Who wants cake, anyway

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DAY 535


26th April 2010

It was hard to wake up this morning after such a late night last night, but we needed to get up and get packed. As soon as I was out of bed I started to pack the case and make sure that I picked up everything, it is too easy to leave stuff behind.

Again we had our morning tea, overlooking the tremendous view from the living room toward the city of Sydney, while sitting and admiring the view there was a tremendous racket on the rear balcony, it seems that a group of Rainbow Lorikeets had fallen out, there was a fight and one poor bird seemed to be taking the brunt of their anger, Jan tried to break it up but alas, two of the birds remained engaged in the fight at one stage seemingly falling off the balcony to the ground below and still they fought, I hate seeing that side of nature, they always seem so lovely yet it is nature’s occurrence of the pecking order. Even a mosquito was having a go at me this morning, but luckily I got it before he got me, I guess the mosquito was reminding me who has the pecking order out here!
However time was again catching up with us so after a quick breakfast we loaded everything in the car and hit the road toward the M7 and on to Canberra. The traffic was heavy, no doubt the weekenders, just like us were all heading home and for kids in the ACT tomorrow is back to school.

We stop at Goulburn for a coffee and a quick bite to eat, it is cooler here I can significantly tell the different temperature, it was actually fairly warm in Sydney, so it is true, Anzac day is the trigger, I find out that the temperature changed on the Saturday, it looks as if the warm days maybe over for now.

Canberrans seem to complain of the long winter months, however I am sure their long winter months are nothing like the long winter months of England, although we have yet to really experience that but at least they have more sunshine days here despite the cool weather.

So my drive to work now incorporates views over Mount Stromlo and the Brindabella’s, the view looks quite stunning, the traffic is heavy but it moves along fairly well.

It is true about the cold weather, Monday saw a high of 14 degrees in Canberra, it felt cold, Tuesday was sunny again and the daytime temperature warmed up a bit. I am surely in denial with the oncoming cold weather, a reluctance to wear closed in shoes but I am sure it will come in time.

Friday evening leaving the office was amazing, I turned onto Bowen Drive to drive round the edge of Lake Burley Griffin up to Commonwealth Avenue to head back to the North side of Canberra, looking over the lake the sun was going down and the view was just a scene of gold with the fading sun, it was stunning, There is no doubt that Canberra looks beautiful in the Autumn.

It seems we have a busy weekend ahead of us, so Friday night we spent a quiet night in, Andy was exhausted and went to bed early, apparently he was up at 5.00 this morning.

Saturday 1st May - Day 540

We did our chores, wrote the menu for the week and headed out to Woolworths, once that was all done we went to get the truck valeted, it really needed a thorough cleaning, so we set off to Gunghalin where there is a car wash café and while the truck was cleaned inside and out we sat and read the papers over a civilised skinny latte.

Later on it was back home to prepare for the evening, Rob, Sara and two of their children were coming to dinner tonight so Andy knocked up rather a large pasta bake (note: we were eating it for several days to come!), prepared some garlic butter for the garlic bread and with a swift tidy up and vacuum we were ready. I am pretty sure that there was still enough time for Andy to have a nana nap.

The evening went swimmingly well, the food was delicious, even the kids enjoyed the pasta bake but while the kids settled down to watch the Avatar DVD we retired to the other room to battle it out with Rummikub, we played a few games at one point I watched Sara she was concentrating hard on the table and barely for a second did her eyes move away from play, she was determined to win. Well the upshot of the evening was that Sara won one and I won two so a big win for the girls tonight.

By 11.30 they all left, with their youngest being carried out fast asleep by Rob, it was quite cold outside by now, we both retired exhausted and in for a good nights sleep.

Sunday 2nd May - Day 541

Sunday’s weather was gorgeous, Andy spent some time in the morning sorting the truck out, he does like tinkering around with things, but while we were outside we attracted the attention of the neighbours, in a short time we had caught up with Arthur, Sheila and Ken next door and a couple of the neighbours that we had not met before, they either waved as they went out past us or they made a point of coming over to introduce themselves and have a good yarn.

It was somewhat rather pleasant really and reminded me of those Sundays back at home when we would be outside washing the cars and our neighbours would either be out doing the same or walking the dog and everyone would stop for a brief chat to pass the time. I am sure that our next-door neighbour Ed will tell you that it would normally be Andy washing my car, but honestly folks I did do it sometimes!

After lunch we decided to head out to Lake Burley Griffin for a walk but we took a small detour to see if we could spy any wombats, I am sure it would be too early for them, but it is worth a look all the same. Sadly no wombats and even more sadly we see a huge dead kangaroo lying in the middle of the road; we still take those kind of sights hard.

At Lake BG we found most of the tourists and Canberrans enjoying the afternoon sun, canoeing, tourist cruises would be picking up and dropping off, peddalo’s were out in abundance, and on dry land people were either, fishing, jogging, walking or even just lying down for that afternoon nana nap and enjoying that autumn sunshine.

After a walk we found a nice place to sit and have coffee, Andy waited while I went to order and then sat back down outside again, eventually our coffee turned up closely followed by a waitress holding two plates, Andy’s face lit up as he spied two rather large slices of cake. I thought for a second, “he thinks I ordered cake!” I looked at the waitress and said “I didn’t order cake” We both saw Andy’s smile vanish and the look on his face was priceless, the waitress said that if she could not find who ordered it she would be back. Unfortunately she did and as she came past us she put a hand on Andy’s shoulder to sympathise with him.

A couple of people spoke to us while we enjoyed just sitting and people watching, it was all very pleasant really, but soon it was time to head back, there were more chores to be done, the washing needed bringing in and ironing getting us ready for our working week ahead.

We also needed to get ready to go out, Susan had invited us round for a Sunday roast to her new apartment, so by 6.00 it was already very dark outside we were knocking on Susan’s door where a delicious smell or roast pork and vegetables were wafting outside the door.

Susan showed us around her new apartment, we both like it and Susan has done a great job in furnishing and decorating, it all looks very tasteful especially with the pictures up from her own travelling adventures.

We thoroughly enjoyed dinner but it was time to go so soon after 9.00 we headed back home so that we would not be too late to bed as of course we are both at work tomorrow and my first full week in my new job.

It is a bank holiday weekend back in England and our thoughts turned to the Wallaby Wanderers who are now only a day away from returning to work after their fabulous Australian adventure, we wish them well for their return to work.

Until the next time.
KJ

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Photos

The Fountain
At Lake Burley Griffin