Trip!
I am back from my trip! As mentioned here I took a couple of weeks off and spent it visiting friends and family in other parts of the country. I wanted a break over winter and couldn't conjure up any overseas plans I was truly excited about, so I decided to just visit people all local-like. Starting with my Mum in Emerald, Qld. Dad was overseas doing a motorbike tour trip of Route 66.
photos
Flew up on a Sunday. Getting there was a minor debacle as my flight from Brisbane was cancelled. Virgin was quite good and promptly put me on a replacement Qantas flight, however they falsely assured me that my luggage would be put through without my intervention (in hindsight, this seems super implausible). But they redeemed themselves by delivering my bag on the evening flight and even driving it to the caravan park where I was staying. I'm guessing that's because Emerald is a small town and a small airport, I would be astonished to get that kind of service anywhere else. :)
The bigger debacle was that my Mum is not very technology proficient, and up until that point I had always communicated with her via Dad's mobile phone, and it turned out I didn't even have her number, and she didn't have mine. This made communicating the changed plans a little awkward but it all worked out. Her caravan park neighbour kindly came and picked me up (Mum doesn't have a driver's license and I wasn't planning to hire a car).
We mainly did a lot of walking. On Monday we walked to the new shopping centre. On Tuesday we drove around the dam, then the gem field towns with Karen. Had lunch at a lovely cafe called Poppy's in Rubyvale. Good stuff there. My first reminder that outside the capital cities people can't bring themselves to serve lattes in little glasses, they have to use tall fancy glasses. Terrorising parrots there, don't tempt them!
We spent an hour fossicking in the river under the direction of Karen. That handful of tiny stones was our haul. We were standing around near a random bucket and a guy came and told us we were impinging on his claim. I would have been happy to move up the river, but for some reason this got Karen's hackles up and she stood her (our) ground, telling the guy that we were just three women who didn't know what we were doing having a little play. Later she said "The cheek of him, chatting three women like that". I don't know exactly what "chat" means in this way - confronting? being aggressive towards? something like that. Mum enjoyed it, anyway.
On Wednesday we walked around the main part of town. :) I cooked a stirfry and we invited Karen over for dinner.
On Thursday we went walking around the botanic gardens, which I had passed on my previous two visits but not gone in to. Turns out they are huge and awesome. There is outdoor gym equipment, a windmill and a HEDGE MAZE. Also an awesome kid's playground. They have this monorail thing which is like a short fence with giant plastic animal-seats attached to it, that you can pedal on and presumably push yourself around on (your feet wouldn't touch the ground). I've never seen that before, it seems super cool. Also free.
I soaked up the sun all right. The minimums were about 5, actually similar to Melbourne, but I suspect it only stays there for 20 minutes, whereas Melbourne it might be 7 hours. And the maxes were around 22, which is about 7 degrees warmer than Melbourne at the moment. LOVED IT. Sadly the pool was all being dug up so I didn't get any swimming done. (Will be surprised if it's finished in time for this summer, actually... it was just a giant dirt hole.)
On Thursday afternoon I flew to Sydney via Brisbane. Stayed with the
incrementum crew :) in their new digs in inner Sydney. Nice burb. Wonderful food strip.
I had Intentions to go swimming whilst in Sydney but that didn't quite happen. On Friday I went on a bike tour of Sydney with a friend Nick. I'm not really into Sydney sightseeing but I was interested in experiencing it as a cyclist. It was a fun day out. Lovely and sunny. I wasn't too impressed at some of the guide's comments directed to me (as the only woman attending of the 6 of us on the tour) but, meh, it happens. apparently. (e.g. at the end of the tour he and all the guys took a photo holding their bikes above their head, I objected and said I could do it too.)
I especially liked Wendy's Garden and the brief detour in to the art gallery.
Saturday we went for a walk to a park, where we had some adventures on children's play equipment and I learned about all the buses that were "not our bus". It's kind of interesting observing learning in action through serious repetition. Had lunch at a nice cafe on the water and then I went off to meet another couple of friends (a couple), who moved to Sydney from Melbourne a few months ago. We pottered around Glebe markets (I picked up a nice scarf) and I picked up a couple of things from the Cruelty Free Shop. I asked if there was something similar in Melbourne and they suggested the Radical Grocers, which figures, because it's one place I've never been. My purchasing of vegan products is very piecemeal.
In the evening we went for some hearty Czech food for dinner, well European anyway. On the way we discovered Ballast Point Park which, well, retains much of its industrial heritage. Would be interesting to poke around in the daylight sometime.
Sunday we had brunch with another friend, and the toddler in residence charmed the pants off everyone, but especially the wait staff, with his awed exclamation of "Babycino!!" when his drink arrived. It was pretty much was the cutest thing ever.
