The long weekend

What a fabulous weekend it has been! Last week I had blocked out Thursday and Friday to attend a work-related course. On Tuesday, the course was cancelled - but having made no appointments for those days I thought I'd take a some annual leave and have a bit of a mini-break.

On Thursday I met up with my Cousin for a gourmet burger down at the Bay. A couple of years ago, the Adelaide entrant in a reality show called My Restaurant Rules won the series and their restaurant, The Greedy Goose, is still going strong and remains one of my favourite eateries. This year they've opened up a gourmet burger restaurant at Glenelg and so far I've sampled a couple of varieties. The 'beef and brie' was gorgeous, but I think Thursday's Lamb with roasted shallots, salami, slow roasted tomatoes, rocket and goats curd was even better. Add a couple of glasses of Sauvignon Blanc and non-stop conversation (this is my family we're talking about) and it's the recipe for a great afternoon.

This was followed on Thursday evening by a wonderful and somewhat drunken evening with the Bestie and The DIVA - in town for a family reunion. The DIVA had escaped husband and children and was in fine form, downing champagne like there was no tomorrow. Although we were denied a lounge-room performance on this occasion (generally possible after the application of a judicious quantity of bubbles and a carefully chosen CD), we did get to practice explosive pelvic floor exercises and generally have a fine old time.

The Bestie - freed from the rigours of parenthood for the week with Baby Angel off in Fiji with her Father - was able to have a sleepover! We were a little bleary eyed the following day, but a breakfast of pancakes soon fixed that and we sallied forth for a long walk by the Torrens River and trip to the Zoo. It was a glorious day, and a number of animals that are generally sleeping in a corner whenever I visit were up and about - most notably the red pandas and the beavers which I have never seen before! We had a lovely day - only managing to see about half the zoo in the time available - and have vowed to return soon... The strategy of parking the car 3 km from the zoo also paid off with no option but to walk off the chips and ice-cream on our way back to the car. All in the interests of developing Buns of Steel! Or at least silly putty...

Saturday was going to be my rest day with nothing particular planned. However, I thought I would go to one of our local electrical retailers and have a look at DVD recorders as I'd promised the parental body I would bequeath them my old DVD/amplifier/surround sound system. Well they didn't have a DVD I liked - but there was this fabulous flat panel LCD TV at an absolute bargain price that it would have been a crime not to buy ...

Of course, then I had to get the wall bracket, a new (and smaller) TV stand, a DVD recorder from another store and the cabling to make it all work ...

"Right" thought I, after managing to unload this booty from the car. "Let's get out the power drill and get the wall mounting unit in place!" Easier said than done as it turned out... First, of course, I had to unplug the old system and get it ready for transport to the Parental's. Then if was a matter of moving the furniture and getting rid of (now) extraneous items. Then vacuum 3 years worth of accumulated dust.

Then find out that the bricks used to build my back room are possibly the hardest and most durable variety in the universe. Instructions said to drill 6 holes to 60mm depth with 12mm masonary drill bit. Fine. Measuring up was fine. Marking the position of 6 holes was fine. Drilling into the wall was not fine - it defeated my cordless drill and almost burnt out the motor of my high speed hammer drill. When this started shooting sparks at my head I decided it was time to quit - with not one of the holes more than 30mm deep.

Time to get a little man in ...

Actually, when I'd set up the TV in its temporary location, it actually looked fine and worked well in the space.

Time to get out the spakfilla...

Sunday morning was spent getting rid of boxes, packing materials, drills bits, screws and other paraphernalia in anticipation of a visit from the Parental Body, The DIVA and her entire brood for a barbeque tea. It was a lovely afternoon with the Parental Body (Dear Old Dad in particular) being most taken with new flat panel LCD TV and re-thinking whether they really needed 45 kilos of old fashioned tele... By the end of the afternoon, we all thought not.

Little Lord Fauntleroy was hugely entertained by "Back to the Future" in the cinema room, Hamster and Little Miss were on their best behaviour (thank goodness for high chairs!) and the whole occasion passed off very enjoyably and without a hissy fit from anyone. Yeah!!!

To round off the weekend, the Bestie and her GG popped in after the SA Grand Final (sadly not winners as I'm sure you will read in her blog) for a couple of quickies between functions and the opportunity to slag off and the Australian Idol contestants.

Do weekends get any better?