Sunday, May 26, 2013

Drying out after a little rain

We have had some wild weather over the weekend - so wild our farewell dinner for a colleague at Barrels Bistro was postponed as it wouldn't have been safe to drive for some of those coming a long way.

Here is an excerpt from NBN news about the weather.

"It has been a wild 24 hours on the Mid North Coast with 250mm falling on and near Coffs Harbour the biggest May rain in 14 years. 150 to 200mm in total further south to Port Macquarie. It is all thanks to a small but intense east coast low producing winds of 50 to 70km/h whipping up dangerous seas and swell"

Here is a picture from a friends Facebook of the flotsam that got whipped up on the ocean


Flotsam!!

Well today was a lovely day and we met up with friends for lunch at the Deep Sea Fisherman's Club. It has 240 degree views of Coffs Harbour and Coffs Beach. 


Panorama of the view from Fishing Club carpark - that is Muttonbird Island  at the end of the jetty -  named for all the shearwaters (or muttonbirds) that nest there
Menu - we had the smoked salmon pappadum stack and  lemon pepper calamari - yum!!

Barnacles on the jetty supports

Hanging out under the jetty

At the end of the Jetty looking west to the sunset

Walking down to the beach

Coffs Harbour Jetty

Looking over Jetty Beach

Where's Riki? Check out the second pylon from the camera and sitting on the first rung from the ground
Hope everyone had a great weekend like we did!!

Monday, May 20, 2013

Fish, footy and fauna!!


It has been a bit quiet through the week but we did some fun stuff this weekend. 

First my hubby went fishing one evening and caught us some yummy tailor and flathead


http://www.daff.qld.gov.au/28_12261.htm
Tailor
Flathead
This is what I imagine they looked like fishing off the beach - I didn't trust my hubby not to let Riki go for a swim so us girls stayed at home and watched a Miyazaki movie - NausicaƤ of the Valley of the Wind.

This is what it looked like all cooked up for breakfast 



Rosie waiting to see if they are going to get a piece of fish
Riki helped us cook it all up
Whilst we were waiting for the men to come home from fishing we saw some more kangaroos in the back yard. Inspired by another Craftsters great zoom photos (the lovely phoenixfiredesigns) I tried some of my own.



Havin' a scratch
Look at those eyelashes
Seeing how the lychee tree is doing - no fruit until January to mid March :-(

Then on Sunday we got invited by some friends to watch the Sawtell Panthers play the Nambucca Heads Roosters. http://www.coffscoastadvocate.com.au/photos/sawtell-vs-nambucca-heads/20975/#/0




It was a great weekend - now back to the working week. We've got a colleagues farewell on Friday night and a girl's movie luncheon in our movie room on Saturday (the girls are bits of comedy-horror fans so Zombieland is on the books!!)

Monday, May 13, 2013

The Big Banana in the Lymelight!!


Just a quick post to show our Big Banana lit up green for Lyme's Disease awareness!! Photo taken from The Big Banana Facebook page :-)

Friday, May 10, 2013

I showed no control whatsoever!!

Well - I will start with the Rotary book-fair first. Now as a bit of background I love Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels. Every year at this fair there are only 5-10 in the whole place and if you don't find them quick enough someone else gets them :-( So hubby and I have a strategy - I check the sci-fi section and he checks the 'P' section. We arrived about 15 minutes early and got a park right by the door - but it was raining so we stayed in the car until people started congregating around the door. 

Here's us sitting in the car by the entry door!!
We got a chance to look at our sections early on and I scored 3 Terry Practhett novels I don't have - taking my total to 22 of the 40 main Discworld novels http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discworld 

Then one thing lead to another - I found 4 of the 7 George R R Martin's Game of Thrones novels (this is one of the few times a series or movie has lead me to read the books - usually it is the other way around), a fair few Sara Douglass' (an Australian sci-fi author) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sara_Douglass which lead me to look for Margaret Atwood (don't ask me how) as I am loving 'Oryx and Crake' and then picking up State of Wonder by Ann Patchett, Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (just finished The Marriage Plot) and Majda recommended a Patrick Rothfuss on Goodreads and even though I didn't find the first book (The Name of The Wind) I have the second (The Wise Man's Fear) ready to go when needed now!! Oh and a couple Matthew Reilly's - another Australian author but this time action-thriller.

