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My busy week in Victoria


21 Oct

Posted in Family, Friends, Melbourne, Travel, Vic | 1 Comment »

My one week holiday has gone very well really. I spent a night with Grandma in Timboon, then drove to Melbourne and spent a night with Janis, took the car into the Docklands Subaru service place on Monday morning to get the cruise control reset and then had the rest of the day for shopping (I needed bras). I popped into Kate’s mum’s place to drop off birthday presents for the girls and then ended up at Steph’s for the night. We decided to have pizza for dinner, but found that the pizza shop was shut so we made our own with mushrooms, capsicum, spinach, goats cheese and normal cheese. It was really yummy!

Tuesday morning I went to a bra place in Camberwell that was fantastic and got me fitted out in less than 15 minutes with comfy and supportive maternity bras. I hadn’t felt so comfortable for probably the last 4 months!! Then I visited Liz and Tony for lunch and stayed there until almost tea time! I stayed that night with Trish and we ordered pizza for dinner. It wasn’t until I was driving over to Huntingdale to meet Tim and Janine for a pizza lunch on Wednesday that I realised how much pizza I’d been eating! Oh well, it was all yummy.

After lunch on Wednesday I went for a swim at the pool in Waverley Road. The complex was being built when I lived in Melbourne but didn’t open until I left, and was busting to go there. I used to swim in the 50 m outdoor pool before the complex was built, but now it’s nicely heated. Nothing like the freezing water that Tim and I used to do lunchtime laps in many years ago now. From there it was to Oma’s house where my parents were staying, and we went to a Vietnamese place for dinner with Bruno, Keren and Conrad, and finished up at their house for desert. I stayed that night at Oma’s.

Thursday morning I drove to Andrew’s friend Aaron’s warehouse in Ringwood to drop off Andrew’s turbo that he no longer needs. I hadn’t really spent much time talking to Aaron before, and was amazed that we chatted away quite easily and I was there for an hour! From there I headed to Danielle’s place in Bayswater, but before visiting her I dropped into a great second hand children’s clothes shop at The Basin called Hand Me Downs and purchased 11 little outfits for $1 each. It was great to catch up with Danielle and meet her son Nathan for the first time. He’s now 5 months old, and Danielle gave me her bassinet and some clothes that Nathan no longer fits into. He was a bit grizzly all afternoon, but he was still very cute!

I was spending the night at Tricia’s house again, but I’d only just got there when it was time to go and pick up Andrew from the airport. So off I went, picked him up and went back to Tricia’s. Ian was spending the night, and Aaron was there as well, and we all had a late dinner after Andrew and I got back. We celebrated with Trish the fact that she most likely has a new job because we wouldn’t be around in a week when it’s all sorted out.

Friday morning Andrew and I took the car back to Docklands Subaru because the engine light had come on again and the cruise control light was flashing. They told us that the problem was the catalytic converter, and it was just going to keep happening. I had hoped that we’d get some time using the cruise control on the way back to Sydney, but at that stage it seemed unlikely. And as expected, the engine light came on again not long after we left Melbourne so cruise control was inactive for the entire trip back to Sydney.

I had left my bag at Tricia’s house, so we had to pop back there to pick it up, and then we drove to Jeff’s Shed to meet up with mum and Andrew’s mum to go to the baby expo. Thankfully it wasn’t as busy there as it was in Sydney, and I felt I got more out of it. We spent about 3 hours at the expo, then walked to Swanston Street to have lunch at the Hari Krishner place, went to Koko Black for a chocolate each, and then got the tram back to the car. We drove to Oma’s house where we packed the car with all the stuff that Mum and Dad had brought to Melbourne for me, went to Tamani’s for dinner with mum, dad and Andrew’s parents, and then went back to Andrew’s parents’ place to stay the night.

Saturday morning we left early to drive to Echuca. It was a pretty hot day, and when we got there we went to the tourist info place to get ideas of things to do. We decided to do a 1 hour cruise on a paddle steamer, and ended up choosing to go on the one that starred in the 1980’s tv series All The Rivers Run. Before the cruise we had a yummy lunch of fish and chips, and afterwards we walked around town for a bit and then booked into our B&B which was a gorgeous old house with some 100 years of history. There were 2 rooms available to stay in, and we had the one with the spa bath in it…and given I’d never been in a spa bath, I just HAD to have a bath. It was devine. The B&B was also just walking distance from the restaurant we were booked into for dinner, and it was a very pleasant balmy evening and perfect for being outdoors.

