I’m Off to Catch Me a Stingray

The last couple of weeks were pretty hectic. We’ve been packing for the holiday and trying to get the house ready for open inspections. I’ve also been frantically trying to leave my work in a state where my replacement doesn’t have to tear their hair out trying to find out where the hell I got up to and how on earth they tackle the project. Needless to say, it’s been a little bit stressful, but we managed to survive.

I also somehow managed to fit in two trips to the theatre to see the Melbourne Theatre Company. One play starred Noni Hazelhurst, who anyone my age would remember fondly from playschool, but whose acting career has since taken off. It was called Madagascar and was a moving play about the effect of adult “runaways” on their family and loved ones. It was set in Rome in one hotel room 5 years ago, 2 days ago and at the present. The different scenes were interwoven and the story of a young man’s disappearance, the circumstances surrounding it and the devastating consequences slowly unraveled. It did move quite slowly, but I found that the plot was interesting enough to keep me hanging on waiting to find out what happens.

The second play was called The Swimming Club and featured a number of minor stars from Australian stage and screen. The idea of this play was quite charming – a group of people who met in Greece 25 years ago and then meet up for a reunion in middle age after marriages, divorces, children, affairs, etc. The acting was great, but I found this play did move too slowly. It didn’t keep me enthralled and I didn’t really identify or sympathise with the characters. It was fun and entertaining though, so not a complete waste of time.

My last day at work was a bit of an emotional one. I was sad to leave the girls who I’d become such good friends with, but I was happy to be moving on to try something new. The group had bought me a gorgeous present, written beautiful things about me in a farewell card and even said lovely things in speeches. I’m sure they can’t all be true! Although my baking skills are exceptional, so I’ll give them that one. Hehehe! We’ve already arranged a time to see each other again, so I’m sure we won’t lose touch for a while yet.

Early on Friday morning – before the crack of dawn even, Paul and I bundled Myf into the back of the car and set off for Adelaide. We stopped around 3 hours into the drive at Horsham for Myf’s first toilet stop and the first driver change. Then we stopped at Nhill, about an hour later for a coffee top up. Our final stop was at Keith for the last driver change. As with all road trips, we feasted on junk food for the entire journey; breakfast was cookies and cupcakes left over from my work farewell party and lunch was hot chips from Keith.

We arrived in Goolwa at around 3pm to drop Myf off with my Aunt and her puppy, Tuppy. Myf and Tuppy are still trying to work out who’s the boss. The older Myf, or the home owner, Tuppy. They go through periods of playing happily and sleeping next to each other but will occasionally give each other warning growls to let the other know that they’ve had enough or they don’t appreciate what the other’s doing. I’m sure it’s all natural and as they’re both such sweet natured, friendly dogs, they’ll have it all figured out soon.

On Saturday, I went to another cultural event. I saw the Chooky Dancers performing “Wrong Skin” as a part of the Fringe Festival. They were great! There was a Romeo and Juliet style tragic love story, woven between bouts of their fun, free and entertaining dancing with influences from modern video clips, old movies and bollywood. It was refreshing to see a bunch of people up on stage obviously having a ball with what they do. Check out this youtube clip and check out the chooky dancers if you ever have the chance.

Sunday was a full day. I had brunch with friends who had been in London for 2 years and had just moved back to Adelaide. We ate at the Tin Cat Café, and the food was really good. I had eggs benedict and the ham was thick and tasty and the eggs were cooked perfectly.

In the afternoon, I caught up with another friend, whose 30^th I’d missed earlier in the year. To make it up to her, I took her out for high tea at the Intercontinental. YUM! I recommend this to all the girls out there. It’s not as expensive as some of the high teas that are around, but you get champagne on arrival, as much tea and coffee as you want and a great selection of tasty afternoon tea foods. Savouries on the bottom, petit fours in the middle and scones up the top. The service was great too.

This now brings me to my title. This afternoon Paul and I fly to Coffin Bay where we’re meeting up with my parents. We’re spending 10 days there fishing, reading and relaxing in general. Last time we were in coffin bay, almost a year ago, we had such a great time, we begged to be allowed back. We spent quite a lot of our time fishing out in the boat and caught a large number of squid and had a reasonable haul of KG Whiting and Garfish. Much more interesting than that, however, was Paul’s battle with the stingray. On three separate occasions he managed to hook a stingray. We didn’t see the ray, we only know through Dad’s expertise of what stingrays do to fishing lines, rods etc that that was what was on the end of the line. So this time Paul has vowed to land that sucker. Let’s just see how successful he is. Haha!

Now all that remains is for me to bid you all farewell. I’ll be sure to fill you in on all the fun that was had and bore you with hundreds of pictures upon my return. I hope you all have a lovely couple of weeks.

Cheerio!