Day#3 A review

It's mid holiday and reviewing what works and fails. 

The first fail was old goggles.  Dug around in the ski gear bag at home and brought 2 pairs of goggles that just fell apart.  My old Columbia jacket was shedding white stuff which I think was the waterproof lining.  Rented ski gear at Bought new goggles.  Old gloves on the other hand seem to have survived although I think if it were wet weather,  it might be a different posting. 

Note to self, night before, put in the pockets of your clothes the stuff you'll need otherwise you'll forget. 

It would have been handy to bring a 2m USB cable. 

The video camera - larger but much easier to open, flick open the screen and it's ready to go. 

Small tube of sunscreen. 

Small tube of lip moisturiser. 

momories 1976 first snow trip

Mum ran two day trips to the snow in the yellow vw.

We wore tracksuit pants. No ski gear.  

My recollection was we took two toboggans that we'd gotten from the dump.

Day #1 Smiggins

We planned to leave by 7 and managed by 7:30. My fault.  Sending a few work emails. 

I'd brought two pairs of gloves and two pairs of goggles.  On the way to hire the skis I dropped a pair and the frame shattered.

Went back to the car and picked up the other pair. Within the hour it had fallen apart too.  Dan had indicated he wanted to buy a neck warmer and i was feeling the chill too.  Skied down to Rythm at Smiggins. Mostly ski hire.  Spied a cabinet with goggles at $500.  Upon closer inspection, $50 at the left running higher in prices to the right end.   The kind helper advised the $50 ones were for kids. Eventually settled for $150 and once two $20 neck warmers were added and discounts applied the total was $160.

Legs and knees are killing me. 

1982 police girls

The story was retold of our 1981 family ski trip.  We were diving up the hill to Perisher in the yellow transit van camper.  The back seat was down flat with all the skies and kids mixed in.  We saw two young ladies hitch hiking and pulled over and offered that they squeeze in the back with the kids & skiis and most notably no seats or seat belts.

As we were driving up we approached the police outpost and they indicated that was their stop.  They then fessed up to being police women.

Bruce Leslie, most notable for two contributions. Firstly he'd brought a bottle of rum that my mum confiscated and shared amongst all of us. Secondly, he'd brought his saxophone and when our neighbours got a bit noisy, he'd serenade them. 

Canberra onto...

Slept last night on a mattress in Henry's lounge infront of the fire.  It was the best sleep I've had in months. So much so that I didn't wake up and stoke the fire.  When I woke around 6, I had to place a new log and engage in a delicate process of pushing hot coals against the new log.   Hours later a red glow was observed under the log.

I then inspected my old blue Columbia ski jacket.  There were these little white flecks.  It looks like the waterproof lining is falling apart.

10:45 we left Henry's place with a stop at Fishwick in search of a Puffer jacket.  Anaconda had some art $399. Tried Mont but their range was tiny and a whopping $799.

Now on the road.  it's cars horizon to horizon.  Frustrating caravans that speed up when we have opportunities to pass.

Sydney Canberra

Dan and I took our time getting off the plane.  Took the train to central and changed trains and onto Kings Cross.  Walked to Marcus & Sophie's favourite cafe - "Room Ten".

So nice to catch up with them.

Had smashed Avocardo,  chillie & egg on toast.  

Back on the train to central and changed trains to Epping.  We took a country train (platform 3).  It got us to Epping at about the same time but smoother with fewer stops.  Dan Took the opportunity to do some solidworks. 

Kay picked us up in Pembroke St.

Not long at James & Kay's place and we left in 2 cars. 

Lunch was maccas at 

Didn't really need that. Been ages since I had maccas. A sub par experience. 

We understood we were catering Dinner so we went straight to Woolies at Dickson.  In the end Sally provided a beautiful self saucing pudding that we contributed Ice cream. 

Roasts were 1.5kg ea

1hr from fridge to room temp.

Beef rub on herbs. Some special stuff seasoning. 

Beef 3hrs

Pork 2.5 hrs. Thinner but wider. 

Score deep Salt and olive oil. Makes the crackling.  Thinner to make sure cooked through.

Very high temp to start Then drop it down.

Lamb is different to beef and pork.  Long and slow.  All day. 

Brisbane-SYdney

On our way ......

 Last night my brother Lewis arrived using our place as a staging post.  This morning,  arose at pretty much the same time as for rowing.  Noted that the kids are rowing in the SQ school championships today.  Attended to the cat's demand for food and the dog's for attention.

Picked up Dan and the three of us headed for the airport.  The first new thing was parking in that huge outdoor car park that I used to think was used car storage.  $55 for the week with a 15minute bus ride thrown in.  I was impressed that the bus had adjustable shockies that meant the step up was less than what one experiences when boarding a train. 

Into the terminal and discover the security queue stretched forever. Called Lewis who advised the Qantas security was much shorter so we high tailed it to the other end of the terminal. Through in 5.

Next stop coffee with Marcus and Sophie in Kings Cross.

Post coffee and train Kings Cross to Central. Along the way, in conversation with James and confirmed by Google that one has two train options: suburban all stops train or inter city country train.  We choose the latter and board platform 3.  Dan of course is a workaholic and gets on with some solidworks.