“Ten a Penny”

---

DAY 532

A very unexciting week this week, one that I needed to make the most of as I head back to work next week, which although I am looking forward to I am sure it won’t be long before I am hankering after the weekends and longing to be back on the road again.

I have managed to secure a job with a worldwide organisation as a contract manager, which funnily enough has its head office in Winchester, England close to where we lived. It will be an interesting role and will no doubt provide me with some challenges, the good part being that it will require me to travel to various places around Australia, such as Perth, Darwin, Adelaide, and an outer island or two, hopefully a good one or two to tick off, on the places I have been to and it may even contribute to a blog or two.

Andy has had his usual busy week, we are both now over our colds so things are settling down to some kind of normal routine, if you could call what we are doing normal that is.

We are now seeing some changes in the countryside around us, despite the apparently unseasonably warm weather Autumn is now looking in some ways like Autumn with the leaves changing from various shades of greens to the various shades of gold’s and yellow’s. The leaves are slowly tumbling to the ground and in some ways it reminds me of England yet the days are not dull and gloomy they are still sunny and warm, there has been no sign of cloud and rain.

Lately we have seen a lot of kangaroo’s, we actually went out one evening to look for wombats, we saw no wombats but the kangaroo’s were ten a penny, even in the daytime now we are seeing them out in the fields surrounding Canberra, we don’t usually see them in the height of the day probably due to the heat, but I guess with cooler and shorter days they have become more visible.

The good news this week is that we have managed to secure two further house sits in two different suburbs of Canberra, which gives us opportunity to explore these suburbs and not to mention being indoors will help us to keep warm over the winter period and save money and will bring our house sitting total to 7.

We have spoken to Keith and Jan this week, who’s house we are currently sitting and they are having a terrific time, they are in South Australia and already beyond Port Augusta.

This weekend is Anzac Day so we have a long weekend ahead of us and with that, Andy is finishing work early so that we can head into Sydney to stay with Jan and Ted, as we are all heading to one of the largest caravan and camping shows in Australia at Rosehill, where we hope to decide on what trailer we would like to purchase to replace the excellent trailer that has been home for some 18 months.

Arriving in Winston Hills at just after 6.00pm, it was just a tad over 300 kilometres, but quite an uneventful trip.

The last time we saw Ted and Jan and their family was back on 26th January 2010, Blog day 445 “Eating around Australia”, when we had our awesome Razoo weekend, as it was Australia Day and we had the most wonderful time.

As soon as I was parking the Patrol, Ted and Jan appeared we unloaded our weekender case, stepped inside, kettle on and it was just like we had never been away which was just great.

We take our stuff into our room and on the bed are two beautifully wrapped boxes, Jan tells us they are gifts for us, it was something that they thought we would like. Just before diving in to the boxes I said to Caroline that we needed to photograph them for the blog, so as soon as that was done we dove in.

We each had the most beautiful Bone China Mug with a Native Australian Bird, Mine is the Kookaburra, which you all know is an absolute favourite of mine and Caroline’s was a Pink Galah, we were so pleased with these, its these things that has made this trip, not necessarily the gift per se, but the thought.

Jan had booked a table at the ”Bull and Bush” for 7.15 so with out too much time to spare, we only chatted quickly, then a quick change and we were in the car heading out for dinner.

Already patiently waiting at the table is Jenny, Ted and Jan’s Daughter, and again the chatter is full on catching up on what has been happening in everyone lives.

Well the meal we had just was impressive, absolutely excellent food, not too much, not too little and washed down with a beer on a Friday night with friends what could be better, and it felt like we were on holiday again, hurrah!

The end of the evening was soon upon us, so we said good night to Jenny, whom I believe we catch up with again on Sunday and jumped in the car and headed back for Jan and Ted’s place.

By the time we got home it was about 10.15 I was definitely ready for bed, I had been up since just after 5.00am so was dead beat, Caroline chatted to Ted and Jan for a while longer but again it was not long before she gave in too, but I was already fast asleep.

---

Photos

Special Gifts
Gifts, kindly given and greatfully received.

Special Gifts
Thoughfully Given Greatfully recieved.