On Friday I made the five hour drive down to Winton for the Vision Splendid Outback Film Festival.
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I do like watching a film on the big screen and am a supporter of the Mount Isa cinema and try to get there whenever there is a movie on that I would like to see.
In fact I probably see more movies this way than if I was living in a big city because there I might find the excuse to go later and then possibly miss it whereas knowing in Mount Isa I only had a week or two to see it then I would always make the effort to go,
So I was always keen to get to Winton to check out Vision Splendid which has been running now for seven years.
But the problem was that the time it is on, end June to early July is the peak of event season in Mount Isa and the North West and it was too hard to find the time to get down to Winton.
This year however, the event had to be delayed due to COVID, and that allowed me to hop in the car on Friday having cleared the decks.early.
I got there in plenty of time to catch up with Winton tourism officer John Elliott who had special insights into the opening night movie Slim and I, having been the photographer to the great Slim Dusty for many years.
Mr Elliott also told me about the "I" of the movie, Slim's wife and singer songwriter Joy McKean who is still with us well into her 90s.
Sadly there was a projection problem and at the last minute they had to swap the opening night film out.
The replacement was another Aussie music legend film: Tommy Emmanuel - The Endless Road and that was an intriguing story about one of the greatest guitarists of all time.
It was wonderful to sit in the 1930s-style Royal cinema with its open air seats and the rain stayed away long enough to enjoy the show.
I coudn't hang around Winton to see the Slim movie, rescheduled to Sunday as I had to be back to cover the Mount Isa Rugby League grand final on Saturday - and what a terrific game it was and a reminder that COVID hasn't stopped everything in our region.