BANJO BAKING

 When our family visited us over the Christmas holidays, Aunty Carol and Banjo enjoyed baking. Banjo has liked cooking for as long as I can remember. This day Carol and Banjo experimented with making a half chocolate and half plain Swiss Züpfe breakfast bread.

So proud of this boy.

AUSTRALIA DAY FUN

Our village residents organise a Happy Hour every Friday evening. Because Australia Day fell on a Friday this year the residents committee organised some Australia Day activities for Happy Hour. We were asked to dress with an Australian theme. There were prizes for the best dressed. There was a damper competition, a damper is a plain bread cooked in a pot over a fire but they can be cooked in an oven too. It is usually eaten with golden syrup. There was a tunnel ball competition and a thong throwing competition. A thong in Australia is a rubber flip flop not a piece of underwear.

Irene tries to throw the thong into the bucket.

The tunnel ball teams are ready.

Linda's team won the tunnel ball

The Village Singers helped us sing our favourite Aussie songs.

These amazing guys cooked for over 70 people and it was outside in 38°C/100°F heat.

Aussie BBQ lunch is ready.

Bob won best dressed male. He even coloured his beard to match the hat hair. He represents the early Australian shearers, drovers and bullock drivers.who walked from one sheep station to the next with a swag (called a Matilda) on their back for sleeping rough and a bag of belongings on the pole. He is on his way to Gundagai an outback town where there is a famous statue of a dog on a tucker box nine or five miles from town.  The story of the dog on the tucker box varies. Basically it is about an angry bullock driver who got bogged and everything alse went bad for him. His dog even shat on his lunch box. However that has been modified to 'sat on his tucker box'.

Here is the poem by Jack Moses:

 I've done my share of shearing sheep, Of droving and all that,

And bogged a bullock team as well, On a Murrumbidgee flat.

I've seen the bullock stretch and strain, And blink his bleary eye,
And the dog sit on the tucker box
Nine miles from Gundagai.

I've been jilted, jarred and crossed in love, And sand-bagged in the dark,
Till if a mountain fell on me,
I'd treat it as a lark.

It's when you've got your bullocks bogged That's the time you flog and cry,
And the dog sits on the tucker box,
Nine miles from Gundagai.

We've all got our little troubles, In life's hard, thorny way.
Some strike them in a motor car And others in a dray.

But when your dog and bullocks strike It ain't no apple pie,
And the dog sat on the tucker box Nine miles from Gundagai.

But that's all past and dead and gone,
And I've sold the team for meat,
And perhaps some day where I was bogged, There'll be an asphalt street,
The dog, ah! well he got a bait,
And thought he'd like to die,
So I buried him in the tucker box,
Nine miles from Gundagai. 

He waltzed around the hall to our most famous Aussie song, "Waltzing Matilda".

Guess who won best dressed female?

AUSTRALIA DAY 26 JANUARY

 Today we celebrate our national day. It is 236 years since Captain Arthur Phillip raised the British flag in Sydney cove , where he was in charge of developing a settlement for convicts and marines. It has become a controversial date because the First Nations People remember that date as invasion day. However, the powers to be on both sides can't agree on a new date. So here we go again and celebrate.  We are not big on celebrations. Most people enjoy the holiday by going to the beach, having BBQ's, watching tennis or cricket. Our village is having a party with some typical Australian activities: Damper making, thong throwing, tunnel ball, trivia and BBQ. I'll post photos next time.

Today I'll share some of my favourite photos of Australia.

Lake Eyre South Australia

Stanthorpe Queensland

Mt Warning New South Wales

Gold Coast Queensland

Remarkable Rocks Kangaroo Island South Australia

Katoomba in the Blue Mountains New South Wales

Katherine Gorge Northern Territory

HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY

HOT, HAPPY JANUARY

In January, our youngest daughter, Sonya and her two sons, Fox and Banjo flew from Melbourne to have a holiday in sunny, warm Queensland. Her husband, Bernie couldn't come until later as he was acting in the musical,  "A Christmas Carol". Carol and David were still here and so we had a houseful for some days. It was noisy but fun. We had a heat wave at the same time and the poor souls used to the southern cooler weather found it hard to cope in the tropical, humid heat. So we had the aircon on 24/7. Carol wanted to do Christmas all over again to include Sonya and the boys. So we did! We had another seafood and salad lunch and present giving.

