Jan 2007

We decided to go home via Sale and turn up at Cann River to Cooma. Thursday we travelled to Sale. We stopped in Melton to fix a couple of things for the couple who rent a house we own there.
It was so hot the whole time we'd been away, I foolishly bought Hollie and Chris some chocolate form The chocolate shop in Ballarat. We were only out of the car about 1/2hr. The two little chocolate owls turned to blobby owls. Oh well.
We stayed at the best Western in Sale and as soon as I turned on the air conditioner this huge cat turned up at the door. He came in like he owned the place. Probably does. He was so thirsty, we filled the sink with some water and he gulped it down. Of course he looked very hungry so I went up the road and got him a tin of cat food which he quickly ate down. After that he curled up on the bed and had a nap. He went out when we went to bed but turned up first thing as soon as I turned the air conditioner on again in the morning.
The next morning we had breakfast delivered at 6;30am and left by 7am. We stopped in Cann River for a coffee. We wanted to have lunch at Bombala at the pub that is now owned by the couple featured on the Sea Change programme on sunday nights. Just as we got there we saw the couple leave the hotel, towells over their arms, obviously off for a swim with the kids. Another time maybe.
We carried on and finally had lunch at Bredbo and looked around the xmas barn. What an awesome shop, worth a drive out there from Canberra. I had a pumpkin and pesto lasagne for lunch with a salad. Highly recommend.
Arrived home around 2pm. So very, very tired. Back to work and reality on Monday. Has been a lovely 3 weeks, I have soem beautiful memories. Will add photos when I get more memory next month.

We left early as planned on Tuesday 2nd Jan. We decided to take a bunch of CD's with us only to discover our cd stacker, which is in the boot of the car, had been stolen. Strange, last seen the morning we left for NZ, left in locked car in a security car park near the airport. Will phone them but not holding my breath. Didn't help that Steve also discovered when we got home last weekend that the big truck, left at home as we felt this was the most secure place, had been siphoned dry. Not like a car that gets siphoned, a truck is hard to get diesel into and the lines will be dry. We weren't going to let our holiday get ruined by these things so we carried on.
Trip down to Melbourne was nice, stopped at Ettamogah Pub. I love this place, so cute.
For lunch we stopped at a cafe called HalfWay Cafe. This place was the kind I love to discover. Very, very old and filled with bits and pieces for sale. Lots of antique items and other bits you'd normally see in a garage sale. The thing we were amazed to see though, all through this store, on the ceiling, the walls and shelves are parts of super V8 cars, signed by the drivers, such as Peter Brock, Craig Lownes to mention a few. Great for the race fans which of course includes Steve.
We got into Ballarat around 2pm, this was the first time for both of us and we just drove down the main street both pointing and yelling, "look at that one" "Oh see the lace on that one". The historical houses in this place amazed us. One after another. We found Anne, the owner of the B&B we were staying at and picked up the key. She owns and runs a little bedding gift shop with all the accesories I love so I was in heaven.
As we spent the next few days in Ballarat we were to discover like many towns in Australia, it has its set of problems such as bored youth etc but overall we found it such a friendly town. People were so helpful and quick to chat.
The first morning I went for a walk and stopped to pat a dog who was with two elderly gentlemen. They were very quiet and never said a word until the owner piped up and said "don't spoil her too much" then he laughed. I realised as I stood up why they were so quiet, I'd been giving them a birds eye view down my top. Oh well, probably topped the morning off for them.
We really did fall in love with this town and hope to go back soon. Maybe not everyones cup of tea but it would suit us.