March 2014 happenings

My Riverbend Bookstore bookclub went to an author event on the 6th of March.  We had just read the book, Empress Dowager Cixi by Jung Chang, and she was giving a talk at Brisbane's City Hall.  She had brought shoes that her grandmother had worn over her bound feet. These were so tiny!! Jung Chang was very interesting and we all had a great time listening to her and getting books signed.

On the 15th, we went to a St Patricks party hosted by Kevin.  We showed up in the late afternoon and there was a little swimming, a little drinking, a lot of food, and a lot of card games.  It was loads of fun....

Sunday we drove down to Sunshine beach to relax and enjoy the nice weather.  Sitting on the beach soaking up the sun is not a bad way to spend a Sunday!  Lunch and being by the ocean...priceless!

I went down to the Brisbane Convention Centre to the craft show with my craft group.  I don't suppose I got into too much trouble, although I did come home with a magnifying light so I can cross stitch again!  I wasn't the only one either!  Maree and Lanaia also bought one...how crazy to see the three of us walking down the street to the Citicat with these under our arms?!  I took a jewelry class and made two pendants.  There wasn't much yarn again this time, but tons of other things to see.  Sandi picked up some crafty things for her grand kids and I believe everyone else in our group had a bag or two of goodies...

I played mah jongg for the first time.  It's a little overwhelming at first with the pong and kong and all that, but it was fun!  There were 12 of us and I was just subbing for someone.  I'm really good if I don't have to pass the tiles out and I always get confused on the last 3-4 tiles, but other than that I'm ok.  I'm sure I will be playing again soon.

February 2014

Our last tennis lessons as a couple are this month.  We've had a great time and hopefully we will continue to play often.  We will be on the look out for another couple for doubles.

February 8th we drove to Tamborine mountain to check out a hotel we are thinking of staying in when some friends come to visit in May.  We had a nice lunch on a patio overlooking the mountains.  It started drizzling at the end of the day after we took a short hike.

On the 15th we went to a farewell party for Marina and Bob.  They will be moving back to England when Bob retires at the end of the month.  It's going to be terribly sad to see them go. They have become one of our favorite couples to hang out with at night and Marina is in my craft group every Tuesday.

Now comes the crazy that I seem to fall into every once in a while.....although I don't think it sounds crazy at the time!  Lol. Here goes....there is an Etsy site that sells striped sock yarn.  I have never seen it in person but hear it's great.  The dyer puts it up for sale once a month and all her stock sells out in literally 45 seconds.  You know how I know this?  I have sat in a chair refreshing my computer screen, put one skein in a cart to buy and gone to buy it and it's been sold to someone else.  I've had Dave leaving for work late so that we can BOTH be sitting in front of computers to buy this yarn that sells out faster than you can click the buy button.  I'm a seasoned shopper, but this is beyond crazy!!  I even wanted Dave to ask the Cerner IT team to help me out!!  Well, persistence pays off. I did score some finally and Dave no longer has to listen to me wail in frustration..

February 27th- Di's friend from England came to town.  Jane is quite the character and loads of fun.  Since Di needed to work, I volunteered to take Jane to an art exhibit called Falling Back To Earth by Cai Guo-Qiang in Southbank.   It was really cool to see, although modern art is not something I really like.  Afterwards we sat outside on the patio of a restaurant and had a bottle of wine and some nibbles and watched the Wheel of Brisbane go round and round....