ferrousland.com - diary archives
Sunday, August 03, 2003
productive & enjoyable - 09:02 PM
what a great weekend we've had. shroom says he had a good one too, but speaking for myself, mine has been excellent. 
shroom's would have been good primarily because he actually got a two day weekend for a change. he's been working really hard lately, most weeks doing six days, some weeks working seven days in a row. he decided that he would have this whole weekend to himself & i think his brain is thanking him for it. he looks much happier & more relaxed tonight than he has for a while. that makes me happy, too.
mine has been excellent because it's been a perfect mix of socialising, being productive around the house & relaxing.
on friday night mum & her boyfriend, bill, came over for dinner. i visited her at her house the other day & bill was there, but a friend of theirs dropped by unexpectedly, so we didn't have much chance to catch up properly. bill expressed a bit of disappointment about that to mum, so we decided that it would be the perfect opportunity to have them both over for dinner. i made them one of the things which i happen to cook very well, chicken schnitzel. i also made lots of steamed veggies & some boiled baby potatoes to go with it. mum & bill brought a bottle of wine to go with dinner (debortoli, umm, bin 92? okay, i'm stumbling here, i really can't remember. anyway, it was a very nice red & not too dry) & a cheesecake for dessert.
mcgarnicle did his bit by going all hyper after we fed him some yucky sausage-pack chicken goop for dogs from the supermarket because we'd run out of his normal food before i'd had a chance to get to the pet food shop. his usual food is a whole chook chucked in a grinder, basically, nothing added. some who have met mcgarnicle would ask how we could tell that he was hyper, but believe me, he was way more hyper than usual. he would just not sit still or settle down.
so dinner with mum & bill was very nice, indeed. they seemed to enjoy themselves too. bill is an excellent conversationalist. he talks even more than i do, whih is saying something! 
.. i mean that as an absolute compliment, though. he's a really lovely guy.
on saturday there was a lunch planned for tosca (dad's new wife, although not really new anymore since they've been married for almost a year now) to meet some of the family. they've just arrived back in the country from the philippines, where there were both studying at bible school. they're here to stay for good now so they've been doing some catching up & dad's been showing tosca around brisbane while they have the chance before they head down to melbourne to settle there for a little while.
lunch was held at a restaurant/bar called macarthur's hq, in the city. i'm pretty sure i've been there before. we had lunch on the balcony where you have a really nice view of the storey bridge. my cousin bennett works there & they make very nice food, thus it was chosen as the venue. bennet had to cook that day, since the chef had called in sick, & he made us an excellent array of seafood for those that could eat it, salad, & for dad & myself (who are allergic to shell fish) some yummy beef & chicken. shroom didn't come to lunch because he has a bit of cold, & he really wanted to just hang at home for once after working so many weekends.
tosca seems to be coping well with meeting the family. when a whole lot of us get together all at once, it can be a bit much, to say the least. one thing she told me which she was slowly getting used to, was how all of the family tend to talk over each other all at once, having about five different conversations going, but somehow maintaining all five. years ago, i'd been told by an ex-boyfriend that we did that, but i honestly hadn't noticed until he'd mentioned it. i guess you get used to these things when you grow up with it.
we're not that scary, really. we all have a really good time when we get together & we laugh a lot, but i can imagine that from an outsider's point of view, it could be a little bit overwhelming, especially when you sometimes have trouble understanding the australian accent anyway!
.. poor tosca. *chuckle*
this morning, shroom's mum & dad dropped around for a visit, bringing some custard filled croissants to snack on over a cuppa & some bread rolls for us to have later. they're really good when they visit, they never stay for an overly long time because they figure we still want some of our weekend to ourselves. i certainly wouldn't mind if they did stay longer, though. i like it when they visit. they're two of the nicest people i know.
after shroom's parents left, shroom & i got around to hanging some of the pictures up on the walls. there are still some blank walls, but we now have things hung on the two walls near the front door, two walls in the kitchen & one skinny bit of wall right near the kitchen just behind where shroom's desk is. now that the place is actually looking a bit more presentable, i might even be able to take some pictures soon to show you all what it looks like.
this afternoon, to continue being productive, i did some grocery shopping & cooked a really nice meal. as i've been doing for the last few nights, i've been making more than what we need for one night & then freezing a portion or two for us to use once the baby comes, since i imagine i might have trouble keeping up with making us dinners. shroom will help where he can, of course, but since i'll be breastfeeding, freezing some healthy dinners will be a good thing. it'll save us both the hassle of cooking a full meal. all we'll have to do is steam some veggies or cook up some rice to go with the meals. nice & easy.
since we're needing more freezer space, i helped shroom move the big chest freezer out of the garage, where it's been stored since we moved out of the old place. we'll buy lots of sparnicle food to go in there, since his chicken mince takes up so much room in the tiny freezer at the top of the fridge. as our frozen meals take up more room, we can move them into the chest freezer too, if we wish.
there's no space inside the house for the big freezer, so we put it under cover on the porch, right next to where the clothes dryer is at the moment. there was a kind of ugly (& warped) set of shelves which we had the painters remove from one of the bedrooms, which i ended up turning on its side & putting the dryer on, to keep it off the ground in case of any big storms which might soak the porch. there was the perfect amount of room at the side of it for the freezer to sit. since i can't lift anything at the moment, shroom kind of walked it onto a large piece of cardboard & pulled on one end, while i gave it a bit of a push from the other side. between the two of us, we managed to get it there with no trouble. well, it wasn't any trouble for me, but shroom did find the going a bit tough. lucky he's so big & strong. 
about the only thing which i've been slack with this weekend is washing the dishes from friday night's dinner. they're all rinsed clean (shroom kindly did that for me), so there's no mess, but with a late night friday night & lunch on yesterday, i was really tired for the rest of the day, so i did nothing but rest. i'll catch up on the dishes tomorrow. i don't feel so bad about leaving them anyway, because previous to this, i've been really good with keeping up with the housework in general. the dishes are all hidden away under the sink anyway, so the house still looks quite presentable.
so .. that's my weekend. it's been really good. i'm loving doing anything in our wonderful new house. it's all such a pleasure when everything you do is making it more pleasant for yourself, rather than for some landlord who doesn't care enough to bother making it nice for you. ahh .. our pretty new house. i simply adore it.
Ahhh, Coralie, you are mellowing, becoming a real mom (mum)? HA! Have you noticed how domestic you have become and how much you are enjoying it? I know you are feeling like you have your own personal little family now. How fun! Take care,...
Hi Corri,
You have been to MacArthurs before. Do you remember when we went with all the Complete girls ? We walked up to the Korean Karoke (disappeared now) in the Valley afterwards. Congratulations on the baby - sorry it has been a long time between visits to your site. My prayers are with Brittany, Monica and the whole family.
Love Sue
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I'm glad you had such a lovely weekend