Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Yosemite and Tamarind Margaritas

Here's the margaritas we had on Friday night at Tamarindo -  one has tamarind in it. You can only imagine it has to be pretty healthful.

Margaritas at Tamarindo


Saturday night it was a ping pong party at our friend Scott's 50th, always good to have an activity at a party. I watched from inside.

Scott (front) at his ping pong 50th

Kevin had been hiking in Yosemite with Tallulah, 13, and father-daughter duo Barry and Jordan. The girls loved it even though it was six hours hiking a day, apparently they chortled the whole time. The girls were born on the same day and have been friends since they were three. 

Tallulah and Jordan hiking in Yosemite. Photos by Barry

They met loads of people who were on the three-month PHT (Pacific Highway Trail), the trail is now now chockablock because of Cheryl Strayed's novel. The hikers all have trailnames like Paper Fairy, Penguin and Swig. One couple who'd just hiked together for two months had just split up.

The rangers said the bears were getting really clever, one Mama bear had just learned to break open canister by rolling it over a cliff. The ranger said they would have to put her down if they saw her teaching this to her cubs. So sad.

Kevin and Tallulah and Barry and Jordan. 
Tallulah and Jordan 

My Kiwi clonkers have really revitalised my wardrobe, a veritable sartorial Raheem Sterling


With the Kate Sylvester dress my sister Sharon gave me for my 52 birthday

Didn't get the memo that you can wear too much camel

With Kate Sylvester top from Secret Santa. My sister Sharon confided that she had bought the top with me in mind, though I'm not suggesting our Secret Santa is rigged.

Talking of blisters, Pietra just emailed from Sundance where she is workshopping her latest film. She is getting glimpses of Bob, lucky thing. This is a photo of her from a Sundance past. Isabella was in the first indie film I ever saw, Blue Velvet, did you see that? (She's 62 now) Just watched her Mum again in Casablanca, a perfect film if ever there was one.

Pietra and Isabella Rossellini


In exciting sports news (beside those soccer games going on in Brazil) Cy made the All Star Baseball team for our area. He waxes lyrical about the very particular stitching on his shirt. (The mother has been known to bore entertain people about the buttons on her shirt)

No no, don't swing the baaa---t!


In watching sports news, here's Harley, 16, and sundry friends. His friends are super polite and call me Mrs Brettkelly which makes me feel quite stately and importante.

Harley (middle) and his friends in the telly room

What did you get up to in the weekend? 




32 comments:

  1. Congrats to Cy! Love Isabella and I love how she looks good and not too meddled with. I think Yosemite is one of THE most beautiful places ever and at times I couldn't believe what I was seeing with my eyes. Such a treasure and I feel sad bears are being punished for being so clever...

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    1. Apparently now before they approach a campsite they wait behind trees for people to pitch tents and lay all the food out. talk about clever

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  2. Ooh, gotta love a healthy margarita! Having had a boat load of activity and guests for the past month, last weekend was fairly quiet thank goodness.

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    1. We don't have a guest room so no one ever wants to stay with us 9or at least that's why I think it is...)

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  3. Love these stories! 6 hours of hiking and chortling! Good lord - she is a girl of steely dtermination and grit!!! My brother says the bears are getting very bad this year, which is always distressing, as it ends so badly for the bear..... And yay Cy! Wow - not too long now till the world series...

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    1. That determination can be no so helpful when she's wanting to go to a movie for the fifth time in a row

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  4. Healthy alcohol - right up my street! x

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    1. Welcome back CQ! Cheers! Vitamins for all my good friends

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  5. Congrats to Cy!! Yosemite looks beautiful!! The Kate Sylvester dress is gorgeous. I hope your week has started well xx

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  6. A 3 month hike would sure be something, not sure I'd be able to do that

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  7. How many balls were lost at the Ping pong championship? Good job to all in your family.

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    1. Not sure as i watched from the safety of the inside where the food and cake was. I am all for activity parties but seldom partake

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  8. We went hiking and I took over 250 photos! The scenery is so amazing here in Alaska that I've managed to convince people that my photography skills have improved vastly, when in truth you could pretty much just wave your camera aroundand you'd walk away with some great photos.

    I'd love to try a tamarind margarita!

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    1. 250 photos!!! Alaska's on our bucket list - I hear the best way to see it is on a small cruise (which I am resistant to as it sounds claustrophobic) is that right do you think?

