Who Will It Be....Andrew, Reece Or Johnny?

Tuesday 22nd November, 2011

Over the last few months we have been watching the X Factor.  Last night was Grand Final night.  Three contestants are left.....Andrew Wishart (over 25 age group) Johnny Ruffo and Reece Mastin (the favourite to win)  (male under 25 age group).

During the previous week all three of them were taken back to their hometowns, Andrew to Melbourne, Johnny to Perth and Reece to Adelaide.  They were filmed meeting up with their family and friends and also performing at their local shopping centres.

Reece was filmed going back to his school which happens to be Golden Grove High, and also at his house, his family live at Greenwith.  He performed at Tea Tree Plaza, there were so many people, around 5000 they estimated.

Soon after they aired this segment the phone rang.  It was Katie, "Nanna I can't believe it."  "What can't you believe?" I asked.  "That Reece goes to Golden Grove High school, and we may have seen him at the shops when we go there. OMG Nanna he may live near you as when they showed his house it was down a hill just like your house is and when we go for walks we pass houses that look like his.  Oh Nanna can we go past his school on a school day just to see if he is there?"  I laughed, she was that excited about it all.

Tomorrow night we will see who wins.  Reece, mentored by Guy Sebastian, is the hot favourite, at only 16 years of age and with the maturity of someone so much older, he has got an amazing voice.  He loves singing rock.

Reece is singing with Kylie Minogue and in my honest opinion he totally outshone her.

Johnny, also mentored by Guy Sebastian, never had such a good voice at the start but as the show went on he has developed so much.  His voice is so much better now and he loves to dance.  He is the overall entertainer.

Andrew, was mentored by Natalie Bassingthwaighte, and being the oldest contestant at 40, had a good voice too.   His voice is somewhere in between John Farnham and Jimmy Barnes.

Good Luck to all three.  They all deserve to win.  I am sure they will all have careers in the entertainment industry.

The three finalists with Kylie Minogue..........

It is now Tuesday night and we have just finished watching the Grand Final Live Decider and the winner of X Factor for 2011 is.........

                                              REECE MASTIN

The votes between first and second were very close (only 1% in it).  Andrew came second and Johnny was eliminated earlier in the evening.

I am off to download Reece's single from ITunes now......"Good Night".  Hope it's a hit for him!!!!



Our First Real Taste Of Summer

Friday 18th November, 2011

What a day!!!  Predicted temperature for today is 37 degrees.  Here it is , 7.00am and the temperature already is 27.  They say for hayfever sufferers and asthmatics, make sure to take your medication as the wind will pick up later making it a horrendous day for all sufferers, and I am just getting over a bad case of sinus.

It took me to yesterday to start feeling better after having had sinus all week.  Monday and Tuesday I just lazed around the house, whenever I tried to do anything my nose would drip like a tap.  Wednesday I did improve but had that irritating cough.  Still got the cough but I feel so much better today.  I won't venture outside unless I have to.

As the day has gone on it has warmed up even more, latest temperature is around 35 degrees.  The wind is blowing a gale outside.  Earlier on in the day they were predicitng thunderstorms and some rain but where is it???  I have to go out later to do some shopping for the weekend.  Hope the rain gets here by then.

Well, we didn't get any rain.  It looks as if it missed Adelaide.  We were right in the middle of 2 bands of rain that went either side.  The temperature did drop a few degrees and the wind subsided but it's still warm outside.  I went and did some shopping at the Village, Tony met me when he got off the bus and then we went and had coffee and then thought we might try Cafe Primo for dinner, here in Golden Grove.

They are always busy there, so we thought that must be a good sign.  I ordered a Surf N Turf (it's schnitzel, instead of steak, and it came with prawns and served with a garlic sauce) and it was YUMMO!!!  Tony had a Veal Scallopine and he said his was very nice too.  A bit different to that other Cafe Primo we went to for Tanecia's birthday.  The food was much nicer here.

The only downside.....their airconditioning had broken down and it was so hot eating inside.  All the outside tables were taken.  Still, the food made up for it.

