Leafygal

More Eating (Who? Me?)

Well - another mixed bag of "Stuff" (and what looks like a surfeit of eating)

Thursday saw me playing ladies at the Geelong College Speech Day at Costa Hall (in my capacity as Morongo Old Collegians' President). Verified the awarding of the Morongo Medals and the Morongo Award and hobnobbed with the VIP's afterwards - nice nibblies!

Saturday partied in my Underwear (well alright went to an Underwear Party) at The Bellarine Queen's house. Notable foodwise for the scrummy chocolate brownie bites and the cute mini cupcakes decorated with bras, panties and bikinis.( Sorry Fellas no photos.)  New bras will hopefully give me a lift!! (by the way I am having an Underwear  party myself on Wed 7th jan in the evening - let me know if you want the details.)

Saturday night had a belated Birthday Bash at The Purple Duck in Wallington. Food very enjoyable - Salt and Pepper Squid, Lamb rack with roasted garlic,  Berry and almond crumble

 Sunday morning celebrated another year with the BREAST group at Finnigan's Place for our annual Xmas breakfast. We sadly missed Lyn this time- she never missed our outings. We are entering a team in Relay for Life again in memory of Lyn
She would have approved of our starting the day with a "special" fruit juice (OK you just know I meant a Cocktail - Raspberry Cosmopolitans. see pic above) Cheered us up no end. Foodwise - Asparagus eggs and bacon and great coffee.

Monday to the big city for lunch with Marianne and John. Their garden (in Research) is one of my favourite places and is very much as I would like my own garden to be. They are on a very large block of course but the vegie patch and the orchard complement the more formal sections of the garden and the natives, rock walls and natural design of the fish pond outside the dining room windows. Lovely time as usual, more great food and wine  and dragged ourselves  reluctantly from the table at 5.30 to get me back to Geelong ( for Dinner!)

Dinner with the Morongo Old Collegians' Committee for our December meeting traditionally held over a meal. This time at the newly refurbished Telegraph Hotel. Food was very good and good value. I had an uncrumbed chicken schnitzel served in a shallow bowl over smashed crispy potatoes and with bok choy and a green peppercorn and white wine sauce.  Dessert was very generous Creme Brulee, properly made with flecks of vanilla seed and a side serving of blueberry compote and cream.

Certain members of the party noted that their Fathers would have been appalled that we were at The Telegraph - one of the rougher pubs in years gone by, even though it was owned by Parents of a Morongo girl!  Sometimes things do change for the better.

The ragbag

Ragbag posts are what happen when you haven't posted anything for ages and you have lots of different things to blog about.

Activities Include:
    A busy weekend starting with a family dinner at the house in Ocean Grove to celebrate what would have been my father's 90th Birthday. We opened his hoarded single malt whisky and enjoyed it for him. (24th Oct)
    On the Saturday morning the Morongo Old Collegians' AGM and luncheon (as president I had to attend) although it meant missing out on:-
    Back to Ocean Grove celebrations to mark 50 years since the Proclamation of the Township. I remember pushing my decorated pram in the parade next to my brother's decorated tricycle. Apparently we both won prizes for some art works as well, according to contemporary accounts in the local paper.
    I did get to the dinner that evening held in the OG Bowling Club where I had spent so many lunchtimes with my father in recent years. The Dinner was delicious against all expectations and we had a good time. Having my brother on board helped us to come second in the history of OG Trivia quiz. (Who else would know the absolutely exact location of the OG railway station?) There were at least 4 other members of my Primary school class there and we were just able to recognize each other!
    Sunday morning spent going through all the family photos,  newspaper clippings and other treasures with my cousin Ann who is the Menzies family historian. We found things that neither we nor she had seen before so it was quite productive.

 Our day off Tuesday was spent taking Tony's mum out for lunch for her birthday. She has recently moved from her unit in the retirement village into a  serviced apartment in the same location. It seems a very pleasant place to be and she still has access to the old Casey family home as the community centre at Edrington Park.

Caught up with friends on the Monday evening as they have been down for the "long" weekend of Cup Day.

