The Diner - Volume 45

[CellarDweller115]

Hiya Chuck. I talked to Joe tonight for about an hour, and  yes it was him and not Ernie!!

[brian]

OH, I'm sorry to hear this, Brian!   I'm sorry that you have to be so cautious of what you eat.  I hope by now you're feeling better.

Thanks. I was ok after I had brought it up. I usually just need to lie down but that is not possible in a restaurant. The first time it happened (New years Eve nearly 2 years ago) I met some friends, retired nurses and they were worried I was having a heart attack but I know different, it is indigestion.

[fritzkep]

Glad that you're doing better now, Brian.

[brian]

Am home again. Left motel at 8.45am (planned about 8am, oh well). Bought petrol about 9.30am. Stopped for coffee about 10.30 am in a historic town at the same cafe (in an old bank) where my sister and I stopped on December 7th last year. Did not realise that, when she flew home 2 days later, I would not see her again for so long. Felt a little sad. Stopped for lunch at 12.15, early for me, but the next and last 80 km there are no towns and I needed the break. Snow on hills (another dusting overnight) and blue sky so very scenic. I have seen similar in winter but unexpected in December. However the winds were strong. Home 1.45pm

[brian]

I love gardening, have a big garden but I find it tiring, more and more as I age.
The garden was immaculate in June at the end of Lockdown but that was autumn when, after an area is weeded, it stays weeded. Now it is Spring (Summer even) and it is a constant battle, not helped by my going out and on little holidays so much.

[Jenny]

"Uncle Carl Came Out on Christmas"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVIyJ_Psa3E&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR104XuHiQanxJ8c8vwmcQkx0O7g2u0OJkjI_YTyrFB-5dtTL1mojgm40FY

Someone on the Notre Dame Gay Alumni Site just posted this.

That's a good thought. May there be many more such brothers.

[dejavu]

I've just come back from a suspenseful auction of a very beautiful house three blocks up the hill. It's a 1925 weatherboard house with a terra cotta tile roof originally owned by the family of a tram conductor who owned the block next door too. There is a lychgate covered by wisteria at the corner of a beautifully detailed wooden fence under a liquidambar tree with two conifers in the front garden, one of them encircled by an iron seat. There' s also wooden hanging seat and an old-fashioned triple lamp post. The house is on a corner block of 700 square metres. There's a beautiful original tiled pathway curving round to a similarly tiled verandah.

The house has four spacious bedrooms, three of them under a gable roof together with a study and a bathroom all of them with wonderful views for kilometres.The master bedroom has a separate small wardrobe room. Downstairs, there is a formal lounge room adjoining a dining room with bay windows, a bathroom, laundry, modern kitchen and meals area and living room and a back verandah. The main rooms have high ceilings and  the original fireplaces though the house now has ducted heating and cooling. There are good timber floors and a fine though narrow wooden staircase.

At the back there is a spacious paved courtyard with a fountain with putti topped by a cherub with a dolphin and a gazebo for entertaining, another bathroom, and a stables-style triple garage. An external  staircase leads up to a long loft which is currently set up for a professional photographer's studio.

All the main rooms have extraordinarily beautiful cornices and leadlight panes in the doors.

Everything looks well maintained. The vendors have lived there for 20 years.

I really hope the buyer isn't a developer.

The auctioneer started the bidding at $1.6 million. Two people competed for it.  It was sold for  $1,837,500.

Hi, Tony.  What a beautiful house!  I'd like to live there, if someone else would take care of it for me.   

[tfferg]

I love gardening, have a big garden but I find it tiring, more and more as I age.
The garden was immaculate in June at the end of Lockdown but that was autumn when, after an area is weeded, it stays weeded. Now it is Spring (Summer even) and it is a constant battle, not helped by my going out and on little holidays so much.

The weeds here grow apace all the way through autumn and winter. Grrr !

I curse the people who introduced all these exotic grasses for lawns and pasture. The hard-hoofed exotic farm animals destroyed most of the native grasses in most places. I'm allergic to several widespread exotic grasses.

[tfferg]

Hi, Tony.  What a beautiful house!  I'd like to live there, if someone else would take care of it for me.   

Yes, much as I admired it, it would require a lot of housework and the stairs would become a problem for me.

[dejavu]

And for me too, I'm having more of a problem with stairs myself these days.


Good night everyone.  Very glad that that the weekend starts tomorrow!

[fritzkep]

G'nite Debbie!

[brian]

The weeds here grow apace all the way through autumn and winter. Grrr !

Yes I love that in Dunedin (compared to my many years in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney) there is little to do in the garden from May to September.
Also I can garden at any time of the day. In Australian summers it was best to stay inside most days from about 10am to 4pm. While I get up early, I do not tend to get into the garden until 11am at the earliest.

[killersmom]

Fritz, I had gone looking for WLAguy/Joe Denney on FB yesterday and found that his account had been disabled. It started me worrying, so I sent a message to his husband Ernie. Joe wrote back and tonight we spoke on the phone for about an hour. He's dealing with a badly detached retina that he had to have surgery on. It's going to take about 6 months for recovery from it.  He received it when he and Ernie were wrestling around on the kitchen. I told him he should know better.

I told him about Earl and he and Ernie send their condolences. He said to tell all those he knows hello.

[CellarDweller115]

Good morning Diners!



Up early on this Saturday, to prep for cookie baking.

[Elisiv05]

Good morning Diners!



Up early on this Saturday, to prep for cookie baking.

Good morning/afternoon! Cosy Christmas baking. I haven' t been baking  since forever, but today I'll make saffron bread for tomorrow's Lucia celebration ( since we have a habit of celebrating that Sicilian saint  here in the world's most secular country).