Duddles postcard from Port Pirie

Arrived in PP this afternoon after a lovely (short...just over 2 hours) drive from Whyalla – otherwise known as Why NOT alla?
On Dan’s research advice, we stopped for lunch at the Arid Botanical Gardens just out of Port Augusta, which proved to be a delightful experience....excellent lunch, (including lemon myrtle pancakes with quandong ice cream) truly wonderful array of stunning eucalypts and other plants (who knew arid could be so gorgeous?) and excellent gift shop & toilets (the importance of which should not be underestimated).
There was a short video made in the carpark as we left, giving an example of the different interpretations of our stop off. Meg and I offered polarised views, and a rare Arid Botanical Garden male Brolga made an impressive appearance. This video will be passed on to you at some point.
So far, the accom in PP is fine (new rooms with spa baths! Huzzah!!), haven’t seen the theatre yet.

Duddles signing off for now. Xx
(ps: note Duddles has a double “d” so it’s not pronounced as Doodles....)

DUDDLES MUSINGS By Suzanne Dudley

Haven’t been able to put fingers to keyboard now for a while – too busy relaxing and enjoying Margaret River, & too busy trying to NOT kill myself in Adelaide.

It’s all about accommodation.
Margaret River’s “ Comfort Inn Grange on Farrelly” was a pseudo-Victorian design nightmare, with kitsch touches that had to be seen to be believed, plus a shower that went hot & cold constantly for the entire 4 day stay. “Appalling!” I hear you cry, “How did Suzanne cope?!?” Strangely well actually.
The rooms were clean, spacious, lots of fresh air and we all had doors onto a kind of group verandah with a garden in front. There was a sweet little bandicoot occasionally rustling in the garden late at night, popping out to say hello, and it was beautifully quiet with lots of birds too.
Simone organized a couple of barbeques in another very pleasant area at the front and the manager (Richard) was extremely helpful, loved the show, and gave us all a bottle of wine when we left!
Of course the overwhelmingly positive point was Margaret River itself. Beautiful country, vineyards, the most glorious Karri forest, an organic olive oil estate, stunning beaches, and Robyn & I had the MOST perfect lunch with accompanying wines at Leeuwin Estate one day.
I attempted to go down into one of the famous caves, and got down about 200 steps into a large, spooky crater. But when the vile smell intensified at the scary opening crack, with the ladder disappearing through it to God knows what, I decided to politely decline that descent into hell.

Off to Port Lincoln on Sunday 27th in a small plane, so I could only bring 15 kilos of luggage. Port Lincoln’s Limani Motel - It’s classic 80’s, but clean, quite spacious, and we all have a view of the wide bay, with the sound of lapping water from our small balconies.

Had some fabulous Coffin Bay oysters last night for dinner, and tonight’s show went very well with a great response. Had a drink and chat with some locals and checked out the artwork in the adjoining museum after the show...they were thrilled.
One guy I spoke to had interviewed Annie, and he & his wife were deeply moved. He does brekkie radio here & is going to mention the show in the morning to encourage people to travel to Whyalla to catch it if they missed it in PL.

Whyalla here we come.

Margaret River

Hello.... Suzanne at the keyboard again with another couple of snippets.
Margaret River show went very well - wonderful, responsive audience, and the cast managed to stay on the stage at all times despite the rather dramatic set-shrinkage. Win/win.
Simone managed to swirl the big curtain open during my Hermione song, and disappear as if by magic. Magnificent.
Robyn managed to firstly climb up to her tiny spot without ripping her skirt, and secondly managed to stay there, WITH the piano, throughout the entire performance. Extraordinary.
A very nice woman called Heather took me to see the wonderfully decorated foyer during the afternoon, and told me how excellent the acoustics were in the hall.
"Just ask Rowena Wallace!" she said, "we could hear her swearing back stage all the way at the back of the hall."
Those cast members who elected to stay here for an extra couple of days (Robyn, Angela, Octavia and Moi) were delightfully surprised this morning to be presented with a vase of flowers from one of the staff from the Comfort Inn. I think her name was Lynn, and she thanked us profusely for the show, saying it was" the best play she's EVER seen!"
I spent today gazing adoringly at the stunning Karri Forest, checking out an impressive crater leading to the Lake Cave (which I did NOT go into as it smelt like some horrific torture dungeon), sampling wine at the beautiful Leeuwin Estate, and stuffing my face with as much organic olive oil as I could without looking ridiculous.
Just a quick note about accom:
Loved Mantra Bunbury, but took a while to come to terms with the decor (I use the term loosely) of The Comfort Inn. Won't go into details, but will just mention the white lace frilled skirted coffee tables that are nailed to the ceiling above the beds. Very friendly nice people though.

Good night.

Goodbye Darwin - trip to the airport.

