November

I had only been back in Geneva for a moment, when I was off again.. this time back to Sweden to cater a ball. It was a fascinating challenge. All new recipes (well, very old ones actually), long distance, and in a format that noone had ever experienced before. Noone up here anyway. It surprised me to find out that a simple ball format where you have lots of fingerfood throughout the night just doesn't happen here. It took some negotiation and me being quite firm to establish that no there was no need for tables. No, noone would need plates. No, the food would not be served in one big serve.

It all went swimmingly. The food appeared to be a smash hit, and while people found the format a little puzzling at least at first, they soon got into it, and enjoyed the grazing.

Sorry I was too busy cooking to photograph, so there isn't any evidence of it, but I will eventually put the recipes up on my foodblog... the first is up there already: offella.

My second time in Abu Dhabi, and staying in the most amazing hotel I have ever seen. The room is bigger than my apartment, and just stunning. L'Occitane products in the bathroom, superb view from the private balcony, and a bath big enough to fit two people. Oh yeah... bring it on! 8 swimming pools, beauty centre, and a gold souk just down the road (accessible via private boat).

I didn't have much planned for this visit, but one of those things was to go to the Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Mosque. Of course I had to dress appropriately: it is a requirement for visiting. So here I am, all dressed up:   The Mosque is spectacular. Marble from all over the world is set into the columns in a beautiful floral decoration. The main room has the world's largest chandelier - between you and I, not the worlds loveliest. But in fact the women's room is prettier I think... We had a very charming guide who was happy to answer all sorts of questions... "why do men and women pray in different rooms?" He explained that when praying your feet and hands are supposed to touch the person next to you, and women might feel uncomfortable being touched by a strange man (you don't get to choose who you kneel next to) and men might be distracted.

I caught up again with a couple of the couchsurfers again and even went to a function at one of the Embassies. I picked up my gold beads from the manufacturer and tried, again, to go see the cultural centre. Again no joy. Ah well, maybe another day eh?

Abu Dhabi continued to be the city of construction and water features where-ever I went. It is fascinating. In a country that has only two days of rain a year, there is so much greenery and so many water features! I understand that do serious sea water treatment. Doing their best to slow the rising of the seas I guess. <grin>

On my last evening, I unfortunately had a nasty incident with a taxi driver. I won't share all the details because it was kinda icky, but suffice to say, I was just fine but a bit shaken by it all, and whilst the Police were not called, they would have been, if I had not been leaving that night. The taxi authorities were called, and I believe the man is now unemployed, as he should be. Not the nicest way to end my holiday, but the one good thing was that one of my new couchsurfing friends was around and gave me a heap of support.

20 November

My last days in Canberra were a bit on the stressed side. Trying to get some final stuff done, bidding farewell to family and friends. In addition, one of my dearest friends got ill (she has a bad habit of spending all her energy on others and neglecting herself!) and was hospitalised the night before I left. It was unbelievably hard to get on the train and leave at a time like that. I did 'mobilise' the friends to help out but oh, oh, it was still so hard.

I caught the train to Sydney and gave myself a little time to spend again with Vicki and Peter. They were good enough to organise a get together for drinks and tapas in town. I was rapt to have the chance to see my Sydney friends again, and very honoured by my friends Kate and Gris flying down from Brisbane! I also got a real blast from the past with seeing the lovely Ginny, who I haven't seen for... maybe 10 years? She is still gorgeous though!

We all had a lot of laughs over our pasts. I won't put up the most incriminating of the photos <grin>.

My kind hosts then did even more, by extending an invitation to breakfast! Their backyard has a lovely patio, and Vicki has draped the pergola with bright fabric making a just perfectly welcoming and pretty place to eat.

Then it was off to the airport where I discovered that my bags were exactly as heavy as I thought, but the airline was a great deal more of a pain than I thought. I had to unload a pile of stuff on to Vicki, who kindly mailed it to me later.

18 November

R & J kindly offered to host a pizza party as a Canberra farewell for my friends. They have built a fabulous oven in the corner of their courtyard. It was a totally lovely evening with a bunch of people who are extraordinarily dear to me. Looking at the photos makes me feel all happy and sad at the same time. But it was time. Time to go back to my work, and my temporary home in Geneva. But once again they reminded me that my real home lies with them.

15 November

At last, a real piece of holiday! While it was fantastic spending time with friends and family, the running around looking at plumbing and tiles etc was wearing me down. But I had some foresight and booked the place at Dalmeny for a few days of peace. Unfortunately after the stitches came out of my foot, it got infected. I got some antibiotics, but reacted badly to them (now that was an interesting experience I would rather not repeat), so then had to take cortisone to counteract them, and then take new antibiotics, but this meant that my foot was not looking pretty, and any thoughts of spending any real time with either wet or sandy feet had to go. But going to Dalmeny isn't about that for me anyway.

