What a huge week!
Okay, I have to update properly now. It's early on the Saturday of Womad.. I have a house full of people asleep who I don't want to wake up. Perfect time to get writing about the adventure that was. Photos are on Flickr in the Sydney Road Trip Set.
I guess the Sydney trip really started on Tuesday 27th. That was the night we left Adelaide for Riverton. The day was a mad rush in itself.. trying to make sure we were ready to leave and packed and had set up all we needed for the next week or so. STRESS! I managed to also sneak in a visit to my new employer and getting a a bit of a talk through of my new part time job. We got up to Riverton REALLY late.
Wednesday was entirely spent packing up the (massive) ute and trailer with all of Bronwyn's (Bruce's sister) gear. I was beginning to hate her belongings. :) We'd also heard there was likely rain ahead and we spent a couple of hours making sure it was thoroughly waterproof. We didn't see a drop of rain while the gear was in the car. Grr!
Late Wednesday night Jennie (Bruce's mum) tells me all about the Grillies and how they're going across Australia with us for the trip and that we are to take lots of photos. I'm standing there tired as anything going "Uh-huh. They all like climbing. They're gorillas. That makes sense. Norman likes trucks. We take photos. Okay" and that was about all I took in. I don't think she can tell when I'm about to fall over tired yet :)
Thursday we finally jumped into the car and started the road trip proper. We missed our firt turn and drove half an hour out of our way. Great start! We stopped in Berri for two hours for lunch with Alex and Leanne (who I'd never met, but are both lovely). Then we had a short visit to the two slobbering dogs who were over the moon about having visitors. So cute!
Oh yeah, that's right. We're on a road trip with a destination. Keep driving. On to Deniliquin where my Nana lives. We got in so late that I wasn't sure she'd still be up. Somehow she fed us dinner and wine and got Bruce fixing her computer within minutes. Smart woman.
Nana demanded that we take a huge pile of sandwiches for the next part of the trip (and we were very happy to eat them!) so we barely stopped driving all Friday. Bruce was about to curl up with a book when he suddenly thought to read to me as I drove. He read a few brilliant short stories and then pulled out Robert Westall - The Cats of Seroster. For the rest of the trip whenever I was driving he would read to me. This resulted in some long driving stretches for me cause I was begging for more book. :)
When we got to Cowra and saw all the signs for the Japanese Gardens we figured it was about bloody time for a decent rest from driving. We took the Grillies out for a tour with us so there are way too many photos from the gardens. The gardens were built as a memorial/sign of peace for the Japanese POW's that were held there. It's a massive garden and well worth seeing. Puts Adelaide's garden to shame. Every time you sat in a gazebo you had natural air conditioning to cool you. It was gorgeous. Bruce later berated himself for not pulling the ring out there. :)
We got into Sydney about 8pm and got a quick dinner at Rhodes with Bronwyn before unpacking the trailer. By midnight it was emptied and we were sick of stairs & boxes, grumpy and dead to the world.
I finally went to Ikea on Saturday. I love the trolleys you can jump onto. Bronwyn spent way too much money on furniture and then we lugged it back to the car (Saga 1), lugged it up the stairs to her flat (Saga 2) and then built the buggers (Saga 3). I went from Ikea virgin to Ikea pro in a couple of hours. I swear I can build anything they throw at me now. But if you want my help you'll have to pay me more than the furniture is worth. I've had enough. :P Bronwyn is officially never moving again. We've decided. *puts foot down*
By about dinner time we crawled painfully to the local Indian takeaway and back. Ben (Bronwyn's boyfriend) dropped in to help us set things up.. but we all just draped ourselves over the table and complained about our ikea injuries and how smelly we were. Blergh.
Short interlude.. people are getting up. Will dispense coffee.
Right, back to it..
So, we get a router and stuff and head back to set it up. It has no modem in it. Bruce and Bronwyn went back to exchange it for one that was remotely useful. Ben and I build more furniture. Bronwyn runs off to a Hockey match she had to umpire. Bruce geeks. Ben and I build furniture. Ben and I withhold beer from Bruce until he does some REAL work. Bruce builds a drawer. Ben and I think that was a somewhat wimpy effort.. but we like him so he gets beer.
Big splat. Ange passes out on the bed we just built.
Bronwyn had arranged for us to see Allan and Monty for dinner because they were instrumental in her having a place to stay over the past few weeks. Bruce tells them he's going to take me for a walk to the park to wake me up before dinner. I get dragged groggily out of bed and walked to the park.
We sit at the park and he asks about what I'm wearing to Heather's wedding (another of Bruce's sisters) at the end of the month. He pretends he is going to try to match his outfit to mine. I ponder a few dresses and then pretty much decide on the blue one I wore to my birthday party. Bruce is nodding and smiling.. and then pulls out a ring, grins and says "Do you think it would go with this?". Yes, yes, yes.. and yes! And actually it would go with the dress, too.
