Muster - 3 days on!!!

Ken and I have come home tonight from the Muster as we have Rebecca's wedding tomorrow, and Joshua's 14th birthday celebration at Bronco's Leagues. 

We have had such a wonderful time so far at Muster - catching up with lovely friends who we only see once a year.  I think I'll just let the photo's do the talking!!!

Night 1 - muster ball.  I'm in PJ pants, white shirt, pink fingerless gloves, pink boa, silver & pink tiara and black gumboots with pink pussycat prints on them....  3 days later we still see pink feathers all over muster!  Left is Ken, my partner.  Right is Steve - Muster mate...

At least you can see the tiara in this one.  The guy on the right is Craig - my girlfriend Nicky's husband - they came up from Melbourne for the Muster....

OHS isn't always a prime consideration...

The Crow Bar - one of the main venue's.  See the egg in the tree between the purple and the red flags?  It used to be a crow....

The Muster General Store.  Whatever you need you can get...

XXXX Truck.  That's Ken, my partner, walking backwards as he's cajoling others to go and have a beer with him!

L-R is Mitch, Steve, Nev, Ken.  Mitch is Nev's son.  Steve is Nev's brother.  Ken's my partner.  The boys had been drawing autopsy lines on their stomachs... It was Col Day for them - the day when they dress up in work gear to remember Col, a mate of theirs....

I'm in front, Trevor's next, Ken to the right behind Trev, and Mitch at the back.  Trev's the partner of my longtime friend Maria.  Great guy!!!

We needed a snack...  So we had Kabana, Kransky, cheese, dips, dolmades etc..... this is the table at camp.

The Bra Bar....  aptly named.  I took this as I was waiting for Nicky to come out of the toilet which was on a semi trailer behind me....

L-R is Belinda, me, Nicky, Michelle.  We were enjoying the Wine Bar right as we were about to order some lunch!!!

The "silent disco" - it's where you go into a blow up tent, wear headphones and bop around like it's a disco.  That's Nicky on the left, Steve in the middle.  LOADS of fun!!!

At the silent disco....

Main stage this afternoon.  I don't know who was playing, but it was a bit drizzly and overcast, and there was thousands of people there!!!

Love the Muster......

This is what the Muster site looks like now...

If you look at my previous Muster posts, I've posted some pics of what it looked like all bare. 

I was out there on Sunday evening, and I'm heading out tonight for a week to enjoy the music and fun.  I thought I'd leave you with some pictures of the campground now - still not full though.

Our Norwegian Exchange Student, Henrik.  He is NOT responsible for the bottle pile behind him...

The camp across the road

What happens when you let boys play with fire & glass...  **sigh**

My crocheting efforts so far...

I went to sewing group yesterday, and it was held at the Pomona Community House - the new shed, "The Lawson Shed"...  it was an expo for Seniors week, which started yesterday. 

There was about 7 of us there and we had one small room, so it was very cosy.  We had all agreed to bring hand work, as there was no way we would all fit in with our machines & cutting tables etc., so I took along my crocheting basket.  I had a really productive day, I finished off my floppy beret, and I also finished off several dishcloths that I have been working on.  I still have a lot of dishcloths to finish off (weaving the thread ends into the weave) but I'm pleased with where I'm at so far...

This is the top of the beret so you can see the design...

I only had a flower pot to put it on so that you can see it!!!!!  It's got angora in it, so it's very soft...

These are the finished dishcloths, and the one that looks purple on the top is pink, but it's a hot mat because it's acrylic...

The unfinished pile with tails sticking out all over the shop!!!

So far today I've been very busy.  I've unloaded the dishwasher, have done another load of washing, cleaned the carpet, dyed my hair, checked the radar and decided that I'll have to hang the 4 loads of wet washing in the garage now because it's going to POUR in an hour or two, made a cuppa, hung said washing out, had a shower to get the dye off the hair, had another cuppa...  all is good!

Breakky shortly and then... ahhhhhh... what will I do today!!!

I do have to make dinner for the boys tonight, they are out at the muster and I'm going out to get Henrik and have dinner out there. He'll go to school Monday/Tuesday, then we'll head out for a week on Tuesday.  It's going to POUR soon - so won't be going anywhere near the place till the rain's gone.  I am looking forward to a few days chilling out though!!!

