Bluenose's Blatherings

[Griffin NoName]

My son is having his next honeymoon* in Australia around Christmas time.

*two weddings, so two honeymoons. They've just come back from Bath. My son booked a 5* hotel, bridal suite, secretly. I had to swear not to tell the bride. At the wedding, every table was talking about the suprise honeymoon. My son couldn't stop telling people. How my D-i-L never guessed is one of life's great mysteries.

[Opsa]

It sounds enchanting. I would love to visit there one day.

Well if you ever do, I would love the chance to show some of the sights.  Plus we have a spare room to put you up in!  And I'm a passable cook...

Wahsome, Duje!!!! Same here* if you come to the Washington D.C. area!

_{*I'm not a great cook, but could show you some fun places.}

[Bluenose]

My son is having his next honeymoon* in Australia around Christmas time.

*two weddings, so two honeymoons. They've just come back from Bath. My son booked a 5* hotel, bridal suite, secretly. I had to swear not to tell the bride. At the wedding, every table was talking about the suprise honeymoon. My son couldn't stop telling people. How my D-i-L never guessed is one of life's great mysteries.

Where in Oz is he going?  It's a BIG place. 

I used to work for the Australian branch of a US company, we had a great deal of difficulty in getting some of their people to understand that you cannot get from Melbourne to a mining camp near* Karatha (a very remote place in the Kimberly region of NW Western Australia) and back in one day, even by air.  In fact they did not believe us when we tried to explain it would take a 6 hour flight from Melbouren, a 4 hour flight from Perth and then a 4 hour drive from Karatha. 

* near is a relative thing, especially when your nearest neighbour lives over 100 km away...

Wahsome, Duje!!!! Same here* if you come to the Washington D.C. area!

_{*I'm not a great cook, but could show you some fun places.}

This reminds me of the time Mrs Blue and I went to visit some rellies in another State.  The evening we arrived my cousin said "What shall I cook for dinner?  Let me just get my recipe book.  Would you like Chinese, Thai, Mexican, Italian, Greek or something else from here?"  She then passed me the recipe book.  It was a presentation folder of all the menus from the local take away restaurants.  We had Thai and it was very good.

Since then Mrs Blue and I both call our collection of take away menus "the recipe book".

[Sibling Chatty]

Australia's HUGE.

My Dad was doing a shakedown cruise on a drill ship in the Singapore Ocean when they discovered Mom had a brain tumor. The docs said GET HIM HERE NOW. They took him off the drill ship on a helicopter and puddle-jumped, choppered and any-other-way-possible got him to a big airport and then put him on the direct, so stops flight to Los Angeles and held a plane to get him to Houston.

Took longer to get AROUND Australia than from there to LAX and on to IAH, and that was with EVERYthing and EVERYbody possible being involved. (Four hours before I picked him up, they were able to determine that the tumor was pituitary, NOT brain, and that she'd be OK for a week or so while they reworked current surgical strategies to get it out.)

He slept for most of the next 36 hours, after seeing Mom...and said that he'd never in his life felt as much caring and compassion from any human beings in his life as he did the bush pilots that got him on the way home.

[Bluenose]

It certainly is a way of life in the outback.  If anyone is in trouble there is simply no question that everyon will do whatever they can to help.  The simple fact is when "normal" help is at best half a day away, you have to learn to rely on yourself and on those around you.  Everyone depends on everyone else.