A little Trip and a Huge Suprise

I don't know where I'm supposed to start this Blog, so maybe I'll start Friday morning. That's as good a place to start as the next I guess, so here I go. I woke up early and had thought about heading to tassie during the week, but had had a few bad days, but at nearly 5am, I woke up and thought I feel pretty good, so my doctors appointment should be simple, so I jumped on the net and hit the spirit of Tasmania website. I logged on and got these error messages, so I saw the phone number for them and rang it, but it was a little early for them and they didn't open till 6.30am, so I went and did my dishes and started to go through my cupboards and pulled out clothes that I could bring. That's one thing I like about driving down is you don't have a limit to the amount of stuff you bring really, where is on the plane you might have carry on, or if your feeling more rich, one or two bags.

Now at 6.30 I rang TT line and got a nice friendly lady and she started to take my booking and as she was doing this I clicked on the website again and it started working, so I told her and she stayed on the line while I went through steps online and when I got to the payment stage, we decided everything was fine, so she hung up and then to my annoyance, it came up with error again. I had to ring them back up and I wasn't happy and I got worse when the next lady told me that the fare she had for me was $60 dollars dearer. I wasn't happy Jan and after much umming and ahhing I decided to just book it anyway.

I guess wind generated power might be good at times, not today with not a puff of wind tho

I had a doctors appointment at 10am in the morning and thought I'd head off after that, so I took all my vegies out of my freezer and dropped them to a friends place on the way through and did some odd jobs. The doctors were called away to surgery, so we had a long wait while more were called, luckily I got another doctor I knew which was good as I needed to change my medical certificate for work and somehow I got another two days off work than we originally planned on.

I always stop at holbrook on the way down from Sydney, I find it unique to find a submarine in basically the middle of nowhere. I love subs

The day had fast disappeared, I couldn't quite capture the moment from a moving car as I didn't want to stop again and wanted to push on.

I arrived in Melbourne around 10.30 at night and looked for a place to sleep, I decided that $130-$160 dollars for a bed wasn't what I was going to pay out at Essendon, so instead bought myself a pizza and kept on driving. I had a plan to find a 24 hr McDonalds and I'd sleep the night in the car outside there, but the traffic situation in Melbourne has always baffled me especially with the trams and turning right, not from the inside like normal humans, but from the outside lane. Hmm, weird if you ask me. Instead of finding a McDonalds I found a hospital and so I slept in the car there instead, you just never know when you might need a hospital. I woke up at like 2,45am and it was freezing, so turned on the car and turned the heater on flat out until the car heated up and went back to sleep again. I ended up using their premises and got into trouble when a lady asked what I was doing and if I was alright, and told me I couldn't be there unless I was a patient or visiting someone.oops

I spent the morning at the markets wandering around and looking at things and then decided that I'd buy a paper and see what local VFL game was on for the day, possibly Port Melbourne, as I was going to be there for the boat anyway that night. Guess what I found instead, the Hawks and Blues were going to battle it out at the G that afternoon, so my mind was set, I'd go park the car down near the ferry and I'd go back to the city and look around and go to the game.

I'd never caught a tram before, so I thought I'd catch one back to the city, I jumped on one and said tyo a guy sitting down "How do I get a ticket" and he goes you need coins, but I only had notes, so I said do they have a change machine and he goes no and we get talking and I tell him im from Sydney and he goes do they have people who check tickets on the trains up there and I go yep and he goes they do here as well. Well I ride my luck for a few stops before I recognise the crown casino and I go I think it's time to get off before I get into trouble and he goes are you sure it's just a few more stops till the city, but after being a fare invader, it was time, so off I went.




I was thinking that the yarra would be a nice place to paddle my kayak, first thing that came to my mind when I saw it.

One thing I will give Melbourne is all the cafe's and eateries they have, they were quite nice and popped up all over the place, this little guy was in one of the little side alleys.

The mighty G, probably the best reason Melbourne is actually there.

I could almost give up my Crows for the number 3 runner for the Hawks, or perhaps she could come on over to the Crows??!! That's not asking too much is it?

What to do when your along at the footy with just yourself and 69013 other supporters? Take a photo of yourself and soak up the atmosphere of all the other supporters going off their heads, while you relax, because it's not your team playing. I did have a chuckle to myself as I sent off text messages to Aaron asking the chances of the hawks winning and seeing the facebook updates on my phone about the game and pretending I knew nothing about the game going on and how close it was.

