These last couple of days have been less busy just to have some down time. This morning was another nice slow start to the day. I got up and had breakfast after the rest were done theirs. Margaret's sister-in-law makes the base of a cheese and then Steve and Margaret separate it out into little cups that allow it to drain most of the liquid to form the cheese. I had it on toast, with butter and some pepper and it was amazing.
Laureen was in the front room working on her cross stitch. Margaret was beating up her treadmill. And, Steve was outside doing some lawn maintenance. I wish he had told me as I have the same lawn trimmer and could have helped out. I went outside as Steve was just finishing up with his John Deer riding mower and walked to the top of the dam he has on his property. I turned around and took another picture of their place down the slope. It's a beautiful and quiet location. You can see Steve in his teal blue shirt just finishing up.
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| The Finn Property |
It may sound a little strange, but we have had some fun going to Costco's in different countries just to compare what is there. It's a little weird walking into them because you kind of forget that you are not at home given how similar the Costco's are. Laureen used her Costco app and scanned in with no issues. We then wandered around looking for things that we recognized and for some of the different things they carry as Margaret returned something. I think she was returning some Cappuccino because it was not hot enough. We picked up a few things for dinner tonight and then made our way back to the vehicle.
From there we drove another 20 minutes to the Westfield Penrith Shopping Mall. I could not imagine a vacation without hitting up at least one mall. The girls went off to find a few things and we were sent to the grocery location in the mall to pick up some coleslaw and some lettuce. While there Steve and I walked through their Super Saver area where they had all kinds of cool items. Steve found a couple of things he took with him to the til. Then we met up with the girls at Nadia's Cafe and had lunch.
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| Nadia's Cafe at Penrith Mall |
Margaret also wanted a new cell phone case and as it happens, there was a cell phone place right near where we had lunch. So we stopped in there and she found the same case that she had worn out, but in a different colour. That was easy.
We hopped back into the vehicle and headed to Margaret's mom's place. It's a beautiful property overlooking a valley. I think Steve said that she had 27 acres of land there. Her mom is in her mid 80's, so just like all of us who have aging parents, get some help from time to time from family that is close by. Steve walked me over to the pool that is on the property where the vacuum seemed to have stopped working. I grabbed the skimmer and started scooping up the floating leaves while Steve attempted to get the roving vacuum working. I finished up, and then went over to look at the vacuum as well. This brought back the memories of me looking after the swimming pool at my parents home in Claireview. We pulled both of the containers off the device, even though they were not that full, and emptied them and cleaned the filters. After putting it back together, it started doing it's thing. Then we went in and had a short visit with Margaret's mother. We said our goodbye's and headed back to Steve and Margaret's Place.
We spent the rest of the afternoon just relaxing around their home. Laureen and Margaret were in the living room and Steve and I sat outside. It was kinda nice not having a schedule. We started dinner at about 6:00 PM which consisted of Costco chicken, coleslaw, salad and "FRENCH FRIES". Steve brought the bag over to show me that they call them "chips" here. This has been an ongoing battle since we met back in 2016. Ketchup is known as Tomato Sauce. I'm going to be totally confused when we get home.
After dinner we decided to play some games instead of watching a movie. Margaret and Steve attempted to teach us a card game called Bixkla. Bixkla is a Maltese trick-taking card game where players aim to win tricks and accumulate points, carefully managing their hands to maximize their advantage. Players can strategically use a "Lish" to discard a weak card when they know they cannot win a trick, conserving stronger cards for later rounds. A well-executed "Cargo"—winning a trick with high-value cards—can shift the game in a player’s favour, making timing and strategy essential for victory. We played a few games heads-up so they could explain it to us and then tried without showing our cards. I think we started to get it.
Then we tried to teach them Rook using a regular deck of cards. Rook is also a trick-taking card game typically played with four players in teams, using a 52-card deck and a special high-value "Rook" card, which can be replaced by the Joker in a standard deck. Players bid to determine the trump suit, then play tricks where the highest card in the leading suit—or the highest trump—wins, aiming to collect point cards (5s, 10s, Kings and Aces). The team with the most points at the end of the round wins, making strategy, careful bidding, and timing crucial to victory. We also played one game with all the cards flipped up on the table and then tried another one where we held the cards in hand. I think they started to get it. We'll have to try both of the games again.
With that, we all decided to turn in as we will have to get up earlier than we have been to leave their house by 8:00 AM for the train to go back into Sydney. We have two tours on tap - the first is at 10:30 in the Sydney Opera House and the second is in the afternoon in The Rocks. I think we are all looking forward to it.
Curt & Laureen in Australia
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