As noted, I was asleep until about noon on Saturday, which wasn’t that much sleep really, but I woke up from a completely dreamless – and thus satisfying – sleep, feeling pretty good. Not long after I woke up I got a call from Chris, saying they were heading down to Arthur’s Seat to Ashcombe Maze. So, a quick shower later I was off with Chris & Sylvia down to Dromana. I haven’t been south of Mt. Martha for a quite a while, and certainly not to Arthur’s Seat for a very long while… I can’t recall exactly the last time I was there. We drove up the windy road from the bottom, and I was immediately reminded of the spectacular views you get from up that way.
Once we reached the top we followed a Maze sign, which led us not to Ashcombe but to the other one, just past Seawinds. I think the last time I went there they’d only just opened, and most of the “maze” was just bushes a foot high. It’s certainly grown up now; not completely filled out – many of the bushes are a little thin still – doing well. They also have a fair bit more there than I remember – a variety of puzzle mazes, ironwork sculptures, and so forth. I was quite impressed. The puzzle mazes were also a bit of a fun – the tyre maze in particular was deceptively difficult.
From there we backtracked just up the hill to the cafe on the summit, where we had good ol’ fashioned devonshire teas (scones & hot chocolate). The scones there were actually really nice; all soft and warm. The hot chocolate was similarly delicious. I’ll definitely have to go back there some time soon. :)
After that we returned home, going the back way towards Red Hill. Again, I can’t remember when I last went through there… it was also interesting to see the Nepean Highway in all it’s one-lane glory, which I guess must have been how everyone got down that way years ago, before the freeway went through. Though I can’t remember back that far; I still recall when my mum’s parents lived on the highway at Dromana, but even then the highway/freeway was as it is now.
Chris dropped me off at my dads so that I could collect my stuff and my car. I eventually moseyed on over to nana & pop’s, via Sket’s place. I was looking, actually, for anyone interested in going to the drive-in that night, which had caught my fancy as we’d drove past. She was getting ready to go out with Sean though, so that immediately evaporated. We chatted for a bit while she got ready – doing the make-up and all that other stuff that girls do to fill in time between waking and bedtime :P – but I was nervous leaving my laptop in the car, even covered up… plus I of course was on my way to nana & pop’s, and while there was no particular rush I didn’t want to take too long. So I left Sket’s relatively shortly and continued on.
The rest of the day was pretty leisurely. Everyone was watching the cricket on TV, which I did for a little while before tiring of it and going to check my email and whatnot. I’d intended to go do some work, but was just so lethargic, as I have been since finishing uni, that it didn’t happen. I ended up just checking emails and news sites and whatnot until dinner.
After dinner we went off to the video stores to hire Cars, given none of us had seen it yet and we’d all heard the rave reviews. When we got there I was reminded how behind I am on current movies; so many to choose from that I haven’t seen! It used to be I’d go to the video store and help others chose their new releases, since I’d have seen them all already. :)
Anyway, I also noted Slither and The Brothers Grimm as ones I particularly wanted to see, so I put it to Chris & Sylvia to choose. One half-decision and a coin toss later and we went with Slither.
The only reason I wanted to see Slither was that it has Captain Tightpants from Serenity/Firefly as the main character. :D I’d also heard it was pretty reasonable, in any case; a good horror comedy. While I thought it was quite good, the horrible sound quality on nana & pop’s TV – combined with the incessant talking of everyone – meant I missed half the dialogue. I’ll have to get it again sometime and watch it again, properly. :/
No-one else liked it, but ah well.
It has an interesting mix of quality CG-effects and old-fashioned nasty prop effects – the scene where he’s attacked by the deer is a a particularly bad example of the latter – although I think there’s a certain charm to that. And there were some very good one-liners. :)
Anyway, it wasn’t quite the drive-in, but it sufficed for a nice night in. After that I killed a bit of time with Carmageddon TDR 2000, before finally settling down (at about midnight) to do some work. :)
I think I ended up back at my dad’s and in bed by about 2:15am, which is pretty reasonable, relatively speaking. :)
