Bowral

 

This photo was taken only because I liked the khaki & gray color combo of the building and roof (corrugated metal is typical). Surely I'm not the only person who takes design & architecture photos when I travel...

Yesterday, LBH and I had a bit of a date in Bowral. Ah, Bowral. About six weeks ago, when we were fighting crowds in New York's Times Square, we had one of those "we speak the same language" marital conversations that I love so much. Amidst all the lights and hullabaloo, I said, "Bowral." He replied, "Yeah." That was it, and we both knew we'd much rather be in the swish Southern Highlands of New South Wales. Bowral is just marvelous, and is easiest to describe with just a few words: tweed, wellies, Range Rovers, purebred dogs, turtlenecks, corduroy, landed gentry with houses named Aberdeen. The shops in the high street are chichi and I love them. The For Sale posters in the real estate offices' windows certainly lead me to believe that I couldn't maintain my lifestyle here for less than about a million five.

We first stopped at Tuckabag for some lime cordial and cabanossi for Mum (love that cabanossi!), then enjoyed a delectable but very expensive lunch at Elephant Boy Cafe. We've been there before and have always enjoyed it -- it's got a very British campaign feel to it -- and this time was no different. The pies were delicious (LBH's was lamb, of course) and the salad was dressed with honey. We strolled around to some of our favorite shops, remembering what treasures we've bought from whom, and chatted again with the proprietess of Little Steps who, again, mentioned that she has an American daughter-in-law. We discovered a wonderful mother-and-child shop called Seed that I don't believe was here last time, which reminded me very much of my beloved J.Crew. And we picked up some giant meringues for the girls, which were made to look like rainbowed caterpillars, from the Gumnut Patisserie, which has its Royal Easter awards on display.

 Photo update: the cutest car ever.

I wished I'd brought my camera with us, but we had left it at Mum & Dad's, along with the children, and I wasn't able to get a photo of the cutest vehicle I've ever seen. I may try again and hope for the best -- it was a one-seater about a quarter the size of a Smartcart. It was so narrow from side to side that I'm certain you could park it nose-in between parallel parked cars. There was a tiny little box on the back, as on a motorcycle, for the driver's purse or whatnot -- there was no place inside for anything but a very trim body. It looked like Lowly Worm's car. I loved it.