Day 6

Tea party with a three year old

Drawing a dinosaur

Billie the fairy

South coast NSW 

Banana bread with yoghurt and honey

View from our motel room

Dinner

The mermaid's mother paid for dinner as a thank you for driving her.

'Twas an interesting drive. I'll fill you in when I'm home.

 

Day 5

Send help. 

Day 4

This is how you play chess. Bet you didn't know that!

Henry says hi. He has gone for an overnight stay at a resort with his Mummy and Daddy. 

This means that Granny  was in charge of lunch. Nutella sandwiches 

with icecream cones to follow.

Afternoon tea was strawberries and cream and a digestive biscuit.

Dinner will be fish fingers and chicken chippies with lots of sauce.

Granny's living the high life!

There is nothing funnier than playing hide and seek with a three year old. The giggles as you get closer are a sure fire give away!

I now have two tired kidlets. Hopefully they'll eat their dinner, finish the movie and go to bed.

More importantly, I hope their parents are spending some much needed couple time together. 

Day 3

A St Andrews Cross spider. S/he lives at the front door. Just beautiful. 

Sunset last night

Mist in the valley this morning 

They are on a very steep block. This is from my bedroom window. 

We went out for pizza this evening.  This is a delicious grown up ginger beer.

It has been a challenging day. Too hard to talk about on the phone but a post for when I return. 

Tomorrow the parents (plus bebe) are going away for some much needed couple time. Granny will be wrangling  looking after the girls. 

 

Day 2

Goulburn 

Breakfast! Best coffee in a long time.

 

Finally arrived 

Meeting Henry

The view from their house

 It was a challenging drive. 

We had torrential rain and thunderstorms overnight. Lovely to hear but I wasn't looking forward to driving in it.

We were fairly lucky as I had to pull over once and by the time we hit the outskirts of Sydney it had eased.

The next challenge was my GPS didn't recognise the address and my phone stopped talking to me. Fortunately the Mermaid's phone agreed to guide us and we got to her mum's without incident. 

GPS brought me here easily thank goodness. Two will help me work out what went wrong. I think I need to fiddle with settings on my phone.

The girls were thrilled to see me which is lovely but gee willikins they're noisy!

Two won't get home til very late so I'll see him tomorrow. 

Hopefully I'll sleep well tonight. I'll need it!

Day 1

Mansfield 

Holbrook

Yass

 It was a great drive. I managed to detour via Mansfield which resulted because I was ignoring the GPS who was trying to head me back into town. It was worth it.

We bought rolls at the Cafe there and stopped in Holbrook to eat them.

Then onto Yass. A pretty town as you can see from the photos. We had our dinner delivered from the local club and sat out the front of our room drinking wine and relaxing.

D Day -1

Three sent me this. It gave me a giggle.

Right.

It is late morning and I am gearing up for my final bits and pieces. I will schedule this to post later this evening in case something important happens (highly unlikely).

I have a large loaf of bread proving for Himself. I said he could freeze it. He laughed. I doubt there will be any left by Friday.

I have the final packing to do and several lists to tick off.

Himself is off having his stress test. We will then go and have lunch together before doing the final supermarket shop for bottled water and nuts and dried fruit for the drive. I don't like using bottled water but make exceptions for times like this. I am never sure of the quality of water in some of the places one stops for fuel.

The mermaid is babysitting her grandkids on the other side of town today and won't be home til around 6.30. I will leave here around 5.30. We will get something to eat and hopefully I will sleep well. I was contemplating taking a sleeping pill but don't want to be groggy in the morning. I must keep reminding myself that if I get tired I do have another driver - except I am a lousy passenger!

My shoulders and neck are still very tender from yesterday's massage but I do feel looser and will take my hand held massager to ease any tight spots.

I haven't decided what to do with the blog while I'm away. I will only have my phone so might just do photos with brief descriptions and do a full account when I am back.

What I do know, though, is that I won't be reading and commenting on other blogs. It is too hard on my phone for one, and for two, I spend nearly two hours a day reading and commenting and that is not what I am going away for! I need to spend time with the people I am with.

As Sally says "Put down the screen and be present in the moment".

That doesn't mean I won't be thinking about my beloved blog friends and wondering what you are all up to.

Stay safe, stay well and be present in the moment.

Catch you all next week.

Later ....

And just like that things have changed! Me and my big mouth.

So. Himself had his stress test. The doctor saw something that he couldn't explain so next Wednesday Himself is having an angiogram +/- stent. If they insert a stent he will be admitted overnight. Problem: the dogs. If he doesn't have a stent he cannot drive home and cannot be alone overnight. Problem: me not here.

After discussing options with the kids, the dog sitter and the Mermaid I have come up with my solution.

Ebs will drop Himself at the hospital at 1.30 on Wednesday afternoon. Three is taking the afternoon off and will pick him up. The Mermaid and I will cut our trip short by one day and I will be home late afternoon on Wednesday so will be here to keep an eye on Himself overnight. If he does have a stent put in Three gets an afternoon off and I will be home to look after the dogs and will pick the patient up on Thursday morning. 

I could have cancelled the whole trip but Himself wouldn't hear of it.

I could have had one of the kids come and let the dogs in and out but they would be so stressed. I would have been gone for a week and now dad has gone? I could see two very unhappy dogs and that isn't fair on them. The dog sitter said she could take them but that wouldn't change the stress levels as they know when things aren't right. And it's extra expense. It also didn't account for Himself not being allowed to be alone on Wednesday night if he comes home then. 

I cancelled the booking in Merimbula and the hotel was most accommodating. I didn't have to pay a cancellation fee. I was able to move the Lakes Entrance booking back a day with no cost. 

We will still have time to explore both places and relax and I said to the Mermaid we can go away again later in the year. Sometimes it's nice to just go away with a friend where you can chill and natter.

I am now going to finish packing, write a list of things Himself needs to know about and remember I am not going to the back of Bourke if I find I have forgotten something. As long as I have my meds (which I do) anything else can be bought. 

Hopefully this will my last entry for today!