Here it is now Monday, the weekend has come and gone.  On Saturday morning Tony had to replace the light fitting in the study.  On Thursday night I turned on the light in the study and it threw our power out.  At first we thought we must have had a local power failure but the fridge light was on when you opened the door and so was the light for the oven.

Tony went to check the meter box and yep the meter had tripped, so he reset the RCD.  I tried the light again and poof....out goes the power again.  Back to the meter box, reset it and we have power.  We have had trouble with this light for ages.......we had to keep replacing the light bulbs way too often.

Lucky we still had the light fittings from the hallway when I replaced those fittings, so Tony swapped one of them over and we haven't had any more trouble......yet.  While in 'light' mode he then went outside and checked the solar lights.  Most of them need new recharge batteries.  I keep forgetting to check to see which ones work.

On Saturday night we had made arrangements to go out for dinner and a movie with Rick and Dianne.  They wanted to go down to Semaphore and the movie theatre there and also for a meal at Wee Willie's Tavern. 

Seeing they hadn't seen Red Dog, they said that they would like to see that movie.  Even though Tony and I had already seen it we said we would go and see it again as it was an enjoyable movie.  I must say, we both enjoyed it more the second time around.  Rick and Dianne also enjoyed the movie.

A scene from the movie, Josh Lucas with Koko (Red Dog)

After the movie finished we went to Wee Willie's.  By now it was around 8.45 pm and they still cooked meals.  We were the only ones there dining by this time, Tony and Rick had a seafood platter each and Dianne and I had schnitzels.  Nice meal for a relatively low price.

When we went to the toilets we had to smile.......they were marked  "Wee Willies" and "No Willies".  Bugga!!  I had forgotten to take the camera too.  I ALWAYS have the camera in my bag, but not tonight.

It was a nice night, sitting and talking and eating.  We got home around 12.30am.

On Sunday we had nothing really planned.  Went and vacuumed out the back, seasoned the bar-b-que as we decided we would christen it by having a barbie for dinner.

Later in the afternoon we decided to go out and get Katie her Christmas present.  We headed out to the Good Guys and got her an IPod touch (which she said she wanted).  While waiting to get served I went and had a wander around, and came across these coffee machines.  Hmmmm, I thought, they look OK.

After Tony paid for the IPod I just happened to slowly move him towards these coffee machines.  While looking at them and trying to work out how they work a salesperson came along.  She explained the function of them and as we already have a Senseo coffee machine (for which the pods are hard to buy) we thought this machine would nicely take the place of it.

They are made by DeLonghi and use Nespresso coffee pods.  They had several models but the one we liked was the one that had the unit and milk frother all in one.  Some models had the frother separate and so it needed two power points.
Also, they had the black one on special for $428.  Of course the one I liked was the cream one and that was $498. 

I jokingly told the salesperson that if we could have the cream one for $428 she would have herself a sale.  She looks at me and said that she would have to go and speak to her manager first.  Funnily enough he was standing just behind us and so off she goes and talks to him and when she came back she said we could have it for $420.  Done....you have a sale!!

In the box they give 16 pods of different coffee to try.  Yes, Robyn they have 3 varieties of decaffienated coffee, so you don't have to bring your own when you come to visit.  So far we have tried 5 varieties and they have all been very nice.  They are at different strengths and flavours, some described as how they describe a wine....fruity and full of flavour, fruity and delicate, floral and refreshing.  And here's me thinking coffee is just.....well coffee.

Now I can have a latte, cappucino or a flat white any time of the day or night.  The frother even froths cold milk for an iced coffee.

On Sunday night Tony cooked a barbie for us for dinner.  Yum!!

Later on today I am going to cook a roast in the bar-b-que.  Will do the vegies as well, so it will be interesting to see how it comes out.

From the Lens.........

Excitement Is In The Air

Sunday 13th November, 2011

There was so much excitement and anticipation in the air this weekend.  Firstly, on Friday we went and picked Katie up and after doing some shopping and having dinner we went and picked Taylor up.

Taylor was also sleeping over on Friday night because the next morning we were taking the girls in to the city for the annual Christmas Pageant.  They were very excited about the impending arrival of Father Christmas.

