I woke up at 2am when the awning was creaking and flapping in a strong wind. I didn’t like the sound of it, so I took it down, then went back to bed for a while and make up for the sleep I’d lost.

Aunty Sandy was visiting me today, so after breakfast I just took a short, half-hour drive to the Aloomba Lavender Farm. It was raining again, so I didn’t want to walk around, but the whole place smelled lovely. I bought some lavender things for Mum and Aunty Sandy.

Aunty Sandy arrived around lunchtime, and I gave her a tour of Turtle Shell (she’d never seen it before). Then I drove her to Stanthorpe Cheese for our meal, where we had a Ploughman’s Lunch. It’s basically two cheeses of your choice, along with hot bread, relishes, apple slices, boiled eggs and several slices of corned meat. Add a milkshake apiece to that and we just couldn’t finish it – we had to get a takeaway bag for the leftovers.

Aunty Sandy bought several cheeses from them, and I succumbed to the desire for a jar of their lemon butter. Then I drove back to Turtle Shell and we said our goodbyes (but not for long! I’ll be in Armidale soon enough).

Mum and Dad are coming down on Saturday, so I booked a nice place for dinner tomorrow, recommended by the Tourist Info people. I got my computer back, but now the Wi-Fi is playing up, so I’ll see if Dad has any suggestions tomorrow.

After dinner, I had some lemon butter with the remains of the bread from lunch for dessert. Thank you, Aunty Sandy, for buying me that jar of deliciousness! Also, thank you for the emergency whistles you gave me – it’s good to have that sort of thing around.

I found out that I’d taken the awning down just in time – a storm whipped up at about 8:30pm. The wind was so strong I was worried it would blow Turtle Shell over even without the awning, and the rain was incredible! I was very glad that I didn’t get a pop-top, and everything was nicely water-tight.

But it was way too wild and stormy to walk to the toilet through it, so I used my little plastic pee bottle for the first time. It was actually a little unnerving, because my hands were so cold that when the bottle started to warm with the urine inside it felt way too hot. The best that can be said about it was that it was a learning experience. And that nothing spilled, so…well done me, I guess?