A visit to UQ

I had not been to the Queensland Uni before and had not realised how big it is. There was an event that we were attending and a couple of things that we wanted to do beforehand. Problem was parking, even though it was in holiday time, there was apparently a graduation ceremony happening and many cars. Finally we found one and had to register and use a qr code to pay, a whole $5 for all day.

We caught up with some other cachers who were also going to the event and wandered the grounds looking for the clues.

Pose for a photo with this one and say what it was made from.
I saw a couple of impressive fountains in the grounds.

We found our way to an experiment, it takes approx nine years to drop a drop, it was commenced in 1920s and each drop that has fallen, i think there are eight or nine are held in a glass jar. A student is tasked to be there to watch it. Next drop is expected to fall in 2021.

We were required to answer some questions about the experiment to get our smilie.

Second night

We had planned to stay at Morven but with the time we spent in Chinchilla and Miles, it was going to be late afternoon before arrived. Certainly dont want to be on the road at that time out there if it can be avoided. Between the road trains and kangaroos, its best to travel during full daylight hours.

Mitchell was coming up and I checked it out on Wikicamps, two icons for caravans come up, Warren already has the filters set for at least power, showers, toilets and pet friendly. Mitchell sounded okay but there was another one only forty ks further on. It was at the back of a pub in a little town that sounded like it was doing it tough and it was only $12.50 a night. Even showgrounds are 20 or 25, yep we will go on and support them.

There were some comments from a year ago, mentioning that the guy needed to get some hospitality skills, apparently he was grumpy and a couple of dogs were walking through the pub. Other comments were okay.

Well, we pulled in and there was another couple starting to set up. I walked into the pub and found a lady sitting by the fire, she took the money and then stated that we were the second group and she wouldnt take any more, there was power points for six. I asked if they were doing dinner, it was Saturday night. Without answering me, she just yelled out to I guess the kitchen and got a "Suppose we have to" answer.

The other campers told us where the toilets and showers were located.

Six thirty came and we presented ourselves to the dining room. It was a black board menu and we both chose fish and chips, the lady took our order and went off. A grumpy man came out after a few minutes and put wood onthe fire then went behind the counter, I walked over to pay and he questioned what I was paying for, obviously not a lot of communication happening. Still noone else in the pub but us.

A few minutes went by while we enjoyed the fire and then our meal was brought to a table just behind us. Knives and forks and condiments were brought over from the bar. It was a nice meal, a full plate of chips and pices of fish on top, cost was again $12.50.

We did feel that we were an inconvenience but showers were good and plenty of hot water, what else do one needs.

Chinchilla to Miles and beyond.

I had discovered that Chinchilla had a parkrun that had only been made official four weeks. Told Warren that he wouldnt have tomiss one if he wanted to do it. He checked out the route and knew where it went, gulp,four times over a railway bridge.
Checked out the weather and temps, another gulp, minus 2 at 7am, start time, needless to say, he decided that he could miss it.

Later we saw the pictures that were posted and it seemed everyone was running in track pants, hoodies etc, not sure of what numbers they usually get but there were 74 hardly soles on that morning that Warren choose to stay in bed.

The morning soon warmed up and it was 18 degreesby the time we were packed up and ready to leave at 9am.
There was a little problem shutting the camper up,seemed to have more canvas over one side a d we had to raise the lud and readjust before securing the lid. Solved that at next stop, we removed the awning which we hadnt set up and stored it in one of the cupboards.

Four caches in Chinchilla and we got three of them, the fourth was in the middle of some roadworks. There was a Mary Mackillop cache there and I have done several of these in Sth Aussie as well as Darwin, like usual it was nea a church. The last two we walked between giving us and Lucy a nice morning walk.

On to Miles which was not that far, another nice walk along the creek under the highway and railway. Saw quite a few birds.

 A couple of rosellas on the left and then a parrot further up.

An egret watching the water to get his next feed. He dived just after I took the photo and grabbed something which he took back to the tree.

Scotch Eggs

I was asked about these a few days ago, yes, I knew about them and had made them when doing home science at high school. Now that was a long time ago, I dont remember if I have made them since but decided to give them a go today.

The cooking method was deep frying, I am sure that we didnt deep fry anything at high school and we baked them.

The recipe called for sausage meat but not one who follows recipes, that didnt faze me. I used mince  but put it through the thermomix with some spinach and spices. I wanted a slightly wet mix to mould around the eggs.

Boiled the eggs and peeled them, I put some mince into the palm of my hand, added an egg and then sculptured more mince around the egg until it was fully covered.

I used a mixture of coconut and parm cheese to coat them in.

Chilled them until it was time to cook. 

I used some of abottle of tomato passata in a pie tin and a little on top of each one. They were quicker to cook than I thought.

Served them on a bed of red cabbage.

Very filling and a different way to serve mince.