In the afternoon I feel like something else happened but now I have no idea for the life of me what it was. Maybe I just caught up on my RSS and that was it. :) Olympics and gabbing. It was nice and relaxed.
Monday I got up nice and early to get the 6:20 CountryLink train to Condobolin. It only goes once a week so I was pretty keen not to miss it! It got in around 3pm, only an hour or more behind schedule.
This is Condo:
Grain silo central. I was staying with a friend from high school, who last year married a guy (I was bridesmaid) who works in the mines at Condo (also he grew up there) and 11 months gave birth to a bub they named Ky. Her parents also came and visited for basically the same period as I was there.
On Tuesday we poked around the town, went to look at the lake. Can't remember what else so let's assume not much. In the evening we went to APL poker and despite only properly learning how to play that day, I won :D
Got $120 and a little glass thing. Too funny. At one point I was down to one chip, luckily I won that hand then I was on the way back up. Patience seems to be the main part, with some luck at some key moments. The other players were friendly despite me barely knowing how to deal.
On Wednesday we went to Parkes with her parents and did some shopping and went to visit the dish.
On the way home we were driving on the world's straightest road basically straight into the setting sun, and there was a slightly terrifying moment when her father drifted into the gravel on the shoulder then overcorrected a bit dramatically. You know, at 100 K's. After some heated negotiation my friend took over driving and we continued home in a heightened state of alertness.
Had dinner with her parents and partner at the Motor Inn, and it was surprisingly excellent. Like, probably decent even in Melbourne. (I just tried to add it to Urbanspoon, and I had to add it to Orange as the suburb - 200km away.) After dinner her father and husband stayed at the bar and we "girls" went to her parents' motel room and got a little drunk. it was fun actually.
On Thursday I snoozed and read and caught up on internets and took Lexie for a walk. We went to the sports club for some more poker (not APL). In a humbling fashion, I was out first and didn't win a single hand. Good to know it definitely wasn't talent then. :)
On Friday I got up early for a bus to Cootamundra. Cootamundra seems to be a regional hub, as the buses all wait for the XPT train from Melbourne to Sydney to come through. Then buses go off in all directions, including Canberra. I learned all this when the XPT was an hour and 45 minutes late, thus delaying all the connecting buses.
Cootamundra's really not that exciting.
Aside from that the buses were actually quite bearable. The roads are straight and stops are few. That puts aside my two main dislikes of buses: the jerkiness when they brake and the motion sickness (I guess that's what I get for living near a mountain range as a child).
Eventually made it to Canberra which was looking especially magical. My brother picked me up and we had some Thai for dinner. He's just been diagnosed with glandular fever so he wasn't particularly energetic. Early night.
Saturday I met with some friends for a late brunch, then bummed around the shopping centre (actually, bought a replacement coat for the one I accidentally left in Condobolin...). Had dinner with my brother and his girlfriend at apparently Canberra's only Mexican restaurant (outside fast food places). It was decent, anyway! Another early night.
Sunday, today, I headed into the city for an early brunch (9am! that's just breakfast) with another friend, then my brother picked me up and we drove out to Stromlo Forest Park where my brother has done some MTB riding. It looks awesome! There's also a cool grass running track (cross country). I've never done any mountain biking but I'd definitely like to go out there and fool around a bit sometime.
Then we went to the Old Bus Depot Markets which featured a bunch of swing dancing and the usual nice crafty trinkets. and also delicious foods. The wait at Brodburger was 45 minutes to an hour so we just crafted our lunch from what looked good at the market. Fresh bread, avocado dip. Chocolate dipped strawberries (not as good as the visual). Fudge. Fresh juice. Churro. :D
(to appreciate this photo, you need to know that my brother's name is Rodney :))
and then it was time to toddle off to the airport and head home.
oh! some reading I got done:
- Sophie's World: tough going, wouldn't have finished it if I wasn't on holidays I think. a few chapters were hugely illuminating, others were just a struggle. not sure about the self referential turn, but I guess that's serving a point...
- Eat & Run: great read, but his achievements (legendary vegan ultra-marathon runner) are so far beyond normal I'm not sure it bridges the gap to mere mortals, despite his claim that "anyone can run an ultra".
