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. 

We Found a Forest

It was green and moist and smelt heavenly. 

Not Much News

We're both busy enough with our regular tasks and commitments. I'm trying to get the Bruges photos finished - they came to an end about 4.00pm on the day - too many people in narrow cobblestoned streets - and now I want to record what we did next, but have no photos... So, will do a search to see if I can find anything suitable. 

On Friday we're heading out of town for a couple of nights - to Pt Campbell. It's time for a reset after the fraught church business of the last couple of months. I want to see a native forest, and smell those eucalyptus smells.

 

Another Church Day

We greeted several church friends to the house and deck for a bit of a discussion this afternoon. I think most left feeling supported and unburdened. 

My New "Feel Good" Pin Up

I'm finally here. I've been procrastinating...

After Sunday's intense meeting arrangements - counting voting members in attendance, coming really, really close to a quoram, but not quite making it - the anticlimax - we were all feeling quite washed out. 

The vice-chairman is wonderfully supportive and sent a message to that effect later in the day, with a photo attached of his latest fur baby. I just feel good looking at it, have printed it off, and it's now in a place of prominence with the other photos. 

Strange

It's been a strange couple of days, or even a strange week. Jim's been busy assisting with the federal election during the past week, and out all day yesterday for about 14 hours, supervising 6 small outlying polling booths. I've been stalled mentally, while waiting for a Special General Meeting to happen at church this morning. So, both events are now over, and I can move on to some normality. 

I've almost finished the first book in a series from a new author; not sure if I'll tackle any of the others - it was a bit grim in places. Although the actual plot was interesting with good characterisation, so we'll see how we go on that one.