Justin and our Melbourne neighbour Val were competing in the Race around the Rock (Hanging Rock) 13.5km run on Saturday morning
So, we thought that we would invite Val and George up to Inglewood for the weekend - given that we were just about 1/2 way there.
Was an early start, and it was cold, wet, windy and miserable. The temperature was supposed to be 8 degrees
We arrived at Hanging Rock just before 9am, and reluctantly left the comfort of the car for the horrors of outside.
Given that we couldn't find Val and George, we wondered if they had changed their minds about coming and stayed warm and comfy in bed.
They didn't and we found them by the coffee van trying to warm up with a cup of coffee
Justin and Val set off on their race a little later - Val looked happier about it than Justin
The runners were also supposed to run around the rock, but because of the rain, they had a detour, so it wasn't as scenic as it was supposed to be
George and I had also wanted to climb up the rock to see if we could see the runners - but the path up was closed due to the very windy conditions. So George put Dylan back in the car, and we went and waited at the finish line...
We also got very wet, I was wearing Justin's warm jacket, and my mobile phone was in the pocket. It got rather wet also - and actually stopped working. Justin had to take it apart once we got to Inglewood to let it dry out. Luckily it re-started and is still working....
Anyway, they took less than 1.5 hours, Justin came in first - and picked up his medal. George had to take the below photos for me, as my phone had stopped working, at that stage I thought it might have been my cold fingers not able to wake up the screen.
Val came a few minutes later, I don't have a photo of her success. By the way, she ended up coming a rather impressive 7th in her class. Justin came 15th out of 35. Also pretty good.
Anyway, George had organised a lovely picnic for us to share after the race, but given that it was still so miserable, we just wanted to get back into our warm dry cars and get onto Inglewood -and have an inside picnic there.
So, that's what we did. We eventually warmed and dried up in our cars, and got to the house just after 12.
Showed Val and George the improvements - as they had previously been here in June last year. And then had our picnic at the dining room table as it was also grey and gloomy in Inglewood.
George had made little smoked salmon and also prawn sandwiches, and also provided yummy cheeses and biscuits and hand milked Salmon caviar (said so on the label) and trout dip - delicious! All washed down by some wine. Not mulled, as we were warm enough by this stage, and Val had also set up a roaring fire.
So, it was a long and leisurely lunch, and given our early start, we adjourned for a postprandial nap
I had considered cooking up something for dinner, but we all agreed it would be easier to just go to the pub, so we did.
Got there after 7pm, and it wasn't very busy
We were very surprised when 3 of us received our meals, within 10 minutes of ordering, although Justin had to wait a little longer.
After dinner back to the house and upstairs for some music
I was very impressed that Val could remember so many lyrics of numerous songs
Sunday morning, and it was grey and dull again.
I heard George get up to walk Dylan, so I decided to join him. We drove to the reservoir (last time we had walked there with Dylan, and he kept straining against the lead), and then started walking around it.
Thought we would take a bit of a detour, and went up a track I hadn't been on before
Came across a mining tower
Saw a couple of kangaroos, luckily Dylan didn't, and made our way up to the tailings dams that Justin and I had seen a couple of weeks ago. Didn't let Dylan near them - as I was concerned that they might be poisonous.
George had reception on his phone, so used the gps function to bush-bash our way back to the Inglewood reservoir
And then drove back to the house for a modest breakfast of toast and coffee
Tidied up, and then onto Kingower to meet up with Maile and David at 10.30, as we were seeing a jazz/flamenco concert in Dunolly with them
Got to Dunolly before 12, so had a little wander around town, and yet another chuckle about the Queen Victoria plaque
Justin knows a J Desmond - so found this shop front amusing
Went and had lunch at the old Wrights on Broadway (can't remember the name of the new place)
We all had excellent food (although it took a little while to arrive)
And then back to the Town Hall for the Bart and Paco Flamenco/Jazz concert
Maile had organised us to have front row seats - because we're "special"
It was supposed to start at 2pm, however Rachel (the hostess/organiser) came on stage and advised that they were running late (artists!) and that we could all go for a short walk if we liked and come back at 2.30
So, Justin and I went to the Court House which was hosting a fancy Glass exhibition
Back to the Hall, where Justin spied them practising beforehand
And then Bart came on by himself. He is a jazz guitarist who played with a Flamenco twist
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| photo from the internet |
Then an afternoon Tea interval - where Justin took a photo of some grand mustachioed/bearded gentlemen
And also a plan of the Town hall
And then back in to listen to Paco - a Spanish Flamenco guitarist from Barcelona - who played flamenco with a jazz twist
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| photo from the internet |
Was a great concert, wonderful music, lovely intimate location. We'll certainly come back for more of these concerts.
Finished around 4.30pm
We milled around the front for a little while, and Maile introduced me to the inimitable Rachel who had organsied the whole she-bang
As Maile would say she's a "hoot" and I invited her to come and visit, and enjoy a G&T on the veranda some time.
Left for Melbourne via a rather circutous route blindly following the new passat gps through Maldon, and then onto Castlamine. Put our collective feet down when it said to rejoin the Calder at Malmsbury - stupid!!! We re-joined it after Castlemaine, and even once on the Tullamarine it was telling us to exit and go another way. Clearly a superceded map....Fine for city driving, but cross check against Google Maps/Melways in the country
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