What Nellie Did Next...

Well...thought I'd do a little bit of a write up of what I got up to while away from the 'Big Smoke'. Just a couple of days out of town, but it's nice to get away.

Last Tuesday I took a friend and her brother back home to Dubbo. Hence visiting the place. Always a nice place to get away to. Visited another friend while out there. Driving out there took up most of Tuesday, and we got to the farm in the evening as darkness was approaching, but not before I was able to get the photo of the sunset (featured below).

Wednesday was a nice easy day where we just stayed at home and read, and relaxed, and vegged out on some Phantom of the Opera (25th Anniversary edition, live at the Albert Hall, London). That was very good. Nice easy day. Hence me forgetting to actually take a photo.

Thursday was going into town. We arranged to meet up with another friend at the South Dubbo Tavern for lunch (which they don't do too badly, at all) and then drove into town after dropping our friend off at his house. In town I was able to pick up a great bargain: an Espirit dress that I had seen for $149.99 in Sydney at the beginning of Summer Wear Season. Not a bargain at that price, hence leaving it until coming out to Myer Dubbo, where they had it (towards the end of the season, yes...) for $79.99, and then it was reduced some more, and because of a gift voucher given to me for Christmas two years ago, I got it for $34.95. Not bad, not bad at all... After a little bit more browsing of the shops we went and had coffee with the friend we met up with for lunch to look over his house (that's relatively new, still). Bought a book, too, that should help with writing things about books that I've been reading all year, and should help me keep reading during the year. That was good, and it wasn't long before we started heading back 'home' for the evening.

Next day was another trip into town to see the latest Sherlock Holmes movie, as well as visit the Old Dubbo Gaol. The movie was good, and quite enjoyable. More intrigue, or something (or a better plot line?), made it quite good, and worth seeing. Horror night at Old Dubbo Gaol was worth going too, as well...even if I did ruin one of the 'ghosts' little gig by seeing her moving, getting into position to try and scare my friend and me. We got back to the farm a little after midnight, having had ourselves some fun driving back. If you must know, I like night driving sometimes better than daytime driving due to sunlight being a hassle at times.

Anyway...Saturday was the day I was driving back, and didn't leave until an hour and a half after I was expecting to...due to my own fault at procrastinating it. I had fun looking at the property guide for the area...and dreaming the prices in Sydney were the same for the same types of properties. Oh...to dream. 3-4 bedroom homes at $300 000. Oh...to dream...

The drive wasn't very eventful apart from roadworks and fog in the Blue Mountains. It was great to see...and fun to drive through. Nothing major, and got home fairly much at the expected time.

So, that was my few days away. Nice and easy, and fun, with many relaxing moments. Twas good, 'twas good, and hopefully shall do it again sometime this year... Maybe winter time.

Cheerio!

First Festival Night or is that Festival First Night?

The name is tonight, the first night of the Sydney Festival. It started off with a real crowd-pleaser with 'the troc' occurring in Elizabeth St, near Martin Place. (There were other events occurring around the city as well, but this was the one most appealing to me.) Trocadero dancing is what they describe what occurred during the late 30s, the 40s, and some of the 50s. So, early rock 'n' roll dancing. Unfortunately there is only the one performance of this dancing this year at the festival (tonight's event), with last year there being 4 performances at the Sydney Town Hall. Apparently there were meant to be more, but they cut it back. Silly move, the crowd would have wanted more, and probably come to more. Anyway, these are the photos for today's challenge, showing off some of the lovely sights of this evening.

'the troc' from way back in Martin Place. Big crowd.

'the troc' - anyone want to dance?

The band has started, and dancing is underway.

The dancers were great!

My friend, Faye, showing off St Mary's Cathedral, all lit up.

In front of St Mary's Cathedral.

Hope you enjoy today's photos for the challenge. So far, so good for the challenge, as there has been no slacking, though the uploading is taking a while to get there. Didn't get home until after midnight, so give me a break about today, please.

The Airport has never been so fun!

Today was going to be just a typical day of seeing someone, a good friend, off at the airport. Yes, I arrived 15 minutes late, but considering they were standing in the considerably long line for their airline, it didn't really matter.

So, to begin with, my friend waited 35-40 minutes to actually book their bag through for their flight. But thankfully their flight was one of the ones that was actually running on time.
We had decided that we would just meet up for coffee, as one does, when one only has about 40 minutes to see a friend. However, by the time we had got through the line, we only had 20 minutes for coffee.
Oh-kay. 20 minutes. Fine. One can do coffee in 20 minutes. Sure. We'd been talking in line, anyway. So...

However, we weren't counting on the security.

Now, of course, we all know about how security was stepped up a notch after September 11, 2001. Understandable, one can say.
And I'm not complaining about the time it took to drop things off and walk through the arch that beeps if you're carrying anything metallic. No, that was fine. That was great. No time, whatsoever.

What I have to laugh about is the fact that I was the random person who got chosen for the 'swab' test, to see if I'd come into contact with anything to do with explosive materials.

I've never had the swab test before, so it was a new experience. I didn't mind as I thought it would take only a matter of seconds and we'd be on our way again to have coffee.

Boy, was I wrong!

The first test came back as positive. Oh-kay, I thought. Unusual, but you get that. Something random; it happens. Second test, came back positive as well. Hmmm...something's fishy here. Third test was positive as well! WT-?!?!

At this point I was just cracking up all over the place as, well, I wasn't boarding a plane, and, yes! I'm definitely a terrorist. NOT! My friend and I were passing comments between ourselves, typical of Australians thinking something like this was a huge joke. I believe I'm going to be called either 'Uni Bomber Nell' or 'Achmed' by this friend, now. The security area where this was happening, too, had attracted one, and then two more security personnel.

After the three fails I had to get my gear (which was a handbag and shoes - that is all!) x-rayed again. On top of that, I had to also be frisk searched, just to make sure I wasn't concealing any weapons. How could I be concealing anything when I hadn't set off the arch? Okay, well, if you've seen 'In The Line Of Fire' (hmmm...interesting movie), you'll give me pointers, I'm sure. But, really! They offered to either do the frisk there and then, or go to a private room. At this rate, my friend's and my coffee time had reduced to only 10 minutes before they had to board their plane! I decided to go with the then and there, and in a matter of 30 seconds, or a little longer, afterwards, we WERE eventually on our way.

We couldn't believe this had happened. We just had to laugh over it all, from start to finish.

But yes! If you are going to the airport anytime in the future, don't just give yourself half an hour before your flight! Make sure you're there a good hour before, so that you are there ready to board, with 10 minutes to spare.

Oh, and we did get coffee - with 5 minutes to spare.