July 2024

Hello friends and hello Monday! I hope you all had a great weekend! It’s great to be back on this very chilly Monday to share a bit about our weekend. Thanks so much for stopping by. Early last week our friend invited a group of us over to her house for dinner and games. She didn’t mention it was for a special occasion, just a casual get-together. As we got to the end of the week, I had a lightbulb moment and remembered it was her birthday! I’m a bit hopeless at remembering birthdays and, to be honest, I would probably forget mine if I could. Our friend didn’t want a fuss or presents, saying all she wanted was our presence. But I did get her a little something anyway. That night, we were all transported to a Mediterranean feast, and I’m sure I put on two kilos in two hours! The food was amazing! We had cheese, crackers, olives tzatziki dip and stuffed vine leaves. I’ve had vine leaves before but not as good as the ones I had on Saturday night. They were generously stuffed and covered in a very lemony sauce, they were just deliciously delicious! For dinner, we started with saganaki prawns. Saganaki is a traditional Greek dish of fried cheese and prawns in a rich tomato sauce. We had big chunks of bread to wipe up the sauce, although I could have quite happily picked up my plate and licked it clean! Then, we had fall-apart lamb with roast potatoes, purple sweet potato, and salad, for the main course. Our friend has a Greek background but grew up in England, so she has an English accent and amazing Greek cooking skills. Sunday Sunday was the kind of day that makes you happy to just stay home because the weather was pretty miserable. We had no plans so we just stayed in and kept warm. I finished watching ‘Bonus Family’ and I felt sad that it was over. Do you get the post-series blues? I couldn’t find anything I wanted to watch on Netflix so I switched over to SBS on Demand (a free-to-air catch-up channel). I was looking for another Swedish series but then decided to go for a Spanish movie by one of my favourite directors Pedro Almodóvar – ‘Women on The Edge of a Nervous Breakdown’. It’s a quirky comedy with strong female leads and a very young Antonio Banderas. The movie is full of bold visuals, bright colours and it has a retro feel. The costumes have that chic fashionable feel from the 60s and the decor features mid-century modern which just so happens to be my favourite! The whole plot was kind of absurd but I really enjoyed it. It was perfect Sunday afternoon viewing. SBS has a few Almodóvar movies and I’m looking forward to watching ‘Broken Embraces’ with Penelope Cruz next. My absolute favourite movie directed by Almodóvar is ‘Volver’ with Penelope Cruz. I love this movie so much that I have a framed movie poster of it in our lounge room. Interestingly, Almodóvar tends to use many of the same actors in his movies. In the evening, Steve and I discovered a new series on SBS called ‘Crossing Lines’—well, it’s new to us, although it was made in 2013. It stars Donald Sutherland, who sadly passed away recently. We watched a few episodes and enjoyed this crime drama series, which follows a special unit investigating cross-border crimes and bringing criminals to justice across Europe. It’s like a blend of CSI and Criminal Minds but with a distinct European twist. The actors all have really cool accents that I enjoy listening to. We spent the entire afternoon and evening glued to the TV, watching until our eyes went square. We only paused briefly to make a simple dinner. Ever since I saw Sarah’s zucchini pasta, I’ve been craving it! Unfortunately, I didn’t have any basil and only one small zucchini, so I’ll save making it properly for another day. This version was tasty with the butter and Parmesan, but I’m sure the authentic recipe will be even better. Then we had another break for dessert and this was Steve’s creation -It looks like a mix of anything sweet he could get his hands on in 60 seconds! And that was our weekend—filled with lots of eating and TV watching. I’m looking forward to this week because it’s the last one before our holiday break. Tonight, we’re going out for dinner with friends. Then, on Thursday night, we have the Boney M concert, and Friday is our end-of-term staff dinner. Remember how I mentioned our preschool underwent two torturous days of Rating and Assessment? Well, we received our results a few weeks ago and achieved a rating of Exceeding. So, on Friday night, we’ll be celebrating big! Happy Monday and I look forward to being back here on Wednesday!