Saturday, 22 February 2014

Under other circumstances,  I might have yielded when I woke just after four on a Saturday morning, but yielding would have been accompanied by activity that would have woken others in the neighbourhood, so I rolled over and attempted to drift off again.

That might have been easier if the spell before waking up had involved yet another variation on the old classroom nightmare, which wasn't something I wanted to return to. As it turned out a meditation on matters relating to the Alien story got me back to sleep but failed to produce anything useful that would add to the developing narrative.

It did, however, get me to seven o'clock, a much more reasonable hour to be up and about. I was nursing a cup of industrial strength black coffee when The Nephew emerged, and he was duly on his way just after eight. In the meantime,  we'd confirmed basic catering arrangements, and so I turned my attention to laundry matters.

I could probably have gotten everything through in a single load since there wasn't really all that much, but with everything going through the drier I thought two smallish loads were better than a single large one as far as getting things semi-dry was concerned.

I took a morning stroll along Nerang street in search of a croissant or something similar for breakfast, noting further changes in the downtown shopscape, failed to collect the Frenchy pastry and looped back through Australia Fair, where there were further changes and alterations. As far as breakfast was concerned, a beef and mushroom pie would have to do. 

I'll be back to the supermarket later to address other breakfast-type options, but that had to wait until after I'd headed across to ferry road to sort out something for dinner over the next few days. I'm working on the big Cook Saturday and Sunday then dine on the leftovers Monday and Tuesday.

(Around three hours down the track)

The visit to Ferry Road, predictably, also took me through the bottle shop, which yielded a Kilikanoon Killerman's Run Shiraz Grenache, a Crabtree Cabernet and a Two Hands Gnarly Dudes Barossa Shiraz. That took care of the next couple of days' wine tasting, and some ravioli and niche pasta, an array of mushrooms and a few other odds and ends should look after the gustatory side of things.

I'd headed over and back by bus, with the sky threatening to do something inconvenient for those who chose to walk without actually managing to do so. When I got back, a call from Madam raised a couple of matters that needed to be looked at on the deep North Home Front. The effort involved in figuring those matters out,  coupled with the exertion involved in the shopping expedition meant I was forced to take a quick power nap before heading off to round up the rest of what I'd be needing for dinner tonight and tomorrow.

After that, with today's activities up to date, it was time to start working through the backlog...

I managed to turn out a rather decent pork mince and mushroom pasta dish for dinner that went rather nicely with the Turkey Flat Rose and toddled off to bed a reasonably happy camper around nine-thirty.

Sunday, 23 February 2014

© Ian Hughes 2012