WEEK 3 IN WAGGA
Saturday 24th May - sorry the dates are back the front, you can't copy and paste on blogs, so it could take a long time to fix!!!

Wow, it's so great to be back in our own bed!! I managed to see the final of American Idol. I'd seen right up until the final two, but then we had no Foxtel for the end. Luckily they repeat these things again and again and again, lol. Did the normal Mum things, mopped the floors. The house looked great so no great effort needed there.

Sunday 25th May

Off to church. Some were surprised that we'd already been away for 2 weeks. It's certainly going faster than I thought. We went to Julie & Andrew's for Michael's 16th birthday. In usual Baverstock form there was lots of food to be had and good company!!



Monday 26th May

Morning....already....huh?? This time I didn't have breakfast before getting in the car at 6am...brrrrr. Stopped for breakfast in Gunning and drove on. Can't believe how dry the land is out there. We arrived safely at about 11am and then Bruce and I both went to work at 11.30am. I was awake by then, lol. I worked for 4 hours and then my headache starting to set in again. I visited a chiropractor on the previous Friday but she seemed to do more harm than good and didn't do stuff that I thought chiropractors normally did. By the time the swelling had gone down (serious swelling around my head/neck) I thought it was time to find another one, so

Monday started with a headache, but I found a fabulous chiropractor who knows his stuff and I was putty in his hands. That was worth every cent I paid as I've felt great ever since!! That was after 5 hours in the car.



Wednesday 28th May

I got it right today and went to knitting group and there were 4 other women there. What an interesting discussion. One woman has moved down here last August and as her husband turned 70 she decided that it was time he went to a GP and had a checkup. The next week he was in St Vincent's having heart surgery. He had a bypass of 5 (can't remember what you call that) and is lucky he's still around!! Actually got some knitting done, I spent the previous visit getting the pattern wrong and undoing rather than doing.



Friday 30th May

What a fabulous week, the weather has just been gorgeous. This is the first time in 8 years I have got a pay slip!! This week I've worked 30 hours which is easy when you start at 7am. It's noice walking to work with Bruce and then leaving early in the afternoon, coming home, changing and going walkabout.



Yvette should be in town now, welcome to Wagga Yvette - I know you're out there somewhere. She should have arrived after lunch. Hopefully their will be some good photos from when we do a Buddy shoot at Janet's house.The cleaner came today to clean the house, what a treat to come home and it's all done!! There's no cleaning stuff in the house, so I can't clean, even if I really wanted to.Have a great weekend everyone and I'm thinking of you Amanda. Emails take an excruciatingly long time to open and send. Better than no internet at all though!!



Saturday 31st May

This is Yvette's take on Saturday and I think she said it best....

It is Sunday morning and I am back at my aunty’s house for the day. A few minutes to catch up, so I thought I would journal my trip so far and buddies is a handy place to do so!

Friday morning began early, with a taxi at 6am to get me to Frankston station for the train to Southern Cross station (you know, Spencer Street!). Because of track work, the Sydney train was a coach for the first five kms, then transfer over to the train. After an efficient start, it all went pear shaped before we're much north of Melbourne, where we came to a standstill, sat for quite some time and it was then announced that there was engine trouble, so we had to go back and turn the train around to use the other engine! So, after an hour and a half, we finally hit Broadmeadows and were out of Melbourne! However, only an hour and a half behind schedule in a six hour trip! The train ride was wonderful: I think I have mentioned I love train travel! I had loaded up the PDA with podcasts to keep me entertained and I had a brand new book about photo organisation to savour! We made good time and finally arrived in Wagga only 40 minutes late!!

My Aunty Becky collected me and we went to her house where talk quickly turned to family history … until were headed to bed after midnight! My thoughts that I am anywhere near finished scrapbooking family photos on this side was revealed as folly when Becky brought out masses of photos I have never laid eyes on in my life! Thankfully, my 76yo aunt is computer savvy and has been scanning away, so a lot of them are on CD and I can copy them.

We were up not so bright and early on Saturday, for Bruce and Linda to collect us for our great adventure. Bruce the Wonder drove us out to Temora, about an hour from Wagga. We managed to fill the time chatting (!) and then arrived in the gorgeous Temora. We got as far as Becky’s favourite dress shop, where her eyes glazed over at the sale sign, so she aired her credit card while Bruce, Linda and I took a turn about town and probably tripled the morning sales at the Rotary market (was it five or six stalls???). The patchwork shop was a heavenly retreat and I bought some tiny buttons. Then we retrieved Becky and her shopping and headed to the bakery for a lovely lunch.

