Jac and I are on the road again.  Work related this time.  Attended NH Vic annual conference. https://www.nhvicconference.com.au/.  It was at Creswick in the RACV Goldfields Resort.  The conference is the second one I attended and it was stimulating, refreshing and so many ideas to take away.

I am not a good conference attender, get bored easily and find it difficult having to socialise with a lot of people I don't know.  So I was very choosy about the sessions I attended.  One of the standouts was https://www.nevozisin.com/ who spoke about their experience of being trans and did it in the most beautiful, inclusive way I have heard.  They have a few books - I would recommend looking them up.  They ended up talking about what is happening in GAZA and how tragic that the world sits quietly by while a clear act of genocide is taking place.

I didn't stay at the Goldfields Resort because it is not dog friendly.  So, first had booked a tiny house in Ballarat, but when I arrived I saw it had a loft bedroom. And it was a very tight loft with not a lot of space to manoeuvre.  So while I could climb the ladder to the loft, there was no way I could manoeuvre myself onto the bed.  The moral of the story is check the pictures because the site did have photos of the loft bed and should have been enough for me to know it would not work.

So had to quickly find other accommodation - and found the most delightful place at Creswick, just 2 minutes from the conference.  Another Tiny House but on one level.  In a garden of a house where the host had two Marina dogs - one crossed with labrador, the other crossed with a border collie.  Both the sweetest, most gentle of dogs.  Jac did quite enjoy having a bit of a mosey around with them, while giving the younger one (18 months old) a clear message that she was beyond playing.

I left her in the car at first at the conference venue - finding a nice shady spot, folding down the back seat so she had plenty of room and water, but the woman at the tiny house suggested I leave her there so I did that the next day.  And she was fine.  She is finding it harder to jump up into the car, it's a bit easier if she jumps not the back but the back seat is getting beyond her.  But she is quite unhappy if I have to lift her up.

She is fifteen, and a little bit deaf, but still loves her walks and zooms around like a crazy dog every now and then on our beach/park walks.

Creswick is a delightful place. Many men with long white beards, women with comfortable clothing, mostly natural materials like linen or cotton.  Good coffee and incredibly friendly people, everybody says hello and lots of smiles.  They have a ukulele group, local choir and Shane the woman who hosts the tiny house tells me they have a women's group that does lunches and winetastings.  I'd even consider retiring here if it wasn't so far from the sea.  Did manage a swim in Lake George just a few minutes out of town.  Jac went in the water and even had little swim, then did her usual sitting patiently at the waters edge while I swam.

Head home tomorrow, lovely way to go back on the ferry from Queenscliff to Sorrento.  It was such a good way to start the trip.