SueSue's visit part 2/2

The trip to the Whitsundays.

When originally trying to figure out something to do, we thought about driving some portion of the north eastern coast.  That quickly dropped out due to time and money limitations.  But in its place, Ruthie came up with a 2.5 day sailing trip in/around the Whitsunday islands.  Shortly after I got here, the Whitsundays [iconic for their white sand and vibrant blue waters] were quickly recommended and flagged as a place to go and see.  And so arrangements were made.  We were to fly our way to Airlie Beach [well, fly to Proserpine [via Brisbane] then bus to Airlie Beach], clamber on board a boat and then sail around for two and a half days.  Upon our return, we’d make our way into a hotel for the evening and then fly our way back to Melbourne.

First off, it was wet season off the shore of Queensland.  Granted, our timeline was forced a bit by fitting it into SueSue’s visit, but we either went to the Great Barrier Reef during Shark Season, Jellyfish Season, Wet Season, or Tourist Season.  I think [cyclones aside] wet season might’ve worked out just fine for us. 

Second, I think Queensland’s version of cold is 60°F.  I’m too lazy to look up the details, but really, it’s the land of warm winters and hot, sticky summers.  [From what I understand the reason Tourist Season exists is because southern Queensland has those perfect 80°F days and bright blue skies for multiple days in a row.]  This meant that despite the fact that it was wet season, the temperatures were still fairly high.  This also meant that the water was quite warm.  As in the air temperature would be 26°C and the water would be 28°C – so you were better off in the water while it rained anyways.

The downside to it being the rainy season: lack of brilliant light illuminating everything. 

The upside to the lack of sun, we didn’t immediately turn into lobsters.  This silver lining was further supported by the fact that when the sun did eventually burn off the clouds on the last day as we were headed back, it also managed to burn us despite our sunscreen.

So let me get the whinging over with first.  At this point in time, I no longer feel the urge to spend multiple nights on a boat in weather that produces choppy water.  While I didn’t actually get sea sick, I came close, and it wasn’t fun.  And Ruthie got even closer when she made the mistake of going below deck to our room for a bit while we were passing through some waves.  Also, I ended up with a pretty sleepless night the first night on the boat.  It was hot and humid in our room with little ventilation.  I don’t particularly remember there being a lot of rocking motion to the boat, but I definitely had my first insight into what it’s like being an insomniac.  The rainy season also meant everyone was crammed into the little tiny sections of the boat that were covered.  So after dinner, while everyone was being social, it also meant hot and sticky confines.  Which, combined with the lack of sleep [I also slept very little the night before we left due to nerves] meant that I ended up missing out on the drunken bonding that happened the second night we were anchored.  Oh well.

So that said, everything else was pretty awesome.  The adventure started with Ruthie and me riding the netting of the catamaran through the first “storm” we hit.  Mainly it was just rain and wind [or the speed of the boat].  We ruined our books by doing this and because of the high humidity it also meant one set of our clothes were unusable for two days, but it was well worth it.  The first mate prepared all our meals for us, and I have to say that I was quite impressed with the food choice and quality.  I don’t know exactly what I expected, but for being on a boat with 10 other people, it was quite the spread. 

The second day we snorkelled, did some stand-up paddle boarding, and snorkelled some more.  When we finally anchored for the late afternoon / evening, Ruthie and I took out the clear-bottomed canoe and tried to see things.  We were fairly unsuccessful in seeing much more than water, rocks, and some reef life [this is where the lack of bright, direct light comes in], but it was still worth the effort.  The stand-up paddle boarding was pretty exciting.  It was something I’d wanted to attempt for a while, and it was the captain’s mandate that we all give it a go.  After a fair amount of complaining from some of the other passengers about fears and possible lack of ability, in the end, everyone got out, and we had quite the parade along the coast of one of the islands.  The second day also had us set foot on land for a while.  We hiked up to a lookout, and then back down to the squeaky white sand of a beach while the tide was out.  While traipsing through the forest to the lookout, I managed to spot the biggest spider [sorry Mom] I’ve ever seen – like the size of my hand fully stretched out or even bigger.  We were later informed that it was called a golden orb, and while it was creepy, I wouldn’t claim it was particularly scary.  The furry ones are scary.  This one was just a skinny body with amazingly long legs. 