Shakedown trip to Birdsville

We wanted to go out in the camper trailer for acouple of nights to see what we really needed and what we could do without.
Rainbow beach has been discussed before the trouble with the Jeep.  Then we had the hassle with that, buying the new car and getting the towbar fitted.
Warren then mentioned that now with the camper and car,we could go to Birdsville. As it is very hot out there, my thought was to go now rather than later. We had ten days with no committments or nothing that couldnt be changed and it fitted in just after the Big Bash music festival.
A big shop as I wanted todo it on a budget but when comes time to pack the fridge, its smaller than the caravan so not able to take as much food as I intended.
As it cuts off a lot of time going through the Brisbane tunnels, we went that way but waited until the morning traffic had gone through, leaving home at 9.45am.
An early lunch, two hours later at the base of the range, it is a massive truck stop with toilets and bins. No caches though! May have to change that.
Talking about stopping in Chinchilla at the showgrounds, we discovered that we had very little cash between us so a stop in Dalby was required to find an ATM.

Warren went to a bank while Lucy and I toured the gardens and then got our first cache for the trip. We arrived in Chinchilla about 3pm and got set up. I started cooking dinner just after 5pm as the cooker is outside and the sink is as well so wanteddinner and clean up finished before dark.

A cranky dog.

Lucy has come to expect a walk each morning straight after breakfast. Shes quite happy to sit and wait while I drink my morning coffee but once my cup goes down on the table and its empty, shes up and ready to go. My breakfast cup is clear glass so she is able to see when it is empty.

This particular morning, Warren was home and so he takes her but he didnt get moving as quickly as she wanted.

I told her that it was Warren's turn to take her so this is what she did.

He ignored her for awhile so she then turned her back on him until he said "Well, come on then," suddenly the ears and tail were up and her good humour was restored.

Dinner tonight.

I love easy meals and having visitors for dinner on Saturday night, I took a frozen packet of boneless ribs from the freezer. I hadnt realised that it was already cooked but that was fine.  The packet weighed a kilo and I thought plenty for four people. Well, it did feed us but I thought that the meat was a bit light on, lots of sauce with it so that must have been the extra weight plus the cardboard box that it came in.

I had bought it at Costco several weeks ago, yesterday I dropped in on my way home and bought another one as Aidan was with us for a few days.

Opened the pack to put it into tray for the oven and couldnt believe the extra volume. It was also cut into large chunks like chops, previous pack was in one lump. The boys couldnt finish what I dished up to them and I didnt serve it all out. Tasted the same.

We have the start of lunch for tomorrow.

Dinosaurs in the mall

Its rare that we venture to the shopping malls during the weekends but due to a change of plans, we wandered down to buy a new coffee maker. Our had decided that it wasnt going to work any more.

To our surprise, there were dinosaurs in the middle of the mall.
Three in total and thankfully all enclosed. No noise coming from them but their heads and tails were moving.

This was the smallest of the three.

Sunday afternoon bliss

For some reason I was awake for a couple of hours during the night, hence breakfast was around nine oclock this morning. We had done housework yesterday so it was a free day from chores today. Warren got offered some stones for the garden, a timely gift as we were able tobuy some as soon as we get our trailer back.He collected them while Lucy and I went for a walk.


Lunch was leftover vegetables with acouple of slices of bacon and eggs, easy pleasy.

Some knitting, some reading then a nanna nap while Warren watched motor racing.

Dinner was also a quick easy meal, grilled chicken wings and mushrooms in a creamy sauce. Mum and Dad gave us a vertical grill years and years ago, they didnt use it. We dont use it very much but it is a brilliant way to cook chicken wings, they come out crisp and tasty.

Of course while I enjoyed my day I know that really I was putting a few things off. I has three tasks to do which I am avoiding. Two of them involes computer work, one will take a couple of hours the other much longer probably six to eight hours and the third one is a sewing project that will take about two hours to finish, that one does have a deadline, it needs to be finished before next month.

Oh well tomorrow is another day and hopefully I can get started on one of them. 

Toowoomba

Its a real drag up and into Toowoomba but it only lasts four or five kilometres. The Nissan did it well though. We headed to Laurel Park which was to the west of the city.
I had not been to that particular park before and it was quite popular with families.

Warren couldnt resist kicking some of the leaves.

Then wefound this little fellow.

The red were seats so people could enjoy a sitdown or even a picnic here.

There were several stone animals as well. I had made muffins and took a flask to make coffee. We sat, enjoyed our lunch while watching a couple of families kicking the footy around.

Esk

We took the new car on an adventure to Toowoomba, it was a round trip travelling through country roads to get and city and highway driving to get home.

We decided to have morning tea at Esk. We have stopped at Esk before but used the bakery and park. This time we stopped at a Gallery cafe. I ordered coffee and a slice of carrot cake to share. I was asked if we were sharing and I thought they would then bring out an extra spoon or fork.

Warren had chosen a table on the balcony, sheltered by the wind but still had the sun to bask in. Tables had a large sheet of cardboard clipped on the top of the tablecloth, then we realised that there was a cup alongside of the sugar and salt and pepper, that held crayons, so kids could draw on the tables, what a cool idea.

Surprise, surprise, our morning tea arrived with the cake sliced in two and served on a seperate plate with cream and a fork for each of us.

We order half strength coffee these days, that way I dont need to add sugar.

Oh, look theres a little red car.