Saturday 28th August, 2010

Happy Birthday, Peter - and Surprise!!!

Peter celebrated his birthday for the second year running by driving all day vbg! We slept well, and woke early, enjoying to the magpies carolling to greet the dawn then drifting off to sleep again. But by 6.30 we were awake and refreshed. For once before Nathan vbg. We did the ‘Happy Birthday’ thing with Peter, giving him his presents and coffee in bed and prepared for a reasonably early departure.

Our daughters phoned to wish Pete a happy birthday and when Kylie phoned I told her we had gone away for a few days for Dad’s birthday. She accepted it, but seemed surprised. We decided to just drive as much as we felt comfortable doing, and see how far we got. It was still 600 or more kms to Toowoomba because we left so late yesterday, but it isn’t worth pushing too hard when you are fatigued. When we left Scone the skies were blue and it was 13degC; within an hour the sky had clouded over and the temperature had dropped to 10deg. It didn’t rise above 13deg until late afternoon.
 We stopped for morning tea after a couple of hours at Tamworth, then at Guyra for lunch. We stopped beside a lovely park, quite small but nicely set out and I made some bread rolls for our ‘picnic’ lunch. Only we had it inside because of the chilly wind. Kookaburras are plentiful here and their cheery chuckling was a nice background while we ate. Several came and sat in the trees nearby as well and had a good look at us to see what we were doing.

I couldn’t resist taking some photos of the pretty garden that caught my eye when we pulled up. The splash of colour from the daffodils and the contrast against the silver trunks of the trees and the red of the shrub behind was very pretty. A Willy Wag Tail in the branch of one of the trees flicked his tail and made

 his sweet call too as though telling me how nice it was that spring is here, until I came too close. These little birds look so smart in their crisp black and white feathers - as though dressed in a dinner jacket.  And they never stay still, always hopping and wagging their tails. They are such busy little creatures.

I loved the daffodils and also the snowdrops in the garden – I wonder whether the ones I have in the pot at home will bloom soon? Probably while I am away.

Peter kept driving and driving. I took a spell after lunch too for a couple of hours. I could see that Peter really wanted to make Toowoomba even though he didn’t admit it, and we did. And once we arrived, we promptly proceeded to get lost!  Pete was so sure that he knew exactly how to get to Kylie’s house but it turned out we turned just one street too soon, then there was a street closed off and a detour and of course that meant we lost our bearings hopelessly. So he pulled in to the first service station and we were soon on the right track again.

 

The dogs came out barking, soon followed by our daughter (not barking). She seemed quite calm and unfazed but said she was in disbelief. She had looked out the window to see what the dogs were barking at and saw the end of the van. Thinking to herself that it was the caravan but that it couldn’t be, she ventured out to investigate. Luke had just fallen asleep after the excitement of his birthday party today and Cameron was snuggled up in the play room with his doona, half asleep also. He had heard our voices in the adjoining kitchen but didn’t believe what he heard and when I walked in to the room his eyes just got bigger and rounder and bigger and rounder! I said hello and he said ‘Hello Marnie’ (their name for me) with a great big smile then jumped up and gave me an enormous hug over the back of the lounge. What a wonderful welcome.

He was of course then so excited that it took ages before we could get him settled but he and Nathan ended up in the Play Room watching a video and he finally he went off to sleep again. It helped that Nathan told him that he was having an early night and we were having the same. It also took a while before Kylie could quite believe that we were really here vbg. She said she felt that she was dreaming.

 

Kylie’s neighbour and friend (and her daughters) also had to come down and say hi. Fiona also calls me ‘Mum’ and it was good to see her again too – it didn’t take her long to know that we had arrived as she and her husband Gary keep a good eye on Kylie and look out for her. They are good friends. Fiona had kindly brought down the photos of Luke’s birthday party so I could download them on to my computer because she had taken her camera to be official photographer for the day.

After such a huge day and the excitement of seeing our family we are of course ready for another good night’s sleep!