I spent the weekend in Ballarat. My brother was married on Friday there and we spent the weekend, since we were there. It was a great family occasion. I feel pretty blessed by my large extended family. I was chatting to my cousin and a brother at one stage of the night and we all agreed we were pretty lucky in the family department. Our family gets together and has a good time. The wedding was very beautiful and I was proud of my brother and his wife and the way they expressed their committment to each other with such love and pleasure.
I haven’t been to Ballarat for a long time. In fact I think it was an excursion when I was doing my HSC (contemporary VCE or Year 12). I don’t remember much about my previous visits and I enjoyed seeing Ballarat now. It had a spacious and gracious feel to it. The old houses are distinctive and individual and the streets are wide.
We enjoyed the place we stayed at and visited the Botanical Gardens on the Sunday before heading home. I will put some video’s up on revver. I took mainly videos of the sculptures in the park.
Port Albert
We returned today from Port Albert. It was a beautiful break for a week. The place we stayed in had a great view of the prom. We experienced a range of weather. The first afternoon we arrived it was blowing a gale and cold. Other days were clear and sunny.
I had been warned about sand flies, by my grandpa yet didn’t experience them. He has been bitten badly by them at Port Albert and says nothing would make him go back there.
There was a bottle of oil containing lavender, tea tree and eucalyptus oil and a sign saying the sand flies were known to be around from October to March, we left today and they hadn’t appeared yet.
I saw lots of beautiful birds and got some videos, which I will put on my revver site no doubt.
Port Albert is only an hour away and I haven’t been there since I was a kid. I remember going with my best friend Jane’s family for a BBQ one Sunday afternoon.
The port has undergone some development since then. It was a little fishing village and popular with fishermen mainly when I was growing up. I think that is still the main attraction there, but the waterfront property real estate development has also moved in and toned it up a bit.
I have to clean up and continue unpacking now. The downside of taking a trip.
Yesterday’s Journey
I caught the train from Pakenham to the city yesterday. The course I had to attend was across the road from Flinders Street station, so it was too easy. I really enjoyed the time out and completed the novel I have been reading every night for weeks. I got some clips that I will put on revver. I observed a lot of people. Just the perfect past-time.
The learning was affirming. I picked up a couple of new things but mostly felt that we have made good progress toward implementing the changes to curriculum and many of my gut instincts about it were confirmed.
More later…