Life in General – Page 6 – Travels with Ali

👯‍♀️ Dancing in Dunsborough – Days Three and Four 👯‍♀️

Day Three

What a fun day today was going to be, a mystery tour had been planned for a coachful of women! Reminiscent of a school outing with our names being ticked off by Vicki as we boarded. It was non-stop chatter from the moment we sat down and Laura our lovely instructor had to whistle very loudly to get our attention. We boarded at 10.30 am and would be back at 4pm, no-one had a clue about where we would be going.

Our first stop was a winery for a quick tour and of course the requisite wine tasting. The winery was Aravina Winery, a 180 acre property with a surfing museum attached in Yallingup. The owners were very accommodating and explained each wine as it was tasted.

After sampling many wines we were back on the bus and onto our next mystery destination. This time also stopping for lunch. With much guessing going on we finally arrived at Black Brewing Company. Two large tables had been reserved for us and the staff did an excellent job of serving so many ladies! I was one of the lucky ones who was served very quickly, some were not so fortunate and waited for a while.

A few of the ladies that were still sitting by the time I got around to taking a photo

This place had the most amazing grounds, so after lunch I had a walk around to snap a few more shots. There was intermittent rain so it was a case of dodging it while walking.

A small island sat on the opposite side of the bridge with a stunning gazebo.

Each of the glass windows had a story of winemaking written on them with wonderful artwork. The photos didn’t quite come out the way I wanted.

Back on the bus and our next two stops were more about shopping. The first one was Vasse Virgin Olive Oil. All products were natural, made with olive oil, plant extracts and essential oils. We had a great time here sampling all the products and getting hand scrubs.

What finishes off a day nicely, a trip to a chocolate factory goes down very well with anyone, and that’s where our last stop was, The Margaret River Chocolate Factory.

I bought a few gifts to take home and all the ladies were given a bar by the lovely Laura.

So this was a no dancing day as everyone was pretty tired after a hard day’s touring. A very quiet pizza party was planned for the evening with cupcake decorating for dessert.

Day Four

More eating today with morning tea at Cape Lavender Teahouse. Devonshire Cream teas with lavender scones, cream and jam, just the best start to the day.

I was so happy that they did gluten free also, enjoyed every bite. There was also a gift shop, so did the obligatory shop and came away with even more gifts.

Yallingup Maze was next and then lunch at another brewery. Lisa and I opted instead for more shopping and a walk along the beach before a zumba class at 4.15.

Our last night’s party had a Bollywood theme with everyone invited to dress up and bring a curry. The outfits were amazing and everyone made such a great effort and the food was gourmet standard.

And so ends a fantastic five nights of dancing, eating, drinking, making new friends and catching up with old ones. A magnificent achievement by our zumba instructors – maybe next year back to Bali!

📚What’s on my Book Shelf📚

This is a new challenge for me and it’s hosted by Deb over at Deb’s World with a few other bloggers. It’s called What’s on your Book Shelf.

I love reading and have always done so, ever since I could read. I enjoy a good crime novel and I think the earliest ones I ever read were the Enid Blyton Famous Five books and Secret Seven. I really wanted to be in those gangs and they fired up my imagination to search for more of the same. Then came Agatha Christie and I don’t think I ever guessed who did it.

These days I read all types of fiction books which is my preference, rather than an autobiography or non-fiction.

I’ve just read the following three books.

They are about three different women, Jocelyn, Georgina and Evelyn.

The House in the Hollow

This is the first in the trilogy. It’s mainly about Jocelyn who is banished to Tall Chimneys. We don’t find out the reason until later on in the story. She is humiliated and dishonoured and sent to live with just a few staff in the North of England. It is set in the Regency period where appearances matter above all else.

I loved this book and was transported back to a time when women were just puppets made to do as they were told by the men in their lives.

