Snippets of Recent Events

Well, it feels like it's been ages since I last posted. We've been away, we went down south to Bunbury and then up north to Geraldton. Down south was to attend my mother-in-law's sister's funeral. She was a dear lady who died at a good old age of 86, there was a special bagpipe number at the funeral as she was born in Scotland and came out to Australia when she was five. The music was awesome and extremely moving, especially played at a funeral. We took the opportunity to visit our friends who live in Bunbury while we were there, had lunch with them and took a brief tour of the city. We saw two look-outs which were perched high up above the city, first one we saw we wanted to climb up and have a look, I could see the majestic-looking Catholic Cathedral from low down. But our son didn't feel up to such a climb, so we got back in the car and decided to drive around. When we got to another side of the city, we spied another look-out! This time it didn't look as daunting and steep as the last one. So we quickly got out of the car and started the ascend. The trip was rather interesting especially when I saw my classmate from University days (1989) at the funeral. I was sure I knew the lady as soon as I saw her sitting in the opposite church pews. We got talking after the funeral service and lo and behold, I found out she's actually even related to me by marriage. She's my mother-in-law's sister's son's niece, it's a "complicated relationship". Believe it or not, I was so thrilled to see her I forgot to get a picture of her. I managed to fit in a little project in the midst of all the busy-ness and visits and everything. I painted a partition which I created and decorated out of the back of a bookcase to give hubby a bit of privacy in his study on one side. Then there was the trip up north(41/2 to 5 hours' drive) to visit my mother-in-law. This trip was different to other trips in that we had a little "girl" waiting for us to adopt. She was given to my sister-in-law and needed a home badly. So considering Leo, our cat went missing and we'd love the kids to grow up with a pet, we took her in. We named her Belle and she's the smallest and cutest thing! Now we've got a dog(a puppy)!!!!!! She doesn't look like my favourite dog West Highland White Terrier, which is beyond our budget to own at the moment. She is very intelligent. Can you identify what breed she is? We were guessing long-haired Jack Russell cross, or she might have Chi hua hua in her? We can't be sure! We visited the Museum(for the ten thousandth time, it's become our family ritual as the kids insist to do every time we go to Geraldton), which showcased among others, this Gateway with an artificially but nicely created under-the-sea atmosphere, the blocks were retrieved from the sunken ship Batavia. There is quite a story to what happened to the people on that ship. The bonus of this musuem visit was in the Gallery, there was a display of the winners' and highly commended pictures from the Amazing Nature and Landscape Photography Competition, I thoroughly enjoyed the display and completely fascinated by the beauty and intricacy of God's creations. I also have to show some pictures which I took on the way up north. The scenery of the countryside is simply breathtaking. I love looking into the distance of green hills/meadows with horses, cows and sheep and blue skies as far as you can see and ....dream......! The photos don't do justice to the vastness and the dreaminess of the real thing, as they were taken as the car was moving........ Now, last but not least, who's ready for a cup of tea and some sweet and juicy strawberries? I am!........ Ah! Refreshing!