Sunday morning we cooked our breakfast, and left for Sydney just before 9 am. It’s now nearly 5 pm and we have just passed Goulburn, so I guess we have about 2 hours to go. I’ve had a great week. 🙂

The long drive


14 Oct

Posted in Family, Travel, Vic | 1 Comment »

My 1 week holiday has started, and I am currently visiting my grandmother in Timboon. The drive to get here was 1100 km and it took me 14 hours. I left Sydney at around 2:45 pm on Friday and got to Albury at 9:50 pm, totally exhausted. I am driving a loan car because of a saga with our car. Basically, it went in about 3 weeks ago for a service…we’d only had it for 2 months at that stage. They told us that a clutch and flywheel needed to be replaced, so it was booked in the next week for that work to be done. We picked up the car late on the Friday before the long weekend, only to find that there was a loud whining noise in second gear, and before we’d driven it 10 km a loud grinding noise started up. So the car was towed. The following Tuesday we were told that the gear selector hadn’t been put back properly, so that was fixed and we were told all was well. However, the whine in second gear was still there and Andrew has spent the last 2 weeks trying to get someone to have a look and see if anything is wrong with the car. Finally they’ve agreed, just as my holiday was starting, so I was given a loan car to take to Victoria. So this is why I’m driving a Forrester instead of our lovely, comfortable Outback, and why I am concerned that not everything I’m picking up in Melbourne will fit in the car.

Anyway, back to the story, I left work, drove home to pick up my laptop and Andrew’s camera gear, and then started the long drive south. I got about 50 km down the road when I was able to start using the cruise control. I set it and a few minutes later it did something weird, seemed to be breaking quite hard for no reason. I tapped the accellerator to keep the speed up, and then I noticed that the engine light was on and the cruise control light was flashing. I found somewhere to pull over and stopped and started the engine a few times to see if that would make the warning lights go away, but it didn’t. So I called Andrew and asked him to call Subaru and find out what I should do….I didn’t want to drive on and damage their car, but I also didn’t want to have to turn back if I didn’t have to, as it had taken me an hour of driving to get to the outter edge of Sydney.

Subaru said it was ok to drive the car, but since the cruise control wasn’t working, I had 2 options. To turn around and get them to fix it, or to go to a Subaru dealer when I got to Melbourne and ask them to fix it. The downside of the latter option was that I’d have to drive some 1500 km without cruise control, as it wasn’t working. I decided to keep driving, otherwise I was never going to make Albury for the night.

The drive to Albury was uneventful. I made several stops along the way and ate horrid food from fast food places at the side of the freeway. The motel I had booked left my room key in the door because they knew I was arriving late, though it didn’t end up being as late as I had thought it might be. I collapsed into bed, woke up the next morning, booked out of the motel and started driving again.

It was another 7 hour drive, but it was more pleasant for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I wasn’t tired, and secondly it was daylight. I took the freeway and then detoured across to Nagambie, and then down through Daylesford, Ballarat, Camperdown and finally made it to Timboon. It was nice to drive on the country roads instead of the freeways and highways, but it did make the travel time just a little longer. Near Daylesford there was a little family of ducks that were trying to cross the road, and it really looked like they were standing there and waiting for the traffic to die down before they went across. I stopped to try to take a photo of them, so I saw them cross when there was no traffic. There were about 10 little ducklings, and they were all so cute! I obviously got too close when trying to take the photo, and one of the adult ducks came at me with wings outstretched and neck rigid, and it went onto the road just as 2 cars were driving past. I was so worried it would get hit, but both cars managed to avoid it. By this time I had moved away, so the little family was safe and back together again. Also on the road, I saw a hawk of some sort sitting on a fence post. It was a lovely bird, but I didn’t stop for photos.

Thisafternoon I’ll be driving to Melbourne. It’s only about 300 km, so it’s not too far. But I’d love to take a look at the Great Ocean Road, so I might take a slightly longer route. I guess we’ll see how I go and what time I leave my grandmother’s house.

Tricia and Aaron


28 Sep

Posted in Family, Friends, Sydney city | No Comments »

Tricia is a friend I have known my entire life. Literally! She is one year older than me, and when we were growing we lived across the road from each other. Our parents are good friends and for many years they have played cards together most Sunday nights that they were all free, and we used to laugh about their post mortems in the days following their matches. Trish would even come on our family holidays when we were kids. I moved to Melbourne to go to uni, Trish went there to live a few years afterwards and once again we could regularly see each other. She worked in the city and I travelled through each day, so we’d meet up on Friday nights for dinner and eat out somewhere. Then I moved to the other side of Melbourne, and by this stage Trish was married and soon had a son, and so we’d catch up about one Saturday a month for lunch. Then I moved to Sydney, and it again became hard to keep in touch. But it doesn’t matter, for no matter what happens in our lives we will always be friends.

