Not Much News Here

Life continues apace - while the weather is warm and humid, and occasionally raining. It seems to be a fairly quiet run down to the end of November, which isn't a bad thing. 

General Sorting

I had a bit of a sorting out yesterday, unexpectedly. I climbed the step ladder to reach into the christmas storage shelves and dragged everything out.  Went through all the christmas bits and pieces and even packed some ready for the op shop. Nearly everything has memories attached, but the items for the op shop haven't been used for several years, and won't have meaning for anyone else, so time to make room for other things.

After that, I had a go at the church council, guild and sunday school drop files. I was ruthless, I tell you...  I don't have a lot of sunday school material left, but just couldn't part with the last few remaining lessons and resources - just in case. Of guild and council folders, I emptied out about 5 or 6 drop files - stuff that should be on the computer anyway and/or were about matters that have long gone into the mists of time.

It was a busy morning at church with people wanting to talk, and getting the Advent Wreath and Advent Banner hanging up.  This afternoon I pulled the pansies out of their pots; they were well past their use-by-date, and planted some petunias.  We'll see how they go. So, all in all, it's been a active enough weekend. 

Do I need this system to help me??

Sydney Weekend

Our travel arrangements mostly went okay. Our flight out of Sydney on Monday was cancelled the night before, but Quantas had us shifted to a later flight by the time we arrived at the airport.  Then I had to shift our transfer from Melbourne Airport to Geelong station, and book new tickets on a later Vline service. Anyway, I managed it all quite well, and we ended back at home on the day as planned, just a few hours later. 

Our picnic train excursion had its ups and downs. The train trip itself was really good, but the wind was blowy and gusty at Kiama. A real windy Warrnambool day, which put a dampener on our walk around. The market wasn't anything special; just had the usual stalls and items you see everywhere, but I did pick up some Kris Kringle items at the tourist information shop, of all places. Kiama fish and chips had been recommended to Jim, so we made a beeline to the Foreshore Fish and Chippery. The flathead fish was the best I've ever tasted.  I'm not sure about the chips; the fish filled me up...

 

All in all it was three long days of travel, there and back again, but a bit of mental break from everything. 

The Last Stop

The last stop on the 22nd April was Haut Koenigsbourg Castle.  It was still bitterly cold, and winter snow was lying around in drifts and runnels. I stayed on the ground floor, while Jim tackled the steps and stairs with the others to the upper levels. 

 

All in all, it had been a pretty good day. The driver dropped us off back at the hotel, so we didn't have to find our way through the maze of streets; it was getting dark, and we were exhausted, so by common consent we decided to eat at the hotel, and take it easy, as we were on a travel day on the 23rd.

 

Mystery Weekend

And so we come to our mystery weekend. We're off and out to Sydney tomorrow - train, bus and plane. On Sunday it's more trains, with a Kiama Picnic Train excursion from Tempe Railway Station to Kiama. We wander around, visit the seaside markets and the coastline, cafes and gardens before the trip back to Tempe.  I'm looking forward to doing some phone housekeeping while sitting quietly on a train - sort through photos, and tidy up my Safari favourites (get rid of some blogs that are more ads than content). And I'm hoping to pick up some Kris Kringle gifts at the seaside markets.  We'll see how we go. On Monday we travel in reverse - plane, bus and train. So, I won't be posting again until next Wednesday. 

Riquewihr

Riquewihr was a bigger township with a broad central thoroughfare, with narrow alleys and streets going off to the right and left. There were a lot more tourists here, and I imagine that in the high season, it would be nearly impossible to move around freely and get some good photos. 

 

Eguisheim

This little village was a medieval treat, with the narrow cobblestone streets, and wibbly wobbly houses. The cold weather and time of year were deterrents to the many tourists I imagine would frequent the place in the high season. 

Yes, windows aren't the ideal places for taking photos. The ducks were cute, not so much the bundled up person being reflected.

Windows and fascias of buildings in Alsace are highly decorated. And the Easter displays were still in abundance.

Back to walking around the village.

