Soccer time

Tennis and track season are over so now we move into road season and soccer! Bethany and Toby both have new boots and played their first game on Saturday at 10.30. 

Bethany is in different colours this year as she swapped clubs. She has played against a team of school friends lots of times and always wished to be in their team. This year we made it happen and she was on the winning team on Saturday! Her last team was lots of fun, and she didn't mind that they never won, but it was great to play with her school friends and taste actual victory. My favourite part of the deal is that training is held at her school. All I need to do is pick her up, score!

The wedding was great, the cake was delivered safely and the reception was encouraging, funny and a bit teary. Below is the view from our table.

A great weekend, but I am expected even better from next weekend, in Katoomba.

Wedding cake

I have made cakes for weddings a couple of times, always fruit cake, and only once have I made the cakes and decorated them. For Greg and Evie's (real name Evangeline, how I love it!) wedding, I made and decorated mud cake.

I took a day off to do it, but made the biggest cake the night before. It took nearly four hours to cook! I trimmed the top and Joss and Tobes enjoyed before school dessert.

When you make fruit cakes, there can be weeks between the making and the decorating. I had to wait for the top layers to cool when the bottom layer was finished.

It was a relief to get it delivered. I wish I had put it on a scale, it was so heavy!

Still going

It's been a great term, but I confess that I am looking forward to the holidays. Last week was Seniors' Week and I gave three presentations, one in Wagga, one in Coolamon and one at the State Library. I went to a Readers' Advisory seminar and the theme was sci-fi, hence I was reading A Clockwork Orange. 

Bethany danced at the school open day and afterwards showed me how to play this Indonesian game. She beat me.

I had one more presentation this week, and a last one next week and then, the holidays! Oh, and soccer starts this week, too......

Grinners

Joss and Toby took up tennis last October; they started lessons and formed a team with two brothers the same age, also new to the sport.

They spent a lot of the season at the bottom of the table, but as they improved they crept up. Cycling events and then her job took Joss out, and she was the least enthusiastic player of the four, but she still got a medal when the boys came runners up in the grand final yesterday, losing by only three games!

I suprised myself with this skill.

It was a very warm day yesterday, but I know summer has turned its back because it is dark and cold in the mornings. One of my pear trees is getting autumnal, with a single red leaf.

Joss and Toby both went to friends' houses for the afternoon and the night, so Andrew, Bethany and I picked up some pizza and went to the Botanical Gardens. Such a lovely Saturday.

Hairy Maclary and the trip to the library

This time last week I was on a little plane to Sydney. Chrissie and I were wondering if we were ever going to get out of the clouds as bad weather kept us bumping around for ages, waiting to land. We went to a seminar at the State Library, on digital engagement and user experience.

There were some excellent speakers and once the seminar had finished we popped upstairs and over the walkway to see the exhibitions. You aren't allowed to photograph them, but the banners out the front have a couple of the Pulp Confidential images. As fascinating as that was, it couldn't compete with the Hairy Maclary exhibition. Chrissie and I recited bits of the books as we walked around. The Hairy Maclary books were such a favourite in our house.

I haven't done much tea in front of the telly in recent months, but thanks to Broadchurch (yay!) I have a regular date again with my pretty tea things.

Bowling

We have a staff meeting every month, and we take turns chairing the meeting and organising lunch beforehand. Sometimes we get takeaway, sometimes we go to pubs or cafes. This month, we went to the bowling alley and some of us had a game with our meals. We all remembered to bring socks, most wore pants. I didn't think beyond my feet and wore a short dress. Thankfully for all, I had tights on.

  

99 is not the highest score ever, but it was enough to beat the other four players (two were on another lane)!

Pizza night

The trick to managing a really busy schedule, is to make sure there are plenty of fun things in there. Last week Jane and I had a work day lunch at the Pot 'n' Kettle. I had just given a talk in a really hot hall, so it was lovely to sit down with coffee and fritters for a good chat.

A few weeks ago, Steve and Jane invited us over for a last minute pizza night. They had bought some terracotta tiles for their BBQ, and were testing them out as pizza stones. They worked a treat and I was inspired to make sourdough pizza bases as I had only ever made pizza with Lebanese bread or bought bases. So easy, so good, I'm never going back! 

After a family trial run, we had all the Listers over last night and had a  pizza, bread, cheese and red wine night. Awesome stuff.

This morning I am listening to the whirr of the washing machine as Bethany flaps about in excitement for her friend to come over, Toby is at tennis, and Joss, newly without braces, is at the first day of her first job. She is working two hours every Saturday morning at ABC Radio, a perfect job for a heavily  sports committed, doing journalism at school, student!

I'll leave to pick her up soon and am thinking that a hot chocolate at the Old Empire Tea Rooms, practically next door, might be just the right celebration. I could get a coffee in my new keep cup......