Going, going, go ..... Gone !

Where did the month go ! I suppose not being home for most of it made it seem so fast, because I was enjoying myself, maybe a little too much LOL
While away, I did all my May Challenges for Nuts4Digi, and hope to post them all here, for you to have a little peek at what we get up to.

I had a birthday ... a fabulous birthday ! I got to spend it with my friend Debbie and her hubby and Zack, their little doggie. Debbie and I went with Deb's daughter, to Melbourne City, and we had a very "point conscious" lunch and 7km walk around. Let me tell you we all had a good night's sleep, after that ! We went looking for cupcake shops, and found some, but this one grabbed my attention - diet or no diet ! LOL I wanted to experience that HUGE cupcake on the top shelf. Unfortunately we hadn't ordered one, so we didn't get one LOL.
Oh well, the mini version was all our Weight Watcher diets would allow, so that's what we had. This Layout was created with the new Birthday Kit from the Designers at Nuts4Digi. This is only a very small part of it.

All About Me Challenge - before the Weight Watchers diet ....

The Art Challenge - use the colours of the Colour Wheel

The Blog Challenge - the messiest room in your house. Kinda looks like that now LOL

The Colour Challenge - to use ONE other colour with Black and white, maybe colourise a part of a photo.

The Font Challenge - since 'going to digi', HUNGRY JACKS OPENED THIS WEEK !!!

The Photography Challenge - a portrait. As I had already done one of me for the AAM (see above) I did Steve, instead :)

The Quote Challenge - use a quote with Mum or Mother in it. This is my Mum's Mother's Day gift. Just love this pretty kit of Nutkin Tailz (Lesley) called To Mum With Love. Available at Nuts4Digi, too ;)

The Scraplift Challenge - scraplift of  Julia's "I Love You" layout.

The Variety Challenge - a template provided by Flora, and this is my Layout. The pedicure was my birthday gift from Debbie. First time I have had one, and I am pleased to say the polish etc is still going strong :-)

For all the credits for all these layouts, you can find them in my Gallery here.

OK, so having just finished THIS month, we start the whole process again, tomorrow !

Check back soon, and see what we will be challenged with in June :)

Till then,

Bye 

Deb.

Day 13 - On the last leg of the Journey

March 14th

Leaving Dubbo this morning, and a long stretch to home, a long trip from start to finish.

Not quite 30,000 kms on the odometer. It was 1687 kms from Debbie and Paul's in Melbourne, and at least that far around the Warwick - Sydney - Bathurst - Gundagai - Melbourne route, so I am thinking about 3,300 round trip. It was 994 km from West Wyalong to Warwick. We may just click onto the 30,000 km when the car goes in for a service in May. Still got the original tyres, and original battery, and 6 years old in June, so cross our fingers, it will give more good service :) Maybe it pays to belong to the RACQ, (Motor Insurance company) so you never need them ;)

And what was the first thing I looked at when we got home ?

The height of the grass ! Luckily Dad came and mowed on the 10th of March, and it was just ready for another haircut, as it rained the day we left, and was still raining the day we came home :)

Hope you enjoyed the trip ! I know we did, and thank everyone for your hospitality, Marg, Nikki, Annette, and especially Debbie and Paul for inviting us into their home to spend time with them, and their family, and meet Annette and Mel in Sorrento.

Debbie drove us all around and cooked beautiful meals, too. Taught me lots of new stuff, but of course, there is still more to learn ;) Thank you too, for advice on the maps and how to get to Debbie's, and how to get through the Eastlink and Citilink systems !!!

Luv Ya, Paul ! :P You cheeky fella ! Thanks for fixing my internet to be able to make good use of my laptop ;)

MWAH !!! and Hugs to you all !

Day 12 - Off to Dubbo and the Zoo ...

March 13th
Today we leave the NSW town of West Wyalong, and go north to Parkes and visit the telescope known as The Dish, and a movie titled the same, was made about it. After Parkes, we travel to Dubbo, primarily to visit the Taronga Western Plains Zoo - a BIG animals part of Taronga Zoo in Sydney. We were lucky that is was an overcast day (worked in our favour for once !) and nearly all of the animals were out and about. We got our tickets in Singleton, and they last for two days, so if you miss something the first day, you can come back, and most likely see it the next. As we saw all but about two animals, we didn't go back the 2nd day, and went home.
So, for now, we leave West Wyalong, at sunrise and the sun was extremely annoying, too, for about 30 minutes.

A Car Museum. See the vintage car on top of the building ?

We have a long way to go yet ...

When Dad and I came down a year ago, there was a dust storm and we had to take a detour, and now the water is lying along the sides of the road, everywhere !

Some of the competitors going to Qld for the Life Saving Championships, the following week. We saw them again at Goondiwindi, on the NSW / Qld border.

The Big Strawberry.

The Dish :)

Only a few metres from it :)

In Dubbo now, looking back the way we came. Hungry Jacks is on this corner.

The entrance to the Zoo.

Animals, and weird animals.

These Cheetahs are special. They weren't on display, but the trainer is preparing them for public display and we just happen to be there when she was doing a session with them. The lighter ones are males, and there are two females too, the ones with the black "lines" instead of spots. If a male and female have a recessive gene then their offspring revert back to this darker colouring, and it's more like lines than spots. So we were very lucky to see them. They are playing ball games, and have to fetch the ball and return it.

When we eventually decided to have some lunch, at 3.50pm, it was time to close, so we went to Hungry Jacks, as we saw one while turning around to go back to the Zoo from the Motel. Now, do you call this a "points-buster" Steve ! Forget the 8 points on the battered fish!

We just got to the Dubbo Gaol as it was closing, too, and managed to peek a look through an opened door :) The big circular "coin" is actually about 30 cm across and is embedded in the pavement. This photo was actually taken up the other way, because the sun was shining from the wrong direction, and my shadow would have ruined it.

And so that brings us to the end of a tiring but very exciting and fulfilling day ... and we are off north, and home tomorrow.