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Published: January 2nd 2010
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Day 248 - Lochiel Rest Area to Box Hill North
Here's a birthday shout out for our fabulous nephew Craig who is celebrating today. Hope you have an awesome day dude and we'll see you soon. The phone went at 2.15am with the best news, Dad has had his triple by-pass and there were no complications. Hurrah! We’re so relieved and now just look forward to an update a bit later when Mum has been into the hospital for a visit.
We fall back to sleep til around 6.30am although the trucks zooming past are difficult to ignore! Another text from Mum comes in at 07:45am saying that he's awake, there were no problems and that what he's in is like a space ship. I manage to send a text to friends far and wide with a torrent of good wishes coming straight back from Ed, The Goslings, Donna, Tony & Jane, Kangaroojack, Scot & Gina, The Reeves, The Elliotts, the Howells clan back home, Carol & Rick from Quobba and so the list goes on. Thanks everyone, it's very much appreciated.
With the brightness from the new day we can now see we picked the spot
closest to the road as our sleeping quarters, bit of a mistake to make but had we tucked ourselves around the back we suspect the phone coverage wouldn’t have been so good. There’s a small café here and nice, tidy amenities so we quickly sort ourselves out and get back on the road heading towards our Australian ‘home’ in Box Hill North.
We trundle onwards and after 4 hours we’ve finally got the city within our sights. We’re avoiding the toll roads as we don’t have a pass and they’re not cheap to traverse but that means we have to wind our way through the network of city traffic. Arrrrggggghhhhh! We’ve only used our horn twice on this whole trip so far, once at a kangaroo who was asleep on the road in Cape Range in outback Western Australia and this morning, when we get cut up by some woman who can’t drive! After that we could have blared our horn continuously but just laughed at how inept we’ve become in a city environment. Talk about bush babies!
Our surroundings start to look familiar; we’ve been down these roads before albeit without the caravan on the back which
of course makes things that little bit more interesting. Tom Tom directs us neatly into Box Hill North and we’re soon outside the Adams family home …. and they’re not in!
No drama, we have a nosey around the back garden and navigate our way through the dogs. Henry has a new playmate, Daisy, whom we’ve not met before but she welcomes us with open paws! We make ourselves at home in the back garden and toy with the idea of having a quick swim in the pool as a reward for making it back in such good time! It’s so hot, the air is really warm and we peer through the back doors at the beautifully air conditioned family room with its new settee and rugs.
Just as we’re starting to reverse the caravan onto the drive Anna and the girls, Charlotte and Amy arrive home and then the police pull up. It’s ok though, it’s just Grant so we’re not in any trouble….this time!
It’s great to be back and the rest of the day was spent catching up on the festive get-togethers that we’ve missed, obviously they were the best ever! The girls have
grown up even though it’s only been 6 months since we last saw them, it’s difficult to describe but Amy has just grown and with Charlotte it’s her mannerisms that have grown. It’s quite incredible.
Grant gets back on the job and we’re soon joined by Paula (Anna’s sister) and her son Luke who came over for a visit and a swim. It’s beautiful to see them both and we’re excited to hear that husband Cory is out in his new Christmas Kayak. Awesome, hopefully at some stage in our trip we’ll be able to watch him in action.
It’s pretty much open house here and it’s not long before we’re joined by Marty and Jo plus their two beautiful little girls Jasmine and Caitlin. There’s nothing that can keep us all out of the pool on a hot day like today and Darryl plays a great part dunking the girls and Luke in the water which they seem to love!
Grant returns from work a bit later in the day and cooks up a storm in the BBQ as always. The food is awesome and it’s beautiful just relaxing with everyone and playing with the kids
in the pool.
We’re sleeping in the caravan tonight, not even the lure of a beautifully air conditioned bedroom can drag us out of our Sweetie! It’s so hot that everyone thinks we’re mad but we’re quite happy and we’re on electric via the garage so the fan is on full blast helping to cool things down.
The girls are playing in the pool or playing on the Wii they got for Christmas, there’s plenty of chatter and a couple of drinks, a terrific ‘cow’ for dinner and things are just as we left them! Jordie (Charlotte and Amy’s gorgeous older brother (22)) is away in Philip Island with his girlfriend Therese so we probably won’t see him this time but we’ll see him before we return to the UK so that’s no drama.
Jo nips back home to retrieve Plum Pudding for desert, cooked by her Mum, and we’re really pleased she did as it’s magnificent. What a treat.
Before the night is out I give Mum K a call to check how things are with Dad and am delighted to hear that everything is going really well. Mum is quite settled into the hotel
Champagne Thursday in the pool!
Anna and Sarah chilling out in the cool pool on a hot day and should be having some visitors soon with Dad’s sister Barb and her husband Tony coming over then Mum’s brother Rod and his wife Tania also making the trip. What with visiting the hospital, the extra company should keep Mum pretty busy over the coming days.
And then we roll back the clock so that it’s Christmas! Not literally obviously but Grant searches for our post so that we can open the cards people have sent us - brilliant. We haven’t had mail in months and months so it’s really exciting to hear from everyone. Thank you so much for the cards, Birthday and Christmas. It was so much fun opening everything! Awesome! We’ll put the photos we got up in the caravan, it’s nice to have reminders of home around the place.
The end of the night was nigh and with nobody interested in playing Rummikub we manage an early one, gosh that’s a shocker!! Nevermind, a few drinks and some more catching up then we head into the caravan for the best nights sleep we’ve had in ages, not even the heat could keep us awake!!
Night everyone
Dar and Sar
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