Packed week

Yowzas, it's been a long week filled with stuff. To celebrate our recent good news, as well as some special time before the incoming mother, we booked a night at a small room in Byron. It was a really nice spot, close enough to the beach but far enough out of the action that we weren't bothered by booze fests. A particularly good thing given that we'd failed to realise that it was schoolies week.

Of course a trip away for us wouldn't be complete without the odd culinary discovery. We've been dying to try out this little English cafe, Marmalade Deli, that's just down the road from us. Breakfast prior to the drive down to NSW offered the perfect opportunity, and I certainly wasn't disappointed. Aside from a lovely plate of scrambled eggs, bacon and maple syrup dressed over hot waffles, I treated myself to some snacks from the old country I'd been missing. Great to know that I no longer have to go to Sydney to get my Monster Munch fix.



At Byron I ignored my mild crustacean allergy and indulged in a whopping plate of seafood. I suffered a minor sore throat but somehow managed to survive without an adrenaline shot to the heart.



Even after that feast we choked down a little platter of delights from l'Ultime Patisserie. That succulent piece of chocolate cake was divine.



Mum flew out on Tuesday night so Alsie and I took Wednesday off to show her around the new area. She's since been busy feeding us gut busting quantities of yummy food and sketching up a pile of drawings to capture our renovation ideas. We've had to reign her in on her more eccentric bias towards water features but overall the plans look very exciting.

It unfortunately didn't take me very long to destroy the mower that Peter had lovingly restored for us. On the second trip into the yard I managed to lose a wheel, drop a bolt into the spinning blades and finally cause the engine to die unceremoniously. We were mower-less despite receiving a letter from granddad, with misplaced faith in my proficiency with fuel injected machinery, containing explicit instructions on how to diagnose the problem. John, in his great generosity and obvious discomfort at the thought of an unkempt lawn, bought himself a new lawn mower only to hand down his old model to us.

Dad's old Honda has "Easy Start" plastered on the side of the motor and thankfully the claim appears to be genuine. Increased robustness combined with a walker function meant that I trimmed our front yard in record time. Great thing too as the recent storms had encouraged the local weeds to take to ground with gay abandon.

Inspired by a neat yard, the three of us visited the Rocklea markets on the weekend for the first time in search of fresh veg and cheap plant life. Our inaugural gardening project was to clean out the plant box under our front windows to resit the resident yuccas and introduce a mature cordalyne to the mix. Cheap river stones from Bunnings scattered haphazardly over the soil completed the look. Not bad for landscaping novices.



Our green thumbs weren't satisfied even then. Soldiering on we demolished the lemon grass infestation at the side of our house and replanted a few tamed stalks in a new pot. Barbara came by for a visit as well and brought a pot full of cute unidentified succulents which we transplanted in the hope of cultivating new growth. Apparently they're prolific little buggers.

Looking forward to another week of fun in the lead up to Christmas holidays.