The girly road trip

Miss Moo Moo and I loved our little road trip together.

Here are some reason's why girly road trips are so much fun:

• you can stop at op shops and antique shops and you can stay for a chat with the owner
• you can take detours to small country towns just because you like the name of them
• you can stop for photos of cows on busy roads
• you can listen to gypsy music very loud on lonely country roads
• you can miss a turn off and that's OK
• you can drive 20 minutes down one road, then decide that you would rather go a different way instead, so you turn around and go back. And that is OK too.
• you can look at bride books while waiting for you lunch to arrive
• there is more bad 'road trip' food for you, boys take such big handfuls
• no one is stressed out when your 'fuel empty' light goes on and your not sure how far the next country town is.
• no one is stressed out when you must be back home by 3:00pm to collect Spunky Monkey from school and you stop at one last antique shop (and have a chat)
• it doesn't matter if it is 5:30pm and your a stuck in peak hour Toowoomba traffic with no accommodation booked for the night
• mummy's have more tolerance for Justine Clarke (but definitely not for 3 whole days)



To give you an idea of how we spent our time. Our first morning away went something like this:

6:30am: we woke up to see the fog spreading across the countryside

7:30am: we were propped up with pillows in our cosy bed, each with a chocolate chip cookie from the tea tray. Me with a cup of tea. Miss Moo Moo with a cup of long life milk. Me with a Country Style Magazine and Miss Moo Moo with ABC kids.

8:30am: we shared a hot bath together - no mad school rush on this day

9:30am: We were sitting in the sun eating an very yummy breakfast.



You get the picture. Heaven.



It was lovely being in the country and seeing all the old houses. Their are not many houses like this where we live. Look at this one, someone has just restumped it and is about to start renovating it. I wish it was me.

Old houses: we ate lunch in some, drank cappuccino's in some, looked at antiques in some, took pictures of some and even looked in one that was for sale. Miss Moo Moo told me I had to stop saying "so old, so cute!"

And a few things that we saw on our road trip (we must tell the boys): 27 army vehicles, a yowie statue, a deer (?), a giant concrete ostrich, a little gruffalo, it was definitely not a statue, I did not see this one, and a toilet hanging in a tree. I did see that one.

Maybe next road trip the boys can come. I will be able to do a whole lot more looking out of the window and I might just see a gruffalo!

With sincerest thanks

Miss Moo Moo and I have been on a 'girly road trip'.

We drove to Toowoomba and then on to Kingaroy to see a friend.

All in aid of the Queensland Flood Appeal Dolly Drive.


(Miss Moo Moo, my little helper, was happy to carry a small box in from the car park)

On Tuesday morning we hand delivered 48 dolls/softies to the lovely ladies at the QCWA in Toowoomba. Jan and the other branch volunteers have been working closely with families in the Lockyer Valley, providing them with basic items when they return to their homes. When we arrived, other items such as children clothing and bedding were being delivered also.

What an amazing job these ladies are doing, working so closely with individual families in need. That afternoon they were putting things together for a family who are expecting their first child. So I guess that is one little softie on it's way to a new home.



The ladies at the CWA were eager to have a look inside the boxes and were truly astonished and touched by what they found.

Zoe, Treann, Alison, Heather, Lindsey, Crafty Mermaid, Elsa, Megan (Mousehouse), Jan, Melissa, Jane, Ceila, Roslyn, Karen (Weathergirl), Rachel, Fran, Isabelle, Vanessa, Amanda, Mary Jo and Prue.

Your dolls/softies have all been taken to Toowoomba and will be distributed in the Lockyer Valley communities over the coming months.

We drove through the Valley on our drive to Toowoomba and were certainly struck by the devastation that we were still able to see, particularly in the town of Grantham. Homes, without walls, just a frame and a roof, homes that clearly had half of the house missing, homes surrounded by barrier fencing, looking as it they would crumble in the breeze, barrier fencing surrounding furniture, a washing machine and debris, but no house, homes slowly being rebuilt, a corner shop, almost on it's side. Most roads marked "local traffic only."

So while I did not organise shelter or food or counseling, I hope that we (that's you, the softie makers and I) can at least pass on some of the warmth that is the human spirit. I hope too, that in other parts of the world and during other disasters, that others will do the same, in whatever way they can.

Thank-you to the 27 women who made the 58 dolls/softies that I received.

In the words of an amazing lady doing great things on the other side of the world:

"Your doll/softie donations are quintessentially the meaning of hope" Stephanie, president of the Abundant Ground Foundation

And I must not forget to thank Sarah, because if it wasn't for Sarah, I would never have had the idea to have a dolly drive in the first place.