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and last updated March 23rd.,1999.
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Our Friday afternoon reliever, the lovely Alex, had a Saturday morning free, and the husband, who has felt very stuck-at-home since I went tripping off last year , wanted to go away, too..and he had so enjoyed Leigh Park , the multi-activity Murray River Host Farm we discovered with my mother some years ago that I agreed to go again,figuring he'd been so decent about my having three months away last year that he deserved his chance to choose..
.......And besides, I'd heard they had just opened a really great new tavern just a few kilometres down thehighway , opposite the rural store, and figured a Saturday night there or at the licensed club with the poker machines would be a nice change from preparing meals, which I do seven days a week...
So..No problem you say?
Yes, this should have have worked fine.... except that, having shown him where in the freezer the precooked foods were, I neglected to tell him to actually PACK them, so we were at work and the food was HOME, and the big cooler had things in it like 3 tomatoes and some de-alcoholized wine and some spices and a pack of Gladwrap...which meant a trip back to the house for me, which I didn't mind too much because it gave me a chance to include all those things he said we wouldn't take because we were to travel LIGHT....but which meant all my normal pharmacy jobs had to be even further condensed, and then while I was away we received a book delivery which meant lots of marking off and pricing and a new window display when I returned, and then the rosters turned out not to be right for next week , and I was reprinting those while HE was sitting in the car all impatient,map on seat, working out this Brave New Way to go!!.....
This time, an hour and a half from startout, (and some thirty kilometres from starting point), he was still arguing that the way we normally go, using all well-known roads en route to the freeway.. was out of our way...hmmm!
Any way, to cut a long story short, I decided, three hours from home that I had better drive the next three hours of this four-hour trip, with him navigating.. and I showed him how I thought we SHOULD go now that we had an, er..amended route, but he STILL knew a better way to save time, which entailed driving some thirty kilometres of unmade road...and remember, Bundalong is only three kilometres from Australia's Prime Freeway, the Hume Highway, which has a 110kph speed limit and runs all the way from Melbourne, which one can bypass using the new, purpose built Western Ring Road and here was I holding the car down over corrugated dust at a risky 50kph.....hmmm!
They have six cottages on the farm, three two-bedroom and three three- bedroom, and each named for an Australian tree ; ours, Yellow-Box, had a queen bed, four single beds, a folding bed.....and a cot in our walkin wardrobe/dressing room!!
But he said he wanted a real REST.. didn't want to be shopping for food or eating out, so I cooked ahead, froze everything, packed, and prepared to leave directly from work on the Friday lunchtime, a task requiring some serious fine-tuning, even though we had been before, and knew the drive should only take a little more than three hours..
(And I MUST somehow remind myself,in future, that no matter how agreeable and charitable I feel, ,I should NEVER, agree, EVER, to letting him select the ROUTE!!)
To ANYWHERE!!!!
I mean..I can get lost in England, and America...but this man gets lost within 15 kilometres of his SHOP, for goodness sake...he has a habit of working out great new ways to save kilometres!
Anyway, we did, finally, arrive, although not exactly in daylight, to find we had a whole three bedroom, two bathroom cottage as our address for the weekend, which was great because it meant we didn't have to share a bathroom and also that it was a different unit from the one we stayed in with my mother in 1996, though had her ghost been hovering, it would have been a benign influence, she having enjoyed herself so much on that trip, one of the few times we ever took her away.
Because the farm is three kilometres off the highway, there is no traffic noise...in fact, there is no noise at all unless you count the waterbirds, and wildlife and amorous Bogong Moths...the farm animals seem to bed down early, although there is a cockatoo which might as well be a watchdog, as we found to our cost when we accidentally set the spa going quite late at night..no need for an insinkerator here, either...food scraps we put out at night were well gone in the morning, the ducks having learned to recognise which units are occupied....and when the occupants are about to eat!
With such a great kitchen, I'd LIKE to say that out first dinner was just superb...but after we worked out where the night lights were for the pool and tennis court, and I made it back to the cottage to change into my swimsuit, the thunder started up and it rained so heavily I didn't feel like getting wet going for a swim,so while the husband relaxed, I took a bath instead, my minute bathroom at home not affording such a luxury..but having organized dinner first, ..I THOUGHT!!
