Kitchen workshop.

There's not much eating room on our kitchen table.

Keeping busy.

One of the Ork Boyz.
Orks are ugly, strong, fierce and ugly.

There’s not much spare time in a day. There are large and small Warhammer models to be painted with more due to arrive in the post. This is one of the Orks and each model has an amazing amount of detail. Ben’s become very proficient at painting chequerboard patterns. The PS3 is getting a workout into the early hours as the mysterious world of Skyrim gradually unfolds. Before Christmas, we rang around to find a store that had the strategy guide in stock, then drove down a busy freeway to Narre Warren to pick it up. There are daily exercises to be done and short walks along the bike path. Visits to the Country Club are becoming rare and we no longer play pool or snooker every day. There’s only time for two fairly-meagre meals each day. Another Christmas day has come and gone; we had a pleasant afternoon lunch at the nieces' house.

23rd Birthday.

Birthday presents.

Tess organised our gathering at The Local in Carlisle Street. Meals were tasty, company was good, the place was full and thankfully that noisy hen’s table nearby finally quieted once their food arrived. Thanks to Tess, Dan, Mel, Tim, mum, Gavin, Maryann and Peter for coming to the party.

Two years ago, Ben celebrated his 21st birthday by himself in a Berlin guesthouse. The two birthdays before that, he went out with a couple of school mates. And the one before that, his 18th, saw the arrival of a shy little Labrador. Today, 23rd birthday plus one day, the two school mates called in, as did a German friend who visited him in the Berlin guesthouse. It was wonderful to see them all in the kitchen under the watchful eye of Jazz the no-longer-shy Labrador. Thanks to Anna, Damien and David for visiting our often-quiet kitchen.

Using computers is still somewhat difficult but all the Facebook messages were seen and most responded to. Thanks to the US-based gamers: Chad, Justin, Chuck, Kyle and Isaac for their well wishes.

Fireworks.

Thousands of people attended last night’s Carols by Candlelight at Jell’s Park. There was hardly a candle to be seen and Carols by Glow Stick would be a more accurate name for the event. We listened to performers, winced at the host’s jolly banter and tried our best to ignore frequently repeated sponsorship acknowledgements. There were long queues at the fried food caravans and even longer queues for the portable toilets. A young pop singer performed her latest single and encouraged the audience to join in the chorus. Not many sang because it was difficult to know what was verse and what was chorus in a song with so few lyrics. Some had brought their fashionable pooches to hear the music and be terrified by the fireworks. We did wonder what would happen if we’d taken Jazz and accidentally lost her in the crowd, most of whom were seated on the ground. It was easy to picture a happy labrador tail zig-zagging its way through silhouetted pockets of panic. Not being fans of traditional carols or boppy tunes like Jingle Bell Rock, we didn’t stay very long. Behind the stage, Santa donned his safety harness and chatted with the crew who would operate his platform lift machine. Further back, an ominous explosives truck was parked in a fenced and patrolled area. As we headed home to the kitchen, we stopped in a dark and empty field to marvel at the sparkling fizz, whistle and bang of the grand finale fireworks display.

Catching Fire.

Wintry cold returned for a few days and that would make any weary knight more comfortable by his bonfire. Dark Souls has been temporarily shelved 23 kilometres from home, thus removing the temptation to continue those relentless battles. Sunday evening, after church, we ventured to a nearby shopping centre where there are three relatively-new Indian restaurants. They’re all in the same block of shops and all happened to be empty. After choosing the restaurant with its menu pasted on the window, we had a pleasant meal of spicy chicken vindaloo, mild eggplant masala with saffron rice and garlic naan. When offered a choice of spicy or mild, Ben will always choose spicy and, if super-spicy is available, he’ll have that. An hour later we’re seated in another sparsely occupied room, cinema 2 of the Village Cinemas at The Glen, watching The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. It’s the first cinema movie Ben’s seen for nearly 18 months. He found the seating a little uncomfortable but really enjoyed the film. The “catching fire” theme was further enhanced by the after-effects of spicy vindaloo and an empty water bottle.

Dark Souls.

(web image)

After fighting dragons, demons and monsters, a lone weary knight rests by a bonfire to gather strength for the battles to come. Dark Souls is regarded as an extremely difficult game and, after many sessions of play and much study of a comprehensive guidebook purchased online, Ben finally reached the end. However, once you reach the end, the game restarts with increased levels of difficulty. Fortunately the player retains weapons, items and skills from the previous game; and battles that were once incredibly difficult can be won in a few seconds. Bonfires wouldn’t be very restful here at the moment, it’s the second day of summer and we’re expecting a sunny 36°C maximum. And battling in all that armour would be very uncomfortable, making it even more difficult.