Friday, July 1st (part 2) …..

The ‘farm’ at Dilston will be our home for the foresee-able future. The house itself is tiny, an aluminium building which was fitted out inside to make a home for a young couple while they saved for their dream home. Unfortunately, they made it too comfortable and, without the urge to move on, they stayed in it for 9 years. It is a perfect home for us, having all the comfort we need without the demands of too much housework.

I’ll post some pictures of the outside this time and some photos of the interior in my next episode. I heard on the TV last night that people in Sydney and Melbourne are offering incentives to prospective home buyers: holidays, cars, etc. Graeme and Patsy left us a cat. This moggy entered their lives some time ago when it wandered on to the property looking for a hand-out. They’re kind people with two cats of their own, so offered it the post of Outside Cat with a regular bowl of Whiskas and a warm box to keep out the winter chills. They asked whether we would carry on the arrangement and the cat made it its business to endear herself to us, running to meet us when we visited and rubbing itself against our legs.

When we arrived to take possession of the house, the cat was waiting ready to establish some ground-rules. First, it has promoted itself to Indoor Cat, it wants milk added to its diet, and a bed in the laundry in all seasons of the year. It has demonstrated its knowledge of the existing cat door as it still wants access to the grounds when it feels the urge. It’s quite a noisy cat so Jamie has named it Chatter-box or CB for short. It’s clearly a man’s cat, as it’s all over Jamie and me but treats Marilyn as just the lady who puts down its dinner. In a previous existence, we believe it lived with a man. Marilyn has fantasised about an old bachelor whose cat was the focus of his loveless life, and when he was near to dying, he encouraged it to seek a new home where the people would pander to its demands. Sounds likely, doesn’t it?

Nothing very much has been done to the 2 acres. We certainly have the task ahead of us in levelling and tidying up the area around the house and keeping the tussocks and button grass under control in the rest of the space. There are some areas among the trees which are crying out for development. Jamie talks about a fire pit, for late night sing-songs but I think it will be enough to provide some places where I can drag a soft chair and sit in the shade to read.

We’re in the process of putting up a shed at the moment. What a rigmarole: choose the shed, get a quote for the concrete slab – easy enough so far. But then, the council gets in on the act: apply for a Building Permit, with plans of the shed (it’s just a rectangle, for goodness sake!), make sure it’s not too close to a boundary else we’ll need a Planning Permit as well, make sure we have a plan to deal with storm water (it’s just a little shed and, if it weren’t there, the rainwater would look after itself), pay the required fee, and wait for several weeks until someone glances at the application and gives it a rubber stamp.

Jamie has also seen a mini-cedar cabin in a Bunnings catalogue but the process of getting approval for that might be beyond us.

Friday, July 1st …..

I had an email from Dianne this morning reminding me that I’ve been a bit slack and haven’t posted anything since June 14th! Shock, horror! Is my life so dull that I have nothing to say, or is it so private, I can’t share it with anyone? Or I am just a bit slack? Perhaps Dianne is right.

Let’s go back to Rafferty’s for a moment just to report on our last night there. We had decided we wanted to try the Catho Pub in the small town of Catherine Hill Bay. It’s a mining town with tiny wooden houses, close to the sea. The day we drove around to have a look, the houses were covered with banners: “Save our Town’, ‘No Development in Catho’, ‘Leave Us in Peace’, etc. However, the barmaid at the pub told us it was all too late, the development of several townhouses had been passed and building would start soon.

The pub itself is just a one-storey affair, with a verandah at the front and a feeling of lazy neglect in the way it is run. Nothing was tidy, the fittings were shabby and there were beer kegs, boxes of wine and general junk everywhere. We wandered through to the bistro, looking lost until the barmaid appeared and took our order. She explained that it wasn’t her job but the girl; who was supposed to do it was nowhere to be seen. It was a leap of faith in a way because we saw nothing to suggest we might get a reasonable meal. ‘Where should we sit?’ we asked. Ánywhere you like,’ she said. ‘We had a big night last night, with the State of Origin,’ she said, ánd we’re still a bit disorganised.

