Princess Theatre .....

I thought the next few weeks would fall into an easy pattern: a quick trip to the hospital each morning and the rest of the day to do something interesting. Well, I should have known that it would not be as easy as that.

On my first visit to the hospital I was given the schedule of all future appointments. They’re all over the place! The first few are at 9 o’clock in the morning, then there’s an 8.36 an 8.00am, followed by a 9.12. The earliest I have is 7.30am and the latest is 12.30pm. It means that I’ll have to keep track of which day it is and that’s not always easy when you’re retired.

At least I now know that my last appointment will be August 19th , so we can start checking flights for our trip to the Philippines - can’t wait! We might fly direct with Philippine Airlines, or maybe via Singapore which will give us the chance to try out the A380. There aren’t any cheap deals around at the moment so we won’t rush in to a booking.

Jamie rang yesterday afternoon to say he had spare tickets for the Princess Theatre in Launceston for that night. The play was Halpern and Johnson, featuring Gary MacDonald and Henri Szeps who played together in Mother and Son, which was a favourite TV series about 20 years ago. It’s the story of two elderly men sharing their memories of the deceased wife of one of them. Henri plays a Jewish manufacturer of cardboard boxes, and Gary is a retired accountant. It all takes place on a park bench in the cemetery.

The play was a delight - warm and witty, and the characters were wonderful. Sometimes, a last-minute opportunity can be very rewarding.

Of course, it’s encouraged us to look at what else is coming up in the next few weeks, and the offerings range from Are You Being Served to La Traviata. We could find something interesting every week. And what a terrific way to take advantage of the fact that we’re stuck in Northern Tasmania until the end of August.

As we suffer the trials of a Tasmanian winter, we’re surprised at the number of travellers who come in to the caravan park for a few days and then head off to somewhere else in Tasmania. There have probably been ten different vans in the past few days and clearly there is still some life in the tourist industry during winter, despite what the tourist operators say. Currently, we have Trev and Pat from Western Australia camped beside us; they intend to stay three days.

A Northern Tasmanian Winter .....

A couple arrived on Friday and set up their camper trailer opposite us. It’s a Jayco Penguin which opens out to a reasonable size but folds down to a low-level trailer which would be really easy to tow. The problem is that it has canvas sides and must be terribly cold on these freezing Tasmanian nights. The weather forecast was for -1 last night in Launceston but Deloraine got down to -6 and other areas nearby were -7. The pipes were frozen this smorning and I took this picture of an icicle formed on a dripping tap.

We were snug with our super diesel heater but I wonder how others are coping without the luxuries we are enjoying. There was another family in last week with a large tent which folded out from a small box trailer. There seemed to be three adults, three young children and a baby! Maybe they snuggled together to keep warm.

Tasmania is a wonderful place to be in Spring, Summer and Autumn, but arrangements have to be made to cope with the winter.

Marilyn and I had a couple of days out with our geocaching. We set off to find one local one and, when we parked our car, a voice called out from across the road. It was a fellow who works at Grammar and recognized Marilyn. He told us he had been noting the odd people who turned up looking for the cache ((one in the dark!) and was happy to tell us where it was. In fact, he was a couple of metres out.

When I checked in with the website to record our find, I noticed that several people had commented that ‘a muggle from over the road’ spoke to them. One even noted a ‘muggle Alsatian’ had watched their every move. Geocachers have hijacked the term ‘muggle’ from Harry Potter to denote anyone who is not in the know.

We had a few to collect around the Launceston Cemetery but got stuck on one called ‘Columbarium’. Wikipedia tells us this is a container for ashes but, even though we have found the spot, we can’t locate the cache. Previous searchers have said that it is an unusual one and it still eludes us.
The photograph is of a nice group of mushrooms in the cemetery.

Uncle Archie moved into the Links on Tuesday last and I flew up on Wednesday to help him settle in. He seems happy enough but I was surprised to find that he and mum are in the same area. When Sandy and I turned up on Thursday, we found that mum had gone looking for him and was sitting talking to him, I hope it doesn’t become a problem as he can be very demanding.

