Day 92 on the way home!
Monday, May 10, 2010 at 07:35AM Boring day today!..... the drive home is supposed to be exciting & the release of all the emotion from our trip. But it was pretty boring! Speak for yourself...I really enjoyed the drive today, good music, great audio book and pretty good company.
We left Leinster & headed towards Kalgoorlie. Do you all remember in a previous blog we told you that we stayed in Boulder (Kalgoorlie).... well that was where the earthquake was a few weeks ago. It was freaky driving down the street with all the buildings surrounded by scaffolding; many of them still have rubble lying on the footpaths.
Got a couple of lovely emails wishing us a safe trip home, Anne thanks for the email, we will catch up when we get back.
Marg & Norm, we will be seeing the whales.... But not going to Broken Hill!.... so will have to catch up another time. My sister lives in Menindee if you wanted a place to camp? Georgia can they park the van on the river & steal some 15A power? But guess what.... We are at Norseman tonight & who is here? The people that are pushing a wheelchair across Australia!.... I’m hiding in the van in case they ask me to join them!
So seeing as we did not do much today except sit in the car how about I ask you guys some questions & you can answer them for us.
Rob, how is the shopping going? Have you replaced your whole wardrobe with XXXL Vietnamese shirts? Have you planned a full itinerary for Juan when he gets there? Want photos of the new haircut!!
Lesley... I heard on the grapevine that you are studying again? Thanks for telling me! I reckon you should do social work, then you & our brother can open a practise together! We might actually get to see him & hear from him!
Heather, how is Jamie? I hope you have been forwarding him our blog. Jamie did you know that some mine sites actually bring bands up to site to play! There might be a job there for you..... Promoter of entertainment to mines. Charge them double.... everyone else does!
Brad A... how is MANLAND going? Hope you will have it ready & the sign hung for when I come up? I want a MANLAND name, Dans is Sharkbait so I reckon my name can be Big Jim!
Susanne, the picture of the baby is awesome (Susanne sent through some ultrasound pics of her unborn baby)...... he looks so cool! When he is old enough I’ll get him a job on a minesite somewhere..... then you can listen to him whinge about Rudds mining tax!
Arama, how is the job going? You do know that there are lots of Kiwi’s working here in the mines. So if you ever want a career change? You would be fantastic running the accommodation on a mine site!!
Mel S..... How is the poker tournament going?
Caren & Kampbell.....hehehe (Clever huh!) how you two going? Have you knocked your house down yet? Do NOT..... I repeat Do NOT use JG King Builders!..... they are crap!
Mary & Pete..... Mark Webber won last night!.... or am I living in some sort of fantasy world! I did not watch the race so I am assuming that the other 21 drivers all crashed! That is the only way he can win a race!!!!
David & Sandy, hold all of our mail.... we will be home soon!!! Has my latest 4WD magazine turned up yet?.....and if you sell the old Land Rover for us you will get a commission!
Granny & Bert..... you get your heating fitted tomorrow... clean out the spare room for Ness & me.... we are not used to the cold.
Shona, tell Sam he can come & visit Vanessa & James next week.
Angie...... are you ok?.... we miss your stories! Your journey is more exciting than ours!
Ilsa, Stop making crank phone calls! (or keep your phone away from your nephew)
Meredith.... How is the planning going for Fiji..... all you have to know is “Dua Tale gunuva Yalo vinaka” which means “Another drink please!”
Nikki & Rob.... What happened to the Dragons!...... you need a decent salary cap breech! Hey Rob are you going to the world cup? If you were a real soccer fan you would be there!
Box & Lou.... did you get lost in the Pyramids?
And lastly to all of you that read the blog but do not post a comment! What is your best memory of the blog? Let us know what you liked about our trip..... we know who you are and if you do not post a comment before the end of the trip we will name you!
I know tonights blog will not make sense to many of you. They are questions that we ask & know about.... but that is what a blog is all about..... sharing information both ways.
Have a great night people in Blog World.
James Mack & Vanessa Lea (bet you didn’t know that!)
Reader Comments (14)
As you guys farewell WA I will leave you with some sandgroper trivia...did you know that they have banned all weather readers from describing the weather as "fine"...learnt that when i was home recently. Apparently its because no one really knew what fine meant! Weird people in WA! (there are exceptions of course!)
shopping not so good here...not really the sizes just no real quality, even the suits everyone went on and on about before I came over, about how you can choose your fabric and they make any cut you want and they're cheap cheap cheap, well guess it's all true, you choose your fabric, you choose your cut and then they make it how ever they want cheap cheap cheap. So I've bough two ties...but did book a wine cruise for the end of the month with group of expats I've been spending time with here, which should be really cool, the cruise goes to where Juan and I will go when he comes over, so should be able to scope out some more sights for his visit.
