Weekend in the sun

After work on Friday DG picked me up and we headed off to Newstead for the weekend. We had a good run up and after we dropped our stuff had a very tasty meal of an onion, ham and cheese tart DG had made.

In the morning P&B arrived and we spent the day doing pretty much nothing in particular - reading and lazing were popular activities. P had brought some cassoulet which we devoured eagerly on Saturday evening; it was accompanied by some decent red wine and followed by stewed apricots. After dinner we watched Born yesterday on DVD - Judy Holiday didn't make many films which is a shame as she is a delight to watch.

Today was a glorious day: bright, clear sky and just a little breeze to make it perfect. After lunch of leftover cassoulet we set off home. Pushka was glad to see me, having been looked after by nephew SP while I was away.

Warming up

Last night I went to St Mark's, Fitzroy, to hear Gloriana in their final rehearsal before Sunday's concert. As I will be in the country on the weekend it was good could catch up with them and hear some of the current offering; should be an exciting concert.

Despite the heat today I spent a pleasant hour or so with MG: she kindly ferried me to the vet's to get a load of special kidney-friendly food for Pushka and then we went to the Convent Bakery for a tasty lunch of filled ciabatta rolls.

It was lovely to see her, catch up on all her news and tell her a bit about my trip. Then it was off to work. It's at this time of year that I really appreciate going to work ... for the air conditioning. I understand the change has now hit and we can expect some showers for the next few days.

Catch up

Tuesday's Gombert rehearsal was fun - it was nice to be singing again after a break of two months and great to see the others. Many of them had only arrived home in the last week or so (NE had only arrived back on Monday!).

Thursday was wet and windy - unseasonally cold for November with snow in a number of places around the state. Today it was 29.

On Friday I went to the VCA for AC's Masters recital - an interesting program of Spanish songs by a range of composers including Ravel, Bizet, Viardot and Wolf. Unfortunately I had to leave early to get to ACMI in time for a special screening of Almodovar's Volver with LE.

Yesterday was shopping as usual and today I went to see Mum. This evening Tat came for dinner and to pick up the final CD of her pics which I had been able to retrieve from the recalcitrant DVD.

Pictures at last

I've (finally) put up some photos of Berlin up at my PicasaWeb site. Over the next few weeks I'll try and get more up and perhaps even get some explanatory captions on them too.

I'm finally getting back into the swing of work and will be getting back to the singing tomorrow night with the first rehearsal for the next Gombert concert.

P&B and I went to DG's for a delicious dinner on Saturday night, then they came for dinner last night and we watched the first episode of Green Wing, a British comedy about very disfunctional people working in a hospital the DVDs of which I bought in London. It seemed to be well received.

Apologies

I must apologise for the lack of postings. Returning to work has been a greater shock than I expected and I've just not felt like blogging when I got home.

In the time since I've returned I've caught up with SP (who helped look after the house while I was away and who kindly took my unresponsive TV to the repairman, and returned it working), Tat (who kindly lent me a TV while the other one was inactive), P&B and DG. I had planned on lunching with MG but a rain storm got in the way.

The sorting of the pictures goes on apace and I will start putting them up soon, either here on on Picasaweb.

Work, etc

Back at work now (it's not so bad) so you'll have to wait a little longer until I get the pictures and trip details published. I will try to get the first instalment up soon.

In the meantime I now have an interim TV thanks to the ever-helpful Tat. My own set is currently being checked out by a specialist - I should know by the weekend what the prognosis is. Not that I've had much time to be watching it, but it's nice to know it's there when I want to.