In which I blitz you with pictures in no particular order.

A couple of weekends ago several chapters of a Chrysler car club had their annual gathering in Lakes. I am not a big fan of cars but I would have quite happily taken some of these home. It was a glorious day. I only took one photo but you get the idea. They had cars from the 30's to current models the latter of which didn't do much for me at all. They reminded me of the cars men drive if they have a need to compensate if you get my drift. The cars from the mid 50s were my absolute favourites.

I enrolled in a four week course on a different form of weaving. The photos below are of the final day. We made fish out of all sorts of things including raffia and leaves and cane and shells and I learned to make cordage out of plant fibres. Really interesting and thoroughly enjoying and I plan to continue with it at some point. 

The sessions were held at the newly repurposed slipway and these are the view from where we were sitting. You can see the old slipway in the first.

I'm not sure if you can get the sense of the cloud in this photo. It was almost like a flying saucer (that is our house in the bottom left).

Stepson's step daughter was married the same weekend of the car show above. All were invited except for us. We have done something to that family but have no idea what. Anyway, all the boys went up and Two and Three took their families. Amy flew up and back with the girls and Three drove up so they had a car with seats. He then drove back and stopped in with us for a couple of nights which was so special as we don't get him on his own very often. 

I took him to a local aboriginal museum with a cafe advertising they sell indigenous food. We were underwhelmed but the toasties were good and the surroundings were beautiful. We went for a walk through grounds.

We then went to Bullock Island to see the Entrance and encountered this handsome chap.

I am always amazed at how such a large, awkward looking bird can fly so gracefully (landing is another story!). Apparently their bones are incredibly light.

We went for a walk this morning. This farm owned the land our estate is built on. We can see it from our house.

And this is the ocean from the new road. Houses will eventually be built here but for now I enjoy the view.

Murphy. Such a needy dog but we love him.

You might remember I went up to Melbourne to collect Sally and bring her back. Alice modelled the dress her mum had bought for her to wear to the Qld wedding. It passed the twirl test.

                                                 

On the way home we stopped for breakfast. Sally wasn't impressed with the artisan raisin toast but she did enjoy her hot chocolate.

                                                      

And of course, Lakes isn't Lakes without doughnuts for breakfast.

And a play on the beach

When Three and Alice arrived we did the usual things including a walk across the bridge. Alice was sooking so to distract her I poionted out the water under the bridge through the metal mesh. Both girls found it fascinating - I decided not to tell them that fisherfolk clean and gut the fish there!
 

Today I went to the U3A AGM and have joined their committee. First step in becoming a true part of the community here. Someone had brought in bags of limes so of course I grabbed a few. 

Archie Rose Finger Lime gin and tonic with fresh lime ...

I was meant to finish this and post it last night but as I was working on it Himself got an email from the rental agent saying that the landlord had come down from Melbourne to check the house and said it smelt of animal and that considering we had already had the carpet cleaned and deodorised would we consider contributing to the cost of replacing it.

This resulted in phone calls with Three and Amy as they have a vast rental experience and were able to direct me to the right govt bodies which state that any carpet over 10 years old should be replaced at the owner's expense. The carpet in question has to be at least 20 years old, is faded, stained, frayed and the underlay is non-existant. I composed an email back for Himself to send stating this and saying, no, we will not be paying anything towards replacing the carpet. To be honest, it should have been replaced before we moved in as should the house have been painted. The owner has lied to the various property managers we had over the 12 months saying repairs had been done when they hadn't - and the relevant trades and businesses were able to back this up. Our next door neighbour also warned us that the owner was the sort of person who would try to get money out of us. As a result I have put in a claim to the body that holds bond money to get our bond back. It may take longer but it means that the owner can't just get the agent to withhold part of it without taking us to VCAT which will cost them money and could take years with the backlog of issues VCAT has to deal with. For the amount of money involved it won't be worth their hassle and I imagine VCAT would find in our favour anyway. It will mean the bond will be a bit longer coming back to us but it will come back in full.

Not the end of renting we hoped for - the agent even commented to Himself that the house was cleaner than when we moved in! Agent is lovely - landlord not so much.

So after that unwanted interlude this post was abandoned and I went and poured another gin.