Tag: fun

Coffee Catch-Up #39

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If we were having coffee I would tell you how excited I was last Thursday to escape town for a few days. As I was finishing work on Wednesday afternoon I felt a little manic. My husband and I took a road trip to Tamworth, 3.5 hours northwest of Newcastle. It felt so weird when we crossed the imaginary line of our LGA (Newcastle Council) because during restrictions it was the limit we could travel to. We had planned to have lunch at an historic pub at Wingen many times and Thursday was the day.

To celebrate the first trip to a pub since lockdown ended I did what most Aussies did and ordered a beer on tap. I don’t often drink beer but thought why not. It was so cold, fresh and memorable. The food was also pretty good. I would have loved another beer but time did not permit. It was great to be out of the city connecting with the country again.

View from back verandah of The Durham Hotel

If we were having coffee I ask you if you picked the winner of last Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup. In Australia it is known as the race that stops the nation and is Australia’s most famous house race. As it is over 3200 metres it is particularly hard to pick a winner for and this year proved no exception. The favourite, Incentivise was leading with 400m to go when suddenly Verry Elleegant swept in and won.

If we were having coffee how excited I was to find my missing house keys. These keys had been missing since before last Christmas and I had searched everywhere for them. I had given up hope. Then about a week ago I got to catch up with a girlfriend for breakfast. So I dressed up and matched my handbag to my outfit. Then just as we were leaving the café and I was searching for my mask I opened one of the many side pockets and to my surprise found my missing keys. I let out a shriek with excitement and made many heads turn.

If we were having coffee I would tell you about the hydofoil surfer I enjoyed watching this morning at the beach. He was difficult to photograph but mesmerising to watch. The beach was high tide and only the surfers were out because of the conditions.

If we were having coffee I would ask you what is happening in your world.

Thanks to Natalie The Explorer for hosting our weekendcoffeeshare.

Coffee Catch-Up #38

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If we were having coffee today we can go to a coffee shop and sit down or you could come to my home. New South Wales is now open for anyone who can prove their vaccination status. In fact people were so excited last Monday when we opened up that they spent over 100 million dollars in 24 hours – going to the pub or eating out, having their haircut and going shopping. Some even lined up at midnight to do so. My week however hasn’t involved me doing much different although I did enjoy coffee sitting in the café today. Gyms have also reopened. From tomorrow we have even more freedoms. Now one of the few things we can’t do is travel from Sydney to the regions or reverse.

If we were having coffee I would tell you about the fun map of Newcastle I found today. It is on the side of the old Maritime museum and incorporates Newcastle’s history over the years. It isn’t to scale but was very detailed and reminded me of many things that I had forgotten.

If we were having coffee I would tell you my osteoarthritis flared up for the first time this week. I was diagnosed with a small amount of it in my hip 2 years ago but I’m guessing it has gotten worse. For no reason I woke up on Tuesday morning in a lot of pain and with a fever. In this day and age of course having a fever means you need a covid test which was negative. So with rest and pain relief it returned to normal. Eventually I will be able to have a new scan and see how much it has deteriorated but at present that will have to wait as our doctors live in Sydney and we cannot travel there yet.

If we were having coffee I would tell you that I walked past Cooks Hill Spoonville on my walk this morning. I was excited to see that the family of spoons had grown.

If we were having coffee I would ask you what is happening in your world.

Thanks to Natalie for hosting #weekendcoffeeshare.

Spoonville

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Have you ever seen or heard of something local and thought I’ve got to see that. What a clever idea! As you know most of New South Wales is currently in lockdown as we battle the latest Delta variant. So as a response to the frustrations of being in lockdown and the kids not having things to do someone came up with the concept of Spoonville.

Each Spoonville community is different. They develop a personality of their own dependent on the Spoony people that join the community. Local kids are invited to decorate wooden spoons at home and add them to the others as they get out of the house to exercise.

Spoonville rules are simple.

  • Place your Spoony person during your daily exercise
  • Make sure bits won’t blow off your Spoony person as we don’t want litter
  • Think about using natural materials in case they do fall off – maybe twigs for arms and legs
  • Make sure your Spoony person can take the rain – nail polish is good for our faces
  • Spoony people are not keen on dogs ( furry friends please stay back)
  • Come and see the Spoony people but don’t stay too long and no touching. Have fun.

I heard about our local community at Cooks Hill on the weekend and couldn’t wait until today to investigate. The only thing I knew was that they lived in Centennial Park. I was clueless as to where. Never fear I googled how to get to Centennial Park from my house and off I went. I had been there many times before but I always found it by accident and when coming home. The park is 2.2 hectares and was given to the city of Newcastle as a centenary gift in 1888. After about 15 minutes of following paths and generally exploring the area I saw them, Cooks Hill’s Spoonville. They were playing under a beautiful old Norfolk pine on the other side of the park.

As I spent time at Spoonville, I wished I had young children in my life. It would be so much fun helping them design and create their own Spoony person. I attempted to choose a favourite but each time I looked I would fine a new favourite so I gave up and decided it was all so much fun. I’ll be back to meet the new Spoony friends over the coming weeks.

