Roll up, Roll up.

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DAY 562

No sooner than we had returned from Woodstock, we quickly resumed what seems to be our busy lives again, Monday we returned to work for the start of another busy week, and when Monday evening came we had to go to Woolworths as we had no time on Sunday.

This time we were preparing for what we knew was going to be a nice surprise, ok so not a surprise because we know about it, but just before we left for Woodstock we found out that our friends Cliff and Sue from Perth were heading to Canberra to see us.

We first met Cliff and Sue when we were on Kangaroo Island in March last year, Blog Day 139, The Twelve A’ Possums, and had the pleasure of sharing some of our journey with them through South Australia and then in WA we stayed with them for a week at their lovely home in Perth.

This time Cliff and Sue had been on a 40 night cruise taking in many countries, like Sri Lanka, Egypt, Portugal, France and even going through the Suez Canal, along the way, celebrating their 30th Wedding Anniversary and finally docking in Portsmouth, England (not far from where we lived) and then spent a final two weeks in and around London.

Once they arrived back in Australia and having some time to spare, before they both returned to work, they then decided to head to Melbourne for a long weekend and being that Canberra is only a short hop up the road, they decided to fly up to see us.


Day 550 Tuesday 11th May

So an otherwise normal day for us, we both headed to work and sometime during the day our guests would arrive and would hopefully be settled before we get home from work. Thanks to Keith and Jan for letting us have house guests and making sure that we remembered how to put the heating on in the spare room!

I arrived home not long after 5, I left a few minutes early to beat the traffic, a 20 minute journey is often pushed up to 30 minutes with the rush hour traffic. I find two exceptionally well looking house guests with beaming smiles and tanned faces.

We sit down and have a cup of tea, but it is not long before we hit the wine, unfortunately Andy is late as he had a meeting that went on, however it is cheap Tuesday and the problem of dinner is remedied once I log onto Domino’s online and order our pizza’s for delivery.

We must have talked all evening, there was so much to say, we wanted to hear about their journey, look at photo’s and movie clips and they wanted to hear about our recent adventures and what life in Canberra is like for us. So much talk and so little time, we both have work tomorrow, 2 bottles of wine have been polished off and it is time for bed!

I was thankful to not have any meetings booked in the morning, however that soon changed when I got to the office and found that I had been booked in for a long meeting, never mind.

Cliff and Sue had hired a car and spent the week driving around the area, even to far flung places such as Thredbo and Perisher. Sue wanted to see snow, but unfortunately it is a little too early for the snow to be on the lower ground, they could see snow on the mountain tops but it was just too far away, or at least the thought of crossing an icy cold river apparently did not appeal.

Our evenings were busy talking, looking at photo’s but finally the weekend came and Friday night sees us back in what has become our favourite Indian Restaurant for a good curry.

I cannot remember if I told you last time we came here, I could not eat all of my curry so asked if they could put it in a container for me to take away, which they did, but when the bill came I noticed that they charged me $3.00 for take away, I was somewhat annoyed, if they had told me that there was a charge I may not have bothered, however I did think it a cheek when there was a large group of us and we had spent a considerable amount of money on food and drinks that night so I took them to task over it and they soon removed the fee from the bill. I know it was only $3 but it was the principle not the money.

After a good dinner we headed up to Mount Ainslie to show Cliff and Sue the spectacular night view of Canberra, we find a lot of kangaroo’s pottering around at the top, mainly un perturbed by the activity up here, I think a lot of people come up here not for the view!

Saturday brings with it a trip to Woolworths and a top up of beer and wine ready for Saturday evening, but there is a highlight to this day that will probably amaze those that know us!

At 2.10 on Saturday afternoon we were sitting in the Manuka Oval, only a 20 minute drive from where we are staying, Cliff and Sue had kindly bought tickets for us to see an AFL game! Our first ever, they decided that if we are living here then we should indulge in a great Australian tradition so there we were waiting for the kick off between the Sydney Swans and the Western Bulldogs. We have never been to see a football match before!

The game kicked off, the sun was still high in the sky and cast no shadow over the oval, we could see the players hustling each other despite the location of the ball being in another part of the field, If I could not see the ball I was watching the body language between the teams.