On Saturday morning we were up very early....5.45am.  I let the girls sleep while Tony and I had our showers.  When I went in to wake them, there was no problem getting them up.  They were soon dressed and we left home just after 6.30am.

We parked the car at Tony's work and this year the pageant was coming down Flinders Street and then turning into King William Street due to building work going on at the Harris Scarfes' site in Grenfell Street.  I was so shocked to see the large number of people already lining the street at 7.00am.  Some people must get into town at an ungodly hour just to get a good possie.  They estimated the crowd that lined the streets to be about 335,000.

We found the last free spot just opposite the State Bank.  Put the blanket down, set up the chairs and the girls and I went off to McDonalds to get us some breakfast. The weather was perfect, not too hot, with the maximum temperature to hit 30 degrees.  At least we had shade.

To keep the kids occupied, you either bring your own, or if you buy the morning paper, they give out chalk for the kids to draw on the road.  This keeps them amused for a while.  Then, every year some enterprising ladies make up streamers and for $5 you can buy these and the kids have great fun twirling and dancing with them. 

They also had people giving out red noses to the kids.  They wanted to set a new World Record of how many people were wearing them which they succeeded in doing.  Yay go Adelaide!!!

Finally, we could hear the sounds of the band as the pageant wove it's way through the streets and nearer to us.  Everyone is asked to sit behind the blue honour line, which is painted on the road, and for the next hour and 10 minutes the kids and adults alike are kept enthralled with the sights and sounds of the passing parade.

The clowns are always the girl's favourite, they love to hit hands with them as they pass.  This year the floats consisted of some of the old favourites plus some new ones.....Happy Feet, African singers and Fergus the fire engine.  Bringing up the rear was who every one had come to see......Father Christmas.

After we packed up we took our gear back into Tony's work and then headed off to get the girls some lunch and Tony and I a coffee.  This weekend we only had Katie overnight.  Kahra and Darrin came in and picked her up around 12.30pm and then we went and dropped Taylor off.

On the way home we called into the shops to pick up a couple of things that I forgot last night and then went home.  We no sooner got home when we had to have another shower and get ready to go out for Saturday night.

We were going off to see Dolly Parton.  Robyn and Bob were coming as well, we had had our tickets since June.  When it was announced that Dolly was going to perform in Adelaide Robyn rang and asked if we would like to go.  Not being a real fan of hers I said,"yeah, we'll go".  She was last in Australia 24 years ago when she toured with Kenny Rogers.

They came by about 4.00pm and once again we were off into the city leaving the car at Tony's work.  The plan was to catch the tram down to the Entertainment Centre and then find a hotel to go and have dinner.

We decided to have dinner in the city.  We ended up going to the Ambassador's Hotel and had a great meal.   We were pleasantly surprised.  Robyn, Bob and Tony all had steak while I had the Beef roast.  The roast even came with Yorkshire pudding, something you don't see these days.  We all decided to have dessert as well.....petit lemon meringue and Tony had a passionfruit creme.

We went and waited for the tram and when it finally came along it was crowded.  We all managed to squeeze in and headed off to the Entertainment Centre. 

There must have been at least 12,000 people there.   Anyway, Dolly gave a great show, she was thoroughly entertaining, communicated great with the audience telling us about her life when she was growing up in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.

The most moving experience for me was when she sang "Little Sparrow".  You could have heard a pin drop.  She sang it acapella with 2 of her backup singers for harmony.  Dolly....I think you have another fan.

When the concert finished we decided to wait awhile to get the tram back into the city.  The only reason being was so many wanted to catch it you just couldn't get on.  We let 2 trams go before we decided to get on the next one......even that was crowded.

When we got back into the city we went for a coffee.   Our usual coffee shop was closed so we went off to the Pancake Kitchen.  Tony and I shared a walnut pancake and Robyn had a short stack.

By the time we got home it was nearing 1.30am.  Robyn and Bob definitely aren't used to such late nights....hhahahaha.

On Sunday morning we woke up around 7.45 am and I felt terrible.  My head was pounding, my eyes were watering, nose running and my jaw ached.  Sinus.....ugh!!!

