Thursday, April 28, 2005

I've just been to see Sparky! He's in quarantine at the moment, and looking quite sad, I have to say. He's actually fine, looks well and is eating OK (his fat belly is still there anyway). He recognised me straight away and started purring, which is a good sign! I gave him some 'gourmet' food, which he enjoyed and then he came down from his platform to continually circle my legs. I took my picnic chair and soon he was curled up on my lap purring - that is until some idiots came around the back yelling for their cat - I think they were American!
The Q Station is 40km west of the city, so unfortunately I'm not going to be able to visit as often as I thought. Public transport doesn't really serve the place well, which means we need to hire a car to get there. I'm much happier now I've seen him though and I think I can accept not seeing him so often. He's been assigned Rachel (one of the vet nurses there) who is really nice and friendly. I'll probably make one other visit before collecting him to come home.
Here's a photo of him looking forlorn!!

The grass IS greener on the other side!!

Wednesday, April 27, 2005

Anzac Long Weekend

We’ve just got back from Jervis Bay, where we went for the Anzac long weekend. We drove down Friday night and came back Monday afternoon. It was a bit of a Team Bondi outing – there were five couples altogether, plus three little 'uns.
We weren’t too sure about going away, as the weather wasn’t forecasted to be very good and when you’re going to beach resorts, there's not always a lot of rainy day options! Thinking of that, it just reminds me of rainy summer days in the caravan park in Filey, with Dad teaching me how to gamble, playing cards and board games!!
Anyway, back to sunny Sydney! The specific place was Callala Beach and we stayed in a five bedroomed house called Utopia! It wasn’t quite my definition of utopia, but it was lovely! Maybe they were speaking of the beaches, because they were pure heaven!
On Saturday morning we went to a beach close by called Culburra. The waves here were quite strong and knocked me straight over. It was pretty exhilerating! By lunch time, everyone had left and we were on our own – weird!! There are very few people on the beaches here, it’s incredible (that is apart from Bondi and Manly)!!
That evening we had a fantastic barbeque with lots of wine – yum, yum! Hami and Alex had bought fishing rods and wanted to test them out, so after food most of us went down to the beach with them. A fire was lit and while they set up their lines, I took some night shots. Alex caught a Skate, while Hami provided veggies in the form of seaweed! The beach by moonlight is stunning, but it’s hard to capture that atmosphere by camera.
The next morning, Alex and Hami were straight down to the beach again and we followed shortly after. This is Callala Beach, just two minutes from the house. It's extremely long and for the most part quite straight, so each wave breaks in one long line. It has lovely white sands and aquamarine (!!) water. It had a very gradual slope too and once you passed the gently breaking waves, it was like swimming in a pool, but without the walls! The water was so calm and glassy - it was the most fantastic place to swim. I honestly didn’t want to come out and was only forced to because the sun felt so hot. We felt like we were being toasted so we decided to go for some lunch in Huskisson before hitting Hyams Beach. We were taken to visit this beach by Phil and Bee when we first came to Australia 2½ years ago, so we had fond memories of it. We got there a bit late in the day though and we had about an hour of sun before it dropped behind the trees. It’s weird – because it’s still so sunny and hot, you’re fooled into thinking it’s still summer when the sun would be out into the night. But it’s actually autumn and it’s setting at around 5.30 now. Just before we left, Dean had to go in for a dip. He claimed it was really warm, but because the sun was going down it was getting slightly chilly and I didn’t want to risk it!! So then it was time for coffee and cake in Hyams CafĂ© before heading back to the house and another barbie!
There was another fishing jaunt, so we went just to walk along the beach. We came across a small shark and presumed someone had caught it by accident and left it. Apparently it’s illegal to fish for sharks.
It was soon Monday morning and our last day! I suppose luckily for us, the weather was overcast, which made it easier to think about going home! We were heading for Kangaroo Valley, a slight detour on the way back! It’s a lovely little place with some nice quaint shops! We stopped for some lunch and then got straight back on the road, missing most of the traffic that way!
What a brilliant weekend. Hope you enjoy the photos.

Monday, April 25, 2005


Starting the fire.

Spooky!

Night shot of Callala Beach.

The Skate that Alex caught.

Nice warm fire!

Me, Dean, Vicky, Brendan, Alex, Nuria. Fishing on Saturday night.

Callala Beach, early morning.

Blue, blue sky - just wanted to give some reference!!

Callala Beach - beautiful!

Found this on the beach!