Melbourne Cup Day saw us lunching with friends in Melbourne. Pepper came too and enjoyed her day with 2 pugs, Millie the black one and Oki  the other one and Gemma, their "cousin",  a silky terrier Jack Russell cross. They all behaved in exemplory fashion although Pepper seems to get bored with other dogs after a while. She ended up snoozing on the mat in the doorway and watching proceedings from there.

A photo at last - Ann's grandson Freddie finally got his jacket and it still fits him - and isn't he gorgeous in it!!!

Big Walkies

My friend Elisabeth visited from Sydney for the weekend and stayed 4 days.
Pepper and I took her for a walk along the waterfront when she arrived on Saturday.
I had bought a whole chicken to have the day before but because we took Tony's mum and my dad out to lunch on Friday we didn't need to use it.
So we had a large bowl of my latest soup - thick pea and ham , followed by a Moroccan chicken with couscous.

Sunday passed much as usual with lunch at the Wintergarden with my father and taking him home.
I visited new clients in Ocean Grove while Elisabeth walked on the beach.
We stayed at the Wintergarden for the first part of the Jazz night with Shandelle Cooke singing.

Monday was a lazy day - E and I read and then I decided to do a massive roast dinner - invited Brother M  and roasted a leg of lamb. Pepper enjoyed a leg bone and we had soup made from the chicken carcase, the roast and some Quinces that I had cooked in the oven while the roast was on.  I can't resist buying the first quinces of the season.
I also cooked a Chinese Red braise of oxtail for the next night.

Anzac day dawned mistily with the promise of a beautiful day and we headed off to friend I's for breakfast to be followed by a walk.
Cereal, eggs, bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes and fruit toast later we really needed the walk.
We went to Torquay and went from Bell's Beach to Point Addis. The dogs loved it and chased their tennis balls nearly all the way, I wish I had half their energy!
The fit ones walked back along the clifftop path while Tony and I returned by the beach.  This walk was a big one for me, and I felt quite tired at the end - dragged myself up the path from the beach, but great feeling of achievement.  It must be about 10 kms and took us over 3 1/2 hours
I actually felt good the next day, no aching legs after all.

Elisabeth returned to Sydney - it was good to catch up with her again. We may see her again when we visit it the end of May

Went for another morning walk with "I" and the dogs this morning - another foggy morning with the sun burning through.
I keep promising myself that I will walk every morning, but it is so hard to get there!!

Hometown Tourists

Spent a very pleasant day recently doing the Tourist Thing in Melbourne with our friends J & B from Sydney.
We used to do lots of Yum Cha's together when we lived in Sydney, so decided to repeat the experience in Melbourne. I was hanging out for a Yum Cha fix anyway so no hardship there.
We ended up at Shark Fin Inn in the heart of Chinatown's Little Bourke Street.
Yum Cha was good and we all overate as usual. Fortunately the custard tarts were discretely small and mere mouthfuls (mouthsful?).  As it was Chinese New Year there was a character doing the rounds handing out fortune cookies.

I took the opportunity to browse one of the Chinese shops looking for New Year envelopes or any other items for my artworks. Found a few bits and pieces, including lettering copy books for children to learn how to write.

We Walked to the National Gallery only to find it closed on Tuesdays - so annoying.
After consulting the "What to do in Melbourne" book we decided on a trip down the Yarra by ferry. What fun on such a perfect day weatherwise.

We caught the ferry at Southbank and had a different view of the city and riverside activities from our mobile breezemaker.  We ended up at Docklands where we disembarked for a brief viewing of the restaurants and million$ apartments. We also managed to see the  ocean racing yachts in the Volvo race as their crews biked from one spot on the jetty to another - all wearing their  crew shirts and probably Volvo Bikes!!!
Back on the ferry we were on the last trip for the day so were offloaded at the exhibition centre from where we staggered walked !!! up to the Mercure apartments where J & B were staying.
Limping inside we flung ourselves onto the very chic and comfy furniture and downed a reviving rose or 2.

Tony and I then taxied to Fed.  Square where we met up with other friends and enjoyed another great meal, this time at Arintji.
Well fed we rolled home,  just in time to release our poor little cross legged baby dog to the joys of her outside toilet. What a good girl to hang on all day, wonders will never cease.
We enjoyed our touristy day so much that we decided to have another soon. ( and the lure of Yum Cha never wanes!)

