Happy Monday

Today's pretty good for a Monday. There was delicious flourless orange cake for morning tea for my birthday. I felt spoiled getting a cake from Le Petit Gateau, the fancy French bakery.  

The white blobs are whipped cream with 

flecks of vanilla bean

And then my lovely friend Lauren sent me some gorgeous flowers. They smelt good too - not overly perfumed, but a nice fresh small. They are brightening up my desk at work. 

I particularly like these purple  chyrsanthemums

And Luke is cooking roast chicken for dinner!. Yum.

Birthdaytripping

Happy birthday to me (for yesterday)! We had a fun day out in the country. I particularly enjoyed the drive up to Woods Point because it was a very foggy morning, and the forest looked spooky and magical in the mist.  It was beautiful when the sun started to break through. 

On the Black  Spur between Healesville 
and Narbethong 

A little way past the  Warburton turn off on 
Woods Point Road

Most of the road between the Warburton turn off and Woods Point is unsealed. It was fairly smooth...apart from all the parts that were slippery with mud and riddled with potholes and corrugations. Luke did a very good job of avoiding most of the potholes, but some teeth-rattlers did sneak up on him. It's far from the roughest road we've been on, but getting back onto bitumen was still quite a relief. 

We arrived in Woods Point around lunch time, and parked our little muddy hatchback behind a row of even muddier four-wheel drives.  I think we were the only people in town in a two-wheel drive. 

I was careless getting out of the car and managed to get mud on my jacket, leggings (front and back), dress (front and back), my handbag and even my sunglasses, much to Luke's amusement. I had to leave my jacket in the car, but a tissue and bottle of water removed most of the rest of the mud on me. Luke also got some mud on the back of his calf getting out of the car. Fortunately, as we walked up to the pub for lunch, it soon became obvious that nearly everyone had a bit of mud on them. Woods Point is a popular destination for four-wheel drivers and dirt-bike riders, and most of the people in the pub were there for one or the other.   

Waiting for lunch. No 9 on 9 July

The Woods Point hotel is one of the most isolated pubs in Victoria (it's beyond the reach of the internet!), so I was quite surprised to find a young English woman working there. She'd been there for six weeks and was enjoying it - even the lack of internet access wasn't bothering her as much as she expected. I doubt I would cope with the isolation or the lack of net access. I should add here Woods Point is a very small town of only about 100 people. There's a police station, a school, a mining company office, a general store (which was closed yesterday). 

Luke and I both had a chicken schnitzel sandwich for lunch. It was made with supermarket white bread and Kraft Singles cheese, but it was greater than the sum of its non-gourmet parts. It was pretty delicious, in fact (just as well because we waited for more than hour to get it. I don't recommend arriving just after a fleet of four-wheel drives.)  

After devouring our schnitzel sangers in super quick time, we went for a wander. Woods Point is a great place to visit for someone like me who like things that are old, rusty and decrepit!

 Old, rusty, decrepit car

 Old, decrepit service station with rusty bowsers

If you do a google images search for Woods Point, you will see a lot of photos of this tiny service station. It's very cute and I love the old bowers. Here's a shot of the two on the right. 

Diesoleum!

Bowser detail

 Another little shack

 On a lean 

Side view. It appears to be held together with a 

bit of wire, a couple of rocks and a miracle

Before heading home we stopped at the cemetery. There were far fewer graves than I expected, but a sign at the gate explained why: in 1939 the Black Friday bushfires destroyed the town and burnt the wooden crosses marking most of the graves. Only some have been replaced with simple white signs bearing a name and date of death. 

High on the hill

No neighbours

Luke's car after the drive home 

All in all, it was a fun day out. You can see more of my photos here. 

JBPM: day 12

While I was waiting at a bus stop this morning I looked up to see a small dog staring intently at me from an open car window. Even when I met its gaze, its stare didn't waver. It was funny, but slightly unsettling. The lights changed and the car took off so we'll never know how long the dog would have stared at me. 

How many times have I walked along Bridge Road in Richmond over the past 10 years? Many, many times. But I've never noticed this splendid old mirrored sign with gold lettering before. It says 'Famous Reynella Wines'. Yes, that's my reflection. And a bonus Golden Gaytime ad. 

Luke's parents gave me a bunch of lilies for my birthday. The first bloom opened on Friday and now the sweet aroma has perfumed our flat . I love that smell.   

JBPM: day 10

Back to work today. Our team always has cake (or some other sweet treat) to celebrate birthdays. This year Brigid made me a pavlova loaded with berries and other delicious fruit. (I told you she's lovely, didn't I?) The pavlova looked so amazingly good that I didn't believe she made it. It was yummy and there was a little bit left over for me to bring home. I've eaten my half and now I'm waiting for Luke to get home while I resist the urge to eat his bit. 

I must saw how touched I am by people commenting they are happy I'm blogging again.  Thank you. That makes me happy. 

Friday tomorrow already! I wish I could have every Wednesday off. 

JBPM: day 9

Happy birthday to me! I've had a lovely, relaxing day. It began very, very early with a birthday kiss from Luke before he left for work and then I went back to sleep for a few hours. 

I stayed snuggled in bed for an hour reading before getting up. I took myself up to Swan Street for brunch. I'd put quite a bit of thought into where to go to eat - the blueberry pancakes with Greek yogurt and orange syrup as Hellas Cakes? The semolina pancakes with rose jam, yogurt and pistachios at Demitri's Feast? Or the blueberry buttermilk pancakes with lemon curd, creme fraiche and citrus sugar at Moth to a Flame? Hmmmm...decisions, decisions... Eventually I settled on Moth to a Flame because I've only had their pancakes once (a while ago), and they also do a top notch hot chocolate. 

Fortunately the buttermilk pancakes were still on the Moth menu and they were still yummy. So tangy. I love citrus. 