Haircut picture coming on FB...
Thanks for the lesson in how to ask for anothe drink...... I tend to find that the simple art of finding out the person who is in charge of serving the drinks' name and using it frequently and every time you see them say "Hi xxxxxxx " this generally menas that I am well looked after and need not ever say a thing apart from Please and Thank you....it's also amazing how in a full restaurant the best seat in the house suddenly appears.........Basic hospo 101.....
Only prep I gotta do before Fiji is the normal chic stuff.............full buff, wax and polish..........(:
One of my best memories from the Blog that gave me the biggest chuckle was when you sent out the SOS b/c Ness had lost her carrot.....
Safe travels home.....
Hey team
New job going well. I actually managed to load the system on my laptop yesterday.....and IT WORKED!!!!! Been set the task of upselling the latest POS system in Auckland so am putting together proposals in between surfing the net and not much else lol.
I was on the train yesterday and remembered something on your blog about mine trains having GPS and thinking that was stupid as they only run on one track! Turns out Auckland trains have GPS as well! Still think it's stupid considering they can't exactly turn off the tracks and get lost. The other story is the carrot and the cans (very typical Ness).
Anyway hope you have a safe journey back home and get to spend some time with your lovely families.
Thoughts and love
A xxxx
Big Jim ????
I was thinking (given the amount of siblings and nephews & Nieces in your family) Jim Bob !
Or we could use your mums family name and call you Macka ;-)
Hahaha That's what we called him growing up Brad so it's very fitting. An alternative is Big Mac(k)??
That bloody grapevine needs some weedkiller!!! I wanted to finish before telling anyone.
Glad it's you guys heading to melbourne and not us. We are still in shorts and t-shirts up here. :o)
Are we there yet ? Are we there yet? You'll be asking all the way home! I love that alll the problems in Australia have been solved in an election year - James for PM, that Vanessa has her shoes organised and that you can't take the boy out of a man- dirty cars, water crossing and all that mud. I love that there have been wonderful stories about the kindness of strangers - car breaking down etc and that there have ben touching stories of how your message has affected people along the way to change what they are doing - the guy at the mine site recently comes to mind (I teared up reading the blog). I love that you are heading home after an amazing journey.Stay safe, don't hit any stray cows and enjoy the whales - if you can get up in a plane and fly over them it is well worth it!
Homeward bound, home Dolly! x Sarah
Jamie is going great - advertising account manager by day and rock star at night, he looked a bit hungover again on the weekend, he stayed over in the bungalow on Sat night so he was here for mothers day (I think he just needed a quiet place to sleep off his hangover)
he played at o'malleys in the city on friday night.
The guys are here to start the pavers today and Sydni wants Vanessa to know that after the stunners that replaced the roof, these guys are a big dissapointment and she hopes they keep their shirts on. LOL!
one final thing - there is no blokeworld / manland and never will be!
Memories, light the corners of my mind…misty watercolour memories…
The Can Count…still the same I hear!
The forever missing carrot
Dolly and her sexy black bra
The Shoe Count
The many ‘Bear’ tales
…and just all the laughs along the way!
Safe travels home and we will catch up soon!
Love K & C
the best bit for us in Melbourne was when you told us yous would be home soon I GET YOUR SON DAN OUT OF MY HAIR .Dont go rushing though drive carefully see you soon
do you know is so funny I have so ooooo restrained from Storm comments.
Actaully come to think of it everyone has or did I miss that?
Hey I was over in NZ for one night only just got in thsi morning. I dont know how you guys travel so much for work, it sucks.
Do you know everytime I hit customs the inner scared child comes out in me. This new face scannign thing freaks me out like "Gattica"
now that your big adventure is coming to an end and you will be home soon - you probably dont want to travel anywhere and have a rest - but I have news for you - you better get your asses up here in spring so you can see the 400 bulbs I planted today in all their glory.
also - Brad spent an hour talking to the pavers today, making sure that the slope at the back door is wheelchair friendly
I dont really have to worry - as I am sure as soon as you see Dan he will be telling you where he wants to spend his school holidays
did he also tell you we have a winch thingy to get you into the boat so you can go fishing?
ps: drive home safe
Pass this on to david and Sandy please dont spend your commision for selling the car, as I am still waiting for my cut off video sales
Sam can't wait. We've had a big order for kindling this week so I wasn't able to get your bags though I did get you two of our delux scrap bags which gets the fire going better than kindling - you get 5 kilos plus from one bag - bargain at mates rates ($0.00 for me). You'll need it cause it is so cold here (snow expected at Bulla). Take care on the road...