3 weeks holiday

It’s March 17th (St Patrick’s Day) and Russ and I are back in the van at Malloy Caravan Park. We’ve had a wonderful 3 weeks away and got back to find the van and boat pretty well just as we left them. The fridge was very mouldy (might have forgotten to leave it on the slightly open latch) and a chair in the boat the same. It was annoying to have our money box and replacement water heater for the van stolen from under our noses whilst packing to leave from Leah, Blair and Todd's. Luckily I had banked the money box before we headed home so we only lost about $10. Cheeky buggers!

It was great to catch up with family and friends in Gippsland, Werribee, Warrnambool and Portland.

On Wednesday 28th (after 5 nights in Perth and Leah's birthday celelbrations) we arrived in Melbourne at 6am then caught the train to my sister Glenda’s in Traralgon. I got to meet Great niece Charlotte for the first time and catch up with Marcus, Fiona and Jacob as well. They all seem to be going along just fine It was also nice to see some rain. We saw a really spectacular storm from Glenda and Pete’s lounge windows. It caused a bit of flooding, but was needed, so I don’t think too many complained. Thanks to BIL Peter for introducing me to Sudoku. I now have a computer version so can feed my new addiction as often as I like with "infinate variations"!

The four of us headed to Yvonne and Paicey’s wedding at Werribee Mansion on the Saturday. We called and had lunch with our Aunty May on the way which was good. Aunty May is the last mum’s 6 brothers and sisters and at 87 is still driving a little and still selling a bit of Avon. She is amazing.

The wedding was fantastic-one of the best I have ever been too. It was in the formal gardens with the reception in the polo pavilion and was relaxed and fun from start to finish. It was lovely staying there and all getting up for breakfast and a tour of the mansion in the morning.

Sunday we went back to Paicey and Yvonne’s in Yarraville where we had some lunch and saw all the presents opened, and then Joy and Hans (bride’s parents) took us back to Geelong for the night and put us on the bus to Warrnambool and Portland on the Monday. We enjoyed a tour of Geelong and lunch out with them on the water front in Geelong before the bus left.

The train from Geelong broke down, so we ended up bussing it to W’bool, then (as we’d missed our connecting bus), we took a town service to Port Fairy. It was the longest trip to Port Fairy I have ever made.

Port Fairy and Ryan and Kirstyn’s B&B (The Merrijig Inn) was a great time. They are working hard but doing really well and it was nice for us to see the business running and meet all the staff. Extra nice to catch up with them too of course. Our room was large and comfortable and we had 3 nights of very beautiful meals in the restaurant-all of which is a real treat for us two tight wads. On night two, Mick, Jill (Kirstyn’s mum) Deb and Pete (from Portland) Ryan, Kirstyn, Russ and I had a really fun night in the restaurant and let all the others do all the work for a change. The food was great and the wine Ryan produced pretty great too! I was shocked when my son Mick ordered the egg and lemon broth with spiced prawns- I have never seen him eat soup since he was old enough to spit it back at me! On the Wednesday we took Kirstyn’s car into Warrnambool for a bit of a poke around, caught up with Janette (our neighbour) at the Vic Hotel and visited some of the people at TAFE. It was good to see everyone, but we think we will leave it a year to visit so they are so pleased to see us again ;-)

Thursday we went on to Deb and Pete’s in Portland. Deb cooked a lovely meal and much talking was done over a few bottles of wine. It was good to see them but a pity to miss Deb’s mum Marg who was holidaying in NZ.

Friday we dropped our stuff at David’s (Next door neighbour) and headed to the Warrnambool hotel for a very long lunch. We had let people know we would be there if they wanted to see us, so it was good to catch up with quite a few. We ended up staying on for dinner which we had with Jo, Graham and David. Another good day. We had two nights with David and really enjoyed a coffee and cake at Fish Sails followed by an extended tour of the town checking out new building going on and changes made in the past year. We visited our house and all seems to be going well there-they are great tenants as far as we are concerned anyway. It was a bit annoying not to be able to open the door under the house due to a faulty lock and check our furniture and the baits and bombs we left. Mick has assured me he will fix it, replacing the whole door if need be. It’s good to have a carpenter in the family.

Sunday we took the bus and train to Melbourne where we spent two nights with our good friend Henry. We tried a new Indian restaurant our on the Sunday for Russell’s 61st birthday. It had only been open 5 nights so we forgave it the slow service because the food was so good. Monday morning we went to Yum Cha for brunch (only my second time so I love it) and for Italian on Monday night.

Tuesday we flew back to Perth arriving just as Leah knocked off work near by. It was lovely to be welcomed home by her and taken home for a family meal of Spaghetti Bog, crusty bread and a lemon cheesecake (for the birthday old boy). Wednesday night they shouted us to our favourite Thai restaurant (Tamarind in City Beach) for our birthdays as we won’t see them for mine. Kurt and Holly came along too, so it was lots of fun and excellent food as usual.

Thursday we drove to Bunbury to spend 2 nights with Brice and Phyllis. That was also lots of fun with Brice taking us to see places we didn’t know existed in the town. The place has really been tidied up since we visited it last about 4 years ago, so I like it a lot more now. On night one, we shared some of our crab meat we had frozen (Russ made crab and prawn cakes) and Brice brought out some of the fish we had caught in May at Denham when we first met him. He has a food saver and the fish was as good to eat as the day we caught it.On night two, Brice produced a home grown leg of lamb for dinner. I hadn’t had lamb for months and this one was especially yummy. We had it with heaps of veg, gravy and it was so good.

And here we are back in Malloy after a pleasant 1 ½ hour drive from Bunbury this morning.