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    2. Smaller cruise is better because you can get to the smaller ports and thus not be so overwhelmed with all the other big cruise ships. We did a Holland America cruise and there were people everywhere when we docked...hated it.

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  9. Great post and congrats to Cy on his All-Star honors; all those outfits look very nice and the Kiwi Clonkers are fab...the Isabella Rossellini/Kyle
    whatshisname scene quite memorable and Casablanca one of my top 3 with English Patient and Dr Zhivago.. .and how is My Sharona?

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    1. And when can we expect your first post GSL??? You promised us complete satisfaction, but it's been such a long time coming! Are you suffering from performance anxiety? Claire

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    2. Yosemite is beautiful and I love your Kiwi clonkers! Claire

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    3. My dear Claire, you very appropriately poked a stick at a caged Lion and I thank you for it. In fact due to my wifi internet being off for the last few days while we transition to a new provider, I actually had your well aimed dig sticking in my crawl after seeing it via phone hours ago and had to hold my volley until I reached the library (now keeping hours that would make a banker blush thanks to Chicago's gross corruption and mismanagement we have since exported to Washington) so by way of explanation, which I feel obliged to provide, I have 3 projects now beginning with The Lion's Den (TLD) blog being one and they all compliment one another. Project 1 has as an equity partner my design team that will provide IT/design support for TLD. We (Project 1) are 2 months behind schedule and I just signed yesterday a document that finally puts us in motion. My design team is fully occupied elsewhere therefore can't at present get my TLD site (Project 2) set up. Project 3 also 8 weeks behind schedule, due to bureaucratic red-tape (see, corruption/mismanagement, City of Chicago) is set to launch in 3 weeks and has affiliation with TLD.

      Now darling Claire, please don't think GSL has forgotten about your needs and satisfaction. As I have previously stated, meeting them is only where it begins. GSL has what Joseph Conrad referred to in 'Lord Jim' as "ability in the abstract" but has trouble in assembling a 3 shelf bookcase from IKEA. I'll move heaven and earth to get something up by Monday but it will be very bare bones. My first 8 posts have essentially been written but I so wanted them to have the complimentary visual content to match the soaring prose.

      And dear Claire as for "performance anxiety" be it at TLD or of your sugarplum vision variety; GSL's 'performance' is always of 'curtain call' quality but occasionally encounters logistics complications due to overbookings....

      If anyone knows of a really simple blog tutorial preferably on youtube, please send it my way.

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    4. I am the most un-techy person ever, so cannot offer any sounds advice. My friend signed me up to blogspot. its not the most flexible site but because its linked to google it might be easier to comment, but not sure about that. What I find tricky as a commenter is when bloggers sign up to GooglePlus (have I got the name right?) but don't make all their posts public and its not obvious when you get to the site which is their most recent post.

      Sounds like you live in Oakland not Chicago, wonder which council is worse.

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  10. Hmmmmm.....it might be Mrs Brettkelly to your face.......but without lowering the tone....you might be entering M-I-L-? territory..just sayin' Mrs Robinson!!

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    1. hah! I think they'd be horrified at the thought! now you have that theme tune going in my mind

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    2. I could tell at first glance (later emphatically confirmed on her telly appearance) that Mrs Brettkelly has got some coo-coo-ca chew!!!

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  11. I know I already mentioned this--- but I seriously love your new shoes!

    Congrats to Cy for making the cut and Harley for choosing such well-mannered friends :) Love the father/daughter excursion. Wondering if its too soon to send mine on such an event---- thinking I could use the peace and quiet..... ;)

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    1. She could do a weeny one around a playground for practise?

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  12. The ping pong table looks a little unused... for a ping pong party. Lots of sitting around drinking and eating though. :)

    I'm very impressed those girls could carry all that kit on their backs. Those backpacks look heavy!

    I like your clonkers too. Very snazzy. I'm still recovering from the fact I've found a comfortable pair of sandals in a shop, and in my size. I bought the last pair!

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  13. That looks like a lovely place to hike around, maybe not for 3 months though!
    A healthy margarita sounds just perfect.

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  14. I'm afraid that I've become a bit like the Dowager Countess Grantham (Maggie Smith), "What's a weekend?"
    Since I retired it's all weekends.

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    1. I miss Maggie! Hope you are also being sceptical of Europeans (es.Italians) and Americans a la the Dowager too?

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  15. These margaritas looks amazing! Looks like a great party.

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  16. Six hours of hiking in Yosemite sounds amazing to me!! I love me a good hike :)

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