Sunday, 3 August, 2014

This week was much like last week - Dad working hard at teaching his course and Faye and I relaxing, shopping and eating. :-)

Dad's course in the classroom went well, but the visits to the airport were not as much fun.  The weather was sooooooooooooo cold this week (comparatively speaking) and the guys had to go to the airport in the late evenings (finishing around midnight).  Dad says that we need to go and buy him some gloves and a hat for future visits.

Faye and I went out for lunch again on Tuesday (chinese food this time) and hit some more shops (again more looking than spending was done).  Faye and Bill left on Thursday, so it's been a bit quiet during the day since then.  

Dad had yesterday off and we decided to spend the day out.  We drove up to a city called Epping which is about 15 minutes from the unit here.  My great great grandfather (according to the info I have received) was born in Epping, but I have not been able to find a birth record for him.  My friend, who is a family history consultant, suggested I go to the local church in Epping to see if they had any baptismal records for him.  He was buried in a Presbyterian cemetery and so Dad and I went to the Presbyterian church in Epping to see what we could find out.  No-one was there, but there was a phone number on the sign there and so I called it and left a message with my inquiry. Last night, a fellow from the church called me back.  He told me that the records had been destroyed in a fire - I was so disappointed.  He said that he has a few other ideas to see if he can find me any info and that he would call me again.  I love doing family history, but it's so hard when I run into a wall like this.  I have a few other ideas, so I will continue to look for my great great grandfather.  

Presbyterian Church in Epping, Victoria

Closer view of Presbyterian Church

After Epping, Dad and I drove up to Kinglake National Park.  By this time it was lunch time and so we stopped at a little bakery/cafe called 'The Flying Tarts' which had been recommended to us by a woman at the Tourist Information place in Epping.  She said that they don't normally recommend one place over another, but that the food at the bakery was so good and that she was still working off her last visit there. :-)   She was so right - the food was A-MAZ-ING!   I had a sausage roll and Dad had a lamb meat pie (both award winning) and then we totally splurged on the baked goods.  I had a raspberry lamington and Dad had an apple turnover.  Dad also decided he wanted one of their huge muffins for breakfast, so we bought two of them.  Later on, we went back for a caramel slice.  They were also sooooooooooo fresh - it was unbelievable - I have never had such fresh and yummy baked goods - we are so going to make another trip up there.  Oh, and since it was Saturday, the food was calorie free!  

Typical Aussie farm

View coming over the hill

Sheep in the field

Snow in 'them thar hills' :-)

More snow

and more snow on the vehicles

Hard to see, but those dots are sheep - such a typical Aussie scene

Holding my sausage roll at the Flying Tarts Bakery/Cafe

Dad and I then drove into the national park and stopped at Masons Falls - what a pretty waterfall - and a nice 700 metre walk to get there.  The weather was 'fresh', but the sun was shining.  We then drove up to Mt. Sugarloaf (more like a little hill to us Canadians :-)  But, we were greeted with a lovely view, so it was worth the trip.  I love being out in nature and we are definitely going to return to this park when the weather is nicer so that we can go hiking on some of the trails there.

In the park

Tree burned by the devastating fires in Victoria in 2009

Path to Masons Falls

Dad checking out a burned tree

Masons Falls - hard to see how beautiful it is from a picture

Me in front of Masons Falls

Dad in front of Masons Falls

Close-up of part of Masons Falls

Lyrebird wood carving in the park

View of the valley through the trees (from Mt Sugarloaf)

View of the city of Melbourne in the distance (from Mt Sugarloaf)

View of a farm in the valley (from Mt Sugarloaf) - the dark parts are shadows from clouds

Wood carving of Ned Kelly - famous Aussie outlaw

Wood carving of a penguin and its baby

Our last stop for the day was in a little place called Thomastown which used to be called Westgarthtown.  In the 1850s, may German immigrants moved there.  The main industry there was dairying.  There is a heritage walk around the town stopping at various buildings which still remain from that time.  Since it was too cold to walk, Dad and I drove around to each of the sites and I got out and took pics.  I love old buildings and architecture.

Ziebell's farmhouse

white sheep who came right up to me at the fence

Siebel's farmhouse - it seemed so strange that there was a motorcycle on the verandah of this house :-)  - the little outpart on the right of the house was where the oven was which they used to bake bread in

Thomastown Lutheran Church

Thought it interesting that many of the graves in the cemetery had bricks around them and were filled with plants

 

Dry stone walls which define the open land 

Sunday, 27 July, 2014

Last Sunday, we were joined at the unit by Faye and Bill Duncan.  They used to live in Brisbane, but recently moved up to Toogoom which is about 15 minutes from HB.  Bill is another instructor for QAC (Queensland Aerospace College) and the four of us get on together really well.  Faye also knits and crochets, loves reading mysteries, enjoys walking, and watching cop shows - as you can see, we have a lot in common.

Bill and Faye

On Monday, we ordered some new luggage for  me and were able to pick it up on Tuesday.  It's so nice - I love it!  Both suitcases (one carry-on and one large one) have four wheels on the bottom and they are so easy to push along.  They are also both very light, so that I can fit in a lot of stuff in each  of them.  In Canada, you can put 10kg into your carry-on, but in Australia, you can only have 7kg, so I wanted a really light bag as the carry-on.

My new luggage (love the red colour! :-)

Dad's first course started this past Wednesday and it went very well.  It was an engine course and there were 11 guys on the course.  Some of the guys had been on Dad's courses before and were glad to see Dad was instructing this course.

