Rob's surgeon runs a regular clinic in Bowral in the beautiful Southern Highlands. It's a great excuse for an overnight stay and a little bit of indulgence for us - extra pleasurable this time because Rob got such a good report - he'll only need annual checks after this!
Our first stop was for lunch on Friday, at Mount Ashby Estate vineyard on Nowra Road a few minutes drive outside Bowral on the way to Fitzroy Falls.....
..and a chance to try the well recommended La Pallette Cafe, overlooking the green paddocks and clumps of very contented looking Holstein cows, in the property's restored original dairy building.
We were the first to arrive for lunch - very hungry after an earlyish start from Canberra......
We chose a sunny table looking out to the grassy terrace (and the cows).
The menu was very French inspired. My pumpkin, feta, caramelised onion tart with pear, blue cheese salad with pesto lived up to expectations - especially teamed with our bottle of Ashby Estate Cabernet Merlot (very good). Rob was also delighted with his Beef Bourguinon Pie, potato and beans and our shared (local) cheese plate with honey glazed nuts.
This visit we stayed at Peppers Craigieburn - a charming older style hotel a few minutes drive out of the main township of Bowral. Our room had beautiful views out to the golf course and the undulating hills beyond. The weather turned quite cool during our stay and it was great to enjoy these views from the other side of the big picture windows.
Our previous choice in Bowral had been Links House, a much smaller hotel on the other side of the township. Given the choice we'd go back there next time as we really enjoyed the cosy ambiance and the beautiful a la carte breakfasts. The Craigieburn breakfast buffet left a lot to be desired and we missed all the cosy personal touches of the much smaller guesthouse!
We were all smiles after seeing Rob's surgeon - and it's good not to have to see him again for quite a while - despite the charms of this pretty town in this beautiful part of the world.
We celebrated Ella's actual birthday on Thursday - starting with a (coincidental) Merit Award at school assembly, then pizza making at our place afterwards ...great excitement! Ella has perfected a creditable Italian accent after many hours of practice with A - Bomb so she had us all in stitches with her bocconcini cheese stories..
E & A both insisted on watching the pizzas cook. Luckily my Italian Ilve oven can still perform well even under scrutiny as close as this. (BTW pizzas were YUM!)
Ella's birthday party today was a "gymnastics" party ...an hour and a half of carefully supervised fun with two trained coaches - catering to the diverse needs of this all age party. We were very impressed though with how open minded and happy O and A remained despite them being the oldest kids in the group. And Ella loved having them there!
Angus hasn't had much time before on the ropes.....and he was a bit unsure at first...
But super confident in no time at all...
Of course Ella is a well practised little rope monkey by now...
Ella's choice of cake was.......chocolate with cream cheese icing - no theme this year. So I thought red velvet cupcakes would fit the bill! (And they were all eaten, so must have been OK!!)
We had dinner with J & J & A & E tonight so we spent hours making craft (her current passion) while she did her best to catch me out with her new birthday whoopee cushion (LOL)!!!!
This week, in 1943, the hospital ship "Centaur" was torpedoed and sunk off the Queensland coast. Clearly marked as a hospital ship its sinking and the loss of over 200 lives saw it became an emotive image for Australian wartime propaganda...
Rob's dad Allan was one of only 64 survivors of this disaster........
The 72nd anniversary of the loss of the "Centaur", and so many doctors, nurses and field ambulance officers, was commemorated at the Australian War Memorial last night.
This is part of the address read at the ceremony.....
Built in the early 1920s on the River Clyde in Scotland as a merchant
vessel, in early 1943 Centaur was converted to a hospital ship. It had a
fully equipped operating theatre and dental surgery, and could carry
252 patients. Centaur was also clearly marked as a hospital ship. Around
its freshly painted white hull ran a thick green band, broken in
several places by large red crosses. At night, the vessel was brightly
illuminated by powerful spotlights.
Centaur completed only two
voyages with patients, before beginning its ill-fated third and final
voyage. In the early afternoon of 12 May 1943 the hospital ship steamed
from Sydney for Cairns, carrying members of the 2/12th Field Ambulance.
Shortly after 4 am on 14 May, while most aboard were asleep, a torpedo
fired by a Japanese submarine struck Centaur's port side, hitting the
oil fuel tank, which ignited in a massive explosion.
The bridge
superstructure collapsed and the funnel crashed onto the deck.
Everything was covered with burning oil and a fire quickly began to roar
across the ship. Water, meanwhile, rushed in through the gaping hole in
her side. Many of those on board who had not been killed in the
explosion or fire were trapped as the ship started to go down bow first,
and then broke in two. In just three minutes Centaur was gone.
Of the 332 people on board, only 64 survived. The survivors were at sea for a day and half before they were rescued.
For a few years before he died in 1999 Allan was the only remaining Queensland survivor of the disaster (atrocity) and was regularly featured in news stories each May.
It was ironic really because it was a topic never discussed with the family until Allan was well into his sixties - when he started to open up about the experience. He escaped a flooded cabin, fires caused by the explosion, and a 20 metre drop into the ocean before eventually making his way onto a makeshift raft on that fateful night. The survivors were rescued, a day and a half later, by the American destroyer USS Mugford.
Allan was only 22 years old when this happened. He ignored injuries from his fall for many years - but later in life his injuries certainly made their presence felt, resulting in spinal surgery and a great loss in mobility.
The Last Post ceremony at the Australian War Memorial is very dignified - and quite moving despite the spare simplicity of the setting.
Wreaths were laid on behalf of the Centaur Association and the Canberra RSL.
Schoolchildren and other visitors are all very respectful.....although the cockatoos and galahs shrieking across the clear skies above the pool of remembrance were a distracting presence at times.
The 2/12th Field Ambulance members who died on the Centaur in 1943 are listed on Panels 87, 88 and 89 of the Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour - way too many names.
..and a chance to try the well recommended La Pallette Cafe, overlooking the green paddocks and clumps of very contented looking Holstein cows, in the property's restored original dairy building.
We were the first to arrive for lunch - very hungry after an earlyish start from Canberra......
The menu was very French inspired. My pumpkin, feta, caramelised onion tart with pear, blue cheese salad with pesto lived up to expectations - especially teamed with our bottle of Ashby Estate Cabernet Merlot (very good). Rob was also delighted with his Beef Bourguinon Pie, potato and beans and our shared (local) cheese plate with honey glazed nuts.
This visit we stayed at Peppers Craigieburn - a charming older style hotel a few minutes drive out of the main township of Bowral. Our room had beautiful views out to the golf course and the undulating hills beyond. The weather turned quite cool during our stay and it was great to enjoy these views from the other side of the big picture windows.
Our previous choice in Bowral had been Links House, a much smaller hotel on the other side of the township. Given the choice we'd go back there next time as we really enjoyed the cosy ambiance and the beautiful a la carte breakfasts. The Craigieburn breakfast buffet left a lot to be desired and we missed all the cosy personal touches of the much smaller guesthouse!
