Melbourne guests were all rugged up.  Of course Justin and I have acclimatised to Inglewood weather/the house, and so were in normal clothes. 

Tori rugged up

Greg rugged up

Gail rugged up

nice fire

finished dinner now - just chatting #1

finished dinner now - just chatting #2

finished dinner now - just chatting #3

Had quite a late one.  I was last up, as either myself or Justin prefer this - certainly in Winter, as we need to make sure that the fire is safe, lights out etc.  So I was in bed by about 1.30am.

Mercifully slept in (I seem to be getting quite good at this).  However I was still the 1st one up by some hours...

Squeezed a large bag of nice, sweet and pipless oranges

before

after

And we had a huge "recovery" breakfast, or more properly brunch - around 10.30.  Once again by the succulent garden.  On the menu was of course my freshly squeezed orange juice, bacon, eggs, my freshly baked bread, kransky, hash browns, and baked beans.  No wonder we didn't need any lunch!

Brunch is served #1

Brunch is served #2

Brunch is served #3

Of course we needed to burn off at least some of these calories, but didn't want anything too energetic - so a game of petanque was in order.  Greg advised us of the rules, and we had a great old time.  Basically we moved around the whole east side of the garden, as Greg had said that the winner of the set throws the jack in any direction from where the winning ball landed.  Justin was chief photographer, and Darren won, with Greg a close 2nd.  Although I had started very strongly (I won the 1st 2 throws, I didn't win any more for a long long time.

allee oop

here she goes

it's gone

underarm

looking

Darren's turn #1

Darren's turn #2

Gail's turn

My turn

Greg's turn

 After this we wandered around the shops, and deposited those 2 traffic bollards on the corner along with some other ones

got rid of them at last

Greg bought some records (he's vinyl tragic), and then he & Tori left early afternoon, 

Darren and Gail stayed a little longer, Gail taking advantage of the nice day

Gail camouflaged

can see her better now

 

While Justin did some weeding.  he did say that weeding was actually harder than you think.  Who does he think he's talking to?

Justin weeding