My how the time just flies by...

It's been a whole week since I posted on here!!!  A whole week!!! 

I have had a busy week, catching up on things at work that had been left since I've been sick and then had Auditors on my tail.

On the home front, I haven't done a lot of decluttering this past week.  I started this morning with the ensuite chest of drawers - took lots of stuff out of it, started putting like with like, and then promptly stopped and had a busy day again today!!!  I might get back to some of it tonight - there's three drawers that I need to deal with, one is scattered all over the bathroom and the other two are just disasters...

Yesterday I went to the Ekka.  I love the Ekka, but I just don't want to go on a yearly basis.  About once every 5 is about right for me, so I went with Sue, her two children Richelle & Brent, plus our Norwegian student Henrik.  I don't think Henrik really wanted to go - we had one of our neighbours over for dinner on Friday evening, and he had a late night, and then didn't hear his alarm and turned it off, so Ken woke him up at 7.45 am telling him that we were leaving in 15 minutes.... he was very quiet all the way to Brisbane, wore his headphones and didn't say anything.  He disappeared on his own when we got into the Ekka itself, we met up with him a couple of hours later when he'd woken up and was in a better mood - he said he really enjoyed his day!

One of the wonderful displays in the fruit & veg hall...

The Ekka isn't the Ekka without the fireworks...

On the way home, we stopped at Caboolture to meet up with a friend from SS, Karen.  I felt that I had gotten to know Karen very well through one particular thread that we both participate in about eating elephants...  Anyway, I've chatted about Ken's and my love of camping, and how we go to the Muster every year, and Glen Innes, and and and... I also mentioned we were going to be needing a new tent soon because the old one was now starting to disintegrate. 

Karen offered me her tent.  Yep - you read right.  She and her family had decided that they weren't camping people and weren't going to use it, and so it might as well go to someone who would, so hence it's come to our house. 

We love it - oh wow.  We thought our old tent was pretty schmick at 5.8 metres x 2.6 metres.... well - we now have one that's again 3 rooms, although this time they're real rooms, not just curtained off, and it's 7 metres by nearly 4 metres.  How good is that!  On the end is a sunroom/kitchen room that has mesh sides so that you can eat without being gobbled up by mozzies, then there's two other separate rooms.  We won't know ourselves!!!

Ken put it up this afternoon in the hopes that it would drizzle a little on it to make the seams fully waterproof (he knows these things - I'd never work that out) and it is going to make it's first trip to Muster on Thursday when Ken goes out to put it up.  Have I mentioned we're excited about Muster???!!!

Karen and I on our "hot date" - BP at Caboolture.....

THE tent - now up in our side yard....  doesn't kind of show how big it is though. 
Just wait for Muster photo's!!!

Friday I did induction at Katie Rose Cottage, which was also just wonderful.  The cottage is a Hospice located at Doonan, about 15 or 20 minutes drive from us.  I feel the need to go and do more volunteering than I currently do, which I can say isn't much.  I am on the Cancer Council Relay for Life committee in Gympie - which doesn't take much time or effort... It's a lovely place, and I'm looking forward to going there on Tuesday afternoon again...

Booze, Potato & Leek Soup, Snakes & more...

Thank you for the comments on my last post on decluttering people from my life.  I think this is something that I need to think a bit further about, and in the meantime, I think I’ve decided to be happy with the status quo... 

The home clean up continues... gawd!  Worse than moving house!!!  My wonderful friend Michelle came to visit me on Saturday, she has recently had shoulder surgery following a work accident, so is “bored, bored, bored” as she puts it!  She very kindly put all the booze into the cabinet in the media room for me while I made a wonderful Leek & Potato soup...

Leek & Potato soup 

• 2 bunches baby leeks, cleaned & chopped finely (white parts)
• 4 medium potatoes, peeled & chopped into small pieces
• 500 ml chicken or vegetable stock
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 onion, chopped finely
• 1 TBS olive oil
• 300ml cream, sour cream or plain greek yoghurt
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• Chives to decorate

Lightly fry the onion in the oil.  Add the leeks, potatoes and garlic and stir for about 3 minutes.  Add the stock, simmer for approximately 30 minutes.  Either using a stick blender or a food processor, blend the soup until it is smooth.  Add cream, season to taste.  Pop some chives on top, serve with crusty bread.