Surprise surprise!!!

Had a wonderful evening (following a very hot day) at a surprise party, given by her partner, to my sister for her "significant number" birthday.
She expected a family dinner at a restaurant in Carlton, only to be greeted by a bevy of her friends and all the trimmings from Bubbly to presents and live music supplied by partner's son.
Moreton's Brasserie provided a good choice for a meal for this number of people.
I enjoyed my scallops with asian influenced sauce and the lamb fillet served with a delicious cauliflower puree. Veges for the table included green salad and pommes frites.
Dessert for me was petit pot of cream topped with raspberry coulis - light and delicious.

Holiday

Just had the most wonderful "Holiday" for the weekend.
We meet up annually with a group of friends from our student days and this was the weekend, Sunday to be precise, at McCrae. I suggested that we make a weekend of it and spend the  night down on the Mornington Peninsula and see the sights, eat out, walk the dog on the beach and just generally laze around.
Sister P & G voted it a good idea so we set off on Saturday. Not such good weather, but by the time we stopped for me to look around buy stamps, paper and a mag. in a paper arts supply shop in Mornington it was lunchtime.
"the rocks" On to the pier where we had a lovely "light" lunch at the yacht club. The restaurant and  cafe are  called "the rocks" and we sat in the deck area and watched the rain squalls beat down.
We met the owner of our beach house, had a coffee then explored the house. It is right on the beach and called Castaway
The living room windows look straight out to the channel where we watched a variety of shipping, including the dredge.
A walk along the foreshore and out onto the pier blew the cobwebs away and thrilled Pepper the dog, who had 4 of her favourite people to walk with and throw balls.

Back to a lazy cocktail hour or two and on to our dinner at the Fed-Up Fish Cafe in Rosebud West. Food was fantastic and very interesting. I had scallops thermidor (not a very adventurous choice but delicate and delicious) Following was a roast Barramundi fillet with red cabbage, kipfler potatoes and roasted tomato and mushroom garnish.
Other dishes were poached salmon with mussels, whole flounder , chilli prawns, Sardines with cheese crust, seafood chowder and kingfish. They all looked very tasty.
After playing Wild Thing on the Juke Box we tried our luck with the Flintstones theme song, but somehow I think the box had been rigged because we couldn't get it to play that song!! Happily for the other diners!!

Sunday we scurried around the Heronswood gardens between rain squalls and had a coffee in the thatched roof cafe.   Must go back for lunch to sample the fresh from the ground vegie dishes.
P and I joined the Diggers Club, I had belonged a few years back and we bought some plants, mainly herbs for me.
On to our reunion, which was the usual talk fest and eat drink and be merry session which lasted till late in the day. It is a great treat to catch up with this group, even though we don't see each other all the time, when we do meet it is as if we had just left the last conversation. Nice to have friends like that.
Very dark and rainy trip back to p's for the night then returned to Geelong with trailor load of metal sculptures collected on our way home.
Our Mini Holiday was over - but what a great time we had.

Happy Wedding

Attended a very happy wedding of one of my oldest (longest standing ) friends on Saturday
We went to Teachers' College together and met at Frank Tate House - the Women's Hostel where we spent our initial years in Melbourne.
The service was held in her local church which is in a new area of Melb and is a modern multi purpose building. Beautiful stained glass windows and a fantastic alter of timber and carved stone.
The bride was beautiful (of course).
Reception at Waverley Golf Course. A very friendly and low key occasion.  Caught up with a couple of other friends from the hostel days - Marianne,  Faye and Marilyn as well as Bride Mary-Louise as you can see from the photo (to be uploaded later) There were five of us "Old girls" there.  I hadn't seen Faye for about 30 years  (I just typed 390 and sometimes that is what it feels like !!!)
Strange to see  the younger generation looking the same as I remember their parents looking!
The groom's speech was particularly special, loving and tender and emotional,  just what is called for at a wedding. I think she has found herself a good one.  Here's the card I made for them