Sunday, July 20, 2008

Friday in Canberra dawned cold, wet, and miserable just like the days before. Work was endured, and the ride home was freezing. The car was loaded up, my brother collected, and to the sunshine we headed!

We have just arrived home from a rather glorious weekend in Merimbula. It was the first time in quite a while that all six of us have managed to be in the same place at the same time: My parents, Aidan and I, my brother Brad, and his girlfriend Kim.

The occasion: My father's 60th birthday celebration!

This is the view from our upper balcony, at the rather glorious unit my parents rented. The house was superb: large, well designed, beautifully furnished... the kind of place you could never actually live in, for fear of making it messy. And the view out over the lake... well, see for yourself!

We had brunch on Saturday morning at a cafe by the lake. Several children were frolicking and generally being loud, and we just kept waiting for one of them to fall in... seems like this child's mother had the same thought! (Yes, I blacked out her face, she doesn't actually look like that!)

This is one of the two or three magpies that my parents kept feeding on the balcony. They would actually take food from the hand - the magpies, not my parents. Cheeky little buggers!

Later on Saturday we went to an arcade called "Top Fun", for no known reason, and played mini golf! I tried to convince dad that it was his idea by saying, "Dad, there's mini golf. How do I make you think you thought of it?", to which he replied, "What a good idea I've just had!" And it was, indeed, top fun. Dad won, mum lost, the rest of us were somewhere in between... I believe all us girls were last: I was fifth, Kim was fourth. The boys beat us all hands down!

This, of course, is dad. I still think he looks about 45 or 50, I have trouble realising he's 60 now! He says that next year he'll be turning 59.

So now we're home, and wishing we could have stayed. The drive back was somewhat symbolic of our attitude towards our home: the closer we got, the worse the weather became. It started raining as soon as we hit the west side of Brown Mountain, and continued, and continued, and continued. It's still drizzling here at home, about four hours later. I just hope it clears up by the morning, so I don't get wet as I ride to work!

9 comments:

Andrew said...

Sounds like you had a great time at Merimbula. Thats funny, when I met your parents I thought they were cheekly little buggers as well. I thought minigolf was not your cup-of-tea. Im glad there is someone in the world who can beat Aidan.
Take care
A.

Stace said...

Hi Andrew :) Mini golf is an occasional enjoyment, but it's not too often I'm really in the mood for it. Happily, this weekend was one of the times I was! My parents, particularly my father, certainly a cheeky little bugger! But I doubt he'd eat straight from my hand...

Cazzie!!! said...

Oh Stace, what a gr8 time you all had! We are going to stay at Merrimbula on our next journey, as you know, we made it to Lakes Entrance a few weeks ago..well, Merrimbula beckons us for fishing... any tips on places to stay witha caravan?

elizabeth said...

I wish we had magpies...

Stace said...

Cazzie, http://www.merimbulabeachholidaypark.com.au/
We walked past this place (actually we trespassed slightly to get down to the boardwalk along the lake!) Lovely spot :)

Elizabeth - there are places in the world without magpies? I had no idea! They're not all nice and tame, mostly they dive-bomb people who get too near their nests.

WithinWithout said...

Merimbula? That sounds like some sort of far-away galaxy from Star Trek!!! But obviously it isn't.

It sounds like the lot of you had a great time. Your dad DOES look 50, not 60.

But why no pix of you!! Get bloody Aidan to force you to pose! Or the two of you together!

Canada does have magpies, and they're very intelligent but incredibly annoying.

You have to admire them.

Stace said...

Chris - I'm sure you dudes have some freaky place names in Canada too! Merimbula is far from the most interesting here... I only have to go 10 minutes down the road to find Fyshwick, Narrabunda, and Queanbeyan. I grew up in Euroa and later moved to Maribyrnong. Then over in Western Australia there's Kalgoorlie, Meekatharra, and Manjimup! :)

I only have one (quite bad) photo of me from the holiday, it's up on Facebook.

lee said...

Stace, your Dad does look very young and slim. But don't tell him that - men need to be kept in their place ;).

Romeo Morningwood said...

Merimbula sounds like some fancy schmancy latin name for the impulse control portion of the brain...
"Hello Stace, this is Dr Donnnn,
I have the results of your preliminary test..now hopefully we won't have to extract your Meekatharra or repair your Merimbula but we won't know for sure until we open up your Euroa."

and yes Canada has some gawdawful names.

Your Daddy looks fantastic atleast ten years younger..amazing..great genes!

I'll have to check my Facebook this week to see more photos.

Hi Lee!