Lazy Days

MB was taken by the fancy to do some swimming today, the last day of 2006. Serious swimming mind you, laps at the local swimming pool. MDR was recruited on the pretext of doing some underwater hockey training and off the pair went, alas the pool was closed. Is New Year's Eve a public holiday?
"Let's go to the Bellevue where we stayed last week, you remember the PIN code for the pool gate don't you?" suggests MDR. MB isn't a fan of furtively using other people's swimming pools and countered with the idea of actually swimming in the ocean at Trinity Beach.
With both agreeing on a swim at the beach, they set off and amazingly found a parking spot just near the stinger net. Understood why when they walked onto the beach, not a soul swimming in the stinger proof enclosure and big signs warning swimming was prohibited as Irukandji jellyfish present!
After some lolling on the sand, the pair did a beach walk up to the Ron McKauge Track and walked around the rocky point. MB did actually get to do some paddling in the shallows and spotted a turtle from the walking track.
Trinity Beach on a late afternoon with a brisk sou-easterly sea breeze is certainly a very nice spot to be.

Christmas Day 2006 Trinity Beach

Christmas Lunch was a triumph, just one small hitch, forgot the peas, however some sauteed broccoli filled in admirably.
The little one was a bit overwhelmed by all the fuss, did lots of climbing on his avalanche of gifts, Mummy, Uncle, doting grand & great grandparents had to help with the unwrapping. Great Grandpa Steve was like a kid in a lolly factory, building a tower taller than himself with every piece of gift baby duplo.
Christmas night saw the MB family challenge MB for the Trivial Pursuit crown. After a long battle with lots of friendly bickering, the yougest son and Nana Anne team emerged victorious.
Holiday apartment was sensational, perched above the beach, each night the MB family was soothed to sleep by the sound of waves lapping the beach, plus some wine and/or beer....

Cynicism to the Fore

Interesting discussion on ABC RN Counterpoint last night about a chap by the name of Dr Kersten who got so sick of the motivational guff and jargon that so many companies insist on forcing on their staff he decided to write his own book, The Art of Demotivation. MB checked out the website and got quite a chuckle from some of the satirical illustrations shown there. Worth a peek if you're jaded with those corporate love-ins and motivational types.

:::::: Mango Season ::::::

Just showing off a fraction of Mr MB's mango harvest from our very own garden.

Christmas at Trinity Beach

Christmas is much on the minds of the MB family at present. The general consensus is for a tradtional home made hot lunch. First Daughter and MB have therefore hatched a plan to celebrate Christmas Day at the Northern Beaches of Cairns. This entails booking an air-conditioned, waterfront apartment so that the traditional hot lunch can be made and enjoyed in relative comfort!
MB's first draft menu follows:

Christmas Lunch Menu
Roasted Turkey, fresh free range from Marsh's Butchers, with sage & onion stuffing.
Roasted Rolled Loin of Pork stuffed with Apples & Wine Soaked Prunes.
Oven Roasted Tablelands' potatoes & pumpkin, kaukau, red onion & carrots. Seasoned with fresh mixed herbs and extra virgin olive oil.

Baby Peas infused with Corinne's home grown Mint.

Mesclun Salad with Vine Ripened Tomatoes and Millaa Millaa Buffalo Milk Bocconcini dressed with Balsamic & Olive Oil.

Traditional Home Made Cognac Steeped Christmas Pudding wrapped in calico accompanied by warm home made Crème Patissiere.

A selection of Ice Cold Drinks including: XXXX Gold & Corona, Trevor Jones Sparkling Shiraz, Dorrien Estate Rosè, Voyager Estate Sauvignon Blanc, Yarra Valley Pinot Noir & Chez Coles Sparkling Mineral Water for those not partaking.

Vale Holly Doggie

The MB family lost their faithful, beloved pooch this week, on Monday 13 November to be precise. Holly entertained, exasperated and looked out for the MB family for nigh on fifteen years. MB is thankful Holly passed away peacefully, due to old age, and did not suffer greatly, in fact she was her usual self more or less right up until the end. Mr MB found her a nice spot in the backyard, under the avocado tree, he's going to carve her name into the avocado trunk. Needless to say the Holly dog is going to be missed in a big way.

First Daughter's Birthday

FD celebrated her birthday yesterday with a mandatory meal at Donnini's. We weren't disappointed either, we all enjoyed a superb lunch. Not dinner as a little too late for the little prince to go out.
TCO got her a birthday card illustrated with Miss Bossy on the front, his message inside was "you can have anything you want today except the password to my computer", when she read this she laughed and confirmed she was going to raise that topic again at lunch!
FD's planned night out clubbing didn't eventuate, maybe next year?

