Sunday 26th April 2009- Back from Victoria

We had a wonderful week playing golf on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria. We were lucky enought to have perfect weather for all of our programmed golf days which is a real bonus when visiting Victoria. The Peninsula golf courses (I believe there are something like 58 courses within reach) are very open to the coast and are very affected by wind as well as rain.

The courses we managed to play were Rosebud, The Dunes, Cape Schancks, Moonah Links Open Course and Moonah Links Legends Course.We visited Portsea and Sorrento but had run out of golf days by then & the weather had closed in by Friday so we were very lucky to have got all the golf in.

The boys played the Dunes and the Moonah Links Open Courses while we girls went touring Mornington & the markets. We hired two Tarago Vans so that the eight of us could travel around comfortably with eight sets of clubs on board. On our day off (Friday) we went to the Portsea Hotel for lunch which was cosily set up for cold wet days. We had a look at the Portsea & Sorrento courses and clubhouses and had a general tour of the area.

Our accommodation was the best "share"accommodation I have ever stayed in. The cottages are called the Trueman Cottages and are centrally located at West Rosebud. Check them out on your web browser.

Each cottage has three bedrooms: double plus ensuite; double ; two single beds plus a large shared bathroom; large modern kitchens with every convenience including a dishwasher and large refrigerator; a cosy loungeroom with gas heater, foxtell, music; full laundry including a dryer; bbq settings and facilities, table tennis; six pushbikes; smaller childrens bikes & a big flat back yard. Each cottage was very tastefully furnished complete with linen, books, childrens games etc, In fact I cannot think of one thing that we could have used that they did not have.

It is very suitable for adult couples on golf holidays & the owners will book the golf games for you on your selected courses and that is included in the package price.

We shared a cottage with another couple and the cost to each couple was $1,060 which included our golf for the week. I would recommend this accommodation as a top place to stay. Restaurants, clubs & pubs are just a short distance away if you do not want to cook. Our other two couples shared the cottage next door and we had an adjoining gate in the side fence so that we could rotate between cottages easily.

The Golf travel bags were a great success & I would recommend them if you plan on doing a lot of golf trips. They were easy to manage in the airports & fitted well into the car & the golf carts.

The pockets were easily accessable & fitted all the necessary gear. Jet Star were the only problem as far as weight goes. If you need to travel with them out of necessity you can advise them 24hrs ahead that you have a certain amount of excess weight & you will get 50% off the excess luggage fee which is useful to know if additional weight cannot be avoided. Virgin Blue allow you to pay an additional $8 at the time you purchase your ticket which is also a handy thing to do if you are travelling with Golf Clubs.

It was a rather exhausing week but great value for money. We played "500"cards every night & had a mini competition going as we do with the golf. I have not been playing great golf lately and I do not play cards at all so I was happy to finish in second place in the girls golf (beaten by one stroke) and came fifth place in the cards. It was a wonderful experience to play on some of the famous courses. My favourite was Cape Schancks closely followed by the Legends course. Rosebud was more lady friendly but I scored just as well on the others even though they were much harder to play.

I have not planned any other trips (until next time) however I have put the Mornington Peninsula on my list of "must do again".

Now it is back to reality. I had a catch up day today. As it turned out an uncomfortable windy day I was happy that I was not programmed for golf. I was able to get all the Estate Distribution work checked, finalised & filed away which is a good feeling.

Wednesday 15th April 2009

We have had two beautiful days of weather so I have been outside soaking it all up.

Yesterday I went back to my Tuesday Golf Comp. day which this week was a stroke round which is not a lot of fun if there is no purple patch happening. My highlight of the day was bringing in both my playing partners - Di Beechey and Kay Frewin, as trophy winners and myself not getting into any bunkers which is always a bonus.

Today I spent outside in the sunshine getting my golf gear ready for the weekend and planting out some new pansies & working in the front gardens. I have put out a mega hit of "Blood and Bone" and the garden is responding really well to the TLC I have been giving it the last few weeks plus we have had some good falls of rain which is always a bonus.

The petunias are out and the pansies are in, the frangipani tree is starting to drop its leaves & the camelias are all out in flower - all good indicators that Autumn is with us.

There is nothing better than a new gadget to play with. This one is a golf travel bag which doubles as an ordinary bag when you do not want to wheel it anywhere. It only weighs 4.5 kilos which is great for air flights. There are plenty of side pockets for wet gear, shoes etc & I managed to pack my full golf set in quite easily. It will be interesting to see how my first test run goes this next week when we (eight of us from Gosford Golf Club) fly to Melbourne for a week of golf on the Mornington Peninsula.

I have heard on tonight's news that Melbourne and the Mornington Peninsula have had gale force winds (160 kilometres an hour) causing a lot of damage. I hope it has blown itself out by Saturday. Perhaps we should put in a couple of packs of cards just in case.

Easter Monday 13th April 2009

My plan for this Easter long weekend was to do as much gardening as I could as I had some free time with the boys away fishing. I did get sidetracked on Friday by going out to lunch (see previous post) and then again on Sunday by playing golf. Golf was not planned but I was asked to fill in for someone who had got sick so of course I had to go. The weather held for most of the weekend & our golf game was very pleasant with just a bit of cloud cover to keep it comfortable.

Saturday and today up till lunchtime I have been busy in the garden and have managed to full up four green bins (thanks to the neighbours for their bins) & the place looks much tidier.

I removed all of the old petunias today & trimmed back the roses. I was just about finished when it started to rain very heavily - I only needed a little longer to get it all finished.

I managed to get wet to the skin but did get out some blood & bone fertilizer which will wash in very nicely with natural rain to give it a boost.

The roses are winding down for the year but I am still getting some nice blooms. The camelias are flowering so there is still a lot of colour in the garden. (photos attached)

It looks like the rain has settled in so this afternoon I may just have to watch a replay of the Masters Golf as there were some very exciting moments from our golf heroes this weekend.