The third morning we woke up to sunshine peeking between the clouds and the rocks [Butterfly Bay was pretty enclosed – maybe 80% land and just the one way in and out].  We departed for another bit of the islands for our tactical turtle drop.  “Tactical turtle drop” was a phrase used by one of the other captains as he returned to his boat via dinghy from dropping his passengers in the water.  Apparently turtles frequented the area we were snorkelling, and so chances were high we might spot some.  Backing up a bit, we’d managed to see about 5 turtles or so from the boat.  A couple of times we sailed right over them.  And when we stopped for the second night, we spotted one surface a couple times about 15 yards off to one side of the boat.  But our tactical turtle drop was specifically geared to spotting some whilst snorkelling.  Ruthie and I started off by swimming one direction along the shore and seeing lots more fishies, but it was apparently the wrong direction because some of our co-passengers informed us they’d seen one down the shore in the other direction.  Before we made it that way, though, we went across the sandbar to the really shallow water and watched several little sharks swimming about. 

Let’s pause a moment and revel in that.  Sharks.  Granted, not great white sharks or man eaters by any means, but we were swimming right next to a handful of small reef sharks. 

I’d also like to take this moment of pause to discuss Ruthie’s [ir]rational fear of jelly fish.  On one hand, I can almost agree with her – or at least I can see where she’s coming from with her fear.  They are pretty bizarre looking, and in this section of the world, they are lethal.  On the other hand, it was very entertaining to watch her freak out, so I could help but laugh and mock her slightly.  Seriously, I think if we’d seen more than one jelly fish coming our way at once, she’d’ve gotten up and run on the water back to the boat.  [Fortunately, we only saw them one at a time … although at one point, two of those one-at-a-times came pretty close to each other, and Ruthie nearly broke plane swimming back to shore.] 

Back to our tactical turtle drop.  Not only did we see some turtles, but we swam with two of them.  I can only describe them as little and big.  And awesome.  And much to Ruthie’s pleasure, we watched one of them eat a jelly fish, only furthering her love for these fantastic and dinosauric creatures.  Let me point out that while we were snorkelling in Hawaii, we missed out on seeing turtles.  Apparently one was spotted, but it was a bit further away, and only a silhouette was observed.  So a turtle spotting was high on the want list for this trip.  So, heeding the advice of our co-passengers, we tried swimming in direction B from our tactical turtle drop, and before we knew it, we were swimming right over two of them.  They only stayed together for a few minutes before they split and went different directions.  But in that initial time, I managed to grab a few pictures [thank you GoPro], and Ruthie swam down close to them, and actually touched one on his/her shell.  After they split, Ruthie followed the big one, and I followed the little one.  I had passed off the camera to Ruthie before this happened, and I kind of wish I had gotten it back [but there wasn’t time].  Ruthie was having a hard time keeping up with her turtle, but mine was just being pretty leisurely as s/he swam away from me.  In the process, the sun managed to break through the thin clouds that had formed just at the same moment that the turtle surfaced.  So right in front of me I had the classic picture of a turtle with all his/her appendages out, brightly lit so all his/her colours were showing, on a brilliantly turquoise blue background. 