Too true! The only upright table seemed to be in the bar and was still covered with last night’s spills and empty chip packets. Marilyn found a Spray ‘n’ Wipe on the bar and cleaned it up and we took a seat in anticipation of what we might receive. The two or three other patrons in the bar seemed bemused by the appearance of us city-slickers and wandered off to leave us in peace.

The meals were extraordinary. Jenny and I had lamb shanks: 2 each with mounds of garlic mash and veges, and Marilyn and Sandy had Flathead fillets and chips. I think they had in mind coal miners after a hard shift when they worked out the portions; certainly our plates were groaning with what they served. And it tasted great! So, full marks to the Catho Pub. Ignore the first impressions, enjoy the unusual ambience and have a great feed.

The next day we drove to Wollongong for a couple of nights before heading for Melbourne and the Tasmanian ferry. We arranged to meet friends, Mary and David, in Bungendore where they have just renovated a cottage and shed. Bungendore is a lovely town and the home of the Wood Works Gallery. David McLaren, Director of the Gallery, came to the Craft Fair in 2008 as a judge and I was looking forward to seeing him again. Unfortunately, he wasn’t there on the day we visited but we certainly enjoyed seeing the gallery and having lunch in their café. Being close to Canberra and being a weekend, it was very busy. David and Mary were well, and their renovations were great so it was a good visit.

On to Gundagai for an overnight stop and to Melbourne the following day. We arrived there early enough to take the tram into town to check out the sales. We’ve checked out the sales in six cities now and still find things to buy. This time, we found Cuisinart Coffee Machines in David Jones for $30. Can’t resist, buy two!

The weather forecast had gale force winds over Bass Strait so all the talk on the boat was that we would have a bumpy night. Not so, and we slept like babies before being woken at an ungodly hour so we could get off the boat not long after 6.30am. Breakfast at Etc café at Elizabeth Town and into Deloraine to collect what we could from the shed before the rain came, and then off to Dilston to our new home. It’s still pretty empty but over the next few days I’ll bring up what we need to make the place homely.

Tuesday, 14th June …..

Rafferty’s Resort is quite a pleasant place. We have a double-story unit with 2 en-suite bedrooms upstairs and a good-sized lounge/dining/kitchen area downstairs. The back door opens on to a garden area with shrubs which attract birds. The weather hasn’t been wonderful with very heavy rain on Saturday night.

We decided to check out one of the local shopping centres on Sunday. Charlestown Square has recently been renovated and it is now a very good place to spend a couple of hours. In fact, we were there for nearly five, which ended up costing us $9 in parking fees! The first three are free but the 4th is $5 and the 5th $4. There’s something to be said for getting in, buying what you need, and getting out. However, we’re on holiday and wanted to take things a bit more slowly, apart from doing a bit of shopping.

We had a very good lunch at one of the café, called Salt. Sandy says his fettucine was the best he’s had and I tend to agree. My eyes were drawn to a shop called King of Knives because I’m keen to buy a new set of knives for the kitchen in the new unit. One set was reduced from $1200 to $300 which would normally be enough to set my Scottish heart fluttering but we ended up buying a similar set in House because I liked the look of the handles more. The brand is Scanpan, made in Denmark and my feeling is that it’s a trusted brand in the catering trade. Marilyn also bought a set of bakeware in Myer so we have two more boxes to fit in the boot of the way home, but that’s no problem.

While I was trying on shirts in Myer, Marilyn bumped into Noel and Carol, old friends from Wollongong. Noel is the brother of Marilyn’s brother-in-law and we had seen them recently at the Christmas lunch at Marilyn’s niece. They’re joining us on Wednesday night at the Schnitzel Night at the Swansea RSL. Sandy has arranged for friends they met on a recent trip to come as well so there will be 8 of us at least. We were advised to make a booking as it’s very popular with locals.

