Friday night pizza

I don't feel quite as deserving as I once did for Friday night pleasures, such as red wine, pizza and crime on the ABC. But we do it anyway, despite no longer being in the worthy workforce. Apparently, so does everyone else in Hallidays Point.  The chirpy, helpful girl on the deli counter, cutting up our pepperoni said, "This for pizza? Everyone in Hallidays Point's having pizza tonight!" Then she went on with some other cheerful, charming comments I can't even remember. There are chirpy, helpful assistants everywhere in the shops around here. Everyone smiles and makes conversation and goes the extra mile and they don't even have to. It's just so refreshing. Morose Melbourne staff, crusty Canberra staff, silly Sydney staff - no place for you here in paradise! So I'm blogging quickly while I wait for Friday night crime to start. Pizza was fantastic, thanks, cooks.

Momentous day yesterday. Had another meeting with our architecture team and we've chosen a floor plan! This, I assure you, is huge progress. It's been a rather fraught road so far. We so wanted to both be happy with the earlier plans that were done for us, but just could not see how they could be resolved enough so as to work on the block. This time, the necessary calculations and juggling about such matters as bushfire regulations and council building code certification and sun angles and proximity to neighbours and building costs and time frames seem to have been done and a workable, exciting design is emerging. Of course, this kind of expert specialisation in domestic architectural design is not for free. So far we have floor plans and a sketch of one elevation. The next step, we are told, will be 3D modelling of this design allowing us to walk through the building, and showing, from the inside and out, such things as where the sun will fall at different times of the year and the day, and what the views will be from every window and door. This will allow fine tuning before the plans are prepared for the DA, and before being put out to tender, which our team will do for us.

Friends and relatives: if you want to see the design in more detail, come and stay with us! Here's the spare bedroom. It's set up for Linda and Phil.  We're expecting them later tonight, in their New Car - a VW Tiguan on its maiden voyage.

Now for some pretty photos.  These are from our golf course walk yesterday.

That's all for now.  It's time for Thorne.