Pre-wedding dinner

The bride anfpd groom have organised a family and friends pre wedding dinner on the beach Saturday night.  The resort has set up tables and chairs and all the buffet and BBQ food right in the sand. It looks amazing. Very romantic and cool with a gentle evening breeze fragrant with grilled seafood.

 It wasn't long before I kicked off my shoes. Even sandal wedges are too  uncomfortable to wear in the sand. The cocktails flowed but there was also wine from Chile.  Wine is not often offered so I really enjoyed it for a change.  The food was delicious with fresh salads and prawns, lobsters and fish steamed in bamboo as well as beef and pork spare ribs.  Dessert was a mix of fruit and small pots of yoghurt mousse, cheesecake or mini cakes. 

The highlight of the night were some fire dancers. They were quite thrilling in their twirling and so nimble. Then they selected Jasmine and I to participate. They twirled the fire around us and made us bend backwards while they swept over our bodies with flames. It was quite hot and yet not scary. I felt complete trust in the artist. I was really proud of myself and everyone was impressed with our composure.

 The finale was one of the artists standing on a rock a little off shore and spinning the fire balls so that it looked like fireworks. Spectacular.

Resort relaxation

As we sit by the pool waiting for our massage and facial, satiated by a cocktail and a cool dip in the pool fringed with frangipani trees, I begin to reflect on the resort experience.  It has been so relaxing despite the dramas suffered by the mother of the  bride. Her son and his girlfriend have been rather trying in their behaviour at times which has added a degree of angst.    Travelling can test a relationship that is well established,   so it will be interesting to see if theirs lasts beyond this trip.  

Our arrival late at night was quite challenging because Angie was tired and suffering culture shock. She couldn't quite come to grips with the desire for a formal wedding in an impoverished country. Then the allocated room did not have the anticipated view and the alternative room had a faulty aircon. Eventually they relocated to a villa with private plunge pool. Kirsten negotiated a special deal. Fortunately my room though not looking over a garden as I expected has a view albeit distant, of the sea and a view to the hillside through Palm trees.  It is all green and very private.  I think our arrival confirmed my preference for arriving during the day. I feel that you are able to deal with the unexpected more easily. There was also a flurry over the credit card deposit that hotels like to do in case you abscond. Some of the party haven't travelled much and hardly ever to Asia so they are a little anxious.

After a good nights sleep and a swim I decided to take a walk with Barry(Sandra's husband) into the village. He is looking for runners and swim shorts. I am just curious as I have no sense of our location. Haven't even seen a map yet. It is hit and the road has no footpaths so we dodge the local scooters and cars and trucks to eventually find a Tesco of all places.  It has a pretty good range and I succumb to a pair of lightweight blue slip ons for poolside. All of $5.00  australian  cute and comfy and much nicer than my Chinese black ones.

We had a late lunch poolside and later repaired to the Tapas bar for cocktails and tapas. Our waiter misunderstood our order and we ended up with ten plates of gyosas instead of a plate of ten! As it turned out they were delicious and it was our dinner.

Next day we organised ourselves to go to Chaweng for shopping.  Angie and Phylis bought gorgeous bags and a few treats. I saw nothing to tempt me to open the wallet. It is a mix of upmarket shops and tourist stuff for young ones. One long street and a new plaza called Central. Not huge. Lots if bars and really just a street back from the beach. Geoff and Barry decided to experience the flesh eating fish that are in glass aquariums on the street, at 200 Baht for 15 minutes they let the fish nibble the dry skin off their feet. It was quite a tickly almost painful sensation initially that settled down and eventually delivered smooth feet. I had heard about soldiers doing this during the Second World War to heal their ulcers. I took lots of photos but didn't want to try it.

Back to the resort to get ready for dinner at the Cliff Restaurant. Our first chance to glam up. 

I have enjoyed getting to know Angie and Tim's friends better. We have shopped and eaten delightful dinners together. Everyone is just going with the flow and enjoying the resort and the company. The young ones for the bridal party are all here now and having a lovely time hanging out.

We have had a day out in a resort van visiting some temples, a waterfall and a cultural centre under construction. One of the highlights was a visit to the Retro Cafe at Ne poi?

 It has been constructed out of containers and is beside a beautiful beach. It is just south of Nahon town. A real find. We were back in time for Angie to go and visit the Banyon Tree and for us to have a cooling dip before a degustation meal featuring Thai wines. Who knew they grew grapes?

