Australian Adventure 2013 - 12

The remainder of Friday (25^th) was largely domestic and catch-up, especially emails and newspapers on my part, as well as publishing a new episode of my blog and Flickr pictures.  We leave again on Monday and the weekend was to be a bit social.  We went out to dinner, a fair drive but worth it.  There is a true “English” fish and chip shop a couple of suburbs down the coast, large and thick pieces of battered cod and very nice chips (fries).  It was really nice and worth the drive.  While we were waiting Pam and I walked a few shop-fronts down to an “English Shop” that would have had Marissa drooling within 10 seconds of entering it!  Pam bought some Pork Pies, Eccles Cakes and Bakewell Tarts for our subsequent enjoyment.  It was just the three of us as Peter went straight from work to stay with some former school-mates in Toowoomba for the weekend.

Saturday morning started with some mild excitement for me as I found myself, when stepping into the shower, to be sharing the room with the largest spider I had ever seen outside of a zoo environment.  Talking to Pam a little later I found out that it was a “Huntsman” spider, and at a mere 2 ½ inches across a relatively “small” specimen of the breed.  They are also quite harmless, but distinctly unattractive!

The day continued to be largely chores.  I helped Nick cut down and subsequently cut up a couple of bamboos that at over 20 feet tall would thrash around in high winds (a not-uncommon occurrence especially in the afternoons) and impinge on the bug-screen mesh around their top floor balcony.

In the middle of the day Faye & her two came for an extended lunch.  Rebecca gave us a demonstration of her abilities on the clarinet and for dessert we fired up her present to her brother for his birthday during the past week which was a chocolate fountain.  Pam had strawberries and blueberries to use as the base for covering with chocolate sauce.

In the evening Pam put on a delightful and delicious semi-formal dinner as Lynn and Chris Boyce came to dinner.  Michelle will remember Chris as one of the B’s in the former BKB of Eastbourne, Nick being the other B in the partnership years ago.  They are delightful people and conversation flowed freely over a number of topics.  All in all it was a very nice evening indeed.

Monday morning was another early start, up, pack, grab a quick bite and then Peter, bless him, ran us to the airport in plenty of time to check our suitcases and then head to the gate.  The flight was decent and on time.  Claire, despite the distance, came over to pick us up.  There was a slight delay as Claire’s battery went dead while she was parked and waiting so we went and had a coffee while help came to jump start her.  It was a good long drive through very pretty countryside with all of us talking our heads off.

Once home we met Rod, settled in, and had lunch.  The day was delightfully cool, damp and English-style dismal but the heavy rain that fell while we were flying had ended.  Rod took Nick & I into the little town of Ballan and showed us around and after we were back one of Claire’s daughters, Elaine, and her two small children came over for a visit.  While in town I learned that since I have been here postcard postage has gone up so now I am wondering how many of the cards I sent Annie actually went with the stamps I bought the first day in Brisbane.  Later we had dinner and in the evening all the other’s voted to watch the movie “Gladiator” on DVD, so we did.

Tuesday was Pam’s birthday.  We left mid-morning for the hour drive into Melbourne and parked under the Art Museum, which was actually closed for some reason, but was a good central location.  We spent the rest of the morning doing the “downtown walking tour” largely small streets (rather like The Lanes in Brighton) and various lovely arcades.  When we ran out of steam we took the free tourist tram back to our starting point and went to a nice restaurant overlooking the river for lunch, my treat.

After lunch we elected to buy tickets, quite cheaply, for the 1 to 1 ½ hour tourist bus tour with both pre-programmed information supplemented by an actual guide.  It was a great way to see the city as a whole and not just the concrete canyons of downtown and all four of us thoroughly enjoyed it (Rod had a commitment for the daytime).  We then headed back to Ballan for tea and the consumption of Pam’s birthday cake.  Afterwards the three guys played several games of pool, in various combinations, on Rod’s very nice table.

Wednesday was in a series of segments.  For increased comfort two vehicles were used with me and Nick alternating in the “ute” with Rod and the other three in Claire’s car.  First stop was the home and paddocks of their daughter Elaine to see a 30-hour-old foal with its mother.  It was a nice visit but decidedly chilly out with the animals, various.  After a quick pass by the home again we headed on out through the countryside (very English-looking) to Hepburn Mineral Springs where natural soda water can still be pumped out of the ground.  It is a beautiful area and we walked around for quite a while.

We left there and traveled to a very nice country pub where we had a lovely lunch, very upscale.  Another substantial drive took us to a really lovely and large nursery where we wandered around for a good while.  Yet another drive took us to Daylesford where we parked and had tea and pastries.  Then we wandered slowly around the main shopping boulevard with its surprisingly deep stores and multiple places to eat of all types.  We all enjoyed the browsing but little was bought other than a kitchen gadget which Pam wanted.  Finally we headed out through lovely countryside in bright sunshine back to home base.  There we socialized and eventually had dinner.

Thursday morning started gently and we packed our bags ready for departure later.  In the morning we headed into Ballarat, a gold-rush city built with lots of money and in wide open spaces, making it quite lovely even today as it has huge wide boulevards, lots of grass, flowers, fountains and statuary.  We spent the morning walking, both outside and in some quite large stores and in the process Claire and Rod booked a European river cruise.

We then went to the edge of town to the artificial lake created for the rowing events at the 1952 Melbourne Olympics (and still used for rowing) and had a really nice lunch in a restaurant right on the water’s edge.  Rod left (we had taken two vehicles again) to do something and had an emergency call so we had to say our goodbyes by telephone.  Meanwhile Claire had returned us to her home to pick up the luggage, have a cup of tea and then she drove us to the airport, another pretty drive.  We said our goodbyes and thank yous and started on our return home.

 The only downside to the day was that (probably at Brisbane airport, or possibly on the plane) someone had infected me with an “Australian” common cold which I had been trying to wish away for a couple of days but clearly hadn’t succeeded.  This made the flight rather more uncomfortable than usual.  We took a taxi home and had a light supper and then I went to bed and managed to get in a really good night under the circumstances.