A Capital Weekend

Last Thursday evening, instead of going to the M&S knitting group, I flew to Canberra. It was wonderful to get away from the packing boxes for the weekend.







Friday was the man's birthday and we went to the excellent Ottoman for dinner. The restaurant is somewhat curiously located in Barton, surrounded by office buildings. We had a lovely evening and the service and food were of the usual high standard. We had a selection of Turkish dishes - all delicious - and left feeling well and truly sated.









On Saturday morning we headed to the National Gallery for the Masterpieces_from_Paris exhibition. This comprises 112 masterpieces from the Musee d'Orsay in Paris which, I believe, is undergoing extensive renovation. The highlight for me, rather predictably, was Van Gogh's Starry Night. I've seen it before but was again enthralled by the depth of colour and luminescence of the painting.









After that, we headed for the Canberra Centre and a bit of shopping before going to see Bran Nue Dae. I enjoyed the movie but can see that it might have been better as a stage show.

Later we walked around the lake before heading out to dinner in Manuka.






On Sunday we had a leisurely but not very nice breakfast- in Manuka again - before spending an hour or so at the Bus_Depot_Markets in Kingston. Then on to the Pialligo_Estate for lunch - an excellent Duck breast salad for me - and a glass or two of Pinot Grigio. The weather was perfect - warm but with none of the Sydney humidity.

And then it was time to get on the plane back to Sydney. After the stresses of the last few weeks it was the perfect weekend - no humidity, warm days, good food and wine and a some relaxing diversions.

Stash relocation

So Saturday (hottest day for 6 or 7 years) was the day of the move. The removalists were great and nearly everything got relocated without too much drama. The new place has more living space but the bedrooms are smaller with fewer cupboards. This necessitated a trip to Ikea to buy a wardrobe. (Note to self: do not go to Ikea on a drizzly Sunday. Everybody has the same idea. It is not much fun for you or the hundreds of wailing infants!)

The knitting books are in here somewhere:

And part of the stash is in here........

.....somewhere!

Trials and tribulations

I'm generally fairly sanguine about my lot in life. I think that I have had a blessed life so far and regularly thank whichever force has decreed that I should be so fortunate (apart from the bunions, of course). However, the last few months has severely tested my (possibly) complacent view of the world.

Having spent most weekends looking for somewhere to live and submitting to quite intrusive examination to determine whether we were fit to live in some overpriced hovel, we finally had an application accepted and were all set to move out to the 'burbs. Although this meant an extended commute to work I was prepared to do it in order to live in a nice, new townhouse with plenty of space. The day before we were due to sign the lease it all fell through because the potential landlord hadn't settled the purchase. And settlement was going to be delayed at least four weeks and we have to be out of our current place at the end of the month. So the trawling of the websites, fruitless attempts to contact real estate agents and turning up with dozens of other hopefuls at the few places that were halfway decent began again. In desperation.

Fortunately the application we submitted on Saturday was approved and this weekend we move into a townhouse in the same suburb. Not as large as the other one but much closer to the City and easier to get home to after Thursday evening knitting group.

In with the new....

It's taken me a while to get around to tallying up the knitting output for 2009. This was partly due to me feeling hat my productivity was pathetic in comparison to others. We were talking about this at knitting group and I came to realise that it doesn't matter. I enjoyed most of the projects I embarked on during the year. Those that were less than satisfactory have been frogged and will become new, more enjoyable ones this year. So here it is - what I finished last year.

As for New Year's Resolutions - I never keep them so would be setting myself up for failure if I made any. And goals are far too specific for me. I have decided that I will have aspirations this year. I shall aspire to knit from my stash (packing up for the house move made me realise how much I had accumulated), to finish more projects this year and to not buy yarn unless I have a specific project in mind. My other aspirations include getting fit, losing weight (10 kilos in 2010) and staying in contact with friends and family.