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On 21st December at 4.00am we headed up the highway on our epic journey to spend Christmas with my family.  The driving was difficult and tedious, but that’s how Rob wanted to do it so there we were.  I only did about 2 hours driving out of the 10-11 on that day, so not too bad for me! We arrived in Dubbo in the afternoon and proceeded to have very welcome showers and naps. Hotel was clean and tidy with an ensuite bathroom (a must for me!) so pretty happy with that.

During the night big storms hit New South Wales and by morning it hadn’t cleared up much but we the intrepid adventurers had come all that way and were not to be deterred from our planned trip to the Western Plains Zoo.  Fortunately you can drive around the zoo and see most of the animals from the car.  I had an umbrella so was able to get out and explore the ones off the track a bit.  After about half an hour the rain let up and Rob was able to get out and see the animals with me.  Main highlights were the giraffes (still can’t get over the fluffy horns ) and the way they were loping about playing together in total slow motion.  Never seen anything like it before. Awesome!

Later that day we went to Old Dubbo Gaol, which was a bit scary for me as those places totally creep me out but Rob likes visiting them!  Maybe it’s something to do with my convict ancestry…  Anyway it was quite interesting right up until the point when we got caught in torrential rain in the building housing the hangman’s exhibit (need I say more?)  It eventually let up and I could get out of there (in a hurry).

The next day we left a bit later and made our way by the Newell highway to Brisbane.  That is one long boring stretch of road between Goondiwindi and Toowoomba!!!  Actually there was a lot of straight road the whole way which made it difficult when you could see the road stretching out so far ahead and not seeming to get anywhere. It was great to catch up with the family.  We went out for breakfast for Mum’s birthday which was really nice.

On Christmas Day we spent the day relaxing and catching up again, and even Grandma was able to be there so that was good.  We didn’t swim in the pool though, as the temperature had dropped for the week due to storms further north so it was actually quite nice without air conditioning or having to go for a swim.  That was good for Rob as he was dreading the blistering heat that usually comes around Christmas.  The next few days were spent re-acquainting myself with the local shopping malls (particularly Chermside!) and spending time with family.  It would have been good to catch up with friends, but the stay was quite a short one and we didn’t really have time, so next time definitely.

On the Saturday after Christmas we again hit the road back to Dubbo (uneventful trip I won’t describe!)  The following day we made our way to Sydney via the Jenolan Caves and Blue mountains.  It was a great if long day and I finally got to see at least one of the caves (have always wanted to go there) and Rob got to see the “Three Sisters” etc.  The tour we went on was in the ”Imperial Cave” which was amazing and fascinating - I really love caves and could have gone through all of them, however there was not time and we needed to make our way to Sydney to stay with my sister Linda.  We took the scenic route on the Bells Line of Road through the mountains and it was gorgeous.  And that is where our Christmas adventure ends!

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A little earlier this evening I had to pop out to the car to bring something in.  On returning to the house I noticed that we have 2 housemates I knew nothing about.  I found them on the eave and “ceiling” of the car-port:

Being from the UK, I’ve taken an approach for the time we live in Australia to not take any prisoners when it comes to any bugs that I see - they can be seriously scary in this country!!  I’ve squashed cockroaches, bugs in the garden, and spiders (well, I usually send Dawn in on the spider front )  However as these were a little high up I left them alone - the 2nd spider was practically right above my head when I took that photo!  An Australian may help me with the identification of these spiders - sorry the 2nd photo isn’t too clear, but I couldn’t see a thing in the viewfinder or display screen when taking the photos.  I’ve had a look online, and I have a feeling that these spiders are Black House Spiders:

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We’ve known since we moved into this house that there are quite a few spiders around the place - the kitchen, dining room and lounge window frames have all had spider webs on them which generally return some days after clearing them. In the case of the kitchen and dining room windows, I’ve also found loads of tiny baby spiders running around - I think some heavy rain we had about a week or so ago may have drowned one batch of spider kids. I almost put my hand right on top of a different nest of baby spiders the other day when I was feeding the extension cord through a window to mow the back lawn!

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Mmmmmm….Kit Kat Cookie Dough!

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