Monday.  29th.  Took ages to get to sleep.  Okish day.  I think.  Dunno.

Tuesday.  Took ages to get to sleep.  Okish day.  I think.  Dunno.

Wednesday.  Slept ok. 

Talked to Henrch about proxy trial we're doing.  Had a nice catchup with Ding after work at the Lighty.  We shared some arancini balls and calamari.

Thursday.  Slept mostly ok (restless in the middle of the night for a while).  Busy day dealing with All The BS.  Quietish drinks, pizza, Mash, Death in Paradise 9.3, Apothecary Diaries.

Friday.  Slept mostly ok.  At one point in the mid morning I heard a bang and what sounded like a bark.  I went and looked out the window and there was a KANGAROO in the driveway!!  I assume it smacked into the fence making the bang.  By the time I got outside it was well and truly gone though.  In other news I'm definitely feeling to old and dumb for my job.  Leftovers, Mash, Orville 3.7.

Saturday.  Woke up at Dentist Time until about 5.  Sigh.  Turkey labelling and part picking in the morning.  11:37 I headed down to Wagga for the Lego show.  Missed all David's calls telling me to come to his place so we could all go down together.  Whoops.  I was too busy listening to Casefile on Port Arthur and the phone was on silent and not paired with the car.  Met up with them at the show.  As usual for a rural show it's a lot more civilised than the Canberra shows due to lack of crowds.  Especially the afternoon sessions.  Dropped in at the chemist on the way back to David's.  Chatted for a bit while David tidied (if I just stay in a room it'll give him focus to clean it cause normally he'd just avoid it hehe).  He has some pretty cool lasers that have little refractive attachments on them which make super pretty patterns.  And All The Torches :)  Headed out to the Jail Brake Inn Cafe for dinner but even though they close at 8, when we got there at 7 she said she wouldn't cook dinner for the 8.5 of us.  Oh well.  There were some pretty cool epic moths tho!

So headed back to the Junee Hotel for table games and I had a very very nice chicken Kiev

Nice catchup with Kellie's family.  Came back to David's and collapsed.

Sunday.  Had Mac and Cheese for breakfast and chatted to David for a while while he cleared his dining room table.  Maybe I should visit more often so he'll be focussed to tidy :)  Listened to the Casefile episode on the murder of Peter Falconio on the way home.  Finished labelling Turkey photos then some Lego part picking.

(Backdated).  Back in April once they finally reopened some of the Sydney Dams, Engineering Buddy (EB) and I went up to Sydney to have a look at some of them.  Starting with Warragamba, then Cataract, Cordeaux and Nepean.  Sadly Avon is still closed due to repairs on the road bridge, as is Woronora.  Three of the dams were spilling which was pretty damned cool.  Check out the previous entries to have a look.  But here's some other miscellaneous photos from the day.

It was pretty foggy between Bungendore and Goulburn.

Drove past Thirlmere

Had a picnic lunch at Warragamba Dam

Wallacia Hotel

Pedestrian/bicycle bridge over the Hume Highway next to Narellan Road

Pretty drive on Appin Road

Bridge over the Cataract River at Broughton Pass

Drinks and nibbles after seeing Nepean Dam

Kangaroo and sunset near Nepean Dam

Moonrise over Lake George

Slept ok.  Had one of my bacon and cheese rolls for first breakfast to keep me going.

Chilled for a bit.  

Cat in a bag!

Went out with Kerry and Violet - they were going to see if Target had any rollerblades, but they were only online.  Then had a little walk around the waterfront.

There's quite a few Art Deco buildings in town, one day I should document them properly.

I thought this was cute.

