Bridge-Bridge

Maryborough 

T-minus

THINGS TO DO

Bond store

Train Museum over enthusiastic 

Walk at the opposite side of park where we boat. 

Main park scale model train. 

Waterfront region near the sailing club. 

FRIDAY NIGHT

Packed sports bag into the car. 

SATURDAY 

During the night remembered my blazer and put it in the kitchen. 

5:30 Alarm. Share coffee with Phoebe. Had intended to leave at 6 but this was delayed until 6:30.  Took several attempts to leave. Got onto Oxley Rd and realised I'd forgotten my coffee. U turn. Home and Phoebe said she'd run after me but I'd gotten away. Then she asked if I had my lunch. Ahh no. It was still in the fridge.  Thank you Phoebe 😊. 

Finally on the road. 

Dropped into Aspley maccas and got a sausage and egg mcmuffin.

Next stop was an hour out of Maryborough for a wee and look up and set the exact address. 

9:50 Arrived. 

Parked on the road above the rowing club. Began to collect the stuff I'd need into a woolies bag. Sun was hot.  Put on sunscreen.  Sarah and her family parked near by as did Scotty.  Mike joined as and we walked to the rowing club. 

Beastie & JT and the boat was already there. They'd made very good time. 

Unloaded and began to assemble the boat.  First squall. Abandoned ship and sought shelter in the club house. 

Completed assembling the boat.  Half listened to the briefing. 

Launching was scary. They have a new pontoon with an engineering cock-up. It's too high. Seems a common problem with pontoon builders. Idiots. Anyway the rowing people have a temporary floating extension and it's very wobbly.  Super scary.  With the help of some of the local high school kids, we managed to get the boat in the water without breaking it or us or them. 

12:00 RACE

There was apparently 4 eights but i only saw 3.

The red eight went first. We started second and the collegians went third. Sarah informed we that we were gaining on the red eight at the same time the collegians were steadily and relentlessly gaining on us.  We were rating around 30 strokes per minute and the collegians were way lower. 

 I think we, as a club,  continually rate too high. Not my call. 

On the other hand the boat felt pretty good. Timing was good and the boat sat up.  The water was very rough.  We had a good rhythm. 

The rain came down.

We approached the turn around. Went under the bridge. The rain stopped for one second. A hard strokeside turn. I was in 3 seat and bow side had to row very hard to pull it around. 

On the way back, the rain just got harder.  My woolies bag sloshed about and disgorged it's contents into my foot well. Muslie bar, tee shirt zip lock bag with phone. I was concerned the bag would not be waterproof and if the phone,  supposedly water proof, died then I'd be in trouble as I would not be able to open my car. 

We had a local in 2 seat and he called heads up.  I realised I had lost focus and snapped back putting extra into my legs.  Arms were full of pins and needles.

Not long after he called 1500.  Divide by 10 and that's 150 strokes.  As we crossed the finish line the rain abated. 

After some fiddling about we pulled into the pontoon.  More helpers helped lift the water filled hull out of the water.  Very very scary on the floating extension. One smart fellow had worked out he could stablise things by crawling under the boat to the river side. 

Hot shower. Fingers numb and lots of pins and needles.

CHARGING

7/8Sun Fathers Day

Bit of a recap of the week. 

THURSDAY 

Chris & Dan came to dinner. 

Porterhouse steak, mashed pot, steamed Brocolini and carrot. 

FRIDAY 

Fletch's birthday dinner.

SATURDAY 

Brown Snake rowing race went well. 

Saw Melia and Bella coaching Brigidine at Terrace. So nice to see. 

SUNDAY 

Fathers day

Pretty relaxed. 

Coached 2 kids and 2 dads

Calls from Marcus and Jemma.

Chris dropped in. 

Relaxing day with Phoebe. 

Woke up early 1am thinking about my dad. 

DREAM

In ute, very very rough road. Turn and go up hill 4WD stuff but I'm still making it. Gets too steep and in a channel. Starts to tip back over but swing to the side and flip round so still on the wheels. 

Then I'm on a Billy cart. Down hill. At one point I'm trying to follow and catch up to a friend. Then I discover its got no front wheels. Just part of it that scrapes or rubs on the road. 

OASIS

Moon eclipse 

Next week

Bridge to bridge

31Sun CBR-BNE

National Portrait Gallery 

Lake walk

BBQ dinner

A lazy start to the day as we were still recovering from the week skiing. Phoebe cooked omelettes for the three of us. 

Decided on a visit to the National portrait gallery and a bridge to bridge walk around the lake. 

The gallery was a bit ordinary. In my view the blob was the stand out attraction.

After viewing the portraits and discussing whether we liked them or not,  we had lunch in the Cafe.  I had a pumpkin and something pie thing and Phoebe had a Mushroom and potatoe soup.

