Upon our return to Australia on December 17th, we were lucky to have a beautiful house to "sit" in Gladstone. Roy's work mate, Hans and his wonderful wife Heidi, were on an extended holiday road trip to the South and were very kind to offer it to us. Roy returned to work and I reacquainted myself with Australian driving as I again had our scooter Tug to zoom around on. I enjoyed some sewing, reading, shopping for and cooking Roy's favorite dinners. Ahhh, the joys of once again converting my recipes to metric. Why O Why cannot the US convert to the metric system like the rest of the world? Don't get me started on that!
We had a very quiet Christmas; the first one in 35 years without children. Mixed feelings about that. I enjoyed meeting the small wonderful Gladstone Branch. Such faithful members; the Branch President and his wife drive 1.5 hours from Rockhampton where they live and he is also a member of the District Presidency there. Did I mention Roy volunteered me to speak in Sacrament meeting? So thoughtful. (ahhh, paybacks are so fun!) I was asked to speak about Journals and it was a good reminder to me, and I think it went pretty well.
I gently tease Roy about being Mr. Romantic - he planned a day trip to a plane wreck!! He actually finds, plans very fun, exciting and interesting adventures, beit a day trip, weekend or across an ocean. Our first foray was an hour drive to the West into the Kroombit Tops National Park to see the still somewhat intact wreck of the Beautiful Betty, a B-24 that was flying from Brisbane to Darwin with food in 1945 and it disappeared. It wasn't found until 1991 proving that there is still some very wild country in Queensland. Wildlife count for the trip: 3 large Gooannas, a big dark snake that we didn't stop to investigate, 3 water monitors, 3 rock wallabys, and a dozen gray kangaroos. Those "roos" can really move! The wire paddock fences didn't slow them down either, rather than jump over, they crawled through. Interesting.
Roy was able to get permission for me to visit the Project site during the slow holiday break - so good to finally see where he has been working for the past year. It is a lot larger than I had imagined; ~ 100 hectares. Very fun to see a wild brumby wander around while the large machinery was quiet. I so appreciate all Roy's hard work and long hours over there.
New Year's was another quiet day. We enjoyed a fun Branch party at the Wilkes's, where the Aussies devoured my 7 layer Taco Dip in short order! Came home early - once again did not make it to midnight.
Our second day trip took us to the Northwest to Mt. Morgan where our former Brisbane neighbor Juelle's good friend Bette lives and has lived her entire life. A work mate of Roy's, Tibor accompanied us. It was a beautiful day, we got lucky both travel days; actually Gladstone and area had a very dry December while I was there. Thankfully not too hot though. Roy wasn't complaining because he needed more time to get his erosion control installed on the project site.
Mt. Morgan is a small town, almost a bedroom community of Rockhampton. (or affectionately known as "Rocky" to the locals) It was the home to the largest Gold Mine in Australia in the early 20th century but now since the mine closed in the 1990's, it is struggling to survive. And it will, if Bette has anything to say about it! She loves her town! The Mine driving tour was very interesting; it must have been a busy place in it's hay day. Bette started working there as a teenager and left 40 something years later as Office manager.
I was able to cook some extra dinners and together with leftovers was able to stock Roy's small freezer to the brim. It was hard to leave but responsibilities called me home on January 7th.
No comments:
Post a Comment