Riki with my haul of novels
After that we went for coffee with friends we met at the bookfair and what should be outside the coffee shop but an information stand for Lyme's disease! Knowing Majda likes parasites Riki and I got very excited and took a picture

Learning all about Lyme's disease - it's the stand in the background with he sign "Lyme Lives Here" - they decorated with green balloons!
This is a bit of a controversial topic as health authorities say there is no evidence that Australian ticks carry Lyme's bacteria but lots of doctors are seeing evidence of patients with Lyme's disease symptoms. Here is a web link with audio for anyone interested!!
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/backgroundbriefing/2013-05-12/4675072

Last weekend - we drove down the highway to Bellingen (about an hour drive) to go to the Bellinger River Agricultural show. Bellingen is a beautiful township which has a very laid back and alternative lifestyle. It is also fairly rural. So we had lots of fun watching the horses, chickens, working dogs, reptiles, woodcutters and eating some scones with jam and cream!!

The beautiful Bellingen River - this river often floods cutting off the north from the south
Riki watching the horse jumping and dressage from the stands
This won the award for largest pumpkin!
Fresh made scones with jam and cream
Wood cutting competition
A man explaining how they train their kelpie puppies to be working dogs - the dogs were adorable - sorry about the bad pics :-( That's a kelpie puppy in his arms and the 4 sheep they were rounding up on the left
This chook's a winner!!                                
Baby crocodile - Steve McEwan's Reptile World show
http://www.reptileworld.net.au/

Phew - it's been a busy couple of weekends!

Things coming up:
Mother's Day - tomorrow - my mum lives 5 hours away but we speak a lot by phone! I sent her a little gift by mail
May 24th - Going out for dinner to farewell a work colleague who is moving to another job  - at Barrel's Global Surf, Pizza and Tapas bar at Sawtell!
Made With Love Markets - handmade markets - June 9th (also Queen's birthday long weekend) http://madewithlovemarkets.com/


                         


1 more sleep until the book fair!!


Check out this awesomeness - tomorrow the Rotary Clubs annual bookfair is on. They say there is 70, 000 books in here. 
Riki and I can't wait - we will be standing at the door at 9am! 

I also have some photos from the Bellingen Agricultural Show last weekend - I will post pictures of our shenanigans tomorrow after the fair :-)

Friday, May 3, 2013

Kangaroos

Riki stayed home with my husband today on one of his days off. And guess what they spotted out the back yard - some kangaroos!! I have called him the 'Kangaroo whisperer' as he always seems to see them in the reserve behind our house.





We also purchased The Hobbit on Blu-Ray today - I didn't get a chance to see it at the movies so we are watching it in our movie room tonight. Filmed in New Zealand with a New Zealand director (Peter Jackson) it had some Australian actors such as Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, Barry Humphries, it also has Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman (aka Sherlock and John Watson hehe) 


Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Splendour In The Grass

I can't believe it - no one will understand my excitement - but Riki sat with me today whilst I waited to get some tickets for one of the biggest music festivals in Australia. And we did it :-) 25, 000 tickets sold out in under an hour and we got some!! Can't wait till the end of July for the 3 day festival - and Riki's coming too!!


Let's do this thing!!
I took one of my days off as this festival is notorious for selling out really quick. A couple of times I thought my computer had frozen it was taking so long but then finally got the purchase ticket screen - woot!

Here are some links to help show why I am so excited :-)



I'm really looking forward to seeing these Australian acts
Architecture In Helsinki
Matt Corby
Sarah Blasko
Boy & Bear
Bernard Fanning
Birds Of Tokyo
Something For Kate
Chet Faker
Whitley
The Rubens
Gurrumul

And these overseas acts
Mumford and Sons
Haim
Unknown Mortal Orchestra
Cold War Kids
MS MR
Vance Joy
Jagwa Mar
Of Monsters and Men
Laura Marling
Everything Everything

Then after all that excitement Riki and I shelled some prawns for dinner (Prawn Green Curry). I am starting to think that we eat more international inspired meals than anything specifically Australian. I will need to do some research on Aussie meals to make for Riki!! They were Clarence River school prawns though :-)





Phew - now I have 2 months and 27 days to go :-)