Milton Park

At work we decided to have a team building exercise and we were bussed off to the Southern Highlands to Milton Park in Bowral. We left Tuesday morning and returned Wednesday evening. Milton Park is an amazing place, with a miriad of gardens, paths, additional buildings (such as the conference centre and spa).

spa entrance

side of conference centre

The house is built at the time of federation, and is beautiful with high ceilings and lots of space.
entrance to the Hotel from the garden
I had a room on the ground floor that opened up to the courtyard. I have never had so many pillows on my bed as I did on Tuesday night.

The food was spectactular, for instance the evening meal for me was venison followed by milk fed lamb from WA, a chocolate mud desert finished the meal.

The gardens are extensive, lots of paths winding around. Of course it is spring in the highlands and lots of the flowers and trees are bursting with new life.

Fairy walk

Helicopter pad

Lily pads

Another walk through the gardens

Beautiful bulbs down a meadow - very English

At the end of Tuesday we had some free time. Three of us went to an art gallery in Bowral, we also visited a cheese shop and a dress shop and Bed and Bath. Nothing like retail therapy, JR will be happy to know that the only thing I bought was coffee - although I was sorely tempted by lots of things.

When you really want to celebrate something special, a trip to Milton Park could be the place to go.

Mondo

Birthday boy

AJR is a teenager, it is scary but true!!

He celebrated the actual day at Wombeyan Caves, near Goulburn on a year 7 school camp. He did not enjoy camp at all. They were in teams of four and sleeping in tents, which they had chosen as a team over cabins. Each member of the team had to contribute to the cooking, one person had to bring pots and pans and cutlery and crockery. In AJR's team, the guy bringing the pots and pans ended up being too sick to come, so they had to join another group for meals. The teachers cooked a meal on the second night for everyone, apart from that they cooked for themselves. From my point of view the whole camp was badly managed.

Lots of cooking happened on Friday night and Saturday, before the mob from Wentworth Falls arrived at 3pm on Saturday afternoon to celebrate AJR's birthday. In the evening Auntie J and Uncle P arrived for dinner.

Then on Sunday we were joined by G'ma and G'pa.

And we all had lunch together.

Bill Bailey

On Saturday 13 September four of us went to see Tinselworm - Bill Bailey's one man show. JR and I met K and T at Dylan Moran's show a year ago - I remember seeing them in the distance at interval. We caught up with them to discover that we were all Black Books fans. In May this year, T rang me at 6pm one night to tell me that Bill was touring and how with a special code I could get advance tickets - after much discussion and hilarity, I managed to book us tickets, which I kept secret from JR until a couple of weeks before the show.

We went to an Indian restaurant in town for dinner before the show, and then walked back to the Royal Theatre for a drink before the show started.

Bill is a classically trained musician and was able to combine comedy with a range of music and musical instuments all of which he played well.

I have not belly laughed so much in a long time. If you get an opportunity to see him then, grab it with both hands.

Mondo

Velib's

When next in Paris be sure to check out the Velibs (not just the girl)

Photograph courtesy of A Photographer in Paris

Article on Velibs

Wall-e and Friend

Just to the left there is another person hiding behind the manga