Back From a Very Hot Trip To OZ....

Well, at long last I have found my typing finger!

I did not realize it has been so long since posting a blog.

A few friends came to OZ, for 3 weeks, with me back at start of Feb, as that was the only time they had to travel from here.

My original plans were to go to OZ for Easter instead of in the heat of summer...but that sort of went by the wayside!

We left at 6am, early Feb, from Budapest airport, amid a snowstorm and went to almost 40C, within a day, via Amsterdam and Abu Dhabi!!!

A good trip to OZ, but ever so long.

One of my sons had a spare empty house for us to use, right in town, which was very kind of him  and another son had the first weekend off, plus an RDO, so he took us everywhere from beaches, to bush, to mountains and back again to the beaches...totally exhausting us all in the process.

Here are some great pics...of the first weekend in OZ...

A tradition...a beach barbie! Sand and sausages! Well, it wasn't really like that as it was quite a nice day. Paulie had to buy a special licence for driving on the beach for the day...one of very few places in the world you can still do this. $60 for the day! To get to the beach you have to drive over 20 klms of 30 cm deep sand tracks and boy, was that something else! Heads hitting the ceiling in the vehicle and rough and tumble bumps all the 20 klm. Too dusty to take pics worse luck.

On the way to Woorim side of Bribie Island, where there are miles and miles of empty beaches...except for heaps of 4 x4WD vehicles coming in a steady stream. This is one of 4 little lagoons formed when tides are high.

A bush turkey decides to strut his stuff and become a tourist attraction! Just empty miles and miles of sand...

Looking along the track ahead...driving miles along the sand is an interesting way to spend a day at the beach.

Another lagoon...they have interesting names...The first one was called First Lagoon...guess what this one was called???

Off we go again...

Old WW2 fort on Bribie Island. Look up Wikipedia and find out their interesting history...

They must have had people clamoring to defend the shores back then! Look at the views!!!

Time to go find a place for lunch...

But first Tibi is having a turn at driving on the other side of a vehicle...

Off we go again, this time a bit slower! He did really well...a lot better than I'm doing, mastering this wrong side of the car and of the road thing!

Found a nice spot. Time to unpack the barbie, pitch the tent and cook some tucker.

Perfect views for the afternoon...

Looking better by the minute...

All OK to head off for a swim now...

While the chef cooks the lunch...

That is Caloundra in the distance on the horizon, plus this is a shipping channel here too.

After a big afternoon swimming, eating and chatting, we headed home, via the obligatory car wash to wash off the salt from under and on the car.

Talk about scary monsters with big tentacles!

Home safely, time for a nice bubbly spa...and a drink.

Still wishing for the beaches I think???

Next day, bright and early, we went to the Glasshouse Mountain Ranges. Another perfect...but very hot and muggy day.

Gabby hiding in the shade!

No matter how early, it was still mighty hot

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Paul with the tiny periscope camera he had... It takes amazing pics and videos too.

Up comes Andrea...

The view was amazing.

We headed home after along bush walk...which I'll post next time. Lovely pics...

One of my two adorable grand daughters!

Time for a pizza snack as everyone looks so tired and ready for bed! Oh dear...my booster seat is showing!!!

Will do the next days of the first week as soon as I can.

It is 1st April and it's as cold as can be today...after a few days of 12C outside. the snow has all finally melted and the grass had had another try at going green and growing.

The storks all flew in the other day...my little guy was first in the village by 2 days, then his mate came, with the rest of the village storks. It is lovely to see them again.

Am off now, as I'm freezing...have to go light the fire and have a cuppa.

See you soon,

Take care and remember the reason for this Easter Season.
In some places, I think it was Cadbury and another chockie company have taken the word EASTER off their Easter eggs this year!
While I know they are not the real symbol of Easter, but all the kids had now was that tiny reminder...

Bit by bit they said they'd remove all signs of Christianity from Western countries...
Globalist trash they are. Boycott them.