But theSouth-Australian wine I had packed on that unexpected trip back home was nice..so I drank most of it and sat out on a long, long verandah, and listened to the billabong and felt almost glad that Bundalong doesn't have local call access to AOL, Austasia, IBM or Ozemail!
Unfortunately, the husband, to make up for his earlier oversights, had allowed no room for error this time..EVERYTHING was now in the freezer, so that the steak I had thought would be nicely thawed by now was frozen solid, along with the vegetable mix..requiring (at 10pm) the kind of rapid microwave defrost which renders vegetables soggy and steak impossibly tough....
Back indoors, the TV worked, the evaporative air-conditioning worked, (but you could still have windows and doors open..great!!) and there were two couches..one each..long enough for me to stretch right out, and the husband...well...amost!!
Next morning, after tea from our trusty Hobbs Teamaker, transported from home (another of my second-guess inclusions),and with the washing doing itself nicely in the all-mod-cons laundry, we played tennis in the middle of all the farm noises and activities, and what so unded suspiciously like gunfire..lots of it.. before breakfasting from the Red-Riding-Hood type covered basket that the hostess makes up for each cottage.
And then in the afternoon, after I'd had a sleep to get my strength back, (You know what they say about Mad Dogs and Englishmen), and after I'd transferred the digital photos from the morning to this laptop, we played the pitch-and-Putt golf course...we hadn't unpacked our golf bags in six years, not since the husband did something dreadful to his back, and then his leg developed a varicose ulcer, so I had an interesting time getting to know my clubs again....and was glad to find they are really a very nice set though I have no idea where the bright red and black wood covers came from. So..to whoever gave them to me for birthday or Christmas...thankyou! They are really great!!
And because it was so long since I had played, my body had sort of forgotten it could't use irons, so I was making quite a creditable job of using what my husband had left in my bag after he removed all my long woods..
But I retrieved the 3,4,and 5 woods, of course, and went looking for the 6 wood but that didn't seem to be there, and husband assures me I never bought it...funny..I could have SWORN I had one...!
But HE says I have to learn to use the IRONS and should leave the woods home....hmmm!!
Any way, I actually enjoyed finding that I can still hit a mean, straight ball, and what with that and meeting all the animals that surround the little course, and talking with the hostess about attracting American tourists here,and how suitable it is for those wanting to see the REAL ORSTRAHLIA , and how easy it is to get here from Melbourne Airport these days-- and how Host Farm is really a bit of a misleading description for the resort, ( and that another description is being sought), and how this Easter is booked out but she has two vacancies for Easter 2000, it was soon 6pm and time for a swim and spa...after starting dinner, of course..
And the husband thought he'd like to go for a walk along the river after we'd dried off and dressed, but I had a chocolate mudcake in the oven for dessert , and convinced him that we MUST have icecream with that, so he agreed that it wouldn't hurt to drive up the highway and check out the store, and the new tavern opposite....
Of course, the next day was going home day, even though Leigh Farm is pretty nice about late checkouts, so the husband had time for another game of golf while I pottered about packing.....and cooking , of course..!!
The ducks were very glad I had cooked too much to eat, and that we decided not to take it home with us...
Course, we had forgotten that this was the opening of duck season, which was what the guns had been all about.. so fresh bread or papers were out of the question, but the owner, ( who will have to UP his act after we organize all the American tourists there) did find us his last 1Litre tub of icecream,, and the husband stocked up on beer,and juice, which hadn't been in the breakfast basket,( though oranges and a squeezer had), and I bought two UDL cans and a pack of salt-and-vinegar chips, but the husband seemed more impressed with the tavern than with the store, so perhaps next time I can pack a dress-up outfit...perhaps Easter 2000?
And we sat on the verandah, and ate a long, leisurely lunch while the ducks waited..and waited..and the rain started..rain which was to set in all over the state for a few days, making going home, (which took just over THREE hours via the freeway and Ring Road) that much easier!
And I guess the kitchen will still be here next time...and next time, I must remember to pack kitchen tongs and oven-mitts!
But I can't help wondering why it is that I seem destined to holiday, no matter WHICH country, only with men who want to eat IN?????
-WANT TO SEE WHERE I WENT NEXT?
1998
WANT TO SEE WHAT WAS HAPPENING BACK HOME?WANT TO LOOK BACK AT SOME EARLIER TRAVELS?
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©Robin Knight, 1999.
