I was going to write about the weekend last night, only I decided to get on with the financial stuff instead. The first step is to look carefully at our expenses. About two years ago we actually made a start at budgeting and keeping track of our spending - at the time we were doing some serious retirement and education planning and considering the costs of schooling. But our budgeting and financial record-keeping has totally slipped since the end of last year, and we have only a vague idea of where the money is going. So, I am starting from scratch in that I am reconciling all the expenses since the beginning of July. (I confess to using Microsoft Money for this. It's not bad - doesn't totally relieve the pain though.) This will give us a good idea of the situation as some things are paid monthly and some are paid quarterly (school fees and extra-murals). When that is done I will re-do the budget. And hopefully things will be positive. I'm curious to see how much our grocery bill goes down with my new stringent frugal approach. I haven't been to our Woolworths food shop for 15 days now.

I got another nudge from the Universe yesterday. My middle sister-in-law (I have three on Peter's side) phoned with a potential piece of work for me. It's fairly small, and not at all definite, but it is a possibility. She freelances as an environmental consultant and this project requires some database development and reporting. However, the Universe is somewhat ambivalent in its messaging, as yesterday at work I was assigned a new and potentially interesting or at least not boring-to-tears-or-wrist-slitting sort-of project. It's the reason why I can sit here and write out long leisurely blog posts as it's largish so the timing is long and not fraught with anything resembling deadlines at this stage. The last two weeks I had some boring busywork to do which was annoying as I didn't have so much time at work for other more interesting pursuits.

The weekend at St Bernards Mountain Lodge was rather strange. A friend to whom I mentioned the place was a bit dubious about the price and it turns out she was somewhat right.

The owners are friendly in an awkward, rather shy sort of way. They don't really seem suited to the uncertainty and stresses of running and renovating a mountain lodge. The place is still pretty run down. Although the food was very good and the buildings inside are very comfortable and pleasant, outside things are a bit of a mess.

The pool is huge, green with algae and has virtually no paving left around it. The three pool filters seem to be out of order, and there is a fourth filter stuck on the edge of the pool on something resembling a tea-trolley. The driveway is rutted and rocky, and the tennis court matches it. (This made very little difference to our tennis however. One thing I was surprised about was how much stronger my arms seem to be than the last time I played tennis which was probably ten years ago. Comes of lugging kids around I think.) When I asked about the croquet, I got a rather bemused reply, 'Oh if you want to, but you'll have to stick the pins in yourself. We can probably find them somewhere.'

When Peter asked about the sauna and jacuzzi, the reply was that they had 'packed up a long, long time ago'. The dining room was large and pretty with a dance floor area in the middle, and a chandelier in the wooden ceiling with one operational light bulb. The ceiling itself looked as though someone had fallen on it and almost through it as it had an ominous floorwards bulge. The view from the dining room onto the farmyard was complete with not picturesque ducks and chickens but broken tractors, sheep, delapidated huts, and piles of rusty scrap metal. The rooms inside were furnished and decorated with a weird farmy collection of bits and pieces. In fact the whole experience was rather farmesque. (If you used to be a regular visitor with us to 'The Farm', you'll get the picture.) The farmesque experience was completed by the smoky chimney and the water which ran out, unfortunately, at 5pm on Sunday when we had a room full of tired, grubby children. Tired, grubby, horsey children.

Which brings me to the horseriding, which made the whole trip worthwhile, weird or not. It was wonderful - with gorgeous views of the countryside and mountains. The owner guy was much less shy and much more chatty and friendly when safely on horseback. And I asked, out of interest, and theoretically, how one asked one's horse to go faster. So they decided to give me a little extra experience and before I knew it I was galloping at heart-pumping and adrenaline-inducing speed up the hill. After a few moments of terror, and then a few more of surprise that I was still actually on the horse, I just relaxed and went with it. It was awesome. The girls loved the whole experience too. And Daniel had a little ponyride around the farm itself.

So, weird weekend or not, we will go sometime again, but we will wait until Daniel is old enough so that we can all ride together. Because he was too little for the mountain ride we had to split up - Peter stayed with him for the first day's ride and I for the second day's ride. I love horseriding and I think I will take it up again one day. I once had a few lessons before the children were born but it all ended disastrously with all the horses bolting and my friend being extremely badly hurt. Still, I think I like it too much never to do it again. Not that we are going to take on any extra expenses at this stage.

So all in all a different and interesting weekend in which I met some interesting people and got to enjoy two things I haven't done for years and years - play tennis and ride horses. I think I'll chalk the weekend up as a success.