OK, my opinions presented, now I'm done,
Bye,
Cheers,
M
xxxxx

The Roses Are Shooting Buds....

Is that correct for roses to start shooting in mid winter?

Plus other shrubs are bursting into bloom also, so maybe, Spring is really around the corner at last.

It has been a nice mild winter with lovely snow drops just at the right time, for long enough, without ever becoming slushy.

So as winter looks like it is on the move into Spring I see there are still a few days here and there in Feb, that are predicted to drop some snow for a day or two at a time, so we are not out of the woods yet.

Pedro, the dog goes to Germany tonight...yahoo! Now I can leave the place without him going off his head, crying, barking his head off and all that carry on, early in the morning...a bit much for the neighbours at jogging time.

Anyways, he was a good little fellow, once I tied him to the rope.  I bring him in to the house after it gets dark and he just lays on his rug and does not move, as he knows he'll be put outside, so he just sits and sprawls on his blankie.

He seems to like being tied up, it must it give him security. I think he had an abandonment issue! OMG...did I just say that???
Time he went...just in time too, it seems! Hahaha...

Nothing much happening this week...Imre only worked one day as his wife is having her cancer operation, so obviously he could only work one day this week.

Dirk came and managed to get some windows completed and the attic door painted, some windows readied for new glass and Imre  got the cellar light re-routed and working at long last.

I have to go find some suitable wall lamps/lights for the cellar walls then it's time to make the cellar doors which become the floor in the end room when the cellar is shut!

Too much fun doing all of this...then a dear friend in America, Cheryl, who I met when we went to USA to see the Phantom movie with Gerry Butler, in 2012, contacted me...

She sent me a link to a fabulous offer in Sardinia...of buying a house on land for one dollar! You must spend $25,000 on it in 3 years to renovate it, there are 200 of them, but they are stone, so to me it looks a breeze!

Will investigate more this coming week...sounds like a fun project to do after this one is completed.

Heading down the stairs to the cellar...too exciting for words! The jars you can see are very old preserves...from 1956 etc, so am just keeping them as historical artifacts...even though the process and jars are exactly the same today...I have a hard time tossing out people's energy from their handiwork's...it goes right against my grain.

Pulling out the ugly pipework for the power, we tried to put in...

Down the far end of the cellar, looking back. It doesn't seem too big, but in reality it is quite a good size for parties!

Wondering where to put the light...then what type of fitting so people don't hit it on the way down etc...

It looked like a huge critter on the wall at first! hahaha...

Power switches in and cables all run up here...now to sort it out downstairs...

Pedro, sitting on his chair...taken through the 2 sets of new windows we just cleaned and painted.

He loves his chicken carcasses! He has been playing outside in the yard and is sopping wet from the rainy afternoon.

Am waiting for Sabina to come collect Pedro now, so will scoot and get on with things...

A quick update on what's really happening overseas...

Just a heads up, so when it all hits the fan in the coming weeks, you are not so shocked...

If I enlarge this it distorts everything, so grab a magnifying glass!

If I enlarge it, the entire blog goes skew-wif...

All done from me for this week,
Cheers and stay safe,
Lots of love,
Mary.

A Light in The Cellar...A Day in The Snow!

Wow, it is all coming together quickly now...
Some things I think will take forever are completed in 10 mins virtually and other things I think should be a breeze are seemingly taking forever.

This is due in part to my not really knowing what is involved in the process over here and how they do it. Hungarians get the job done...and while that suffices in many cases, it is not to my liking for a lot of things...eg...ugly pipes all over the walls, inside and outside for gas, water, heating etc.

It looks so awful, but that is how they do it...but I do not like it.

So after poor Imre has done a job, I check it out and at times I have to get him to pull it all out, dig holes and hide things etc etc.