- The Vagina Monologues, Loaded: mostly just read as a ticking off exercise, both pretty easy reads
- The Dispossessed: So great! So looking forward to reading it again already! Fascinating.
future todos
Emerald:
- more botanical gardens exploring
Sydney:
- tour of Cockatoo Island
- Art Gallery
- go to Andrew (Boy) Charlton Pool! (summer only)
- eat at all the Glebe restaurants
Condo:
- squash :)
- Utes in the Paddock
Canberra:
- cycle around
- cycle in Stromlo Forest Park
- go back to the Old Bus Depot Market, enjoy veganarchy sweet things! (Canberra's answer to Mr Nice Guy?)
photos
Flew up on a Sunday. Getting there was a minor debacle as my flight from Brisbane was cancelled. Virgin was quite good and promptly put me on a replacement Qantas flight, however they falsely assured me that my luggage would be put through without my intervention (in hindsight, this seems super implausible). But they redeemed themselves by delivering my bag on the evening flight and even driving it to the caravan park where I was staying. I'm guessing that's because Emerald is a small town and a small airport, I would be astonished to get that kind of service anywhere else. :)
The bigger debacle was that my Mum is not very technology proficient, and up until that point I had always communicated with her via Dad's mobile phone, and it turned out I didn't even have her number, and she didn't have mine. This made communicating the changed plans a little awkward but it all worked out. Her caravan park neighbour kindly came and picked me up (Mum doesn't have a driver's license and I wasn't planning to hire a car).
We mainly did a lot of walking. On Monday we walked to the new shopping centre. On Tuesday we drove around the dam, then the gem field towns with Karen. Had lunch at a lovely cafe called Poppy's in Rubyvale. Good stuff there. My first reminder that outside the capital cities people can't bring themselves to serve lattes in little glasses, they have to use tall fancy glasses. Terrorising parrots there, don't tempt them!
We spent an hour fossicking in the river under the direction of Karen. That handful of tiny stones was our haul. We were standing around near a random bucket and a guy came and told us we were impinging on his claim. I would have been happy to move up the river, but for some reason this got Karen's hackles up and she stood her (our) ground, telling the guy that we were just three women who didn't know what we were doing having a little play. Later she said "The cheek of him, chatting three women like that". I don't know exactly what "chat" means in this way - confronting? being aggressive towards? something like that. Mum enjoyed it, anyway.
On Wednesday we walked around the main part of town. :) I cooked a stirfry and we invited Karen over for dinner.
On Thursday we went walking around the botanic gardens, which I had passed on my previous two visits but not gone in to. Turns out they are huge and awesome. There is outdoor gym equipment, a windmill and a HEDGE MAZE. Also an awesome kid's playground. They have this monorail thing which is like a short fence with giant plastic animal-seats attached to it, that you can pedal on and presumably push yourself around on (your feet wouldn't touch the ground). I've never seen that before, it seems super cool. Also free.
I soaked up the sun all right. The minimums were about 5, actually similar to Melbourne, but I suspect it only stays there for 20 minutes, whereas Melbourne it might be 7 hours. And the maxes were around 22, which is about 7 degrees warmer than Melbourne at the moment. LOVED IT. Sadly the pool was all being dug up so I didn't get any swimming done. (Will be surprised if it's finished in time for this summer, actually... it was just a giant dirt hole.)
On Thursday afternoon I flew to Sydney via Brisbane. Stayed with the
incrementum crew :) in their new digs in inner Sydney. Nice burb. Wonderful food strip.
I had Intentions to go swimming whilst in Sydney but that didn't quite happen. On Friday I went on a bike tour of Sydney with a friend Nick. I'm not really into Sydney sightseeing but I was interested in experiencing it as a cyclist. It was a fun day out. Lovely and sunny. I wasn't too impressed at some of the guide's comments directed to me (as the only woman attending of the 6 of us on the tour) but, meh, it happens. apparently. (e.g. at the end of the tour he and all the guys took a photo holding their bikes above their head, I objected and said I could do it too.)
I especially liked Wendy's Garden and the brief detour in to the art gallery.
Saturday we went for a walk to a park, where we had some adventures on children's play equipment and I learned about all the buses that were "not our bus". It's kind of interesting observing learning in action through serious repetition. Had lunch at a nice cafe on the water and then I went off to meet another couple of friends (a couple), who moved to Sydney from Melbourne a few months ago. We pottered around Glebe markets (I picked up a nice scarf) and I picked up a couple of things from the Cruelty Free Shop. I asked if there was something similar in Melbourne and they suggested the Radical Grocers, which figures, because it's one place I've never been. My purchasing of vegan products is very piecemeal.
In the evening we went for some hearty Czech food for dinner, well European anyway. On the way we discovered Ballast Point Park which, well, retains much of its industrial heritage. Would be interesting to poke around in the daylight sometime.
Sunday we had brunch with another friend, and the toddler in residence charmed the pants off everyone, but especially the wait staff, with his awed exclamation of "Babycino!!" when his drink arrived. It was pretty much was the cutest thing ever.
In the afternoon I feel like something else happened but now I have no idea for the life of me what it was. Maybe I just caught up on my RSS and that was it. :) Olympics and gabbing. It was nice and relaxed.
