Fun times in our nations capital.

I'll just precede this by saying that over the weekend, Jo's wonderful mum Dawn celebrated her 60th birthday - a huge milestone - so even though we spoke on Saturday, I'm going to give her a shout out again - HAPPY BIRTHDAY! We wish we could have been there to celebrate with her, but we're looking forward to her visiting us in Sydney later in the month!



OK, here we go - on Saturday morning, we departed bright and early for Canberra, our capitol city, an expedition that was born out of my friend Kat and I wanting to see an exhibition that was showing at the National Portrait Gallery, and basically bullying Jo and our other friend Turnsie into coming along.



We started the day with breakfast at McDonald's - which is how any successful road trip SHOULD start i say - and then embarked on the three and a half hour drive to actually get there. Yes, there were a few arguments regarding capitol punishment and the often pathetically weak sentencing of murderers and rapists in this country, and yes our minds were boggled during a discussion on time travel and Stephen Hawking's theory of black holes - but other than that, we arrived unscathed and raring to see the exhibition. So our first stop was the National Portrait Gallery!

On the road to Canberra

Old Parliament House, which we stopped by briefly

The exhibition was celebrating 100 years of the magazine Vanity Fair, and featured loads of photographs of artists, actors, writers, scientists, politicians and other notables, which had been used as Vanity Fair covers through the ages. Each photograph had a description about the person in it and their achievements, as well as details about the photographer. I thought it was great - really enjoyed it, especially because you knew so many of the people who were photographed, and being interested in photography, knew some of the people who took the photos as well, like Mario Testino (who took a series of very famous photos of Princess Diana, and later of Prince William) and my favourite, Annie Leibovitz, whose creativity and genius just amazes me whenever i see any of her work - she's photographed just about everyone there is to know, and has had some amazing moments - like taking the last professional photographs of John Lennon - he died only 5 hours after the shoot.

Afterwards, we headed to Lake Burley Griffin, which is an artificial lake in the middle of the city, and is named after the American architect Walter Burley Griffin, who won the design competition in 1912 for the city of Canberra.

Kat, Turnsie and I have fun pointing out our favourite flags...


...and then Kat attempts to push me into the lake.




Turnsie in a moment of solitude and reflection...


Kat and I by the lake



Jo and I having bucket loads of fun



Wheeeee!

Kat and I

We headed to the serviced apartments we were staying in after this, to get ready for dinner. But first, we knew something else was in order - and that, my friends, was jumping on the bed.

Yes, it's true, in age we ranged from 24 to 35, and yes, it's also true that by day we appeared as responsible, law abiding, hard working citizens of this fine country.

But on this cold, August evening, we four strengthened the ties of everlasting friendship by joining together in the quest to capture the finest bunch of bed jumping photos the world has ever seen.

Here is a mere smattering of what resulted:

We emerged from the frenzy, broken, beaten, exhausted. The bed itself fared far worse.

We had spent over an hour jumping around like lunatics searching for the best shot, the right pose, having thought we actually broke the bed several times (Turnsie, this means you), and were now sore and damn tired - alas, it was a poignant reminder that we were indeed adults, with adult bodies. Oh, to be a child again!

Still, onwards and upwards. We had dinner with some friends at the Charcoal Grill, which was actually very nice - i enjoyed oysters and veal, topped off with fresh apple pie. However within 20 minutes of leaving the restaurant, i was violently struck with an illness that shook me to my very core. I am talking, of course, about food poising.

Well. I think it was food poisoning. All i know we got back to the apartments just in time for me to be sick all over the place, several times over! Better out than in though, and once i was done i felt much, much better. I went straight to bed and woke up good as new on Sunday, ready to rock and roll.

We checked out, and headed straight to the Kingston Markets, which were actually great! They had lots of local artists and craftsmen showing off their wares (i was tempted by a $300 owl - it was awesome!) and even better, a huge food section where you could taste everything from cheese to fruit to chocolate to freshly baked bread. Yum! I had a lovely cup of hot apple cider, spiced with cinnamon and cloves, and Kat had some delicious mulled wine. And we tasted everything! I picked up some melting moments and walnut and date shortbread, and an antipasto foccacia and a boysenberry pie, and we had chocolate dipped strawberries and tried chai tea and blue cheese and pesto and fetta bread and all manner of jams and chocolates. So much food goodness!

Jo and Turnsie at the markets

Me at the markets!

Afterwards we raced over to Poachers Pantry, just outside of Canberra City, for our lunch reservation. This place is kind of a local secret - the food is delicious, the service impeccable and the atmosphere really cosy! It's a great place, always booked out too, so we had to make sure to make a reservation even for lunch!

We tried some appetisers, including the delectable goats cheese souffle and yummy mushroom and poached duck ravioli, and then got some platters to share, one with all sorts of cold meats, another with vegetables and seafood, and yet another with cheese! It was SO good, i didn't even know what i was eating half the time, but mmmm it was excellent! Really enjoyed it, highly recommend going if you are in the area!

Our platters! Or what was left of them.

Kat, Turnsie, me and Jo at lunch :)



Me outside Poachers Pantry, bonding with nature.

After our leisurely lunch, it was time to head back to Sydney. We'd had a really fun weekend, and by the time we got home we were super tired and ready for bed.

And that was Canberra! The End!