Canberra and Back in a Day

So today we went to Canberra. What fun.

I picked up Jem from Hornsby at 9:20 or so this morning and drove to pick up Rach. We were going to Canberra so Rach could get her learners hours up. We managed to do that quite successfully. Leaving Rach's house 20 minutes late we headed off in search of our nation's capital at no more than 80kms an hour. This was all against the advice of our worried parents.

The trip down was fun. We had silly conversation. Many times silly conversations lead to one of us taking mock offence, but then that just seems to be the way conversations go these days. Jem and I sung a lot of John Mayer quite badly.

I ate breakfast in Berrima. It is a town full of jam, craft and old people. Our presence in the town probably brought the average age of the people there down about 50 years.

From Berrima it was straight on to Canberra. What a fine (and circular) place Canberra is. On arriving in the city we drove straight to Parliament House where we got security checked were then allowed to sit in on part of a session of parliament. It was mighty good fun. We all got to see out local members. We say Latham, Peter Grarrett, Crean, Bronwyn Bishop, and all sorts of other celebrities. I'm not quite sure what they were all nattering about, but their insults put a smile on our faces.

We left when Phillip Ruddock started a long blah about some mismangaged Labor lease agreement. We explored the building a bit looking at the paintings and historic documents (Is that the real Magna Carta? And if it is, what is it doing in Australia?).

From there is was a trip to Ali Baba. He fed us well.

We headed home, and had only just got out of Canberra, to Lake George to be precise, when we got caught in a storm. A big storm. We couldn't see out the front of the car windscreen so Rach pulled over and practiced using her hazard lights. This seemed like the best idea as most of the other cars on the road seemed to be doing the same. Soon, in a scenic spot by the Lake George (that was currently missing behind the pouring rain) the hail came. Big bits, as big as the top of my thumb perhaps. I know that doesn't sound big, but they look big. It was most exciting.

Once the rain eased we headed for home once more, and were soon in the sunshine again, with no memory of the deluge behind us.

Homeward bound was a little quieter, and tireder. Rach got progressively sicker with a cold that she had probably picked up from the Berrima locals. Jem, well, she was a good passenger, keeping up her end of the conversation nicely and encouraging us to sing carols.

Once back near Sydney, we dropped Jem off at a farm that Ryan is currently house sitting. My sister and Martin were there too. It was a nice farm although, seeing as we arrived at around 9pm I couldn't see much of it.

I drove home the last leg and we talked about the alphabet and how news travels. Twas good.

Now I have arrived home. It is good to be back in the land which is mine. I've just eaten some butter chicken from a frozen meal and it's better than I thought it'd be.