SNEAKY BUGGER! This is an heirloom ring which he had his mother get out of storage especially. It's his great grandfather's tie pin which was turned into a ring for another great relative many, many years ago. And now it's an engagement ring! Squee!
Then we were rushed out to dinner (Pizza and gelati) and started spreading the gossip and drinking too much champagne. Some messages were sent out from Bruce's phone (because mine was out of phone credit). After some very funny messages back and a phone call beginning with a scream we turned the phone off and listened to the thunderstorm until we slept.
Will get back to this in a while.. Pausing for breakfast with Womad guests.
Monday we ran around all morning at Bronwyn's house making it perfect so she didn't come home to a half finished house. Then we left Sydney via the Tennis Museum where she works. Got a free tour of the closed museum and then bolted for Canberra. We ate revolting truck stop food for lunch and wished we hadn't for the rest of the day. We finally got in to Canberra (much later than anticipated) and made Jason late for work while we caught up with him for a beer. Then we descended upon Mat and Gemma who had cooked up an awesome Mexican feast for us. Yum!
All too quickly I was asleep and it was morning and Mat and Gemma were off to work. Bruce and I went up Telstra tower and stopped at the George Harcourt for lunch. Then drive, drive, drive to Deniliquin. This time we didn't get in too late to see the older rellies. Bruce got to meet my great aunties and uncles.. who were all very happy to see us engaged all of a sudden. :)
Then dinner at Aunty Nita's house. Very funny night :) And somehow Bruce ended up doing tech support again.. I love how people don't expect me to know anything about computers. I never get asked to fix them. Bruce just has GEEK written on his forehead. I'll have to get him a "No I will not fix your computer" T-Shirt :P
In the morning I took Bruce to see the Deni Rocket (Every kid knows the rocket!) and the Deni beach. The Deni to Adelaide leg was completely uneventful. I grovelled to drive all the time and got read to. We still didn't finish the book. :(
We've been madly running about trying to catch up on our lives since we got back. Suddenly it's Womad and we're entirely unprepared. Last night we ducked in to Lorelei's exhibition opening before racing back to Womad. Her exhibition is great! And there were stacks of ancient FUCS choristers there. Fun!
Today I'm missing Womad cause of a conducting course run by Tim Sexton and Heather's hen's night tonight.
By the way, it looks like there might be an engagement party on one of the Saturdays in late April. Will give more details when we know them. :)
I guess the Sydney trip really started on Tuesday 27th. That was the night we left Adelaide for Riverton. The day was a mad rush in itself.. trying to make sure we were ready to leave and packed and had set up all we needed for the next week or so. STRESS! I managed to also sneak in a visit to my new employer and getting a a bit of a talk through of my new part time job. We got up to Riverton REALLY late.
Wednesday was entirely spent packing up the (massive) ute and trailer with all of Bronwyn's (Bruce's sister) gear. I was beginning to hate her belongings. :) We'd also heard there was likely rain ahead and we spent a couple of hours making sure it was thoroughly waterproof. We didn't see a drop of rain while the gear was in the car. Grr!
Late Wednesday night Jennie (Bruce's mum) tells me all about the Grillies and how they're going across Australia with us for the trip and that we are to take lots of photos. I'm standing there tired as anything going "Uh-huh. They all like climbing. They're gorillas. That makes sense. Norman likes trucks. We take photos. Okay" and that was about all I took in. I don't think she can tell when I'm about to fall over tired yet :)
Thursday we finally jumped into the car and started the road trip proper. We missed our firt turn and drove half an hour out of our way. Great start! We stopped in Berri for two hours for lunch with Alex and Leanne (who I'd never met, but are both lovely). Then we had a short visit to the two slobbering dogs who were over the moon about having visitors. So cute!
Oh yeah, that's right. We're on a road trip with a destination. Keep driving. On to Deniliquin where my Nana lives. We got in so late that I wasn't sure she'd still be up. Somehow she fed us dinner and wine and got Bruce fixing her computer within minutes. Smart woman.
Nana demanded that we take a huge pile of sandwiches for the next part of the trip (and we were very happy to eat them!) so we barely stopped driving all Friday. Bruce was about to curl up with a book when he suddenly thought to read to me as I drove. He read a few brilliant short stories and then pulled out Robert Westall - The Cats of Seroster. For the rest of the trip whenever I was driving he would read to me. This resulted in some long driving stretches for me cause I was begging for more book. :)
When we got to Cowra and saw all the signs for the Japanese Gardens we figured it was about bloody time for a decent rest from driving. We took the Grillies out for a tour with us so there are way too many photos from the gardens. The gardens were built as a memorial/sign of peace for the Japanese POW's that were held there. It's a massive garden and well worth seeing. Puts Adelaide's garden to shame. Every time you sat in a gazebo you had natural air conditioning to cool you. It was gorgeous. Bruce later berated himself for not pulling the ring out there. :)
We got into Sydney about 8pm and got a quick dinner at Rhodes with Bronwyn before unpacking the trailer. By midnight it was emptied and we were sick of stairs & boxes, grumpy and dead to the world.
