So where was I?

That’s right, I was on board the flight just going in to land at Hobart and would you believe it the screaming child had fallen asleep!!!  My head is pounding but that isn’t going to stop me enjoying the next few days, not to mention hours.  Sadly I didn’t get photos for this bit – time and whole event just led me to forget to photograph it all – hopefully somebody else did and I’ll be able to steal  borrow theirs.

Once the aircraft had come to a stop Daryl, Joy, Marilyn and myself met at the bottom of the stairs and eagerly made our way into the airport terminal.  Joy very quickly was telling us “there’s Fee” as she started to head off towards the right, meanwhile the rest of us were walking towards a group of smiling quilters on our left.  The airport has a rather large mirror and Joy was seeing a reflection of the real thing.  Fee, Vicki, Dawn and Judy (gosh I hope that is all of them were there to greet us and each and everyone gave the best bear hugs all round.  All ready I felt well and truly welcomed and accepted – yep, this was going to be a great weekend!  Remembering that all of these wonderful women, especially the gorgeous (or gawjus as Joy would spell) Vicki and the fabulous Fee I had spoken to on-line, while Dawn and I had spoken on the phone last year.  The smiles and warmth from the girls would have melted even the frostiest of people – bliss.

Once our luggage had been collected we all managed to pile into the van Fee had hired for the weekend – I must admit I didn’t like our chances of all fitting in with all of the luggage , but we did and off we drove heading for our accommodation.

From what I could see Hobart was very hilly with an enormous bridge that dominated the scenery in between some very steep rises in the landscape.  The houses were in general similar in style to that back here in NZ but every now and then a little bit of Hobart’s history would show itself through its architecture using what I guess is sand stone and lots of fancy wrought iron work.

In the distance Fee had shown us what looked like the two funnels from the Titanic – this is where our classes would be held and where Fee works at Tattersall's Park (I hope I have that right Fee).  Across the road from the park was our accommodation, where I would lay my head for the next few nights with the ‘Nutters’.  Fee had booked a 3 bedroom house from Elwick cabins and this is where we all had our ‘meet and greets’, pizza night and general get togethers.

First item on the agenda for the Thursday was what would we be eating that night, (the rest of the retreat was taken care of) Once settled into the house we decided to toodle off in our trusty red van to the local supermarket for some essentials. Just by the by, I loved the supermarket – so many choices of products and the fresh fruit selection was just awesome.  Once we had done our little bit of shopping it was just a quick walk around the corner for Chinese takeaways – yummmm.

As you can imagine our first night was a late one, just gone midnight I think. We chatted, laughed, ate and just got to know each other – I was in my element!   With time changes etc. I had been up for ages and it didn’t take long for sleep to get the better of me. Friday was going to be a full on day so I needed as much rest as possible.

that’s it for this post – Friday is when it all started, but that’s the next post.

have a great day