Road Trip: Day Seven

It was about this time I renamed my trip to "Tea and Toilet Tour" - you'll soon workout why!

Waving farewell to the B&;B, I headed to the Wagga cemetary and saw, for the first time, the graves of my maternal grandparents.

Then it was on the road to my destination for the night, Bathurst, with a couple of stops along the way.
First was the tiny village of Bethungra, where my great grandparents had settled and my mother, aunts and uncle lived as children. I headed straight to the cemetery to see my great grandparents graves:

My Uncle Alan had suggested the nearby Irises to pick and place on the grave, which he had meant to do on a recent visit.

Then it was on to Temora, via Junee, where my mother was born. I bypassed Cootamundra this time, where my parents were married, as I had visited another time and had an addition to my planned itinerary: I was headed out to West Wyalong to visit my friend Jamie. But first, Temora and my dear friend Janet and her family.

Then - off to West Wyalong, a minor detour of 100kms or so! But look at the smiling face I got to see!

(photos by Issac)

Then I drove directly to Bathurst, with my companion Stephen Fry telling me all about the first 20 years of his life on CD! We made our destination by 6pm, as planned. I checked in to the Winter Rose Cottage B&B, then popped out to the local Italian restaurant for some pasta then back for an early night.

Road Trip: Day six

Wagga Wagga
I arrived at the B&B about 6pm and was very happy to see my room!

At this stage, I was a little over food, so popped in to takeaway a small pizza and a take-home pack of gelati, which I ate in my room trying to watch my ABC shows on a fuzzy TV!

Next morning, I decided to stretch my legs and walked the two blocks to house my grnmother had owned when I was a child. The house has been fully renovated since she died in the 70s and I would love to own it if you know of a money tree somewhere. It would make a devine B&B itself!

The it was time for brunch at Mates Gully cafe and a small purchase at The Gallery - a tea towel with the placenames of many of the stops on my trip laid-out typographically.

Back at the B&B and Megan phoned, so we met up for a quick cuppa at Cache - well, the cuppa lasted about 2 hours!!

After all that, I had a nana-nap on the four poster, then it was off to pick up my Aunty Becky and out to dinner at the RSL.

Then, home to bed!!!

Road Trip: Day Five

After catching a cab to the airport, I collected my hire car (Kia Sportage, which I love!) and hit the road to Wagga. Drove past crowd gathering for Queen outside Duntroon but decided not to change my iterary just for a couple of visiting pensioners from the UK!

Drove to Yass, then to Gundagai, where the dog still sits on the tuckerbox, only now he is 8kms from Gundagai, which doesn't scan as well as five miles. Stopped for the obligatoy homage, toilet stop and hamburger which featured in every childhood trip.

Next it was on to Tumut, where I popped in to see some relations. While they didn't get up or say hello, I am sure they were pleased to see me again.

Then it was on to Batlow, to see relatives who were up and about! I hadn't seen my Uncle Alan since if was in primary school and had never met his wife Marie, so it was with great excitement on both sides when I arrived. Marie prepared the most wonderful country afternoon tea of scones and fruitcake and we brought each other up to date with family matters. Then he showed me some pieces of his fathers old car, wrecked in a collision with a moving train in the early 50s (Harrie and his brother George both survived) which Alan had found just recently in the grass at the site! He even gave me a broken piece to bring home for my collection.

 Then there was just time for some family photos before I was on the road to Wagga.

Road Trip: Day Four

Second day of conference.

The day began with keynote speaker, Suzanne Colson, of Biological Nurturing fame. I was particularly keen to hear her speak, as I a am a fan of Christina Smillie's Baby-Led Attachment approach to feeding and was interested to hear Suzanne's approach, which complements, but is different to, Christina's: I attended a one-day workshop with Christina earlier this year.

I found Suzanne's "technique" a little less flexible than Christina's, as she promotes a laid-back position for mothers, while Chistina tends to result in this position as a consequence of the mother's response to her baby following his instincts. I am a little cautious about another "technique" for attachment, as I have seen others dominate mother's over the past decades. However, parts of Suzannes approach do resonate and I will incorporate these into the information I pass on to mothers.

It was very interesting to hear Jane Child present on behalf of Colin Binns on the new Dietary Guidelines, about to be released for comment. I can't find them online, they were to be released yesterday, but we were all encouraged to read and comment.

I was able to hear Jane speak again in a workshop later, about strategies being used to engage fathers in supporting breastfeeding and also hear about some great work being done by our own state government in Victoria.

There was so much more, it is hard to gather all my thoughts together, but the networking is always the best part of these conferences.

Road Trip: Day Three, Part Two

Dinner at Parliament House.
The Great Hall was fairy-lit and filled with ABA people and health professionals. It was so nice to catch up with friends at a more leisurely pace than during the frantic breaks of the conference. There was much chatter and laughter, group photos and conversation about the day. The dinner was elegant and the entertainment hysterical. We were treated to a taste of a performace called Breast Wishes, which included a theme song "Let's not talk about vaginas" and the finale required audience participation, actions included! This was not restricted to the mostly female audience, with partners and esteemed guests at the head table joining in - and leaping on stage when invited!

 I didn't take photos of the venue, but here are some from the web:

Road Trip: Day Three

Thursday October 20

Up bright and early, we arrived at the National Convention Centre for the fist day of Step Up, Reach Out. I hurried to set out the Vic Branch sales table, with satchels, 2012 calendars and Maureen Minchin’s allergy booklet. Then the conference opened. The first session, after welcome to Country, was a welcome by BFHI Patron, author and model, Tara Moss, who then sat down to breastfeed her gorgeous 8mo. 

Next was the wonderful Peter Hartman. I have lost count of the number of times I have heard him speak, yet each time I come away inspired and with new awe for what he and his team are discovering about breastmilk – this time, that stem cells can be grown from human milk, which not only grow to form new milk-making glands, but can also grow into other organs which has great potential for cures to many diseases: which I suspect could include Multiple Sclerosis,, where stem cell research is promising. Breast milk is by far the easiest way to harvest stem cells and has no ethical barriers.

Another reminder that Truby King was behind all this routine stuff we are still dealing with the fallout from!

I spent the first concurrent session racing from workshop to workshop in my role as conference photographer and, therefore, got to observe all that was on offer. By far the most amusing was the interactive workshop on teaching breastfeeding education classes, who learned ways to show expectant parents the average output of a breastfed baby with disposable nappies, bottles of water and fake poo!!!!

Over the lunch and tea breaks, it was so lovely to catch up with friends, many of whom were selling group projects to raise funds for their groups, while others were just enjoying being there! here are some of my favourite photos:

In the afternoon, I presented my own talk about the Breastfeeding Centre, a subject I never tire of speaking about and I got some great feedback, which was wonderful.

Then, there was the Conference Dinner, but that will have to wait til my next chance to post.