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Published: September 25th 2010
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Happy Birthday to my sister Daphne - it’s the first time for many years that we have been together for any of our birthdays. Actually, we hadn’t really expected to still be together in Warwick as Daphne had only intended to stay for a week. But on her very first visit she found that she really liked the area so she stayed for three weeks!
After two wet days we really hoped that today would be at least dry and it certainly looked much brighter. It was possibly a good thing that we hadn’t left for Manly yesterday as we would have spent today, a lovely day, just travelling. As it was we had a very casual start to the day - Daphne had some cards and presents to open although the rest would be at home in Melbourne. We had bought her quite a large china frog from a stall at the symposium on Sunday and we also gave her a necklace that we had bought at the Ferrers Craft Centre near Moira in the UK. I had been attracted to it partly because it had been made in Leicestershire by a Judi Kettle (same surname but no relation)
but I thought it was very stylish and hoped Daphne liked it. David gave her a book about the founder of The School of St Jude, Gemma Sisia. First thing in the morning David did a great repair job on the faulty car battery lead and Graham was confident we wouldn’t have anymore problems with it. So we left the worker (David) sorting out some business matters and popped into town for a few things.
We had planned to take Daphne out for an evening meal on her birthday and Graham wanted to buy a tidy pullover because most of our tidy clothes had been left in the UK so we went to a shop that David recommended. He said prices were generally much less than in a similar shop in Melbourne and he was right. Graham got his pullover, I bought a pair of shoes and Daphne bought a hooded top, some shoes and sandals!
We had planned to visit Vincenzo’s, an Italian style shop/café which was at Thulimba, a small village on the road to Stanthorpe - another recommendation from David. It’s a great place to mooch around so we spent quite a long time there,
stayed for lunch and then an ice cream and then coffee! We bought a few things including fettucini and parmesan cheese and a set of mugs as a gift for David.
On the way back to Warwick we saw the signpost for Connelly Dam and as we had plenty of spare time we thought we’d explore a bit. Eventually the road turned into a dirt track and after several kilometers we passed a gated entrance, seemingly to the dam, but we carried on out of curiosity. We came across a very deep looking, fast flowing ford across the track. I wasn’t very happy about crossing it in the car but Graham said that that’s what we’ve got a 4WD for and it was time to test it. Of course we sailed through with no problem so we went a bit further just for the hell of it. Eventually we came back through the ford and returned to and through the gates towards the dam. There was a picnic area and loos but the dam wall and the river were fenced off so we couldn’t walk too far but it was very pleasant there. The only other people about were
a few fishermen. On our way back through Warwick we sought out Pringle Cottage which is an old historic building. It is only open to the public at weekends so we never got to visit but next time we'll try to put that right!
That night we went out to dinner - we had struggled to find a restaurant (that we fancied) open in Warwick on a Tuesday evening. The ideal one would have been at the golf club which we could have walked to but it only opened Wednesday to Saturday. So we chose ‘Ruperts’ - possibly the poshest restaurant in Warwick - where we fronted up at 7pm as arranged. Daphne was invited to choose the wine and we all had lovely meals although it was slightly marred by the fact the David’s main course was delivered much later than ours due to an oversight by the chef. However, everything tasted good, especially the sweets, and David and I shared a huge cheeseboard. We toasted Daphne to wish her a happy birthday and also David to thank him for letting us use his house while he was away. It was a splendid way to end a special
day.
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