Chillin' in Port Macquarie

Thanks to my wonderful Qantas airpoints, I managed to get a short trip in to Port Macquarie to see Chloe, Israel and Alana on my way to London. I love the little planes that take you up there - there's really something about seeing the propeller whizzing around so fast until it becomes see-through which helps you imagine how it must have been like flying in 'the olden days'.

Chloe et al live in a great house which borders a huge reserve on two sides - full of kookaburra and frogs (which I heard), kangaroo (which I saw) and snakes (which, thankfully, I neither heard nor saw). Maybe the presence of Indie, their boisterous bull terrier puppy helps to scare them off! It was such a nice, chilled visit. We basically just hung out playing with Alana who's now eight and a half months old and cute as a button (particularly the hands and feet which rotate around like crazy whenever she's happy or there's food nearby - that generally makes me happy too so I completely understand), and had a few excursions to the beach and into town. Port Macquarie has such a lazy atmosphere - and considering it was 23 degrees and the middle of winter I completely understand!

It was lovely seeing Chloe again too - it's sometimes a bit of a challenge keeping up with everyone when we all live scattered over the globe but it's great when you can talk to someone and it's like no time's gone by at all, you're exactly as you were. Hopefully we can meet up again in London soon!

No photos yet as I've resorted to using my old film camera in place of my sadly departed digi. Hopefully they come out ok! The excitement of anticipation is half the fun though anyway.

Next stop, San Francisco!

Photos from Oz-tray-ya

In an effort to be more diligent about posting photos, here are a selection from March and April of the various trips I've been doing in Australia. I was in Canberra, then Sydney, then back to Canberra, then down to Melbourne, and now back in Canberra... Oof! (And don't even go there on the carbon miles, I know, I know...).


I've been doing a bit of sightseeing in Canberra and should hopefully have some more after another round of visiting stuff this weekend. Sydney was a lovely day just wandering around in the sun and Melbourne (and Hamilton in rural Victoria) was a wonderful, relaxing Easter with Jesse, Arte and the absolutely adorable Clio. We played golf, ate roast goose and lots of Easter eggs, drank fantastic wine, hung out in the garden reading books and generally enjoyed being alive - can't complain at all!

I also saw a game of Ozzie Rules at the MCG, went shopping in Fitzroy, caught up with the lovely Amy and sat in an airport terminal for five and a half hours waiting for a delayed flight back to Canberra. Yes, well, the last one isn't so fabulous but definitely worthy of mention (do not, I repeat, do not fly Tiger Airways if you want to get somewhere on time...).

But this I think is the video of the trip so far:

Yikes!