Work and Play

Our work conference has taken us to Lake Macquarie - a beautiful part of this country, with lots of blues and greens. Here are the obligatory views from our accommodation. 

Sunrise and sunset are both spectacular with clear water and cloud reflections. 

We did do a lot of work with presentations, seminars and workshops. There was also a team building exercise in which we had to do some basic navigation and physical tasks, answer riddles and construct as tall a tower as possible from bamboo sticks and sellotape. I'm not a fan of enforced fun, and I'm sure we are all being watched to see if we play nicely with others, but we got through it.  

As we were in a resort, we were a captured market. Fortunately, the food and wine was good, and there was lots of it, as these pictures may or may not suggest. 

Scallops for starters

Salmon for main

Calamity Sue...

...and accomplice

Ice cream dessert bar...

...with accompaniments

As we tick over into a new month, this is the updated pile of books on the bedside table (specific development details here). I'm working through them, but adding others...

Bedside books

Back to work, but with a lunchtime visit to the Turkish Pide House in Woden.

Lamb Rack Ala-Turko (seriously, that's what it says on the menu)

And to finish off the working week

The weekend highlights included a lovely walk up our local hill and afternoon tea with friends. 

Mt Painter

Afternoon 'tea' with the 'boys'

On a Plate

Walking in the hills is such a rewarding and simple pleasure - we are so lucky to have Mt Painter on our doorstep. 

And we have got silk camellias in our garden - the previous owners planted loads of goodies, and we get to watch them all blossom and develop. How glorious!

We had to go to the post office depot to collect a very important delivery, but when we got there the delivery truck had gone again to attempt to deliver it to us at home, where we weren't. We managed to contact them to ask them to leave it at the front door, and we went and had breakfast instead at Ona Coffee House Cafe. 

We arrived to home to the delivery on the doorstep. I've been waiting for this for a long time.

Special delivery

It's my book! I'm so happy and excited that I can see all those years of hard work captured between the covers. I got signing a few to send to bookshops and am happy to sell anyone a signed copy on request. Send me a message  and I'll get it done!

Signing copies of Mornington Crescent

The next day, Him Outdoors made breakfast - sometimes he gets carried away by the cafe-style presentation...

And this last is for all my friends who performed excerpts from The World's Wife by Carol Ann Duffy with me as part of International Women's Day last month, which included a pretty damn fine rendition of Salome. 

April Art

My lunchtime walk at work throws up some interesting sights. 

Happy Easter, everybody

And this is a walk from home: Mount Painter is our back garden playground. 

Not our new house

Him Outdoors atop Mt Painter

Sadly there is another item for the t-shirt cullery gallery. Much as I have loved this shirt over the last 30 years (I bought it from Affleck's Palace in 1990), its holes are now too large to conceal, and it is time for it to retire. It has served me faithfully.

As it was Easter Sunday I played with the beautiful light through the trees in the morning thanks to the Prisma filter on my phone and the natural one through the trees. Happy Easter. He is risen. 

Au naturel

Moving in!

I had a meeting at the University of Canberra, on which campus I found this rather delightful sculpture. According to the artist, Karla Dickens, it represents a warrior that finds peaceful moments and sits in reflection. "She is digging up courage and raw nerve, licking wounds, to rise once more to fight the next round. Beaten and bruised, she shines."

Second Skin by Karla Dickens

In the middle of the meeting I received a phone call to say the funds had gone through, all the necessary paperwork had been processed, and we were now the proud owners of our new home. We  moved in at the weekend and toasted our purchase with friends. 

We unpacked the glasses at least!

Morning views from the bedroom window are fabulous.