Dec 2006

Its so nice to finally be here. Its Thursday now and I'm doing this on my sister Judy's computer. We got in last night to the motel around 11.30pm.
Tuesday I spent the day doing the final pack. Hollie came home, packed her stuff then she went to Chris's place till it was time to go.. Steve worked up till about 2pm. We got into our Sydney motel aorund 11pm. Stevbe asked which bag we wanted to take up to the room, Hollie and I said all of them. So there we were standing outside the car with Hollie's HUGE pink monster bag, my medium size, normal bag and then here is Steve's tiny little bag. Pretty pathetic really. Hollie's is on wheels so she was able to pull hers along but Steve, ever the gentlemen carried mine and his. I said we'd have to get the parking ticket from reception as it was $5, Steve complained and said "yeah by the time we pay the extras it costs us as much as the big hotels!! No it doesn't, I'd done my homework. As he's dragging the bags into the hotle he was muttering under his breatn "probably cost us another $5 to go up the elevator". He had to shut up when the guy gave us the parking for free. We finally stagger into our oversized wardrobe of a room. Talk about tiny. There's even a note on the bathroom door to make sure you keep the door closed when you have a shower so the water doesn't wet the carpet.
I'll continue this with another page on how we got on on our flight.

Well we've decided to stay in a hotel Tuesday night now as the morning traffic in Sydney has gotten so bad over the last few months we felt we'd need to leave by 2.30am to get there on time and once we fly into Auckland we then have a 5 hour trip ahead of us. I got on to Wotif.com, what an awesome site. Got a airport hotel for $87.00 for 3 of us for the night. Steve will work up until 12, lunchtime then we'll do the last minute packing and leave Tuesday night.
Yesterday Steve had to work all day and his last pick up was at Wilmotts down in Cooma. They make furniture out of recycled timber. Absolutley beautiful. They've been customers of his for many years. Here's their website if you'd like a look.

http://www.thewillmottcollection.com.au/tables/index.asp

The father and son make the tables and the work is suburb. Anyway Steve picked me up and I went for a ride with him. Nice being in the truck again. We turned off just before Cooma and then after a while turned onto a gravel road. We continued up this for about 20km leaving a huge dust cloud behind us. They used to have their business in Fyshwick but wanted to move to the country. I do too but I don't think we'll be going that far into the boonies!!
Their house is an old farmhouse that they are slowly doing up. Every bedroom has a fireplace. After we loaded the truck, i.e. Steve and Daniel did the physical work but I was there for them in spirit. These tables are huge and solid. The legs are turned and massive center pieces so you can imagine really heavy. The workshop is a converted shearing shed. The smell of the sheep remains heavy in there. It was so quiet out there and so peaceful. Daniel's parents came over just as they finished and invited us to join them for dinner. It was a really pleasant evening with Steve and I doing most of the talking as usual.
We got home around midnight, which is way past my bedtime. Very enjoyable night though.

Well the day started early, got to work just after 6:30am. 71 cheques to bank so took most of the day to process, then it was accounts payable. Busy day but got through it and in between had some nice conversations with a couple of people. Makes one glad they work there. Still I needed relief from all that built up stress. Rang home and Steve had just got in, so off home quickly for a bit of 'how's ya father'.
Didn't quiet picture announcing it to the world when I got back but oh well. To those of you still so young to find anyone over 40 doing it repulsive just wait till I'm 60. On my return the party was in full swing and so was Gayle. And for those who missed my announcement I can thank Gayle for making sure EVERYONE heard about it.
Then its on to the games, lots of fun except noone told me the secret so I can take it to NZ. After dinner we had a little bit of stretching, led by Gayle. Damn!! who knew,.... that lady is very flexible. Great party trick Gayle, I'll be taking that to NZ as well. Where's the damn video when you need it.
I thank those who were so thoughtful in giving the little gifts to us all, Renay, Steph and the mystery person who I'm not allowed to name yet. Thank you all for your effort, very sweet.
Renay I'm sorry I didn't get to say Merry Xmas to you, had something else on my mind but thought of it on my way back.
Today begins the major clean up here and last minute things to get ready for the big fly off Wednesday morning.
Well guys, talk to you again soon, I'm hoping to get up early enough Wednesday morning to say bye before we leave for Sydney but we have to leave by 4am so i'm not promising.

Well its Thursday night, one more sleep till I leave work to go on three weeks holiday. Tomorrow its going to be all go as I try and complete everything so I can leave. Our xmas party starts at 4pm, hopefully everyone will be dressed for the celebration. We will also be sending Lou off into the wide blue yonder as he begins his great adventure on the coast as a fish and chip shop owner. How cool is he going to be doing that.
I will spend the first four days of our holiday getting the house tidied up so we can leave Wednesday morning. Our house is being housesat so we wont have to worry about Gumby (dog) and Strippy (cat) while we're away.
This is my first entry and seeing as I haven't even left work yet there's really not much to say. I just wanted to get it up and going so I can give everyone the site to check up on me.
Love to all Pam