Sunshine, sleep ins and some word nerdery

What stunning spring weather we've had the last few days, with the mercury hitting the mid-20s. Mid-20s! Even a mere 20 degrees would have been cause for glee. It's been such a cold winter that I'm having trouble remembering when it was last warm enough to walk to and from work without a jacket. 

Luke bought a new car last week and we took it for a cruise down the Mornington Peninsula on Sunday. We stopped at The Royal Hotel in Mornington for lunch and it was mild enough to have our meal on the veranda just across the road from the sparkling bay.  The tide was out and the water was a beautiful shade of turquoise. 

I'm enjoying my 10.00am starts. I'm not doing a very good job (by which I mean I'm doing a very bad job) of getting up early enough to have breakfast at home and walk to work, but it's so nice to have a weekday lie in.  I also don't feel quite the same feeling of "UGH, I have to get up for work in the morning" knowing I don't need to get out of bed before 8.30. Today I got up at 9.00am and sat down at my desk at 9.55. WIN!  (The 6.15 finishes are less enjoyable, but that's partly because I'm not at all busy.)

Here's some stuff I've been hoarding for when I got around to blogging again:

Ten of the best collective nouns. Surprisingly, an implausibility of gnus doesn't make the list. 

Are you a smellfungus? Find out in this list of 101 Bizarre English Words. A lot aren't really that bizarre, but most of them are splendid and should be used more often. 

I found another time-related word to add to my list: nychthemeron, which means a full period of a night and day; 24 hours. It's a pretty cool word. it sounds like the name of a planet or something from a sci-fi novel.

I love the idea of a playground for adults, like this one in Boston. Not one of those ones that are designed for sedentary grown ups to get some exercise, but a playground that's just for fun. 

Check out these photos from the Reykjavic Police Instagram account. Puppies, kittens and fairy floss, oh my!  (Have I mentioned my fixation with Iceland?)

Snippets of glee

I've been a very lazy blogger the last couple of weeks. Gleeful things have happened - here's some snippets: 

 The trees in the City Square have been 

yarn-bombed

The plane trees along the Swanston

 Street frontage have trunkwarmers too

 On the road to Sorrento last Friday night for my friend

 Bertie's hens' weekend (which was fun)

I spotted this old sign in Sorrento. Nicholson's something? 

Dairy maybe? 

 Large driftwood elephant at a shop in Sorrento

Wee cottage in the gardens at Sorrento 

 Boats at Blairgowrie

Luke's parents gave him tickets to Jersey Boys for his birthday a few weeks ago, which meant I got to go too. Woo! It's showing at Princess Theatre - I've seen shows there before, but I've never been upstairs. It's quite lovely.   

The ceiling of the upstairs foyer 

We enjoyed the show. We aren't fans of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, but we knew most of the songs, although we didn't realise some - like Can't Take My Eyes Off You and Oh, What a Night! - were originally Four Seasons' songs. I especially liked the robotic walking dance moves the four guys did while performing Walk Like a Man. I hope they dance like that when they go to parties. 

Around the bay in a day

The weather didn't look promising on our 

way to Sorrento...

That's our ferry on its way back from Queenscliff. 

Still looking rather grey, but it wasn't cold

On the ferry...a cargo ship passing by and rain in the distance.

  I felt a bit seasick inside the ferry, despite the calm water, 

but was OK on the deck at the front

On the other side... An old sign in Queenscliff: Refreshment

The Point Lonsdale Pier

Tiny blue shells in the crevices of rocks on the beach at Point Lonsdale. 

They were smaller than the nail on my little finger.

Point Nepean on the Mornington Peninsula on other side 

of Port Phillip Bay, near where we boarded the ferry

 (click here to see map)  

Flowers and stone

At Point Lonsdale 

Unstable blogger 

The lighthouse at Point Lonsdale

Seabird

The beach at Point Lonsdale

C'mon on in guys. The water's fine 

Ducks and other birdlife on the road to Indented Head

An old thing in the sea at Indented Head

Eastern  Beach in Geelong, on our way back to Melbourne

Eastern Beach marina

Old signs in Geelong 

Peninsula, peloton, Portsea

Why, yes, that is the peloton.

Luke and I went for a drive down the Mornington Peninsula today, mostly to see a little of the Herald-Sun tour cycle race. And we did see a little - they whizzed past in a flash of lycra at Dromana and were gone in seconds. First there was a break-away group of about four cyclists vying for the lead, then one lonely guy riding on his own, and then the mass of the peloton. (Yes, I'm pretending I use the word peloton all the time).

We didn't drive all that way just for a few seconds of cycling action though. We had lunch in the sunshine at Mornington beforehand, and afterwards we drove down to Portsea and strolled along the pier.

Oh no! The big ferry's gonna crash into the little ferry!

We had an icecream at Sorrento on the way back. My cup of three flavours was eNORmous, but I got through it all. Luke had a sensational lime gelato.

I got photos of some ace old signs:

Portsea

Rosebud

I made Luke turn around and go back so I could take a photo of the second one, which was a bit annoying because it was hard to find a break in the traffic. He's good to me.