.png)
It’s been a week of dogs – Jack Russells in Seymour, a whippet puppy in Melbourne, and Dalmatian puppies at the Horsham Show. No complaints here!
We stayed with Kate’s family friends Tom and Lisa Newton in Seymour early in the week, involving a farm tour to the cutest little hut ever, trivia about the Queen thanks to the paper being open on the kitchen table, and being sent on the road with two jars of homemade marmalade thanks to daughter Beth. After catching up with more friends in Seymour on Tuesday, we headed to Melbourne to stay with Claire’s uncle’s family. Kate was immediately exposed to Claire’s family’s love of Chris Lilley shows and Fawlty Towers, as well as the excessive milk consumption. While staying there through the week, we learned that being on ‘emergency milk’ supply means you still in fact have 12L of UHT milk left.
On Wednesday we attended an existing line dance social in Kilsyth with Marcia’s Linedancers. Thanks for having us along Marcia, it was nice for us to learn lots of new dances. We also met Heather and Damian from ABC Backroads, who had come along to meet us… they’ll be hitting the road with us for part of our Tassie leg, and yes, we are stoked!
For the latter part of the week, Claire got right into the swing of things with AFL grand final traditions. Year on year, this involves making a West Coast themed vanilla slice (all you have to do is dye the icing blue), meeting up with Dad Rick to watch the final, wearing west coast gear regardless of who is playing, and running a tipping comp for the final, and forcing everyone to be it with the pitch ‘there’s no prize, only pride’. While Claire was going football crazy, Kate spent time in Seymour with friend Ange, and in Melbourne with the Newton daughters, including a trip to the Brisbane Ranges, and heading to the movies to see ‘Thirteen lives’ about the Thai soccer team cave rescue.
We drove to the Horsham Show on Sunday, with Fleetwood Mac blaring and Kate paying our first toll bill of the trip (tolls, what?), and taught dancing for a few hours with the rain miraculously holding off. Some wrestlers and shearers joined in and they had the moves! We continued on bootscooting to live music from Colin Funky Williams, who got his reggae on for a verse or two of Wagon Wheel, then watched some of the best fireworks we’ve ever seen.
This week, we’ve got the Hamilton Hoedown on Tuesday night (there’s a western themed aerobics class on Monday in the leadup, thanks Stacey), then our big Vic event, Gippsland Gumboot Scoot, on Friday night. If you are planning to buy a VIP ticket which covers you for the entire night and includes a two-course meal, you will need to do so by tomorrow (Tuesday) when we need numbers locked in. Ticket link: https://melbournetickets.com.au/event/gippsland-gumboot-scoot-16641
Yours in bootscootin,
Kate and Claire.