Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Summer Holiday - Part Three

New here?  Check out the other parts of the Summer Holiday!  Part One & Part Two

***

Dear Holidayville,

Although I am loving not being at home and the change of scenery, I do have a bone to pick with you.

What's with all the rain?

I woke up this morning and this was the view from the balcony.



This is my one and only Summer Holiday and it's not very summery.  In fact, I could cope with the rain, but the cold is shite.  I did not pack for cold.  I did not even bring any long pants.  Or shoes other than thongs.  I do not enjoy the feeling of mud under my toes and I've had it all day.

Please go back to being sunny.  We paid for a pool and I'm damn well going to use it, but I'd rather not freeze to death in the process.

Yours in unseasonal frostbite,

Jo

***


Dear Miss Cow,

You have the most gorgeous eyes I have ever seen.  And your eyelashes?  Wow!  Don't ever change, Ok?



However, Miss Cow, please be wary.  There will be many Mister Cow's who come after you.  You should know that they will only want you for one thing.  Enjoy them for the fun they offer, but don't go expecting too much in return.  They won't call, they won't write to you and they will feel no remorse.  Remember, boys are dumb.  Almost all boys.  Especially this one.  I think his name is Reginald.


Miss Cow, I hope you have a long and happy life down in Gippsland.  May the finest of green grass always be available to you and may you rear many beautiful baby cows.

Love,

Jo xx

P.S. You almost make me want to be vegetarian.

***



Dear Australia,

How bloody beautiful are you?  I can answer that, you don't need to.  You are stunning!

Even on a dreary day such as today you managed to make me smile and miss 'home' all at the same time.

Here is the small part of you we saw today.  It's near Buchan.





















I still love you, even though you turned on a storm right when we had to get out of the car.  Look at those clouds!!



Australia, can you do me a favour?  Don't ever change, OK?  Even though people are going to try hard to fuck you up, please retain your majesty and beauty.

Love,

A very proud Australian.


***



Dear Buchan Caves,

You rock!  (no pun intended!!)




Seriously, I've seen lots of parts of this fair country and even some overseas, but you are something else!

I almost can't believe all this is hidden under the ground,




Apparently you took millions of years to get looking this good.



I'm sorry these photos don't really do you justice.


Your stalactites hanging from the ceiling were only matched, awesomeness wise, by your stalagmites climbing up from the floor.


But by far my favourite part of you were the parts like the one below that look like a river, frozen in time.  I could have stayed and looked at it all day.  Just wonderful!


I'm sorry the photos we took don't show how glittery so many parts of you are!





It's like an underground cathedral.  Without all the boring god bothering stuff.


It blows my mind that this was once all under the sea.


The fact that that they have found skeletons in here of ancient kangaroos and tigers is amazing.  The fact that they have no plans to dig any further makes me proud.


I loved almost every minute I spent in you today.  I only wish we had got there earlier and had been able to see the other cave as well.

Yours in wonder,

Jo xx

P.S. Is there anyway we could screen people and not let those in that are determined to talk over the tour guide all the damn time?  Or their children.  Thanks!


***

Dear Ninety Mile Beach,

You're rather long, aren't you?

I kinda have to question why you haven't moved with the times and been re-named the 144 kilometre beach, but I guess it doesn't sound as good, does it?

Whatever you're called, you're a bit fantastic.


I look forward to exploring more of you tomorrow.  I was a bit tired after climbing through caves this afternoon, I'm sure you understand.

I love that I can hear the waves crashing over you as I type this.  It makes my heart happy.

I am so glad the ocean has always been a part of my life, I hope it always is.

Love,

Jo xxx

P.S. I don't like your sting rays though, if you could do something about killing them all off, that would be great.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Summer Holiday - Part Two

New here?  Check out the other part of the Summer Holiday!  Part One

***

Just another day in paradise Holidayville!

Today we went on a three hour cruise... A three hour cruise.... Actually it was 3.5 hours but there's no song about that. Chyken was sad there was no movie star, or a millionaire offering to share his money, but it was super fun just the same!

This is the boat.

Thunderbirds are GO!

We set off on the Gippsland Lakes...


To the right of the octopus is our motel.  It's not flash, but it does the job.  We have a room on the top floor.  There are spare octopus legs on top of the other roof.  The octopus building contains a shell museum.  We might check that out tomorrow.


We found Mr Percival and his lovely wife.


Apparently it has been a bumper swan breeding season, there are what seem like billions around.


These are shags.  Not on rocks, but all lined up neatly.


It was very, very, very windy on the boat and in parts very bumpy.  Probably should have taken a jacket really.


Despite the wind, the sky was glorious, and it was quite lovely and warm when the sun came out.


The mountains in the distance are part of the Great Dividing Range.  We're gonna go for a drive up there at some stage.


I hadn't seen Heart ice creams in a very long time!  Just as good as I remember, before the world got all fancy with Magnum and Heaven ice creams.


 This is a fishing boat.  They catch the fish and then use this big grater to prepare them for fish fingers.



The ones that are too ugly to be used for fish fingers get to go back in the water, isn't that nice?  They get to go on the slide there on the left back into the ocean!  Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee!



Went for a walk after a nommy dinner at the local RSL.  Saw many boats!


A beautiful sunset to end the day.  I wonder what is in store for us tomorrow?

