Saturday, 26 January 2013

Pingelly - a weekend away


Now I’ve never actually asked him but I’m pretty sure my father in law (Totch) likes when I visit so he has an excuse to drink. He’s always trying to offload his latest drop on me. Here Miranda… finish this… c’mon!! I’m partial to a drop of the old vino, but let me tell you, what he served up last Saturday was tough to swallow. Thankfully I was doing the dishes at the time and found it easy enough to wash the light passionfruit hues and not so subtle nail polish remover undertones swiftly down the sink. He decided to finish the bottle himself.
 
After lunch my mother in law (Jen) decided she would take the kids to the pool for a swim to give us drinkers a ‘rest’. I waved her off and snapped a few pics of Narducci St before settling back in on the verandah. Meanwhile Totch had decided to crank up the wireless. Ok, I’m exaggerating a little, it was a CD player but old school none the less. All thoughts of a ‘rest’ were banished as the beer disappeared and the shoulders started to bop to the sweet tunes of the Eagles. The conversation soon turned to photos and I told him about my Project Life photos. I needed a photo of ‘style’ for the day. We decided a trip to the Exchange Tavern should provide plenty of material so off we went.
 
 
We had the run of the pub initially and settled in to chat with Nadine the German backpacker who was bartending as well as peeling a 2kg bag of Nadine potatoes. Soon enough news of the patronage spread and some locals arrived to share a few yarns.  I was impressed by the drinks fridge, they may have been light on alcohol but they had a solid stock of Mellow Yellow and that goes a long way in my book. Before long the locals started repeating the same yarns and I was also under increasing pressure from Totch to dance on the bar so he could take a photo. Hmmm, time to go, but not before I signed my name on a bar plaque. In our wisdom we had roped Kris along for the ride, someone had to drive us home.
 

Sunday morning started off with a sleep in, Kris and I didn’t rise until 7:45! Next time we think we don’t have time to go to Pingelly I’m going to remember that extra 3 hours sleep and just go! Before long we were heading down to the bottom of Narducci Street where Kris’ Nonna lives. Lachy could crawl to the pantry and raid Nonna’s goodies long before he could walk. Not much has changed in 8 years, he just has a few extra accomplices these days. On visits to Nonna’s there is always a variety of transportation in use. Totch usually rocks in in the ute having been called out to fix something, someone brings a car, someone walks, someone usually rides a bike and someone ALWAYS rides the gopher. And usually we all go home in a different way to how we came!
 

This visit to Nonna was as action packed as always. The kids rode the tractors, inspected the chooks and dams, caught koonacs, ran through the garden, spoke to George the cocky, rummaged through the cantina, and ate plenty of food. Lachy also learned to use the new camera this visit – here he is with Nath the Nikon.
 

A visit to Nonna is never complete without loading the car with produce. This time we brought home onions, capsicum, eggplant, zucchini, 6 pet koonacs and some money to buy the kids an ice cream.  Now when life gives you onions, capsicum, eggplant, zucchini, 6 pet koonacs and some money to buy ice cream, what else is there to do than turn it into lasagne.... munja munja!
 
 

No comments:

Post a Comment