Church Camp and Carols

Well, it has been awhile!  It is coming into Summer, into the Christmas season, towards the end of the year,  the times of cooler summer nights, while the days reach a delightful 40 or so degrees (no sarcasm - I love the heat  :)  )

Our annual church family camp was only a few weeks ago, and was heaps of fun.  It was held at Tahlee, so it was different for me to be actually participating in a camp, rather than cooking for it - although I did that too.  :) Our Church camp is rather relaxed and chilled, without much planned, so there is plenty of time to just hang out with each other fellowship.  I had been at Tahlee cooking all week leading up to the camp, so it was great fun to greet each new arrival as they trickled in over the course of Friday afternoon / evening.  The first thing that was planned on Saturday was indoor games in the morning, so we all met in the main auditorium where we played games such as  Ninja, Ship Shore Deck, Lifeboat and Capture the Flag.  the games were good fun, although I was in the yellow team, and we so totally lost.  ;) 

Afterwards, our Church has this unique tradition at camp where we do gumboot throwing competitions, I know, strange isn't it?!?  But anyways, it is actually more fun than what one would think.  We played in categories, preschoolers, primary aged girls, primary aged boys, high school girls, high school boys, then adults, both men and ladies.  It hadn't occurred to me that, seeing I finished school last year and had had a birthday since, I was actually in the open aged ladies competition, until we were lining up.  But, there I was.  So when it was my turn and picked up the boot and chucked it as far I could.  Some of the others had techniques and would spin the boot around and around before throwing up, gaining momentum, I guess.  Others would do a bit of a run up.  I just stood there and threw it, but it must have been the power of a left-hander, because, to my great surprise and shock, I won the ladies category with a throw of over 11 meters!  I won a bag of Freddo Frogs  :D

On Saturday night, Mum and I ran a Family Feud Trivia Night.  We had deliberated long and hard over this night, because a standard family feud game only includes 8 people (we had about a 100) and a trivia night would probably go over the younger kid's heads.  So, after quite a few brainstorming sessions, and a few late night calls on the week leading up to the camp while I was at Tahlee, we came up with a mixture.  During the afternoon, we set up tables in the auditorium, with 8-10 people at each table.  When everyone entered, they made teams at the tables.  Each table got to choose 4 people to come up to the front and play a Family Feud round (if you don't know what I mean by Family Feud, it is a game show on channel 10 - look it up!  :P)  Between each Family Feud round, there was bonus rounds, and each round accumulated points for an overall winning table of the night.  The bonus rounds varied from general trivia night quizzes, to quizzes on movie quotes, a don't forget the lyrics round (where we would play a segment of a song cutting it off part way and they had to write down the next lyrics)  and a few rounds especially for kids - including a spelling bee.  It was a really fun night and although Mum and I were both absolutely exhausted by the end of it, it was well worth the work and effort we had put in. 

Sunday morning we held Church by the lake, which was lovely, as usual.  the best thing was that this year - a first in the 5 years we have had Church camp - it didn't rain!  After the church service, we had water baptism in the lake and then a shared BBQ lunch.  It was a lovely time, and afterwards, it was time to go home.  I think at least 4 of us kids came home lobsters from the sun! :P

One last thing before I go, or you go, one or the other!  ;)

  It is coming, rather rapidly, up to our Church's annual Christmas Production.  The carols include a variety of singalong carols, song items, and drama.  If any of you are in the vicinity, and would like to come along - it is on the 6th of December, 2015, at Generate Church, corner of New England Highway and Kelso Street Singleton, NSW.  We have free entertainment - such as jumping castles, rock climbing, etc.  - from 3:30pm and dinner is available (I think it is something like hot dogs for $1.50 - but don't quote me on that!  :P)  - and  our cafe will be open, from where you can buy anything from a milkshake to a coffee.  The carols start 7:00pm, and finish at 8:30, so it doesn't go too late.  If you have any further questions or queries, please comment and I will do my best to answer them.  :)  We would love for you to be there if you can make it!!!
 

A Week at Tahlee

Well, I am back from a week at Tahlee!   It was a busy, but thoroughly enjoyable time.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera so I have no pictures to share with you all.  So you will have to imagine what the kitchen looks like:

The Tahlee kitchen is a commercial kitchen, with one main island bench running nearly the full length. At both the short ends of the rectangle room, there are sinks, and a commercial dishwasher (one minute cycles are the best!) Along one of the long sides there are two double gas stove tops, and two commercial ovens.  The other long side is used up by a storage bench and the double opening doors onto the dining room.

Then there is a small pantry, where cooking staples and dishes are kept.  Opposite to this, there is a corridor of fridges - two four door fridges, and on the opposite side are freezers.  And then there is upstairs, where a table is set up for extra preparation or eating area, and a laundry around the corner.  The cool room is also located upstairs - a massive, walk in fridge, which opens into a walk in freezer (which is pure torture in winter  :P)  Then if you continue, and head outside, there is a two roomed pantry and separate equipment pantry.

The dining room is a heritage building, and can seat up to about 120 people.  It is wood paneled, from floor to the high ceiling, and has two marble fireplaces, one of which is in use.  Above the mantle, there are mirrors which reach up to the ceiling.  There are four double french doors along one side, which open up to the veranda.

