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Hello!!
Sorry, its been weeks again hasn't it! My apologies (to Pat especially!). To save having loads of writing on one entry, I'm going to break the past month into a few, to help all of you with small attention spans! There's quite a few photos too, (i think) so I don't want to clog things up!!!
So, anyway, I think the last time I emailed it was just before my last day at the job. We went out for a few drinks with CPSU on the Friday, which was really nice and then we did something on the Saturday as will, but I’m not sure what it was, as in my diary I’ve just written “go out” so that’s really helpful! The Sunday, we went to see The Producers at the outdoor cinema at Centennial park. Does everyone else know that it’s a musical? My French friend Isabelle came from work as well and it was a really nice evening. Didn’t rate the film much though, not really my cup of tea!!
The Monday, 13th March we went to the Blue Mountains, which are about an hour and a half’s train journey away from Sydney. When you
get there, you buy a ticket for a ‘hop-on, hop-off bus’ that takes you around. There’s a tour guide as well who fills you in on bits on bobs! They’re called the Blue Mountains as in the area there’s a lot of Eucalyptus trees and they give off a blue haze! There weren’t any koalas though, was very disappointed!
The first place we went to was the Katoomba Falls. You walk from the road, through a bit of bush for about 20 minutes and then to Scenic World. The falls weren’t very impressive as I don’t think there was enough water, but I’ve seen photos of them when they’re in full flow and they look amazing. it was nice anyway! We then walked to Scenic world, which is basically where you get either the worlds steepest railway or a cable car to the bottom, where there’s a ‘boardwalk’ that you walk around the bottom of the forest on, and learn lots of things about the plants and stuff and also the mining history of the area! I thought it was really good, and the railway was lots of fun!
We then stopped for lunch (surprise surprise) and went
to the Honeymoon Lookout Point. From here, we walked back towards where we’d come from and saw the Three Sisters, and arrived at Echo Point. It was really beautiful there but there were quite a few other tourists, and being British, I expected the whole place to be cleared for me! (that is a joke, just incase anyone’s not sure!). We did some wine tasting and I bought a bottle of wine that was made in a nearby-ish vineyard, it was really tasty!
We were then going to see Gordon falls I think they’re called, but that would have meant we’d miss the last bus so we decided to go into an Olde Worlde sweet shop instead, which was just as good. They had all the old fashioned sweet jars lining the walls, and some English sweets that we’d not seen anywhere else.
For the rest of that week, we didn’t do anything, or rather I didn’t do anything! I wasn’t working so seemed to spend a lot of time mooching around! On Friday 17th March, I went to Orange with Siobhan and Lincoln. Orange is a farming town (I think) that’s about 5 hours drive from Sydney.
The CPSU Lot
Lynette, Renee, Claire and meLinc has a really nice Renault Clio sport so he drove. Linc’s family home is in Orange, although his parents don’t really live there any more, so we had somewhere to stay as well. The girls were working and so they couldn’t come! Linc’s family have these two dogs called Zep and Lily! Shiv’s warning about Zep was ”not to make sudden movements or loud noises”, but he was really soft and lovely and Lilly was a little chiuaua! However, she’s as blind as a bat and gets about partially by memory I think and also by hearing!!
We stopped off at Blackheath on the way, which coincidentally is near the Blue Mountains, for tea. I had the best pie I think I’ve ever eaten. It was beef stew in a pot with puff pastry on top! All hot and tasty! We didn’t do anything on the Friday night as we were all knackered, but Saturday, we went out for breakfast then wine tasting, hurrah! We started off at the Indigo Ridge vineyard and tasted lots of really nice wine there. Linc and Shiv bought a bottle or two and then we went to another one which I
The CPSU Boys
Andy, Peter and Ian can’t remember the name of! To be fair though, they don’t deserve an acknowledgement as the guy was rude and full of his own importance. I still bought a bottle of wine, but it was begrudgingly!!! Oh, for those who are interested, I drank everything and spat nothing out! Good lass!!! Was a bit tipsy by this point though so we went for lunch and a walk around Canoblas lake. It was really pretty and then afterwards, we went for a drive up Mount Canoblas, which I think is the second highest mountain in New South Wales, or Australia, I can’t remembern which! But I think that’s more because the land is so high, as opposed to the actual height of the mountain!!!
We primarily went up there to see Kangaroos, but there weren’t any! I was really gutted, until we started to play with the trap spiders and then I was happy again! Well I say we! It was actually Siobhan and Linc who were doing all the playing, I just stood at the back getting excited and shrieking!! I’ll explain. Basically, there are holes in the ground on the mountain and if you put a long piece
Some More Girls
Michelle and Catherine of grass into the hole and wiggle it, a spider comes out! One of them was HUGE! And it was grabbing hold of the bit of grass and pulling it! I don’t think he was too happy with our fun!!!
Anyway, we went back, had a snooze and then went out for drinks and tea in Orange. We ate at this really nice little tapas place that I initially didn’t want to eat at, delaying dinner by about half an hour, oops sorry! They had really nice wine there as well and in the spirit of the days activities, me and Siobhan bought a really expensive (well kind of) wine! Oops, it was lovely though and the manager gave us a free mini bounty each, I think so we’d just go away , but I was happy!!!
We then went to the local bar that’s open late! Lordy, I’d not seen one fight in Australia and by the end of the night in there I’d seen three! It was good though and the drinks were flowing nicely (thanks Linc) which always helps!!! When we got back we all fell asleep with the dogs which was quite amusing, and
Lily who had fallen asleep on me was snoring! Aah how cute!
The next morning we went out for breakfast, well me and Siobhan did, while Linc walked Zep. Lily came for breakkie too but got tired and had to be carried, which amused me no-end! Felt like a Paris Hilton wannabe!!! We then headed off back fo Sydney and stopped in Blackheath again for pie! This time though it was a traditional Australian pie and was amazng! We bought it from a pub and it had huge pieces of steak and mushroom in it! Hmmmm!!! Needless to say I have put a tiny bit of weight on so when I get back if I’m still fat please don’t make any fat jokes, but just quietly move the food away from me. Thanks for your cooperation!!!
That night, me, the little delightfuls and someone from their work went to The Rocks for a few drinks. This is basically an area near the harbour. Everyone always raves about it but I couldn’t really see why. Maybe its was the day we went but it felt like we’d arrived on the end of something not the beginning! The only noteworthy
thing there was a line of papiermeache bears that were about 6 foot tall and about the same wide. I think it was for some kind of charity thing, but every country had submitted a design for one and some of them were really lovely! Needless to say, the British one wasn't and it looked like whoever had done it, had remembered at the last minute, with a hangover and had just painted the first crap things that had come into their head. We weren't impressed! We went to the Opera House for another drink and I had a Caipharina just to finish the occaision! We went home soon after that as no-one was really up for it! And that concludes this entry. Please all move in an orderly line to the next emtry! Ta
xxx
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Pat Temiz
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Well done you!
Hi Jules Well done, you're writing again but still have a lot of catching up to do so keep going. Don't apologise to me, I'm on a mission to keep you writing. I have a journal I kep in 1971 on a road trip to eastern Turkey with three other women. It is so good to look at and brings back so many memories I would otherwise not have. So I know you'll reget it if you do give up, hence my exhortations. Love to Lauren. I'm awaiting next episode.