Some of the Company ( 3 of us...Suzanne, Robyn & Meg) were flying on to Perth a day early, so....confident with the plan, we headed up to the 6th floor of the carpark with our 10 bags (ranging in size from reasonable handbag to gigantic 24 kilo suitcase) in plenty of time to drive calmly to the airport, get petrol (from a Shell or Caltex station only!) return the hire car & check in for the flight.
So far, so good.
We had, of course, checked out and surrendered our Hotel keys, so getting INTO the carpark proved to be our first hurdle, as there was a locked door between us and the presumably waiting white station wagon - whose key I (Suzanne) was re-assuringly holding in my well organized handbag.
The door to the carpark would not open without a hotel key, so we found a helpful Asian hotel employee with enough English skills to understand our predicament, and he tried to open the door with his pass-key.
No good.
He then kindly went off to find a key that would work, as the precious minutes began to tick away.
Suddenly, the door to the highly desirable car-park opened (other hotel guests...hooray!) and we rushed frantically through the now opened door with enormous difficulty (the excessive luggage....) relieved to have successfully completed stage 1.
Dan, (our marvellous Tour Manager and Wise Group Leader) had told me the car key was for the WHITE station wagon. The car in front of us was silver. We pressed the beeper optimistically, but no sign of life, and no sign of a white car either.
We three and our ten bags headed over to the car-park lifts and pressed the button.
One minute, two minutes...three....no lift. Not working.
OK, now we were actually trapped on level 6 - no car, 10 bags, no key back into hotel, no working lift and the aforementioned precious minutes were REALLY whizzing by.
It was at this point that I began to lose my deep sense of calm. I was, in fact,  a sweaty panicked wreck trapped like a rat in an unbelievably hot high rise car-park with a plane waiting at the airport about to take off without me.
I called Dan, who we later learnt was in the shower, so no joy there. Robyn & Meg began searching for the white car, and Robyn, peering though the decorative metal "walls" finally located it on the street way below outside the hotel.
More calls to Dan, with eventual success, and he said he would come up & rescue us.
Just then another hapless hotel guest emerged through the door, and once again we and our 10 bags/suitcases leapt upon them & struggled back towards the hotel lift, which opened to reveal freshly showered Dan holding the key to the silver car which was actually in the car-park.
Joy!
We loaded the 10 bags and ourselves, and with me driving, finally we were off to the airport.
B-R-E-A-T-H-E.
We estimated there was just enough time to make the check-in deadline, but certainly no time to go searching for the chosen petrol station, but we felt there was bound to be ONE of them on the drive to the airport.
We passed three BPs and 2 or 3 United.
Finally, at the last turn to the airport we saw a Caltex! Much relief in the car as I swerved skillfully across 3 lanes & pulled in to the petrol pumps to read the signs that alerted us to the fact that they had been hit by lightning and were not working.
Right.  There would be no refilling for Avis.
Driving down the final approach with palpable anticipation, I dropped Robyn & Meg and nine of our bags at the door to check-in while I parked the hire car & returned the key.
When I met them again at the check-in counter, they were vaguely hysterical, after dealing with a deeply wonky luggage cart, and destroying most of the bollards in the baggage area.
I'll let one of them fill in the details....
One minute after we left with our seat allocation, we heard the call that the flight was closed for luggage.
Close....too close for a control freak.
Then, just to finish this fiasco appropriately, Robyn & I were relaxing in the cafe with a cool drink, Meg was in the toilet, and we hear our individual names called for final boarding!
Yet ANOTHER frantic dash, albeit with less luggage, onto the actual plane.
Thank God! We finally relaxed into our seats for what turned out to be a perfect flight (apart from the fat people which I won't go into at this stage.)
Signing off for now,
Suzanne

In the beginning....

Breast Wishes - An Uplifting Musical is currently touring nationally. Opening in Darwin last week, we now travel west to WA: Mandurah, Bunbury & Margaret River, before heading east to SA. Each week we will invite the company to share any funny stories of their adventures.

Darwin was... interesting. Loads of fun. Audiences loved the show. We were well looked after at the Medina Vibe - although our tech director, Josh may not agree! Josh was due to check out on Saturday; got back to his hotel room on Friday night only to find it had been cleared of all his belongings - the hotel being mistakenly under the impression he had checked out already. When Josh asked for his belongings: clothes, toiletries etc he was horrified to discover that they had "disposed of them" !! Go figure... I reckon some young bloke is swanning around Darwin wearing the very smart attire of a Mr Josh Lemon.

We were fascinated by the local news headlines: "Man injured by flying dildo" and "Man has tattoo of  favourite flavoured milk carton tattooed to his back" - only in Darwin where TOT - Tits Out Tuesday is all the rage!

Mandurah here we come.