THURSDAY MAY 7     CANBERRA

John could not sleep in late, as he was to attend the boys swimming sports – an inter-school regional type of meeting. I was certain that the chlorinated atmosphere would be bad for my cough! This cold had turned out to be far more convenient than such things usually are…

John was back earlier than I’d expected. Both boys qualified for their next level of competition.

While he was gone, I emailed  my daughter – to whom we’d had mail redirected – asking her to open and check for anything that needed attention – like the electricity bill.

John’s opal mining friend phoned. He’d had to go up to Lightning Ridge earlier than he’d expected. He’d arrived there at 2am this morning – and had hit two kangaroos on the way, driving his Coaster, an older model than ours. I considered him crazy to drive in those parts after dark, but some people are risk takers. He said he would have to be back in Melbourne before we get up there. So John would not be getting to explore his mine, this trip. Couldn’t be helped – the man did have a business to run at home.

I phoned and booked a Cowra caravan park for three nights.

John put the wardrobe door back in place, now glue was dry. It was all fixed well, and no longer was hard to open.

Grassed area in front of our site

We were to be at the family’s place for dinner, by 6pm. En route, we only missed one of the GPS lady’s directions, which, given the nature of Canberra roads, was pretty good.

Couey got tethered in the back yard, about which she was not happy. But she settled, after a fashion – never taking her eyes off us, visible through the large glass wall of the room we were in.

We enjoyed a very nice roast lamb meal, with a chocolate self saucing pudding for dessert.

John showed the boys a presentation, on his laptop. This had been prepared by John’s brother, on the boys’ great grandfather’s service in World War 1, on the Western Front. They were quite engrossed with this, in the context of all the current attention on that war.

We left before 9pm, being conscious that tomorrow was a school and work day for the family.