Monday

What a very social weekend. We started on Saturday with breakfast with M and Ro, then thought about going out to find some Line Lion Dancers to welcome in the New Year (but didn't but we did have Dim Sum and Sweet & Sour for dinner), and then yesterday, we went to our very first House Concert before Sooz went off to Chanting.

We breakfasted at 360 which is across the road from Charis Seafoods (and the Pelicans!) down at the Broadwater. We were booked for 8:30am and finally managed to pull ourselves away at around 11. We may have been more inclined to leave had we seen the sign saying "Time Limits May Apply" on the way in rather than on the way out. But they made no effort to move us along, and we were having a wonderful time, so 11am departure it was. Talk about grazing over a number of topics!

I'm not sure when it was that Sooz decided she had a hankering for Sweet & Sour - whether it was before or after we were thinking about finding a Lion Dance - maybe around the same time - and it was only when I went to give our favourite local Chinese restaurant a call that I found their number had been disconnected. Hmmm. I know we have been making more of an effort not to eat out (thank you Lite N Easy), but I hadn't realised what a detrimental effect it could be having on the local community! Breakfast establishments will be fine - we still do breakfast out a couple of times a week - but we certainly don't do dinners out that much any more. The local FaceBook group had a couple of suggestions for "best Chinese" and we tried one on Turpin Road - which was quite good even though it took ages - which I guess is probably how you know they're good. I had chosen to go down to order rather than doing it over the phone too ... which is why I now have one of their takeaway menus, and hopefully won't ever again have to wait in the restaurant (which is takeaway only - I'm not sure if it was dine-in before CoVid) which is fairly hot - probably because of the non-stop cooking in the kitchen!

We had a slow start to the morning yesterday - and I managed a sleep-in for the first time in a while. I finally managed to get my eyes open - and keep them that way - just after 9am. I still had a little bit to do in terms of getting Sooz's studio (aka the guest room) sorted before my brother arrives today. But it's all done now ... and I've even managed to get the goodies that have been hanging out on top of the air fryer oven finally tucked away into their almost-forever homes. They say that you have to live in a house for a year before you finally know where everything is meant to go ... at this point I think we might have it sorted by the time we've been at Jannie for 7 years! 

The Concert was fantastic! We received a call from Syl earlier in the day to say that if we wanted the comfy seats we should get there early - and that was great ... even though it was right up the front. Lots of folk don't know this, but if you put me in a comfortable chair for any stretch of time, I am likely, more times than not, to drift off to sleep. Ah yes, there are some wonderful performances I have slept through! But ... voila ... I managed to stay awake for the whole concert ... and I wasn't even taking photographs the whole way through. I did whip out the phone a couple of times - to take photos of Hugo the dog who looked as comfortable as could be, held close and having his chin scratched; a couple of Kellie Brouhaha as she sang (I didn't like any of them), and a couple of Sy doing the wrap up after the singing had ended. 

I also managed to get out with the camera on Saturday afternoon - and was lucky enough to find two birds (terns or perhaps seagulls?) arguing over a snake .... and to think I had meant to take the 600mm lens with me - but the 400mm lens didn't do too bad a job.