How we celebrated QEII's birthday

When I was a kid, my mother was a faithful subscriber of New Idea. The magazine's cover issues always related to Princess Diana, her pastel suits and her neverending quibbles with the Queen. As a result, I'd grown up thinking of Australia as some sort of British colony.

X's boss, who is my adoptive aunt of sorts, had promised to give him Sundays off, in view of my current work arrangements. On the eve of Queen E's big day, we headed off to the Hinze Dam, which unfortunately turned out to be closed to the public due to road works.



Undeterred, we continued towards the Natural Bridge National Park. Where apparently there are stinging plants and ginormous vegetation galore.





The main attraction was the park's namesake. It's basically a waterfall through a rock in a hole. The water is icy cold. Now I've completely de-romanticised it, take a look at the pictures my lousy 5MGPX cameraphone has produced.









The cave is home to a colony of glow worms. Sadly we'd made the trip during the day, so it was a no glowshow.

The view on the way to Tyalgum was so beautiful, I had to take a picture. Behold my atrocious camera skills, my amateur attempt at panorama.



Tyalgum is located right in the middle of an inactive volcano, hence the slogan "The Heart of the Caldera". It's a charming little village with a few cutesie English-centric shops dominating the tourist scene. Lots of roses and china and antique-y stuff. It was really weird because just 20 metres up the road, it was full of rotund middle aged men with long grey beards on Harleys/ cradling beer.

X and I wandered in and out of a few knick knack shops. The Laughing Cat Gallery (complete with smiley anime feline on signboard) held a few treasures. X got this cutesie dragonfly pin for me, who has found a permanent home on my bag.



We took up the shopkeeper's recommendation and sat down to have lunch at the Flutterbies' Cottage Cafe. I ordered the Mushroom, Spinach and Feta on Sourdough (AUD10.50) while X satiated his curry cravings with the Chicken Curry Pot Pie with Mango Chutney (AUD12.50).





I ordered Elderflower Soda, which sounded Swiss and exotic but they'd run out of the concentrate. We settled for Rosewater Lemonade (kinda blah) and capuccinno.



Then I went to through the alfresco dining area, past a bunch of schoolkids dressed up to the nines (there was a '20's themed birthday party going on), through the well-tended garden, up a flight of steps to release it all.