Wednesday 25 April 2012

Let The Games Begin


For the past 5 days, we have been away for our boardgaming convention. The initial intention was to blog live. But alas, due to very poor internet reception, plan A had to be abandoned. You shall now get a summary instead...

It had been a long wait, but the day finally came. On Friday, the Albanys headed down south to the Southern Highlands for the annual event of the year. But before the defence of the meeple trophy can begin,  supplies had to be purchased and what better place to get supplies from than Costco. 18L of milk, 120 eggs, and 10 loaves of bread later, we walked out $660 lighter. And that was only half the food!
Along with the Yeohs, we arrived at Bellmore, the huge 8 bedroom "cottage" that was our home for the past 5 days. It was an amazing house...other than the electrical problems we encountered in the main living area! Because of the recent heavy rain, the lights kept shorting out. Not to be deterred, we switched over to the traditional way of lighting. Dinner over candlelight with seven children was most romantic.

The Meeple Trophy going grocery shopping

No more space! The bike will have to go on the roof...


And we're off!

Didn't take long for the traffic to thin out

Our destination...

The beautiful wrap around verandah

The view of the property

The spectacular front door

HUGE foyer showcasing one of the fireplaces

Children's quarters came complete with a dress up box

7 children in one bedroom worked pretty well!

The central courtyard

The house is pretty everywhere

One of the huge living areas


Romantic atmosphere

Dinner by candlelight

And the first game has started!

Luckily for us, the powerpoints and the lighting in other parts of the house were still functional. Not to be deterred, the games commenced with the arrival of the troops. We discovered that Bundanoon was host to Brigadoon, the largest Scottish festival in the southern hemisphere. Briefly tempted to witness men in kilts attempt to lift the "Stones of Manhood", we decided to stay on property instead to concentrate on the reason for being there. Besides, we had gourmet food to consumer. 'Fish and chips' made from salmon fillets and specially prepared chips were well worth it!

Our theme night this year was 'Space night'. Other than Malcolm scaring the young children with his Tusken raider outfit, it was a awesome night. He did go on to win the costume prize! Space music, Space games, glow in the dark jelly, space snacks...what more could you ask for?

The rest of the days flew by. We played tennis, took the bins to the front gate in style, went for walks, celebrated birthdays, ate good food and fought hard to win games. Malcolm and I are very proud to announce that we managed to come first and second! I will let the the photos do the rest of talking...Thank you to dear friends who have kindly taken some great photos and allowed me to use them for this blog!

A foggy morning

Good time to strum the guitar in your PJs

The breakfast crew

The all important coffee

Bacon and eggs

The collection of boardgames


Geeks studying rules...

The scoring ipad

How many males does it take to BBQ?


The hand-made chips made with love. Pre-frozen and after the first deep fry 

Being deep fried the second time

The final product with nothing less than chicken salt.

The chip specialist

A bustling kitchen

Time for the alcohol

Fires going strong

The children as gremlins for space night

The Tusken raider




Glow in the dark jelly

Space themed boardgames

The whole gang dressed up

A novel way to transport the bins down the LONG driveway

Beautiful day for a bushwalk

The children minus Jonah who was too cold and was hiding in the car

Great weather for hot chocolate before heading back home for more games!

Mmmm

Lemon curd mousse cake made by Ethel

The birthday babes!

Roasting marshmallows

Craft made by the children...courtesy of Auntie Luan

A rather useless chicken, one of four that only produced at most 1 egg per day total!

The prize pool

The victors! And the reigning champion successfully defends her title...

The whole gang...an amazing bunch of people!