Monday I got up nice and early to get the 6:20 CountryLink train to Condobolin. It only goes once a week so I was pretty keen not to miss it! It got in around 3pm, only an hour or more behind schedule.
This is Condo:
Grain silo central. I was staying with a friend from high school, who last year married a guy (I was bridesmaid) who works in the mines at Condo (also he grew up there) and 11 months gave birth to a bub they named Ky. Her parents also came and visited for basically the same period as I was there.
On Tuesday we poked around the town, went to look at the lake. Can't remember what else so let's assume not much. In the evening we went to APL poker and despite only properly learning how to play that day, I won :D
Got $120 and a little glass thing. Too funny. At one point I was down to one chip, luckily I won that hand then I was on the way back up. Patience seems to be the main part, with some luck at some key moments. The other players were friendly despite me barely knowing how to deal.
On Wednesday we went to Parkes with her parents and did some shopping and went to visit the dish.
On the way home we were driving on the world's straightest road basically straight into the setting sun, and there was a slightly terrifying moment when her father drifted into the gravel on the shoulder then overcorrected a bit dramatically. You know, at 100 K's. After some heated negotiation my friend took over driving and we continued home in a heightened state of alertness.
Had dinner with her parents and partner at the Motor Inn, and it was surprisingly excellent. Like, probably decent even in Melbourne. (I just tried to add it to Urbanspoon, and I had to add it to Orange as the suburb - 200km away.) After dinner her father and husband stayed at the bar and we "girls" went to her parents' motel room and got a little drunk. it was fun actually.
On Thursday I snoozed and read and caught up on internets and took Lexie for a walk. We went to the sports club for some more poker (not APL). In a humbling fashion, I was out first and didn't win a single hand. Good to know it definitely wasn't talent then. :)
On Friday I got up early for a bus to Cootamundra. Cootamundra seems to be a regional hub, as the buses all wait for the XPT train from Melbourne to Sydney to come through. Then buses go off in all directions, including Canberra. I learned all this when the XPT was an hour and 45 minutes late, thus delaying all the connecting buses.
Cootamundra's really not that exciting.
Aside from that the buses were actually quite bearable. The roads are straight and stops are few. That puts aside my two main dislikes of buses: the jerkiness when they brake and the motion sickness (I guess that's what I get for living near a mountain range as a child).
Eventually made it to Canberra which was looking especially magical. My brother picked me up and we had some Thai for dinner. He's just been diagnosed with glandular fever so he wasn't particularly energetic. Early night.
Saturday I met with some friends for a late brunch, then bummed around the shopping centre (actually, bought a replacement coat for the one I accidentally left in Condobolin...). Had dinner with my brother and his girlfriend at apparently Canberra's only Mexican restaurant (outside fast food places). It was decent, anyway! Another early night.
Sunday, today, I headed into the city for an early brunch (9am! that's just breakfast) with another friend, then my brother picked me up and we drove out to Stromlo Forest Park where my brother has done some MTB riding. It looks awesome! There's also a cool grass running track (cross country). I've never done any mountain biking but I'd definitely like to go out there and fool around a bit sometime.
Then we went to the Old Bus Depot Markets which featured a bunch of swing dancing and the usual nice crafty trinkets. and also delicious foods. The wait at Brodburger was 45 minutes to an hour so we just crafted our lunch from what looked good at the market. Fresh bread, avocado dip. Chocolate dipped strawberries (not as good as the visual). Fudge. Fresh juice. Churro. :D
(to appreciate this photo, you need to know that my brother's name is Rodney :))
and then it was time to toddle off to the airport and head home.
oh! some reading I got done:
- Sophie's World: tough going, wouldn't have finished it if I wasn't on holidays I think. a few chapters were hugely illuminating, others were just a struggle. not sure about the self referential turn, but I guess that's serving a point...
- Eat & Run: great read, but his achievements (legendary vegan ultra-marathon runner) are so far beyond normal I'm not sure it bridges the gap to mere mortals, despite his claim that "anyone can run an ultra".
- The Vagina Monologues, Loaded: mostly just read as a ticking off exercise, both pretty easy reads
- The Dispossessed: So great! So looking forward to reading it again already! Fascinating.
future todos
Emerald:
- more botanical gardens exploring
Sydney:
- tour of Cockatoo Island
- Art Gallery
- go to Andrew (Boy) Charlton Pool! (summer only)
- eat at all the Glebe restaurants
Condo:
- squash :)
- Utes in the Paddock
Canberra:
- cycle around
- cycle in Stromlo Forest Park
- go back to the Old Bus Depot Market, enjoy veganarchy sweet things! (Canberra's answer to Mr Nice Guy?)