A Pile of Books

It's been a long time since I bought home a nice pile of books from the library. A lot of my reading is done on the kindle now - it's the only way to go back and read earlier books in a series. The library doesn't hold too many books published longer than 4 or 5 years ago.

So, I've started with the slowest one - one by Alexander McCall Smith - as nothing happens without a page of philosophizing. Philosophizing that is wry and gentle, for sure, but it's slow going....

Church matters continue to take up brain time - sorting out little spot fires and problems cropping up often enough just at the moment.  

One of our agenda topics at Monday's meeting was the day and time to put the christmas trees up in church - I can hardly believe we're already planning the advent and christmas season. What a year it's been!

   

Finished

We're just about at an end for the Back House upgrade. It all finished quite quickly on Wednesday; a big sigh of relief. The electrician, the handyman, the windows person and the plumber were all here on Wednesday doing bits and pieces, and then it was all over.  I did the final bit of cleaning up after school crossing duty, we put the bed back together, and all done. The glazier has to come back to rejig one of the windows, and blinds upstairs have to be installed, but that shouldn't affect a tenant. The property manager comes on Tuesday for a walk through, and hopefully we'll have some one in soon. 

Another church council meeting is scheduled for tomorrow. These meetings come round quickly enough .... Child Safety Standards have come round again - more meetings, more paperwork and computer time. Morning coffee duty next Sunday, a Welfare committee meeting after church, Cobden outing the following Sunday, and the following weekend after that we're off on a mystery weekend, so life continues apace. 

Here is one little boy helping his Dad with clearing up, and mulching in their back yard.

Strasbourg - Later On

By 5.00ish we were tired and hungry again, so we found our way back the hotel, settled in and got unpacked. Here's the view from our bedroom window - the little square with the big trees and the La Corde & Linge restaurant on the right. I guess a month after we left the trees would have been covered in new green. 

We went out walking again, this time along the Barrage Vauban, a covered bridge, about 120 metres long. It was getting too dark to take photos inside, so I've borrowed one from Alamy. 

Then we tried to find a place to eat, but there were so many restaurants, so many people, and we lost concentration trying to make sense of the menus out the front of places, that we ended up coming back to the hotel, and having a light meal in their restaurant, above the canal. All in all it was a wonderful day for my birthday. 

Strasbourg in the Afternoon

So, just a lot of photos now, because that is what we did - wander around, look and see, and take photos.

Sunday 21st April - a Milestone Birthday

What a fabulous 70th birthday - to be in Strasbourg wandering around the old town centre. It's exactly six months since we were there. I wish we could go back!

Our taxi was ordered for 7.30 that morning to take us to Cologne Central Station for our journey to Strasbourg. We found our platform, and then headed back into the station to buy some breakfast. So much choice; all cafes extremely busy. We had a changeover at Karlsruhe HBF, which went smoothly; we didn't have to go into the station, just change platforms. And then it was on to Strasbourg. 

A taxi once again to get us to our Hotel Regent Petite France. The hotel was wonderful and interesting; it was built above pumps managing water into and out of the canal. Here you can see the back of the hotel over the canal, and then the pump which you could view along a corridor inside the hotel. 

Our room wasn't ready, so we left our bags with the concierge, and set out to explore. 

By now we were getting hungry, so we tried "La Corde a Linge" restaurant, (the Clothesline), just across the canal from the hotel. Our room was to have a very clear view of the restaurant, and the little square, and the leafless tall trees. I'll always remember this birthday lunch and restaurant, with its clothesline of baby clothes. Wild mushrooms and spaetzle (german noodles) for me.

And then it was on to our afternoon activities. More walking and wonderful sights. 

Calmer!

I can't believe how out of sorts and frazzled I was last Wednesday.  It must have been "just one of those days". By Thursday, everything was back to normal; I was back to normal... 

The plasterer, painter, carpenter, handyman, builder person finished up all the little and big jobs that were lined up in the Back House on Friday afternoon. I couldn't get much done then, as paint was still drying, but I got all the cleaning and vaccing and tidying up done yesterday. This afternoon I tackled the last lot of windows and blinds in the kitchen.  The tenant had cleaned the windows a couple of times a year, but the block out and transparent blinds were filthy, once I started working on them. 

The electrician turns up on Wednesday to reconnect the stove, power points and light switches. Cleaning's always good to find problems - the plumber has to come back and tighten up the taps, and one window needs new spiral fittings, as it's not staying up.  Somehow got missed when the other windows were done. The floor will get mopped when the electrician's finished, and then we should be good to go to find a new tenant.

