Saturday

We had a wonderful dinner at Vivo with M and Mouse to celebrate Mother's Day.  It was a wonderful meal - and even though we had the "early sitting" we still had enough time to sit, relax, eat good food and then have our photo taken with the (prop) balloons.  It had been quite busy - M had originally tried to get a lunch booking but that wasn't happening on Mother's Day! 

 

Earlier in the day we had been down to Kingscliff to see Sooz's Mum.  It has been a while since we've seen her and there has been a bit of a change since then.  She seems a bit frailer now and where she had been able to get around quite well with her wheely-walker,  when we took her outside for a walk in the garden, she was in a wheelchair.   I can see that those things are not that easy to steer in tight spaces but the paths are wide so there was no chance of getting into difficulty.  There's plenty to see in the main area but next time we will take her further afield so she she can see the curlews in the "roundabout" in the main parking lot and the new nets in the playing fields out the back.  

We rang my mother for Mother's Day and she was getting ready for pick-up ... she was off to We's where all the mothers were getting together ... and she was looking forward to seeing the newest addition to the family (just three weeks), AJ, again.

Back at Jannie I am pleased to say that Nigey had not made us breakfast in bed!  She did knock at our door quite early though but went back to bed once I'd topped up her cookies (I can see the bottom!) and she'd had a snack. 

We were back at Trivia on Monday night but we needed a telescope to see the podium ... and we didn't even win any individual rounds.  But we did better on the music questions than we have for a while - we miss Ro for these and while Pe makes a valiant effort, she doesn't usually get any assistance from Sooz and I.  Tonight though ... Galway Bay, Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart ... we were on fire.  Did I mention though that overall our tone for the night was "crash and burn"?   

I am still working on photo selection for the Wedding Book and I had a practice run with a photo book last week with photographs from our trip to the Lake Dunn Sculpture Trail last October.  I can see where I can "do better" next time so it was definitely good to do it ... and also to see that the quality of their work, printing and alignment of photographs across pages is actually very good.  

Photo selection in progress.

 
Another big project at the moment is switching computers ... my Surface Pro has to go back to the shop because it is unable to hold a charge in the battery and if I am off the mains, it's less than half an hour or so (depending on what I'm doing) before it switches itself off.  I've made a plan of action/list and am going through it slowly and methodically to make sure I don't lose any data or access to programs with the Yoga tablet (running on Windows 10) that I'm transferring data/programs/apps to. 

HOTA Critter

 
Also on the project list ... two things ... finding a new volunteering gig since I have decided not to go back to Vinnies ... and enrolling in a web development course at TAFE.  Now where did I put my Birth Certificate Extract for Proof of Identity - especially as my Passport has expired and may not be being renewed in the near future (although I don't want to miss out on the almost-auto renewal period which I understand can be done online rather than having to apply for a completely new passport).  I finished my application this evening;  and earlier in the day I had sent off my Volunteer Application to the group who are looking for writers for their online publication.  (Pick me! Pick me!)  Next on the list for them is to do up a couple of articles so Rob can see if he likes my writing style and turns of phrase.

More HOTA.

On Tuesday evening we caught up with more episodes of "Call My Agent". We are very much enjoying this series despite it being in French or maybe because of.  The characters are very well drawn and while it may not be that this is a true insight into the French film and television industry, you have to think there might just be a grain or two of truth in there about the personalities and how they work and react to the high stakes of popularity  ... and how fickle it can be.      

Nature put on a wonderful light show for the Gold Coast and other parts of SEQueensland the other night.  Pity the storm was so early in the morning as lots of people would have missed it.  It was bright though ... and the Department of Meteorology reports there were about 66,000 lightning strikes ... Thunder and Lightning ... very very frightening!   

And just for those who missed that one, there was another the next night. The storms have left the ground fairly soaked (read saturated) ... so there has been no mowing or edging here at Jannie this week.   

The other wonderful thing we did this week was go to the newly- opened HOTA Art Gallery where we took a guided tour of ... "Yellow" - three or form pieces chosen by our guide for their use of that colour. we also had time to explore some of the rest of the building and we were not disappointed. 

 We continue to help So with the injections for Tara and now that we're using different needles (one each) for drawing up the antibiotic and doing the injections, the process is less fraught.

Hyper-realistic oil on canvas.  Not to everyone's taste!