Christmas Wish List 2006:

Subscription to New Yorker Magazine, Showy Lilac Jade pendant - abstract design, Rick Stein's French Odyssey DVD, HDD Recorder with DVD burner and twin HD tuners, a couple of months anywhere in Europe, any book by PG Wodehouse or Elizabeth David (2nd hand is good), Pre-loved Finlandia 1970's "Arabia Ruska" stoneware or Temuka 1980's "Riverstone" stoneware and lastly a custom built, minimalist/shaker fusion design tropical hardwood timber kitchen hutch. Thank you

Siblings & Passwords

Firstborn Daughter (with baby Eljay) is staying in the family home whilst renovations are in progress at her house. FD is staying in her old room which is now MB's office, when baby goes to bed very early in the evenings, the room and computer therein are unavailable. First night FD needed to check her email and do some posts on her blog and tried to use her brother's PC, but was unable to get past the login password, TCO was out so she gave him a call to ask for the password. Fireworks ensured when TCO wouldn't divulge his password.
FD protests; "How can you let him have a computer with a password on it?". "He is entitled to his privacy." responds MB. For the past 3 days, while TCO is at work, FD has been trying to crack the password, unsuccessfully. The password topic has been raised by FD morning and night ever since. MB is finding it really quite amusing watching the interplay between her two "grown-up" kids.

Sunday Lunch on Cairns' Esplanade

Mr MB came second in his spearfishing tournament on Saturday and won a one hundred dollar voucher for a meal at Villa Romana. MB immediately booked in for a late lunch on Sunday. After seeing "The Wind that shakes the Barley", a two hour epic of the brutality of the English occupation of Ireland just prior to the Truce, MDR & MB met the offspring at Villa Romana.
This restaurant is one of those "places to be seen" establishments in a superb location on the strip that is now riddled with tourists and "Made in China" Aussie souvenir shops. Lunch for the four of us was over $200 and honestly was very mediocre. Our meals were reasonable but lacked really fresh ingredients and imagination, the pasta in particular was very disappointing.
Villa Romana looks and feels good but the food is nowhere near the standard of some of the little "value" South Melbourne cafes MB & MDR dined in when last in Melbourne.
MB is pleased to report Baby Eljay was on his best behaviour, he sat up in his high chair as if he belonged there, munching on calamari and bread, and hardly a squeak from him for 2 hours.

Loud Failure

MB received her new super silent power supply during the week and proceeded with immediate installation, which was very straightforward. Once the PC was re-assembled it was switched on and yes it is extremely quiet, however after about 3 minutes the CPU fan started up. MB has now discovered the CPU fan is the main culprit, it can be heard quite clearly even in other rooms. More Googling has turned up some quiet fans which are quite reasonably priced, under $30. However MB has to open the case again to measure the existing fan, for which she is awaiting some more motivation. MB hears the dual core processors don't require cooling devices as they don' t heat up as much, is this a good enough excuse to upgrade?

Silence aint Cheap

MB enjoys quietness and to this end has decided to do something about her very noisy PC which sounds like an aircraft engine. For some unknown reason it becomes even louder the longer it's been running, the noise is due to a cheap power supply which MB's local yokel supplier claimed was very quiet. Google to the rescue, there is actually an American website for quiet pc design, amazing, it's not just MB with a noise problem!
MB has decided on the Seasonic S12, it has a very low Db rating and even uses less power. This is one of the better power supplies that can be bought in Australia (according to MB's research anyway). $199 for a power supply is pretty expensive but after two years of being worn down by the present one MB would pay just about anything for peace. After placing an order online with a pc parts supplier (and paying) MB realised she hadn't checked on Ebay for one, sure enough some of the exact same model (new) for sale in Oz, sellers asking for $221. "Well shopped!" says MB as she contorts herself for a self applied pat on the back.
On a completely different tack; did you know that Mynah birds eat their dead relations? MB discovered a dead Mynah bird in her backyard this morning and is psyching herself up for disposal thereof. She is having evil thoughts about a "gift" for the howling dog next door. All day long other Mynah birds have been dropping in and feasting on their poor, dead relation.
Must go, the lawnmowing beckons....Mr MB, the gun lawn mower is over in London, dammit.

BBQ Sunday

No rest for the wicked.
Two hours after MDR landed at home from his week long Philippines/Brisbane trip, it was off to the local park for a BBQ lunch.
Here he is demonstrating his beer marindade technique.