Monday, January 9, 2012

Summer Holiday - Part One

We're at the beach.  I am sitting in our motel writing this and this is the view out the window...

Not too shabby, eh?

We're at Lakes Entrance, otherwise known as Holidayville.  It's a billion miles (give or take) from the Castle and we are loving it!

One of the things we like best are lame tourist attractions.  When we saw a sign for Darnum Musical Village on the way here, we knew we had to stop.



You will note that the sign says 'Tours continuously available'.  We paid the modest entry fee, and the old guy that owns the place, Albert Fox made a call on the two-way, called up Peter and we were off.

The place holds eleventy billion organs, pianos and other musical instruments.  Some are really old, some are really rare and some are quite common.  Peter knew his stuff and gave us demonstrations of everything.  The best bit?  They weren't at all 'precious' about the instruments, everyone on the tour (Chyken and myself) were allowed to play them.  I thought that was brilliant!  I have some video of Chyken playing a massive pipe organ in the relocated church (it's available for weddings!!), but I can't work out how to put it here without going via the tube of you and the internets here in Holidayville are quite slow.

I did snap a picture of my least favourite instrument looking rather pleased with himself!

Happy Accordion is Happy!


After the excitement of the musical village, the rest of the trip was a bit bland.  We did stop off and have a look at the massive power station and coal mine at Loy Yang.  It was SO windy.  I did mention to Chyken that perhaps they could lay off the coal and put up some turbines instead.  Perhaps I'll suggest that to the politicians as well?

Once in Holidayville we checked out the sights, booked into the motel and have spent the rest of the day in the pool.  I needed some new sunglasses and scored these beauties for only 6 bucks at Chickenfeed. They have my initials on them!!!  (We also got a pair for my wonderful Mother-in-law, cos her initials are the same!)


I also got a fluffy and shiny bathmat, but that's a story for another post I think.

Tomorrow I predict there will be more time in the pool.  We've seen a floating Chinese restaurant we are keen to check out and we also want to see the Shell Museum.  Lucky for us, the shells are right next door!  Huzzah!

Must go, this view isn't going to look at itself, you know!

Monday, January 2, 2012

An Absent Blogger, A New Year, A Chickenbone Ship and Some Other Stuff Too...

I've been a very slack blogger.  Sorry about that.  Did you even notice?  It would appear that I needed a blog break.  To be honest, I didn't even realise it had been that long since I posted anything other than Wordless Wednesday until Chyken said 'You need to blog, it's been too long'.

I think I got caught up in a lot of things.  I have started rotating shift work, and although I'm really enjoying it, it seems that some other things seem to have fallen by the wayside.  One of them being blogging.  I have been reading everyone's blogs though, even if sometimes I am a week behind, I do get there in the end.  I am yet to just give up and 'mark everything as read'. 

I love reading blogs.  I love the peek into other people's lives that it allows me.  I like seeing how the other half live.  I don't always comment, usually because I am reading them either on my iPhone or during my breaks at work and the work computers are ancient and a lot of the fancy commenting systems you people have just won't work.  It's very frustrating!  Die Disquis, Die!

Over the last few days I have seen what feels like eleventy billion '2011 Wrap Up' type posts.  I've skimmed through them, clicking on the odd link only to discover I'd already read it anyway.  I think Veronica summed it up best in this post...

"I don’t do resolutions and I find posts recapping the year terribly boring. If I like you, I’ve been reading your blog for the past year and know what you’ve been up to. You don’t have to tell me again."

I wouldn't go so far as to say I find them 'terribly' boring, but I am left wondering what the point of me reading the blog all year was if there's going to be a post telling me all the important bits at the end anyway.  I may as well not read anything until December.  I'm not going to stop reading, but do you see my dilemma?

***

It's got really hot down here in Melbourne.  Santa did bring me a pool, but we are yet to inflate it.  We've been doing a lot of this...


We tend to sit outside at Castle during summer. It's pleasant once the sun goes down.  Chyken likes to amuse himself with crafternoon type activities.  Like Chicken Bone Ship Building.


Chyken let me loose with the power tools.  I drilled 3.5 holes and then I got bored.


Another fad to hit the Castle recently is bubbles!  Santa gave me a bubble wand for Christmas, one of those stupidly big ones that makes millions of big bubbles all at once.  Then I got this one!  It makes billions of little bubbles.  Unfortunately they are round, not bee shaped, but they are still pretty cool. The cats try and chase them.  Then get surprised when they pop in their face.




New Year's Eve was quiet.  We had some wonderful friends visit us at the Castle to see in the New Year and some neighbours put on a beautiful, but unexpected, fireworks display when the clock stuck 12.

We had air horns and Chyken dragged out his trumpet for a rousing duet of 'Tequila' with some other neighbours.  All in all, a great night.  Unfortunately I didn't take many photos, but here is one of the lanterns and candles we had out the back. 




I'm not one for resolutions, but I am looking very forward to this year.  Starting with a beach holiday next week.  Huzzah!  After that it will be back to work, and there are some changes in the wind at my place of employment, so it will be interesting to see how that pans out. 

There are also some other things coming up in the land of Chickens and Bees, but more on that in another post.

I hope you and yours had an excellent Christmas and New Years. 

Bring on 2012!
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