But here, I am at peace. No phone, no radio noise, no tv. Just Cate and I, with the musical accompaniment of nature. The crickets are singing to me now, with the background of waves crashing on the shore. It is so enormously peace-bringing.

The sun was setting as we arrived back in Canberra, one of those marvellous Australian sunsets (which, I might add, WALK all over European sunsets, which are pretty but pallid):

In the evening, back in Canberra, my mum and dad gathered the clan together for a bit of a farewell dinner. At my request we had roast lamb for dinner, which my dad 'webered' (I bet you didn't know that this is now a verb <grin>).

Meeting up with my dear friend Pam for a coffee one afternoon, we decided that the perfect spot was the National Botanical Gardens. And wasn't it just! Always a favourite place for me, the gardens were looking glorious, and we were joined by some friendly wildlife to boot.

Lovely!

Another night, I was invited to my friend Brigid's for dinner, where I had an amazing cheesecake. I even managed to get the recipe from her, so at some stage I will make it and (if she gives me permission) post the recipe on my foodblog. But just to make you jealous, here is a photo:

Cate took me to meet her parents on the farm. It felt a little like when you meet the parents of your boyfriend/partner in some ways, because we had to actually drive for a few hours to get there, so it was quite a deliberate meeting, if you know what I mean.

Their house is beautiful, and so similar in many ways from my parent's house that it was almost freaky. They have a big property though (although mum and dad's place kind of flows on to parkland). We wandered around, having a look at the fauna and flora (and yes that is a black snake!):

Oh, and by the way, I don't know if I got the parental seal of approval, but Cate's parents are amazing, just like her (and most of my friends in fact, for that matter!).

We couldn't stay for long as we had to be back in Canberra in time for me to frock up for a cocktail party! I had done some searching and found a great frock, necklace, and shoes. I won't put up many photos from the night because, well, what happens at the cocktail party stays at the cocktail party, but there are a few I can share (and one that I could not resist putting up no matter what!):

The party was honoured by the visit of one of the local wildlife; this cute possum:

The lack of mobility did not prevent me from getting on the phone though - I had much to do! While this was theoretically a holiday, I needed to arrange to renegotiate my mortgage and realised that my house needs some serious work done. The outside of the house needs repainting, the bathroom needs complete renovation and the garden has had many trees die because of the drought, so they needed removing. Calling contractors for quotes kept my mind busy and off my foot. The costs of things varied wildly. One quote for the housepainting was $4800 and another was $2000! I just hope that the colour I have chosen to paint will work well and it is just a bit of a pity I won't be in the country to see and enjoy it when it is all new and beautiful.

Getting a new home loan meant having the house revalued and it was nice to discover that it is worth a decent amount. I bought it in the year 2000 for $132,000 and it is now worth $420,000 even without the renovations. Excellent! I have all sorts of grand plans in my head for the place, including covering the roof with solar panels and putting in water tanks to collect the run off from the roof (assuming it will ever rain!) but much of those will wait for a bit.

My time in Australia also coincided with "the race that makes a nation stand still" - the Melbourne cup. This race traditionally is watched all over the country, with champagne and chicken lunches before hand and most people investing a buck or two on a sweep.

What is a sweep, you may well ask? It is a form of random betting, charming in it's simplicity. Generally everyone who buys a ticket gets a horse, randomly picked. The money that is gathered from people buying tickets is distributed to the first, second, third and last place winner. So for example a $1 sweep with say, 20 horses, would raise $20. A typical split might be that the first place winner gets $10, 2nd $6, 3rd $3 and 4th $1. It is really just a bit of silliness and gives everyone a chance to shout and cheer "their" horses around the track.

So our family gathered, ate chicken, and drank, well juice mostly, and then gathered around the tv, ice-blocks in hand to watch the race.

In the end I think that almost all the winners donated their winnings to charity... the best use of the money indeed.

I also decided i had to tackle the garage at the house, to try and get rid of some of the garbage. A bunch of friends came over, and helped me move boxes out and then back in to the garage. I gave away some stuff, sold a few bits and pieces, gave a mound of stuff to charity, and sent two trailer loads to the tip. Much to my horror, I discovered that rats adore tupperware and have eaten their way through about $1000 worth of the stuff.  Damn their furry bodies and gnawing teeth!  They disdained all the cheap and nasty plastic containers and went exclusively for the expensive stuff.  grrrr.