Monday 8th November 2010

We have had an incredibly wet week with inches of rain falling every other day. We have been able to scramble a few days of golf and the golf course in managing to cope with all the downpours with only the bunker areas suffering. It is raining again as I write after us having a couple of sunny days reprieve.

Tuesday 2nd November 2010 was a huge, huge day being Melbourne Cup Day. I was up at 4 am to dress pavlovas, make salads and nibbles and do the set up for Peter to have a dozen or so of his mates over for a BBQ and to watch the Melbourne Cup. I also had to cut enough roses to decorate the tables at the golf club for our girls Melbourne Cup Luncheon & Fashion Parade as well as to be at the golf club by 7.30 am to hit off at 8.00am for a shotgun start. The weather was kind to us, a bit chilly to start with but then it fined up to a nice day with a little chill factor to the breeze. My playing partners were Yvonne Wilson, Rosalie Dyer and Lorraine Bignall & we had a lovely day. We finished golf around 12.30pm & I rushed home to change into my frock & hat ready for the luncheon. The boys were busy with their BBQ with three TV's running following the races. We had lunch with champagne & enjoyed a few wines watching the fashion parade & the Melbourne Cup Race. I outlaid $10 on sweep & raffle tickets & won $10 for 3rd prize in the sweeps - so I had a good day. After that we girls all came back to our house to see how the boys were going and had a few more drinks & nibbles there. It was a good day that we all enjoyed.

Wednesday 3rd November 2010 I had a recovery day & just pottered around the house & garden when I could. With the intermittent rain it was a good day to choose to have a recovery day. Wednesday morning I went over to the Golf Club Pro Shop to check out the GPS systems as I wanted to buy one for Peter for his birthday. I chose a "Sureshot" version to see how it goes & arranged with the Pro to download some courses onto the system in time for Peter's birthday on Friday.

Thursday 4th November 2010 we went shopping for a full length mirror for the golf club change room & some clothing hooks. After doing the rounds of all the $2 shops & Bunnings we finally managed to choose a well priced decent looking mirror. Then we went back to the club to install the mirror & hooks so that the Pro Shop had a change room for anyone trying on clothing. It was pouring rain & there were not enough players to have a ladies competition.

That night we met the family (Shane & Sam and Rod & Anne) at "Trackside" at West Gosford to celebrate Shane & Peter's birthdays. Joel did not come as he had a big day at day care and was tuckered out fast asleep at home in the care of Grandma Jay. We had a nice dinner & it was good to have a night out with the family as we do not have a chance to do it very often. I bought Peter a Navman as part of his birthday present & we are busy trying to work out all the set up so that we can use it easily when need be.

Friday 5th November 2010 was Peter's 68th birthday. Peter decided he would like to go to Tuggerah outlet shops to look for some "Ecco" shoes that are sold there at discount prices. I was so surprised at the look of the centre. There were not all that many shops there but we did manage to find the shoe shop & it was worth the effort of driving through all the rain to get there. I bought a new pair of golf shoes for a very reasonable price. A few shops further down there was another shoe shop that had 75% off all the shoes as they were closing down so I bought another two pairs for $40 all up. We went to Tuggerah Shopping Centre for lunch & were contemplating going to a movie except that we were between movie times. I had to be home so that I could be over at the golf club by 5.00pm to meet with the Gosford Lady Golfers at the 18th green where we were going to say goodbye to one of our lady golfers who had passed away this week. Her husband had invited us to "putt for Sue" as a goodbye gesture. It had rained a lot so there was no golf competition. luckily the showers stopped just long enough for us to get our putt done.

Saturday 6th November 2010 we were over at the Golf Club at 7.30am to set up the F-Troop BBQ so that we could sell off all the left over stock from Monday's BBQ. It had rained heavily over night & again this morning. The field was reduced from a normal 200 players to just 50 or so. We did well to sell off most of the stock & we have made a good profit for F-Troop which was the main objective. The weather fined up so we decided to have 9 holes of golf so that we could try out the GPS system. There were no carts allowed on the course so we had to walk which was not too bad as the course was in good condition apart from the bunkers & casual water.

The monthly medal was postponed because the bunkers were deemed GUR so that will be held next Saturday so we have lined up another F-Troop BBQ for that day.

Sunday 7th November 2010 was thankfully a lovely sunny day. Rod, Anne & Joel came for breakfast but could only stay until 9.30 as Rod had a concreting job to do. I was able to get Joel outside for a walk & he enjoyed his sandpit once again. Shane & Sam gave him a concrete truck which he used with glee in the sand. At 11.30am we left for golf & the weather was still all blue skies and sunshine which was a real bonus after the two previous days. Our playing partners were Col & Lauren Matterson & we had a very enjoyable day. I was excited because I was having my first turn in the new cart. We had quite an hilarious day as Peter ended up in the dam on the 15th. He had hit his second shot and the ball was balanced on a couple of dandelion leaves which kept the ball from going into the water hazard. Peter hit a magnificent shot from the edge of the water to within 10 foot of the hole & then overbalanced straight into the dam with only his hat floating on the top. I was too slow to get the camera to capture the balanced ball or the fall but I did manage to catch Col extracting him from the water. Luckily Col had an all weather jumper with him so that Peter had something warm to put in place of his wet shirt.

I was laughing so hard that I ended up wiping the hole because I could not concentrate. We were very impressed that Peter ended up scoring 5/2 on the hole which we needed for the team score. We stayed for dinner (after Peter had gone home for a full change of clothes) with Col & Lauren, Mark & Anne Stimpson and Graham & Rae Brown. It was Rae's birthday the same day as Peter's so that was a celebration.

Monday 8th November 2010 we were up early for F-Troop. We had eleven volunteers today which was good. The weather was fine for most of the day which let us get quite a few jobs done. I worked with Georgia Lamb for most of the morning a we got a lot of the garden cleaned up at the putting green and managed to put some new plants in at the 5th. I used our golf cart to get myself & Georgina around the course which was very useful. The weather is starting to close in again this afternoon with storms threatening.

I am not playing golf this week as I want to spend some time in my garden at home as the roses are suffering from too much water on the blooms & need deadheading. I will wait to see how the day looks tomorrow before planning too much.