Anzac Day

Monkey participated in this past weekend's Anzac Day march through town. The march is led by veterans in taxi cabs who are unable to do the physical march. 

 

The cabs are followed by various groups including the different schools in town, the current serving military personnel, the police and others.  Here are the scouts, Monkey is the kid in the green (Canadian) Scout uniform.

Saturday was the 100th anniversary of the failed battle at Gallipoli.  We remember and we honour the lives that were forever changed as a result.

Dave's Birthday Celebration

On Friday night we went out to a local micro-winery called Short Sheep for an event called "Wine by Candlelight" to celebrate Dave's birthday.

We were toured around the winery and even got to sample some lovely white wines right from the tanks.

 We continued the celebration with these lovely cheese platters and moved in to the reds.  We sampled lots of the current offerings as well as a gorgeous 2004 red that was made from the first grapes to come from their vineyard.

 We got picked up (arrive alive people!!) and dropped off at home to move to the birthday cake portion of the evening.

 Some fabulous friends helped me out by preparing a delicious Black Forest cheesecake for Dave.  We sang and then the boys were more than happy to help to eat up!

This year he might have made his birthday last even longer than I usually do!!

It's Not All Rainbows and Sunshine

In fact, there has been NO SUNSHINE.  What does that mean?  That means that we don't have any hot water.  None.  We are boiling the kettle to wash dishes and there are lukewarm showers for everyone.

The laundry behind me has been on the line for 4 full days of rain.  It is some of the best rinsed laundry that I have ever run.  If there is still soap in it, I don't know what can ever be done to fix that!!

 That sky is still looking ominous, but I am hopeful.  So very hopeful.

The grass and the trees are lush and happy.

 Since I know that you all come to the blog to find out about my laundry, I will let you know how this one ends.  I kept feeling the laundry and finding it damp then checking the sky.  I finally noticed that the sky was looking like rain, so I put on my shoes to grab the almost dry laundry and the skies opened up and poured rain while I was slipping on my shoes.

I JUST NEED SOME PANTS, UNIVERSE!!!!!  IS THIS SO MUCH TO ASK FOR????

Then, just because today is not my day.  At. All.  When I go to the mail box, I get this:

 That, my friends, is a speeding ticket for doing 45 km/h in a 40 zone.  On a Saturday, captured by a speed camera.  That bad decision cost $185.  I am really hoping that there are not more of those on their way in the days to come.

So I mustered up my coping skills and first I ate my feelings.  They tasted very good, thank you for asking.

 Then I went for a run with my monkey to get the good endorphins flowing.

Then Dave opened a bottle of wine.  He's a good man that Dave.

The Rain Continues

It has been, and continues to be so disgusting outside that my running group was cancelled for tonight.

 The older two boys still have activities going on, so the short one and I are staying home in the dry house and eating popcorn and playing Connect 4.

 I've brought some of the laundry in to hang by the fireplace so that the nudity will end soon.  I am hoping for a stretch of dry weather, but there isn't any in the forecast for a couple of days.  The house is nice and dry.  We even lit a small fire tonight for heat.

 Prior to the Monkey leaving I scored my best ever round of MasterMind!!!!

These two are a heap of fun to play with!!

Feast or Famine

We rolled in to Mudgee in the pouring rain.  I mean pelting, driving rain.  I unloaded the car on to the covered porch and we got things sorted.

I ran three loads of laundry.  We had cleaned as many clothes as we needed to to get us home while we were in Melbourne, but came home with suitcases full of dirty laundry.  I hung it on the line and it promptly started to rain.  Pour.  For two days.  All of our clothes are now very well rinsed.  The boys all have clothing, but I am out of pants.  I have no pants.  At all.  Yesterday I wore a skirt, it is cold here.  I should remind you gentle readers, that houses here usually do not have clothes dryers.  It is not at all uncommon that ours does not.

It would be very un-Australian to complain about the rain, but I need pants.  Feast or famine in this country.

First School Break Day 16-Driving Home

Last day.  We are driving home.  This has been an incredible trip.  That said, we are all ready to have our own space and to stop living out of suitcases.  We wanted so much to steal Karen and bring her back to Mudgee with us, but it was too difficult to get her away from her guardians.

 Melbourne is misty and rainy as we drive away.  The Garmin car minutes GPS is setting us up for a 12 hour ride home.  The GPS on the phone is telling us just under 10 hours.  We are keeping both on and seeing how it plays out!

 Lovely view

 When you are travelling you need to be prepared for some random bathroom experiences.  Most of ours so far have been reasonable, some have been horrifying opportunities to test my ability to squat and not touch the seat.  I opened the door on today road trip to find these enormous freak sized months.  Eek!

