24/365 Hot Air & Love

For a couple of weeks when the mornings were getting darker and daylight saving time hadn't yet kicked in, I could maintain my leisurely 7 a.m. rising hour and still see hot air balloons making tours of the city whilst I had breakfast on the couch. 

Taking a hot air balloon ride is an entry in my 'Tea Box of Fun', although, when I did pick it out, I decided that we didn't have $600 to spare at that time, and so it re-entered the fray. Grant isn't very keen on the idea but I think he's still scarred from when, just after we moved to Melbourne, a hot air balloon got wedged between two buildings outside work. It was a surprising time for all involved.

The last time we were at Sandy Point, a friend of Mr and Mrs Booker's came around to show us her photos from a recent hot air balloon jaunt over the Yarra Valley. It looked very exciting and beautiful. Hopefully, it's made Grant feel more relaxed and conducive to the idea.

General Sumo recommends:

Telling Grant how wonderful a hot air balloon ride would be

Wow, imagine what a great birthday present that would make! I only wish we could take The Who.

Making a Tea Box of Fun

Last year, when we felt like we were just doing the same thing over and over again on weekends, I created the Tea Box of Fun. It is an empty lemon tea box filled with scraps of paper upon which are written things that we'd like to do and that are possible to complete in a weekend. So far, we've only done about three things in there. Wedding planning and, more so, obsessive work tendencies can get in the way of Tea Box of Fun intentions. Now that we're back on more even ground though, the Tea Box is making a comeback, sending us to the movies to see Duplicity recently.

7/365 Coal Power: I Never Did Ask How That Worked

Mr and Mrs Booker kindly extended an invitation to us to visit with them at their beach house in Sandy Point once again this past weekend. No staying at caravan parks like ruffians for us! 

It says a lot about Sandy Point, and indeed Mr and Mrs Booker, that I am prepared to sit through a two and a half hour car journey to go there. I detest road trips. It raises long repressed memories of the three and a bit hour car journey from Port Augusta to Adelaide that I made many times during childhood. The only consolation now is that I get to sit in the front seat, have unlimited access to the lollies and nobody punches my arm every time they see a VW Beetle. 

After engaging in the prerequisite reading and lying around in the afternoon, disturbed only by the amusement of a miniature motorbike, we sat down for drinks and chips with part-time Sandy Pointer, Simon. Simon works as an operator at a coal power plant. And as he spoke, I thought, "I spent a lot of time growing up in a coal power plant town. I never did ask how that actually works". Back then, I was too busy being a hater.

And so here was my opportunity. Above, we see Simon using a yellow bowl as the boiler and various beer bottles as I can't remember what exactly but something that the coal is crushed up into dust in after the moisture gets zapped out. Don't ask me to explain it but it involved gas, water, coal, crushing, heating and a lot of really big things. It's all a lot more complicated than I ever imagined, causing my head to spin kind of in the way it did when I read that astronomy book five years ago. But less scary. I felt much more appreciative of electricity after that. And also of that versatile yellow bowl, which is my favourite piece of crockery at Mr and Mrs Booker's beach house.

Before I forget, another highlight of the trip was using our Jumbo vacuum seal bag to transport our bedding. It works, it really works!

General Sumo recommends:

Asking more detailed questions about what people do

I used to do this a lot but I've clearly been too self-absorbed for too long. You never know what you can learn and from whom.

Not stirring paella

You might get in trouble with the host. This is what comes of never doing the cooking at your own house. Umm...at least I remembered bedding this time.

Falling asleep on road trips

It's the only non-boring way to spend the time. Remember to wake up every hour or so to make a token effort at engaging the driver in conversation. Unless you are the driver. In which case, you may need some sort of stimulant to last the trip.