24th January - Gold coast to Hobart - Boy and Bear - Hobart to Barnbougle - polo - Barnbougle to Christmas Hills - family wedding

Sunday 24^th January 2016

The Storm rollercoaster at Seaworld 

Our last night on the Gold Coast was great.  We met up with friends

Cam, Liz, Marguerite, Twyla

and family

Will, Leo, Hamish, Angus

for a roast dinner at Klein’s, at Runaway Bay marina.

And then UP very early (4.30am…) to get packed up, cleaned up, and ready to fly back to Tasmania.

On the plane

Hamish had a few moments of anguish and stress watching the luggage being loaded onto our plane.  Would his surfboard arrive intact??  (Yes, it did.  Thank GOD!!)

We arrived in Hobart around 1pm, and then…the team split up!  (I miss my boys…)

Strangely…I was very tired, so I slept for a few hours and then it was UP and at ‘em again – a concert at the Odeon – Boy and Bear!

They were fabulous and we stayed wide awake and happy to watch and listen and occasionally sing along, quietly.

We were very lucky because we got there as the doors were opening so we could select the best seats – front row balcony, perfect!

Saturday morning up early again, and off to Barnbougle (just past Bridport) for a gala polo day.

The horses were glossy and shiny and speedy and I HOPE they were enjoying their game as much as the riders seemed to.

At half time the crowd surged onto the field – there were over 5,000 people there, dressed to the nines.  I had no idea what they were doing but it soon transpired they were stomping the divots, getting all of the lumps and bumps flattened out for the next onslaught of hooves.

I was intrigued to see how many people were wearing black and white stripes – very striking, very conspicuous.  I was quite glad I was wearing blue and white with a  muted pattern of daffodils…

We had to leave at 2.30 to drive to the other side of Tasmania (just about…) – the raspberry farm at Christmas Hills, near Deloraine.

It was all a bit dodgy – there are bushfires raging and we were all a bit worried that the whole area would be evacuated.

Fortunately for Dara, the bride, who has been planning her day for many stress-packed months, all went well – no fires, not too much smoke, beautiful warm weather.

It was great being reunited with the family – cousins very happy indeed to be together.

Monique, Gina, Jacqui

We left at 10, which was probably a mistake – too pathetic, too tired.

We missed out on the dancing!  But we did get to see Marcel walk his granddaughter up the aisle!

Leah and Mark

And my mother was brave and resilient and beautiful as always (see above), in spite of still being convalescent (pneumonia just a few weeks ago.)

Monique - mother of the bride~

We are staying in Launceston till tomorrow; Pete is teaching the Darcey girls to play Oh Hell and I am not contributing anything much to the proceedings…