I am not going to explain the ins and outs of the game, I am bound to get it all wrong, Cliff went to some effort to explain certain aspects of the game to me, including the scoring, which I still have no idea about, but it was not long before the Western Bulldogs went way past the Sydney Swans in points and catching up was going to be a tough call.

There were four parts to the game each lasting half hour, but at half time the pitch cleared for a long break and on came lots of children who were playing their own games before the big boys came back on the pitch. I am pretty sure that some of the kids there would be future AFL players.

At some time before 5.00 the game finished the sun had now left the oval and the shadow of the early evening was cast, the Sydney Swans lost, we both enjoyed the game, however if the game was closer in points it may have been a little bit more nail biting and the crowd would perhaps have been more animated. Nonetheless, this was a first for the both of us and we had a great afternoon watching the football.

We walked back down Teleopea to find our truck and soon we were on the way back home for a quick rest before the evening events.

We have a games night planned with Rob and Sarah, so after our rest we set up for the evening the challenge is on, we don’t have a formal dinner we hit upon the idea of making things easy, so with dinner planned for half time we start the Rummikub early, after a round of cheese and biscuits, Andy and Cliff are paired up, Rob and Sarah and finally Sue and I.

With full concentration on the game, Sue and I win the first, but the second goes to Rob and Sarah, probably with the main credit going to Sarah who has eyes like a hawk and studies the game hard looking for every possible move in order to floor her opponents.

Half time came and Andy got down to grilling the sausages, we tucked into hot dogs a mighty fine easy meal for a serious games evening. Everything was soon packed away as we got back down to business.

I cannot remember how many games we played or who indeed won them all, but I do know that we had a great time and Cliff commented that he had no idea how competitive I was, he knows now! But we played for hours only finishing when we were all tired and Rob and Sarah had to go and relieve the baby sitter from her duties.

On Sunday morning, discussion prevailed over the Sea Cliff Bridge on the East Coast, Cliff was keen on driving over to see it, lets face it we all want to put a tick in those boxes. We drove over the Sea Cliff Bridge last year on our way down to Shell Harbour it is quite spectacular.

So it was an overnight stay for them and as they headed off Andy and I got down to doing some chores, housework, washing etc. But the highlight of the day was popping into Canberra to pick up a new game. I had been trying to get Razoo since we played with Jan and Ted’s family back on Australia Day, well it took a while but I received a phone call to say that Mind Games had it in stock so we headed off to pick it up, a new game for our repartee and new competition.

We even found the time for a short walk in the Mongolo Reserve down the road, but sadly for us no wildlife was to be found. The rest of the evening passed quietly with a bit of TV time before heading for bed.

Cliff and Sue left a week later to head back to Perth via Melbourne, we had a terrific time and were sad to see them go, but as we know all good things must come to an end and we look forward to the next time that we can see them, hopefully on their side of this vast country!

Day 558 - Wednesday 19th May

Today I had the luck to fly to Sydney on business, so I was up before 6.00am ready for a 6.30 taxi to the airport. It was all very straight forward, there was no queue at check in so it was easy.

Of course I bleeped when going through security, so I had to take my boots off, hmmm… something I had not planned on, I was wearing a skirt suit and had socks on with my boots, once I had whipped my boots off I had to walk through the screening device again, it was not a good look, but this time I was in the clear.

Although there was a slight delay it was not too long before I was walking across the tarmac to this tiny little turbo prop commuter aeroplane. It was a busy flight although not quite full up.

It felt strange, I have not flown since we arrived in Australia from Singapore some 18 months or so ago and here I am heading off to a different city without Andy who has been by my side all of that time.

Flying in over Sydney was spectacular, from the skies above I could see many a Sydney mansion with beautiful crystal clear swimming pools below. However the bright blue skies were giving way to torrential rain over the airport, I am sure the plane skidded slightly when we landed with a bit of a bump.

I am truly amazed to see the queue for taxi’s, I actually think that it took longer to get a taxi than it did to fly the half hour journey from Canberra to Sydney. It was pouring with rain but fortunately the taxi rank is under cover so it was not a problem. The day soon brightened and was much warmer than the days are in Canberra.

