Snowy Holiday Part 1

I have so many things to tell you:

The big news this week is the upcoming Formal (Prom) and the BA's 16th birthday!!!!!!

SIXTEEN
*deep breaths*
I suppose that would account for why I am feeling so old!

Meanwhile:
We had a wonderful holiday in the Snowy Mountains, but there was too much driving and not enough stopping.

Here's a whistle stop of the 'highlights'...or at least...memorable occurrences:

Good Friday

Left late due to a wonderful night of carousing with my good friend Ms Drama Teacher and her Beau. We played something called 'Nitty Gritty', yes, amazingly I say 'we'!! Himself actually indulged me by playing along. It turned out to be extremely entertaining and, although the young couple 'whupped our a***es' in the winning stakes, we had a good laugh and many interesting conversations ensued. Perhaps we should play it weekly? I mean....conversation????!!!!

But anyway, we left late because of this rare socialising.

After a long day of driving, we were facing the prospect of sleeping the car. The first town we pulled into at sunset boasted 5 motels...not one of which had a vacancy. Fortunately we were in my old stamping grounds near my first teaching post and I was able to reassure Himself that the next town, Balranald was, in fact, big enough to have motels. We pulled in at about 7pm and were delighted to jag a -1 star motel: no room service, a bathroom which required significant manoeuvrings to close the door, and resident mice.

Significant stretches of South Australia, Victoria and new South wales are currently afflicted by a mouse plague. Interestingly, the 10 Plagues of Egypt did not include mice! Boy, the Lord sure missed out on an opportunity there. As we sat in our room watching TV a very well fed mouse scurried across the room, stopped by the wall to survey us and then disappeared into the wall cavity. Now, I am not particularly phased by a 'mouse'; it is the copious quantities of them that disturb me. Having lived through the hideous mouse plagues of Booligal back in 1990, my radar was on high alert as we switched off the light and tried for sleep. Himself, after a long day's drive was out like a light in no time. I, on the other hand lay awake for hours listening to the scurries and scuffles within the walls. On occasion the noises would change and I was sure the Mickeys had re-emerged through the gaps in skirting boards to rummage about in our luggage. I would sit bolt upright, turn the light on and get up to patter around looking for evidence of the little b******* , my mind full of plans for home made traps. Sadly the motel room was lacking in any of the essential materials for these traps so my night continued in broken fashion.

Onward the next day: a brief but wonderful stop in Hay to see my Dear Colleague and her family.
As I said to her, why are all our daughters towering over us? Was it something we fed them???????
Over morning coffee we calculated that it was 22 years since we had taught together in Booligal. I must have mentioned it before but this lady and I were so blessed. Out in the middle of nowhere I was assigned a second teacher and I could have got anybody; but in fact I got Dear Colleague and she was the best thing since sliced bread. Additionally, we had to share a house which could have been a disaster; but which of course was wonderful. Twenty two years later we looked at each other with dazed and bewildered eyes and wondered where the years had gone. Then we looked at the children and thought, "yeah...that's where they went."

Later that day I fell asleep at the wheel and Himself put us back onto the right side of the road and was then very reluctant to let me drive ever again.

That night we made it into Canberra as the BA flew in from Sydney. Himself's insistence on navigating with nothing more than his iphone, is the subject of another blog post all on its own; however the good news is that, despite being unable to contact her on mobile as we approached the airport and having no idea of where we were, the BA materialised, standing on a corner, looking more and more bemused as Himself went round and round and round the roundabout looking for an 'appropriate place' to pullover!





That night was spent in a nice motel and the Easter Bunny came.







We found a church the following morning


and left Himself cleaning the car (locusts...mice...etc) whilst we celebrated Easter.


It was a lovely service with sparklers, bells, flowers, an easter egg hunt and a sermon on
Les Miserables. We felt totally at home.


Onwards, toward Tumut and Himself decided we needed to take the high road through a place called Wee Jasper. He said his motivation was to find a nice picnic spot and to travel on a road he had not driven on before. You can imagine the conversation:
Me: How about we stop here for lunch?
Him: Naaah, I think there'll be a better spot around the corner.
Me: Here?
Him: Nah.
me: Here?
Hi: Nahhhhh.
Me: It's going to be 4pm before we eat at this rate!!!!
(Gourmet Picnic to keep everyone happy)


And then it was on to the purpose for the trip, my bridesmaid's 50th birthday.

That's her on the left.

She was having a 'Sex and The City' cocktail party. More stress. I spent a great deal of time trying to watch the BA through the corner of my eye to see that she was not being fed illicit cocktails :-(
Apart from that it was a lovely evening. The next day we experienced autumn in Tumut and took in the Adelong Falls and Gold workings.
Can you see Himself reflected in the water?
These last three pictures are for my dad.
Standing on a rock I noticed this: and then turned 180 degrees to see this:
and then looked up and across to see the full picture.I think its a dyke isn't it dad?
(edited to add: Dad says 'yes' it is...and it bifurcates! Never say this blog is not educational)
Next day, up and over the mountains:







image credit: plague