Hats Off

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DAY 397


I woke early again today, and went out in to the Kitchen, Robert had just left and Helen was her usual busy, cheerful self. She exclaimed that she was off for some paid work today, at the school where she retired from a couple of years ago.

I was interested in the school, Caroline and I thought it was in Wagga Wagga or Junee, but we were both wrong, Helen said it was just down the road in Nangus, I asked Helen how many kids were at the school and she said 14, yes that’s was what I wrote fourteen kids and one teacher, how sweet!!

Helen knew Caroline and myself were off to Wagga Wagga today to do our Christmas shopping, and said if we get time we ought to drop pop in for a visit to the school and we could have the guided tour, she said possibly 1.00pm would be the best time and we said, if we could we would.

Helen puts her make up on and is ready for her day, I have never seen Helen with make up on, and she looks so different, she grabs her stuff and is off on her way.

Caroline and myself do the same and we are soon in the truck and driving on our way to Junee, to the liquorice factory as they are supposed to have an excellent gift shop, but when we get there it is only 09.30 and does not open until 10.00am so we don’t hang around and head off to Wagga Wagga.

We have a small shopping list of Helens and drop in to the Co-operative which is a huge farm store that sells most things and we have to get 2 bags of Meaty “Dog Nuts” for Working Dogs, a tray of soft drink, some wood glue and a funnel.

They have all these supplies, and a bloke with a trolley grabs all the stuff and we load it in to the car.

This store has country clothing and I have decided that I need a new hat, as my original Akubra is just slightly to small, yesterday when the wind had got up it blew off and I ended up chasing it around the paddock, so I made the decision that a new one was going to be the order of the day.

Akubra Hats, are iconic Australian Hats (Hugh Jackman wears Akubra in the film Australia), they are made of pure felt, and have been manufactured for more than 100 years. I read on their web site that fifty pairs of hands handle each hat before it gets to the customer.

From the Akubra Web site: In 1874 Benjamin Dunkerley arrived in Tasmania from England and decided to start a hat making business in Hobart. His skills as a hatter were backed by his ability to invent machinery, and soon after his arrival he had developed a mechanical method of removing the hair tip from rabbit fur so the under-fur could be used in felt hat making. Previously this task had to be done by hand.

I felt very self-conscious in a hat when we started out on our adventure, but you get to realise very quickly how important a hat is, and the bigger the brim the better, the sun is so strong and you really do need that protection.

Caroline and myself were faced with a huge Akubra selection, and it was great fun trying them all on. We soon whittled it down to 3 styles (and colours) and we just could not choose, an assistant asked if we were having success and we told her that we had it down to 3, so I modelled each one for the assistant. We introduced ourselves to the assistant who’s name was also Caroline and I said that I would have the hat that the girls picked.

The deed was done, Caroline, and Caroline picked an Akubra Cattleman, which felt good, so we went and paid for it, thanked them for their help and left the store.

We parked the truck in town in the under ground car park and walk up in to the shopping centre and commence with getting the gifts that we need to get for Christmas.

Obviously we can’t divulge what we have got as each of the recipients read the blog and it will spoil the surprise.

With a successful shopping trip underway, we sit down and have some lunch, but Caroline really wants a hair cut so finds a place called Just Cuts, where you can walk in and get a hair cut without an appointment, so while Caroline gets her hair trimmed I head into Woolworths to get some groceries for Helen.

I almost walked straight past Caroline as I headed back to the hairdressers. She is pleased about finally getting a hair cut (the last one was in Cairns), we get back in the truck and head back out of town filling up with Diesel on the way.

We get back to Woodstock at about 3.30pm just before Helen gets home from school (she is a little old to go to school though), I go and do a few little chores then slink off for a Wii nana nap, whilst Caroline gets on to her Wii fitness program. Caroline manages a whole 46 minutes working out while I manage a whole 30 minutes nap, I bet I feel more refreshed than Caroline does.

Helen suggested that it might be nice to have a film tonight, so we went through the cupboard of DVD’s, Videos and books and before we found a film Helen and myself tidied the cupboard up and put everything back in order, I think we just forgot about finding a film to watch.

I headed over to Merryville to see Jason to collect some petrol receipts of him and plan the manoeuvres for the project for tomorrow. We talked for a while and then I went back to Woodstock and finished the blog.

We sat down to watch some television, we caught the ending of Little Britain USA, but it was not long before everyone’s day was catching up with them and so retired to bed.

The dogs were quiet tonight, which tells me that perhaps it was going to be a peaceful night and we were all going to get a good nights sleep, or where we?

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Photos

Helen
Off to School ??

Comments

[Stacy]

Just to let you know...
I am still ejoying reading your blogs! :-) Can't wait for the next one!