 

We ended up at a small square, and were released again for about 20 minutes while the tour leader went back for the bus. I found a little Credit Agricole Bank on the edge of the square; was pretty pleased to make an ATM withdrawal of euros, here in the back of beyond in the French countryside.

The leader settled us into a restaurant facing the square; Jim and I had a typical pie of the region. And then we were off to the next township. 

Colmar

On the 22nd April we were off and out on a small guided tour through the medieval villages of Alsace. Five of us, plus the tour leader/driver in a small people mover. I really really wanted to do this tour, being in this region of the world, and had booked direct with the tour company, months before. This was absolutely the coldest day we experienced, even colder than Norway. I'd been checking temperatures, even before we left Australia, and Strasbourg had had temperatures into the mid-twenties only two weeks earlier, so the coldness was a shock...

Anyway, we walked to the meet-up point, arriving in good time and we were off to Colmar. Colmar itself seemed a relatively large place, but we were just visiting the old town centre. 

This was a day of no public conveniences... And cafe stops were few and far between...

Finally, about 11.30am, we were released for 30mins to find a cafe, have a drink, and use the cafe's facilities. We opted for the first one we came to, Cafe de la Lauch, which suited us very well.

Then it was back to the bus, and onto the next village.

Cobden Miniature Railway

Sorry folks I didn't get to post yesterday. It's been quite a weekend. We spent Saturday doing tasks, and extra tasks, as we were going to be out all day yesterday, and away on our mystery weekend next weekend. So, the church's annual Cobden outing to the miniature railway was held yesterday. The weather was perfect - not too hot, not too cold, no wind and no rain... Everyone had a good time. After that wound up, Jim and I called in to Heytesbury House in Cobden, for an Open House and Garden for a quick look. It was open for its 120th anniversary. 

Once we were home I spent a good hour or more, unpacking, and putting a load of tablecloths and teatowels on to wash. Our personal stuff was mixed up with church stuff, so it all had to be unpacked and repacked ready to go back to the church. I then sat down at the computer to sort through photos and do a post, and within 10 minutes I wasn't feeling to good. Had to have a lie down, and Jim tackled the kitchen  tasks, and got everything washed, dried and put away. I was washed out and out of sorts for the rest of the evening; couldn't concentrate on screens or even start a new book. 

After a good night's sleep, and the routine of the day I'm feeling much better. I'm hoping to post about our travels on 22nd April, over the next 4 days, when we visited 4 historical locations in Alsace. 

 Phew!

It got mentally busy a bit earlier.. I was trying to book a ticket through Ticketmaster and it took 4 goes! I was timed out 4 times updating passwords, and navigating security codes with Ticketmaster and PayPal. It’s well over 2 years since I’ve booked through them, and it wasn’t happy with my old details. Possibly I was trying to remember who I was back then! Anyway, the seat was still available each time, way up the back of the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. The presentation by Professor Alice Roberts was pretty much booked out; I only just heard about it on the radio this morning. So, it’ll be two weekends in November, we’re away. I need to grab hold of the bigger life when I can!

The talk’ll be about evolution, so not quite my scene, but I watch all her history and archeological series on TV, so will be good to see and hear her in real time.

Jobs Done

The Church Council meeting minutes have been finalised and filed.. Yesterday I spent a couple of hours inputting the Child Safety Standards self-assessment to the online portal - was okay, once I sorted through the wordy instructions.  Nothing more to do there until the next church council meeting, when we'll do a review. 

Then it was down to the church to set up for morning coffee, and tidy up a couple of things. Jim mostly took care of morning coffee this morning; a band of helpers ended up coming into the kitchen to give him a hand. I was out and about catching up with people about this and that.  Helen had a large bowl of mulberries from her tree on the trading table, so I scooped up a generous bag for us to take home. Tasted delicious this evening with our ice-cream, after being stewed with plenty of sugar!  I emptied out the fridge this afternoon, and gave it a clean out, which should keep it going for another six months. 

I had a visitor to the back yard, this afternoon; just managed this photo before it disappeared into Wilson's back yard.