Third Time Lucky

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DAY 439

Today is our third attempt to finish of the viewing of the exhibits at the Australian War Memorial, as the first time we only managed to put in ¾ of a day and you loose the ability to input any more information so we decided to visit a second time, but when we did we put in only a couple of hours until we had a phone call, which required Caroline to send some more information over to Hays, the recruitment consultant in the hope of bagging a contract position with a company in Canberra.

So on our way to attempt number 3 we decided that we should head up, Mount Ainslie as there is supposed to be a spectacular view of Canberra and the surrounding area. We drove to the top and parked the truck, the morning was baking already and there were already a few people up there looking around.

As promised the view was just great and we looked over the vista in every direction, the Parliament building just looked magnificent in the distance, you can see the Telstra Tower on top of the Black Mountain, Canberra city centre and the many suburbs that lie around this city.

The road down from mount Ainslie is quite steep and gives you further views of the surrounding areas, we both agree that it was well worth the visit, it would be nice to have a walk around here, but today it is too hot.

Parking at the War Memorial was difficult today as it was very busy, those little darlings are still on school holiday, so I guess their mums and dads are counting time until they go back to school.

It is important that we finish the “Love and War” exhibition and a few other bits, everywhere you turn you find something new, the place is absolutely huge. We walk around in awe of the size of this place but we are most of the way around this exhibit when we decide to go and have a coffee break and just have a sit down for a while.

We are both in awe at the exhibits, the Love and War is a mixture of both sadness and happiness, the many brides that waited for their new husbands to return from the war and they never did, many of the brides did not remarry. Some of the love letters are on display, to see the writing and read the war correspondence was amazing yet heartbreaking. What can I say about the letters, they were so well written and maybe an art that we have lost through email, people described how they felt, some were very passionate and others were just simply looking for friendship, someone to connect to that was leading a normal life, if you could say normal life as I don’t believe anything about the war could be described as normal

Young brides clubbed money together to buy one wedding dress that they could all wear, but I should not say any more just in case you are going to visit so I don’t want to spoil it. Just to say though that you cannot fail to feel the emotion as you view each exhibit and each story.

After what we believe to be a well earned break we start again and finish the whole of the war museum which we are pleased to be able to have done properly, how many times do you walk around something and not have the time to take it all in?

Well we have set out what we wanted to achieve, which was to go around the complete War memorial and finally we have and took in just about everything.

We walk back out to the truck, we find that the car park has thinned out a bit, we still needed to go and get some groceries from the supermarket as I have been tasked with cooking a chilli tonight, so off to Woolworths we go.

By the time we get back it is late afternoon, we unload our shopping and I start to prepare the dinner for this evening. I have already done most of the blog for yesterday it will just require Caroline to edit it and add the bits that she can remember.

I decide to go a have a nap in the sun, I must have been a cat in a previous life, so jump on the bed and doze off to sleep.

I reckon I had been asleep for about 10 minutes when Caroline came up and woke me, she had just been informed that she had got her contract position and is delighted. We have a hug and I am absolutely, delighted for her, for all her hard work, it has paid off.

Caroline was asked to start on Wednesday, but I have an interview with a company in Sydney and she said she would like to come with me so has asked if she can start on Thursday which they have agreed to, so I can guess there will be a bit of a shopping expedition to the shops before she starts.

We now have a couple of logistical things to consider, we will need to get the camper trailer back from Woodstock, before she starts work and we may need to take it to Sydney with us, so we have somewhere to stay, but would also like the opportunity to catch up on friends whilst we are that way, although our time is fairly limited.

Well I was so excited for Caroline that my nap was cut short and there are lots of things to think of that will now have to come in to play.

Susan gets home from work and is off swimming tonight with Russell and Gwyneth, but we don’t want to go, as we need to discuss our strategy, the dinner is slowly simmering and it will be ready as soon as everyone wants it.

By the time Susan gets back dinner looks perfect so we all sit down and eat, with the amount of fresh chillies that went in I am surprised they could power the space shuttle from it, still Susan and Caroline seem happy with it.

Susan is pottering around and we are all watching the film, we upload the blog and we realise that we have only got one photo to complement the blog, but hey ho, there you go, sometimes it has to be that way.

We are quickly heading towards 50,000 hits on Kangaroojack’s blog site which we are amazed by, so we have had a little wager as to what date we actually hit that target. Truly what amazes us is that people are still reading the blog site even though we our trip has slowed up in the last couple of months while we got through Christmas and sorted out some work.

Susan has long gone to bed and we are just watching a documentary about people with OCD and how it has affected their lives.

We retire at about 11.35, tired but happy that something is happening in the job world, one of us was going to get work first and we have to face what it throws at us.

So until tomorrow.

Good night.

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Photos

Parliament House
Right at the end of Anzac Parade and on the other side of Lake Burley Griffin.

View from the Top
From Mount Ainslie toward Canberra City Centre and the Telstra Tower

Towards the West
from Mount Ainslie.

Sister Nellie Pike Marries
Just one of many terrific photos of weddings at theLove and War exhibition

Air Intake
Looking down the air intake of a Mig.

A bundle of Love Letters
Beautiful pictures were drawn on envelopes.

Comments

[mindy]

Congrats!
congrats on the new contract position, Caroline. And thanks for the trip to the War Memorial, when I was in Canberra I decided that instead of walking through the building, I'd go and investigate the Memorials along the Avenue. Glad I did that, but sorry I missed seeing the Love and War exhibit!

[kangaroojack]

Thank You
Thanks Mindy and everyone for congratulation messages, much appreciated, I hope you dont all want me to write about it everyday, I may not have the time, but dont worry I will endeavour to update you on how things are going. I was hoping to see the Memorials along Anzac Parade, but it is fairly well dug up at the moment so hoping that it will not be like that for too long so that we get chance to see the other memorials. The Love and War exhibit will only be there until May 2010. Caroline