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Published: February 15th 2010
DAY 464
…. An umbrella!
Did I mention the rain yesterday? Did I mention how bad it was? Well it gets worse, Sunday morning bought with it no let up from the rain, it has rained all night, ok so I did not sit up awake all night listening to it, but you do get a measure of how settled the rain is and every time I woke up the rain was still falling on the canvas at a rate of knots.
Staying in bed was a great idea, it was warm and cosy, above all dry! But by 8.00 I could not stay in bed any longer, Andy was buried somewhere under the sleeping bag and blankets showing no sign of wanting to surface, I wonder if he planned on staying there until it stopped raining, but who can blame him for that?
I went to put the kettle on but remembered we had run out of gas so had to use the little stove with the small propane canisters, thank goodness for back up cooking facilities, it was not long before the kettle was boiling and hot tea was served.
In the meantime Andy
Its Caroline
This is the thing we never thought we would buy in Australiahad surfaced, it was still raining and there is no sign of any let up, it has been raining non stop now for over 24 hours, this heavy rain reminds me of how awful it was when we were driving down the Great Ocean Road last March we could not wait to get out of there and find the dry weather, but while we see other campers up sticks and move we have to stay put, although if this keeps up then I am looking for an apartment.
I headed to the laundry, I needed to get some more washing done, I find two guys in there chatting, they tell me that I am the first woman that they have seen come in to do the washing then suggested that I may be travelling alone, that had to be the reason. I explained that was not the case and Andy would have done the washing if I had asked, he did actually do some earlier in the week, and they accepted that explanation and with that another man walked into the laundry with a big pile of washing, turning out to be a bit of a social occasion this morning!
A blue Mercedes pulled up outside and a tall dark haired young gentleman stepped out and ran into the laundry, he was grinning from ear to ear. He came up and asked me if I could do him a favour. Hmm now what kind of favour could that possibly be? I am standing there looking like a drowned rat and a tall dark haired stranger is asking for a favour, the mind boggles.
Well of course it turns out to be Valentines Day, how could I forget? This anonymous gentleman wants me to take some red roses into the office for him, I would think he would be slightly embarrassed by doing so. He claims that the roses are from a friend of his for his girlfriend who works in the office, likely story, when I suggested that perhaps he drives off before I take them in, he jumps at the chance, so I am left holding a beautiful bunch of red roses wrapped in beautiful deep green leaves and a card for “Mirander”
When I head into the office, closely followed by one of the gentleman from the laundry who wanted to see what happened when I took them in, we find a suitably embarrassed Mirander on the telephone anxious now to get the customer off the telephone so that she can accept her roses. Her embarrassment becomes clearer, not only by the addition of two more customers in the office but also the fact that she tries to explain they must be from her boyfriend but has no idea who the talk dark handsome stranger was in a blue Mercedes. I guess we shall never know.
With the washing all done and now hanging with no chance of drying but I have to try as we both need clean clothes for tomorrow, even the washing that I did on Friday evening is still not dry.
In Belconnen we find the multi-storey car park exceptionally busy, everyone is trying to park under cover so we head to the roof where surprise surprise it is almost empty, Andy drops me off and goes to park.
Things we never thought we would need in Australia include today’s purchase of an umbrella not just any umbrella but a large golfing umbrella, it looks like we are going to need it. We whizz round Woolworths for our groceries for the week and head back to camp where we indulge in a bacon and egg muffin, cooked by Andy, as we had not had breakfast we decided on a late brunch.
I cannot say too much about our day, it was just very wet, we got the gas bottle refilled at Camping Country where we chatted about the 4wd show at Queanbeyan, the shop assistant tells us that it is so wet down there now that they will be closing the show early at 1.00 today, some exhibitors have ruined stock and the field is just one big puddle.
Finally at about 3.00 the rain stopped, by now it must have been raining for 36 hours or more, although we are dry on the inside the canvas is well soaked on the outside, but within a few minutes of the sun coming out and the day warming up the canvas is fully dry, but my washing is still damp, I make an effort to hang some outside in the hope that a brief spell in the fresh air may help dry it, however I do find myself in the laundry room ironing clothes to try and get them dry enough for wearing tomorrow.
Sunday night has become a regular night at the movies, well we don’t have tv so treating ourselves once a week is a nice thing to do. So this weeks treat, being Valentines Day of course how fitting is it that we see the film Valentines Day, we head off to the early show of 6.30, we find that the Dendy cinema in Canberra centre is heaving with people, we thought it would be busy but this is crazy, we had to wait ages in the queue to pick up our internet booking tickets, we were worried that we would miss the start of the film.
However we should not have been worried, we actually find that the huge crowd of people in the foyer are mainly for cinema 1 which is where we are going, is is nearly 6.45 and cinema 1 is only just emptying, it is nothing short of organised chaos. We chat to a woman in the queue who is waiting for her husband, he went to park the car, she said it does get busy but it has never been this bad.
I wonder why the cinema emptied late? The adverts were already rolling by the time we went in, at least we had not missed the start of the film, but I think they were keen on getting it rolling otherwise it meant the late sitting would be late getting in too.
We thoroughly enjoyed the film, nice and light hearted, excuse the pun, some good laughs to be had. It was not until we got back to camp that we found out why we were late going in.
The girl on reception tells us that someone who had been to the earlier sitting said that they stopped the film to tell the audience to stop chatting! It would seem that an extraordinary number of people were chatting and ruining the film for others, someone had said that the film was a bit slow, but I don’t think so.
I forgot to iron a shirt for Andy, he needs one tomorrow as he is off to see this chap that has offered him the job, he just needs to iron out a few things so we borrowed the iron to iron the shirt and then it was bedtime.
We are both thankful that the rain has stopped, it has been a very wet weekend and one that we hope will not happen too often however we do know that Woodstock will have had a good quota of this rain so we hope that it has made a difference and despite what we want, this region does need the water and for that we should be thankful.
Hope you all had loads of Valentines! If not then Happy Valentines Day.
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Snap Shot Stacey
Snap Shot Stacey
Don't you just love how Oz likes to keep you on your toes? Who'd have thought it could rain so much in SUMMER. Pity it wasn't doing it in Victoria though, they're in draught. Is Canberra in draught? I probably should know that. :p I've been wanting to see that movie too. Glad to know you enjoyed it. First opinion I've heard about it. Enjoy the rest of your trip!