.Believe it or not...I am still here!.

It is always hard to get back into blogging after a little break...my trip to Sydney for the Craft & Quilt Fair was eventful to say the least!  You may have kept up to date with the fiasco via Facebook, if not...here's a quick low down...

Out of all of the days for that dreaded volcanic ash to come around again, it had to be the day that I was scheduled to fly from Tassie to Sydney.  After sitting on the tarmac for 1 hour, the pilot let us know that he was going to organise an alternate flight path so that the ash could be avoided and we could still arrive in Sydney as scheduled.  1 hour later, he lets us know that the ash has moved faster than predicted and we aren't going to be able to make it to Sydney after all!  So, our options were to fly to get off the plane and fly in a few days time or fly to Melbourne, whilst taking the risk that we may or may not be able to find a way to get to Sydney.  Making big spur of the moment decisions by myself freaks me out and I ummed and aahed for a few minutes then decided that if I got over the water then I would have a better chance of getting to Sydney so to fly to Melbourne and try and work something out from there.

On the flight over, the air host advised us that when a similar thing happened last week there were very few rental cars avaliable and train seats from Melbourne to Sydney quickly filled up with disrupted passengers trying to find their way to their destination.  I chatted with a lady sitting next to me and she let me know that she had organised a rental car from Melbourne and was going to drive to Sydney if I wanted to go with her.  My first thought was, "you could be an axe murderer!" ...then we chatted a bit more and it turned out that we had a few mutual acquaintances and she owned a cafe not far from my house so I figured that she couldn't be all that bad ;)

Once we arrived in Melbourne we were offered a ride in a bus to Sydney or to hire a car and the airline company would refund all costs.  The bus ride was going to take around 12 hours and I knew we could drive it ourselves in 10, so my new friend Debbie and I decided to go on a road trip together!

Here's the thing...I hate driving, especially at night, and I hate trucks, so the next 10 hours was not fun at all!  We left at 6pm and spent a looong 8 hours driving up the Hume Highway until I dropped Debbie off at her destination in Berrima.  I continued on my own for the next 2 hours and safely arrived at my sister's house at 3:45am.  Crazy, crazy, crazy!  


When I arrived at Carli's house I let myself in and snuggled down in bed to try and get some sleep...only to be woken up half an hour later by a phonecall - it was Carli, upstairs, wondering how far away I was!  Gotta love worried sisters ;)


So after a couple of hours sleep, I freshened up and headed into the city for the Fair!  I had a great 5 days meeting all of you wonderful sewing peeps...it was really nice to actually spend some time talking with people who buy and use my patterns.  My presentations were a lot of fun to give and I had a ball working with Elissa, Dave and Cathy at the Kelani Fabric stand.  And if you live in Melbourne, I'm doing it all again (minus the ash and 10 hour drive) if you want to come along next month!


Sadly I took ZERO photos!  Slack, I know, but it was all pretty full on and I didn't even take my camera!!  However, I can share one that my sister took during one of my presentations...check out my BIG banner - Jaron insisted that I needed it and sorted it out for me.  I'm glad he did because it looked pretty spiffy and will be handy to use for future events:

After all of the excitement and exhaustion, it was lovely to walk back into my home with the ones I love best.  The children were completely spoiled by my Mother-In-Law and Sister-In-Law, it was much easier being away knowing that they had everything under control.  I've been totally lazy this week, chilling with the kiddos, watching more TV than I usually do, getting back to the gym and catching up on bits and pieces around the house.  And just when I thought I was on top of things again, Oscar came home early from school with the dreaded head lice!  So this afternoon we have been busily treating all 5 heads, washing and sunning bedding and linen...ah, the joys of having school-aged children!!!


I'll try and sew/blog again soon...this lazy week has been too nice though, I better not get used to it!!