Weekend escape to Dubbo

On Tuesday night we made a very last minute decision to head to Dubbo Zoo this weekend. Thinking it might be our last chance to use our annual pass and not wanting to go in the high-heat of Summer. Looks like we missed the window though we temps of around 30 degrees.

We packed up and set off once the girls were home from school. We were lucky to not hit much traffic as we drove through Sydney before heading through the Blue Mountains.

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Then over the mountains….

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while I started work on a new blanket (thanks Heather for the help)

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and finally into Lithgow…

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where we stopped for dinner at Subway.

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Christy had a bit of a meltdown  over not getting the dinner (plain roll) that she wanted. She ended up not eating and was in a bad mood for ages.

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We hit the road again as the sun was setting…

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Don’t the plane vapor trails look so cool?

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One last “toilet” stop at McDonalds.

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Finally after way too many hours (6 instead of the 5 we thought it was) we arrived at the Country Apartments and got checked in. I quickly grabbed some photos…

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we got unpacked and fell into bed at 11pm. Because tomorrow we’re off to the Zoo!!!

Oh, and isn’t this the cutest little bottle of milk you ever did see? I’m not letting anyone drink it 🙂

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Spring Clean the Wardrobe

Still slowly making my way around the home. It’s very hard with this arthritis and heal spur, but last week I did manage to attack our walk-in-wardrobe.

Turning this…

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into this… the top was driving me mad as this what you see when you walk into the room.

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Before…

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After…

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And “Kevin’s” side….before…

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After…

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See my bags all nice and organised now…. I’m sure there is a better way though…if anyone has any ideas please let me know.

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And the other side with Kevin’s stuff …. and my scarves…

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Poor Kevin when I look at the photos I realize how little space he has in our wardrobe….not that he needs any more. Guess it’s lucky for me he’s not into fashion… or handbags!

The week that was

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Finally a week of blue skies and warm-hot weather (only one cold day this week).

It was the week of more buds on our ornamental pear tree – love watching it fill up more and more each week…

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and the gardinias starting to bloom…

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It was the week of trick or treating…

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and games played with friends….with Kevin away (in Thredbo) for the weekend the girls had friends over all weekend…

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It was the week of new Crocs – aren’t they so nice?

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It was the week of adding more raw foods into my diet…. looking for a way to reduce my arthritis pain….

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and the week I discovered my new favourite juice – carrot, celery, apple, pineapple and beetroot….

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It was the week of my high school reunion and a drive by the police station where I once did work experience…

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It was the week I found this little bird stuck in our house and rescued him….

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It was the week Amy made some vegan cupcakes to take to school….

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and I found this lovely looking dessert to make for our early xmas eve lunch with friends….

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It was the week I wore shorts for the first time in 12.5 years…. only around the house mind you as it’s not a great look with my compression stocking…

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and finally it was week of downward-facing dogs….

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Not a lot of photos to share as it was the week I suffered with a lot of headaches and generally not feeling real well :-(.

High School Reunion

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Last night I headed back to my old stomping ground in Sydney to attend a High School reunion for our year 10. Being that I went on to year 12 there were quite a few girls that I did not remember.

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It was fantastic to catch up with “my group”, whom thanks to facebook I’m in more regular contact with now.

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Amanda (on the left) was my Math buddy and I haven’t seen her since 1988. You might remember Suzanne from when I met up with her in London last year, and Kimberly (right) lives abroad (and I also haven’t seen since 1988). Overall most girls hadn’t changed very much. Most just have much better hair these days :-).

Of course, you know my best friend Leanne and her other best friend, also Leanne. Being that I spend much of the night sitting on the couch (due to sore feet and then a headache) I nearly missed getting a photo of the three of us.

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It was really great to catch up with Nicole (our Mum’s were great friends) so even though we weren’t school friends we spend a lot of time together as children.

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A lot of girls really didn’t seem to know who I was. Not sure I knew either as my high school name was Liz Given and for the last 19 years I’ve been Libby Withnall :-).

Now my hair was not actually naturally curly when I was younger but unfortunately school photos were taken right when I had a LOVELY 80s perm. When I saw the photo I kind of got why know one knew who I was.  What do you think? Would you have recognised me?

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Despite feeling really poorly I was glad I made the effort to go. It was just a shame I couldn’t fully enjoy it.

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