Cheap thrills

I was going to write something profound to you on Mother's Day, but since I had technological problems and have now missed the boat, I will tell you this: I became a  trainspotter yesterday.

Husband inspired the whole thing while we were in Taree waiting to pick up Molly. He heard a toot and declared "That's a steam train!" How the hell a Coogee boy knows a steam train from a snowmobile I do not know. Needles to say, he did a quick diversion to the railway crossing and whole family sat and waited for the train to pass. It gave us an almighty "whooo-woot!" as it went by - the sound of it reverberated through the air like when you stand up close to the speakers at an AC/DC concert (as if I ever went to see AC/DC!!) I ran out into the traffic and took this photo as it whizzed passed:

Us beach gals don't see much of this kinda thing so of course we hightailed it to Wingham train station to see it again! (Actually we were going there anyway, my parents live near the train station, and it was Mothers Day).

You can hear the damn thing coming a mile away so all the kids ran out to see it whiz by. Surferboy was meant to take an awesome front-on photo for me but only got this measly one as it approached:

Just when we were all settling down with a tummy full of Walnut Torte with Maple cream (!), Husband heard another toot! and we were off and running, desperate now to get the elusive head-on shot. In our panic, the dog ran out the front gate with us, and I had visions of him going under the steam train (which wouldn't look good for the head-on shot), so guess who had to catch him, then do a 100m sprint that woulda seen me make the Australian sprint team for the next Olympics? You guessed it, Yours Truly.

Steam and smoke was hissing out everywhere by the time I got there and, dang it! all I got was this:

But you shoulda seen all the people hanging out the windows with big dopey smiles on their faces like they having the time of their lives! Amazing, I know! Next year, thats me.

SM
Now for the important stuff. This is the Walnut Torte with Maple cream. Hope you had a great (surfer)mums day!