Our friends, Dick and Bev, came to have lunch with us yesterday. We last saw them in 2000 when they were on a trip to Tasmania. They have the post office in Wangi Wangi which is on the other side of the lake and had lots of stories to tell about the people who come into the shop. We had a very nice lunch and made arrangements for them to join us also at the schnitzel night on Wednesday – that makes 10! What will the locals think about drop-ins taking up so many seats?

We were told that pelicans are fed every day at the back of the restaurant and at about 1.30, as expected, a horde of huge black and white birds started arriving at the wharf and waddled up to the restaurant. They were waiting patiently until a couple of kids arrived and ran towards them which set them all lumbering into the air. When the kids had gone, the birds came back to the jetty and sent a large male (I assume) to check out whether it was safe. He tentatively walked back to the restaurant, looking around fearfully but nobody came to attack him, so one-by-one the others joined him.

The minutes passed and no one came with a bucket of fish. The birds were becoming edgy and then a message was received in the restaurant that, because it was a public holiday, there would be no pelican feeding today. What a disaster! How were the birds expected to know the queen was having a birthday? Very desolate, they wandered back to the water, to find their own lunch.

When I handed over my credit card to pay the bill, the maitre d’ (is that you spell it?) told me that his name was Richard John Christie and introduced us to his wife and two little girls. They’re originally from South Africa but an ancestor had apparently come from England, so we couldn’t claim family rates.

Saturday, 11th June …..

Ann’s funeral was held yesterday at Leppington. It’s been just over 12 months since we were here at the same place for my cousin Hugh’s funeral and there were many of the same faces there. His children, David, Suzanne and Fiona were very upset, especially as they had only a couple of weeks’ notice that Ann was ill. She was a very private person and worked her own way through the brutal treatment for cancer without looking for support from anyone. David had to hear the news from the oncologist. It might sound odd, but I can relate on one level to a person who didn’t want to burden others with her misfortune and couldn’t tolerate their pity.

After the funeral, we drove on with Sandy and Janet to Rafferty’s Resort at Lake Macquarie. We’ve booked this through our timeshare company and intend to enjoy the local good restaurants. We went last night to the local RSL and had excellent food, served very well. I thought I recognized one of the other customers and it turned out she was Sue Bowen from Deloraine who was leading a party of disabled athletes from Launceston’s New Horizons Club to a Bowling competition in this area. It’s a small world.

We’ve just driven back to the resort from a visit to our friends at Spencer on the Hawkesbury. It’s Tony’s 50th birthday and we are delighted we were just an easy drive away and were able to be there to help him celebrate. Quite a crowd turned up and it was great to see again several old friends from our time at Gib Gate: Phil and Lesley Rooke, and Natalie D’Otreppe, one of the parents. Karen had gone to a great deal of trouble, with lots of food and wine. Tony was his usual quirky self in a terrific green jacket. Curries were served at about 5 o’clock and then we had toasts and speeches. Samara and Montana came forward to give Tony a hug and a kiss, and pushed a cream pie in his face. What confidence to know that he would take it in his stride!

Their house, which they bought after a love-at-first-sight moment, is looking great with a new kitchen and fresh paint job. It is a great house for a party with several levels and areas where people can congregate. After a rain-threatening morning, the afternoon cleared up so we were able to stay out on the verandah for most of the event. A very enjoyable time and reminds us how important good friends are.

There’s nothing much on tomorrow but our friends, Dick and Bev are coming to have lunch with us on Monday. We haven’t seen them for a few years and there will be lots to talk about.

Tuesday, 7th June …..

We had some sad news last night when my brother, Sandy, rang to say that the wife of my late cousin died yesterday morning. My cousin, Hugh, died last year and his wife, Anne, has just passed away after fighting cancer for a number of years. She was a few years older than me but continued to work right up until her death. Her funeral will be on Friday, in Sydney.

