cotton

On Monday it was Andrew's and my second wedding anniversary. It was also the Easter long weekend. In celebration, we left town and headed for the mountains, staying in a place just outside Lithgow. It was a really awesome weekend. We got to relax, see some sights, sleep, and eat nice food. So, some highlights...

Instead of going to Jenolan Caves, which turned out to be packed, we went for a walk elsewhere, and found this spectacular view. Also a lot of very steep stairs.

I read a lot in the leaflets in our cabin about a walk to the 'glow worm tunnel', accessible only after a 37 km drive down a dirt road. Lured by the promise of glow worms, but wary of disappointment, we made the trek and behold! There were glow worms. Unfortunately it's a bit tricky to get a photo of the things, so you will have to make do with these photos of the end of the tunnel, one from the inside and one from the outside. Apparently it is an old mine shaft which the glow worms took a fancy to after the place was mined out. Very pretty, but very very dark in the middle. Apart from the glow worms of course.

We did this walk on Sunday, and went out to dinner the night before at Vulcan's in Blackheath (I brought my free 2009 Good Food Guide with me to scope out the restaurants). It was very good, but somehow we felt it failed to really impress us. But it was difficult to fault the food, the flavours all balanced nicely. My slow cooked beef with lemongrass and thyme was very tender, the flavours just right. Anyway, we enjoyed it, but our expectations were very high.

Back to Sunday, and after our walk into the glow worm tunnel we drove back through Lithgow. We just had to check out the ruins on the hill, which turned out to be an old blast furnace, shut down in the 1920's (or 1930's?). If you're in Lithgow, I definitely recommend this place. But then, I do love old ruins. It was fantastic, with explanatory signs but no real limitations on your own exploration. And the way the ruins blended into the landscape was amazing. I tried to get a photo that showed it but I think I mostly failed. I haven't seen a historical sight that was this much fun for ages, and with the cool crisp air and rabbits hopping around I almost felt like I was in England. Except for the magnificent hills that made up the background. And the fact that the building was just around 100 years old. My point is: it was fantastic in its own right. I loved exploring it. I've never heard Andrew use the term 'happy as a kid in a candy store' about me quite so frequently in such a short space of time.

At the book shop in Blackheath (Gleebooks- what it is doing so far from Glebe I don't know) Andrew bought me my anniversary present- Point Omega, Don DeLillo; Brooklyn, Colm Toibin and Un Lun Dun by China Meiville, as well as the Ponyo DVD. We watched Ponyo on Sunday night while drinking champagne by the fire (fine, sorry to rub it in, but it was a great weekend, ok?), and I'm excited to have all these books lined up.

Anyway, back to work now, and I have a whole lot of blog post ideas buzzing round. Another book review? A discussion of favourite childhood books? A rant about Harry Potter? Something about writing styles? A post about why I love Sydney? Can't decide just yet, will have to wait and see... And who knows? Maybe I'll get too busy, forget them all and write something completely different in a month.