When everyone was ready we headed out for second breakfast - at Bittersweet cafe above Lighthouse Beach.  They wanted to put our group of six essentially right in the middle of the footpath where literally everyone trying to get past in or out of the inside part and outside part or either way along the footpath would be tripping over us.  Kerry asked if we could go in the far corner furthest away from everyone (it was only setup for four people) but they said they couldn't because of congestion for Covid.   *blink* what?  Whatever, they did actually let us sit there.  I think because Kerry said something they blacklisted us - service was *very* slow.  Took fifty minutes for our food to arrive.  I got eggs benedict with bacon and a cheese and bacon rosti.  Mostly nice, although the second egg was a bit overdone so wasn't as nice by the time it all cooled down.

After brunch we thought we'd go up and see the lighthouse.  But everyone in Port was doing the same thing, and there was literally no parking available, so we just left.  The others went home and the sweetie and I went back down to Lighthouse Beach for a looksee.

Drove around some more.  Went to Shelly Beach where we were lucky enough to get a park.  So.  Many.  Crowds.

Went for a walk around the headland looking at beaches and stuff.

As we were leaving, someone asked if we were leaving so they could take our parking spot.  So.  Many.  Crowds.  All of Port is like that, and it's not even peak season.  Apparently the locals hibernate for Christmas/January to avoid the crowds.

Next we headed back into town so Stu could do a driveby of an old friend of his houses.  Then I remembered a slide I'd scanned of Dad's taken in 1976 of the view from a holiday flat we stayed in, and looked up where it was taken.  Turned out it was in the same street as his friend's house - about five houses back from where we'd stopped!!  I'll post the comparison pics in a separate post, but this is the house.  I wonder if Mum would remember it :)

Continued to drive around.  Wandered all the way up to Settlement Point and even saw the ferry.

On the way back looked at the crazy expensive houses around The Anchorage/Portside Crescent.

Chilled for a little while (I played through some of Violet's beginner piano books - I *really* need to learn the bass clef) before getting ready to leave.

So headed north.  The last time I was up here the Kempsy bypass and bridge over the Macleay floodplain was still under construction.  This time we got to go over it.

And finally arrived at Jeff and Ruth's.

Had a brief rest, then went on a drive with Jeff around town.

They don't need lawnmowers in this part of town - they just let the kangaroos at it

Then over to the east side of town

Then back into town, for an obligatory jacaranda photo

This is the view from where we had dinner.

Ruth cooked up beef for dinner.  Nicely cooked, although fairly grissly, they weren't too happy with it.

After dinner we watched the second last episode of Masterchef Junior.  Amazing kids.  We saw two get dropped out before the finale with the final three.

Then bed.

I'll be backdating these cause I'm so far behind in my blogging!

Left the house at 8:04.  Stopped on the Federal Highway for petrol and breakfast at the Scottish Restaurant.

Left there by 8:52.

Along the drive we listened to several episodes of Thirteen Minutes to the Moon podcast.

Lake George had a bit of water in it.

We saw people falling out of the sky at Picton!

There were people having a chat in one of the emergency stopping bays on the M7, so that meant we all had to slow down to 40 for a good kilometre or so.  #grunt

We timed the trip quite well - Northconnex had opened a mere week before.  This new toll tunnel cuts off that horrible section Pennant Hills Road and you breeze through the tunnel instead.  This also means no traffic lights between the Federal Highway in Canberra and northwest of Newcastle!

That is, you *would* breeze through if buttheads didn't break down and ruin it for everyone!

Stopping did mean I could take a photo of one of the exists

#grunt

The tunnel does have some pretty light displays.  I watched a documentary on the tunnel and apparently it's to help keep drivers alert and interested.

No sooner had we gotten out of the tunnel than we get this sign

Great.  Someone tailgating and/or not paying attention.

Crossing the Hawkesbury

I always love the big dipper ride down to the Mooney Mooney Creek Bridge

It's a pity you can't go and look at the bridge anymore (haven't been able to for years)

Near Gosford is the Australian Reptile Park.  I haven't been there since I was a kid..

Bridge over the Hunter River

At Raymond Terrace we stopped at the Scottish Restaurant for lunch.  Also got a bit more petrol.

