WAITING

After our family holiday to Woolgoolga, where I met a nice young man (LB), we returned home to Sydney. He returned home to Newcastle some 167k north of Sydney. I still had quite a few weeks left of the summer holidays waiting for the results of our final high school exams to be published in the newspaper. Then I would know if I had qualified for Teacher's College where I wanted to become a PE (Physical Education) teacher. It was a nervous time.

My parents returned to work and I was invited to spend a week in Newcastle by LB's parents. Since our meeting LB had been writing one or two letters every week and I would reply almost as often. Email,  SMS, and Skype would have been handy then. With much excitement and a fluttering heart, I jumped onto the steam train for Newcastle. LB had his own car and we went to the beach, picnics, hiking, the movies and dancing. We were madly in love but soon it was time to climb aboard the puffing billy and return to Sydney. LB had to go back to work and to university but he had an invite to Sydney for the end of term holiday. In the mean time we wrote many letters. It is funny that I can't find any photos of this holiday.

Looking down the valley towards Canberra from Rules Point.

Christmas came and went and then I had another invitation to go for a few days to the Snowy Mts with a friend who was thinking of buying a guest house there. The mountains don't have any snow in summer but the high country is popular for hiking and fly fishing. I was keen to see it in summer and even though it was a full day's drive it was better than staying home alone nervously waiting for exam results.

The Rules Point Guest House was up for sale.

The view from the verandah. Cattle grazing pastures in the high country of NSW.

A craggy old stockman on his horse.