MUDDY'S MUD CRABS

En route from Townsville back to Cairns, I stopped in for lunch at Muddy's in Cardwell (07 4066 8133, 221 Victoria St. Cardwell Qld 4849). I'd heard good things about this place from MDR and I'm a big fan of crabs so I was really looking forward to a big feed of chilli crab.

The chilli mud crab was priced at around $70 on the menu which seemed a bit toppy. I was pretty hungry, however, so I went ahead and ordered one anyway. Here's a picture of the crab I was served;



Well, I must say, the crab was excellent. Cooked to perfection with just enough chilli so as not to overwhelm the taste of the very fresh crab meat. Was it worth $70? Definitely!

Let them eat Spinach

Monday saw the departure of the MB family from Charters Towers, MDR was pushing everyone along in the morning, much to MB's disgruntlement. The girls managed to get in half an hour's shopping before being hustled back to the car for the return journey to Cairns.

Lunch was just south of Ingham, at one of those roadside rest stops. This one was adjacent to a farm with two very friendly ponys, who watched as the MB family made and ate salad rolls for lunch.
This equine pair's patience was rewarded when MB and Cindy (Son of MB's girlfriend) fed the remainder of the salad spinach to them, which was gobbled up with lots of lip smacking. This was so much fun more treats were offered, two fermenting mandarines and an old baby's rusk which the horses made short of work of as well.

Australian Bank of Commerce

Just one of the beautiful heritage buildings in Charters Towers, this one built in 1891.

Pioneer Cemetery

This large cemetery in Charters Towers contains so many graves of children and adults in the prime of their lives. A poignant reminder of the fortunate times and longevity we enjoy.
Thanks to son of MB for all of the CT photos.

Charters Towers Sunday Sightseeing

Sunday saw the MB family on a whirlwind sightseeing tour of Charters Towers with mother of MB and step-dad, Steve.
Luckily it was the second Sunday of the month and the local markets were being held at the CT showgrounds. Our party swarmed into the markets, scouring the stalls for underpriced treasure. Lots of country style crafts and some nice fresh produce on sale. MDR & MB are honey fans and found some excellent Bloodwood honey being sold by a smiling eyes local honey producer. MB also spotted a couple selling chickens and was able to have an illuminating discussion on the relative merits of the Transylvanian Naked Neck hens, apparently they are very good in the heat as their featherless necks can shed heat quickly. MB harbours a strong desire to establish a chook pen and so have a ready supply of the freshest eggs possible.
After the markets it was a stroll downtown and coffee at the cafe in Australia's first stock exchange. The slowest coffee ever, 50 minutes wait for a lukewarm latte. Charters was once the second largest city in Queensland and has a fine collection of heritage buildings, all in very good shape.
PB treated us with Lunch to go which he picked up from Chez Coq Rouge for a picnic by the Burdekin River Weir (pictured). CT is so well supplied with water that the Qld Govt. wants to pipe their water down to the parched south-east.

Expedition to the Interior

After days of planning and discussions the MB family loaded up the trucksters and hit the road for Charters Towers on Saturday morning, only 35 minutes behind schedule. Not bad for 6 adults and one baby.

At the last planning "meeting" the inland route incorporating a trip to the Undara Lave Tubes was cancelled in favour of the quicker (5.5hrs) coastal route. Amazing how one little baby can have so much influence.
The coastal route took the expedition party Townsville where they turned west to Charters Towers, which is approximately 120klms inland. Townsville has the temerity to proclaim itself the "Capital of North Queensland". This sign at the northern entrance to Townsville did not go unnoticed by some members of the travelling party. MDR feels it's been placed there, rather than on the southern entrance, just to antagonize the folks who live in that verdant jewel of a city 4 hours north of Townsville.

Farewell Winter

MDR & MB's last day in Melbourne happened also to be the last day of winter and reached a high of 24c, perfect for a stroll through the Botanic Gardens and Shrine of Remembrance. Pictured above is the view to the city from the steps of the Shrine.
One last gourmet meal was had at Trotters in Lygon St (recommended by The Age Cheap Eats). The veal and sage sausages were a treat and the service remarkably good.
MB's planned shopping spree was severely curtailed by strict enforcement of baggage restrictions, as it was her baggage was 5kg overweight, but the nice chap at Virgin check-in let it pass.

Stop Press: Keep posted for the next excursion, a road trip to Charters Towers soon to visit mother of MB. This is going to be one of those family vacation type road trips with kids, in-laws, the lot! Should be plenty of sparks flying.