Then I got my nails done (purple) and headed for home because it was so cold. Colder than forecast even.  We've been having a cold winter after a very mild autumn, which is giving me the opportunity to wear my doona parka (but mostly whine about the cold). The last couple of winters haven't been cold enough to wear the parka. It was raining a  tiny bit as I walked home so I pulled up the furry hood, rather than bother with my umbrella.

Tis me! I'm 42! 

I spent the rest of the afternoon lying under a quilt on the couch eating Lindt chocolates and re-watching Bored to Death. I love that show, especially Ted Danson's character, George. Don't be a milquetoast!  

Luke took me out for dinner to a French restaurant just across the road from where I had brunch...oh, that was after we locked ourselves out of our flat and Luke broke in the back window, which required him to lean out over a three-storey drop to the concrete below. My hero! 

Anyway, dinner. I had roasted partridge for main - the first time I've eaten it - and  Luke had salmon. For dessert I had rhubarb souffle with white chocolate custard. The waiter bought the souffle to our table, poked a hole in the top of it and poured the custard into the hole. The souffle rose up on the tide of custard until it was floating a few centimetres higher than the ramekin it was served in.  A bit of performance art and perfect winter comfort food. 

We were going to the movies, but we didn't have enough time after dinner. No matter. We'll go on the weekend. 

All in all, a delightful day. 

Welcome to PerBloPoMo!

Hello? Yes, it's me. Yes, I know it's been 4 1/2 months since I've shown my face around these parts. I just can't get my blogging mojo back. I don't know what's wrong with me. It's not as if there's been no glee in my life. 

The past few months have been some of the busiest, most exhausting and stressful of my working life (nutshell: my firm went through a merger and office move), but I didn't lose my eye for, and appreciation of, the little pleasures of life. That's a win in terms of the reasons I started this blog, but I do miss the writing and sharing.  

So, to try to hunt down and recapture my blogging mojo, I'm kicking off Personal Blog Posting Month (PerBloPoMo) - a month of daily posts - from tomorrow. July is my birthday month, so that automatically makes it a little bit more gleeful than the other months. I've taken the day off work for my birthday for the first time ever, but haven't decided what I'm actually doing yet. 

That's all for now. See you tomorrow for PerBloPoMo Day 1!

Present and the call of duty

My camera arrived! I wasn't expecting it for at least another week, but it came today. When I saw the parcel I thought, "Oh, my boss has been shopping online again." But no! T'was mine!  Just in time for my birthday. I'm too tired from the gym to play with it tonight though. 

I've been called up for jury service. I know it's strange, but I'm a little bit excited about it. I've known several people who have been called up - and served - two or three times, but I've never once got the letter. Until now. At last! 

I'm not entirely sure why I want to do it. I like to think it's because I'm the civic-minded sort, but if I'm honest, it's probably partly for a break from work. I bet I won't find that so appealing if I end up on an interminable white-collar crime case - or worse, something emotionally gruelling.  But someone has to do it, right?  

I've had to defer it for now because I'll be overseas for part of the relevant period, and ultimately I suspect the fact I work in a law firm might either disqualify me upfront or render me undesirable. Oh well. 

No rain, sign find, new camera

There are only three days this month where there is less than a low chance of rain, and one of them is my birthday (the 9th). 

We've had a few sunny days this week. It's nice arriving at work to a desk bathed in morning sunshine. It'd be nicer to not be at work, but since that's not an option...

I went for a walk one lunchtime this week and found a ghostsign on the side of one of those men's establishments on King Street.

I bought my new camera a few nights ago, but it will take 2-3 weeks to be delivered. That'll be an exciting day in the office. It's a Canon Powershot (like my previous two) model SX50. It's still a compact camera, but it's one of those ones that looks like a mini DSLR. It has quite a few features that make it a step up from my current camera, but it should still fit in my bag so I can take it everywhere.  It will no doubt lead to more regular posting on my photoblog. 

That's how I roll

Looking out the window behind my desk today. Luckily my 

co-worker pointed it out or I wouldn't have known it was there

I have rollerskates! before my birthday I tweeted that I was having trouble thinking of present ideas  - rollerskates were one of the few things I could think of that I wanted. 

I mentioned this to Luke but then pooh-poohed the idea because I thought it might be one of those things where the novelty wears off quickly, which isn't so bad for a gift that's inexpensive, but rollerskates are not inexpensive. 

But then one of my lovely Twitter friends replied to my tweet saying she had a pair of rollerskates I could have free and the size seemed about right. Yay! I got a little bit excited. 

Anyway, we arranged to meet for a hot beverage last Sunday for a handover of said skates. This was our first meeting too - I didn't even know what her real name was until we got to making arrangements for meeting! 

We had a natter over a coffee (for her) and a top-notch hot chocolate (for me) on bustling Degraves Street in the city. I do enjoy meeting my Twitter friends in the real world.  

When I got home the first thing I did was try them on and they fit! Well, I might need to wear a pair of thick socks with them, but essentially they fit. I tentatively rolled around my carpeted lounge room for a bit feeling very pleased with my new acquisition, and grateful for the kindness and generosity of  (almost) strangers. 

I mentioned on Facebook that I had some rollerskates and a friend (only a few years younger than I am) said she had bought herself white skates with the red glittery wheels last year because she had wanted, but never got them, when she was a kid. We're gonna have a skate date. Shame we don't still own a Walkman so we could be Wired for Sound a la Cliff Richard (google it, youngsters). 

It's been a long time since I have rollersktated so I'm going to need to practice...hopefully without making too much of a public spectacle of myself. Must avoid skating on the path beside the river...

Also on Sunday (man, I need to catch up), I got my nails painted again - this time black with silver glitter. As befits a 40-year-old...