Metung

   While Rob and Anna were visiting Helmy, Perran, Harvey and Theo in Denmark, they made their house at Metung available and we were lucky enough to be able to spend four nights there.  It's a beautiful house in a beautiful setting.

Rob has made extensive alterations to the original house.  The "bay windows" on the left of this pic, as well as the deck, have been extended to get the winter sun.

 From the inside, the same windows.  We had breakfast each morning in this space, with winter sun streaming in from the north-east.  The windows are all double-glazed.

Doortje is in the new kitchen, with beautiful old polished timber bench tops and lots of clever ideas that Rob came up with.  Note all the home grown fruit!

 I was very impressed that the original parts of the house still have their pressed metal ceilings, as seen in this pic taken in the main sitting room.

The main bedroom is almost all new with ensuite etc, but the original ceiling still features and it was very luxurious to wake up each morning to this view!

The original kitchen fireplace now used as a wine rack.  Rob's model Prius and boat can be seen on the shelf.

Rob has done an amazing amount of work in the garden, including these enclosures for berries and vegetables, and lots of citrus fruit which Doortje is sampling.

Here is a corner of the courtyard that overlooks the paddock and eucalyptus forest.

The courtyard fence incorporates this niche with cello - the house has several reminders that it's occupied by a serious cello player.

This wattle in the front yard was in full flower!

This is one of the major places outdoors to contemplate the view, a deck below the house having a view of the lake in the distance.

At the bottom of the hill is Box's Creek and Rob and Anna's boat mooring, a very tranquil place to be, with not another soul around.

We realised as soon as we got back to Frankston how quiet it had been for the previous five days and what a peaceful place to spend time.  Thanks, Rob and Anna, for the opportunity!

Commenters' Essential List

Anyone who reads the comments that accompany blogs, online news articles, etc, can not help noticing the recurring language that is the stock-in-trade of commenters.  I've decided to compile a list of the top 10 examples of expressions that the commenters use without having a clue what they mean but somehow the use bolsters the otherwise meagre argument.

* ironically

* elephant in the room (as in "That poor little elephant, Nuclear, is still standing around in the room going "Pick me, pick me".)

* emperor has no clothes  (do they know the Aesop's fable and its moral?)

* strawman

* ad hominem

* rusted-on (as in supporters of political parties)

* no brainer

* troll

* disingenuous (usually spelt wrong, but a current buzz word)

* luvvies (I think it means left-wing, as in latte etc)

* tribalism (new buzz word)

As is now iconically traditional with my top 10s, there are eleven.  Feel free to make contributions to the list, in the comments below!  Be a commenter!