Magical Day

It was a terrible start to my day .. that seems to have been a common thread this week .. and we left home for our adventure much later than planned.

We needed to leave by 9.45am to be at our intended destination by 10.30am, as per the email instructions.

My day began with opening the laundry door for Colli (it is where she sleeps at night) to discover that she'd had diarrhoea during the night, so a clean up job was to be had for me and then I needed to bath the dog. NOT the most pleasant way to start my morning, by any stretch of the imagination!

To save time, AH was going to buy my coffee while I had a shower, until he reminded me that the staff at Foodworks were dressed up for Halloween, so I wanted to go with him and take photographs.

 
There are other photos to show in tomorrow's post.

Then we drove by the Seat of Knowledge to call out good morning to the boys but they told me that the Tawny Chick was out on a branch, so I climbed out of the car with my camera to capture the image, however, I had the wrong lens with me and didn't get a good enough pic to share .. hopefully tomorrow will be my lucky photography day.

AH then decided to park the car and visit the boys while I photographed - which we simply didn't have time for!

By the time I dragged him home, ironed his clothes, washed and blow dried my hair, applied make up, filled my handbag with essentials, located my glasses and swore at AH for dropping my camera lens, it was 9.55am!

Of course Murphy's Law dictates that the traffic in front of us should drive at least 10km below the speed limit, just to slow us up a bit more!

As we finally approached the Boat Club, our luck seemed to change. We found a 'rock star carpark' and made our way to the function.

Obviously everybody else was running late and as seats were not allocated, we selected a table right at the front of the room and chose seats that would face the small stage. We were very happy with our timing and selection.

Others soon arrived and asked to join our table. We had some lovely friendly couples seated with us and I enjoyed some light conversation with them before the first speakers took the podium.

We had to listen to an hour of 'financial planning' information, but the speakers were entertaining and and it was much more interesting than I expected.

The main meals arrived before the speeches were finished. I had beef cheek with mash and asparagus with a red wine jus. AH had a stuffed chicken breast served on rice and roasted capsicum.

Soon Wayne Bennett arrived and stood up to speak.

He was hilarious and related some funny stories about his coaching and some less than intelligent footballers. He then compared coaching with financial planning. He talked about risk and comfort and ethics and honesty and being accountable. He was warm and engaging, funny and light hearted, honest and inspiring.

He spoke for about an hour, but it seemed like only twenty minutes! When he called for questions, I told him about AH being a staunch Sharks supporter and I asked him if he would consider moving into Cronulla Sharks territory to help the Sharks win their first premiership. He responded with the fact that even the great Jack Gibson was unable to help Sharks win a premiership!

AH got to ask him a question about his 'father-like' role with young footballers.

Dessert was then served - we were given a GF chocolate mousse with strawberries and cream - then we were all invited to come forward with any paraphernalia that we wanted signed and to have our photos taken with Wayne.

I didn't have anything to sign. If I hadn't been running so late in the morning, I may have remembered that I had Wayne Bennett's autobiography in my bookcase. I could have had that signed.

Ah well.

Prior to this function, I already had the utmost respect for Wayne Bennett, but now my admiration has increased beyond my expectations. He really is a great and honourable man.

I hated to leave and would have loved to hover and stalk him for another hour or so after the function was over, but we had errands to run.

While grocery shopping in Coles, I assisted a lost looking young man choose some sanitary napkins for his wife who recently had their first baby and wasn't prepared for a 'mishap' during their first outing as a family. That was another highlight of my day! He was most appreciative :)

We were running so late coming home, that AH dropped me off at the club on the way. It was an enjoyable, but not a winning night.

Just three more sleeps til I make my way south to have some quality time with my little Chicklet!

Right now though, I am going to make my way to the bedroom and sleep soundly til morning.

Nite all.