It’s hard to follow up with the excitement of the turtles, and so I won’t ramble too much longer.  But, we managed to set foot on shore again safely, get our shoes and flip flops back [the first mate took them from us as we got on the boat the first day], and head to our hotel.  For being something that Ruthie found on the cheap, we were all floored with how awesome it was.  One, it was an apartment style, so separate bed rooms, a kitchen, a living room, and a washer/dryer.  Two, it was up high enough that it provided a fantastic view out over the little bit of land that was between us and the water, and then out off past Airlie Beach.  Even after SueSue complained about the height of the hill we had to climb to get to the hotel, she had to admit it was worth the hike.  The washer/dryer was a blessing in their own because while we had all done fairly well to keep at least one set of clothes dry for our return trip, most of our stuff stunk something awful.  Clean sheets, clean clothes, delivered pizza, a hot shower, air conditioning, and a great view combined for a perfect way to wrap up our Whitsundays adventure.

-EP

SueSue's visit part 1/2

So SueSue has come and gone, and I totally failed to write anything while she was here.  Whoops.

But I like doing recaps anyways.  I’m well aware that I have a tendency to ramble on about minutia sometimes, and I always look at recaps as a way to force myself to condense.

So let’s see.  First off, I worked most of the time she was here.  This was fine because it saved me from the multitudinous trips to the market.  And Target.  I’m pretty sure there were a couple trips to Target.  As has become pretty standard for our visitors, Ruthie took SueSue out to Healesville to see the animals.  Upon their return, never mind the “magic moments” with the baby wombats and the kangaroos, apparently the vet working with the wombats was HOT.  At least there are pictures of the two of them with the wombats if not the hot vet.  Also becoming standard for our visitors, there was also a trip along the Great Ocean Road. 

In true SueSue fashion, we sent her off in the evening in search of her own favourite pub.  After the first night being a failure [in Port Spraytan’s defence, it was a Monday night], I provided her with directions to the older, off-the-beaten-path pub called The Clare Hotel that I’d been to only a couple weeks prior with a couple of my local video game nerds.  After watching a few of the train wrecks there, I knew it would be up SueSue’s alley, and sure enough it was.  She went two nights in a row, quickly made friends with the barkeep, and was hit on by a local, who claimed to be a former footy player and true enough asked her if she wanted some Australian in her.  Seriously, the stories this woman inspires. 

Back in the pages of clean, wholesome fun, we also introduced SueSue to some more locals via a diner at J&J’s, where they provided us with some home cooked kangaroo - pretty tasty, but different.  I’ve often heard various things described as gamey and the like, but I don’t know how to apply those adjectives – I would simply describe the ‘roo meat as leaner and less juicy [not in a bad way] than a regular steak.  And on the page of entirely new things, we also went to a footy game.  It was the first game of the preseason, where they have a little round-robin type thing where three teams play each other over the course of the night in three, shortened games.  Apparently they also try out different rules and scoring during the preseason, but that didn’t impact us any.  What surprised me was just how many players were on the field.  I realised pretty quickly just how big a regulation AFL pitch was, but when watching on TV [and without knowing the players], you just don’t really appreciate how many people the pitch can fit.  I think we counted something like 16 players per team.  Then there were at least six referees on the field, as well as what looked like a few substitutes.  And to their credit, those refs worked hard to keep on top of the action. 

Well, I think that might roughly cover SueSue’s time spent in Melbourne.  That leaves the trip to the Whitsundays.

-EP

EDIT – a quick check on Wikipedia tells me that footy is to have up to 18/side. 

Manic weather

Okay, so let’s get down to the weather.  First let’s start with the fact that 1 March marked the beginning of autumn.  And with that in comes some colder weather, and ultimately “winter” on 1 June.  Much like fall back home, days are varied between warm and cool, but what [still] gets me is that an actual day can vary between warm and cool.  A couple weeks ago, we had a few days’ worth of nice, warm weather, reminiscent of the summer weather.  The forecasters called for a change one morning as I was getting ready [it was a Thursday], and change it did.  The morning was a sweaty ride in due to the warmth and humidity.  About nine o’clock or so, the breeze picked up, and due to the higher humidity, it actually felt good.  About eleven o’clock or so, the temperature started to fall, and so did the rain.  Then after roughly three hours of cold, windy rain, the clouds disappeared and the sun shone brilliantly again.  The cooler temperatures remained, and even the locals were commenting that we started that morning with summer, went through winter over lunch, and ended up in spring or fall. 

