For the past 5 days, we have been away for our boardgaming convention. The initial intention was to blog live. But alas, due to very poor internet reception, plan A had to be abandoned. You shall now get a summary instead...
It had been a long wait, but the day finally came. On Friday, the Albanys headed down south to the Southern Highlands for the annual event of the year. But before the defence of the meeple trophy can begin, supplies had to be purchased and what better place to get supplies from than Costco. 18L of milk, 120 eggs, and 10 loaves of bread later, we walked out $660 lighter. And that was only half the food!
Along with the Yeohs, we arrived at Bellmore, the huge 8 bedroom "cottage" that was our home for the past 5 days. It was an amazing house...other than the electrical problems we encountered in the main living area! Because of the recent heavy rain, the lights kept shorting out. Not to be deterred, we switched over to the traditional way of lighting. Dinner over candlelight with seven children was most romantic.
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| The Meeple Trophy going grocery shopping |
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| No more space! The bike will have to go on the roof... |
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| And we're off! |
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| Didn't take long for the traffic to thin out |
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| Our destination... |
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| The beautiful wrap around verandah |
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| The view of the property |
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| The spectacular front door |
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| HUGE foyer showcasing one of the fireplaces |
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| Children's quarters came complete with a dress up box |
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| 7 children in one bedroom worked pretty well! |
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| The central courtyard |
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| The house is pretty everywhere |
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| One of the huge living areas |
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| Romantic atmosphere |
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| Dinner by candlelight |
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| And the first game has started! |
Luckily for us, the powerpoints and the lighting in other parts of the house were still functional. Not to be deterred, the games commenced with the arrival of the troops. We discovered that Bundanoon was host to Brigadoon, the largest Scottish festival in the southern hemisphere. Briefly tempted to witness men in kilts attempt to lift the "Stones of Manhood", we decided to stay on property instead to concentrate on the reason for being there. Besides, we had gourmet food to consumer. 'Fish and chips' made from salmon fillets and specially prepared chips were well worth it!
Our theme night this year was 'Space night'. Other than Malcolm scaring the young children with his Tusken raider outfit, it was a awesome night. He did go on to win the costume prize! Space music, Space games, glow in the dark jelly, space snacks...what more could you ask for?
The rest of the days flew by. We played tennis, took the bins to the front gate in style, went for walks, celebrated birthdays, ate good food and fought hard to win games. Malcolm and I are very proud to announce that we managed to come first and second! I will let the the photos do the rest of talking...Thank you to dear friends who have kindly taken some great photos and allowed me to use them for this blog!
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| A foggy morning |
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| Good time to strum the guitar in your PJs |
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| The breakfast crew |
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| The all important coffee |
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| Bacon and eggs |
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| The collection of boardgames |
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| Geeks studying rules... |
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| The scoring ipad |
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| How many males does it take to BBQ? |
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| The hand-made chips made with love. Pre-frozen and after the first deep fry |
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| Being deep fried the second time |
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| The final product with nothing less than chicken salt. |
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| The chip specialist |
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| A bustling kitchen |
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| Time for the alcohol |
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| Fires going strong |
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| The children as gremlins for space night |
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| The Tusken raider |
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| Glow in the dark jelly |
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| Space themed boardgames |
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| The whole gang dressed up |
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| A novel way to transport the bins down the LONG driveway |
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| Beautiful day for a bushwalk |
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| The children minus Jonah who was too cold and was hiding in the car |
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| Great weather for hot chocolate before heading back home for more games! |
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| Mmmm |
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| Lemon curd mousse cake made by Ethel |
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| The birthday babes! |
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| Roasting marshmallows |
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| Craft made by the children...courtesy of Auntie Luan |
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| A rather useless chicken, one of four that only produced at most 1 egg per day total! |
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| The prize pool |
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| The victors! And the reigning champion successfully defends her title... |
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| The whole gang...an amazing bunch of people! |