Then continued on.

Bulahdelah Mountain

Look, our very own version of Animal Crossing!

Crossing the Manning River

I think this is Middle Brother

Arrived at Scott and Kerry's around 4pm.  So eight hours to get there, including two meal breaks and several breakdowns and accidents.

Stu had a little lie down, and Scott, Kerry and Violet and I went for a little walk around the neighbourhood.

Then chilled for a bit

Potty cooked up a bbq feast

Last Saturday night was a halloween night at the club.

In the afternoon some of us went out bird watching.

We heard more birds than we saw, but did see some kangaroos.

Lots of cool decorations ..

Some cool costumes ..

And some yummy food ..

Overcast.  Humid.  Not hot, but oh so humid.

Did pretty much nothing all morning.  Attempted to get some sleep.  Not altogether successfully.  Made up a picnic lunch and headed out.

First stop was Trial Bay Gaol.  The buildings are remarkably well preserved.  Although most of it is solid granite.  It'll probably be there for centuries.

We spent a good hour and a half here.  Well worth the $7.50 entry.

Front entrance

Interior courtyard

This was the mess hall

Cell block A on the left, exterior wall on the right, with a sign saying watch out for swooping magpies on the bottom left

The area between the mess hall and the cell blocks

The kitchen

Remains of the hospital building, with cell block B behind

"Silent cells"

Stu in one of the silent cells

View from the lookout tower.  The prison was built to house prisoners to build this breakwater.  But they never really made very good progress with it, and eventually abandoned the idea and closed the prison.

Looking down cell block A

During its time as a prison, they housed one prisoner to a cell on hammocks

During World War I, they reopened the prison and sent educated German men here to keep them out of the way during the war.  They housed two per cell, which made the gaol quite overcrowded.

The kitchen building

Looking down cell block B.  This was built later (1900) and is remarkably drab next to the lovely granite.

One of the baths in the bath house

Kangaroos next to the bath house

Looking down to the bath house

After the gaol, we ate our picnic lunch in the car and then went on the walk down to Little Bay and the duck pond.

Walking up to the German monument, they've cleared a long tract of bush out, so you can see all the way up to it.  It unfortunately looks slightly rude from a distance..

The German monument, for the four Germans that died in the gaol during the war.  It was blown up in 1919 by persons unknown, but eventually rebuilt.

View of Trial Bay Gaol

Banksia

View across to South West Rocks

Little Bay

Little Bay

Kangaroo tracks in the sand

Big boy kangaroo.  Look at the muscles on him!

Kangaroo and joey

Joey having a drink

Bounce!

The duck pond.  Originally built as a water source for the gaol

Scribbly bark

One of the powder magazines used to store explosives for the construction of the breakwater

The other one.  It was supposedly blown up as a test run by the same people that blew up the German monument.

Wandered back to South West Rocks and went down to the tidal creek

Where kids were jumping off the bridge into the creek..

Came back to the house for a very lovely chicken dinner.  After dinner we watched the King's Speech, which we quite enjoyed, even though a few liberties were taken with the story.

Day 1

The day after boxing day we made our exit from Sydney.  Since we had to be back on the 30th for my cousin's wedding, the options were to stay in Sydney, go home, or have a couple of nights somewhere else.  We decided to go to the Hunter Valley.

We let the GPS guide us out of Sydney, and we managed to avoid the most horrible piece of road in Sydney, which is the five kilometres between Gordon and Hornsby, where it's just stop start the whole way.  The GPS took us round the north of all that, and it was much less stressful.

It's amazing the number of L-platers that were out.  I reckon they should either be banned from highways altogether or allowed to do the full speed limit.  Because forcing them to slow down on the freeways just makes everything slow for everyone else.

We decided not to go up the Sydney-Newcastle freeway, opting to get off at Peat's Ridge and take the back way.  We mostly had the road to ourself, and it was a much prettier and less stressful drive.

