I spent an unexpected 120 minutes in Lithgow last week. It might have actually been more like 135 minutes, if you include the 15 fateful minutes I stood in line at the Blue Bird Cafe.

I was enroute to Orange, NSW for the Gardiner family girl’s weekend, a notorious affair characterised by drinking, pedicures and gossip. It was 11am in the morning when the train pulled into Lithgow. The bus for Orange wasn’t due to depart until 11.22am so I made rapid headway to the nearest caffeine dealer. I waited patiently in line, ordered a long black with a dash of milk and proceeded to wait. And wait. And wait.

To be fair, the coffee was worth waiting for but it arrived in my sweaty, anxious hand at 11.21am, just in time to see the bus pulling away from the curb.

I swore a bit (or more accurately, I did a Rumpelstiltskin-like jig of rage and swore a bit) and then I went in to the CountryLink office to plead for help. The very patient lady inside told me that the next bus was at 1.35pm, meaning I had a luxurious two hour stretch to explore the wonders of downtown Lithgow.

Here is a quick guide to the highlights:

• The St Vinnies shop with hand-embroidered vintage linens at the bargain price of $3 and $4 respectively.
• The $1.60 selection of homemade goodies at the café near the bus stop, including such old school wonders at Mars Bar slice.

The lowlights:

• Everything else. Lithgow provides little in the way of entertainment for the errant traveller. Even the charity muggers aka ‘chuggers’ who were accosting people on behalf of Unicef looked bored. I think they were actually sleeping while standing up. That takes skill.