Then Easter Monday made me regretting not having my camera handy.  I have had the idea in the back of my head that it might be neat to put the GoPro up on the balcony set for time lapse shots, and just let it roll for a day.  However, one can never really tell when it’s going to be a manic weather day.  Easter Monday started with my gut feeling that it was going to be one of those days: by the time I’d rolled out of bed to sunny skies, gotten some clothes on [it was chilly in the flat], and gone to the bathroom, the clouds had rolled in.  But I second guessed myself, and I didn’t have anything ready for the GoPro.  Two hours later, it was clear that I’d made a mistake by not being ready.  The weather was truly crazy: clouds, sun, clouds, rain, clouds, sun, rain, sun, clouds, hail[!], gusts of wind throughout all of this, clouds, sun, clouds, rain, sun, rainbow [double!], clouds, sun, rainbow, rain, sun, rainbow, clouds, sunset. 

I’ve had conversations with some of my co-workers who are also imports, and they all say the same thing: even though they’d heard about the crazy Melbourne weather, it was nothing like they’d expected.  I think days like Easter Monday would be better defined as “manically insane”.  And I still wish I could get a good video of it … maybe I’ll be better prepared the next time there’s a “feral” [friend’s word for it] weather weekend day.

-EP

I'm a slacker

Man, I am so far behind.  I feel like so many things have or might have happened, and I’ve got such a back log – mental constipation, if you will.  It certainly wasn’t my intention to leave TFAB this neglected for this long, but … well, honestly I don’t have any good excuses.  But here are some anyways:

A. My dog ate my homework.

B. I forgot how to read.

C. I’m lost in translation.

D. I was a dummy and thought if I waited long enough, Ruthie might actually dust this thing off.

E. I’ve been too busy.

F. I’ve been too busy at work which is when I have written several previous posts, and haven’t made the time to write anything while at home. 

For what it’s worth, I’m months behind in uploading my photos to FB, too.  Unfortunately, those don’t require as many words or digging through my memories to see what I thought about as it happened “Hey, I should write about that.” 

So, in attempt to force myself to get some things down on paper, I’m making myself a list.  [Apparently I’m on a list kick.  I’ve made myself a few at work, and I even gave Ruthie a honey-do list on Monday – much to her dismay, I’m sure.]

1. Update this blog again soon.

2. Update this blog again soon about one of the following things:

α. The mental list I’ve been attempting to build of Australian lingo and vocabulary.

β. Recap adventures with SueSue.  The trip to the Whitsundays might need it’s own post.

γ. Ramble on about the weather again [it truly is a country in which you can talk about the weather].

δ. It’s official: I’m an international goal scorer.  Although it seems that the days I score a goal we lose by quite a bit. 

ε. Despite my best efforts I’ve been informed I’m a bicyclist. 

ζ. More derby. 

3. Don’t let this blog wither and die [like our poor dried up aloe plant].

-EP

A week of Beef part 2/2

Continued from this post.

Wednesday morning found us up again at a good hour to drive out through the rain to Healesville Sanctuary.  Wednesday’s Melbournian weather actually worked in our favour.  We got there just a few minutes before a guided tour of the Coranderrk Reserve was heading out, and since it had been raining that morning, not many people were there, so we had the tour to ourselves.  Even better, the rain was just tapering off as we arrived, so we didn’t even get that wet.  Despite this being Ruthie’s third trip to the Sanctuary, this was the first time the tour had been offered, so we were kind of glad that Beef decided we should do it. 

We had intended to only spend the morning in Healesville and then head out in that region to find some hiking, but by the time we were done with everything, it was time to head home.  This decision worked out because we ended up getting to a fabric store Ruthie had been drooling over 15 minutes before they closed.  Ruthie’s head exploded and Beef and I giggled as she ran around like a headless chicken trying to decide which fabric to get.

