On Monday, I picked up my friend, Maureen (from church) and we spent the afternoon together. We started out by going to lunch at the RSL (returned serviceman's league) Club. They have nice meals there with reasonable prices (I had a roast beef dinner for $10.). We had a lovely meal and a great chat. After our lunch, we went to the movie theatre to see a movie which Maureen wanted to see. It was called 'Woman in Gold' starring Helen Mirren. It was such a good movie - we both really liked it! I always enjoy being able to get together with my friends when we are back in HB.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, Dad and I attended seminars put on by QSuper. They are the company who manages our retirement fund. Every Australian who works full-time for a company has to put a certain amount of their wage into a superannuation plan (like a pension plan) and the company puts in a certain amount as well. When I began teaching, my superannuation plan was with QSuper. Since Dad is a contract worker, the company does not put any money into a plan for him, but he has been putting money into QSuper himself. The seminars were geared towards getting the most out of your retirement fund and it was really really informative. Although it was a long two days, we are really glad that we went because we learned so much. Now, there is a lot for us to think about and we are going to have to get a lot of information together so that we can talk with a financial advisor about what we should be doing until we retire.
On Thursday, Robyn and I got together and made a cake for our friend, Denise. Denise was travelling on her birthday and has no family close to HB other than her husband, and so she had no one to make her a cake for her birthday. I went onto Pinterest and found a cake which I wanted to do. It's called an ombre cake which means it is a layer cake and each layer is a shade darker than the previous layer. We made a pink layer cake and it turned out great. It was a complete surprise to Denise and she was so happy when she saw what we had made for her. We got to try it when we were there as she served us a slice for afternoon tea - it was yummy and looked great.
Robyn and me with our pink ombre cake
On Friday, Robyn and I went out for lunch. There was a funeral at our chapel for someone we barely knew and Robyn was not ready to go to a funeral yet. I suggested that we go out for lunch instead and she was glad to do that. We went to the Hogsbreath Cafe and had a delicious chicken wrap and a wonderful chat with each other. Robyn is such a lovely person and a great friend. I am so glad that she and Geoff decided to retire here in HB. :-)
Dad and I got into doing some baking this week. We made two carrot cakes Friday and apple turnovers and apple strudels yesterday. The first carrot cake we made was really yummy, but the second one, although okay, was more dense and we didn't enjoy it as much. The apple turnovers were tasty, but very pale looking. We brushed the apple strudels with egg whites before we baked them and they came out yummy and very nice and brown.
Last night, we had our friends, Bill and Faye, over for dinner - Bill is an instructor for QAC as well. We get along really well with them and enjoy their company. They got back from teaching in Sydney this week and since we are leaving this coming week, we asked them over for dinner. They both quite enjoyed our baking - we offered them both and so they tasted both. We had a great evening with them as we always do.
Dad spent his spare time this week working on work stuff - getting his paper notes from his courses transcribed onto the computer. He also spent a few hours flying his big remote control helicopter. He was able to fly it out the front of the house during the day when the neighbourhood kids were at school. He is able to fly it further in the front as he doesn't have to worry about it flying and crashing over the back yard fence. He really is enjoying his little 'toy'. :-)
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