Life is getting back to normal now, with Covid restrictions mostly gone. It is still tricky to travel overseas but Bruce has decided that it is time to step back into our overseas golf trips and is organising a trip for later in the year to use up our travel credits before they lapse.
Bruce was woken during the night to the sounds of something trapped in our fire place, it had obviously fallen down the chimney. He couldn’t be bothered checking into it during the night, so got up the next morning to see what it was.
He found a large possum sleeping in the ashes, so being the conservationist that he is he carefully picked it up to release it outside. The little bugger bit him during the process, so the careful release turned into a throw onto the pavement. No harm was done and it quietly settled onto the first tree it could find.
Barry and Wendy, our neighbours who reside in Singapore can now finally travel more easily between their homes so we were able to catch up with them in the New Year.
Since Barry and Wendy own a winery, we decided to go to their Chinese NY celebration in February. It was a very pleasant affair, with really good music and Chinese Dumplings. We also drank a bit of their Chardonnay and SSB.
Barry had to do the cooking, since the Dumpling people had double booked, he did a great job. David, the trumpet player, did some very good Louis Armstrong songs so all up it was a lovely afternoon.
In February, we took our usual holiday to Perth to play golf at the Vines and Joondallup. We stayed at the Quality Inn at Sorrento for something different. It was very nice, with good views of the water.
Caught up with Dave and Barb, Dave is right into cigars lately so we had dinner and then went to Devlin’s, his cigar lounge. I am impressed with Devlin’s, it provides a nice atmosphere for yuppies to get togethers for a drink and a few cigars. You have a locker to store your wine and cigars in. They provide the tables and chairs along with glasses and other requirements and they also have functions for members. Dave loves it.
Rosie and Bruce entered the Mixed Foursomes Championships again this year. We played quite well but were never going to win the Gross (Which is what the championship is based on). We did manage to win the Nett, which meant we played better than everyone else relative to our handicap.
Liam enrolled in uni again last year, but did all his lectures from home. This year he has shifted up to Perth to live in his unit in Bentley and now that his previous tenants have shifted out, he is spending time fixing up his unit. Rosie and Liam are loving playing house together and painting and planning renovations.
Liam completed gutted the main bathroom, taking out the bath and jack hammering the floor so that new pipes could be put in for the shower that was shifted to where the bath used to be. He then had to concrete the floor again so that the tilers could do their work.
In July, Rosie and Bruce went up to Broome for a week to play in the Broome Open Golf and to catch up with Lorna and Charles who were visiting their son Jason. It was a very expensive trip, relative to going to Thailand, but this has always been the problem with travelling within Australia.
We visited the usual spots in Broome, but as usual with us, didn’t really appreciate the beaches. The scenery was good, but nothing that we hadn’t really seen before. Bruce did find the dinosaur prints interesting and contradictory. You had the English interpretation of the prints and then the Aboriginal story about how they had been on the land since time began (but didn’t know what a dinosaur was so hence no explanation of the footprints).
The golf course was in pretty good condition and some interesting sites. The burrowing bird nest (right) was interesting. Bruce didn’t play very well but Rosie had quite a good weekend, coming runner-up in the Gross on one of the days.
In August, Bruce went to the Katanning with Jim, Gary and a couple of other CVGA members to play the two day event there. It is always freezing in Katanning and Kojonup so we really enjoy the fire at the Exchange Hotel and the downstairs wine bar at the Old Flour Mill, below the Dome.
Our scores were terrible, but the event was fun.
Bruce went to his first AGM of a company he owns shares in. It was the Wesfarmers AGM and it was really a lot of fun. You had to queue up for 30 minutes to get in around 11am for a 1pm start. Once in, you get a show bag with goodies from the various companies that WSF owns. You get a really good morning tea and then walk around all the stalls representing the companies.
The questions during the AGM were very funny and then we after the meeting, we went back to the hall and were served wine and beers with finger food snacks. The WA Youth Opera then put on a performance while Bruce sat quietly drinking and enjoying himself. Rosie was so envious that we had to buy some shares in her name so that she could attend next year.
Bruce also caught up with Liam who was going to a fancy dress party and needed some accessories from Rosie.
In November we finally got to use our overseas credits and we went off to Thailand for a very belated overseas golf holiday.