Around 10.00am I went back to bed and slept until 1.00pm.  Tony wanted to go and pick up our new bar-b-que.  We had our showers and off we went.  While there we went and paid some more money off the tallboy.  We paid for and picked up the barbie and then decided while we were out we may as well go to Ikea.  Last time we were there I had seen a small table that I liked.  Of course, they no longer have it.

We came home and Tony started to assemble the barbie.  It's not quite finished but as it was getting late we loaded all the cardboard into the car and once again we headed off into town to dump the cardboard at Tony's work.

After taking some sinus tablets I went straight to bed when we got back as I was still feeling like crap.  Hopefully tomorrow I will feel much better.

Keeping Busy

Tuesday 8th November, 2011

Life has been progressing as normal here.  Last Thursday I went out to lunch with Dianne.  It had been her birthday the week before.  We ended up at Elizabeth Shopping centre and while there sorted out a couple of Christmas presents for the girls.

After I dropped her off I went into town and picked Tony up.  We went and filled the water bottles, did some shopping and then went and had dinner at the Hampstead Hotel.  At least I didn't have to go into town on Friday now.

On Saturday we went and had a look for a new tallboy for our bedroom.  We went back to the place where we bought our bed from, hoping to match the colour with the bedside tables.

We took one of the drawers with us so we knew what colour we needed.  New guys have taken over and they didn't think it could be done.  ???? we were dumbfounded, but they said they would ring me Monday after talking with their manufacturer.

We weren't happy and so we headed off to the Gepps Cross Homemaker Centre.  We went into several stores but there was nothing even close to the colour we wanted, not even with them trying to colour match.  Our only solution was to go out to Gawler and to Mesnar's Furniture and get them to make a tallboy for us.  They would be able to match the colour.

After having some lunch there were still a couple more stores we could try.  Firstly we went into Bar-b-que's Galore.  Seeing we were in the market for a new barbie we thought we would  see what was available.  I had my mind set on the Weber, but after talking with the salesperson we settled for a Beefeater.

We paid a deposit on it and will go back in a few weeks to pick it up.  A few doors up was Forty Winks.  Maybe, I might have better luck in here finding a tallboy.  Voila! the first one we saw was perfect.  Tony went out to the car and got the drawer, the colour was very, very close. 

The salesman knocked $300 off the ticket price ($999), we were happy and so we paid a deposit and ordered one.  Delivery should be in about 3 weeks.

From here we went off and did some food shopping and then off to Ray's Outdoors as we needed a couple of new fold up chairs.  When we last used our old chairs, we noticed that one of them had been swapped over by someone.  This chair was starting to fray on the seat part and so Tony threw it out.  We thought that if we got 2 different coloured chairs to what most people have (get away from either the blue or green), then no-one would be able to get them mixed up.

The chairs we bought weren't cheap, but they were so comfortable, just like sitting in an armchair.  Can't wait to try them out at the Pageant on Saturday.

I have been wanting to go and see the movie "Footloose" for some time now.  I thought I might have been able to take Katie but it has an M rating.  I ended up dragging Tony to go with me Saturday night.  I thoroughly enjoyed it and even Tony said he did too.  Wow , the lead actor (Kenny Wormald) was gorgeous, at times a bit James Dean like.

On Sunday we just hung around home doing all the odd jobs that had been needing doing for ages.  Tony got to dismantle our old bar-b-que, put it in the car and when we finished working outside, we got ourselves cleaned up and went into work and dumped the old barbie in the bins.

We went off and had pizza for dinner. 

On Monday one of the guys from the Waterbed shop rang me to let me know that after talking to their supplier, they were unable to match the colour for the tallboy.  Oh well, it didn't matter now, I'd already found one that was suitable.

From the Lens........as the sun sets on Adelaide

Melbourne Cup

Tuesday 1st November


Seeing it's the first Tuesday in November today is the running of the Melbourne Cup.  This race gets the attention of just about every Australian. 

There will be lots of Cup Luncheons, sweeps will be held in just about every office and the die hard horse racing enthusiasts will go to a race track.  Even those who like to dress up, either fashionably or just crazy will go to a race track.

Tony, again has been invited to a Cup Luncheon.  He is going to the Hilton Hotel.  He went there last year too and said that he hopes the food is better this year.