We’ve been staying with our friend, Robyn, since we arrived here on Sunday. We made a detour from Kangaroo Valley to enjoy a concert in Bowral. It was interesting to see a few people we remembered from our time at Frensham and Gib Gate. Ian Cooper and Christine Tilley were both on the Music staff at Frensham; Ian is blind but headed a department which consistently produced outstanding choirs, and individual singers and musicians. The concert featured the Berrima Singers who are very professional.

We’ve already been in a few times to see Mum and Uncle Archie and today we took them out for lunch. We wheeled them both along Corrimal Street to the Wollongong Golf Club as it’s the most convenient way to get them out, and the most comfortable for them. I don’t know whether I’m getting more fussy but I’m becoming critical of quite expensive meals in restaurants which don’t quite measure up. If I’m paying over $20 for a small steak and a handful of chips, I expect the steak to be edible. Unfortunately, the one I had at the club today was tough and tasteless. Did I complain? No, of course not, and that’s probably why I feel dissatisfied. Maybe I should have sent it back and chosen something else.

Mum and Uncle Archie are as well as can be expected. They seem to spend most of their days asleep. They don’t watch television or read and there is no-one in the home to talk to. Truly, it’s Waiting for God.

Monday, 5th June …..

I’ve always known that our involvement with Kangaroo Valley and the people there had an enormous influence on our family and on the way we have lived our lives. I first met Jim in 1966, the year we were married. He visited Coogee Prep. to tell us about the programs being offered at Chakola. He remembers that I was refereeing a rugby match and I was wearing a blue blazer and silver-grey trousers when he arrived and the Head, Nick Brown, told him to explain it all to me when I was finished. It’s funny how some situations stick in your mind when most things are totally forgotten.

Nick had no background in outdoor activities but I had been a boy scout and was interested in doing more in the outdoors. Outdoor Education was a very new concept and Warwick Deacock was one of the first people to promote it as an important part of a child’s development. To cut a long story short, Nick and I visited Chakola to get a feel for the place and took a group of children there later in the year. It was a revelation to us just how different our students were in that out-of-school environment. The natural leaders came to the fore, the shy ones gained in confidence and the brash ones learned to calm down.

I was delighted when I was asked to work in their holiday programs which were of 7-days duration. In the summer, one group would be heading out the gate and another group would be coming in an hour later. It was frantic but fantastic. Marilyn soon became a part of the staff as well, helping in the kitchen and so on, and when Jamie came along, Chakola became part of his life too.

Marilyn and I had both been brought up in safe, suburban Australia and now, all of a sudden, we were mixing with people who were a bit alternative and had travelled and were interested in music, politics, world affairs, literature, and so on. None of them would claim any expertise in any of those subjects but the important thing is that they were questioning and open to new ideas. What a revelation for us and what an opportunity to broaden our own horizons.

With Jim and, later, Derek, we began to walk around the valley and further afield: the Shoalhaven River and Kosciuszko National Park. My strongest memory of those times is that we laughed a lot. We shared a love of the absurd, and quotes from the Goon Show became a familiar part of our vocabulary. We actively sought out humorous things to share – silly poems were particularly enjoyed. On the walk I’ve already mentioned up the Yarrunga Creek, I, apparently, took along a list of Nearly Naughty Words (like fuchsia). I don’t remember this at all, but Jim assures me it is so.

So, in memory of those wonderful days, here are a few items from a list of titles which might help encourage bird-watchers to read, given to me by Jim and Di this weekend:
A Tern Like Alice
Partridge to India
The Concise Oxford Ducktionary (particulary useful for NZ readers)
Lord of the Wings
The Holy Boobook
The Hen Commandments

Sunday, 5th June …..

We first met Derek around 1970 when he came to work at Chakola. Chakola had been established in 1965 by Warwick and Antonia Deacock who wanted a place where children could be introduced to outdoor activities in a safe and beautiful environment. I first went there in 1966 with a group of students from Coogee Prep. School, and it wasn’t long before Marilyn and I were working there in most of our school holidays. We certainly didn’t do it for the money; a week as Director would earn me $40. Jamie went there as a baby and going to Chakola was an important part of his growing-up.