 The trunk is pretty much at capacity!

 No. Way!  We pulled in to a random town to get petrol and found a submarine museum!  Of course we did!  The boys loved running along the enormous submarine out front.  They were even able to climb down the hatch!  They could have stayed for a couple of hours at least.  Sadly it was a quick stop and then back on the road.  The two guidance systems are still two hours apart in estimations.

We arrived home about 11 hours after leaving Melbourne.  Including stops for petrol, submarines and the like.  It poured rain!  In a dry country, it poured for about 9 of the 11 hours.  

First School Break Road Trip Day 15-The Footy!

We spent the day today doing just about nothing at all.  After 14 straight days of being on the go we are ready to get on the road tomorrow and to get back to a routine.  For now, we will spend the day doing nothing.  Tonight, we will head to an Aussie Rules Football game at the second largest sports stadium in the world.

Before heading out, meat pies are in order!

 Fully fortified by the meat pies, we hopped on the train (BigC came too I promise!) and hit the game.

 I'm not at all sure that I have any idea whatsoever what happened, but Dave was thrilled to have seen a major sporting event in Australia so we will call it a win!!

First School Break Day 14-Puffin Billy Day

I signed us up for a tour that included a ride on a steam train through the Dandelong mountains, tea and bid feeding in Sherwood Forest, and shopping in Sassafrass.

This meant that we needed to get up before 6am to get to the start of the tour.  It should be noted that the tour left from the CBD and then drove almost past the house were we were staying...nothing to be done about that since it was already booked!

The bird feeding was cool, but I was so glad that we had the opportunity to do it with b yesterday.  The birds on our tour are a bit too used to humans, and none of us enjoyed having the cockatoos quite so close.

The train ride was exceptional!!  BigC loved seeing how the station looked, he says it looks like it was original and he likes that he can picture how it must have looked when it was still in use.  He loved looking at the old train, especially the pistons when the train was in motion.

He has kept his ticket in with his bag of precious things.  It was a pretty big deal for him.

We returned to the CBD and rode the trams for a while, visited a Porshe dealership

 And headed to The Portland Hotel which contains the James Squire Brewery and Dave sampled a flight of their offerings. 

We then headed back to where we are staying.  I originally typed "we returned home".  The word "home" is one that I use pretty loosely these days.  Right now "home" is where our suitcases are.

Here is Monkey asleep with the resident assistance dog in training.  This dog is just sweet, sweet, sweet.

Some things happen when you travel for two weeks and live out of bags.  We wore the same items every few days and I never wore most of the shorts and tanks that I packed.  We just kept washing and wearing the same cooler weather items.  We lost the tweezers early on. Bangs and big sunglasses hide a multitude of sins, let me tell you!  It would have only been necessary to pack about half of what we brought, but how we were to know.

Wanda got a eucalyptus oil enema today.  It has improved the conditions considerably.

First School Break Holiday Day 13-Dave's Birthday and the Zoo!

Sometimes you know people in the places where you visit, sometimes you don't know a soul and sometimes your friends know people and suggest that you get in touch with them for advice.

This was the third.  We got in touch with B who is a friend of a friend.  Before I know it, we are chatting on the phone and she is offering to take us out for a day to show us the zoo.  She had other plans too, but we are starting to feel pretty travel weary and in need of some down time.

B picked us up and drove us out to a local dam.  She had birdseed for the kids and the local birds were thrilled that we'd stopped by.  The birthday boy got a nice visit as well!

We drove up to the zoo and it was awesome!  The school holidays in Victoria have ended now and it is the middle of the week.  We shared the zoo with a few other families, but not many.  We got to see the kangaroo keeper talk and saw the bird show.  Oh the birds were naughty at today's show!! One flew up really high and wouldn't come back until lured, another two wouldn't leave at the end of their parts.

B is a phenomenal photographer and the quality of today's photos is far superior to what we usually have!

It was an absolutely amazing experience.  We were thrilled to have the local expertise and the advise to come out to the sanctuary campus that houses Australiana rather than the larger more standard zoo.

Before leaving, B bought everyone ice creams and gave the boys a souvenir.  Thank you so much!!

After the zoo we headed to do a beer tasting AND a wine tasting.  Happy birthday Dave! To celebrate, we bough 6 bottles of wine. I got a bit of an exasperated look from my loving husband.  It is obvious that he, rather than I, is responsible to pack up the trunk of the car at each stop.

When we got home our hosts outdid themselves and had a birthday cake!