A Berry Good End

The weekend was filled with rain which meant that we just had to remain indoors. I guess more boardgames were in order. There was a brief moment of panic when we thought we lost Jonah. The adults were sure that we didn't see him leave the house. Then the Loks spotted a bit of brown sticking out from the red bean bag in front of the TV. And there the little tike was, so engrossed in the DVD that he didn't hear his name being yelled out repeatedly nor did he notice his mother running around the house like a headless chook.

What is that?!?!

Just Jonah...

The covered "outdoor" verandah turned out to be another huge blessing. The area was so large that the children could happily play without being cooped up indoors. The dress-up box was a big hit with the girls. We also found a cupboard full of toys!

Painting in beautiful surroudings


Jonah enjoying the verandah

Despite much fun and merriment, the games weekend, unfortunately had to come to an end. We were joined by our dear friends in Canada for the closing ceremony. And the results were a surprise to all. Tied in first place, were Ethel and Shirley, closely followed by Jason. I came a respectable fourth ahead of Malcolm. Sigh...it appears that we will just have to make another assault next year!

Shirley chose the laptop holder as her prize. We all had to donate a prize with a value of up to $10

The selection of prizes

Shirley's take on Callum's recipe, half made with Brioche and the other made with croissants. Mmmmm!

Ethel with her new shopping basket

Jason withh his multiple purpose device opener

Fishing rods for me!

Toblerone

More chocolates!

Pat the dog, screw on the lightbulb!

All-in-one remote anyone?

A manicure bag

Cable organizer

Japanes Sake cups


The cushion updated just before the presentation

Our winners for 2010!

Wrestling away the trophy from the reigning champion

One last photo!

A Berry Beautiful Start

Berry Gaming Convention 2010

The time has come. The Albanys are on a quest to claim the Meeple Cushion. We are ready. Let the games begin!

The Champion's Trophy

We left Sydney at 4pm just in time to beat the long weekend exodus. A decision was made to have dinner at Berry. We chanced upon a certain Dr Tong crossing the road! So we convened at the Berry Hotel. We were joined shortly by the Kohs and the Liews. It couldn't have happened more smoothly if we tried to organize it. Dinner was scrumptious and generous. Some good old country hospitality didn't go astray either!

The convoy proceeded to the cottage we hired for some serious gaming. Much to our delight, the owners seemed to have to sensed our needs and kindly built a separate gaming wing complete with a fireplace. The table was large and wide, and chairs were a plenty. The children were put to bed, so that important business could be attended to. Jason started studying rules for his new game. Malcolm was set the task of starting the fire. I am still unsure as to which "smart" person did the delegation. Mrs Tong commenced baking immediately. The wine bottle was opened, mood music was set, the Nespresso machine warmed up, the board games documented and the first box opened. Ethel had the honour of winning both games played, much to Jason's horror. The Albany assault will just have to start later. Besides we really wanted to lull the others into a false sense of security...

Free flowing wine

The Nespresso ready to go!

Jason slaving away

Over $4000 worth of board games...not including the ones left at home

Good music


A good hand...but not good enough to win!


Malcom's attempt

Belinda's success



Shirley's mini-cheescakes

We awoke to discover the cottage to be a real gem. The view from our room was just beautiful. The cottage is set on beautiful, expansive grounds and has some amazing facilities. It comes complete with a spa, playground, tennis court and bicycles. The children were delighted to be able to collect eggs for breakfast. Chasing the chickens also appeared to be fun.

A room with a view

Instructions for the weekend...Eat, sleep and game

The "backyard"

The "front yard"

The source of our 84g egg

Bicycles supplied by the owner

The playground

The children after collecting eggs

Breakfast was over and done with in a flash. Time is a ticking. The DVD was started and the first game of the day started. Malcolm started his assault by annihilating the field. We were then pleasantly surprised by a skype call from our gaming buddies all the way from London, Ontario. We are already missing Kwan's extremely complicated scoring system.

I shall have to go and start making my mark. My husband has just reminded me that I am not allowed to start my run too late. Duty calls.

The DVD doing its job

The first game of the day

The Yeohs on skype!

The end of a lovely weekend

Inspired by a friend, here are some photos from Sunday, a lovely end to another busy but wonderful weekend.

Lunch anyone?

What a fabulous day to go out for lunch! And of course one goes to Bather's Pavillion during their lunch break...

Just kidding. It was a well-deserved celebration with the whole team for having survived the year intact, happy and functioning despite being under-resourced and facing various challenges. (Gee, I sound like a real corporate manager...)

Anyway, let's concentrate on the important bits...the food! The setting was also not too shabby. I couldn't decide on what to order so a colleague and I decided to share our mains and our desserts. It was an inspired move. I loved them all. The endless supply of coca-cola was also awesome. The batteries for my D90 was unfortunately dead, so I shall update this post when I get my hands on the photos that my colleague took.

Highlights of September

A very tired little chipmunk

Well not so much highlights but things worth mentioning without necessitating a whole post...

• The US dollar is on a high! Yippee!!!! Here's to it reaching parity before we go.
• Our second Kindle arrived, a graphite 3rd generation Kindle. I am still deciding which one to keep and which one to hand down to the rest of the family...
• We welcomed our newest au pair. An amazing girl who is making my house tidier by the day. Definitely a keeper!
• We ended up winning trivia on Thursday night. Woohoo!!!! We also won the jackpot for the second time in a row. It consists of 3 questions which you must answer correctly in a short space of time. If you get it all correct then you win the cash in the jackpot. If no one gets the answers right, then the jackpot increases the following week. Anyway, the point of this particular bullet is that I managed to name the element Fm ... Fermium. What a genius!
• Crazily went to church camp at Stanwell Tops last weekend by myself with 3 children in tow. The highlight would have to be the children's performance as the Chipmunks and the Chipettes

The excuses begin...

OK so I said I'd be right back. Sorry! I thought I should try to at least explain my absence. Being away for work for a few days and going to church camp definitely hasn't helped. However, I have been rather down lately as I have lost my "phojo". All the photos that I have been taking have turned out to be quite disappointing. It seemed like even those taken by a point and shoot looked much better. This has consumed me somewhat as I don't know what to do about it.

I have also been reading the Stieg Larsson Millennium series. Once I started, I couldn't put them down! I finally finished the last book last night. So perhaps I can now devote my time back to the computer and tend to the multiple useless activities which I have ignored (including...shock horror...the DISboards).

Back by popular demand!

Yes, I'm back due to an overwhelming response to my absence! Apparently my blog has regular followers who missed me. Ok, so only one person missed me. No matter, that's enough to get me off my lethargic bottom and get going again for a long overdue update.

The problem now is where to start...As always many things have happened over the month. I have so many things that are "floating around" in my head that I find it hard to get my thoughts out, let alone convert them into coherent, meaningful, and interesting paragraphs. Perhaps I should I divide my blog into multiple sections to deal with different aspects of my seemingly super busy life! But I wouldn't know how to go about doing that so stuff that thought.

Hmmm, I'm going to have to put this resurrection on hold. I just remembered that I have to revise my states of America before trivia starts tonight. Be right back!