When was the last time you drove out of town?

Probably not since my road trip with my son to Canberra in January.  See blog entry here.  This is what I said then:

What a great kids holiday destination Canberra is!  Both my husband and I used to live in Canberra (it was where we met and fell in lerv) and didn't like it much then at all.  Once the initial excitement at leaving and moving to exciting Sydney had worn off, I kept experiencing a yearning to go back and visit.  In 2006, I took both kids there for a long weekend.  We met my brother there and had a great time.  This time I just took my son and met up with another friend and her two young sons for a three day 'boyfest'.  It was great!  There were so many free or cheap things to do with kids and being January, the whole of Canberra was like a ghost town so it was even easier than usual to get around.  We re-visited the National Museum on Lake Burley Griffin (this was a highlight last time) and Questacon and also went to the Botanic Gardens (where we came upon a huge water dragon sunning itself on a rock), the Black Mountain Tower and the War Memorial.  We also found a few good playgrounds (esp recommend John Knight Park at Belconnen) and went swimming a few times (including once at Dickson Pool).  Mostly cooked our own meals but did have one (fairly unmemorable) dinner out at the Dickson 'Tradies' - main attraction of that was the kids could sit and eat their meal in a train carriage - unfortunately this was the best thing about eating at this place!

This is a photo of my son on a previous trip to the National Museum:

J Nat Mus Canb

I have been out of town a few times since then but by air rather than by road and once was a work trip.  I have got very lazy about weekends away this year.  It is a bit hard to face with us both working full time, ie, weekends seem so much like 'catch up' time.  I also hate the thought of getting home with a whole pile of washing on Sunday night and no meals prepared and then feeling behind all week.  I feel like I need to take time off work just to make up for being away on the weekend.  It is the same this week, ie, have been late in both yesterday and today.  This morning, I prepared and put the ingredients for dinner into the slow cooker so I don't have to cook from scratch when I get home from work at 6pm or so.  Normally I would have done all this on the weekend.

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This is something I always mean to do but never seem to get around to.  I work right in the city of Sydney so have numerous interesting places I could go to on my lunch break.  I am also in the city frequently on weekends taking the kids to their various activities.  I am going to set myself a challenge to try and do at least one touristy thing a month in the city and write about it on here. 

One of my first ones is going to be participating in a guided tour of the Great Synagogue.  This is so close to where I work that I feel quite remiss to have never have gone on one of their tours.  It looks like quite a striking building from the outside with beautiful, ornate gates.  I actually took some photos of the detail on the gates the other day but they are on my broken phone.

I also really want to go at see the Archibald Prize (portrait) finalists at the Art Gallery of NSW before it closes on 18 May.  I really love the winning work this year by Del Kathryn Barton:

You are what is most beautiful about me

Link to all the finalists here.

I was similarly apathetic when working in Jakarta.  In Jakarta, my office was just a few doors down from the National Museum and opposite the National Monument but do you think I ever visited either of these places?   Canberra was a little better as i was working shift work so used to get so bored and lonely that I did a lot of cultural type things on my days off.  I also do all the touristy things when visiting Canberra with my kids these days - helps that the attractions in Canberra so easy to get to and so attractively priced (or free!).  I used to do lots of things in Melbourne but not anymore.  I think my daughter has been the Museum and the Healesville Sanctuary once each.  My son's biggest adventures in Melbourne are typically going down to the playground near my mum's place or to that Mecca of the South Eastern suburbs, Chadstone - the fashion capital. 

Anyone interested in trying to join in my challenge to be more of a tourist at home?

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Qantas plane

You probably can't tell from the picture but the plane is at Canberra airport.  I flew to Canberra and back for a meeting yesterday.  This is the plane I got home at about 4:30pm.  Was a beautiful Autumn day in Canberra as you can probably make out from the clear blue sky.  Unfortunately all I got to see was from the window of a taxi while travelling to and from a meeting.  Did make me resolve to take the kids to Canberra again soon before it gets too cold to contemplate it.   

Felt pretty bad after I got home as I had been making jokes about the terrible catering on the two flights (breakfast consisted of a single biscuit/cookie and no tea or coffee) and then found out later that a woman who was a member of Qantas's catering staff had actually fallen from the loading dock of a 747 plane at Brisbane airport that very morning and died!  This had lead to flight delays and catering problems as other staff so distraught over the death of their colleague.  More on the story here.

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J Nat Mus Canb

What a great kids holiday destination Canberra is!  Both my husband and I used to live in Canberra (it was where we met and fell in lerv) and didn't like it much then at all.  Once the initial excitement at leaving and moving to exciting Sydney had worn off, I kept experiencing a yearning to go back and visit.  In 2006, I took both kids there for a long weekend.  We met my brother there and had a great time.  This time I just took my son and met up with another friend and her two young sons for a three day 'boyfest'.  It was great!  There were so many free or cheap things to do with kids and being January, the whole of Canberra was like a ghost town so it was even easier than usual to get around.  We re-visited the National Museum on Lake Burley Griffin (this was a highlight last time) and Questacon and also went to the Botanic Gardens (where we came upon a huge water dragon sunning itself on a rock), the Black Mountain Tower and the War Memorial.  We also found a few good playgrounds (esp recommend John Knight Park at Belconnen) and went swimming a few times (including once at Dickson Pool).  Mostly cooked our own meals but did have one (fairly unmemorable) dinner out at the Dickson 'Tradies' - main attraction of that was the kids could sit and eat their meal in a train carriage - unfortunately this was the best thing about eating at this place!

The photo is from our 2006 trip to the National Museum (didn't have my camera with me this time so waiting for my friend to send me copies of her photos):

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