Took the family on a one-day road trip today to visit Great Gran Billy in Ballarat. Due to the section of obligatory roadworks on the Western Ring Road and the usual stops along the way to respond to the various demands of our back-seat complainants, the journey took us around two hours instead of the 1 hour 20 minutes that it should have taken.
So we arrived in Ballarat right on midday and decided to stop for lunch first. As always, BallFiend insisted on having pasta and therefore Thumper got the same (we have learned to always get her the same, otherwise she won't eat what she has and demands to eat BallFiend's food).
As can clearly be seen, all was going quite well, until Thumper finished her meal. I carefully shifted my half-finished glass of wine out of her reach and then proceeded to wipe her hands and face before she left the table, only to catch my glass with my elbow and turn just in time to see it crash to the floor. It was just like in the movies... I watched as the glass seemed fall in slow motion, tumbling end over end, then the slow motion stopped as it hit floor and shattered into about one billion pieces.
We made a hasty exit, stopped at a bakery for some afternoon tea supplies, then continued on to visit GGB.
Poor GGB had been ill last week - taken to hospital with vomiting - and being 95 years old, it really knocked her around a bit. CutLuce and DesignerMonkey took Cuz1 up last weekend to meet her great-grandmother for the first time and on their return, CutLuce told me how frail GGB had looked. So I felt quite relieved when I arrived to see her looking better than I was expecting... though she is definitely not the lively woman she was a few years, and even a few months, ago.
GGB enjoyed watching Thumper and BallFiend play and even helped out with a puzzle that I had brought to keep Thumper entertained.
At 3.00 pm, we left GGB and gave the kids a quick run about in the playground across the road. It all ended in tears when Thumper decided to live up to her name by running into a pole and thumping her head, causing a good-sized egg to swell-up. So we loaded everyone into the car and went on our way home.
Much like the journey to Ballarat, the journey home was plagued with slow patches due to roadworks. The recently-built Bacchus Marsh by-pass is now in operation, but obviously 'they' don't want the new road to get worn out, so one lane was blocked off, causing the traffic to dawdle along at 10kph for a couple of kilometres. Most of the rest of the journey was uneventful, apart from BallFiend kicking my seat, and Thumper repeatedly dropping her blankie and waterbottle, making me reach around awkwardly to pick them up for her. BallFiend did a reasonable job of keeping Thumper entertained by tickling her foot with his foot - bringing about endless rounds of giggling. And the colourful music of Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass kept BallFiend in good spirits.
Eventually we reached the dreaded Western Ring Road, and of course, the traffic slowed to a crawl. It took about 25 minutes to travel around 2 kilometers! Finally we reached our turn-off and stopped by Gran and GrandPaul's house where a nice glass of red bubbles awaited us. The kids were offered dinner, and refused on the grounds of cake already consumed. Then once again, we packed everyone back into the car and finally got home at about 6.00 pm.
Though it was lovely to see Great Gran Billy, overall, it was a rather exhausting day - especially for DeepSpice who did all the driving. ...if only we could teleport to Ballarat.
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