Wednesday night took us to the Suzuki Night at the Victoria Market.  It was my first time at the Vic Market ever, even though Ruthie’s been a couple times, and it was pretty cool.  I don’t really see the need to go multiple times, as it didn’t really seem like there were things worth repeat visits.  Sure it’s free, and there were some good food stalls, but other than that, the regular vendors don’t really warrant repeat visits.  [I say this only to contrast the regular morning market, where you can get grocery-type items, thus warranting routine visits if desired.]  And on the note of food, we did end up with quite the multi-cultural tasting that evening.  We started with Korean dumplings, then moved on to souvlaki, then crepes and milkshakes for desert. 

Thursday started off with our earliest start of the week to hit the road for a two-hour drive down to Philip Island for our second surf lesson of the week.  Yes, despite the battering we received on Tuesday, Beef was keen for another round of surfing, so of course Ruthie made that happen and I couldn’t miss out.  So off we went.  This time it went much better.  On the negative side, it was pretty damned crowded.  A lot of time was spent waiting for people to get out of your way / getting out of the way for others.  However, the instructors were much more personable and attentive, and the instruction was much better [helped me realize I was putting the wrong foot forward on Tuesday which made a big difference for me], and the ocean wasn’t nearly as rough.  Of course it still rained on us, but no one seemed to mind for the warmth of the wetsuits again.  And by the end, Beef had managed to land herself in a few pictures, ridden a couple waves, and even high-fived one of the instructors as she was surfing into the shore.  Simultaneously, while Ruthie and I weren’t quite the superstars, we did finally get upright on a couple waves.  So that was pretty cool.

Lunch in Cowes, the big little town on Philip Island was pretty good, and then we made the return drive back to Melbourne for a mostly uneventful evening.  We went to the restaurant at the corner of the next block over – a place we’d been looking to go but hadn’t made the effort until Beef arrived.  The food was pretty decent, but I don’t know if it was worth another visit.

Friday saw us getting up early once again for a 9.30a showing of “The Muppets”.  Ruthie had never seen a Muppets movie, which is partly a fail on my part since I love Muppet Christmas Carol, and really quite surprising as to how cultured she claims to be.  Additionally, Beef is a huge fan of the Muppets, claiming to be part Animal herself, so she was definitely up for a second viewing [while the movie had been out in the US for a couple weeks, it only came out here on Thursday].  After that, the girls had found some random place they’d wanted to find in the CBD, and we dodged rain drops to search for it, but failed in actually finding it.  We chalked it up to the guide book that they used being a couple years old, so perhaps said place no longer existed.  So we made our way to Chinatown for lunch and proceeded to make ourselves sick.  In the way that those Brazilian meat houses continue to bring you meat after meat after meat until you give in, this place continued to bring us dumplings and various things that we could barely identify [and couldn’t understand the servers].  Before we knew it we’d eaten too much and we all felt quite ill. 

We then tried to walk off our illness by heading to Federation Square for the indigenous art exhibit that is currently on display, but it helped little.  The art was good, but our stomachs were not.  We then continued our walking in hopes it would help by skipping the first leg of our public transit route home and walking the several blocks to the transfer for our homeward bound tram. 

A couple hours later, still feeling quite bloated from lunch, we made our way to a bar of a friend’s choice, where we introduced Beef to some more local Aussies, and proceeded to get some drinks and a touch of food for dinner. 

Despite it being Beef’s last night in the country, I think jetlag had finally caught up to her, and she [and Ruthie, of course] were ready to throw in the towel by 10p, so we wrapped it up and left the local socialites to it. 

Sunday morning we slept in just enough to say we’d slept in a bit, and then scoured the apartment for anything Beef might’ve forgotten to pack.  We headed off for some breakfast, and then off to the airport to send her on her way. 

It was quite the whirlwind of a week.  But it felt really good to get out there and play tourist again.  Ruthie and I had slacked off a bit, so hopefully this provided the spark we needed, and we’ll be out and about a bit more frequently over the remainder of the summer and into the fall months.

