Last Sunday we enjoyed a fun breakfast at Larder with most of the usual crew.
Bilbo had loved his trip to the Sunday Market &, after eating his cabbage,
dipped his head into the buckets of fruit that Corey was about to bag up!
Danny Millman arrived mid-afternoon and we sat around
watching Adelaide & GWS AFLW play an exciting draw, before sharing a yummy
meal together inside as the wind blew a howling gale outside.
The next morning, Danny & I set off for Canberra around
7.30am & had a good run, stopping only in Holbrook for a light lunch at the
bakery. We arrived at our accommodation, Knightsbridge,
in Kingston, around 4pm. We had a beautiful, 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom apartment
with fully equipped kitchen & laundry, a dining table seating 8 & three
flat screen TVs. That night we went for a walk to the Kingston Foreshore &
had an enjoyable Thai meal by the Lake. Needless to say, we both slept well
that night!
During the next four days we saw plenty of Canberra sights
& walked 40kms in total. We started each morning with a good breakfast
& finished each night with an early dinner & had very few
disappointments along the way.
Highlights include:
·
Tour of Old Parliament
House
·
Film on the
construction of New Parliament House, followed by Question Time there
·
The Arboretum –
including a walk, a visit to the Bonsai Gallery & stunning 360° views of
Canberra
·
Canberra Botanic
Gardens
·
A visit to Danny &
Karen’s old home in Waramanga, which is still very recognisable after 35 years
·
Clonakilla Winery,
where we bought some bottles & enjoyed sitting in their lounge area with a
glass of Sauvignon Blanc & a cheese platter
·
Dinner at Timmy’s
Kitchen, Manuka, with my brother, Peter, and his wife, Anka
·
Being amazed at the
change in Civic, which used to be such a hub of activity and is now very quiet
indeed
·
Visit to the Canberra
Museum, which has an excellent, huge display setting out exactly what happened
when The First Fleet arrived in 1788 & the many terrible mistakes made by
the British invaders, not least of which was ignoring the centuries of
knowledge of the land by its original inhabitants
·
A drive around
Yarralumla
·
The anticipation
before the Aussie Rules pre-season game at Manuka Oval, where Collingwood
failed by 10 goals to match the intensity of Greater Western Sydney, much to
the dismay of the many Collingwood supporters there! A plus was spending more
time with Peter & Anka
Peter, Anka &
Danny before the game started!
A visit to Moncrieff,
one of the newer Canberra suburbs, almost on the NSW border, which is where
Peter & Anka now live. They treated us to a very indulgent morning tea!
·
Long visit to the
National Gallery of Australia, where we were amazed to find a room full of
Albert Namatjira paintings; a room full of Arthur Streeton 1st World
War paintings & drawings; a room with the entire Sidney Nolan Ned Kelly series & one of Monet’s Waterlilies, that I hadn’t seen before.
We checked out Blue Poles, as well
as the select group of Australian artists, including this wonderful painting by
C Douglas Richardson ‘The Last of the
Flock’
·
A final meal at a
Kingston Italian Restaurant, ‘La Dolce
Vita’, where Danny had Veal Marsala to die for & my Scallop Risotto
with chilies was pretty hard to beat as well.
We arrived back home yesterday around 4pm, after another
good trip, where the highlight was listening to Winx win The Chipping Norton Stakes at Randwick for the 3rd
year running & her 16th Group 1 win. This is her 23rd
win in a row, but she eclipses the record of the undefeated Black Caviar, who boasted 15 Group 1
wins in her career of 25 straight wins.
Wes had been shopping and prepared roast lamb with
vegetables for dinner, much to Danny’s delight, as he had tried and failed to
find a ‘Roast of the Day’ on offer anywhere we looked in Canberra.
While we were having fun in the ACT, Wes had kept everywhere
watered, as there has been no rain; walked Bilbo each morning; shopped, washed &
ironed; spent time with both his friend, Barbara, & his sister, Denise; kept
up his computer work & most importantly, very kindly represented us at my uncle,
Kevin Saundry’s, funeral at St Monica’s, Moonee Ponds on Tuesday morning. On the
way, Wes collected my brother, Peter, who flew down from Canberra, and they met
my other brother, Terry, at the church. After the funeral, Terry & Peter wanted
to have some time together, so Wes was able to visit my sister, Leanne, and give
her the order of service booklet, much to her delight.
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