Sonya and the boys arrived. Look how tall they are. They have grown so much since we saw them last in February. Banjo in black shirt is eleven and Fox is thirteen.

Banjo was the helpful elf and gave out the presents.

Sonya receives a tote bag for swimming togs and towels from Carol.

I love to see my girls together.

Banjo's turn for a present.

FAR AWAY FAMILY VISITS FOR CHRISTMAS.

 I was excited. Our daughters and their families were coming from Melbourne to Brisbane to spend some time with us over the Christmas Holidays. Carol and David arrived first and celebrated Christmas Eve with us and Christmas Day with David's family. Sonya and the boys came later on New Year's Eve they had spent Christmas Day with Bernie's Family in Melbourne. Bernie had been working over Christmas and New Year. He was playing in the Musical, "A Christmas Carol". He came up later when it had finished.

So we had two Christmas Dinners and present giving days. One with just Carol and David and another when Sonya and the boys arrived.

Christmas Eve with Carol and David.

We had traditional Aussie Fare, seafood and salads. Tiger Prawns and Moreton bay Bugs (like small lobsters).

Then it was present time. We really don't need anything at our age but we do enjoy receiving books.

It is so nice having them here.

Another day we invited friends for afternoon tea. Carol loves baking so she made us a delicious baked cheesecake.

She also cooked Bill's favourite Swiss breakfast loaf. He enjoyed a Swiss breakfast of bread cheese and jam.

The stormy day ended with a pretty sunset.

LIGHT UP NIGHT

On the first weekend in December our village has a light up night. Where everyone who wants to participates turn on their Christmas lights and invite friends and family especially grandchildren and great grandchildren to visit the village and walk the streets and see the pretty lights. They can also join in with the village singers who are also walking the streets and singing Carols. They start at the top of the hill and walk zig zag down the hill and end up in the community centre for drinks and more Carols. We start on dusk (better for photos).

This was the sky when I left home. Our unit is on the left and Sue, my neighbour on the right. The building is a quadplex. There are two units under us. They access their units from the next road down the hill. So there are no steps.

The singers start with leader playing the keyboard on the back of the buggy. Then they walk down to the next street and set up again.

They collect more singers on the way.

Some people make a huge effort with their homes.

You can see here the units that are underneath on the right and the upper units above. The ones on the left are the next lot of upper units.

It's a tradition of David and Diane to ply the passers by with a port and snacks outside their house.

After walking around most of the streets it was time to go home and sit down and nurse my sciatica.

Bill sat on the bench just out of shot and chatted to the passers by.

PARTY TIME

 Well its that time of the year when there are many Christmas or end of year parties. First we had a street party, then lunch with my Play group mum's from the 70's, then the village Christmas Party. I was supposed to go to the tennis ladies Christmas outing but I was in too much pain for a whole day's outing involving a lot of walking.

Bill enjoying a snack at the street party. The guy serving is also Bill and his wife is Diane just the same as us. They also own a red Mazda like us.

The village singers entertained us with Carols before the Residents' Christmas Dinner.

Our visiting Chefs serve the ham and pork.

Lois served the chicken and other resident volunteers served the salads and vegetables.

Ann at 83, the organiser of our dinners, serves the bread.

Elly is happy with her meal.

I was asked by friends to take a nice photo of Beryl and Rex because this will be Rex's last Christmas, he has a fatal illness and is not expected to live much longer even though he looks fine here.

We enjoyed the night too, but we couldn't join in the dancing. Me with sciatica and Bill who is wobbly.

It was a good night all organised by volunteer residents. Unfortunately, in the following days many came down with Covid. So far we have dodged the bullet and I hope it stays that way. We are up to the 8th wave of Covid and we have had our sixth jab.