Vonerable

My Perfect Day

That's easy, BlogThis people: the day we spent at Winderabandi Point on Ningaloo Station a fortnight ago.

Sunshine bouncing off turquoise sea
Laughing, splashing, happy children
Chilled husband
Camera in my hand
Mandarins for lunch
Sand bar for 200 metres
The beach to ourselves
Salt breeze

I wish I could transmit the entire experience, but this will have to do:

    

   

      

   

Then, to send me into happiness orbit, we drove up into the Cape Range to explore. Rocks rock! This is seriously inhospitable territory, but I love being in it.
   

   

Wishing all of you a perfect day.

If you ever need some time alone

Step One:
Surround yourself with germy children

Step Two:
Develop an ear infection which perforates your ear drum

Step Three:
Have an allergic reaction to antibiotics

Step Four:
Be unable to find hotel accommodation, forcing nurse to admit you for the night. In the morning, look sufficiently dishevelled and pained that you are allowed to stay another night. 

Step Five:
Sleep for two days on codeine and toradol

Step Six:
When Dr makes jokes about billing Medicare for hotel services, have husband transfer you to actual hotel. Sleep for another day. Order room service. Sit on the beach. Breathe.

 

 

Unfortunately, to pull this off you will need a man willing and able to camp by himself with four children for a week. This is whilst on antibiotics himself for Worst Throat Infection Ever of All Time. And whilst chronically under slept, thanks to germy children, wife with low pain tolerance and obligatory 4am finish for last day of work before leaving on holidays.And willing to drive 1,500 kms during the week to ferry you to hospital and the hotel (this is after dirving 1,200 kms just to get to to Ningaloo Station!). I am impressed by my man on a daily basis but this holiday ... WOW.

   

   

The range, the sea

Most people visit Ningaloo Marine Park to snorkel the fringing coral reef, swim with whale sharks, or see manta rays and turtles. Many who were camped near us on Ningaloo Station were grey nomads who relocate for several months to the warmer climate and set out each morning to catch dinner.

        

   
Image: Ningaloo Experience
           

That's all a bit high energy for us so we just planned to swim and explore the hills of the Cape Range which were only a couple of hundred metres from the beach where we were camped at North Lefroy Bay.
        

    

I'm sending each of you a parcel containing:

1 liquid gold sunset
1 red bucket of assorted shells and starfish
2 square metres of beach sand for drawing and burying your feet
1 panoramic view of range and sea embracing
1 night sky of living, breathing, phosphorescent stars
1 turquoise bay

Druming up sympathy

I left something behind on Ningaloo Station:

  

  

No, not my hat.
      
  

 

Not my heart.
Well, maybe a teeny bit.
  
       

  

A few footprints for sure, but that's not the punchline.
    
  

 

 

Part of my ear drum! More later - too much unpacking and laundry to do now. Suffice to say, the first week was very average but the second was gorgeous. And it's great to be home :)

Gild

Aside from the fairies, we are frequently visited by princess ballerinas. They wear the same things as fairies, but they twirl and curtsey. They like lace crowns the best.

   

Look here for a great tutorial on making gold, lace crowns by Bitter Betty. These are hers:
   

   

I am still away on holiday (my robot wrote this for me - thank you Boris) just in case you are so excited about these crowns that you leave me a comment and then wonder why the heck there is no response :)

Inscrutable

Is this:
a) a very cool Gen Y statement which is nonsensical to me simply because I am middle aged?
b) a paradoxical advertisement for a beer called Culture?
c) haiku
d) gibberish

Whoever did this, please report to the Principal's office. You are making my head hurt.

P.S. We're still up North, freezing, or, hopefully, not.

Farewell Speedie

Speedie was a 21st present and he has seen me through many HCTs. He has worked faithfully for 18 years, sometimes enduring months in the back of the cupboard, but always ready to toast at a moment's notice.
   

   

But Speedie was hard to clean and doesn't have a hinged lid. I'm sorry, Speedie, your time has come to join the carpet sweepers and wall-mounted, electric can openers in applicance heaven.

Oh, and I'm still away in case you're wondering why I'm not responding to comments. As if anyone would comment on a post about my ancient sandwich toaster! But if you were feeling quite stirred by this epitaph, don't feel awkward now that I've said that no one is likely to comment. Because you still can. And I promise not to make any judgements about your proclivities. And if you're still feeling unsure about whether you should find an 80s toaster even remotely interesting, console yourself with these.

Right about now

Right about now we either are freezing our tails off or sunbathing in Ningaloo. We always pack extreme weather alongside our toothbrushes* and socks. Send sunny thoughts our way, won't you?

Can you see the subliminal connection between this photo and the topic of this post?

Props to anyone who can figure it out. And when you do, fill me in.

  

*forgot them once on a hiking camp and will never, ever forget them again.