Destination weddings and techno anxiety

I am at Singapore airport waiting for our connection to Koh Samui which has been delayed a couple of hours much to the consternation of a few of the party.  When I booked I missed the booking through all in one go and distressed some of the group by having to exit, collect my baggage and then check in again.  It went off  smoothly in less than about 20 minutes. 
The next cause of stress was one of the party having an anxiety attack over the fact that they are uncontactable. No global roaming and therefore suddenly overwhelmed with panic and in tears.  It makes you think how attached we are to our mobile devices. Once we were out of contact for weeks at a time.  I was often uncontactable last year and I did have a few moments of anxiety but I was able to deal with it rationally and get past it. I think we should be uncontactable more often.
Now I am getting hungry and a drink would be nice too.

 Very tired group at Changi

The flight was great. Full but quiet and I caught up on three movies I wanted to see.  I picked the Paper plane and felt very emotional and cried. The other movie was the Imitation game and the Theory of everything. All great movies but all a bit sad too.

We arrived finally very late and Angie was shocked at where the resort is. It was like going through the boondocks, rural Thailand and then arriving at paradise. 

Our rooms are very nice but there are a few different low levels. No OH&S here! I have this massive bed and a spa bath on the balcony. I just had a quick shower and fell into bed. Angie was very upset because she had wanted a sea view and paid extra th have it. There was no sea view. I thought we were getting a garden room but we are on the 4th for.  I am happy and ime morning I could glimpse the sea from my balcony.

A working week

This week I was focussed totally on getting organised for going to Thailand. This meant getting those lectures finished and ready for Andrew to deliver in my stead. That is a rather challenging situation because your lectures are so personal and you know what you will add or do in the class to make it interesting, so having to set up,for some one else's delivery is rather more time consuming. To be honest I feel a trifle anxious too. Is it good enough? Well too bad I did get them finished after three solid days and my wrists are aching from sitting at the desk and computer. It is quite obviously not an ergonomic set up.

It was with great relief I finally posted the work to the student learning system and to Andrew. I have now got marking to do too. Ugh! assignments are due but they will have to wait till I return. I am constantly chasing my tail but so what is new. I am not letting it bother me. 

Swimming lessons with Ziggy are a hoot and turning quite social with post class interaction with the other kids and parents. It is quite tiring though. Today the poor little mite fell asleep on the way home. I was tempted to keep driving but I thought he probably should go to sleep in his bed. BIG mistake. He has done nothing but tell stories out loud to himself for nearly and hour and I wanted him to have a good sleep before we went to play with Abby today.  little people aren't always so predictable.

I gave blood this week too because I will have to wait another four months otherwise and I have missed my usual donations due to travel last year. I have made 60 whole blood donations so far. Because I am 0- they like the whole blood. I think of it as my community service.

When I get back there will be a break from art classes which will free me up for some writing time and time to do a proper budget. Now I am really relying on my super I need to be more  aware. It has been an expensive few months this year so far and I may want to take on more work albeit reluctantly if I want to rebuild my liquid cash balances. It is not that urgent but I have never really done a proper budget which is disgraceful. I can't put it off any longer.

I frequently long for the walking road. My foot is not entirely healed but I would love to be walking again. Not necessarily weeks but a few days would be divine. I am feeling more inclined to just take myself off somewhere. Everyone seems to be as busy as me and so it is hard to get common times together for walking. 

I am off to Thailand, Koh Samui tomorrow for the wedding then a few days in Malaysia and home. It will be fun I am sure, though there doesn't seem much to do but lounge  by the beach. Not exactly a hardship. My hairdresser tried paddle boarding while he was there so I hope they have that at the resort. 

The mother of the bride is rather anxious, understandedly, so I will have to keep a close eye on her to help her enjoy the occasion. After all the kids chose the place for their wedding and. Had the resort do most of the planning with them.  I am sure it will be fine. If it rains it rains and we get wet or go inside. The main thing is they just get married.

 Ziggy playing at the new children's park which has fountains that the kids can play amongst. He got very wet.

My first ever all vegetarian dinner party.