As you do, after lunch we went to the cemetery and visited family. Our Sinclairs are there, reassuringly watching over a group of infants, so sad.

Then it was time to visit Janet and her brood!

We had a wonderful afternoon! At one point, Becky had to clarify that we had not spent many hours physically together, claiming we behaved as though we had been together since school! She is an honorary Buddy and – bemused at first by the whole bath thing – soon came to the decision we were all wonderful!!! Bruce is also an honorary Buddy: I could have popped him in my suitcase along with the gorgeous kitten Merlot! Janet had to frisk me on the way out, I loved that cat so much!!!! Sarah was a joy and did things with pink icing that no group of first time mums would ever have tolerated!!!! Milly the Naked one (pre-schooler) entertained us until the boys arrived home and then played hard with them – I was exhausted and envy her energy. Janet is the most patient mum, I take my hat of to her.

We did have to leave, sadly (and without kitten) and got home to Wagga for the most extraordinary, unexpected experience.

Bruce our driver took us up Kincaid St, to wave at Gran’s house as we went by. It was beautifully lit and the first time I had seen it at night, so we pulled over and I jumped out with my camera. A twist of fate slipped the flash ON, rather than OFF as I intended and a couple of paparazzi flashes later, a small Maltese was barking up a storm and a person came to investigate. Oh Lord, they think I am a prowler! I hurriedly explained as Linda came to my side and the lady was so lovely and INVITED US IN! We grabbed Becky from the car and I was shaking as I walked through the gate of memories! And then, we went in the front door and OMG!!!! Never mind the family connection, this house is wonderful! They have restored it so beautifully, Linda and I were oohing and ahhing over the wallpaper! I can’t begin to describe the beauty of it all. This wonderful woman was in the midst of having people over for dinner and they all welcomed us (“there is a man outside near a car: is he with you???”) and she showed us every room (all immaculate … strangers would not find my house in such a state unannounced!). We finally left them to their dinner and went to have ours at the local club, where Bruce shouted us all massive serves of various crumbed chicken delights! Completely over-fed, we waddled out to the car and dropped Becky home and collected my bags.

Back in the lovely Piper Palace, we checked our emails and watched Starsky and Hutch, until I called it a night before ten and headed for bed.

After a wonderful night’s sleep, Bruce gave me pancakes for breaky. Linda and I compared jammies and I admired her slippers, before she and Bruce got ready for church. They dropped me here and we are just starting to load images onto memory sticks! I have taken photos of each section of the poster sized pedigree chart of one family line, back to 1500!!!!!


Sunday 1st June

Bruce the non-sleeper woke up early and went downstairs to sit in the heated lounge room and read his book. I crawled out of bed at about 8am...morning, already? We had breakfast and got ready for church. This church (Church of Christ) has a lovely 'feel' about it and you feel very comfortable there. They were having a biggest morning tea by having soup and fresh bread and then desserts!! So much for leaving church only. They were having a BIG SALE at the showground including Harvey Norman and some big furniture store which ended up being piece of big furniture, I kid you not, to us it looked small!! We then drove down to Lake Albert and after a nice walk, sat by the lake with me knitting and Bruce reading.

Then we had Yvette back for dinner and we sat and chatted and planned our Monday.



Monday 2nd June

Bruce went to work on his own! Yvette and I went to the 'Repeated Reading' shop and I traded in some books. I'm still not sure whether it's particularly good value, but I now have a pile of books to read. We wandered around looked in the shops and just enjoyed each other's company. Came home for lunch (I'm a cheapskate, lol) and then it was time to go to the station. Wow, that went fast. We wandered from the station because there was a scrapbooking shop, it was surprisingly warm. We found the shop and it sure had some lovely things, Yvette and I both acquired some stock and headed back to the station. Fortunately we had checked the time and the train was running 20 minutes late. When we arrived back the announcement was that it was 55 minutes late and then some time later it was 10 minutes away, then it was 7 minutes away, although it felt a very long 3 minutes. Yvette did manage to get on the train as we didn't go walkabout. If we'd gone to the local shops, she would've missed the train!! It only stops for a minute, so no time to run!!

I'm going to see if I can load some photos on Bruce's computer!!!