In 1980, Derek leased the Chakola property from Warwick and Antonia and developed Operation Challenge , offering training activities for adults. His clients included Kelloggs, the Australian Army, NSW Ambulance, many insurance companies, and so on. He provided a mix of adventure-type activities such as ropes courses, and problem-solving, team-building activities. It was an extraordinarily successful business and Derek was able to maintain a high quality program while holding on to the personal touch. This is Pedro's Prison.
Derek turned 75 this year and has decided it is about time to retire. His courses are no longer provided at Chakola; instead he has developed an adjoining property which he calls Sennen.

This weekend he had a group in from Reinforced Earth, an engineering group which builds embankments and the like. They had two days of various team-building activities and their course culminated in a final activity which Derek calls The Cannon Run. The team had to dissemble a ‘cannon’, carry the pieces through a series of obstacles and puzzles and re-assemble it to fire two shots. Marilyn and I watched them carry out the task in just 15 minutes and 3 seconds.

We're not sure how Derek will adapt to retirement. He has been involved in working with people all his life and clearly thrives in group situations. He has built up a business which is valuable but may not function as well without Derek's personal touch. He has sheds full of equipment, several vehicles and, of course, the activities he has built around the property. Many cost tens of thousands of dollars to construct and it will be a tragedy to see them deteriorate from disuse. Derek hopes someone will be keen to take over the business and he will then assist in re-constructing the activities on another site. Let's hope the right buyer is out there.

Saturday, 4th June …..

It was a great trip over Bass Strait on Wednesday evening and we had been off-loaded from the Spirit by 6.40am. Breakfast at a terrific café at Port Melbourne and we were off and running. I set the GPS and we followed it religiously, even after it warned us we were using toll roads and there would be a charge. I had ordered and installed an e-tag and we assumed it would function as it should. We listened for the beep and we hadn’t travelled far before we heard that gentle tone that told us we had just spent some unspecified amount. I’m glad it was working but,by the third beep, I was hoping it would take a break.

We made great time and didn’t stop until a roadhouse somewhere near Benalla, where we bought LPG and a coffee. Marilyn chatted to a man who was waiting for his order and discovered he had been a student at Corrimal High School (like her); it’s certainly a small world. We stopped at Holbrook for lunch and, by late-afternoon, were in Goulburn where we had planned to spend the night. Goulburn has a sentimental spot in our hearts; it was always a stop for us on the way to Canberra or the snowfields, and our friends, Jan and Mungo, lived and were married there. It’s certainly grown but still has the feel of a nice country town. It's famous as the town of the Big Merino.

We were strolling up the main street, looking into restaurants trying to decide what we would like to eat, when a young woman recommended we try the Bank Restaurant at the other end of the street. It was good advice and we had a pleasant meal and met some very nice people. The owner, Alan, is an Englishman, married to Kim, a Thai woman who does all the cooking. One of the waitresses is Sophia, from Cambodia, and we had a very long chat with her about her life during the Pol Pot days and her hopes for the future.

Next morning, we found Mum’s Laundry (next to Dad’s Car Wash) and Marilyn did the washing. Not only did we have the clothes we had worn over the past few days, but Marilyn had brought whatever dirty clothes were lying around the house when we were leaving.

We had arranged to stay with friends, Jim and Di, in Kangaroo Valley so headed down there on Friday morning. We have a long association with the valley and the southern highlands above, so we were driving over places we have known well for many years. A stop at Fitzroy Falls for lunch was mandatory. Marilyn insisted on a ranger pie, a beef pie with a swirl of mashed sweet potato on top – very exotic – but I just had a plain beef pie. The Fitzroy Falls Visitors’ Centre is always in shade but we enjoyed lunch in the café and the view of the Falls from a couple of angles. I remember a walk I did in the 1970’s with Jim and Di which brought us up the Yarrunga Creek towards the base of the falls. We saw and heard lyrebirds and other wildlife and it was a memorable trip. I’ll talk to Jim about the details to make sure I’m not confused about what we did.

