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Published: April 10th 2015
Poor Stewie!!!, its a Killler.
Gus and Stewie,
Stewie was called Stewie as he would end up in stewPoor My toes were freezing because I was wearing thongs (flip flops), the temperature on the car dashboard says 6 degrees C and when we checked the weather in Perth an hour before it was 17 degrees, oh and just in case I forget to mention later on, it has been snowing in the mountains, so it is fair to say that I am feeling the cold this morning!
After a couple of days at Woodstock, enjoying the surrounds, Helen and Roberts company and sorting through our gear that we had stored in the container, we want to take some stuff back to Perth with us, in particular a saucepan that will go nicely in Roobie. We both have a mass session of trying on clothes and creating piles of "taking" and "leaving" amongst the nice surprises of "I don't remember having that". Our objective being that we are switching one suitcase for another (the one we have been using has a broken wheel, but will be ok to use as storage for now) and we will be taking back an additional suitcase so I will need to book extra luggage for the flights home.
Poor Stewie!!!, its a Killler.
Chris =, Jan and Caroline having Coffee on the verandah I brought some of our stuff back from Perth, so that has gone into the container and now created extra space in our luggage. I also had to borrow a suitcase from a friend of ours to help with this transition, it looks like we are travelling for months rather than two weeks. That said we have travelled for over a year on a lot less luggage!
We also work on shrinking our luggage to the barest minimum for a week in Canberra, being reminded by our friends to take some warm clothing.
Not that Helen and Robert would agree but we have been blessed with good weather for our stay at Woodstock, sunshine and warmth! Not what the farmers want though, they need rain (as usual), lambs are being hand fed and they are waiting to get the next crop sown, without rain on the horizon, no sowing which also means the later they sow the later the harvest.
So on a sunny Wednesday morning the little hire car is loaded and off we go with our first stop at Gundagai, not just to pick up a Macca's coffee but
to meet someone that Andy knows through the HF Radio network, always an opportunity to acquaint ourselves with new people, so we meet with Geoff and his wife who happen to be travelling in this area from Queensland.
An hour or so later we are on the road to Canberra, we have been looking forward to visiting a lot of our old friends, but as it is coming up to the Easter weekend, there are not too many friends available for a catch up, bad timing to catch Easter as of course a lot of our friends are 4 wheel drive club members and any opportunity to hit the road and camp for the long weekend is duly taken.
The views from the Barton Highway as we were driving toward Canberra were spectacular and reminded us what a beautiful place Canberra is and how much we miss those kind of views. I also miss this kind of terrain for my exercise regime and feel the need to get out there and enjoy a couple of laps around the lake and get some fresh Canberra air into my lungs.
As always we
Poor Stewie!!!, its a Killler.
The back of the House in Laggan have a hectic schedule ahead of us so we have a lot to fit in and our first stop is Jan and Keith in Holt for a cup of tea, slice of excellent sponge cake and a good catch up on life and travel, it was great to see them and it had been a while, though Caroline did catch up with them when she was back in Canberra last year.
Once we left Keith and Jans we had to drop off the cover for Gypsy at Dennis and Jodie's house which is just around the corner from Keith and Jan's as this cover had been kept in the container at Woodstock and Dennis had never found the time to collect it.
Later in the afternoon we finally arrive at some very good friends of ours Les and Sue, where we would be staying for the duration of our visit, unfortunately we are staying and they are just about to head off for Easter Holidays to the coast, but the best bit is that we get to spend time with the lovely Harley for the weekend.
That night we relaxed with
Les, Sue and all the family we ate a hearty stew for dinner and a late night to bed. We slept well.
I could hear footsteps out on the landing, it must be morning and remembering that I had promised Susan that I would take an early morning walk up Mount Taylor, a visit to Canberra would not be right without doing this at least once. Oh and when I say early morning it was 6.45 which is half sensible time to get up and go for a walk.
Looking outside, it was a beautiful looking morning, cloudy, the sun was coming up and casting a beautiful hue across the landscape out toward the Brindabella's and decided it was cold so put some long pants on, certainly not as cold as some mornings that we have experienced in Canberra but we are feeling the difference coming from Perth.
We set off for our walk, the only way is up but the prize is at the top of Mount Taylor and that is something worth the effort for. I can tell you that I was feeling that effort in the gluteus maximus
for days after, where we are currently living it is almost perfectly flat so there is no real effort to work the glutes!
By the time we reached the top of Mount Taylor the clouds had swarmed across the sky the sun had completely disappeared and a cool wind was starting to bite. Time to get back to the bottom a much easier journey on the way down.
Back at the ranch, showered and changed we all regrouped and headed into town for a well deserved breakfast. When I said well deserved I really mean well deserved for me and Susan, I had scrambled eggs on sour dough toast washed down with a skinny flat white.
When Les and Sue headed off to work, Andy and I headed straight into town for the Australian War Memorial, this is somewhere that we really had been looking forward to coming to see, an advertising campaign revealed a significant amount of work and effort to revamp the World War I exhibition. We purchased a poppy and headed inside, it is also the start of Easter Holidays in some States so it is naturally busy
Poor Stewie!!!, its a Killler.
Kimba on the lawn at Woodstock inside. We chose not to go with a tour guide and make our own way round.
Andy may want to explain more than I can so I will leave it up to him, the exhibition was fascinating, although we have been to the War Memorial several times when we lived here, there is always something new to look at and I think it never does any harm to remind ourselves what others gave up for us to live the life that we have.
