Sunday Footy!

We've never lived down this end of town, the four other houses we have lived in have all been on the other side of the CBD.  After living on a noisy truck route and having the council yard across the road in our last house I kind of liked the idea of living across from a big park and then it turned out the house on the other side is empty so there's only Val and Brian and it would seem one other tenant in the villas next door.  I didn't count on the footy though.  And it's footy season.  I woke this morning to the sound of loudspeakers and headbanging doof doof music.  Looking out my window I saw a sea of cars parked everywhere outside our house and on the middle nature strip.  I know sport is terribly important in country towns, almost an obsession, and after living in the bush for most of the last 14 years I get that.  But the music?  It seemed that every time someone scored they would play this loud doof doof and you could hear young men shouting out, even swearing.  I put my ear plugs in and went back to sleep.  It's Sunday.  Val came over later with some cuttings of an African rose which will grow just from sticking in the ground it seems.  She said the music is a new thing with the footy and that it won't be every weekend as they don't always play at home.  I'm not too worried, just something else to get used to here. 

See how wide our front verandah is?

I really like Val and Brian, they are good people but I have lost the art of social skills from years of being shunned by neighbours wherever we lived just because we rented.  I haven't invited her in yet but I will, she would only be in her late 60s from what I can gather.  She's one of those good country women who are adept at everything domestic, although she worked as a nurse for 50 years.  She knows a lot about gardening and I'm going to learn some things from her there.  I would like to return the kind gestures she has made but I'm nervous about that too.  I might make a batch of our family recipe shortbread for her, everyone loves that.
We have so far planted broccoli, cauliflower, rainbow chard and curly parsley in the big garden bed.  I need to get parts of the garden tidied up but will wait till Phill is home so he can help me.
I have been cooking again, but I am drawn toward the old fashioned fare that we were raised on.  Tonight I made an old savoury mince recipe to have on toast.  I did roast lamb and a meatloaf during the week.  I love all that sort of comfort food, I wish the kids did.  Well Josh really likes meatloaf but Emily hardly eats anything these days.  She's put applications in for Woolies (the big supermarket) and Target but she needs to get more proactive in looking for a job.

Lounge room, still got a box of cds to unpack there.  Might put our little sound system on the white cupboard. 

 

We've had that train painting in every house we've lived in for almost 20 years.  It's a Brian Begent print called "Delivering the Goods" that was given to Phill by a friend for his birthday and framed for us by Phill's father.  We love it, as soon as we hang it we know we're home.

The coming week will see me finishing off settling in and finding room for everything and getting ready to start my uni course at the end of the month.  I know I have to be disciplined and organised to succeed and getting a chair for my desk will be my first move, since Emily stole mine.  It was really too big for our bedroom anyway, and wouldn't slide under the desk.

It's so cold already, I've had heating on all day and had to put on a jacket when I went to the shops this morning.  Going to be a chilly Winter I reckon.