My friend Jan who is also my bodyworker (massage of sorts), is a vegetarian. She and her husband live a rather alternative life. They follow a guru who has a base on an island in Fiji. When I first started going to Jan they lived in a communal property in Kew. They are lovely people, not weird, just not so involved in mainstream life. Ron is a chemist and an expert in Aromatherapy.  Anyway they are part of the Ballina camping crowd so I thought it would be nice to have them come to dinner and decided we would all have vegetarian.  I had guacamole for nibbles, coconut and lettuce soup followed by Morrocan picking , sweet potato and chickpea Tagline with couscous, finishing with poached white nectarines and strawberries. Pretty tasty if I do say so myself.  Ron and Bill certainly went for seconds. It was all quite delicious and I didn't miss the meat at all. I forgot to take photos.
I was remarkably well organised too with everything completed well in advance on the day so that I could pop out to meet Lawrence (Pete's cousin who was over from Adelaide)  for coffee.

Sunday I spent writing my lecture!

A long weekend of exploring my own backyard.

This last week has been a week of divergent interests. My watercolour class was challenging. We were doing a landscape and learning new techniques of line and shadows. Jolly hard on the one hand but also freewheeling and fun on the other.  I squeezed in a meeting at the Box Hill Campus because I felt the need for some feedback from colleagues.  I feel happy I am on the correct path but I am also getting behind and need to ramp up my effort because the wedding in Thailand is looming and I need to have two classes covered by someone else.  Being back at work even for such a brief time really feels constraining. I think I transitioned too successfully last year! 

I had booked a couple of seats for a talk by Roxane Gay an American writer, feminist and blogger. She was at the Wheeler Centre talking about being a 'BadFeminist, the title of her book. She was very provocative and so interesting. The audience knew her  and her work really well but Janine and I were quite ignorant and had selected  the talk by the topic. The audience was comprised of many young women many probably gay.. It was a stimulating evening and quite outside our normal range so I felt we had made another strike for the new us! 

Anyway Just when I was finally focused and firing over my lecture the printer died and I needed to take it to be repaired. This was time I didn't need to waste when I had a long weekend of socialising booked. I had a wedding to attend on the Sunday and had decided weeks prior to make a weekend of it with my friend Janine. The wedding was down at the Eagle Ridge Golf Course at Rosebud on the Mornington Peninsula. This is such a delightful part of Victoria that I have only explored in fits and starts. Janine is from the other side of the bay, the Bellarine peninsula and isn't that familiar with the area either.  We were staying at a pretty dodgy looking(very old) motel. I was in trepidation when we arrived yet it was clean and the beds were comfy and the pillows were excellent. Even the shower was great

Our first stop was Sorrento a charming up- market village on the bayside where we had a second breakfast of Spanish omelette and coffee. After planning our day we took off to Gunnamatta a beach on the Bass Strait side of the Peninsula. This is a rugged beach and had romantic memories for both of us. when we were in the early stages of our courtships Peter and I with Eric and Janine made a similar visit. The beach was windy and we playfully chased each other in and out from the water's edge laughing. I remember my hair was windswept and Peter catching me in an embrace and calling me sexy. I thought he was too! Young love.

Gunnamatta Beach

Janine and I . We saw a little Echidna as we entered the beach. I think they are so cute and endearing little creatures. That was a bonus.

 From here we ventured through The village of Flinders another charming place and on to Pt Leo to watch the surfers, little black dots atop the waves.

 From here we travelled on to Balnarring, not so impressive a beach and then to Merricks General Store for wine tasting of Rose. The next wine stop was next door at Stoiers Winery and Janine bought some lovely dry champagne. I had to be more circumspect as I was the driver. We turned inland to Red Hill and passed through lovely country with olives and vines and vegetable  farms. We stumbled upon the Red Hill Cheesery and decided to get a tasting plate. A platter of tiny morsels of about 10 different cheeses. every satisfying and interesting with several new Sheep and goat cheeses tried. After this stop we headed back across the peninsula to Arthur's Seat a fabulous vantage point to see both up and down the bay. Finally we wended our way back to our very humble  motel and decided to have fish and chips for dinner. The little place was manned by a Vietnamese or Chinese family and the fare was really tasty. The local bottle shop was able to provide plastic cups for our accompanying wine, Foxy' Hangout a refreshing Rose.

After a surprisingly good night's sleep we took off to Heronswood at Domana. This is an historic home and organic garden, now the home of the Diggers Gardening Club. They maintain heritage seeds and plants. It is a beautiful home built from stone quarried at Arthur's Seat. We caused some consternation to staff by not venturing through the shop initially and thus bypassing the entrance fee. We were looking for breakfast but had to settle for Devonshire tea of scones with jam and cream. The restaurant wasn't open for breakfast.

There were some very interesting plants and beautiful  old trees.