The War memorial has just spent $32m on the new exhibits and put on show artefacts that had either not ever been previously seen or had been away from the public eye for decades, there was some truly amazing stuff to see and we spent the whole day there, which is really not enough time, we can remember when we were first in Canberra that it took us 2.5 days to really have a good look around.
While we were there we took time out to meet an ex colleague in Poppy's cafe, it was lovely to see our friend Peter and have a catch up. We went
Poor Stewie!!!, its a Killler.
Helen on the veranda at Woodstock our separate ways and our tour of the War Memorial resumed. The good thing about the War Memorial is that there are friendly staff around who are quite knowledgable and happy to answer whatever questions they are able to answer.
It is a tiring day but well worth it, sadly we did not get the chance to stick around for the closing. Each day the Memorial have a special closing ceremony where the focus on an individual soldier and their story, with the Last Post.
By now Les, Sue and most of the family, with the exception of their daughter Breanna, who has stayed behind to study, have all skipped off on their Easter break so we are left to our own devices, but when we say our own devices, we had a busy time ahead of us and we both had a cold, Andy's was ahead of mine, it was Good Friday, nothing of note was open it was miserable outside so we had a lazy morning, we checked out the cinema times, but there was nothing on that we both wanted to watch.
In the afternoon I went for
Poor Stewie!!!, its a Killler.
Lancastr Bomber at the War memorial in Canberra a walk around Lake Tuggeranong, it was a cool afternoon but nice to get out and get some exercise. I got back and found Andy and Breanna relaxing with Harley in front of the TV watching many episodes of Criminal Minds, so I joined them for the rest of the afternoon before we needed to get ready to go out for dinner.
Being Good Friday it was difficult to find somewhere open for dinner, all we wanted was a decent curry, so our friend Anna had hunted high and low and found the Bollywood Masala in Kingston was about the only place that was open.
So off we set for a catch up with Anna and Steve, despite being familiar with the roads I find myself checking out the best route on Google Maps just to make sure we are going in the right direction. We had a great evening catching up on old times and what the future held for all of us. The restaurant was not very busy, we had a great curry and felt very full when we left.
Back at Les and Sue's, Harley, the most beautiful
and largest Golden Retriever I have ever seen, is clearly missing his family and as both Andy and I are soft he exploited that by making himself comfortable on our bed. Not too much of an issue to start with but at some point during the night he seemed to take over two thirds of the bed, Andy and I found ourselves pushed into one corner diagonally across the bed, but Harley looked exceptionally comfortable.
We had been invited up to Laggan it is about a 2 hour drive from Canberra, to see or Friends Chris and Jan who have a small farm, Andy has never been here before, I enjoyed some time up there with Chris and Jan when Andy was working away on Christmas Island.
It is the most beautiful drive to Laggan, and on route we were lucky enough to spot an Echidna waddling down the road, how lucky we were. Fortunately the Echidna was thinking safety first, it was wandering down the shoulder of the road and not in the middle.
When we arrived on their farm it was about 1.30, Chris was up by the entrance
Poor Stewie!!!, its a Killler.
Kubla-Waggan the genuine article that still has the makings of the Waffen SS gate with the chain saw trimming some tree's and as usual made us so welcome, we drove to the house with Chris following in the front end loader and soon we were all sitting in the toasty warm kitchen drinking tea and eating cake, I am sure there is no better way of spending an afternoon.
Chris and Jan have a herd of Hereford's, a sweet group of really pretty cows, who would let you get fairly close without running off, Chris had got his favourite cow who would let Chris walk right up give her big old scratch, a big bull was in the adjoining paddock who had a chum to keep him company and his mate was called Stewie. They both wandered up and down the paddock to keep the girls in line of sight.
The pot belly stove was just gorgeous and we sat around and chatted the afternoon away, Chris and Jan prepared lamb shanks in the oven and with Chris' attention to detail, (Port Jus) been poured over the lamb the result was just magnificent.
The evening was whiled away with good conversation, wine and amazing
Poor Stewie!!!, its a Killler.
Looking from the war memorial towards the Houses of Parliament, Canberra dinner, finally for good measure we kept good company with a bottle of port. It was late for us to go to bed, we were both wilting but also the clocks back an hour so it afforded us a little more social time.
We both awoke early to a gorgeous morning with the sun just blazing through the bedroom window, the view out side was breathtaking, the hills just rolled out over the landscape before us. Andy was awake and he said to me that he wondered if Stewie was called Stewie because he was the next one for the "pot" and was the "Killer". It was a good thought and we needed to check that out later on. In the meantime I got up, made a cup of tea for us both and took them back to bed and let the day ease itself in.
Over breakfast, Andy asked Chris and Jan about Stewie's name, they indeed confirmed that it was and they had several names for others such as Rump-ole, T-bone and Sir-loins.
The Sunday morning was easy, Chris took Andy around the property in the Landcruiser (it is
Landcruiser country - just saying), he also showed Andy his workshop and shed, taking a few photo's for the blog. I went for a short ride with Jan on the quad, such a beautiful property.
After a look around we sat and had coffee on the verandah, the morning just disappeared and soon it was time to go, we were saddened by the fact that we had to say goodbye once again but we knew this trip was going to be full of goodbyes, they never get any easier.
We left Laggan with a fantastic view of their house in our rear view mirror and hoped that we would see these guys soon, the route home via Crookwell, Gundaroo and Sutton was lovely the day was warm and amazingly we see another echidna on the way home.
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