-EP

PS.  An hour after we dropped Beef at the airport, the clouds broke, and it was a brilliantly clear 80F.  The next day was just the same…

A week of Beef part 1/2

I feel like times go by where there’s not really much to blog about, and then everything happens at once.  This then puts me behind, one because I have like three things to write about at once, and two because I’m a slacker, so I don’t write about things as they come up.

So with that, let’s catch up on last week.  Beef visited for a grand total of six days.  She arrived Sunday mid-day and left the following Saturday mid-day.  I had intended to take only three days off work to run around with her and Ruthie, but I quickly realized I was going to need the whole week to keep up with them.  [Which was fine by me, for the record.]  I had intended to do something similar to my Sydney trip with Lorraine and Ruthie and write a bit about what happened each day, but I was so wiped by the end of each day, all I did was come home and go to bed most times.

Sunday while Ruthie was picking up Beef at the airport, I was online with Greg and Squirrel playing games.  Ruthie took Beef around a bit to get a small bite at the Vic Market, and then they came home to nap.  Sunday night I had purchased us tickets for a roof top showing of Beetlejuice.  Dinner was in an Indian fusion tapas style restaurant the floor below the cinema, and the movie was enjoyed on a nice cool partly cloudy night with a pitcher of sangria.

Monday found us up at a fairly decent hour of the morning to hit the road and drive out along the Great Ocean Road to the Twelve Apostles.  Shortly after Ruthie and I got settled in, we took a day and drove part of the GOR, but not the whole thing.  Ruthie and Lorraine made the trip to the Twelve Apostles on another day, but this was my first time. 

Let me interrupt here for a moment and point out that on the first couple days of January, we were experiencing the kind of summer I had expected while being in Australia.  As I mentioned in a blog post or two ago, the high had gotten to 104 one day.  But now that it’s the 2^nd week in Jan we were experiencing record lows – like highs of 65 for nearly the mid-point of summer.  Not to mention the clouds [one day had a total exposure of 3 hours] and rain [from rain to sun to rain to sun to rain to sun within an hour on the GOR, for example].  At least Beef got to experience true Melbourne weather.  Certainly not ideal since she likes to sit on the beach, but we still made the best out of it.

Right, so we make it out to the Twelve Apostles where the winds are so fierce and gusty you can barely hold your hands still long enough to get a good picture.  We fight through the tourists for a couple snaps before we head down to the beach.  With my little gorilla pod, we tried to get a few jumping pictures in front of one of “the apostles” aka rocks, but Ruthie and I totally failed on the timing every time.

I say “fight through the tourists” but really it was more of fight to not get pushed out of the way.  Two stories for this one.  Back in Apollo Bay at the memorial arch, we happened upon two bus loads of horribly mustached middle aged Indian men.  I was still at the car getting the Go Pro camera mounted to the car while Ruthie and Beef went up to the arch to get a picture.  While they were getting situated, one of them very rudely told them to get out of the way of his picture.  I didn’t see this one happen, but we mocked them regardless.

Then while at the Twelve Apostles, Ruthie was calmly enjoying the view leaning over the hand rail, with a couple tourists on her right and none on her left.  This time I happened to be standing right there and witnessed the whole thing.  The Asian tourist with her dSLR shoved her way in between Ruthie and the tourists on her right by means of putting her arms up and over Ruthie’s right shoulder.  Meanwhile the entire left side of Ruthie was wide open for someone to stand and posture for pictures.  Seriously rude people. 

Anyways, we returned from the GOR to get some Thai food from our local favourite and watched some Top Gear in our flat.  Then off to bed and up early for a trip back down to Torquay for our second ever first surfing lesson.  I feel like it’s safe to say that short of serious injury or death it might have been the worst time I’ve ever had in the ocean.  Something happened with the salt water and the sunscreen I was wearing and shortly after being in the ocean, I was finding it increasingly difficult to keep my eyes open for any length of time.  Even before that, while I’m a fan of short, concise instructions, our instructor gave us that and not much more.  A quick demo on how to get up on the board, and then we were off into the ocean.  [Oh, and it was raining a bit, but not that it mattered since we were in the ocean with wet suits – and the wet suits made a huge difference fighting what would be a brutal wind chill.] 