Today’s post was inspired by Word Of The Day – Clueless.

Cooly Rocks On

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Every year in June Australia’s biggest Rock ‘n’ Roll and nostalgia festival is held in Coolangatta. Last year we were fortunate enough to attend. Cooly Rocks On celebrates everything that was great about the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. It was like a step back in time. Lining the streets were thousands of vintage cars of every make and model. I have never seen as many proud people as the men and woman showing off their piece of history. Everyone painstakingly restored with love and styled to the associated era.

I think my favourite was called Violet Crumble for obvious reasons.

Indian motorcycles were also a huge hit with crowds. They had their own dedicated area.

I loved the Goggomobil display. These micro cars were so cute. I loved how they were decorated. I had heard of these cars before however most car shows don’t include them so I hadn’t seen them before. They were also a crowd favourite.

You can’t have a nostalgia festival without the King. Yes Elvis was there in many ways. There was a specific Elvis precinct that we didn’t go into. The lineup to get in was huge. We were lucky enough to see several of the Elvis impersonators who were performing in the precinct wandering through the street. Also to add 50’s appeal to several of the vintage cars many had Elvis portraits painted beautifully on them.

Rock ‘n’ Roll music could be heard all over Cooly. You knew you were somewhere special and I loved the effort many people went to to look the part. Rock ‘n’ Roll outfits were everywhere. I especially loved the matching outfits the regular dancers wore. It was like a step back in time to old photos of our parents as youngsters.

And the best part. It was free.

Coffee Catch-Up #36

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If we were having coffee we would still be walking and drinking as our region is still locked down. The government is saying it will end only when 70% of the adults are double vaxxed. The catch is that this freedom will only be for the double vaxxed population. If you haven’t been able to have your first or second dose or you are an antivaxer you will not be able to travel, go to the pub or get your haircut. It will be interesting to see how these new freedom will impact the severity of Delta as we learn to live with it.

If we were having coffee I would tell you how excited I am with how our garden is growing. I have a never ending supply of rocket, chillies and several varieties of lettuce. Our wild cherry tomatoes are tasting great. Yesterday I was excited to eat my first snacking capsicum. I was also pleased to grow my first cos lettuce that formed a complete head. Usually I just have multiple leave and I don’t care as they taste great anyway.

If we were having coffee I would tell you about Wacky Wednesday a few weeks ago. The idea was relieve the frustrations for the staff and patients of the lock down. All staff wore their clothes in some sort of wacky manner. It was great fun and brought a smile to everyone faces. All of the staff on our ward had their hair coloured with hairspray. This was a first for me, as my hair had ever been pink, green, blue and yellow. In choosing my outfit I put together things that I didn’t think go together. However, to my surprise everything did go so I now have a alternate winter outfit.

If we were having coffee I would tell you how much fun I have been having this week getting out our original Wii. It has been many years since I last played it and I was pleasantly surprised when my Fitbit age was 41. My actual age is 59. Now to keep working at it and see how low I can make it go.

If we were having coffee I would tell you able the mask tree I found on my walk yesterday. It’s on a public walkway next to the harbour. To remind everyone to wear a mask and keep safe it has been decorated with multi-coloured disposable masks. The tree looks great but I don’t know where they got the masks from as I’ve only seen them in blue.

If we were having coffee I would ask you what has been happening in your world?

Thanks to Natalie for hosting #weekendcoffeeshare

Yarn Bombing

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Last week as I was walking around my local area I found this yarn bombing event. As I had never seen one before I was intrigued. Why? What was it all about?

For anyone like me who doesn’t know what yarn bombing is – it is a form of street art, like graffiti often connected to activism in some way. Another point of yarn bombing is to mitigate the severity of barren, cold public places.

This particular laneway I agree prior to the yarn bombing was boring, desolate and barren. I would walk down Devonshire Lane twice a week last year on my way to work and it had nothing going for it. The addition of the Deafblind Connect yarn bombing event has definitely brightened up the area. The colourful event has also brought attention to the Hunter’s Deafblind community. When I looked closely at the tree coverings I noticed many different textures especially designed for the blind to enjoy.

The event occurred during Deafblind Awareness week 21st -27th June as part of a global initiative in 22 countries across the world. What a fantastic idea to bring the community together.

Inspired by Word Of The Day Challenge – Mitigate

Ruby Tuesday #3 Cranky Rock

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I think my favourite stopover in Ruby so far was at Cranky Rock. It is a recreational reserve not far from Warialda in North Western New South Wales. The camp ground attached to the reserve is run by a caretaker who each night in the cooler months lights a big campfire and provides nibbles for the campers to enjoy as they socialise together. My husband and I loved meeting other campers, sharing stories and learning more about future travel options. Some campers were old hands and other like us were first timers. It didn’t matter. There were also chickens wandering around and if you found an egg they laid you could keep it.

Cranky Rock is made up of various giant boulders that balance on each other and make an enclosed natural phenonium. It was so peaceful my husband and I spend over an hour down in the valley before moving on to explore other parts of the bush.

We definitely plan to go back to this spot when we are out of lockdown and can travel again.

