My Very Earnest Man, Just speeds, Up, Naming , Planets

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DAY 432


The morning feels so lovely and cool after a very humid night, it is a pleasure just lying in bed and feeling the cool breeze just blow through the room.

Andy was already up, I joined him sometime after and made some breakfast. We are not going to do anything much this morning as Andy has a telephone interview at midday, so he spends the morning swatting his CV and doing some internet research to make sure he is fully prepared.

The morning is quite cloudy and it looks as if it could rain, but sometime during the morning the sun comes out to join us and the day heats up. Rocky and Misha are happy that we are around they are enjoying being indoors and take advantage of the cool air system, cooling the air around us.

I do some reading and type up the blog for yesterday, for a change this puts us slightly ahead of ourselves so we don’t have to worry about it tonight.

The time comes and Andy makes his call, he is on the phone for a while, it barely seems like an interview, more just an informal chat, the job itself is in Perth, which would mean a bit of a hike over there, but that would also mean a little bit more to add to our adventure as we would have to cross the Nullarbor again. We will see it is early days yet.

We decide to head out to Mount Stromlo just to see what we can see, we do know that the visitor’s centre is closed but wonder if we can actually get anywhere near it. first off though we do head to Mount Stromlo Forest to see what is there, we find a large car park, a picnic area and some trails which are popular for mountain biking.

We decide to drive on a bit and find Uriarra, we stop for a while and have a wander around, this road can flood when it is wet, there is a low bridge, I think the river is the Murrumbidgee which is where we camped next to and fished in over near Wagga Wagga.

We find that despite the cloud cover it is in fact a fairly humid day and neither of us really feel like walking so we sit for a while and play cards, an odd time of day I know, but we have not played for ages and we have time so it does not matter. I won 2 hands and Andy won 1.

Then it was time to move on again so we carried on round to do a round trip, eventually taking the road up to the Observatory on Mount Stromlo, the sign confirms that the visitors centre is closed, we drive up as far as we can but there is a barrier there which looks as if it is for employees only. We decide not to venture any further and head back down the mountain.

Back at Susan’s place, we find that Lauren is back from work, we indulge in a cup of tea and relax for the rest of the afternoon, I read my book and Andy carries on doing some Internet research for work.

When Susan comes in, she starts preparing dinner because she has some other friends coming over, but first we are going swimming with her friends. I decide that I should swim as I have not done much on the exercise front recently so when Gwyn and Russell arrive I am ready to go.

We head out to the local swimming baths, it looks busy, but I am assured that it is not as busy as it was on Monday, I pay my $5.00 entry fee, go and get changed and head to the main pool.

There are a lot of people around but the pools are segregated into lane swimming, I go straight to the slow lane as I always used to do when I swam at my gym in England. I can swim at my own pace and no one can bother me.

The main pool is 50 metres in length it is much longer than the swimming pool I was used to in England and it was all the same depth, when I got to the far end I stopped swimming when I grabbed the wall and found that there was nothing under my feet so this pool has a deep end. Never mind, I rest a while and then swim back to the shallow end.

It is not long into swimming back that I realise how much out of practice I am at lane swimming, even though I have been swimming on this trip, it is a little bit different when you are bobbing around in a large rock pool or swimming in the small swimming pools at the tourist parks. You think you are getting some real exercise but perhaps I fooled myself into thinking that.

Well, after 200 metres in this pool I decided to decamp to the small pool which I actually found to be much warmer, it also had a deep end but I found the deep end only came up to just below my shoulders, so I swam my lengths in there until it was time to get out and dry off.

Back at Susan’s Russell prepared the barbecue and flashed up the steaks, the table was set, the red wine was open and we all sat down to eat. Another delicious meal and some great conversation.

We find out a little bit about Gwyn and Russell, they both hunt but only with the perspective that they eat what they hunt, such as Kangaroo’s or deer. They have also had hunting experiences in Canada. Andy and Russell discuss guns at which point I switch off. We discuss sleeping under the stars and tell them about Coonabarabran and how impressed we were with the display of the planets that lead up to Siding Springs Observatory.

We could not remember the order of the planets but Gwyn told us of a rhyme that helped her remember, “My Very Earnest Man, Just speeds, Up, Naming , Planets, we looked on the internet and saw there are lots of Rymns which help you remember the order of the planets.

After a dessert of Watermelon, very healthy it was time for Russell and Gwyn to head off, well it is a work night, so no one wants to be late.

We watch a little bit of TV then headed off to bed, I ask Andy to make sure I am up at 7.00 as we both have to see an agency in the morning, so I will need to iron something, have a shower and try to look half decent and not like someone that has spent the last 14 months on the road.

So until tomorrows exciting blog.

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Comments

[Stacy]

A little fact for you...
I remember you wrote a while ago saying you had visited the Junee Licorice and Chocolate Factory...or at least was planning to, and as I'm flicking through the Guiness world records 2010 book, came across something you might like to know, if you don't already that is!!! 'Junee Licorice and Chocolate Factory (Australia) made a liquorice string measuring 224m (800 ft 6in) in Junee, New South Wales, Australia, on 8th March 2008' Bit random I know! :)