It’s been a while, but we’re on an orienteering road trip with all four members of DipidyDoo.  We aren’t overseas, but we have left home to compete in the Australian Easter 3 Days, which is in north central Victoria.  It’s the first time in a loooong time that Ian has entered Easter, although the other three of us have been to most of them over recent years.  It’s also the first Easter carnival to be held in our home state since 2013.

We are staying in the most amazing house.  It’s called Hadenham, built in 1902, and is a very significant example of an Australian Edwardian residence.  It’s HUUUUGE – and we are only in one half of it!  There are four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a big kitchen, and a casual sitting room (which we’ve converted to our “office”).  Then there’s the Formal Dining Room, complete with silver serving trays.  We have taken to banging the gong to signal the serving of dinner.

Then there’s the front room, which is officially the family room, but we have christened it The Ballroom.  It has a lovely bay window overlooking the front garden.  One needs a megaphone to converse with whomsoever may be seated on the far couches.

It has taken a while to learn how to navigate around the house.  Most disconcerting is the positioning of the dining table, right in the middle of the room.  There is a route choice between the kitchen and the ballroom – in both cases one exits the kitchen and turns right, following the wall between the casual sitting room/office, and bathroom no 2 (aka the One With the Spa).  At this point, one can continue along the hallway, passing Bedroom 3, making another right turn and passing Bedrooms 2 and 4, before arriving at the Ballroom.  Or, one can cut diagonally across the dining room, bypassing the hall and cutting off some distance.  However, one cannot achieve the optimum angle for this manouevre, due to the requirement to skirt round the table (which presents a second route choice – clockwise or anticlockwise).

We have dragons on the roof, amongst the chimney pots.  My life is complete.