Anyway, Tricia came to visit for a few days with her son Aaron, who is now 10 years old. They arrived on Saturday evening, and so yesterday we spent most of the day wandering around the city and Manly. We drove to Darling Harbour and then walked to the city and Circular Quay, stopping at the Lindt shop for some refreshments on the way. Then we caught a ferry to Manly where we had a late lunch of fish and chips. Aaron wanted to play footy on the beach and harassed Tricia to buy him a football, so we found a cheap, small squashy ball that would do, but by this time we were heading back to the ferry. So we decided to walk to the Opera House when we got back to Circular Quay, and then go to the Botanical gardens where there are lots of large grassy spaces that we thought he’d be able to play with his ball in. Unfortunately, when we got there we saw a sign saying no balls, so poor Aaron couldn’t play even there.

We went to the BBQ King for a chinese dinner which was really tasty and both Andrew and I enjoyed a lot. Unfortunately I don’t think it went down too well with 10 year old Aaron. From there it was back to the car, and a short drive home. I think everyone was exhausted after walking so far!

Tricia and Aaron were staying until Tuesday morning, so Monday night after work we all went to Gabe and Julie’s house for dinner (we took lasagne and a salad, Julie organised garlic bread and dessert) and had a great night there.

It was really wonderful to have Tricia and Aaron visit. 🙂

Happy birthday Andrew


06 Jul

Posted in Family | 1 Comment »

The title says it all. I know you’re sick, and so I guess all I can say is that your timing for getting sick sucks. But I wish you a lovely birthday all the same. Looking at it positively, at least you get to spend your birthday at home!

Mudgee


25 Jun

Posted in Family, Food, NSW, Travel | No Comments »

It was my parents’ 40th wedding anniversary yesterday.  They had decided to come to Sydney to celebrate with Andrew and I, so we decided to surprise them with a weekend away at Mudgee.  It is a wine growing area, and after the rain from the last couple of weeks the area was a lovely green colour.  But it was rather chilly up there! 

 We left home at around 8:15 am on Saturday morning, and had made it to Mudgee in time for lunch.  We ate at the High Valley Cheese and Wine Company after having a cheese tasting to see what cheese we wanted on the cheese platter.  We chose the parma gouda, pesto feta and a brie.  I also had the soup of the day to warm myself up (it was broccoli, cauliflower and pine nut soup), and the accompanying bread was very tasty! 

Afterwards we pottered around for a while, visited a winery and also a honey place, and then looked around town to decide where we would have the anniversary dinner.  After that we checked into the lovely B&B we’d booked into.  It had a beautiful fire going in the guest lounge room (there were 3 rooms with their own ensuite each, and a dining room and lounge room for the guests to use that was separate to the living area of the family who ran the B&B).  We had enough time to relax and warm up by the fire before heading back to town for dinner.

We all really enjoyed our meals at a restaurant called Elton.  Mum and Andrew had steak, Dad had a chicken cordon bleu, and I had eggplant stuffed with cous cous, pear, sultanas, walnuts and other goodies with moroccan flavours and had a cucumber type spiced yoghurt dressing over the top.  Then mum and dad shared a dessert, and Andrew and I shared one. 

 Back at the B&B we found the other guests (a couple) and the hosts rugged up and eating pizza from the wood fired pizza oven.  Andrew thinks the oven was too hot for cooking, but it was wonderful to stand infront of!  But being outside was too cold for the way we were dressed, and so we headed back inside to the warm lounge room.

Sunday morning we had a lovely big breakfast (didn’t I say in the last blog that I had put on weight??  Well, we all know why now, don’t we….)  and then went for a walk down to the river at the bottom of the property.  When we left the B&B we drove to Hill End, an old gold mining town that isn’t much more than a historical town with a pub and an information centre, but it was very nice all the same.  We had lunch at the pub (I had a crumbed chicken breast in turkish bread and some chips and salad) and visited the lookout at Bald Hill before heading back to Sydney via Bathurst (where we did a lap of Mount Panorama).

It was a really lovely weekend.  I just wish we had had more time to explore.  Maybe next time we will be able to stay a few days. 🙂

Birthday wishes


04 Jun

Posted in Family | No Comments »

Happy birthday Leanne.

You would have been 39 today.

I miss you.

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