The rest of the trip was spent around Melbourne, visiting lots of friends and family, catching up, being rained on, and trying to not be sick any more. And selling off a few of our worldly possessions that had been in storage for six years and we’d come to realise we really didn’t need any longer.
At the farm was where everything went rapidly downhill, as I went from being in perfect health, to suddenly being ill and having no voice.
We didn’t mean to go to Canberra. But there were friends there we hadn’t seen since I was 39 weeks pregnant. And now we had a three year old, and they had a two year old. And it only added four or five hours to the drive to my parent’s farm! In the end it turned out to be an absolutely cracking idea, despite all the driving.
The offspring had a ball playing together.
Our friends loaned us bikes, and one of them watched the Moosling, so Alex and I could go off and ride the Mount Stromlo trails with the rest of the group – so much fun! And riding on 26″ MTB wheels again (as opposed to the 29″ wheels on my current bike) was a bit of a revelation.
Even the Moosling got to ride at Stromlo…
And then I went for a run – up Mount Ainslie, across to Majura and back down again. Canberra, you were much more fun than I expected you to be.
It all began with an aeroplane flight. Well actually, it began with friends telling us they were going to be getting married in September 2013, but giving us nearly two years notice, so we made cunning plans to be around for their wedding. And to make it a huge trip to visit lots of friends and family. But then there was an aeroplane flight.
The weather was perfect, so we sat and stared out the plane window, and confirmed our house wasn’t on fire. Or if it was, at least the whole building wasn’t yet ablaze.
We arrived successfully in Melbourne along with all of our luggage, and went to throw it all into our hire car. This was the last straw for a tired and sick Moosling, who had been looking forward to the prospect of finally getting to the car after all this time on aeroplanes (“No more aeroplane! Aeroplane go down now!”). But it was the wrong car, and entirely the wrong colour (“No blue car!). So he was distraught and cried for ten minutes, but eventually fell fast asleep in the back seat as we drove to our destination.
After a couple of days of stunned wandering around, and lots of sleeping, and a couple of Rosh Hashanah dinners, we went to the wedding in Olinda. And it was lovely!
We re-created photos from the old days…
And much fun was had by all. Particularly the Moosling, who realised that he could use his cuteness power for evil. He was crawling about under the tables and popping up onto peoples laps then asking for “chocolick?” and then escaping with their chocolates.
The next day though, we were up and driving to Canberra. Through the Black Spur, and beyond!
I kept worrying we weren’t making enough noise and that bears would come and get us. Then I remembered that it was alright, there was nothing but the deadly poisonous snakes. And they’re nowhere near so good at climbing trees as the bears.