Have a Happy Friday!

Having got to the end of a really tough week, I'm looking forward to finishing work early and going for a walk / jog / run with my new fitness buddy.


Then I'm going to come home, do my animal chores and prep dinner before I pick up the kids at 6 and take them for our Friday night swim at the local pool (I find teenagers are SO much better when they have been dumped into chilly water for an hour at the end of the week - knocks all the aggro out of them!)


After that I shall return home and pour myself an extremely large glass of something quite alcoholic.


What have you all got planned for today?


Snow here too expected overnight, though I doubt there'll be much of it.

Catharine,

Catharine, you are right, keep the teens busy, especially with sport and all will be well later! Our two, now in their twenties are still sports-mad, one is actually a professional sportsman, (both have good degrees as well)

Friday here in Bratislava is grey and cold but we have the Christmas Markets on in te main square and that is where I am headed after work. Mulled wine and some spicy food. Tomorrow night is St Nicholas day, and we have been invited to a dinner at some German friends.

All very new to Sydneysiders!

In between work tasks though, I keep looking at French real estate in the SW, .....one day!

A bit of yoga may help Brian, with a sizeable dose of Laphroaig to follow....

It does have a reputation like that. BZH = Bienvenue Zone Humide apparently. Still, it's unfounded rep' does keep out the Hoi Polloi :-) 15 deg with a north wind today. I've hardly lit the woodies during the day so far & we ain't far off the Winter Solstice. Soon be all downhill to spring & cursing the heat !

Not here, cold but sunny. Daughter 2 has riding. No problem taking her but it is the getting her up on a non-school day that irks... Better have that second large one this evening! Just in case.

This has been a b* awful week. Our work is an uphill struggle because the people in Cambodia are not sending us the translated data we need although they should have drip fed it day by day. I am about to go out to buy the needle shedding green thing, then do the two colleges to pick up small people, followed by dropping one of at judo. So home about 1900, but mama will have to go to do the pick up from judo which leaves me doing dinner. I can only assume that at about nine this evening my nose will twitch in the direction of a bottle containing strong spirit that will slide down my throat to be followed by the expulsion of a huge 'AHHHHHHH'. Depending on the Richter scale measurement of seismic activity released by my utterance I shall decide whether or not to force myself to have another.

It touched all us cricket nuts worldwide I believe Tony. Hope it never happens again. I was disappointed Alistair Cook wasn't present at the funeral in Oz.

A couple of days later an Israeli umpire umpiring a game in the Israeli league also died as a result of being hit by a cricket ball. It's sad the cricket world was so subdued in it's reaction to this tragedy ?

Who the heck would want to buy a property in Finsterre ? It would take a real dumbo to committ themselves to all that wind, rain & freezing conditions, and that's only in august !

Peter
The reaction was extraordinary.
Fuelled by an overwrought Australian media, the whole country seemed to descend into shock and grief. This was, after all, the death of a young cricketer playing cricket. Nothing like this has ever happened before. Cricket is akin to a religion here, it is a source of national pride and national identity. It is what enables this small, sparsley populated country to stand tall in the world. For a promising young batsman (some actually compared him with Bradman) to be felled by a bouncer, despite wearing a helmet, was inconceivable. It inflicted a deep wound into the body of a nation.

Hey ! watch it matey. I'm only 69. Love the number, hate the age ;-) The French guys were professionalism personified. Couldn't fault 'em. If anyone wants a roof fixed in Finisterre ask me for the company's name.

Sounds like the roof was like it's owner then, 70 years old & crochety ?

Just goes to prove good french artisans do exist despite the negative opinions held by some expats !

Not sure about the jog and swim but the large glass of something alcoholic sounds good.

Expecting snow here tonight, so digging out the drive will be my morning exercise tomorrow

Dead lucky. The only time it seriously rained during the 11 days total it took was the intervening weekend when they didn't work. The roof was 70 plus years old & all of the galv. crochets were rusted. I've now got new gutters, slates & flashings as well as a felted & therefore draught proof roof. I even managed to get another 40mm of insulation in, working every day when the guys had their lunch. The blokes were terrific & couldn't have cooperated more. They finished on a Thursday & even left the scaffolding up until the following Monday so I could clean off & repaint the chimneys. I now don't wake up wondering if I'm going to find any slates on the deck :-) Not cheap but worth every centime & the 10% tax was a bonus.

Sad to hear of the death of Phil Hughes Tony, what was the reaction in your part of the world ? Not a million miles from you in Oz terms.

"Unclean, Unclean !"

Roof sounds brill Vic, lucky with the weather or what ?

Argh, just before I go to rustle up me bacon butties :p

So, if I may continue in this vein of Friday indulgence.

Night has descended in Adelaide and we have moved on from the rose. To accompany our garlic prawns and rice, we have opened a bottle of Chateau Jolys, a dark, straw-coloured, aromatic dry white from the south-west of France.

This wine has been getting rave reviews here in Australia. It is a 2011 Jurancon Sec, made from 50 per cent Gros Manseng and 50 per cent Petit Manseng. It is one of the nicest French whites we have ever had!

Although I am proud of the standard of South Australian wines, this is the kind of special treat I am looking forward to enjoying when we make the move.

Tony

I've just done the decorating bit! The guys who replaced my roof covering used the equivalent of a missile launcher to re-nail the boards & succeeded in dislodging every plasterboard nail/screw filling in the attic which looked like it had smallpox when they had finished. :-)

Heh, the cause is lost without a ginormous stock-pot. I usually find decent ones at vide-greniers, but tis a bit late in the season for those.