a blast from the past

Oh my wordy lordy, yes indeedy do, I is gettin' soooo old!!! I went to my high school reunion last weekend. 37 years since I did my HSC and 21 years since the last reunion. Crikey! It was great to see everyone and thank goodness someone had the good sense to supply us with name tags 'cause I would not have recognised several of the people.

Aahhh, memories came flooding back of the last day of school which was pretty tame by today's standards. Some of us girls swapped uniforms with some of the boys. What a hoot! I have photos of Ken Black, Darrell Houston and David Hamilton in short blue shift dresses with lacy witches breeches peeking out from the hem. And who could forget Susan Kinley's party where we got to play spin the bottle and I was lucky enough to score a kiss from a few of the boys that I was secretly keen on. I remember two in particular who were particularly gifted in the kissing department (you know who you are MU & DN). I remember the chess club, playing 500 on the old red rattler train to and from school, handball at recess and lunch time and having a fight in art class with Elizabeth Filewood. She won, I got a black eye and the nick name "slugger". How about the old high school song written by the music teacher Mr Klossing "Blaxland, Wentworth, Lawson, conquered mountain ridges, Lennox built the bridges, follow them ..... etc. " I have an enormous capacity for trivia - he he he.

It was a great reunion, well catered but the after dinner music was a tad too loud which made talking very difficult. I feel the DJ failed to realise the room was full of middle aged people. Full marks to Henry Lindemann for organising it and hopefully we can have another one in the near future.

My God how fast the years have gone. How gravity has taken hold of the old body and the hair has turned to grey or disappeared altogether in some of the guy's cases. I had a ball and have been feeling great ever since. Now I must remember to take care of myself so I can make it to the next reunion.

Over and out -

Linda

Showing Off

Here are some of my scrapbook pages. I started this hobby in 2000 and have become addicted I fear. I have a large stash of products and a whole room in the house to keep them in. I figured that is OK because Matt has his shed, right? Anyway, this is something I derive a great deal of pleasure from and it is good therapy for whatever ails you. That's it. Say no more.

Linda

How to freeze a whole sheep

How lucky are we? We have been given a whole sheep, already butchered and dressed by Matt's brother in law Bruce from Mudgee. Matt's parents arrived Friday with it all in bags and boxes. They are visiting us for 3 days and seeing the local sights.

My God I didn't realise how big a whole sheep was until you see it spread out on the bench top. Matt and I spent a couple of hours trimming off excess fat (2 shopping bags full), then bagging all 4 roasts (boned, stuffed and rolled), chops, mince and crummed cutlets up into portions for 2 and then we tackled the dog's bits. We got all the bones and offcuts too for our precious poochies. We bagged these into portions for 2 as well but there was no room in the freezer for them so Matt has taken them over to the club and put them in the big freezer he has in his work shed. I managed to cram our stuff into both of our fridge/freezers. You should have seen the faces of these 2 dogs of ours whilst we were bagging it all up. Priceless!

This is soooo good as the price of lamb these days is quite outrageous. I remember when I was a kid, Mum cooked lamb chops all the time because they were so cheap. We only had chicken on a Sunday as a treat. *sigh* How times change. It is great to have a sheep farmer in the family. I think we are going to be eating lamb for quite some time. Thanks heaps Bruce.