That just happened in the cellar...
He ran pipes along the middle of the lovely brick walls, for the power cables and it looked horrid, ruined the feel and mood of the room, so out it had to come.
Now i have to invent how to run power down there and have it hidden as you can't cut into the brickwork  to run trenches etc. Can't have power leads running everywhere, so the thinking cap is working overtime now!

Anyways, apart from that glitch, we have been able to work around the snowy weather, the sub-zero temps on some days, the rain and foggy days and overall, things are getting done slowly, but moving forwards.

Am learning how to empty all the data from my 8 year old Vista operating system computer which has been lugged all around the world for the past 7 years...and still works...Be it ever so slowly now as Vista is not supported anymore and will be unsupported as of March this year by Firefox too.

I found that I have something like a total of 70 GB of pics in one file alone and loads of other stuff, along with 6 or more books I've written, so will need a huge data storage whatever to store it all on.

It was a very trusty HP computer which I was always happy using. It was lovely to feel, smooth, nice round edges etc, a great keyboard and so on, but over time, as Vista became unsupported, the keyboard died and I had to buy a plug in external keyboard last year to work it...

But it was a Hungarian keyboard, with the English letters hidden within the Hungarian keys. If you wanted the @ you had to press these weird things they use for decorating their letters with over here etc etc.

In other words, you had to know off by heart, the Qwerty keyboard...which I don't as my one typing finger does not have an eye. Talk about confusing to a dyslexic person...an understatement to say the least!

It is a nice sunny day again today, 3C, so will get on with some outside work and finish this later on.

At the village farm where they house a lot of animals. On the corner near where MR Bean is positioned.

Time to make some new doors for the cellar...

Hoping to have fold out doors that make a guard rail too.

Next time you see this am hoping the floor door will be made and the power on down in here too.

Andrea out playing in the snow with Pedro...while it is snowing.

He loves the snow...

C'mon!

The little scamp...

Caught him!!!

C'mon, more running yet to do...

Well, dog is not tired, but someone else is!

Heading out for my jog and the old bushes on the fence have their own romance to display...

Awesome fresh snow today....

Sunny and beautiful...

A bit deepish here for the road...

The ice is very slippery, but the side of the road is fine.

This is usually filled with sunflowers!

Looking lovely this morning...

Beautiful!

The poor cars...

Another shot of my fave tree in the village...

Along the back straight headed for the last leg of the just under 3 klm track...

People going to work at 7.30 am...

The sun glistening on the dew drops ...a shot for my sister to take.

Wish I had her camera here...it was beautiful to see.

Nice...

Coming up to the bus stop corner shop on the right.

The little park on the other end corner of my street...

My bus stop in winter!

Headed home...

In April, this street is a mass of pink coloured blossoms...

My friends in Holland have this holiday house...My place is on the left, as you can see just down the road a bit.

Back home and Imre is digging in the power cable for the cellar underneath him!

End room a tool shed/workshop again!

The last stage of getting power down here, hopefully!

Where to put the power points???...Now I see we need brown ones, not white, plus the white line is actually where he put the pipe to take the power cable but it looked terrible, so he has to pull it out and somehow put it somewhere safe and out of sight!

Nothing stops a hungry dog! He broke the cone on the first day when I let him out into the snow. It froze and snapped very easily as he dug in the frozen ground for his hidden bones!

Gee, that waaaas goood! An entire chicken carcass devoured in under 3 minutes!

Dog had his operation etc on Wednesday and the lady who normally nurses them after their operations, was sick...so guess what???

Yup, I have the dog again!!!

My daughter used to say...Never give things away because you will recieve many fold those things back again! She was referring to an old refrigerator she gave away once and in the next year she received 3 almost new fridges !!!

Dog is off to Germany on 3rd Feb with a friend who manages a dog charity, so that will be OK, I guess...only another 8 days!

Well that was the past week in the snow at home and around the village with a dog.

See you all next week, stay safe and well and be happy.

Cheers,
M
xxxx