This morning I had to get up super early, but having packed everything up efficiently the night before, there was less rushing about to do. When I came downstairs, I was surprised to find Stu on the sofa! It turned out he too was going to the airport this morning (he was heading to Sydney on a different flight to me but at the same time) so Matt had offered to give him a lift, along with me, on his way to work. I made tea which seemed to wake everyone up enough for us to pack the car up and head off.
Once at the airport, Stu and I checked in to our respective flights and then the three of us had a coffee and doughnut for brekkie! Lovely! Then Matt left us to go to work and Stu and I mooched around the terminal, before the boards told us that we had to go to our gates; we said cheerio and off we went.
I was excited to get on the plane first once again (go me!) and then soon I was jetting back to Sydney (after a bit of a delay – grrr!). I took the opportunity to have a bit of a kip as I knew I would be dash-dash-dashing once I got off at the other end. I wasn’t wrong!
At 10am, having disembarked from the plane and collected my bags, I had to get on the train from the airport to the city. Then because there were engineering works on the train line, I had to get on a rail-replacement bus which took me part of the way, then I had to get off and wait for another train, for the last part of the journey which brought me into Bombaderry at 3pm, where Larissa was waiting for me! Phew!
It was great seeing Larissa again and as soon as we had loaded my gear into her car, we were on our way to Bodalla, to see Kim! The drive took about three hours and took us through some familiar places; Berry, Gerringong, Bateman’s Bay, Nowra and several other places I visited in 2005 with Rotary. We spent the whole journey chit-chat-chatting, which helped the three hour drive pass quite quickly!
Eventually, we arrived at Kim’s house at 6pm – it was next to the now-empty Bodalla cheese factory and the ‘Big Cheese’, which is still there but no longer really relevant as the factory itself has closed (so therefore the cheese is now somewhat dilapidated). Kim was there on the veranda waiting for us, along with her sister, brother in law, two nephews and their girlfriends! Quite a good group to help Kim celebrate her birthday! She showed us to our room and gave me a tour of her house. It is really old (in Aussie terms!), which is why she bought it as she is now restoring it, although it does still need a lot of work – the gaps in the walls are currently stuffed with newspaper to stop drafts and some of the wiring leaves much to be desired! The tour over, we all settled down in the lounge with a beer and chatted; Kim’s family seemed really nice – just as down to earth and life and soul as she is! Larissa and I both gave Kim her birthday presents which went down very well indeed; this was hardly surprising as we’d both got her alcohol!
A couple of beers later and it was time to get ready to go to the pub for the evening’s incredibly exciting event – Christmas in July! No, they're not completely mad, it’s something that is quite common in Oz; often it’s a fundraiser or something, but always has the same sort of theme – a full Christmas lunch; Brit-style with turkey etc! I guess this is because the regular festive season is always so hot, which means that they don’t want to do the hot-roast thing in December, plus you can’t have the roaring fire etc. Anyway, I was very excted as I hadn’t been to one before!
We walked down to the pub; the only one in Bodalla and Larissa and I were instantly taken aback by how ‘local’ it was – everyone clearly knew each other, so gave us a bit of a funny look when we walked in! The guy behind the bar told us that they were still setting up, so we had time for a drink amongst the locals (slightly scary!) before going through to the function room. When we walked through the bar, I realised just what a lovely building it was – so old with lots of original features, although sadly it doesn’t look like the owners take proper care of it, which is such a shame as it really could be beautiful! It is also a hotel, again slightly old-school, with shared bathrooms, but either way, really cute!
The festivities were taking place in the function room, which was bedecked with a range of tacky decorations; only the high ceilings kind of made it look a bit meagre. It was still sweet, if a bit pathetic, in a kitsch way! The fireplace had a fantastic blazing fire, which we sat close to and the tables were laid out with crackers and other table decorations (the type with the honeycombed tissue paper!). Despite the fact that it could have been so much more festive, it was still really cool and we were all very excited!
Some more of Kim’s friends and colleagues joined us, so our table constituted over half of the total number of diners! The meal itself was not bad and was done in an alternate fashion, where they give you alternating plates, so you either stick with what you are given, or negotiate with someone who has been given the other option! For starters it was pumpkin or potato & leek soup – I had pumpkin and it was very nice indeed. The choice of mains was turkey & ham stack or belly pork – I had the pork which was great; I think I got the best deal as Larissa couldn’t tell which meat was the turkey and which was the ham as it tasted the same! Dessert was either plum pudding or pavlova – I had the former and was quite impressed although it tasted nothing like the Christmas pudding I am used to, so I am not sure whether Christmas pudding and plum pudding are actually two different things.
Throughout the meal, we wore our silly hats and listened to the dodgy carols playing on a CD. The fire was so hot that we started cooking! I enjoyed chatting to Larissa and some of Kim’s colleagues, who were all very friendly. I had a long chat with her sister too and I realised how similar they both are, which meant that she was very easy to get on with. Our table was quite raucous in comparison to the other two tables – full of old people! The best bit was when the local newspaper reporter took a photo of us, so who knows, maybe we’ll make the front page!
After dinner, we headed back to the bar and had a few more drinks before heading back to Kim’s, where we carried on chatting and drinking for a while. Both Larissa and I were both incredibly tired, so decided to turn in. We got ready for bed and once she was in her bed, I went to turn out the light, but forgot which bit of the switch Kim had said not to touch and promptly got electrocuted! As there was no door on our bedroom (beaded curtains for the moment!), from the lounge, Kim and the others saw me and heard the zap and my yelp; she came rushing in and Larissa jumped up to see if I was ok. I was fine, if a bit stunned and with a slightly buzzing feeling in my hand and arm, oh and suddenly I didn’t feel so sleepy any more! Once we were all sure I was fine, Kim tucked us into bed and turned the light out!
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