2023 June pt 1

Friday night, went up to the Coast, rode from the station in the dark, a bit uncomfortable. Saturday, general clean up, shoved in some window draft stopping foam strips, was v satisfying. Had pizza at Rocketboy.

Translation gone wrong!

Nice work boys!! 

Sunday cleaned up the house. In the afternoon, saw Evonne in concert signing Carmina Burana. The lead soloists were professionals - pretty amazing. They did a great job. Ate too much Italian food at the Majestic. Back on the diet Monday as usual.

View from the back of the house.

Marie met a lady down at the dog park. She was wondering where she could shower in the area, so Marie offered for her to come in for a shower. Turns out she was staying for a few days and would otherwise sleep in her car. So after a bit more chatting at our place, Marie offered for her to stay at our place for a couple of days. Apparently she did this when she was little too - bring strangers home. Well that was something not expected to happen, but really it went fine, and the lady, Melina, was very nice, considerate etc. Just a shame that stuff works out like this.

Went to John's place for the weekend. I planned to ride in from Wallerawang, but that's 100 odd km of riding. Really I think you need to set off very first thing in the morning. In order to help with the 4 hours of driving, the bike was packed in the car, and I chose Bathurst as it's 15 minutes further but chops 20k's off, pretty much bang on 80kms.

Sofala Road is beautiful, but there was way too much traffic, not much peace. Hill End Rd is even more lovely. It does wind up and down hills, one very long one that must have taken half an hour, so it's just slow going. As soon as you stop for a minute, people offer help it seems. One lot did at Sofala - "you right mate??" I asked if the road went to Crudine, but they didn't know.

At the Sally's Flat Rd turn off, a car was waiting and the driver jumped out to ask the directions to Hargraves.  Poor man was not even close there. My phone had reception, so we could work it out ok. Then his buddy called and said the same directions, so off he went, all cool.

Sally's Flat Rd is dirt, narrow, lined with trees and a joy in general. I thought at last I'll have that to myself, but even there, there was a few cars. The second I pulled over for was Tony and Evonne, which felt odd, but should be expected! Another passing ute asked if I was all ok, which is reassuring! A bike is like a passport to the best in people, except for the odd psycho eg one P plater yelled at me on Sofala Rd.

The sun set quickly, making visibility low, avoiding potholes harder. Going downhill is difficult, due to heavy vibration and trying to brake at the same time. My light flashed so I couldn't read the sign for the turn off. Finally worked out the light, and it was plain sailing from there, along Doughertys Junction Rd. It's surprising the number of causeways. You don't notive when driving. The view was wasted in the dark. Marie called to check up on me. Turns out she didn't see Tony and Evonne and didn't get the message I was only a few kms out at that time.

Arrived to Mark yelling out "Run him over!" Adam asked where I'd come from, and "but why??" 

The rest of the weekend was motorbike riding, eating too much, sitting around the fire, talking bs and stories, until Sunday night. 

In the pitch dark, the 44 gallon drum fell over. It'd gone bong a few times, so I didn't think much of it. Then we could see Anna fell over. She'd scraped her leg. Mark said we have to go to hospital, which seemed to be just in case of the rust infecting it. She thought she might have bumped her head? Then she pulled up her trouser leg again, and everyone who didn't realise already, saw the deep gash, close to the bone, somehow not bleeding much. 

Three first aid kits appeared, saline was squirted in, the wound bandaged, and Anna carried to John's car, from there to Mudgee hospital. The doctors called Dubbo, which is the base hospital. They planned to send her there, a long painful drive. Luckily the surgeons of Dubbo said to just stitch it up, and send her home. They were back by 11pm. 

We cooked Adam's bread while they were away (above), apparently delicious.

All in all not too bad then.

A relaxing weekend.

Lou stayed behind, took himself to Lachlan's place for a sleepover birthday party, then got home again, picked up by Felicity (thank you Fil!) to stay there, hang out with David for an hour waiting for Mill, then got dropped home around 2pm, and we got in at 6pm - about 5 hours drive in the sometimes crawling traffic.