Here there and everywhere

Good morning everyone.  Feels like ages since we chatted on here.  I have been a bit of a social butterfly lately so thought I had best give you a little update on my travels.

So where did we leave off?  Oh that’s right – my sleepover at Kirsten & Co’s house just before we hit the road to ProBlogger.  If you missed it and would like to catch up you can read it here.

Gosh I had a good time with that lovely lady, so many laughs.  She was a great room mate at ProBlogger too where we had many more laughs.  She even took me shopping at her mothership – Carindale Westfield – before we hit the road to the Gold Coast for our conference.  Wow, it really is all that and more.  I can see how she manages to fit in her cardio workouts there, it is huge.  Way bigger than the K-Mart Plaza in Mt Isa… I nearly typed that with a straight face.  ha ha ha.

After the conference one of my other lovely blogging friends, Amanda from A Cooker and a Looker, ever so kindly dropped me back at the airport.  But I wasn’t flying out that day, I bunked down with our head stockman – Georgie – at the Novotel for the night.  She had been away at a wedding and was also flying home.  And guess what – the Novotel at the Brisbane Airport just happens to be right across the road from the DFO…. HELLO!!!  And I mean just across the road, does it get anymore convenient than that? Because I was dropped off there at about 11am meant I had all afternoon to shop up a storm.  And shop I did my friends.  You know those times when you have money and are ready to spend?  Well this wasn’t one of those times… I couldn’t really afford much but bought it all anyway, ha ha ha.  Oh so many bargains, it would have been wrong to leave them there.  I basically made money.  I even got myself a new handbag from Oroton and saved myself $417 on that little baby – see I told you I was making money.

Of course Georgie and I had to test the cocktail menu at the Novotel before having a lovely dinner.

Then it was back on the big bird bound for Mount Isa.  We had to get back for the station Colt Challenge that was being held at Camooweal.  Oh how the mighty had fallen.  From this:

To this…

From Royal Pines on the Gold Coast to the horse truck at Camooweal Racecourse.  I was standing around pile of horse shit sipping my chardy.  From Blog to Bog – literally.  But it was all worth it because the kids got to catch up with their little cousins – Kip & Peg.

So we had 2 nights at Camooweal and then hot footed it home for 2 nights so I could unpack and repack to head up to Katherine where I was asked to do a little talk a the Women of the World Conference.  Don’t worry it was only about 870km up there.  One way!  I headed up on the Friday and back on the Sunday.  It really is a bit of a boring drive.

From here we head up to Cape Crawford which is just a roadhouse/pub – The Heartbreak Hotel.

There is nothing in between and it takes 5 hours just to get up there.  There isn’t even mobile service there.

And this is what was on offer coffee wise….

You don’t get into phone range for another 3 hours when you hit the Daly Waters Hi Way Inn (another Roadhouse).  Oh and Roadhouses in the NT also serve alcohol… no wonder I live here.

Anyway, it was a great trip and I got to catch up with some of my friends in Katherine and do my little talk.

We even went to the movies.  We saw Bridget Joneses Baby and I can highly recommend it.  Soooooooo funny.  Laughed the whole way through it.

The trip home was a bit ordinary because it had rained on our dirt road.  I don’t do wet roads well but slapped myself and added a teaspoon of cement to my water and actually managed to get home.  I had visions of myself sleeping in the car.

So then it was back to school holidays.  Which have been pretty good.  Last weekend was the Brunette Downs Campdraft which, after all of my travels, I decided to give a miss.  I needed a weekend at home.  Tom and Harry went over with Mr Chardy and didn’t return with him last night.  My good friend Amanda has kept them with her so they can go to Tennant Creek Campdraft this weekend.  I mean the woman must be certifiable… she already has 3 kids of her own and a station of 50 people to run… and she offered to have my kids on top of it all.  What a bloody legend.  I am now calling her Saint Amanda.

Needless to say Clancy and I had a lovely peaceful weekend.  He just cruised around playing lego without anyone to boss him around and I managed to set up a Facebook group – Shed it with Chards – to get my eating and exercise under control.  We are kicking off today.  It isn’t a diet. It is a motivational group to help us make better food and exercise choices.  Because my choices have been very poor lately.

Oh I also managed to binge watch UnREAL – have you seen it?  I absolutely loved it.  I watched it on iTunes.

Anyway, that is about it from Chards Central.  Great to be back here chatting to you.

What have you been up to? 
School holidays at your place?
Have you been shovelling too much crap to mention into your mouth like me?
Are you obsessed with UnREAL too?