Great news – we’re going back to Australia for a visit!
In September/October we’ll be flying for five thousand hours to enjoy the end of the footy (hopefully the Pies will still be there!), do some sightseeing, eat stacks of potato cakes and chiko rolls and get Bill to see more of Melbourne than he did back in April 2010.
It was only when I was looking at the dates for our trip when I realized it will be showtime in Melbourne. I looveeeee the Show and everything about it. Showbags, the smell of farm animals, the Big Big M, the Pie in the Sky, fairy floss, aching feet, dodgy rides and packed Showgrounds trains to Flinders Street – the whole thing! I am so excited to be able to share this with Bill.
We’re also planning a bit of a road trip after the footy is over – we’re going to drive up to Glenrowan, then onto Bethanga – where my ancestors first set up house, then Gundagai for the Dog on the Tuckerbox, the Ettamogah Pub and then… Parkes. Bill loves the movie The Dish (watched it long before this Aussie was in his life) and he has always wanted to see the actual dish. So ,we are on a mission to discover all there is to discover in Parkes. This should be fun as my only memories of Parkes is driving through it with mum and dad on one of our many summer holidays spent driving up to the north coast of New South Wales. We are then going to scoot across to Canberra to visit the War Memorial, Parliament House and Floriade. I didn’t even think anything of it until Sally tweeted me with “You’ll be there for Floriade!” So we are really looking forward to that!
This year we’ve also got a few trips to Albany up our sleeve, a long weekend to Lancaster, Pennsylvania and another long weekend in Boston where I’ll pay my millionth visit to my favourite library on earth, the JFK Library. Planning ahead, next year we are planning/hoping/will definitely do a trip to Rome, Venice, Paris and London.
For me, life is not normal unless I am stalking websites obsessively every day for cheap flights and typing itineraries and packing lists. We really are counting down for the trip in September, I cannot WAIT!