December 30, 2018 Australian Pool Party

This morning Greg went shopping at Costco before it opened (the benefit of being an employee) for the food for the pool party, then we all headed over to Yolanda’s Mom’s house to visit.  We hadn’t seen Jan since the last time she and Nick were in San Francisco, so it was good to visit.  Her home is lovely, and her garden is beautiful.  She has quite the green thumb.  We exchanged greetings on behalf of Bob and Toni and Pam and Randy and they were reciprocated.  Wishing we all could have been there together but we were emissaries at least.

Since we needed to be ready for the pool party, we stopped at Dan Murphy’s bottle shop.  Have to say it’s better than Bev Mo or Total Wine, but that could be because of the whole shelving unit full of Bundaberg Rum or the giant display of VB (Victoria Bitter)….why, oh why, can’t Ken and I get our two favorite beverages in the States?!?!

But one of the weirdest things was when we pulled in the parking lot of Dan Murphy’s Ken pointed out the Ettamogah Pub which turns out to be the exact pub that we saw back in 1994 on our drive out to the Blue Mountains. 

Backstory - yesterday on our drive out to the Blue Mountains I kept saying to Yolanda that I was certain that the road we were on used to be a two-lane road and that there was this building along the road that had an old Model A type car on its roof.  She kept saying that the ‘road’ we were on hasn’t been a two-lane road for a lot longer than 1994 because it was the Great Western Highway.  Being me, I said, “ok,” and proceeded to think to myself that “sure, I must be right and she’s wrong” (really should teach me to think that way, because when I think these things invariably, I’m wrong).  What kept going through my head was that I remembered this two-lane road through zillions of Eucalyptus trees and a flash of building (I don’t think we stopped) with a car on the roof.  And yesterday while going to the Blue Mountains I kept hoping we’d see it.  But we didn’t. 

So now it’s today and we’re in the middle of town, pulling into the bottle shop (aka liquor store) and what the hell do you know…there’s the damn building from my memory!!!  I quizzed Greg and Yolanda and it turns out Windsor Road used to be a two-lane road through the 'middle of nowhere.'  (Hot damn! My memory was slightly correct - who knew!)

You can be sure I texted this picture to my Sister in law – “remember this?” 

All this was before 1pm when the guest arrived.

The pool party was lots of fun.  The same people who we met at the baseball game yesterday, came today.  

Ken and I throw a pool party just about every year and it was great fun to attend one that we weren’t hosting.  Even more fun to hear the Aussie and New Zealand accents and talk horses (Thought driving 3 hours was unusual?  What about flying from Sydney to New Zealand to ride your horse?!?).

And of course kids are kids everywhere - Dads throwing kids into the deep end...and 

Canon Balls....

Greg cooked up some very tasty chicken and giant hot dogs that were eaten in buns that were real bread rolls.  (I'll just say Ball Park buns are blah once you've had this real bread roll that you pull apart to fit your hot dog in).

After everyone left Ken and Greg threw a baseball around for a bit.

 

Greg and I did our packing (yes there is VB and Bundy packed) in prep for the next leg of our journey.  When all chores were done we sat and laughed hysterically while watching Ellen DeGeneres’ Relatable and speaking in Swedish accents about Lundehunds (you had to be there).

Next up...we fly up to Cairns and Port Douglas.  A Cyclone is due, and we've just heard that we won't be able to fish in the deep reef waters but instead will fish the estuary.