The Lady in the Veil

This is the second one and it does say it’s a stand alone but it would definitely make more sense to read the first. In this book we also don’t find out until later on why Georgina insists on wearing a veil. It is set in the year 1835 and not much has changed for women who still continue to do as their male relatives tell them. I enjoyed this book very much and it was a definite change from the usual psychological thrillers I usually read.

Tall Chimneys

Tall Chimneys is set at a much later period, just before and during the second world war. This can be read as a standalone. It is about Evelyn who is banished to Tall Chimneys as the family don’t quite know what to do with her. I enjoyed this one the most as I felt I really got to know Evelyn and her trials and tribulations against the men in her life and how much her home meant to her.

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Another book I also loved is the first novel by Chris Whittaker called Tall Oaks. Last year I read another one by him called We Begin at the End, this would be one of my all time favourite novels. What a talented author this man is to be able to write from a 14 year old girl’s viewpoint. They are both contemporary fiction and each features a police officer trying to solve a crime. Both have twists that I didn’t see coming.

I do belong to a book club and we meet once a month, usually in a cafe or in the house of whoever chose the book. It is called the Dancing Queens Book Club because we mainly all met at zumba!

We chose our books around two months in advance. Some of the books I love but some are DNF’s! which is a bit slack of me, but life is too short to read something I can’t get into. It’s one of the reasons I love my kindle as I can download samples to see if they grab me or not. I can usually get a feel of whether I’m going to enjoy the book by the first chapter although I do try and give it the 100 page test.

My two adorable grandchildren enjoying their books

A Night out in the City

I thought it was high time we went out for dinner in the city, so yesterday I booked a restaurant that we’ve been to before but not for a while. Normally we tend to just visit our local as we know what we’re getting and always enjoy it! But time for a change. We only live 15 minutes away so it’s not a hassle.

When we arrived our hostess showed us to our table upstairs. I didn’t even know this place had an upstairs let alone a roof top area. We had a lovely table with an outside heater, although one arm got very warm while the other froze! I wondered being right at the top how the service would be. Well no worries there because we didn’t have to wait long at all. The service at this restaurant is first class and the atmosphere was wonderful.

Hubs and me enjoying city life at night on the rooftop of The Standard, Northbridge, Perth

OUR FOOD

Here we have Garlic Potato Gems, Caramelised Pork Satay Dip with Puffed Rice Crackers, Crispy Fried Chicken, Shredded Duck with Rolled Turmeric Wafer and Jumbo Tiger Prawns in Black Pepper Butter.

The menu had a few sections, Eats, Small Plates and Large Plates. We went for a few small plates, before I got too carried away the waitress stopped me and said that’s enough!

I think Perth must be one of the few cities left in Australia where the hospitality industry is booming. I hope before too long that the other capital cities begin to thrive again soon.

PS: I posted some photos on Facebook and Instagram but cut off Hubby’s head! I sure got lots of comments about that.

Posted as part of Six Word Saturday hosted by Debbie at Travel with Intent.

The Changing Seasons – June 2021

The month of June for me started with quarantine and is ending with lockdown! Plenty of time for blogging.

WEEK ONE

The first week was spent at home in quarantine as we had been in Melbourne and Sydney the previous week. It was only 11 days as the 3 days in Sydney were counted as part of that. My daughter’s partner very kindly brought our two boys back to us from their little vacay in The Big Paws Hotel.

What to do about their walks though? Dear Hubby (DH) opened up our two side gates and created a mini circuit around the house. He very diligently walked around and around for an hour every day. At first the boys followed and thought what new game is this, but just after a few days grew bored with this as I did! He also decided that our bougainvillea needed cutting back and as a verge collection was coming up, we tackled this head on.

Somebody is protesting against no walks!

We relied on the kindness of friends and neighbours and some online shopping for our food and wine.

One day I had a surprise visit from a good friend and we sat outside, socially distanced and had a lovely chat. She brought some beautiful tulips and a small bag of exotic fruit, lucky me.

The beautiful tulips she brought as a gift.