The only real problem of my day was that the taxi was late returning to pick me up to take me back to the airport. When I phoned he said he was 5 minutes away, no problem, but 5 minutes came and went so after a while I phoned again he assured me he was just around the corner, but again he did not appear, the next time I called he did not pick up the phone.

I was on the verge of getting another taxi firm, but knew that would take some time anyway, but by now I was concerned about not getting to the airport in time for my flight back to Canberra. I knew there were later flights, but that’s not the point I was already checked in, the girl who checked me in that morning had also checked me in for my flight back, so at least I had my boarding ticket, which meant that if check in closed on that flight then it was no issue (I was not going to tell the taxi driver that though!)

The taxi finally arrived 40 minutes late, I was really not happy with him at all, he was probably trying to squeeze in another job. When he dropped me off he gave me his business card and suggested that I call if I need another taxi in the future, I really wanted to say, “If I get in your cab again, it would only be by mistake!” But I refrained and headed in to catch my flight.

Heading straight through security, no issues this time, I grabbed a decent coffee and headed down to the boarding gate to await the return flight. By the time we took off it was dark and the lights of Sydney slowly disappeared into the darkness as we flew over the Blue Mountains and back to Canberra, where I find that once again the queue for the taxi is much longer than the flight itself. By now I have decided that next time I will drive to and from the airport at both ends, it will be easier!

Well it was soon Friday evening and hurrah, it was the end of the week, we both arrived home from work, then when straight out to get our weekly groceries.

Saturday morning, Andy was up bright and early as usual and was going in to work, he has a project coming to completion and needs to make sure things get done so felt the best way was by being on site.

Whilst I had the opportunity, I decided to go in to Canberra and have some retail therapy and wanted to get some clothes more suitable for winter.

I had a good mooch around the shops, there are plenty of sales on and manage to find exactly what I am looking for, the only difficulty was finding Andy a decent sweatshirt, I could find plenty of woollen jumpers but eventually found a nice heavy long sleeve rugby shirt to help keep the cold out, I grabbed a coffee and sat and watch Canberra shoppers walk past, people watching can be such good fun! My feet were now aching and I wanted to get back to some home comforts so after a couple more shopping calls I headed home, by the time I got back at about 2.30 Andy was already home, he had a very busy day so far, so we sat and ate a late lunch, then did a few chores.

Andy had prepared the pudding for tonight (bread pudding made with croissants) as we were going out to dinner at Rob and Sarah’s when we will introduce them to the great Australian game Razoo.

We walked around to Rob and Sarah’s and were greeted by Milo the very rotund Chocolate Labrador, who just want to be fussed before we went inside, he was pleased to see us!

Milo lives outside and he sat with his chin on the windowsill looking at everyone inside, wishing we would come outside a fuss him.

Sarah had invited her friend Bec over for dinner too and was also inducted into the games evening with the world of Rummikub and Razoo.

We had another Fantastic evening with the Hanily family, they are such good fun and such a nice family to be in the company of, but all too soon we were all tired and the evening came to a close we thanked them for a fantastic meal and such good fun, then wandered home and got back just before midnight. (Bec did offer us a lift but we felt the walk would do us some good!)

Sunday morning again and Andy was up at silly o’clock and when I got up the kitchen was nice and tidy. We sat for an hour or so and had some breakfast and just enjoyed the fact that we had a bit of quiet time and relished every minute.

It was our intention that we needed to go and have a look around a venue for the Canberra 4 wheel drive club as Caroline had volunteered to organise the Christmas party, so we had organised a meeting with the staff at theTuggeranong Homestead.

We arrived at the agreed time and had a look around, we took lots of notes and felt that this would be a great for a Christmas party venue and would need to put together a venue report for the committee at the Canberra 4 wheel drive club.

When we got home we had lunch, then decided that we would go and have a walk up at Shepherds look out, this is Wombat country and were excited to see evidence of the beautiful creatures, but sadly did not see any.

Well its back to work tomorrow, so if you don’t mind I am going to publish this blog, and some photo’s watch a bit of TV then get ready for tomorrow.

Good night all.

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Photos

AFL Footie
Western Bulldogs supporters

The Final Score
101 to the Western Bullbogs,63 to th Sydney Sans

What a lovely day
For a game of Footie

Tuggeranong Homestead
The machine shed