Bucketty!

Coming down the valley along the Great North Road was very pretty

Spaceman in a sculpture park north of Wollombi

Cessnock is very pretty at the moment with all the trees in bloom

As it turned out, we probably should have gone up the freeway, because we decided to go out to Minmi, which is right next to the freeway.  So it was a bit of a detour, but we weren't in any hurry so that was ok.

Crazy big house on Richmond Vale Road

Minmi Courthouse

Caboose in Minmi

I want a liqour shelf like this!  Pretty!  Popped in here to get a (non-alcoholic) refreshing beverage

Then out to the cemetery to find graves of Stu's rellies

Minmi Cemetery

Stu hunting

Found one!

These guys found their own rellies

Then onto the Crowne Plaza Hunter Valley.  A little pricey, but very nice.

Crowne Plaza reception

We got a hotel style room in the main building.  There's a tonne of self-contained units around the place that hold quite a few people.  They looked lovely, and people were out with deck chairs sipping wine, which totally looked like the life :)  They're a bit further away from the main building, and something like $800/night - ouch!

View from our room - not that exciting

What I did love about the place was the abundance of power points.  Something like 14 of them around the room, in nice useful places, like right next to the bed. 10 points right there!

Settled in and got ourselves freshened up, then went for a walk around the place

The huge pool.  A bit emptier at this point, but it was full of people a little earlier.

Giant chess set (there was a checkers set in the main building too)

Beach volleyball court

Waiting in the Vista Lounge before dinner

The Red Salt restaurant (also the breakfast buffet)

Our view for dinner

We started with this lovely Adina (a local) Pinot Grigio

The sweetie enjoys the wine and the view

Stu's entree.  I think this was "Caramelized Tart, of golden shallot and baked locally sourced goat's cheese, witlof salad"

I had "Warm salad of lobster, kipfler potatoes & frisse endive, poached quail eggs & black truffle dressing"

For mains Stu had "Coq au vin free range chicken, braised in Hunter Valley pinot, golden eschalots & smoked bacon, roast garlic puree, fried bread crumbs".  This thing was delicious - and look at that huge chunk of bacon!  Yum!

I had "Confit duck leg with cassoulet of white beans, lovedale smokehouse sausage & bacon, poached quail eggs".  The duck was nice, but too many beans for my taste.

We also had a side of "Sauteed mixed mushrooms with garlic and sherry vinegar (Swiss Browns, Buttons, King Oysters, Enoki)".  Omigosh this was so delicious!  One of my favourite parts of the meal!

We also had an amazing Rosehill shiraz - so smooth!  Yumm!

For dessert we had some Brokenback vintage cheddar (we were too full to eat any more!)

After dinner I was so full I went for a little walk around the place.

Took this nice HDR shot from the entrance area on my phone

 

Day 2

We had breakfast the next morning at the resort.  A pretty decent buffet of food.  Was quite crowded though, even though we were there near the end of service.

At 1pm we piled into a little minbus with a family of Swedish people and headed out on a winery tour (stopping to pick up some other people on the way).

Our first stop was Peacock Hill Winery.  This was quite a small winery, and was much like the tours we did at Yass last year with a very small cellar door and crowds of people.  I found it a bit stressful, but the lady was reasonably well organised, so it wasn't too bad.

They have dinosaurs, which kept the two little Swedish boys amused

Peacock Hill selection of wines

Yeah being driven around the Hunter Valley tasting wines is a lovely way to spend an afternoon

The next stop was McGuigan's.  Having heard of this winery it wasn't surprising that they had a much bigger cellar door.  And they have this whole room setup for tour groups that looked pretty amazing.

Tour group wine tasting room

Us at McGuigan's

This cork stool looked pretty cool (but $249 and not particularly practical)

McGuigan's also make and sell cheeses.  We might have bought some, but didn't have a cooler bag or a fridge at the hotel.