Written for todays Word Of The Day Challenge – Enclosed. Thanks.

Newcastle Window Wander

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This week again we will be having takeaway coffee as New South Wales remains in lockdown. As we cannot have visitors to our homes or most shops we will take a walk with purpose. Today we will be exploring the Newcastle Window Wander. A group of local businesses have gathered together to increase their shops profile while closed and at the same time give locals something to look at during their daily exercise. The idea is to follow the map, look at the specially created window displays, take a selfie, upload it the social media and then go in the draw to win a gift voucher.

Today was a beautiful day for walking with Spring just around the corner. It was interesting to go walking with the specific goal of looking in shop windows. What surprised me was that I don’t really notice what is in the windows when I walk. As I followed the map I found most of the window displays. On 3 occasions I was so impressed I will go back to the shops when they reopen. Unfortunately being window displays they were hard to photo graph without something being reflected in the glass.

I smiled at the first window I saw that used humour to catch our attention. They created a “shitty” birthday cake made out of toilet paper rolls.

The next shop a few doors down in Darby Street was a men’s wear store that I didn’t know existed and they keep my husband’s favourite John Lennon brand shirts. I loved the one in the window.

Some were a little bit clever.

The birds at the gallery were spectacular. They were amazing replicas of some of our iconic birds. Unfortunately, due to the doors breaking the line of vision my photos don’t do them justice.

The last stop on our journey was Pappa Sven. I have walked past this small shop many times but never looked inside or at the windows. It is a Swedish shop and looks amazing. They had created their window display to represent celebrating the joy of Swedish Midsummer.

Awesome Figures

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I love Lego. The creativity and inspiration used to design these amazing models is unbelievable. Last year in Newcastle we were lucky enough to have an exhibition by Brickman. He is one of only 14 Lego professionals in the world. This display was titled Awesome. It included 37 models, took 5000 hours to build and used over 2 million Lego bricks. Each model was an example the first, the biggest, the deadliest or special in some other way.

Each model had a story board next to it which describes the build, giving

  • The facts of the model
  • Information about the designer, how long it took to make including the number of bricks used
  • The designers notes about build it including frustrations and problems
  • And lastly, Why It Is AWESOME.

The first big model we saw was the first full size Harley Davidson motor bike. Apparently in non Covid times to public like could sit on it. Even the electricals worked. AWESOME.

This Caterpillar 797 dump truck was the largest ever build. I loved it.

I was also fascinated to see the impact of a model of a single Lego brick. Definitely Awesome. From memory it took over 6 000 bricks to make.

One of my favourite things was the attention to detail hidden in and around each model. It really brought each model to life. Having previously traveled on the Shinkansen (bullet train) we smiled at the memories it created for us.

As an added bonus Brickman hid Mr & Mrs Awesome many times throughout the exhibition asking the children to look for them and enter a competition telling him how many they found. These special Lego figures were fun to look for that encouraged a much closer look for everyone.

These copies of original movie posters looked amazing.

Coffee Catch-Up #31

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If we were having coffee I would tell you how much I enjoy picking my salad vegetables every morning and night. Our vegetable gardens are growing well. My fresh baby spinach, rocket, parsley, various styles of lettuce and self growing tomatoes taste amazing. Who knew my husband and I have green thumbs.

If we were having coffee I would ask you how you eat your gingerbread men. Head or legs first? I am a leg person. This special man created for me by one of my young clients is awesome. She said she made him herself and he smells divine. I wanted to name him but didn’t because then I couldn’t eat him. Taste verdict. Perfect.

If we were having coffee I would ask you if you have any idea why my hair is turning yellow in places. It has been totally grey for about 3 years now and today I noticed the changes. I hope its temporary as I’m not a fan. I love having grey hair. It’s on trend and that you can’t purchase in a bottle

If we were having coffee I would tell you how much fun I had running around the ward last Monday with a French chicken on my head. Why you ask? The company I work for has set a 12 days of Christmas challenge. The aim to get staff and patients into the Christmas spirit. Last Monday was the 3rd day and we needed to either dress or decorate with chickens, eggs or French. Every ward or area did it differently. Our 3 staff wore chicken hats with the wings painted red, white and blue. They made everyone smile and laugh. Tomorrow is cow day. Who knew work could be so much fun!

If we were having coffee I would tell you how much fun we had celebrating my husband’s 60th birthday. He never wanted a big party so COVID restrictions weren’t a problem to him. We had 2 smaller parties. One for each side of the family. A joint one with my sister’s husband who was turning 50, and a surprise one with his brother and family. It was the Beatles themed. We all wore a Beatles T-shirts, most of which came from hubby’s supply.

Both were great nights filled with fun, laughter and memories.

If we were having coffee I would tell you how frustrated I was last week when my blog didn’t work. The problem was my Jetpack plug-in. By disabling it, my blog worked. But it was useless. I couldn’t connect with anyone or receive any feedback. It was weird, like giving a speech to an empty stadium. I didn’t like it. So I stopped blogging until it was fixed. Lucky, as the posts I wrote during this time remain in limbo. Not recognised in the official count.

If we were having coffee I would ask you what has been happening in your world?