What a capital trip!
Andrew and I just got back from a quick trip to Canberra to visit Iva and Michael, where we were also hoping to squeeze in a couple of days of skiing in Perisher if the weather was good (it was... excellent).
The night before we left, we joined the beer crew, including Greg, for a quiz night. We won, despite the controversial loss of the question about what gas causes Venus to be hot (the answer was greenhouse gases, any specific gas was not accepted, what an outrage! Next time they should planet better.).
We headed over on Thursday and were hosted very generously by Iva and Michael in their incredible new house. It’s the kind of house that if it was an air bnb you’d walk in and think Wow, money well spent, but it’s their actual house and is super close to the city, so good! I admit I am slightly jealous given our luck in Perth, but so happy for them, and can't wait to see what curtains and bookshelves they finally get.
We had an awesome time in Canberra seeing the city with our knowledgeable guides. The first day we eased into things with slow start at Ona where Andrew tried the coffee flight; the same coffee in two different shaped cups, which supposedly make the coffee taste different if you’re a taste savant, which I'm not convinced Andrew was. It was a damn good coffee though! I just had a coffee with milk, but it was the best coffee with milk I've ever had.
Next was a drive up to Mount Ainsley for a beautiful view of all of the Canberra highlights. It's really cool to see how it was all designed, I can't believe it's all man made! We also saw the bluest little blue bird hopping around, I've never seen a bird so bright before.
Lunch was at Iva's workplace, Parliament House! It's an incredible place to work, with artwork around every corner, it definitely suits Iva. I'm sure it wasn't meant to be, but the highlight for me was Shaun the Prawn (a little prawn stuck forever in the marble at the entrance), but I was saddened to see a lack of Shaun the Prawn memorabilia in the gift shop. We also got to see the great tapestry with the Hayley's comet "easter egg", which is one of the gifts (in puzzle form) from Iva and Michael for my birthday. The views were also spectacular, and I guess some of the politics stuff was also probably pretty interesting.
After lunch, we went to Fyshwick markets to get some beers and fruit, including a dark green "chocolate orange" (which I was excited about because it wasn't its name by very definition, but then was very disappointed to find was just regular orange inside), and then Michael gave us a tour of his workplace, CEA Technologies, where we got to see some of the incredible radars they make. It's the kind of place where you check your phone in at reception, so no photos, but it was great to see some real serious, actual engineering going on, and talk to some of the people working on it all, very impressive!
Dinner was at Rebel Rebel, where we were very well looked after by... Morvan (that's Morgan with a v, we're pretty sure Michael just made this up). We can totally see why this is a fave! The food and drinks were spot on. The beef tongue, which even though is very meta (I mean, you're tasting the thing that tastes), was delicious and tender.
Seeing Fremantle play at the Canberra oval was so fun! Especially since they won, but it was touch and go there for a minute (or three quarters). The main highlight of the game was Sunny Walters' 200th game (#Sunny2Hunny), but the real highlight was the man sitting near us who was so fired up in the first quarter yelling (roaring) to freo to "start playing f-ing footbawwwwll". He got a warning from the Canberra Federal police but could not help himself and ended up getting escorted out. We were bummed! His commentary certainly added flavour, which is something Iva's wine was lacking (it was hilariously undrinkable, we suspect it was crouchen Riesling). Dinner at the Kingo was cosy, warm and delicious, what an awesome local.
The next day we went for a run around Lake Burley Griffin, had lunch at Lambshead (not an actual dish), visited the National Gallery where we used Iva's knowledge to the max, and then had a lazy night at home with snacks from Superbarn.
Road trip! The Black Diamond Lodge in Crackenback was breathtaking, still can never get over snow in Australia. We made the most of the accommodation, and also spent the best two days of the season at Perisher.
When necessity calls, you sometimes make a paper towel dispenser out of a Special K box.
Andrew got some awesome new goggles, I managed the Towers run on mount Perisher, we skied every mountain in the resort, and we somehow made it back to the tube in the most low light conditions we’ve ever been in.
Back to work tomorrow, feeling like I Canberralot more after the refreshing break!