Our first first surf lesson was in Maui, where the waves were crystal blue, and consistently the same size and direction and speed throughout the entire lesson.  This time was nothing like that.  Proper waves [while not really big, mind you] with white water and I felt like there was a big difference in energy depletion due to the fact that we had to walk our boards out through the waves as opposed to ride/swim our boards out to where we’d catch them in Maui.  So after an hour and a half [out of two, total] I was pretty much done.  Ruthie was not too far behind me in throwing in the towel.  Meanwhile, Beef had managed to hop up and start surfing.  The upside to the whole thing was that there were only a few of us out there surfing, so it wasn’t really that crowded.  Plus, the conditions were right that if you could get up on the board, you could actually catch quite a few waves – which Beef seemed to do.

After that beating, we enjoyed some good food in Torquay and the made our way back to Melbourne.  Once we’d regrouped a bit from the morning’s activities and the drive back, we got ready to meet up with Ruthie’s local friends J&J for dinner – first time having Italian food since we’ve been here.

-EP

Road trip to Sydney - day six (return day two)

Route: Goulburn to Melbourne by the Hume Highway
Distance: 740 km (460 mi)

Both yesterday and today, I was quite disheartened to pass the occasional sign that said Tourist Route N [where N is some number between 1 and 12 - although I’ve not seen routes 1 or 2 or 10, but I can only expect they exist as I’ve seen all other numbers up to 12].  But, as the priority was to get home, I have resigned to attempt to drive them another day.

So today was the big push to get home.  Google estimated the drive to take about 8 hours.  I made it in about 7.  Fortunately there was very little traffic, and I was in the driving zone, so we made good time.  And I didn’t even speed by that much.  I would say I averaged about +8km, and the speed limit was mostly 110. 

As an aside, perhaps it is because of the car being so small and all, or perhaps it is due the psychological aspect of being raised in mph where 3 digits was really fast, but every time I approach 100 kph, I have a hard time going much faster.  Folks, 100kph is only 60mph.  That’s like a turtle’s pace for back home.  But here, most people abide by the speed limit pretty well, and 100 or 110 is pretty common for the upper limit.  And personally, after I get to about 120, I don’t like to go much faster …

Anyways, Goulburn was a surprisingly large town [population ~24,000], but it had a much smaller-town feel.  And it worked.  By the time Ruthie and I got up slightly after the sun, and went for a walk down ¾ of the main business strip, the town was bustlin’.  During our walk, we found a rather large secondhand shop, where this old Italian lady talked Ruthie’s ear off - but not for naught, as we learned of a fantastic place to grab breakfast.  [She also judged us for staying at the Astor - the pub - motel last night, but whatever.]

Goulburn also featured a humongous two- or three-story sheep.  It was a merino wool store and museum.  We parked behind the balls and took pictures under it’s quadruple chin.  Good times.

We left the sunshine behind us, which is kind of bittersweet.  Sure, we were starting to bake pretty good a couple hours into our trip [I even managed to sunburn the top of my right knee from the sun beating in through the slightly rolled down window], so when we drove into the cloud cover, it cooled things down a bit.  But now that we’re back and it’s rainy, it’s bittersweet to miss the hot sunshine. 

So, yeah, we’ve made it back home safe.  Our apartment was still standing - no outlets that were left on went crazy.  I didn’t pull an Edward Norton in Fight Club and detonate my own apartment via my alter ego while gone.  And we even were productive upon arrival: unpacked everything, sorted clothing, and Ruthie started laundry.

Tomorrow’s agenda: nothing.  Ahh, that’s great to hear.

-EP