Just a quiet Friday??

We woke to the usual sounds of Alice Springs; quiet bird calls, trucks on the Stuart Freeway and not much else.  I had to shake myself, ‘Is this really the first day of the reunion?’ ‘Yes it is and you’re planning on being at the Women’s Breakfast, best you get moving!’  Time and again the executives of the museum had referred to the year after the big reunion as ‘Just a garden party!’  And with so little fuss and to do the garden party began!

Our walk to work was through empty paddocks, ok, we might have passed four low loaders whose cargo now sat around the museum somewhere – nothing like the thousands we walked past last year. The breakfast guests took up about three quarters of Stuart’s Bush Kitchen.  Our Leongatha friends easily spotted me and I joined them for a cup of tea while waiting for the guest speaker – a woman from Shell.  After that I wandered back to work, suggested to Mr Kenworth I’d be more help at the sink which he quickly agreed with so back to Stuart’s Kitchen I went for an hour or more. 

I headed over to find Will at 10.30am for a cuppa break before our first run at operating a bar began.  He, Mr Kenworth and Pete were around the radio waiting to hear Pete’s interview.  We caught it just before we had to leave for our bar duties.  Pete did a wonderful job reflecting more on the changes he has seen as his career spans nearly 45 years.

CEO and Right Hand Woman
having a break at lunch time

The rest of the day just flowed easily and quietly.  The numbers for lunch and therefor the bar were probably around the 100 or so, last year 800!

As we’d finished our rostered work and the shed was up to date we zipped into town and came home via The Cummins Cup.  Another first – I’ve never been to the horse races (shame I live so far from a racecourse!)  where we once again met up with our friends from Leongatha and before we knew it we were home for a shower, a taxi ride to town and a night out in a ‘real’ restaurant.  This included another first, a look at the Todd Mall after dark as we made our way to ‘The Red Ochre’ restaurant.  Beautiful food, even Will commented on how nice the sauce on his barramundi was – another first, food being more than a mere source of energy!  Kath and I decided the native dukkha crusted chicken was out of this world.  A taxi ride home via the Big 4 saw us tucked up in bed with a cup of tea by about 11.30pm. 



Todd Mall at night