28 February 2013 - Capital Country Holiday Village, Sutton, NSW

The end of the month already! And according to a school boy voice I heard far too early this morning, the last day of summer. I don’t know about that however it has been a very wet day and is a mere 18 degrees, forecasted to drop to 10 degrees overnight. A very different kettle of fish from the temperatures we have experienced over the past week or so, all in the twenties whether night or day.

We spent the day entirely indoors except for the time spent walking to and from the venues of our entertainment. The traffic through the centre of Canberra was little better than yesterday despite our slightly later travel. Obviously commuters here are having a worse time of it than they were ten months ago.

We found one of the last car parks around the back of the National Gallery of Australia and joined the throngs queuing for opening time. The drawcard for the mostly aged crowd was the current special exhibition titled Toulouse – Lautrec: Paris & the Moulin Rouge, a collection of over one hundred paintings, drawings, posters and prints drawn from thirty major international collectors, both private and public galleries and museums. The works trace the artist’s career from his earliest work to his depictions of the Paris social scene of the late 1800s; the famous dance halls such as Moulin Rouge, the café-concerts, theatres and brothels.

After paying the entry fee, thankful again for Chris’s Senior card, we joined the free tour about the exhibition which took nearly an hour and then spent the same amount of time making our own way back around. Obviously we loved it or we would not have hung about so long. It is an excellent exhibition and we were well pleased to have shouted ourselves this indulgence.

After lunch we returned to the parliament to attend Question Time in the Senate yet again, the last for the week and perhaps the last we will ever attend here in Australia. Again the scene was like an out-of-control classroom with the President a bit like an ineffectual parent who threatens and repeats and never follows up. Sound familiar?

We did not hang about too long after that wound up but headed back out into the rain and came on home. I have pulled the heater out from under the bed; we just might need it later this evening.