Well the race has been run and the winner this year is Dunaden.  It was the closest finish in the Cup's history.  Red Cadeaux finished a whisker behind.

I rang Tony to see how his lunch went and he said that the food was much better this year.  He asked for his lamb to be cooked well done and it was.  The soup, apple and asparagus, was served in a shot glass.  They had a small teaspoon with which to eat it, one mouthful and it was gone.

Entree was 3 Prawns with a salad, main course was Lamb with potatoes and onion and dessert was Pecan Pie.  He had three horses in the sweep but they didn't come anywhere.

From the Lens..........

Part of the crowd at Flemington Racecourse

So close........Dunaden edges out Red Cadeaux

The winning jockey......Cristophe Lamaire

                                                         Photos taken from Adelaide Now website

                       

Happy Halloween!!

Monday 31st October, 2011

Happy Halloween!!!

While waiting for Tony to have his hair cut on Saturday, Katie and I came across this poor guy hanging around.  At first Katie was wary of him, but she soon got to warm to him when she heard that he could tell good jokes and didn't have bad breath.    



Maybe the joke wasn't that good after all!!  Or was it something he said?

Ipad, Girls And Animals

Sunday 30th October, 2011

It was somewhere near 11.00am before Katie got out of bed yesterday morning.  At least she had no after effects from the night before.....she said she was feeling good.  

Katie didn't know what she wanted to do for the afternoon, we checked out the movies but there was nothing showing that she wanted to go and see.  After she had brunch, we had showers and got dressed.   Tony thought he might go and have a haircut so while he was doing that Katie and I went girl shopping.

We met up with Tony and decided to go down to the Gepps Cross Homemaker Centre.  We want to replace the oven and hotplates and so we thought we would go and see what was available.  We went to the Good Guys first, and seeing I hate, absolutely hate stainless steel appliances there's not much available in white.

We got some brochures with the measurements of the appliances, unfortunately it doesn't look as if it will be a complete swap, looks like some cutting out and filling in will have to be done, we then went off and had a look at the IPod's.  Katie has decided she wants an IPod touch for Christmas.

They were having a sale on all Apple products and after not too much convincing we ended up buying an IPad.  It was something we had been thinking about for awhile.  Katie was excited, "at least Nanna, you'll be able to get some of my favourite books on the IPad, and I'll be able to read them when we go on long drives," she said.

Soon after we got home Jodi came by with Taylor and Tanecia.  She said that they had already had dinner.  She had cooked Beef Olives, but Taylor told Jodi they weren't as good as Judy's, hehehehehe, and so she said she was still hungry. 

I hadn't bothered getting anything for dinner for us as I didn't know if Jodi would have fed Taylor.   When Jodi left we went off to Fasta Pasta for dinner.  After we came back home we got the girls ready for bed.   It wasn't long before they were asleep.

Sunday morning the girls slept in.  Normally when Taylor sleeps over they are up at the crack of dawn, but this morning it was after 7.30am before they got up.  Tony and I were up before them.

They wanted to go swimming but with the temperature only supposed to get to 19 degrees I didn't think that was a good idea.  Plus it was quite breezy as well. 

In the end it was decided we would go to Monarto Zoo.  Thank goodness for the IPad.  I had downloaded some games, some books and the movie "Rio".  The girls were kept occupied for the trip up and back.

We went and saw the chimps, the wallabies, the meerkats and now they have tortoises in the same enclosure as the meerkats, caught the bus and got off at the rhino enclosure and walked up to hear the cheetah talk.   That was running late and we had to leave soon after it started as we wanted to catch the bus to go to the lions.  We ended up deciding not to go and see the lions as time was getting on and we said we would drop Katie off at 5.00pm.

The baby rhino we saw several months ago has grown.  There were some baby ostriches, only hatched a week ago, and a baby bison.  They also think there may be some more baby cheetahs on the way, but won't know until they are actually born. 

The girls had a great time.  We ended up dropping Katie off at around 5.00pm and then Taylor.  Tony and I came home, had dinner and decided we might have an early night ourselves. 

Yeah right.....it was still after 10.30pm before we went off to bed.

From the Lens..........