I finally went to Ikea on Saturday. I love the trolleys you can jump onto. Bronwyn spent way too much money on furniture and then we lugged it back to the car (Saga 1), lugged it up the stairs to her flat (Saga 2) and then built the buggers (Saga 3). I went from Ikea virgin to Ikea pro in a couple of hours. I swear I can build anything they throw at me now. But if you want my help you'll have to pay me more than the furniture is worth. I've had enough. :P Bronwyn is officially never moving again. We've decided. *puts foot down*
By about dinner time we crawled painfully to the local Indian takeaway and back. Ben (Bronwyn's boyfriend) dropped in to help us set things up.. but we all just draped ourselves over the table and complained about our ikea injuries and how smelly we were. Blergh.
Short interlude.. people are getting up. Will dispense coffee.
Right, back to it..
So, we get a router and stuff and head back to set it up. It has no modem in it. Bruce and Bronwyn went back to exchange it for one that was remotely useful. Ben and I build more furniture. Bronwyn runs off to a Hockey match she had to umpire. Bruce geeks. Ben and I build furniture. Ben and I withhold beer from Bruce until he does some REAL work. Bruce builds a drawer. Ben and I think that was a somewhat wimpy effort.. but we like him so he gets beer.
Big splat. Ange passes out on the bed we just built.
Bronwyn had arranged for us to see Allan and Monty for dinner because they were instrumental in her having a place to stay over the past few weeks. Bruce tells them he's going to take me for a walk to the park to wake me up before dinner. I get dragged groggily out of bed and walked to the park.
We sit at the park and he asks about what I'm wearing to Heather's wedding (another of Bruce's sisters) at the end of the month. He pretends he is going to try to match his outfit to mine. I ponder a few dresses and then pretty much decide on the blue one I wore to my birthday party. Bruce is nodding and smiling.. and then pulls out a ring, grins and says "Do you think it would go with this?". Yes, yes, yes.. and yes! And actually it would go with the dress, too.
SNEAKY BUGGER! This is an heirloom ring which he had his mother get out of storage especially. It's his great grandfather's tie pin which was turned into a ring for another great relative many, many years ago. And now it's an engagement ring! Squee!
Then we were rushed out to dinner (Pizza and gelati) and started spreading the gossip and drinking too much champagne. Some messages were sent out from Bruce's phone (because mine was out of phone credit). After some very funny messages back and a phone call beginning with a scream we turned the phone off and listened to the thunderstorm until we slept.
Will get back to this in a while.. Pausing for breakfast with Womad guests.
Monday we ran around all morning at Bronwyn's house making it perfect so she didn't come home to a half finished house. Then we left Sydney via the Tennis Museum where she works. Got a free tour of the closed museum and then bolted for Canberra. We ate revolting truck stop food for lunch and wished we hadn't for the rest of the day. We finally got in to Canberra (much later than anticipated) and made Jason late for work while we caught up with him for a beer. Then we descended upon Mat and Gemma who had cooked up an awesome Mexican feast for us. Yum!
All too quickly I was asleep and it was morning and Mat and Gemma were off to work. Bruce and I went up Telstra tower and stopped at the George Harcourt for lunch. Then drive, drive, drive to Deniliquin. This time we didn't get in too late to see the older rellies. Bruce got to meet my great aunties and uncles.. who were all very happy to see us engaged all of a sudden. :)
Then dinner at Aunty Nita's house. Very funny night :) And somehow Bruce ended up doing tech support again.. I love how people don't expect me to know anything about computers. I never get asked to fix them. Bruce just has GEEK written on his forehead. I'll have to get him a "No I will not fix your computer" T-Shirt :P
In the morning I took Bruce to see the Deni Rocket (Every kid knows the rocket!) and the Deni beach. The Deni to Adelaide leg was completely uneventful. I grovelled to drive all the time and got read to. We still didn't finish the book. :(
We've been madly running about trying to catch up on our lives since we got back. Suddenly it's Womad and we're entirely unprepared. Last night we ducked in to Lorelei's exhibition opening before racing back to Womad. Her exhibition is great! And there were stacks of ancient FUCS choristers there. Fun!
Today I'm missing Womad cause of a conducting course run by Tim Sexton and Heather's hen's night tonight.
By the way, it looks like there might be an engagement party on one of the Saturdays in late April. Will give more details when we know them. :)