I spent all of Friday cleaning out his unit at Diment Towers. He had so much stuff that I had to be ruthless with what I discarded. I moved what he may need to the Links and packed four boxes with mementoes, photographs, etc. which we will store. A couple of pieces of furniture will be delivered to him on Tuesday and I will ring the Salvation Army to take the rest later in the week. Sandy came with me on Saturday morning to finish off the job before I flew back to Tasmania at lunchtime.

I haven’t mentioned before that the reason we are hanging around Tassie, and not sunning ourselves in North Queensland, is that I have to have a course of radiation treatment for early-stage prostate cancer. I’ve already had some hormone injections and the radiation starts on Tuesday. This will be the first of 35 sessions, so we are stuck here for at least seven weeks, with a daily trip to the hospital to highlight our days. What you can’t change, you have to put up with, so we’re just going along with what is necessary.

As soon as the treatment is finished, we are off. First to the Philippines for about a month, then to Nepal. We had planned a long cruise to Europe next year but, because our intended caravan adventure has been curtailed by this treatment, we will now spend all of 2011 ‘on the road’ and defer our cruising until 2012. The Volendam sails from Sydney in April 2012 and arrives in Vancouver 23 days later. That sounds particularly interesting as it would get us to Canada two months before the Centennial Calgary Stampede - giving us time for a cruise to Alaska, a look around Western Canada and maybe a trip across the border to Seattle.

Ah, what it is to dream!

I need to report that I have finally read The Book Thief and recommend it to all of you. I didn’t find it easy to access - the style is interesting (and sometimes irritating) but it is worth persevering for the last 20 or so pages which are remarkable.

The quiet life .....

Since we’ve moved to Hadspen, we’re starting to enjoy the quiet life. Without the demands of having to be in a certain place at a certain time, we find ourselves waking at about 9 o’clock most mornings. One reason for the late awakening is that the curtains in the caravan are so effective that we don’t get the sun to remind us; another is that we are staying up later at nights so can expect to be a bit tardy in the morning. Of course, the main reason is that we are enjoying the chance to lie-in after decades of having to be up with the lark.

We had a terrible storm last night. We had gone down to Deloraine for the night as I had a few things to do today and had settled down to watch an evening’s television. We heard the heavy rain, then the thunder, and wild winds, and the power went off. Luckily, Marilyn knew where to put her hands on a little torch but there was nothing for it but to go to bed – at 9.15!! The real worry was that I had left the awning attached to the caravan and it was 40 Km away. We thought about getting in the car and driving to Hadspen but didn’t want to take the chance on the road.

This morning we rang Jamie and asked him to check whether everything was OK. When he arrived, he found the next door neighbour, Eric, tightening the fittings on the awning and making sure nothing was damaged. We were lucky this time and have learnt that it is not a good idea to leave the awning unattended especially when bad weather is predicted. Thanks to a good neighbour, we came out unscathed.

Marilyn had a day of cooking today. She decided that she would use the time while I was busy to cook up some dishes to stock the freezer. The beauty of the plan is that the cooking would be done in the kitchen at 26 Tower Hill St and there would be no cooking smells in the caravan.

She had sorted out several new recipes – today she managed to make double helpings of Chicken, Leek and Mushroom casserole, cooked in white wine, and Chicken Satay Rissoles. The main exercise, though, was to try out our Dreampot, which the Giant Steps staff gave to me when I retired.

This is a great machine. The outer pot is a very well-insulated container. You put the inner pot with all the hot ingredients into the Dreampot, close the lid and they continue to cook. Today, we had decided on an Irish stew made with lamb shanks. We put all the ingredients into the inner pot, covered it with water, cooked it for only 10 minutes and then transferred the whole thing, pot and all into the Dreampot, closed the lid and left it for 3 hours.

We carried the pot back to the caravan and, when we opened it, it was wonderful. The meat was tender, the vegetables perfect and it was at exactly the right temperature to eat. I can imagine this will become a well-used utensil in the kitchen. Marilyn has already worked out that I can prepare the meal outside on the portable gas stove, seal it and open it when we are ready to eat – and no cooking smells in the van.