The final score was a ripper with Fevola missing with like a minute to go after he hit the post. Just another 5-10 centimetres and Carlton would have stolen a game they had no chance of winning with 10 mins to go and being down by 25 points, the crowd was electric and it was fun to be there and be part of it.

After the game, I was walking back to the old Flinders street station to find a cab to rush me back to my car and the boat and my legs felt like lead and felt like I'd pulled a couple of hamstrings and the quads weren't in much better shape, let alone the shin splints. I think being in hospital for 6 weeks without doing much walking had killed my legs off and as of today, they are starting to come back after staying off them for a few days.

When I arrived at the boat, the people I spoke to said you have two bookings, so I said that would be right and told them the story of what happened, so obviously the cheaper fare had worked even with the errors, so they gave me the cheaper fare and put the dearer one back on my credit card, so was very pleased with the outcome. The two people I spoke to asked me if I was going for a holiday as the lineup was packed and we had time to chat and I told them I was from there originally and the girl ended up being from Bridport and the guy from Ulverstone, I said Bridport is nice and the guy goes what about Ulverstone and then he goes nah we have alot of Bogans there. Seems like these two wanted some adventure and big city life, so there they were. I had some tea on the boat and filled my plate so full I couldn't finish it, then sat down and watched the footy on the tv. I think I spotted as member on the boat!!?? wasn't sure but he seemed familiar. About 10.15 I'd had enough and headed off to find my accomodation or "recliner Chair" as the case was this trip, I was suprised as it wasn't that comfortable but had a blanket and pillow and nodded off quite easily and only woke up a few times and was pretty much straight back to sleep, until at 6am someones alarm went off and then at 6.15 the announcement for disembarking also came on.

The old Chapel we spent so many years at, and the scene of my first suprise

Before suprising everyone, I went for a drive around the Bluff, the day was quite nice for Tassie and the sun was out. After changing I headed up to the Devonport Chapel and said hi to everyone and waited for Nicki and Jared to show up, as they had no idea I was coming along with the rest of everyone I knew. I think Nicki was very suprised, so I stayed for Sacrament and sat next to her and Alex and the kids. Jared and Becky weren't suprised, I thought I'd done the sneaky thing and parked my car right up around the back out of the way, but Jared and Becky also went up the back and parked and spotted my car and the dead give away of NSW number plates and this big ugly scrape up the side someone gave me in a carpark a few years back.

After Sacrament meeting there in Devonport I rocked up to Deloraine for their Church and as I arrived got to dee Sam and Clare, as they had just been there for Sacrament before going to meet Sam's brother Matthew who was arriving from the states after not seeing him for over a decade. I arrived in the middle of Sunday School and walked in and just calmly sat down next to mum and dad who were sitting up the from of the Chapel, it was a classic. They weren't the first to see me, so I got some gasps and my name called out and when the parentals saw me it was funny, they seemed shocked, like I wasn't here or wasn't supposed to be there and Mum kept on wanting to say stuff to me, but I put my finger to my lipand gave the shh sound, so we wouldn't disrupt the class anymore. The teacher asked me if I had a late note, so I said I'm sure my parents will give me one. haha. Mum left for a few minutes and came across Eden and said did you do that? Did you pick Christian up from the airport last night and have him at your house and Eden being none the wiser, goes he's not here. I also got a shock when I found out through dad, after where Eden was, that he was there as he had conducted and me not knowing he was on the bishopric, said conducting what. The family had dropped the ball on that new calling and I had no idea after all this time.

Next stop I was going to Launceston to suprise Lisa and Aaron and the kids and Mum and Dad decided they were going to come as well. Well when we arrived we had duked ourselfes as they weren't there and had gone to see their friend Marlo. Mum called them on Lisa's mobile and said they came in to suprise them and wanted to see the boys as it had been awhile. Well they were going to be about an hour and a half away, so we let ourselfes in and mum cleaned and started to get things ready for tea, and we sat around in the sun. I was playing on the net chatting to Kylie when the van came into the drive, so thinking id been spotted I hit the floor and crawled along the carpet and grabbed my phone and camera and ran to Lisa and Aarons bedroom and hid until I heard they all came in and then with my camera on video I walked on out and said hi. The expression on Lisa's face was classic and then I walked in on Aaron in the kitchen and said hello in a big voice. They were very suprised and didn't quite click at first what I was doing there, somehow I deleted my camera footage, which is a bummer as it was a classic. Read Lisa's blog for more info.

So here I am in ol Tassie, I'm not due back to work till June17th, so will most likely stay a few weeks and then head home for awhile before heading on back, so hopefully I'll catch up with most of you soon. Adios