I googled several recipes and then promptly made up my own, but boy it tastes good!!!  I had it for dinner with another friend who came over on Saturday night as Ken had gone to work. 

Once Michelle had done the booze, and I’d done the soup, I decided that we could chat in the lounge room while I sorted my past years’ worth of paperwork.  I only do my filing once a year, although I think I will change how I do it slightly from this year on.  I'll put the tax stuff into a box folder as I get it - that'll save me sorting a lot of that at the end of the year. 

I sat on the floor and started sorting the paperwork.  Anything that I might conceivably need for tax went into the tax pile, and that included all the statements from the Real Estate etc.  All the bills that have been paid – phone, electricity, credit card etc., go into the “bills paid” pile.  Super into another pile, Leaseplan stuff into another etc.  Don’t have toooooo many piles!

Then, very technically, take out the “bills paid” that I filed last year and dump into a bag to be shredded.  File all the latest years’ worth of “bills paid” in that file...  I don’t chuck old papers like superannuation etc., I just file that into the file in cabinet.  I don’t sort into date order – I figure that IF I ever need to go back and look for something, it’s not going to be too much of a drama to look through a couple of inches of papers...  Sometime this week I’ll organise the shredding of my now rather full Bunnings green bag...  I like the Bunnings bag because they’re really large... 

Ken has been sorting and chucking too – it’s not often that the bin in the study is overflowing, but it is this week!  Such a wonderful feeling – even though technically I’m not supposed to feel good sending stuff to landfill...  But I do at the moment, because that means that lots of stuff exiting the house...  Exciting!

On Sunday morning, Ken and I went out to Muster to check on the tent.  THE ROAD IS OPEN!!! 

The re-built road, just beyond where the road closed sign was that I showed you a couple of weeks ago.  Massive work's been done here...

There were a few more people out there than last time, but not a huge number yet.  We checked on the tent, paid the ghost camping fee at the self registration booth.  Believe it or not we tried to pay it online, couldn’t do it because the road was closed (we’d gotten in through Kandanga...) and then we tried to ring up – the woman on the phone would only accept registration for 30 nights and wouldn’t believe us that we CAN pay for more than 30 nights each year just for Muster...  Bureaucracy!!!  Grrr!!!  So – we drove out and filled in the form, and will duly pay for 46 nights camping...  **sigh**

Anyway it was a good opportunity for Ken to see the site, so we had a walk around the site, and found a snake (very dead, and VERY smelly) on the back of the roped off area.  We think it was a Red Bellied Black – but all I know is that it was very smelly!  Ken thought that it should be slightly bigger, to take in the trees at the back, so he’ll head out to the site again this morning and make it bigger (and get rid of said smelly snake...)

Ewww... smelly.  Goodness only knows how it got there!

Ken deciding exactly how much extra space we're going to need...  he's good at stuff like this!  Note in the background there's not many tents yet.

The guy across the road builds a compound like nothing you’ve ever seen.  I’ll take pictures as we go along and you can see – this is what he’s starting with...

Doesn't look like much yet, but just wait and see what develops!!!

Stay tuned for the next exciting Muster installment!

TODAY was Muster Tent putting up day...!!!

Yesterday actually...  Finally we found the muster site and got our spot pegged out and tent put up!  But, boy oh boy what a way to get there!

I couldn't find the muster site on www.whereis.com so I kinda guessed.  I had a little "moment" in the car when I said that I hoped that I had chosen our destination to be the right place... but it turned out I got it a little wrong - not a lot though, and it was a lovely drive.  Anyway, we went up hills and down dales from Gympie and got there eventually after a couple of about turns...  There wasn't many people at the muster site yet!  I guess others are having trouble finding their way in too!!!

So - we're really pleased, we got prime spot!

Normally by now there'd be lots of people around us... with the main road in being closed, there's only a few people here.  We will have 5 tents on this spot once we're done...