Hopefully that made sense....  I tried to draw up a map on Paint, to depict the kitchen, but it is much harder to draw a to scale floor plan than one would think.  So here it is.... roughly drawn to scale

So we had a school group of 50 people in from Wednesday lunch to Friday afternoon tea.  Breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner, and supper.  And then while the school group was still in, another two camps also entered, one group of 27, and the other of 15.  Thankfully, they only overlapped for one meal...lunch.  But they all had lunch at different times.  One group was at 12:15 pm, the school was at 12:35, and the third group at 1:00 pm.  To help with all the different times and amounts which we needed to cook, I wrote up the schedule on the wall with whiteboard marker, as it just wipes off at the end of the day.  It worked really well, and I ended up writing the menu, numbers, dietary requirements, times, etc for every day.

The menus differ between the kids and adult groups quite significantly.  The school had meals like pizza, chips and salad for lunch, and spaghetti bolognese for dinner, while the other groups had soup and salad wraps for lunch and roast chicken and vegetables for dinner.  It made me wonder at what age kids stop liking 'kids food' and start eating the more 'grown up' food, like curry and corned beef.....

Cooking for that many people mean long hours in the kitchen.  We started at 6:30 in the morning, and sometimes didn't get a break until 2:30 in the afternoon, breaking only until 4 where the dinner shift would continue until about 8 or 8:30 at night.  Despite the fatigue, and aching feet, there is a lot of reward and satisfaction in feeding 60 plus people.  And I think that my favorite times are before breakfast, because it is quiet and is your chance to set up the whole day in being prepared, and then after dinner, when four or five of the staff members come in and help clean up the kitchen. The laughter and the fun we have while doing hundreds of dishes is quite amazing.  :)

And doing the afternoon teas, the morning teas and the suppers are the worst meals to do because you have to bake something, plate different snacks, and most of the time immediately after you just fed everyone a substantial meal.  And making enough piklets for 50 plus people is a really slow, boring job.  Just saying. ;P

But I really have no complaints.  Being there is like being at home, and I can't wait to go back for the next camp.

A Quick Post

This part of the camping ground at Tahlee.  The dining room and kitchen
are further up the hill....

This is just a really quick post to say that I won't be blogging for this week, as I am going to Tahlee to cook for three concurrent camps.  I will get back next week, but I will take plently of photos, and you'll get to hear about it later.  :)

Magnets, Pirates, and Heavy Keyboards

The magnets in the molds

A few weeks ago, Rosie turned five.  One of the presents she received was a make your own fridge magnet set, and I was nominated the plaster of Paris overseer.  So we sat down on the kitchen floor, mixed up the plaster, spread it into the molds, placed the magnets into the back of them, and left them to dry for at least twenty-four hours.  We got back to finishing them the other day - taking the molds off and painting them.  They worked out quite well, despite the fact that some of the bigger figures are too heavy for the magnets and have trouble staying on the fridge, and that the head of the horse has broken off now and has found its final resting place.....don't tell her though, we managed to dispose of it before she realized.  :)

Out of the molds...

The finished product - Rosie painted these ones...

I painted the ones on the left, and Elise did the
ones of the right (including the unfortunate
horse.)

Dad and I drove to Newcastle on Tuesday afternoon, to keep my four week check up appointment after having had my tonsils out.  Everything is going well and healing nicely, which is good.  I drove some of the way there and back, clocking up another 1 hour and 45 minutes to my driving tally.  Because the appointment was late afternoon, by the time we got out on the freeway and swapped drivers (I was NOT going to drive in peak hour Newcastle) it was getting dark enough to put the headlights on, and count the hour I did on the way home as night driving.  By the time we actually got home, it was pitch black.  It is really hard to drive in the dark!  I found it difficult to see where the road was curving, especially when cars were overtaking me and shining their headlights into my side mirror.  It was most annoying to be momentarily blinded by the reflection.

Yesterday, we went to the nursing home with the rest of the outreach group, and put on a concert for the residents there, for Australia's biggest morning tea event, raising money for cancer research.  We sang songs all together, such as How Great Thou Art, the Millennium Prayer and I will Follow Him, from Sister Act.  That is such a fun song!  Then Emily, Joy, Elise and I did Broken Vessels, and It is Well.  We borrowed the Church keyboard again and boy, is it heavy!  I am very stiff and sore today from carting that keyboard from the car, to the auditorium, back out, and into the car again.  But the actual concert went well, and I think we all want to come back and do it again one day.

On Thursday nights and Sunday afternoons, Mum and Dad go to Pirates of Penzance practice.  SATS (the Theatrical Society in our town) puts on a musical every year, and this year, they are doing Pirates.  Mum and Dad are both in the band, and having been putting in long rehearsal hours.  On Thursday nights they practice for three hours, and on Sunday, eight hours, although the band members don't have to be there the whole time (only for six hours.)  The musical is coming together, and they had their first dress rehearsal the other night.  Dad said the costumes and the set looked really, really good.  We are all looking forward to going and watching the show.  

Today Dad and James are heading off to a Father and Son's Camp, at a Christian camp site called Tahlee.  The men from our Church are going down to help clean up the campsite after the massive storm which swept through the whole region about 5 weeks ago.  They are going some time after Dad gets home from work, and will be back tomorrow night.  We girls are looking forward to watching some girly movies over the weekend, I even went out and bought some more popcorn, just to be well stocked. :)  I think the first movie on the list is 'Ever After', starring Drew Barrymore, be

Part of the Tahlee Campsite

cause Elise hasn't seen it yet, and Joy only half of it.  I'm not sure what else is on our list, but that is a good start anyways.  It is quite cool here, and raining, so a movie weekend is sounds like the best plan to me.  :)