Thursday 22nd June

Today involved quite a bit of walking.

Matthew, Belinda, Sage and William disappeared off quite early to go and see Dorothy the Dinosaur (of Wiggles fame), leaving the rest of us to drink tea, eat cereal, get showered and dressed, play on our computers and generally meander our way into the day.

Ian had some work he needed to do before we left for Phillip Island so The Builder, Lindsey and I decided to go for a short stroll. Off we set, in the winter sunshine, up Brandy Creek Road. Oh, we wondered. What’s that building tucked in under the hill over there? So we turned off along an unmade road, to find a water treatment plant tucked away off the main road. Had never realised it was there. Was a lovely morning for a walk, but we couldn’t go far; Ian was expecting to be ready to leave at about 11.

Back we went to prepare to leave. The Dorothy visitors came back, having had a good time, then The Builder and I hopped in our car and took ourselves off towards Droiun, Lang Lang and on to Phillip Island. It was a lovely drive, marred only by the presence in front of us, on the way between Drouin and Lang Lang, of a P plater driving excruciatingly badly. Drove very close to the central line, kept crossing double white lines, sudden and abrupt speed changes. I kept a long way back behind her so I’d be able to stop should she clip someone!

The road to Phillip Island itself is now a lovely, smooth freeway for most of the way. Certainly wasn’t like that the last time I was there. Come to think of it, I don’t remember the last time I was there. I came as a teenager, of course, but I have absolutely no recollection of coming as an adult. I didn’t recognise anything once I got here. Perhaps I haven’t been as an adult. If anyone knows different ….

We got to Cowes and were parking near the main street just as Lindsey sent a message to say they were crossing the bridge. The Builder and I went for a wander, ending up on the jetty, sun shining on the sea, silver gulls bouncing around and lads fishing unsuccessfully off the sides. We met Lindsey and Ian and went for fish and chips for lunch, followed by a meander around the shops. Then we found the apartment we are staying in for the night. Very nice. Very white. Very hot! We turned the heating down, then Lindsey, The Builder and I left Ian to his PowerPoint and went for a walk on the beach. There were horses. And rain clouds blowing in from Bass Strait.

Right. Time for tea. For we are off on an adventure. And you need to be stoked up with tea for an adventure!

Now. When I said: Ooooh. Phillip Island; let’s go and see the penguins, I didn’t mean: Ooooh! Let’s dress up as a SWAT team and go and invade a small country (Ian suggested Tasmania, but that would be silly; we invaded that in January!). I meant: let’s go and amble along the appropriate beach, hot chocolate in our be-mittened hands and watch the penguins come in. Not that we have mittens. Or hot chocolate come to that. But no. Lindsey and Ian had other ideas. We went on a ten person Penguin Expedition, led by a ranger. We wore proper waterproof rain gear (it hasn’t rained for weeks and weeks – decided to rain as we set off on our adventure. Perhaps we should go adventuring more often!). We had night vision binoculars, a red light torch, headphones for listening to the ranger and a mat for sitting on. We were driven a short distance to a secluded beach (no coach party hoi polloi for us) where we walked to a sand dune and sat against it and, as darkness fell, watched the Little Penguins (they used to be Fairy Penguins – why was their name changed?!?) coming in from the ocean to cross the beach back to their burrows. Was very quiet and peaceful – and dry. The rain stopped as we set off and didn’t start again until we got back! There were about 60 penguins crossed our bit of beach. Then we walked quietly back, in single file, along the beach using our red light torches, then back along the (now closed) road to the Visitor Centre. Was fantastic. And much more exciting than my original thought of just going to the public beach and watching. But it’s just as well we had tea before we went out. You really do need to be prepared with tea for that sort of an adventure.

Back to Cowes, and off to Harry’s on the Esplanade for dinner. Fish for me again!! A lovely piece of snapper, nice and flaky, followed by a steamed pudding shared with The Builder and some of Ian’s cheese and biscuits. A lovely day. With lots of walking AND penguins.

There was a fantastic sunrise this morning. The Builder and I watched it from inside the somewhat chilly bungalow, warmly snuggled under Matt and Belinda’s very cosy doona.

Australia is through to the second round of the World Cup finals. Everyone is very excited. It’s never happened before. In fact, this was only the second time that Australia had qualified for the finals ever. England got through some time ago