Really, Really 

Really, really not much news again.  Thank you to the one reader who's visited today, so far. We had a bit of sunshine, unexpectedly yesterday, so I was able to sweep the deck up of leaves and bits of stuff from the winds and rain earlier in the week. 

Jim is looking after the neighbours chooks, while they're away for several weeks - we're getting into a bit of a routine with the food scraps and boots on and off at the front door.  Getting the occasional egg only at this time of cold weather. 

The main thermostat in the HWS gave up the ghost right in the middle of tea preparation last night, but the secondary thermostat kicked in, and we had hot water to do the dishes an hour later. So, the electrician will be getting a call first thing tomorrow morning! 

Not Much News, Unfortunately

I've had a few odd things to sort out and follow up on, but nothing of great interest to anyone. Trying to stay warm, and stay out mischief! I have beanies and scarves littered around the house and in the car, ready for any entry to the outside environs...

 

Looking Forward to More Light

Yes, I think we all look forward to the days finally getting longer bit by bit.

I've been busy learning the church office computer set up - some things are going okay, others are not. There are heaps of folders and files from years and years ago on the desktop, or in the documents folder.  They need deleting or at best archiving - but I'm not the main person yet, so I'll have to put up with them cluttering things up, for now!

The Women's Guild have their 80th Anniversary coming up at the end of July, so I'm also in the process of updating the 75th anniversary book with brief information from the last five years.

 

Tulips

After we finished at the windmills we headed for the Kuekenhof Gardens to see all things tulips, flowers and green and growing things. As well as the outdoor plantings there were all sorts of weird and wonderful arrangements inside the various expo buildings. Once again, first off, it was food....

Windmills

On Friday 3rd May, 2024, our tour group spent the morning at Zaanse Schans looking at windmills, gorgeous little houses, gorgeous little bridges and gorgeous little sheep. The day was overcast and miserable, and we had our plastic ponchos on and off, but how wonderful it all was. The group was booked in for a historical talk, but we skipped on this; I just wanted to get looking around; we'd waited so long - months and months to have this experience. First off, though, it was morning tea time enjoying a warm dutch biscuit straight from the oven, and then we were right to walk and walk.

I could have gone on and on with the photos, but you get the idea. One last stop at the Miffy shop; came home with a miffy doll - my only souvenir purchase. 

 

Cake and Flowers

We celebrated another milestone birthday at church today with candles and cake. Lorna turned a wonderful 101 years old, and she's still fit and well enough to come to church and worship, and spend time with her beloved friends of the congregation.

Later on today, we made a trip to Bunnings, and I bought a couple of my favourite purple/pink viola punnets to plant out into the deck pots. So, all in all, a most satisfactory day. 

 

On the Run Down

Yes, we're on the run down to the end of the financial year, so I'm slotting in an appointment with our financial advisor - it's been 2 years since our previous appointment... Tomorrow I'm calling in to Telstra; they wanted something done by the 30th June as well. 

The weekend seeing the family went really well; the 10 year old enjoyed her family birthday get together. I was going to post on Sunday, but the day got away from me, and I was pretty tired by the end; and it's always harder to write on the ipad compared to the laptop. 

Church affairs continue to take up a fair bit of time, especially as I'm taking on someone else's role; he's leaving the congregation; hopefully I'll be able to train someone up sometime in the future.

After the birthday on Sunday morning, we did a run out to Strathalbyn to visit Gibson's Motor Museum. We did a quick walk up and down the old High Street, but it was too cold to hang around, so we were soon back in the car and heading back into Adelaide. 

Tenth Birthday Fun

We're on our way to Adelaide this weekend to celebrate Miss Sophie's tenth birthday, so that'll be good. I've got a bit of shopping to do too - just odd things that aren't easy to find here in Warrnambool. 

We had a good turn up at Guild today, for lunch, business and bible study.  One of the more enjoyable ones of recent times. 

Another Iconic Shop Closes

You might remember that I posted a couple of months ago that Darrian/Office Choice closed down; an institution for stationery supplies for the last 40 years in my life. Now, Rauerts Shoe Shop is closing down, and I remember taking Karen as a two year old, soon after we moved to Warrnambool, to Rauerts for a toddler pair of shoes. So, in the last 46 years, Rauerts has featured fairly prominently in our shoe purchases. The repairers there, have kept favourite pairs of shoes going for minimal charge, so I'm not sure where I'll be going for shoe repairs now. 

Woozy in the Brain

I had a bad 36 hours after my second shingles vaccination on Monday. My brain went awol, and I kept falling asleep.... Also, my hips, glutes and lower back were quite stiff, but I think that was from a tumble on the deck on Sunday.  Not a scratch or bruise on me - the timber decking has a bit of give, I think, but all my bones and joints must have been jolted momentarily, and now they need to get themselves back to normal!

Feeling mostly better, today, but my late afternoon walk was a bit of an effort. 

  

Heavy Machinery

We had heavy machinery cluttering up the driveways, footpaths and road for about 36 hours during the past week - NBN related. 

Today at church, it was a blessing to celebrate with our dear friend, Bette, her 90th birthday. Apparently, yesterday, she had about 130 people coming and going at an "Open House" sausage sizzle at her home. Apparently, her house is like a florist at the moment with all the flowers delivered by those who couldn't make it. I didn't end up getting there - I was feeling too low - but I put my time into making sure she had a wonderful celebration at church this morning. 

 

Rotterdam

The next day after our Bruges day was spent travelling to Utrecht via Rotterdam, along three enormous dykes.  We couldn't see a thing, so it was very disappointing - the whole day was quite disappointing - maybe we were getting tired, but I couldn't get enthused about visiting a huge city; I would have much preferred a wander around a little village somewhere. 

We spent 10 minutes on a beach looking at the North Sea.

We saw the yellow cube houses behind the tram station.

We enjoyed a bit of walk around the Oude Haven (Old Harbour), and then it was basically find a bench in the sun to rest up a bit. 

We were able to get some lunch at this magnificent food hall, but there weren't too many sit down places to eat, that wasn't junk type food. So, we took it in turns to buy some reasonable takeaway, while the other one minded the bench. 

Please scroll down to my posts on Bruges - Monday and Tuesday - if you haven’t visited since Sunday. 

Bruges in the Afternoon

After lunch we set off to find some quieter places to walk.  The target was a Seminary, which I thought would be open for visitors. Apple maps took us directly there via the byways and alleys and canals, but the doors were firmly shut. It didn't matter; we were having a wonderful walk, and we found our way back okay, to the Markt Square. 

Once we were back at the Old Town Centre, we had about 40 minutes to look at the little shops, including the Kathe Wohlfahrt Christmas Shop. I managed to buy little christmas tree trinkets for the grandchildren in double quick time, and then it was on to a little chocolaterie for gorgeous small tins filled with chocolates, for my 4 favourite big girls. We were back at the meeting spot in good time... Unlike one of the other couples on the tour - who were always late.

Beautiful Bruges

We had a wonderful day in Bruges last year, despite the thousands of people visiting from 3 cruise ships docked in the harbour half an hour away. The crowds did limit the amount of photographs we took, or the usabilty of photos we did take, but we came away with some wonderful memories. The architecture, canals and green surrounds were a delight. 

Walking in to the old town centre from the bus park. 

And it was a delight to find little privately run conveniences, just a step off the path, as we wandered by. One Euro each for a pee...

We walked past the Begijnhof. 

People, people everywhere - including our group.

After 2 hours, the history tour finally ended; we were told the meeting spot, and then we were able to escape to find some food, and the cafe conveniences.