flashman181

What a wonderful 6 days. Lets start at the beginning

Day 1 The Hordes arrive

The Della gathering this year was at Flashman Inc , Maplehead. This is sometimes referred to as CLPs house or even The Ponderosa. There are a couple of acres which is very useful for all manner of things – including camping. So The Big Day Out x 3 starts on the Friday. Family drive in from various locations and set up camp for two nights. There were brothers and sisters, sons and even a wife or two on the Della side. My youngest daughter Ranny also arrived on Friday. Now the secret was not to arrive too early as there was work to be done first – digging a trench to connect water from tanks and pump to outside house. The easy part was we had a ditch witch. The hard part were hidden storm water pipes. Remember when it use to rain?? Still I always say if you dont smash at least two pipes when digging in the backyard well you just aint trying hard enough. We tried plenty hard and so a 3-4 hr job became a 6 hr job which meant that first beer went down pretty well. To be honest the 5th didnt taste too bad either. Lucky we had wine to take away the taste. AD had bought a dozen of his finest bottles – I think he actually thought he may get to take one or two home. Ha! So a lovely relaxing BBQ to round out a busy day and somehow stumbled into bed full as a state school hat rack

Day 2 The Family Gathering

A hearty breakfast of sausages and eggs expertly cooked by BC1 was accompanied by our new toy – a Nespresso Coffee Pod machine. It got a flogging trust me. CLP then spent most of the morning preparing the feast while I supervised from a distance. Now the centrepiece of this feast, as previously, was the Turducken. A boned chicken stuffed inside a duck stuffed inside a turkey. I know how the duck feels. For lunch we had a couple of ringins with CLP Snr and the Flashman matriach in attendance along with my eldest daughter and her family including of course Handsome Harry. Thus Fergella is born. Couldnt quite get 12 Pipers piping but we had 3 Pipers partying at least. A lovely lunch was had by all and then we get to open presents as well! Sadly then a few attendees had to move on just leaving behind the drunks and freeloaders. At last I felt at home. Dinner was leftovers of course and more wine before the Jenga Tower battle began. As one last present to all I deliberately knocked my tower over to let someone else win. Ok it was bed time – ya got me

Day 3 The Cleanup

Another filling breakfast ensued with bacon replacing sausages this time and a rotation of chef. AD took the tongs and no doubt amused to see his 12 empty bottles of wine lined up behind the BBQ. At least I think that was his amused look. After this calamity struck! The dishwasher wouldnt work! There were some technical directions to follow but at the end of the day just lifting it off the ground 5 cms and dropping it down seemed to do the trick. Then the family started decamping and let me tell you these guys know what they were doing. Everyone was on the road before 0900 and the rest of the day was left to recuperate. It had been a wonderful couple of days

Day 4 Back to Work

But not for me:) Dropped CLP at statio just after 0500 and then caught up on a couple of movies and TV shows and then had to pick her up again at 18:00. No rest for the wicked

Day 5 Toowoomba Beckons

A half day of work for CLP so spent a couple of hours with Mother in Brisvegas before picking up CLP in the city and driving out to Toowoomba for Xmas eve. We stayed at the wonderful Wanulla B&B so after booking in and a rather massive afternoon tea it was off to see Wilbert, Pat the Lad and Ka Ka. Spent a couple of hours playing in the backyard on trampoline et al before a lovely meal with the Family. Ok it was 5:30 pm but that is fine and we do these things when we have small children. Worked out well actually as we were back in the B&B in time to walk up to Queens Park for the amazing city of lights. Then sat through about 20 minutes of Christmas Carols before slitting my wrists – CLP lasted the full 7 hrs. Its her thang

Day 6 Xmas

Did the early visit back to the grandkids to give them their presents and it was a joy. Then it was back for a full breakfast which sort of rounded out 6 days of fine food and drink perfectly. Rounded out my waist a tad too. New Year resolutions just around the corner right? Then the drive back to Maplehead for an afternoon of decompression and relaxation.

It was a magic time with all the ingredients one could wish for at Xmas. Alcohol, Presents, Family, Food, Presents, Alcohol, Presents and more Food and Alcohol

Life is better than good my friends. It is great

My American friends – Barack and Hilary – are celebrating the tradition of Thanksgiving. One of the traditions – because I watch Brooklyn Nine Nine I know these things – is to tell the assembled masses what you are grateful for. So lets kick off my Thanky list because next week have to start on my Santy list

1. I dont live in America. But I can visit and do love it over there

2. Our turkeys that run the country and state – into the ground some may say – can only serve 3 year terms

3. I have 3 great kids and 4 healthy grandchildren. And no pets.

4. I have a loving and thoughtful partner although she gets a bit cocky if I refer to her as anything other than CLP:)

5. We are finally starting to win some sporting events again!

6. Anthony Mundine is one fight closer to never fighting again and hopefully never appearing on TV again

7. You can watch Breaking Bad again and again on Blu Ray

8. I dont have to work. But kinda wish I was at times. 35 degrees in Maryhole at 10 am is one of those times I miss the AC and the forty five minute tea breaks.

9. It should rain before the end of the year.

10. I can eat whatever I want and not put on weight

Oops, think I crossed over my lists with that last one……

Ah the election campaign. 5 weeks of boring patter and staged events. I have not watched a TV Debate since Keating and Howard. I was kind of glad PK didnt know the price of a litre of milk. Told me he was running the country rather than doing the grocery shopping. And of course we had the Worm. Now we have one candidate with a charisma bypass and one candidate who had a charisma implant that rejected him. Its Dull and Duller. Then we have the polls and the endless interpretation and what it means for the two party preferred vote. I am more interested in the no party preferred vote because I think it could be a landslide. Of course what we need during this dribble is some comic relief and not many do it better than How Green Was My Cactus. Can always bring a smile to one’s face and usually time it just right to go out in morning and get my coffee and listen to it on way back home. But wait. There is no HGWMC during the 5 week campaign as it “may contain political comment” . What the fuck. So the pain continues. The gain will have to wait apparently. Caught between The Rock and a hard place it would seem. The interesting thing though is that Dwayne Johnson delivers his lines in the same boring monotone as both candidates but at least looks good in budgie smugglers. And would probably hoist the boats over his shoulder and take them back to whence they came from. Problem solved. Get me Michael Bay on the line, I finally see someone worthy of my donkey vote.