The Waiting Man

An overnight roadtrip, just to finish off what's been a well-travelled year

Dropped a yowling Bella off at her Vet lodgings on Wednesday morning & headed south-west for Cootamundra & Junee. Why? Well no particular reason, save that we'd driven through & past those towns & country a few times without ever really stopping there & it looked nice. And only approximately 6 hours drive from WaitingManor? Easy!!

Cootamundra is the birthplace of Australian cricket hero Don Bradman, a master batsman who played for & captained Australia between 1928 - 1948, playing only 52 Test matches in that time (well... there was a minor global conflict that took 7 years to sort itself out!!). These days, players can notch up 52 Test matches in no time at all - Steve Smith, a current Australian batsman, has played 91 Test matches since his debut in 2010!! The most famous Bradman statistic is his batting score average of 99.94 runs per innings. It would have been 100 if he hadn't been bowled out for 0 runs in his final inning... if he'd just scored 4 more runs... No other cricketer EVER has a batting average that high. The next closest is Adam Voges, another Australian who only played a comparative handful of matches, with 61.87. Bradman was so dominant that the English cricket team who toured Australia in 1932 had to come up with a style of bowling designed specifically to restrict his run-scoring (&, to be fair, several other Australian batsmen who were also excellent players), by aiming to bowl straight at the body... at pace & occasionally at head height. 'Bodyline' bowling certainly curtailed Bradman & the Australian team, but its use was quickly banned by the international cricket community after that tour... & after many concussions, bloodied noses & bruises... there were no helmets or body pads used back in those days

Anyway, Cootamundra is rightly proud of its most famous son... in a subtle way


Gum tree for scale...

Having been more of a bowler than a batsman back in my school sporting days, I couldn't resist having a crack at that wicket...



The cricket ball came from the Bradman Museum down the road from the Oval, inside the house where he was born &, on Wednesday at least, manned by a septuagenarian cricket & rugby league fan who very quickly had me pegged as someone 'good for a chat' when Long-Suffering Partner & I walked in. It took me 15 minutes to try & pay him the entry fee then actually go into the rest of the place. Fortunately there were other visitors arriving as we left or we might still be there

On to the town of Junee then - about 30 minutes away & a larger town than Cootamundra (it has 3 pubs!!) with a nicely restored railway station...


That clock's only right twice a day though...

Junee's only connection to sporting greatness is being the birthplace of Ray 'Rabbits' Warren - a sports broadcaster who started out calling horse races, before becoming 'The Voice' of Australian rugby league & could whip up excitement for any race... be it Commonwealth Games or Olympic swimmers, or 2 blowflies on a pub window


I did expect him to be taller...

Junee also has a chocolate & licorice factory of some repute, so the following morning, in the absence of other breakfast options, we headed down the road to it. Their breakfast menu, fortunately, was full of non-chocolatey options & their coffee was delicious. While eating, I couldn't help but notice a locked cabinet in a corner of the dining area, full of what looked to be whiskey bottles... turned out that a nearby distillery did tastings here & one was due to start in about 5 minutes. A whiskey tasting at 10.30am? Absolutely... don't mind if I do



Corowa Distilling Company, we now know, do a fine variety of single malt & blended whiskeys & have a charming salesman who, if the car parked outside is an indication, roared into town via Copperhead Rd



Did the long drive back to Sydney with the aftertaste of a whiskey party in my mouth & throat... Didn't get breath-tested outside of Yass - I would have been fine, but explaining why I had whiskey on my breath would have been an interesting conversation... Collected Bella from the Vet, headed home, watched the latest Dune movie & to bed

Breakfast today? Across town to our favourite Chinese restaurant, home of the best Shao-Long Bao you'll ever eat 3 servings of...

... I took my first photos in quite a while tonight...

While Sydney may not be on fire, the sky certainly is...





L-SP is on night duty, but still found the time to get me a large bottle of Glen Morangie Duthac single malt scotch whiskey

Good Night!!

Just a short update... I met up with an old schoolfriend tonight, who turned out to live nearby & shares my passion for single malt scotch... which is why this will be more of a bookmarker entry than a detailed disclosure... hic...

An interesting evening's conversation, fuelled & probably helped by the first nice Speyside single malt I've ever had, washed down with my current favourite Highland malt, along with a triple cream brie, smoked cheddar, pepperoni, salami & crackers - you don't want to get too adventurous with food mixing with scotch... with a couple of misconceptions cleared up, some unexpected common ground discovered & some vague future plans mooted... more news next Tuesday, if we meet again as loosely scheduled

So the past comes back at you like...



And another kind of placemarker... Did I mention I saw Tommy Emmanuel at the Opera House the other week with help from dobro maestro Jerry Douglas??

Feeling very headachey & dizzy today. Mental & physical balances are suffering. Vodka is an insidious libation.

If, like me, you're in the mood for distraction, then have a look at some cows, marvel at the inane captions & lament that not only did someone get paid to write them, someone who probably gets paid more approved them...

Nice photos though.

I hate sobering up at work...

Starting to feel a little more Homo Sapiens & a lot less Neanderthal now...

I just saw off 2 members of Hands & Feet ~ the band formerly known as the Multi-String Army, after an afternoon of jamming 2 new songs into basic frameworks. Some time during the last few hours, my headache dissipated, the veil lifted from behind & in front of my eyes & the world stopped swaying back & forth.

Which means the 2 litres of Bavarian beer, 3 schnapps shots, 2 scotch'n'cokes & 1 Long Island Iced Tea have finally left the building. All this was consumed during a City crawl with SarinG & UnknownB, taking in the Bavarian Bier Cafe, the seediest strip club we could find, Hyde Park & an ex-pool hall bar/nightclub complex on Oxford St.

Time for a white wine, perhaps?

Breakfast at the local this morning was notable for the owner taking one look at me & saying "Pffft... hung over." I hadn't realised the bear-like torpid movement, the sunglasses & the slightly swaying gait were that obvious... Everything was just a little too loud there today, so we left as swiftly as my shambling feet could carry me. After nibbling at chocolate, rice snacks & nuts through the afternoon, I'm pretty hungry ~ which is also a good sign of recovery.

No big plans for tomorrow, so I'll chase up my amplifier repairer & might find time to give blood for the first time in about a year. The Red Cross keep sending me invitations to visit Dracula's Castle on Clarence St in the city, so may as well do something constructive with the day... I wonder if there'll still be enough alcohol in the system to give some poor patient a buzz after surgery?