This was one of the creek crossings coming out.  The trees are all laying over on their sides from the flood earlier in the year.  There's evidence of the flood and its fury all over the place...

NEXT Sunday will be TENT day....

:(

In January, both Brisbane AND Gympie had huge floods.  The muster site is near Gympie.  This picture tells the whole story of the tent-setting-up expedition....  So we went and had a nice lunch instead.

I did publish this post, but then I looked out the window and had to rush out and take a photo - check this out!!!

It's a bit hard to see, but it's actually a photo taken out our front door, it's misting rain, and it's sunny....  Just one of those things I guess that look better in real life than on a photo, but I did want to share.

Today is TENT day!!!

Every year we go to the National Music Muster (that's it's official name now...).  It's also known as the Gympie Muster, the Country Music Muster and all sorts of other names.  Let's face it - with names like Jimmy Barnes opening last year, the Queensland Police Band of Blue, the Backsliders - it ain't country any more, folks...

Of course, there's the die hards who think that the muster should remain country.  If it was all country, I wouldn't go.  I don't mind a little country, but god forbid I should have to listen to a week of it.  I'd need counselling at the end of it!!!  If you want country, go to Tamworth.  If you want a good spread of excellent live music that includes rock, blues, jazz, easy listening AND country, head to the muster. 

So - why are we putting our tent up now when the muster isn't till about 23 August you ask?  To get our SPOT dear readers!!!  God forbid that we should have to camp somewhere other than where we're used to camping!!!  It's a lovely spot too, in the grass, under the trees, not too far from the amenities (but not too close either...), not too far to walk for ice or the bulk garbage bin.  All most important things!  It's about a 10 or 15 minute amble into the music itself, so we're far enough away that the noise doesn't bother us, but close enough that we can just hear what's on either main stage or in the Crow Bar.  We have to walk past Swill Hill to get to the music, and that's good fun - although we don't want to live there either...  Last year when Kee was with us, he had a badly sprained ankle and we could also go and catch the bus.  Fantastic spot...

I'll take a photo and post it later...  I love this time of the year!!!!!

On my mind... so much to do!!!

I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed right at the moment. 

I have stuff spread all over the house from the timber floor replacement, which needs to be sorted, decluttered, and what's being kept put back.  Tuesday the guys are coming to replace the carpet in the 4 bedrooms and the lounge/dining.  That means everything in those cupboards needs to go onto the timber floors.  Also, the beds and the other bedroom furniture will be shifted out.  Eeek! 

Right Shaz - it's time to breathe... in... out...

It's just time - walking stuff back and forth from one room to another.  Plus I look around the study and there's LOTS of stuff in there, which isn't instilling in me a great amount of confidence. 

breathing... in... out...

I am working onSaturday this weekend, and on Monday we are heading to Brisbane to the caravan and camping show.  I'm looking forward to that - we really enjoy camping, and the muster is coming up soon.  Who knows what we'll find there!!!

As I'm working Saturday, that only leaves Sunday for.... MUSTER TENT PUTTING UP!!!  Yes, it's that time of the year again - when us mad music fans (AKA a delegation of Muster Michelle and I) head to the Amamoor State Forest to put up tents to secure our SPOT for the Muster, which is held the last week in August.  Yes, I know that's nearly 3 months away.  Told you I was mad!

Do you recognise the guy in the middle?  We had dinner at the next table to him at the Muster in 2010.  The boys are Jake on the L and Josh on the R - Ken's boys.  They were really excited about this!!!

L-R Me, Belinda and Nicky - having breakky...  We were all having Juice (very healthy).  We had the choice of Grape Juice, Apple Juice or Orange Juice (AKA Wine, Cider or Orange Vodka Cruisers...).  I think we were having Orange...

Oh, and did I tell you that the Backsliders are going to play at the Muster???  SO can't wait for that one!  If you don't know who the Backsliders are - read this... http://www.muster.com.au/schedule/detail.aspx?ArtistID=44  Ken and I went to Joe's Waterhole at Eumundi to see them with Chris and Lorraine.  Chris loves them, and it was he who introduced them to us...

So - the great procrastination continues.  I'm not shifting stuff because I'm here...  Hmmm... not so productive!  However, much more fun!