Still in Bathurst ;-)

Friday August 25, 2017

Vivienne went to her weekly Tai Chi and in the meantime I 'warmed up' in the sun room in company of Audry and Hazel, Viv's two cats.

One of the beautiful Wattles in the front yard

The coaster parked at the front

Sun room

Audry asleep

After that I spent some time working on the blog till Viv came home and the rest of the day we spent talking (as you do) and working on Viv's assignments.

Saturday August 26, 2017

We haven't done a lot of exciting things today.  We mainly went to the shops and worked on Vivienne's course work till her friend Lee came to visit in the afternoon.  And even then we went back to our 'homework' after Lee had left and we had sat down for our dinner.  It was another late night before we saw our bed.

Sunday, August 27, 2017

After a quick shower and breakfast Viv and I get ready to go out.  Two friends will come with us to visit a third friend in Blayney.  Katherine, who I don't know yet, arrives at 10am and we get ready to go.  On the way we pick up Pam and then we pass by the supermarket for Viv to buy a few sympathy cards for two friends who'd lost their mother recently.

Next we're on our way and as Viv asked to search for a few caches on the way to Blayney we stopped now and again, but not too often, because the wind was bitterly cold.  The first one we couldn't find.  What's new?!  With the second one we had more luck and it was actually a very easy find:

#1684 -  A Rocky Outlook (cache)

An easy cache with a, normally, beautiful view, but today was a blustery day with cold wind and patches of sunshine, so I quickly signed the log, took a picture and in the car we went.

As we missed the turn-off to the next cache we kept going and were at Ann's place by 11:30am.  Ann I also knew from last year's visit and I got to admire her new house (together with the others).  As it was a kind of 'house warming' there was a large spread with all kinds of sweets and other goodies.

We spent the rest of the afternoon talking and eating and singing our praises over Ann's grandson, who was visiting.  Such a lovely little boy and one who could still entertain himself, without all kind of modern gadgets.  You don't see that often any more!  Ann served also a lovely, hearty pea-and-ham soup, which went down very well as her house was just as cold as everyone else's.  Electricity and gas have become very expensive and are therefore used sparingly.

By 4pm it was time to go home and on the way back we found one cache, but it was the funniest situation I have been in for a long time.  See a copy of my log below:

#1685 - Kings Plains (cache)

# 1685 - I haven't had such a good laugh in a long, long time! Muggle Friend and I were going to look for this cache on our way to Blayney, and left two other friends behind in the car. We walked around GZ until MF stepped back and the conversation went like this:

MF: Don't go there!
Me: Why not?
MF: I said don't go there! Step back!
Me: What for???
MF: There is a snake!!!
Me: No. Don't be daft.
MF: Well, go and have a look. Wait. No, step back! There is a snake I tell ye...

I walk up to the pointed out spot and look and...... burst out laughing. That's not a snake! I get MF a tad bit closer and than she does the same: bursts out laughing. We really crack up and the others in the car really worry about us. What kind of weird game is that??? I show the others and they just nod their heads.... As you do. 

Anyway, I sign the log when I finely stop the hiccoughs and have wiped the tears from my eyes. It may have been a trifle silly, but boy I will remember this cache for a long time and every time I visit my MF in Bathurst I will ask her: Seen any snakes lately? 

TFTC Chuze. It deserves a FP for the camo and the laughs we had.

And indeed, we just couldn't stop laughing when I discovered 'the snake', because it was a large, plastic cockroach, that, honestly, I didn't even dare take out of it's dark hole with my bare hands!  You know, there could be a snake behind it, or a spider, or.......  Never mind, there are lots of things that can lurk in dark holes!

When we showed Katherine and Pam what we had found and told them why we had been laughing so much, they could only shake their heads at so much silliness.  Ah well, Viv and I had made a find we wouldn't forget in a hurry and will remember this for years to come.  What better than a good laugh from time to time?

And then it was all back to serious work again.  After, yet another delicious, dinner we set out to work on Viv's assignments and there was plenty still to do.  We worked diligently till 12:30am!!!

Monday, August 28, 2017

As last night it was another late night I did not wake up until 9:30am.  Not surprisingly really, when it's -2 degrees C outside and you're in your warm bed... ;-)

After a hot shower to get warm Viv and I sat in the sun room with our breakfast and a cuppa until it was time to go out and do some shopping.  Viv had a few things on her list and I wanted to go to my favourite shoe shop to see if I could snatch a pair or two of shoes on sale.  Not as lucky as last year, when I left with 4 pairs (!) I still was lucky enough to walk away with one pair and with 70% off who was I to complain? :-)  Next we visited the supermarket where I bought an old-fashioned hot water bottle for the cold nights in the camper.

We met one of Viv's good friends who asked us for morning tea tomorrow, so I had to change my plans again, as I had wanted to go home on Monday, had already extended it to Tuesday and now I will be leaving Wednesday!

On the way back Viv asked if there were any caches left in Bathurst to check out and with great difficulty I could find one for us on the way back home.  Most of them we have either done by now, or couldn't find or there is something wrong with them (without having been classed as 'needing maintenance'), so we're lucky to have another go at one.

#1686 -  The Grassy Knoll (cache)

Viv helping with the search

From the description it was unclear where we had to park and it was quite a distance walking that 'grassy knoll' downhill.  Of course, back was uphill!  Not too bad though and in the end an easy find, so that helped. I signed the log and than we were on our way back to have a quick lunch before Viv had to go to her class to show her assignments, which we had printed out first thing in the morning.

In the afternoon I updated my blog and when Viv came home from her class she had the good news that there were only a few minor mistakes that she needed to correct.  Hurray, we've done well!