Tuesday, February 01, 2005

11 Months until Christmas!

Now, I'm not a great exponent of the countdown to Christmas stuff, Richard happened to say it yesterday when we went to their farm for lunch. However, it is quite true. A whole month has slipped past, nay, shot past. Right, what has happened since M filed her last copy? Saturday we had Juliet and Kev here with their two and Helen and Phil came with their two boys. Generally, it was a relaxed day and evening. I cooked a large joint of pork on the BBQ which turned out surprisingly well. The kids made good use of the pool,but George Phil and Helens youngest was a tad embarrassed about getting in a pool with 4 girls. Eventually, he overcame his reticence and jumped in they all seemed to get on really well. Before we ate, I got out the clay launcher and took Tom the eldest boy down into the bottom paddock. George bless him seemed to get my words twisted and thought I was going to slot one of the cows that evening. As if I would do that infront of a six year old. My name isn't Michael J! What I wanted to do first was to move the cows into another paddock to keep them safe! Tom wants to come and help when I do the next beast for the freezer, I hope he knows what he's letting himself in for!

Juliet and Kev left on Sunday Morning, OK, about noon. They had a 40th party to go to that day and wanted to get home. I had taken a large rib of beef out of the freezer in anticipation of a large number of us for lunch! It was beautiful. I wanted to take a picture of it but didn't. I actually overcooked it a bit but it didn't suffer too much. The Scotts wanted a day at home by themselves so the eating of it was down to us. The compromise being that we would take it round to them for lunch on Monday cold. As it was so hot, we spent the day in the pool, beside the pool and in the shade! This was to be M's downfall.

Monday morning we had decided to start work outside early to beat the sun. M worked in her vege plot and I was busy emptying the barn so that WHEN we get the hay in, I will have space to get it in. The Range Rover started first time even with a flat battery! Na na de na na M. Seeing as I have stripped the front down to the engine and radiator and all of the panels are safely tucked away, it did look bizarre. Anyway, I digress. When we came up for a cup of tea, it was already getting hot. I suppose it was around 9am! Michelle started to get a pain in the back. This got steadily worse and when we went round to the Scott's, it was similar to loading up the geriatrics from the old peoples home. Still, the girls managed to wait without fighting in the back and when we arrived, they were almost in the pool straight away. The pool looks good. A few wrinkles in the liner but they are a pig to put in. I think Richard did really well getting it in, draining it and rearranging it.

The lunch went well, I don't think that my 'rotten' beef went down well. It seems that the colonials are not used to hanging their beef and like it fresh off the carcass! Oh, I tell a lie, they attach it to a portable elecric fence unit and shock the poor beast once it is down for about ten minutes. This, they claim, is the equivalent of a weeks hanging. I think that all it does is to more effectively bleed the freshly downed animal much in the same way as trying to revive someone with a defibrillator. I hope that that isn't what they try to do as the poor beast has a .22 bullet in the brain and smile across it's throat that nigh on severs the spinal cord. Anyway, we came home and Michelle popped some pain killers and we spent the rest of the day reading under the fans till bed time.

Today, Tuesday, M is much better. She has been chair bound in the office and it seems to have worked wonders. Alice was off to school and missed the bus this morning. What is new there? I went to work and was covering for Steve as he is on A/L for a fortnight. I had to come back home and pick H up so that she could get her school dress, a new one! She also needed a stationary pack from school, so I dropped her in town and then after work, we whizzed around town and back home. M has had a bad hair day today and it is really only because she had such a bad night and was coming down off the drugs! Sounds better than it is really. However, a simple supper of cous cous and chicken with corn on the cob rounded the day off. I had best stop M from drifting off into the land of nod and move her toward the bedroom. So I wish you all a good night.

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