ps

the best thing that happened yesterday was that v&a came for afternoon tea, bearing fresh figs and fruit cake. yum.....

queanbeyan monday

not a lot to report from queanbeyan



here's what's on....



or there's always the riverside plaza.......



and i did notice that the king gee trend has taken off!

long weekend

it's canberra day today - long weekend. well, every day's a long weekend for us, but the workers of canberra can sleep in today.
b&m mc came for dinner on friday night and to watch the wedding video and then w&h came on saturday night for dinner and to collect the painting they bought at the exhibition - the blue and white one from hk. lots of discussion about things to see and do in france on both nights. m told us names and addresses of a number of memorable burgundian winemakers and restaurants to visit. you'll be in your element at the biscuit woodsy.
have you seen any news footage of the student riots in paris? we've been trying to decide which apartment building is ours as the teargas blows across the streetscene. think we spotted our apartment on the third floor of a corner building.
walked up red hill yesterday morning and met f&j, who walked up from the garran side, for breakfast at the cafe. j has made a present for rory, which we'll send tomorrow. sat in the sun and talked about holidays (they LOVE sabah), family, politics and religion. in the afternoon went to the bus depot market to pick up some painting books from a bookbinder and then strolled round the canberra times art show on the lawns outside old parli house.
today?.......think i'll go shopping in queanbeyan.
forgot to take camera on every occasion so no pics available. maybe next time.......

overalls

there has been some discussion recently about the value of overalls in society but nowhere has the overall truth been mentioned - overalls bring happiness. not only do they bring the wearer great contentment (people wearing overalls smile more often). they also make overall observers laugh too. today we donned some king gs and the overall effect was that every job became fun.








there's a certain nobility about overalls too.

lake flags

strong winds by the lake this afternoon, which blew us round to the yacht club and back again.

is this yours?

was cleaning out bedroom cupboards today and found this shoe - do you have the other one? do you want this one? it's going to the salvos tomorrow if not claimed.

today's visitors

first nigella arrived and stayed to play while eva and rory went to the markets. in view of her recent record here - eating cat pills, chewing snail pellets, getting grass seed in eye, and the subsequent visits to vets, we decided not to let her outside so she sat by the door and begged to be allowed to explore.





when we didn't agree to her request she took matters into her own hands and made a run for it when adrian opened the door. luckily we got her back in before her parents returned with the lunch.









after lunch adrian designed the menu/place card for the wedding while we searched for a suitable poem for the ceremony. found a few but nothing really good. eva will just have to write one. then jan arrived and it was time for them to go in to the gallery to take down the paintings and patch up the walls. it only took an hour or so and then all the artists came here for dinner which i'd knocked up while they were working. made pasta with a tomato sauce using fresh tomatoes and herbs from the garden and fruit salad. it was quite tasty and a fun evening.



later on i went out and found our last visitor for the day. its web is spectacular - it puts it up every night and removes it in the morning - very tidy!

what's been going on?

this week has been a dead loss for photos - not because there's been nothing happening, but because i keep forgetting to take my camera. anyhow, i'll have to just tell you what's been going on.
on thursday evening we did our groupies thing and went to the next cashews guerilla gig - this time it was halfway up black mountain. took a picnic and sat watching the sunset, listening to the music. pity i forgot the camera. there was another singer/guitarist too so we had a longer concert and it was dark by the time they sang the final encores.
yesterday we read in the paper that the annual mont sale was on at fyshwick and thought we'd go early to avoid the rush. so did everyone else in canberra - the warehouse was packed! there were some great bargains, with most things half-price or less so the checkout queue was long and the street outside was full of people carrying bundles of clothing and assorted outdoor equipment. decided to replace my 25 year old backpack which has holes in the corners and zippers that don't work with a new one. hope it manages to go around the world as many times as the old one did. it looks pretty strong.



your father got something to keep him warm on tibetan mountains and a shirt impregnated with insect repellant.........

last night martin and angelina came for dinner - he and your father have been meeting for chinese/english conversation sessions. so we talked about china, their families, you, their experiences in january packing cherries over at young. they showed us their photos of the time there - smiling and excited on the first day through to completely exhausted and dying to escape at the end of the month. however they said they'd have to work for 5 or 6 months part time in canberra to make the same money so it was worth doing.
this morning we had breakfast with ksmg and tanya who was up from melbourne, then walked along the street to a house auction which went very slowly. it all looked a bit fixed to us with a last minute bidder pulling up in his ute and taking the price up to $513000. the other bidders dropped out at that point so if he was a plant it didn't work.
next we went over to meet the wagga woodses at anca. it was good to see them - looked at the exhibition and sat in the courtyard and talked. they'd had a whirlwind morning in canberra and had achieved in two and a half hours what most people would take all day to do. they probably fitted in another two days' worth in the afternoon before driving home.
elvio's 40th was next, at knightsbridge penthouse, which we discovered was a bar in braddon, rather than cecil beaton's studio. luckily i didn't wear my afternoon tea frock. lots of people, drinks, food, presents (we ended up getting him a nice bottle of henschkes cab sav and adrian made him a card with one of his paintings from china) and music. it was fun.
tomorrow E&R are coming to consult on place card and menu design over lunch. later in the day the paintings at anca have to be picked up by the purchasers (your father sold six!) and the gallery cleared ready for the next artist whose exhibition opens on wednesday.
after that, who knows?

Brogo Reverie

The exhibition is a great success - it looks terrific, lots of people came and admired the artwork and quite a lot of paintings and sculpture were bought. Four of A's will be finding new walls to hang on!