At the left is thee early bud of the flowerDutchman's Pipe- very intriguing creeper. I thought it was quite hermaphroditic!

The picnic tree.

We returned to the motel for me to get flamed up for the wedding in my sparkly dress and earrings.

 The happy couple I discovered the bride's aunt, who lives in California and I have a mutual friend. It is a small world.

Heather and I at the wedding. She is a florist who specialises in weddings so organised all the flowers for the wedding. They were beautiful. 

Monday Janine and I drove up the coast to all the beaches and towns until we turned inland to visit Langwarren and the McClelland Gallery and Sculpture park.  This is a fabulous place and I will bring visitors here in future. 8 hectares of land dotted with sculptures. Janine and I had some wonderful discussions about the various pieces before we had a tasty lunch at the cafe. 

 Urban sculpture of supermarket trolleys 

Our favourite the Chrysalids(?) by Philip Price. It waved in the wind like trees or seaweed in the currents. 

The Void below was the winner of the 2014 Sculpture competition.

Home to Melbourne and a rest.

 

All calm again- at least for now.

It feels like I blinked and now it is March. Family issues resolved and after a short break I was greeted with such enthusiasm by Ziggy I felt a surge of joy. We have swimming on Mondays and he just loves it. I had to tread water a few times because our group is in a deep pool with a sloping floor and when we do the circle songs I can't touch the bottom. Fortunately Ziggy doesn't mind going under the water! We always do a bit extra before the class so he is really tired, and so am I.

Fireman Sam, Ziggy's Alter ego. He does a great job of saying' move back, move back from the fire!'.

I asked again for my Seniors card on the off chance it might have turned up and they had it! I was pleased and so was the girl behind the counter. I am sure when I asked last time of a different staff member she couldn't be bothered to check properly. Maybe that is mean but it has been over three weeks and I was sure they hadn't given it back after photocopying.

The plumber was attending to some leaks in the roof at Clare and Jonathan's flat. A rather handsome plumber actually and nice to speak to as well. He was there until just before Mini Maestros. Hopefully the issue is resolved but I wonder if Jonathan and Clare appreciate the fact that I am there instead of one of them? Hmm.

I was horrified to find a huge black cockroach in the cake container in the pantry. I got the fright of my life when it scuttled quickly around the container. Jammed the lid back on till I worked out what to do. It gave me the creeps as they move so fast! What a wimp I am. When we were growing up in Qld. we always had cockroaches and they didn't scare me then. When I first came to Melbourne and for many years after there were no cockroaches. I think it is climate change and the rising humidity we seem to be getting now that has attracted them. Anyway I duly squashed it. I always feel a bit guilty killing such things. It seems a bit mean. For some reason I always think of Bhuddists and the sanctity of life. Weird.

I skipped book club because it clashed with my Monday drawing class. When I organised these things I was taking art in the mornings but with the extra Ziggy day I needed to shift hours or lose my money so there is a clash once a month. I am enjoying the art class so much I just didn't want to miss it. I find it so exhilarating because I am really improving. 

 My latest effort. Those bent fingers were really hard.

These are the sort of changes I was hoping would eventuate.  Being a tad more discriminating with my time. Though I still say yes to most things.  Roger my brother-in-law sold his house on Saturday by auction. I found the process nervewracking and the agent, a young chap, worked very hard to get the price above reserve. Ultimately he got $1,100,000 which was an excellent result but not enough for a similar place in Sydney.  We celebrated afterwards with champagne, prawns and oysters and several of Roger's friends. One was a French guy called of course, Jean Pierre, ( not gay either) who I found especially charming but he was much younger. On the one hand I find younger men more attractive but I feel too old for them. I think the age gap is too much and I would feel awkward. It is very difficult.

It is discouraging how expensive homes are in Australia and our capital cities in particular. My children will have a tough time buying a place. A report has come out about how difficult it is for families to find work close to where they live so they are forced to commute long hours which in turn interferes with family life. No wonder there is rising domestic violence and family breakdown. My 91year old mother says she doesn't think husbands and wives get enough sex these days! She might have a point.

I am struggling with my lectures at the moment though still two ahead. I feel like I need some brainstorming over the topic. I feel stuck. I probably need to do more reading. I cannot believe I don't seem to have enough time still. It is evident I am not pushing everything in like a foot in a sock these days. I am not feeling anxious like I used to before I quit full-time work but I certainly got a lot more done. 

This is an aspect I need to reconcile. Doing less is okay, accept.