Faye and I have mostly spent our days knitting - I have been working on a couple of new projects.
I finished knitting another baby beanie, am still working on the baby sweater and am also working on a toddler beanie (which will be given to a child in a developing country) and a trauma teddy (which which will given to a child who has experienced a trauma or to resident in a nursing home).

Toddler Beanie

Trauma Teddy

On Thursday, Faye and I went shopping at the DFO (Duty Free Outlet) where we did more looking than shopping. :-)  We did go out for lunch, though, which was nice - had japanese actually - pretty nice - pretty much the same as chinese from what I could tell from what I bought (black bean and beef plus sweet and sour pork over egg noodles).

Dad and I were planning on going on a day trip yesterday, but unfortunately, it didn't work out as planned.  We went to one store to buy a pair of track pants for me and when we came out, we were planning on going for a nice long walk by the river, but it was raining.  So, we went to another store where we wanted to check for something and when we came out of there, we thought we would go for a walk by the river, but it was still raining.  After going to one more store and there being more rain, we decided to head home and cut our losses.  We hope that the weather will co-operate next Saturday.

Last night, we went out for dinner to a local hotel with Faye and Bill.  It's a very relaxed place, the food is quite good and the prices are reasonable.  I had a chicken parma (parmesan) and Dad had a veal parma dinner.  We spent a couple of hours there enjoying our time with Bill and Faye.  We then came home and had a Boston Bun for dessert.  Bill had recommended it to us and we had bought one earlier at a bakery.  A Boston Bun is a large spiced bun with a thick layer of coconut icing.  It was freshly made and was quite delicious.

A Boston Bun

Sunday, 20 July, 2014

I have been lax I know in writing my blog, so here I am catching up.  We are in Melbourne right now and the weather is very cold (by Australian standards ;-)  Thankfully, our unit here has central heating. :-)

When I arrived in Melbourne after being in Canada and Dad arrived there after teaching in Perth, we had five days together to relax before heading back to HB.  On the Tuesday, July 8th, we decided that we wanted to get out and go for a drive.  We decided that we would go to a city called Geelong which is about an hour away from the unit here.  We decided that we would make one stop on our way to Geelong - at the Point Cook Aviation Museum.  It's an RAAF (Royal Australia Air Force) museum and is the birthplace of the Australian Flying Corps and the Royal Australian Air Force.  The museum tells one of Australia's most important aviation stories, that of the second oldest air force in the world.  Even though the airplanes were not ones that Dad worked on, he really enjoyed walking through the museum (and I did, too).

The day was grey and cool and it started raining while we were in the museum, so we decided to drive back home and leave our visit to Geelong for another day.

We had a week at home and it was a week full of appointments and relaxation.  On the Monday after we got back, I had a day of pampering.  I started off by getting a lovely hour long massage from Ali who is marvelous.  Dad took over after me having a half hour massage before heading over to his chiropractor.  While he was doing that, I headed over the have a manicure/pedicure - they did a lovely job - so relaxing - and I decided to go for a bright bold red colour this time (pic below).  Dad and I met up and went out for lunch to the Hog's Breath Cafe.  Dad then went home and I went over to meet up with my teacher friend, Bronwyn - I enjoyed an iced chocolate while we chatted for a couple of hours.  That evening, Dad and I watched the movie 'Non-Stop' - you were right, Krystal, it was totally my type of movie - very recommended if you like a good action film.

On Wednesday, we had the most totally lazy day we have had in ages - we didn't even get out of our pyjamas all day. :-)  We didn't have any appointments and we didn't feel like doing anything - so we didn't! :-)  It was actually really nice to relax so fully.

On Thursday, I had a mini pampering day.  It started off with another hour massage with Ali followed by a 45 minute facial (which included a mini hand and foot massage).  The girl who gave me the facial did a fabulous job!  They charged me $10. more than the price listed online which I was not happy about.  When I questioned the cashier, she said that the website says that prices are subject to change and that they had changed their prices in January.  I thought that they could have updated their website, but didn't say so.  I did send in a comment on the website, but have not received any feedback.  I will try another salon next time.

We met up with Robyn and Geoff on Friday - we met up for lunch at a local cafe which we wanted to try - it was just a so-so meal overall, so Dad and I were disappointed, especially since it was our choice of venue.  We went back to their house after lunch to get in a visit and also to have some dessert which Dad and I had made - banana bread with cream cheese icing - yum.  :-)  Robyn and Geoff were so sad that we had to fly out the next day and so had to leave the leftover banana bread with them. :-)

We flew out of HB yesterday around 11am - the flight to Melbourne was uneventful and, after landing, we took a taxi to the unit.  (rant coming :-)  We have always found taxi drivers here in Melbourne to be quite friendly and open to conversation.  I tried to start one with this cabbie, but to no avail.  (Dad said later that maybe he just doesn't like to chat).  Okay, I thought, that's fine.  But then, when we got to the unit, while Dad was paying the fare ($18. for a ten minute drive), I got out and waited by the trunk for the driver to get out and get us our luggage.  Next thing I know, Dad yells out that the driver said that the trunk should be open.  I had to get my luggage out myself.  Wow, how rude!  I have never had that happen before - I was quite surprised!  Dad said that the guy was likely upset  that the drive was such a short one to our unit and so the fare was a small (?) one.  It's not our fault that the unit is so close to the airport!  I wish I had thought about getting his cab number - I would have called the company to express my annoyance.  Anyway, rant over. :-)