Canberra

We’ve all been sick at least once on this trip and now it’s Percy’s turn. (Not my pecker but rather my pet name for the car and before you ask I haven’t started looking for hairs on my palms yet). Poor old Percy overheats on the dual carriageway but luckily we have water in the boot. We eventually get to the garage and Muggins tops up the water too quickly narrowly avoiding a very hot shower. Eventually we get going and arrive in Canberra 3hrs later (5 hours total).

It’s great to catch up with Matt and Donna after nearly a year, as well as godchildren Max and Sam and Mary. Max is very tall, very conscientious and very grown up and gets on well with Ruby straight away. Sam is smaller, cheekier and sharp as a knife constantly inventing ingenious ways to keep his parents on their toes. Their pet Great Dane Betty is massive. Harley is terrified at first, due partly to having been bitten in Vietnam and partly due to the vast size differential as well as Betty’s Tigger-like bounces. By the second morning Harley realises that Betty is just a big pussycat who wouldn’t hurt a flea and we can let the kids roam the huge house and garden. The playroom alone is the size of a small bungalow and is sensibly rarely tidied, so we let them get on with it while the girls catch up on gossip and the boys catch up on drinking time.

It’s Friday and Matt has sorted out a treat for the boys. Andy has just arrived and spent the last few hours shepherding the tearful Cooper away from the interested Betty. A trip to see the Rugby Super 14 is just the ticket and we have 3 in the corporate box. The Brumbies (ACT) are playing the Cheetahs (Orange Free State) and despite both teams languishing in the bottom half, the action is good aided by the copious free beers, sandwiches and seafood. The ‘wild horses’ or Brumbies notch up a rare victory and we celebrate with a couple in the club bar followed by a trip to the ‘English bar’ in town for some darts. Just as well we took a taxi as the police are incredibly ‘hot’ around here and even the taxi gets stopped twice. The Squires is good but not so the Bulmers and English bitter which both end up as penalties in drinking games. The darts is so bad that a random who can’t throw for toffee ends up getting to 15 in ‘round the clock’.

After a 1am finish the hangover casts a cloud over our trip to Questacon where the most animated I get is throwing a tennis ball @ 98 kmh on my first attempt and enjoying watching Matt take 10 attempts to achieve the same feat. Boys will be boys.

My God it’s Easter already and the girls organise an egg hunt in the front garden. The boys take the kids to the War Museum whist the girls shop and cook. The museum is excellent with good scale models of WWI and WWII battles as well as actual fighter planes, bombers and submarines. The kiddie section even includes a simulated helicopter flight from which it is difficult to drag them away (especially Andy and Matt). Easter Lunch is fantastic and filling. Luckily the kids are off to the playroom allowing us adults to embark on an evening of boozing and poker.

The next morning Nicky, Andy and Cooper are off back to Sydney. The tearful farewells are put on hold, as we will see them next weekend in Lorne as well as in Sydney. After a quick trip to the park where the children all enjoy the tunnels (not quite Chu Chi but impressive nonetheless), we settle down to the dregs of the festive drinks (apart from the 10 litre port which is still over half full) and a nail biting game of scategories that I clinch by a solitary point. (Not that I’m competitive or anything but I am pleased that my brain hasn’t completely died after 6 months of inertia). My abiding last memory of Canberra is of Matt preparing for his early start to Cambodia by ironing tea towels whilst balancing a champagne flute on the board.