Friday

We were up in good time to be able to do a lesiurely pack to make sure we had everything, and then to check out of the hotel (5-star is a fairly accurate rating) before taking Lars over the Anzac Bridge (complete with statue of New Zealand soldier with Lemon-Squeezer hat) to meet Liz and Elaine at Bar Italia for breakfast. Bar Italia doesn't really change.  I think it has had a lick of paint (okay, a whole new colour scheme - although the original paint job could hardly have been called "a scheme") once in the more-than-twenty years we've been going there.  You can have NO soy, NO skim and NO lite milk, although they have relaxed the rules at some point because now you CAN have decaffinated!  

Then, back on the road again - with first stop being S's mother's place to pick up the freezer bag we had left there.  We have done, I think, a marvellous job in organizing our packing this trip - not taking too much - something we are usually both guilty of - and having the right configurations for the different legs of the trip. 

Mind you, picking up the freezer bag was not just about retrieving the muffins C had made for our trip to the Central Coast at the start of the holidays - it was about the freezer bag - which works both as a hot bag and a cold bag - although not at the same time. We took the opportunity while we were there to do a group call to nephew P for his 17th birthday!  

Brother W and his family have been waiting since the start of the holiday brak to get weather decent enough to allow them to get out of the house (and new spa) and on to their boat and the lake - and today was the day!  Luckily we know their habits and rather than miss seeing them again, we suggested we meet up with them at The Entrance and have lunch with them - which we did. It was wonderfully relaxing to chug across the channel to North Entrance and chat while the kids (now both on the other side of 20) tried out new fishing lines and lures.   It was too nice to rush and in the end we pushed out our leaving time - making us only a little late for the next stop on what is now the Great Trek North - K at Weston.  

K has been out of Sydney for some years now and would never go back (although, as we all know, never is a very strong word) and she has painstakingly and lovingly renovated the little cottage she bought there - and - Ta da - it is now all done and looks (and feels) fantastic.  Her two cats, Lu-Lu and Fi-Fi, are still,as cute and cuddly as ever.  We had offered to take K out to dinner and rather than drive into the haunted she suggested the local hotel where the dining room is under new management and offering a choice of 10 meals for $10 - or you could pick from the a la carte menu. We didn't - and the steaks we chose were good!