Sunflowers at McGuigan's

Next stop was the Pokolbin village for chocolate and cheese tasting.  The chocolate tasting was ok (half a dozen nibbles of chocolate), but the cheese tasting wasn't really anything special.  First you had to find the store that was doing it, then you had to ask for the cheeses to taste.  Yeah, not ideal.  

I did buy this cute little chocolate penguin from the chocolate place.

Our last stop was Brokenwood.  This had a medium-sized cellar door and we sat around barrels to do the wine tasting.  We even got to taste a wine which was normally only opened for people paying to taste the wines.  So that was very nice.

On the way back we got up close to some kangaroos, which I think all the tourists liked :)

So a very nice (although somewhat expensive) afternoon, with half a box of wines and fortified wines acquired :)

For dinner we went to the Grapevine bar for beer and pizza

This was the "Truffled Mushroom" pizza, which sounded nice on the menu (swiss brown, button and enoki mushrooms, white sauce, confit garlic parmesan, thyme and truffle oil) but was a little bland

This was the "Italian" pizza - pepperoni, capsicum, mushrooms, olives, mozzarella, parmesan & chilli, sour cream, thyme and rocket.  This was much nicer (I think the sour cream was a winner!)

After dinner the pool was looking nice so I wanted to go for a swim.  But a change had come through which made it quite cold.  So we didn't stay in long.

 

Day 3

So our final day.

First stop (after breakfast at the Scottish Restaurant in Cessnock) was a trip to Morpeth to look for more of Stu's relatives in the cemetery.  We didn't find any.  Just some harness horses trotting by.

Then to St John's College, only to find the whole place has been turned into a retirement village.  So far the historic buildings remain, but who knows for how much longer.

Walking around to the chapel

The organ is still there, but the chapel is now a little community hall

And the garden out the back has a gazebo, and the cross has been removed.  A bit different to last time we were here.

And instead of a nice view out to the floodplain, all you can see is houses

So that was all a little sad.

Kept wandering.

This is the bridge at Hinton

And we found another probable relative of Stu's in the Hinton Cemetery

Next up the sweetie thought it might be nice to head to Port Stevens, and Nelson Bay and Shoal Bay.

As apparently did the rest of New South Wales

It was so crowded it was painful.  We didn't stop anywhere along the beachside.  Couldn't have anyway - no parking!  Just snapped a pic out the window.

We did stop at the lighthouse though (only because a super huge 4WD couldn't fit into a half sized parking spot, so we got it)

Carried on.  Shoal Bay was just as crowded.

Eventually ended up at Fingal Bay where we stopped for lunch a few streets back from the beach, where there was actually parking.  Fish and chips and potato scallops.  Because that's what you do when you go to the beach.  Even though we were nowhere near the beach.

So left the craziness behind and headed back to Maitland to meet up with Margie at the Fox Bar.  This a nice little wine bar.  We had the whole front area to ourselves, but it was only when I went to the loo that I saw the lovely little garden they have out the back.

And finally headed back to Sydney.  Would have been uneventful except a horse float overturned on the freeway near Kariong killing two horses and completely closing the road.  The GPS saw it coming and we took a detour around it.  No idea if it worked out faster (it probably did) but it was certainly less stressful and no stop-start traffic for us.

Finally made it back to my parent's place and crashed into bed

So we had new year's night in Canberra, then headed out again on the second to stay with D&Y at River Island.

OK so this entry is a little late (only five months!!)

(and the national emblem, but that's food too ;) )

This is for Chay..  this was dinner I cooked last night.  Bunged some pasta in to boil.  Cut up some big portabella mushrooms and fried them in butter.  Tossed a punnet of mini roma tomatoes (cut in two and mashed a little in the pot) into a saucepan along with a big dollop of garlic and some store-bought pasta sauce. Mix, top with cheese, heat up some garlic bread if desired..