On Friday we finally bit the bullet and decided it was time to return to reality. We had spent the last few days of our holiday within 3 hours of home, doing our best to pretend we would never have to go back, but, as always the day came when we couldn’t kid ourselves any longer.
Usually on a morning we are moving on the kids are ready early, with all of their stuff packed up before the Man and I have even crawled out of bed. Friday morning was a different story. None of us wanted to get going, and the kids climbed into bed with me and moaned while the Man made a start on packing up.
We were grumpy too….
Eventually we were ready to leave although it was in record slow time, all with sad faces. This evil eye I snapped, glaring out from a hole in a tree on the side of the road, perfectly fitted our mood too.
We stopped at the Bridgewater Bakery for some morning tea. The town of Bridgewater is only small, and a pub and bakery are pretty much all of it. On Thursday we had a counter lunch* at the pub, and dessert at the bakery next door.
Both of them do exceptional food so the chance to get morning tea as we were driving through the next day was too good to resist. The kids wanted to stop for lunch but we knew if we stopped we would never get going again!
With the dubious help of the GPS we were lucky to make it home at all. At the time I voted for listening to her directions, if we had we would still be out there, driving around aimlessly instead of being home.
No, we didn’t need her, we have been to Wedderburn a number of times before, but we are always interested to get the opinion of a person reading the maps from another reality and so we turn her on, purely for entertainment purposes. (I have posted about her crazy directions before).
Can you see the imaginary road through the windscreen?
As you can see in this photo she has no idea where we are, although we were driving on the Calder. The only road she could find was that small purple line in the corner of her screen, not the major highway we were actually on. We will have to update her soon but I would like to know what reality she is from so we can send her back to her own spacetime.
When we do get a new one I hope to fulfil a not-so-secret desire of mine download the Darth Vader voice for it.
After seeing this clip below I am not sure having that voice directing us will get us where we should go without a few unexpected turns though. If I was driving I can guarantee I would make a wrong turn far more than was necessary just to be reprimanded by Lord Vader!
One of the things you pass when you drive on the freeway into Melbourne as we did, is the Melbourne International Gateway. This is one of the first things international visitors will see. I didn’t know it was called the Gateway until just now when I searched ‘cheesestick’ because, well, that’s what everyone calls it. I think you can see why. I want to hate these sticks but I can’t. The sheer silliness of having a giant yellow beam leaning over a road lined by red sticks just makes me wonder how much money the designer was paid.
It makes me sad that international visitors see this first instead of the wonderful historic terrace houses and cottages that are in the area.
It just needs some giant crackers…
I will probably be doing holiday posts for a few more days even though we are home. I am in denial…..
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*A counter lunch (or counter tea) is an Australian tradition. It is a meal in the lounge at the pub. (The menu for the bar and the lounge are different.) Traditionally a counter meal was sausages and mash, steak or a parma** served with either vegies, or chips and salad, but these days pubs don’t just serve snags, steak or parma, they serve gastronomic delights. I had a field mushroom stack, with grilled capsicum, feta, fresh spinach and balsamic vinegar jus on Turkish bread. Yum! Of course there is nothing wrong with a good parma, that would have been my second choice if the mushies didn’t sound so good.
**chicken parmigiana
Buried words and Bushwa. 
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