Happy Australia Day

“When we travel, we travel not to see new places with new eyes; but that when we come home we see home with new eyes.” — G. K. Chesterton (via)

We truly live in the lucky country.

Two days off

Cathy took 2 days of annual leave and decided to see how much she could cram into them.
Monday I managed Breakfast at Sweethearts -without David :(, signed my will with lawyer, got to the tennis with Lou, then met up with my sister Jenny and niece Brianna.

I wanted to have a special day with my 6yo niece so we met at the Australian Open. Here she met strange characters and there were all sorts of giveaways, but it was clear what she wanted to do. So we caught the train home and got into our swimmers - it was off to the wave pool! We had a ball and Brianna was quite exhausted by the time I dropped her at Mum and Dad's place (where I also met up with my Aunty Jane, cousin Dan and their partners). Finally, David got to see me - having come back from Bright a day early!

Today was another early start to take my chance with the discount Tiger Airways. The parking cost as much as my flights to and from Adelaide. In Adelaide I managed to check out the Ghan carriages ready for the conference I am arranging on the famous Ghan railway in May. You can see the communal area of one of the private carriages with cabins down the hallway.
The highlight of the day was catching up with my friend Heather. We used to be registrars together many years ago, so it was just like old times as we had lunch together at the Adelaide Womens and Childrens Hospital. Gardening, blogging and paying the bills has filled the rest of my time.
And, tomorrow is Australia Day so I can relax!

The Alpine Classic 2011

David got up early to ride the relatively short 70km ride at the Alpine Classic (the longest one is 250km!!). The 70km is very simple - ride from Bright, up Mount Buffalo to Dingo Dell and return. As you can see, I spent a lot of the ride going slowly - and some of it going quite fast (Maximum 65km/h). That graph shows it by distance, Now look at this one -

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Yep, a lot longer going slowly (and with the heart rate very high!!) It took me 1h40m to finish the main climb, and only 27m to ride down. Such is the life of a cyclist!!

I was happy to finish my ride just before midday. I had the best of weather, riding in the cool of the morning. It was 19 degrees when I left Bright and 31 degrees when I returned. Some riders in the longer rides where only just heading towards Mt Buffalo whilst I was having a well earnt beer.

UPDATE: Offical Times
Bright (Start) 08:01:06 AM
Mt Buffalo - Dingo Dell 10:39:50 AM
Bright (Finish) 11:46:09 AM

Pasta time of Day

We've just had a wonderful weekend at home. Cycling for David. Visits from parents. Gardening, shopping, running - we did the lot!



Highlight of Cathy's weekend was learning to make pasta - the authentic Italian way. Emily taught me how to make fettucini with her family pasta maker. She even brought over the drying stick which you can see set up between kitchen chairs to dry the sheets of pasta on before they were cut. Whilst the pasta was drying, we went and got a pedicure.
We all ate dinner out in the sunshine - creamy garlic prawns on fettucini with a little pesto on tagliatelle beside. All washed down with champagne of course!

Return to Broome

Arrived Broome 4.00pm. David turns into McDonalds Drive-thru 4.01pm to get over his withdrawal. Drop off pathology specimens to Path West 4.10pm(the biochem machine in Derby had broken down again, with no technician available until Monday so doctor becomes courier!). Wander around Town Beach then buy milk for coffee. 5.30pm Walk to Matsos for our first beers - a "Chango" for Cathy and "Monsoonal Blonde" for David.

Saturday saw Cathy deal with her withdrawal symptoms - the need for pearl shopping. She found a golden pearl with a champagne argyle diamond crying out for a home and she handed over her credit card so they'd let her walk out of the shop with it.

We met Shveta who had flown up from Perth and the girls talked all afternoon. A deluge of rain whilst we were at lunch saw the streets turn to rivers for 20 minutes - then the sun was back.

We celebrated with Mango cocktails at Cable Beach Sunset bar. We were rewarded with a colourful wet season sky.

Up in the clouds

Cathy has been hard at work in Derby so there hasn't been much to blog. It took until yesterday for David to do something silly.
As we headed through our gate after shopping, an elderly aboriginal man having trouble walking in a straight line called out to David.
Cathy asked "What did he want?"
David - "bit of bread"
Cathy headed out with the last slices of bread from lunch. The man looked at her strangely.
Cathy "What did you want?"
Man: "A cigarette!!!



Today Cathy flew to Fitzroy Crossing to meet up with a co-investigator on a research project she is doing. It was fun to be flying up in the clouds and avoiding the storms.
As we leave Derby tomorrow for Broome then Melbourne, the time seems to have flown too quickly once again.