A weekend away in Canberra

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Just thought I'd give you's a quick update on what we got up to this last weekend as I hadn't been to Canberra since I got back to Oz so here ya go...
I've been doing 60hr weeks most weeks to get this contract finished for the end of June so I decided to go away with Olivia for the weekend and Canberra sounded like a good idea coz it's not too far to drive and there's enough stuff there to keep us amused for the weekend. We also thought it would be a good test to see if the car would actually make it up the coast to Cairns when we go on our hols in August, good thing we did and all eh?! We got 20mins from my house before the engine overheated and the battery went flat coz the fan belt had snapped but thankfully some nice woman gave us the number for NRMA (Aussie AA), so we could sign up and get a guy out. 90 minutes later and $300 out of pocket we were back on the road although the alternator was pretty shagged so we didn't dare turn off the engine when we stopped at garages for drinks and things and we had more than one scare over the course of this weekend believe me!
After about 3 hours of driving we arrived in Canberra anyway safe and sound, we then found out that our Lonely Planet guide had the old address for the hostel we were booked in listed in it though so we then spent another 30mins driving round aimlessly trying to find the place in the centrre of town which generally involved me shouting a lot and throwing my toys out the pram while Olivia just sat there and said nothing to aggrevate me (sorry luv!). We eventually found the place anyway (Canberra YHA), checked in and settled into the room.
Next morning I took the car from the metered parking behind the hostel to the free parking down the road and we headed out on a 1 day tour of Canberra, which took in the ANZAC memorial, The Houses of Parliament building (that was ace!), the Captian Cook fountain, a drive round all the main historical buildings in the city and finally a trip to the Australian Museum. Now what struck me most about driving round these places is how much like a replica of Washington Canberra is - it was bizarre! The only thing that stopped you from thinking you were in America was the fact that we were driving on the left and we still had people saying g'day to us when we met them, it was a really good trip though so not complaining. ANZAC Memorail museum was absolutely huge and was quite interesting but the best part of the trip was the Parliament building, that was well impressive! The museum was a bit dull but a small girl ran head first into a glass door right in front of Olivia and bounced off it about 4 feet and she almost literally wet herself laughing while the mother was scowling across so it wasn't a completely wasted journey at least. You'd never catch me laughing at something like that Olivia you evil cow! :oP
The tour ended around 5pm so we went back to the hostel, got ready and went out for a meal in town. Can't remember the name of the place but it was nice all the same. We went for a few drinks after that then decided to get an early night...
Next morning we checked out on time and walked out the hostel thinking how well the weekend had gone apart from the breakdown on the way in, right up until the moment we got to the car and realised that some c**ting tw@t had broken into my car by putting two of my windows through - nightmare! After a few minutes trying to scrape shards of glass out onto the floor and generally tidying it up a bit, I went and got some binbags and a shitload of packing tape and proceeded to pimp my ride (see pics). It worked pretty well to be fair and we got back to Sydney without being pulled or any other major dramas but still, it's well out of order eh?! I rang the breakers yesterday and i can get the passenger door window for $50 and the A frame one I'm gonna do a DIY job on with some sheet metal so at least it's not costing too much to fix.
Oh yeah, this was the weekend I got my new 10m waterproof olympus all singing all dancing camera so that explains why there's so many pics even though we were only there for 2 days. Anyway, just thought I'd add that to my stories, hope you're all doing OK back home wherever that may be? In a bit. ;o)

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