Our time spent in Canberra is the stuff of excruciatingly dull blog posts so I shall try and keep this brief. The facts man, just the facts.
Hempy, whose name is Dave, had a mate named Dave over when we arrived so it is a good job we call him Hempy. Dave left and we decided to head out for ice cream at the Kingston shops. Plan A was to walk, but the distance and heat saw us jump in the car. I susepct Hempy will get used to this when his little 'un arrives in June. We got to the shops and cafes at around 4pm and spent a little time finding one that wasn't closing. A cafe-come-bike-shop named Velo Republic Cafe/Cyclery fit the bill. Dave and I tried to have a coffe while AJ made several bids for freedom. We picked up a couple of DVDs on the way back, Four Lions and The Expendables. Dinner was sausage veg and mash, which AJ got into before heading to bed spot on time.
Bed was in the second bedroom on her fold-out lounge. At home Sal has put up curtains that would have done well in the blitz and AJ called out "lights off! lights off!" as the blinds left the room comparatively light. I explained that the lights were off and she crashed out with very little arsing about. We settled in to watch Four Lions (very funny) and I bailed after about15mins of the Expendables. Hempy didn't last much longer. Although there was a very comfortable looking bed in the second room I opted to sleep on the floor. I can sleep pretty well anywhere, and although I was confident I'd wake up if AJ decided to get up and go for a nocturnal wander, I figured that if I was asleep in the doorway and didn't wake up at the noise then the kick would wake me. As it happens she slept pretty much through until 5am when she woke and would not get back to sleep, despite me trying to convince her it was still the middle of the night; it was certainly dark and quiet enough, but her internal clock was firing on all cylinders. I put the light on at about 5.30 and we played about and read and then at a little after 6 we headed out to fail to find any kangaroos around the random-choice roads I drove along. Cap and babycinno o clock rolled around and, sticking with what I knew, we went back to Velo Republic where the monkey was more manageable than she had been on Saturday afternoon.
AJ has been a little off her food recently. Not today, which is combination good/bad news. Good to see her hammer through the vegemite toast and banana bread, not so good that the leftovers I usually feast upon where scarce. Ah well, I'm not burning many calories at the moment, so no biggy. Hempy joined us for breakfast, driving over in his 1963 Morris min 850cc. Fairly sure the straw AJ used to drink her water was fatter than the pipe on the back of his car. We took a couple of little-and-large pics of the mini and the bus and then headed back drop off his car, load ours and then head for brunch at Black mountain where we could look once again for roos. This was all very exciting for AJ, who had been telling me we were off to see the kangeroos and kept asking where they were.
AJ fell asleep as soon as we got in the car. At Black Mountain she was in a deep sleep so I dropped Hempy off and we headed home. Good to be on the road early, shame we didn't get an opportunity to explore, would have loved to spend far more time with Hempy. With the kid on the way he may stay on the same continent as me for a while, so I’m sure we’ll catch up again soon. Might even get back in the water. I really must do a Hempy-and-the-other-divers post. Anyway, back to the diary-style entry.
Not keeping this very brief am I? Nearly done.
The drive back from Canberra to Sydney is precisely as dull as the drive to Canberra. Maybe even more dull as you pass Lake George early on. In the mist and drizzle the lake had a nice atmosphereric look to it. We drove past and then I went onto auto pilot. The only thing of note from the journey home was nutrition fail. I managed to blast past a small huddle of roadside eateries before Sutton Forest, where I knew there was also a stop. Alas this stop was McDonalds only. Bollocks. I made the best of a bad job, giving AJ a few fries, the bun from a chicken supreme (didn't look at all supreme to me) and the chicken that I removed the coating from. A couple of spoons of sundae and then a Rafferty's, which probably had more nutrition than the rest combined. Still, she's young and this was a rarity. It broke my “No Maccas” run that must be around 8yrs. I suspect the next streak will last 20yrs. The very worst thing about the experience was seeing that shit food in front of my daughter. She had a play on the play-park-thing, got cornered by a bigger kid who chastised her for picking her nose and pulled her finger from her nose and made her cry (that was challenging for me; I didn't enjoy it one bit, but she recovered and kept running and climbing and sliding) and then we fled.
Last bit. Back home. Outside temp - 24 degrees. Inside temp - 31.5 degrees. We dodged a very hot Saturday-Sunday bullet in Sydney. All windows and doors open and the temp dropped quick enough. Dinner. Bath. Bed. Glass of cheap wine to congratulate myself for a better-than-average parenting performance.
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