After a three to four week break from the travel photo journal, I touched base with it a few nights ago, and am now ready to post about Sunday April 21st. So, that'll be coming up in the next few days, before I get busy planning the next church council meeting. 

Frazzled

I’m feeling particularly frazzled today. The builder/handyman person keeps finding major defects to the Back House, especially to do with water getting in. And that certain areas need a good repaint.. And then 10 minutes later he tells me it’s all okay for now. So, stress! How far do we go with it? Anyway, he’s got the new doors hanging, and the new hooks installed, and heaps of silicone all over the place. Tomorrow he has a painting day; we’re getting closer to finishing. This weekend is going to be a big cleanup day. 

This morning I was out at an exec meeting for 2 hours; that didn’t help matters, and yesterday there were a couple of appointments, so my generally well ordered daily life hasn’t been well ordered at all. This too shall pass.

Not Much News

Not much news from these last few days. Just getting back into the routine of things, and making plans for the next couple months up to Christmas.

We both did some reporting to the congregation after the service this morning regarding Synod; we were both pretty pleased about how the reports were received.

The handyman/builder rang this morning, so he's back to finish off the jobs in the Back House tomorrow.  He'll only need a couple of days of concentrated work to get it all finished. 

Here we have a gaggle of cousins enjoying their playing and climbing over in Coffin Bay. They're back at school tomorrow after a splendid week at their "happy place".

Hectic

It’s been a hectic 36 hours since we got home. Washing and unpacking, bookkeeping for the last two weeks, (it all balanced, thank heavens) But took forever, there were that many fiddly entries - vending machines for this and that, laundromat charges, children’s steam train bits and pieces, fuel and meals. Two lots of tradies were expected today - one to measure up for blinds upstairs, and the other to replace the old mirror in the bathroom - both in the Back House.

Also, a couple of church matters - a notice for the bulletin, the Bishop’s letter to print and copy, and photos from the conventions to print ready for the church notice board. 

The weather was perfect today at the school crossing!! We drove out of Penola yesterday on a crisp morning - the sun was shining, the paddocks were bursting with lush green grass and fat lambs, the huge trees were gorgeous; a pity there was no connectivity! {I borrowed these photos from google, but you get the idea}

Spring Lamb

I had to add in an extra post. We were sitting at table at the Royal Oak Hotel in Penola this evening and I was enjoying spring lamb with rosemary chats and steamed vegetables and that got me reflecting on what I’d been eating in the last 10 days. 

At Kingston on our first night I had lamb backstrap with rosemary chats and steamed vegetables. Four nights later we were at the Bridgeport Hotel in Murray Bridge and I ordered lamb cutlets, chats and steamed green vegetables. The vegetables were different greens to the usual, arranged beautifully and tasted pretty good. Friday night before the jazz concert, we were at the Woodville Hotel and of all the items on the menu, the lamb cutlets, chat potatoes and vegetables was the most appealing! Last night we were down at the Seacliff Hotel and we both went for the lamb cutlets. We swapped out the salad for vegetables! And so to tonight. The two cutlets were cooked as a little rack of lamb, with delicious rosemary chats and crunchy broccoli; very tasty.

I don’t cook lamb very often at home; it’s too expensive for my rough cooking. I like plain food, with simple tastes and presentation, so I was pretty happy with my spring lamb selections!

On Our Way Tomorrow 

Our sojourning around South Australia finishes up tomorrow - half day at Synod in the morning and then we drive to Penola for the night. There have been a few muddles along the way, but overall we did pretty well for two aging travellers. I got my clothes and layers mostly right for where we were and what we were doing.

On Friday evening we went to a jazz concert at the Woodville Town Hall Theatre, a grand old building, probably in need of some tender loving care, but quite suitable for the purpose. I’m sure its green leather seats were decades old.

Of course, Synod, the reason we’re here, is going slowly and ponderously about its business. The visitors, including me, are relegated to the leper colony in the chapel, while the delegates are seated at tables in the college gymnasium. Meals have been moderately good, but a reasonable walk away at another part of the school. Afternoon tea is biscuits and fruit on the lawn just outside the gym, which has worked well. 

So, all is well, but we’re ready to return to our normal concerns in a couple of days. Including the return of a book to the library on Tuesday that I haven’t got round to reading yet, and there are other borrowers waiting..

Quick Post

I’ve just now got blogger set up on the iPad, so I’ll see how I go writing and formatting; also uploading photos.

Women’s Conference at Murray Bridge finished this afternoon, and now we’re back in Adelaide. It was a pretty good event, all things considered.

Some of the conference photos haven’t come across to the iPad yet, so I’m posting a photo from Wittunga Botanic Garden, which we visited last Sunday.