Weekend Fun

I finally got out of the flat this weekend. I've rather got into the habit of staying indoors and working/playing on the computer despite the fact that the weather is gorgeous and there's plenty to see and do. I had half planned to go to the Botanical Gardens on Sunday but certain telephonic appointments intervened (you know who you are). Instead I met up with L and a couple of her friends for ice-cream and a wander around the local craft market.

L's friends were really interesting. R's British and M's Australian. They travel between the UK and Australia every year taking the long way round and stopping off at various countries on the way so they've seen a fair bit of this old world.

As I said, he's Australian by birth and guess what his favourite film is? Uh-hu "The Shiralee". A film he knows off by heart and which, he says, makes him cry everytime he watches it. He has also taken it on holiday to show to friends so that they can appreciate it. He knows what my name means, he wondered if I knew what it meant, we both agreed that my mother must have HATED me - no, strike that - she must have hated being twenty-seven months pregnant with me, when she saw the film.

It turns out that he's a fan of the Bryan Brown mini-series (adapted into a two hour film) and didn't know that there was an earlier film version (1957 with Peter Finch in the title role). I took it as a compliment that he thought I was named after the later version (1988) made only twenty seven years after I was born.

We sat, talked and ate ice-cream at my favourite ice-cream shop. If you want they will deliver to your home.....




then we wandered around the market....




I didn't buy anything although I was tempted by these gorgeous artificial roses - I just don't know where I'd put them....




R pointed out the local peppercorn trees....



I'd never thought about where pepper comes from but, according to R, the white bobbly bits you can see in the centre of the photo will turn into pink flowers which can be picked. One picked you rub them between your hands, the pink covering disappears and, lo and behold, you have pepper corns! Ain't nature wonderful.

Finally they went off to San Telmo (the centre of Tango and another market, much bigger than the local one) and I came home to talk turkey with my folks.

Oh and I got sunburned!