Happy Birthday

We have a very special birthday in our family today, my grandma is 101.  I think she looks wonderful.

ARMIDALE - Part 2

We had a busy day planned but unfortunately ended up starting late as I had a really bad headache .  I eventually got moving around 11am and we drove to Uralla, I wanted to have a look around town and the cemetery's as a lot of my family are from Uralla.  Im so thankful Lucy was able to drive as I certainly wasn't up to it.  The first stop was the information centre and a coffee shop, then we were set.  

As it was so late we started off at thePioneer Cemetery which is the home of the bushranger Captain Thunderbolt's grave.

We found the headstone of my great great great grandmother 

 

We then went to the Uralla Cemetery and visited the grave of my Great grandparents, I knew my great grandmother but unfortunately my great grandfather had died before  I was born

 

It's funny I really miss this beautiful country, so different from where I live now.

As it was getting late we decided not to do the heritage walk through Uralla which was disappointing as I had really wanted to do it. As i still wasn't feeling a hundred percent and it was a warm day we drove to Gostwyck  Chapel and Deeargee Woolshed.  Gostwyck Chapel is a stunning little chapel especially in Autumn when the Virginia Creeper turns vivid shades of red.

This beautiful photo was taken by Michael Boniwell

 

Deeargee Woolshed was built  in 1872.  My memories (or lack of them) was  a B&S Ball back in the early 80's

Lucy was  a little perturbed with all the sheep and cows walking along the side of the road

We drove back to Armidale the "back way" that seemed to go on forever and  a road that I had never driven on, thank goodness for google maps.  We finally got back to the Motel and I phoned Meredith and arranged to meet for dinner, at the same time got a text from some other friends asking what we were doing for dinner.  We ended back at the White Bull Hotel for a lovely dinner.  

Up again early on Monday morning as we had to go to the Armidale cemetery before we left to travel home.  Poor Lucy I think she was a bit over it by this stage but as I said to her it's your family and where you are from.

Another great great great grandmother on my grandfather's side

At last we grabbed a coffee from The Goldfish Bowl, I couldn't talk Lucy into breakfast and we hit the road. Lucy drove all the way except from Warwick to Aratula and we arrived home about pm.  We had a most enjoyable weekend but back to routine for me and school for Lucy, she did try to say she was too tired to go on Tuesday, nice try I made her go. It was nice to have some together time just the two of us.

A Fantastic Weekend- Saturday

Last weekend Lucy and I travelled to Armidale in NSW for my 30th year school reunion.  Wow thirty years since I have left school, where has the time gone it certainly doesn't feel that long.We left home at 8am on Friday morning and arrived in Armidale at 4pm, Lucy drove some of the way to get some much needed hours.

We stayed at the lovely Cotswold Gardens http://www.cotswoldgardensarmidale.com.au  which was right across the road from where our Saturday night school function was.  We rushed downtown to grab a few things then back to the motel for dinner at their lovely restaurant.  This restaurant is so old world it was just lovely and the food was superb.  We had an early night as we were pretty tired and we needed to get up early for breakfast at  a coffee shop that I wanted to try.  All the web reviews said to get there early as it got really busy, they weren't wrong we got there at 7.00 and the place was packed by 7.30.  The coffee shop we tried was called The Goldfish Bowl and was lovely they make all their sourdough bread at the shop in a wood fire stove.  Lucy had fruit toast and I had Eggs Benedict and most importantly the coffee was very good.

 

   

 

After breakfast we went for a walk around town, Armidale has many old buildings which I love. Below is the Catholic Cathedral

 

.

Richardson's- It used to be a department store and was where I had my first job, I used to work in the cosmetic department

The Mall which sadly looked a bit tired.

 

 

 

The Presbyterian Church

The Anglican church, my parents were married in this church.  We had to be at the school by 11 for brunch and a tour around the school.  I hadn't been back to the school for thirty years there was a lot that was different but a lot that was still the same, even our little common room that was a room under the school that faced into a courtyard was still there.  We spent many hours sun baking our legs using baby oil or coconut oil.  We weren't sun smart.  Don't know what that room was now as the year 12 had an amazing year 12 space. It was lovely to see some of the girls, there was no awkwardness , everyone just slipped into easy conversation as if we had never been apart.

 

 

We weren't a big year 12 I think we only had forty girls in our year.  After our tour we went to the http://www.whitebullhotel.com/home.php for lunch, we spent several hours there chatting and having a few drinks.

 

  

After lunch Lucy and I went for another drive to take a few more photos and to check a few places out.

What used to be The Armidale Teachers College

 

The Railway Station

 

The View from the Lookout

Movies, pay tv and room services Lucy was set for the night I walked across the road to the  http://www.qualityhotelpowerhouse.com.au/armidale/ for our function.

 

We had a fantastic night and at about 11pm went to the Armidale Bowls Club to meet up with our year from The Armidale school who were also having their school reunion.  It was great to see some of the guys, some of them we had been friends on Facebook for a few years but again I haven't seen some of them for 30 years.   We had a ball and  stayed until the Bowls Club closed.  Im so glad I went and this just reinforced what a great group of people I went to school with, I loved high school.  Tess said to me during the week before I left " i guess the cool girls will get together"  We didn't have a group of cool girls and everyone got on most of the time. I hope Lucy had a good time it was fun showing her around.

Project Life- Week 15

Well this has been a long time coming hasn't it, I cant believe I haven't posted since April.  I'm way behind with my project Life as you can imagine, Am I still loving this,?Well not much the last few weeks it was starting to feel like a burden  I'm better this week now Ive almost completed three more weeks and have a lot more photos developed it's just getting the time to sit down and sort it out.  If I was sensible I would just put the photos in and journal, don't worry about prettying it up.  I mean that what it's designed for isn't it, quick and easy I might do that yet.

We have had a few busy weeks I have some pictures to post from the Garden Show and the Medieval  Festival, will do that this week

Bye for now

Jackie

Project Life Week 14