WEEK TWO

The second week we were able to get out for dinner and celebrate our 30th Wedding Anniversary, definitely something worth celebrating. We had dinner with very dear friends at a restaurant called Dilly Dally.

This week was also the first time I had seen my two adorable grandchildren for nearly a month.

It was good to catch up with these two precious bundles. I could also get back to my weekly activities of zumba, Bridge and Mahjong.

WEEK THREE

This week was much the same as before. I did venture out with a girlfriend one night to our line dancing class. Not the boot scooting kind but more dancing in lines. Such great fun and we get plenty of exercise doing this.

Our couches are getting ruined by our spoilt boys so I ordered a couch cover for one of the couches to see if this would improve things.

WEEK FOUR

It was Book Club this week and the book this month was The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Kranostein. This was not a book I could relate to even though it had some pretty good reviews. There are 11 of us in the club and I think most enjoyed it.

Our Girls Games Night was also this week and it was my turn to host. My son and his girlfriend bought me a Murder Mystery game for my birthday. Even though it’s meant for male and female, my friends were all okay about some of them dressing up as men. It was a brilliant evening and everyone made such a great effort with their costumes.

A Slice of Murder

Also during this last week was my Grandson, Lachie’s third birthday, what excitement that was. He sure did receive a lot of gifts.

Last of the month from today’s walk around the lake.

I hope everyone else had a good June also, look forward to hearing all about it over at The Changing Season hosted by Ju-Lynn this month. Next month Brian at Bushboys World will be hosting.

Game Play!

Who doesn’t like a good game? Well my dear husband for one (DH), but I grew up playing them. Christmas and Boxing Day were the best days back then. Our whole extended family got together on Boxing Day and played all kinds of games. Escalado was an absolute favourite with everyone. We played the wind up version with all of us shouting and cheering, of course bets were taken.

Nowadays there are so many games out there and just over a year ago I got together with a group of likeminded ladies and we formed a monthly games night. There are seven of us and each month we take it in turns to host and we play several different games. We start around 6pm with cocktails and nibbles and a general catch up on our lives and then get started. It is absolutely the best fun and generally laugh till we cry.

The Games

I think our favourite so far is Telestrations. “Each player begins by sketching a TELESTRATIONS word dictated by the roll of a die. There is a sand timer to limit the time for drawing. When the time is up all players, all at the same time, pass their sketch to the next player, who must guess what’s been drawn. Players then simultaneously pass their guess — which hopefully matches the original word (or does it??) — to the next player who must try to draw the word they see — and so on.” This game has us in hysterics – at times we are just so stumped that only a wild guess is made. A pictorial Chinese Whispers!

Midnight Taboo

Not to be confused with just Taboo! This is a team game and they must guest the target word from your clues, but you must not say the forbidden words! An adjudicator with the buzzer is looking over your shoulder!

Qwirkle

Qwirkle a strategic matching tile game where you really have to have your thinking cap on! Where you find out who is the most competitive. We’ve played this on many occasions as the rules are easy.

Pictionary

Another drawing game, where you find out who the artists are! Also it depends what version you play, Australian, English or American. So many of the words and phrases have us baffled.

My adult children also love to play games and I try to find a new game every Christmas that is fun.

Watch Your Mouth is another game that is just so hilarious that we all end up with tears running down our face. A person has to say a phrase whilst wearing a mouth guard! The frustration that comes with repeating the same phrase but the same nonsense coming out is the funniest thing to watch. Highly recommended.

Tiny Hands is a team game and also great fun to play with likeminded souls who don’t mind looking silly. There are various stunts that have to be pulled off with your your tiny hands, catching a ball, tying a knot or serving someone a drink.

This month it is my turn to host our Girls Games Night and we will be having a Murder Mystery Evening. Everyone dressing up in the roles that they have been assigned. Hopefully a fun night.

Has anyone played any of these games, or have some that they love playing? Would love to hear.