We then set out on a walk along the lakeshore. 

FLAG DAY

Today had various anti immigration protests around the nation. We saw people with big Australian flags and some with Australian and Aboriginal flags. 

DICKSON 

Shopped with Henry.

Filed car with Petrol.

DINNER

BBQ sausages and salad. 

pictures of mags

She's getting some bad habits 

Epic Pass 2026

 Purchased the 2026 Epic pass

 

2026 Winter Olympics Dates
Fri, 6 Feb 2026 – Sun, 22 Feb 2026

Phoebe has a work function 22 to 25 Feb 

To get to Covara, try to fly to venice
To get to Madonna de Campigli (Epic Pass) try to fly Verona and then take the bus. 
In Madonna, stay in the correct part of the village so that we do not have long walks to lifts etc.

29Fri last day

Last day skiing 

Phoebe front valley 

Dinner with Andrew and Catherine 

SKIING 

last day skiing and we packed our suitcases smoothly. Zac emerged and we drove him out and gave him the keys including the gate access fob.

Up to Bullocks flat.  Light rain. 

Arrived Perisher and front valley V8 on wind hold. Upstairs to Cafe.  Three small long blacks and another hot chocolate muffin. Finally we observe people on the V8.

Queued with a gazillion others.

Snowing and blowing a gale. 

 Finally on board and off load at the top. Initially Phoebe was very apprehensive and after a pause at the top, we found a flat area to turn around without sliding down the hill. We then began a long zig zag path down the hill with me in front seeking the least steep path.

After 2 goes, we retreated to Jax for a break.  This extended to a can of lemonade for Phoebe and a shared basket of hot chips. 

Back out and two more runs (3&4).  On the 4th run, Phoebe fell over half way down and did something to her left hip. It took a while and in lots of pain she managed to stand and get her skis back on. Made it to the bottom without further incident.  Into Jax to relax.  A band was playing,  Phoebe was happy to bop along. Ski boots off and shoes on. It was decided that was enough for this trip. A decision vindicated in the evening as the pain was quite bad. I think she's done great with improvement every day.  I recall when she'd be emotionally drained by lunch time.  Now she can basically ski all day. 

Decamped early. A last buy of 12 mini doughnuts for $9.

Back to Bullocks flat where it was raining. Onto Jindabyne. Returned skis. Bought 4m of thin chord from wilderness sports for $1.50/m.  I'll make glove safety string.

CANBERRA 

we arrived Canberra at 5:35. Andrew and Catherine were there. 

Andrew and I went to Ainsley and procured pizza for $101 and a deep dish apple pie and dollop cream for dessert. 

28Thur

Wind rain and snow

Smiggins

Amy & Zac cooked dinner

SKIING

arrived ski tube terminal and it was blowing a gale. Retreated to Aldo's Cafe. First one coffee and then a second with a hot chocolate muffin. 

 Decided to move to Smiggins. 

This photo was taken by a young Frenchman who used to be a financial controller and got tired of sitting at a desk. We met him waiting for the bus at Perisher. 

SMIGGINS

First part of the day spent with Phoebe on the Pomma and then the triple chair. We tried a new run closer to chair which was a little more challenging for Phoebe. She's trying to move from Snow Plough turns to parallel turns.  This new path was wide enough and long enough to give her practice. We talked and she practised start the turn with weight on the uphill ski and leaning forward. At the middle of the turn, facing straight down hill, don't panic,  keep weight on the outside ski but begin to transfer it to her heel. This kind of overdoes it a bit exaggerating the kick out but my hope is that combined with another exercise of sliding sideways, we can pull it back into a smooth turn next year. 

After lunch, we were standing in the queue for the pomma when Henry phoned me. I left Phoebe and skied to where I could see J&H on the rise near the chair. 

We followed Henry around. All T bars covered in the afternoon including a brief trip over the top and down the side of the terrain park.  Wind like no other.  Henry was very keen on exploring as many different paths as possible through the trees 

At the end of the ski day, J & H split off and made their way home. I contacted Phoebe and discovered she was in the Smiggins pub. Met her there.  Wanted a hot chocolate but that was not to be a that part of the pub was closed. 

Phoebe walked to the bus stop.

I made my way to the toilet block to retrieve our bags. After putting one on my back and the other on my front I clicked into my skiis and began to ski through the car park.  Made it all the way to the bus where the driver was kindly waiting and we had a good laugh about how one does not get to arrive at the bus that way too often. 

EVENING

On the way home Phoebe traded messages with Amy & Zac. As I understood it, they wanted to both buy and cook. They had been out walking and arrived not long after us.  They were drenched but indeed had picked up the necessary ingredients at woolied and produced a beautiful stir fry.

Dessert some had chocolate. Luckily no one else wanted the remains of the ice cream which I teamed with frozen blueberries and thickened cream.