Fi and I have been ski buddies for more than twenty years. On a few occasions we have celebrated my birthday (end of Jan) but I’ve never been around for Fi’s birthday (September). Since this was the big five-owwww it was a good excuse to shoot down to Canberra and hang out in Fi’s home town.
Another ski buddy of ours, Shaz, came down for the birthday celebrations!!!
Being a public servant Fi only has to work an hour a day or so (I’m kidding…. kinda) so she juggled her schedule around so that most afternoons we were about to get out for some exploring. What does this rock look like?
This entire trip I have been amazed at just how great the weather has been. This is September in Canberra and it was just spectacular. One of our afternoon hikes even resulted in us going to a nude beach…. in Canberra?!?!?!
Taking our minds off the nude beach… Fi’s folks live just around the corner and we had dinner with them a few times (there are only 5 people who call me Tommy and these guys do). One morning Fi’s Dad, Lindsay, took me to the War Memorial.
Lindsay was an RAF (Air Force) guy and was in Vietnam. It isn’t every day you get to go to the War Memorial and be looking at an exhibit, and photos….. talking about the guy standing next to you. Pretty special.
Something a little random, Fi bought me a ticket to go glass blowing….. I’m not sure if it was a present to herself or for me but the paperweight that I made turned into a bit of a sensation……
I learnt that when glass is that hot it has to cool very slowly or it can shatter. So a week or so after not burning myself (that was good) I went to pick up the glass paperweight only to be told it wasn’t there…. the National Gallery of Art had thought it was sooooo marvelous that they decided to sell all the other pieces of art and just display The Paperweight.
Here are some photos from the National Gallery with The Paperweight displayed. You can click on these images for the high resolution, but you still won’t appreciate the beauty.
Funny story: I had been for a bike ride and picked up the paperweight and had planned to go to the Art Museum on the way back to Fi’s place. As I’m walking around (a little bored) I took a photo of the paperweight. One of the greeters/volunteers asked me what I was up to and thought it was funny. Then she suggested I make sure I get some photos of it displayed on some of the out door exhibits.
It has been a while since I lived in Aussie and it was kinda cool hanging around kangaroos again.
Another wonderful surprise for me while in Canberra was that we went to the beach!!!
One of Fi’s work colleagues has a place down near Bateman’s Bay which is a part of the coast I had never seen before. Again the weather was dialed in and we even had a dip in the ocean.
Hoot of a trip seeing Fi and celebrating her 50th, she came with me to celebrate my 21st in Whistler a couple of years ago so I owed her one.
Canberra gets a bad wrap but when hanging out with a local it can be fantastic. Thanks Fi!!!