roycemleev3.50

I slept in a little bit this morning - was woken when Mum rang to give me the sad news that Uncle Cowley had passed away. He had been ill for sometime, but his passing was still a little unexpected. He was a really lovely guy and I have many fond memories. When I finally got up Laura was gone so I logged into my pute and caught up with work/emails. Once we got moving we went into my work (well our Brisbane office anyway) and I chatted briefly. After that Laur and I spent lunch time shopping in town. Got peckish so we headed to the world's greatest Chicken Katsudon restaurant - the HiMaWaRi teagarden in the Elisabeth Arcade.

After that I popped into my old office for a quick visit and to get my old friend Monkey Boy (Paul James) and asked if he could organise a "bud's lunch" for tomorrow. The office looked great - all new computers, new interior fitout - I didn't recognise it.

Laur and I then drove out to her friend Heidi's place to visit her and her daughter Taylor. When spent an arvo playing with bub before checking out the rennovated Springwood Suzuki (Tony's Cafe? Gimme a break). A bit of shopping later and it was time to get ready for dinner.

Laura's mum's computer class was cancelled so asked her to dinner as well. Despite ringing my mum all day today I had no luck getting in touch with her and feared she might be a no-show. We got to Fireworkx at the prescribed time, had a drink, slowly ate an entree and still no mum or brother. Finally got onto Chris who hadn't heard from mum but was on his way to meet us.

I had a nice evening but was a bit gutted that mum couldn't be bothered to show up - and the food was way below the usual high standards. Hopefully tomorrow will go better.

True to form I didn't wake till after 10am, and even then it was only because my mobile phone rang. Laura and I watched the night before's "24" that had been taped for us. Finally we got moving around lunch time and went 'round the corner to visit Nan and Pop. After a nice lunch we thumbed through plenty of photos and watched some old movies of Laura and her family. The afternoon went quickly and before we knew it it was getting dark again. Tried to find a carwash cafe (they're everywhere in Sydney) but ran out of luck (and time).

Had dinner with Mrs Good before I caught up with emails for most of the night (except of course for watching the West Wing).

At the very last minute I managed to secure a week's holiday, so Laura and I thought we'd drive to Brisneyland to visit family and friends. We got away a little late (my fault) so had to manoeuvre through some of Sydney's finest traffic to get out.

We decided that we would take the longer, slower route up the New England Highway and had our first fuel/coffee stop in Maitland. The coffee was pretty special - a bit like someone had passed warm water through my sock, put some frothy milk on top and called it a cappucino. Had to eat half a pack of lollies to get the foul taste out of my mouth.

After about 6 hours or so of stop start driving we stopped for lunch at Tamworth, the home of country music. I really, really loathe country music but couldn't resist the photo opportunity in front of the giant golden guitar. After a bathroom break (they pipe country music into the bathrooms) and a feed at Subway we were back on the road.

Another hour or so later I thought I should take the wheel. Although it had been spitting gently for most of our trip thus far, it began dumping down, really vicious stuff. I drove on manfully although the gaps between towns was getting noticeably larger, and the skies were getting darker.

We started getting nearer to dinner time and ol' fat Roycie needed a feed, but we were determined to 1) not settle for roadhouse food, and 2) not veer from the highway. We passed a number of small townships that promised a Red Rooster or similar because of rule 2, until we near Tenterfield and realised we possibly wouldn't be eating till we got home.

That was until, miracle of miracles, we got into Warwick and there it was, the holy grail, a Red Rooster that was still open. After a snack of chips and nuggets we were recharged, and ready to make the final charge for home. So sometime after 9pm we made it to Laura's mums place, tired, one of us a little cranky, but nevertheless relieved to make it in one piece. After a bit of a chat with Mrs Good, and a bit of teev to veg by, I was ready for a well-earned rest.

I hadn't been to a Mensa meeting in a bloody long time (and certainly not since moving to Sydney), so when a few of the people on the IDS-General mailing list proposed a drinks session, well who needs an excuse when it's a drinks session?

I showed up late as always so suspect that a few people had already left. Those that remained when I rocked up are all in the second photo: (from left) Therese, Ben, Kate, me in front of Michael, with big Hubert right up the back.

I think everyone had a good chat, and dare I say that will be the first of many events for the mailing list.