Mum moved into her new nursing home last week and is enjoying the extra space, the wider corridors and the views of Mt Keira. Funnily enough, Uncle Archie has just been offered a place in the same complex. He has recently been assessed as needing a higher level of care and Diment Towers can’t provide that adequately so he needs to move. He certainly won’t be happy about it as he enjoys his little unit but the new place has a lot to offer. We’re pleased that, although he will be in the same building, he won’t be in the same area as Mum. In fact, they will have different dining rooms and sitting rooms. They will only see each other by arrangement and not too often. It will be interesting to see how things will work out.

Hadspen, June 4th .....

The target date for driving away from Deloraine was May 5th, but we were anxious to make the move so got up early on the 4th to hook up the van. I had an appointment to get my hair done at lunchtime so we were under a bit of pressure to get the van to the Discovery Caravan Park in Hadspen, and unhitch it in time to make it to the hairdressers in time.

We had done a bit of a recce (“time spent in reconnaissance is never wasted” - D Lucas, 1974) and decided on a site that would suit us. The park manager said we would be better elsewhere but I looked at the logistics of backing in to the spot he suggested and thought it might be a bit beyond me at this early stage in my training. So, Site 5 it was, van driven in, parked haphazardly and unhitched without ceremony.

It was a couple of days later that we got back to set it up properly and immediately saw that it was never going to suit us so we hitched up again and drove up to Site 16. Backing is a skill acquired through much practice. We tried every way to slide the van into the right spot and eventually succeeded. I was determined that the final result would look like the van had been parked by an expert so it had to be parallel to the edge and not too far away from the tap and power pole. At last I was happy and we unhitched the car and hooked up the water and electricity. There are ensuite facilities adjoining the site if we want to use them but we’re pretty self-contained.

We ended up spending the weekend at 26 Tower Hill Street but we are intending to sleep in the van from tonight, Tuesday, 8th. That’s a significant decision as we will believe we have moved on when we really live in the van.

Cutting the Giant Steps’ apron strings is proving to be harder than we thought. Even now, we still have left a room set up in the cottage where we have been living for the past 6 months - just in case we need to spend some more time there.

Marilyn and I met Jamie for breakfast this morning at Banjo’s. He had a hernia operation a week ago and is on sick leave while he recovers. Of course, he is bored silly with not having to go to work each day. He tried to go back yesterday but the doctor said, ‘No way!”, so he is spending his time fiddling with my computer and making DVDs for us to watch on our travels. It’s also a great chance for us to see him more often and the Eggs Benedict this morning was just a bonus.

I had a nice surprise this morning. I had popped in to Officeworks to return some faulty computer memory and bumped into Brian and Jenny Haslem who have been friends since we lived in Hobart all those years ago. Brian worked at the Teachers Centre when I was a consultant in 1983 and 1984. They are great characters and we’re looking forward to seeing more of them in the next few months. When we last met, they were operating a B&B in St Helens but are now resident in Riverside.

Our plans have now evolved to the point where we will likely stay here in Hadspen until we leave for the Philippines in September and then the Himalayas in October/November. While we’re away, we had thought we would store the van somewhere else but it’s possible we might work out a deal and leave the van here. The benefit of that is that Jamie and Therese have the option of spending a night or two here and we know the van will be quite safe.

Marilyn and I had stayed in the Hadspen Caravan Park before. When we lived in Hobart, we owned a beaut Holden ute with a Freeway slide-on camper. Jamie was young enough then to sit with us on the bench seat in the front of the ute and there was enough room in the Freeway for the three of us to sleep comfortably. There were times when we even took one of Jamie’s friends as well, and even his cousin, Sharon, on one occasion. When he was bigger or brought a friend, he had a tent, otherwise we would have been really squashed in the slide-on.

We remember visiting Hadspen during those years and one of the highlights was a son et lumiere (pardon the French) production at the Red Feather Inn. We sat on bales of hay and enjoyed the stories of the convicts and early settlers of the area. The Red Feather Inn is still here but I don’t think they still do their productions. With the development of better roads, Hadspen has lost its individual character and is just a dormitory suburb of Launceston. It’s just 12 minutes to the CBD and there is now a regular bus service.

It sits on the bank of the South Esk River and has some very nice colonial buildings including Entally House which is owned by the National Trust.

We should be quite comfortable here for the next few months.