They live in a cottage on the Barrengary House property on the Upper Kangaroo Valley Road and have a very nice, quiet lifestyle. They were pleased to see us and we were delighted to be there. It’s been too long since we enjoyed their company and the couple of days we are here will not be long enough. Di is proud of their vegetable garden. This year she grew Dutch Crook Neck Pumpkins like the one in the first picture. For some reason, two grew together like Siamese Twins and gave us the chance to take some terrific photos, like the other one below.







In the evening, we went to the local Bowls Club which has a very good chef, and met up with some more old friends from our time at Chakola, an Outdoor Education Centre, where we worked in our holidays for many years between 1966 and 1975. Derek and Irene Lucas, Paul and Libbie Turnock and Lance Tomlinson were there and it was a fantastic reunion. Derek invited us for lunch on Saturday to see one of his Operation Challenge courses.

Friday, 27th May …..

Today was Settlement Day when Jamie took possession of his new house, and it was also moving day for Marilyn and me. We were surprised to wake up to a bright sunny day, when experience has shown us that moving day is almost guaranteed to be wet.

The caravan was hitched on early and we set off for Dilston where we backed it up beside the house and set it up. The bed is not being delivered until Tuesday so we’ll stay in the van until then. We didn’t have the keys to the new house so could only peer through the windows until they were officially handed over. The place is looking great; everything has been moved giving us a clean slate to develop our own personal touches. The only thing left, in fact, is the resident cat which we agreed could be left and we would look after it. Jamie has nick-named it Chatterbox and I’m sure that name will stick.
Things to be done, so I dropped Marilyn into town to pick up the keys from the solicitor while I drove back to Deloraine to collect the table and chairs we had bought at the furniture shop in the main street.

Sunday – Jamie woke us up early with breakfast from McDonalds. It was nice to see him and, as it had been a cold night, we decided to use his muscles to help me drag the mattress from the caravan into the house. I had already set up the TV so, with the mattress on the floor and the heat pump keeping us warm, we had all the comforts of home. Chatterbox is supposed to be an outdoor cat but is taking every opportunity to come indoors, sitting on one of the padded dining-room chairs. At night, though, it’s outside for her.

Tuesday – we got up bright and early as the bed, the fridge and the washing machine were booked to be delivered today. It was only just after 8 o’clock when we saw the Beds-R-us van coming in the gate. Ten minutes later, the Harvey Norman truck pulled in beside him. Delivery drivers don’t bring an off-sider anymore expecting, I suppose, that the householder will take the other end. Who’s complaining, we were just so happy to see the stuff arrive so we could finally move in. Marilyn has worked hard to get the kitchen cupboards and wardrobe sorted out so there won’t be a lot a lot of stuff around when we’re away.

We’re looking forward to trying out the new bed tonight. Chatterbox is also interested and has already tried sneaking under the doonah, hoping not to be noticed. I’ve moved her outside box to a new spot which is more protected and we hope she’ll be quite happy there for the winter. She certainly wasn’t happy when I put her out but that’s just tough!


Wednesday – the first thing we notice when we get up is the cat on her favourite chair in the loungeroom. We hadn’t realized that she knew about the cat-flap and we had left it unlocked. At least she had the sense not to snuggle into bed with us. That would certainly have given the game away!
We need to be on the boat about 6 this evening and the carpet man is due to lay the new carpet in the loungeroom. Marilyn has a couple of appointments in town and I’ve been left to supervise the worker. We haven’t packed yet so that’s a job still to be done. I’ll lay my clothes out on the bed but Marilyn will still have hers to do when she gets back.

It’s a bit of a rush but we arrive in plenty of time and the boat sails on schedule. Can’t wait to get up the road!

Buying this property has been a very positive experience for Jamie. Everyone he has dealt with has been totally professional: Peter Lees Real Estate, Aussie Home Loans, Commonwealth Bank and Clarke and Gee, Solicitors. We found the same with the shopping we have been doing. Beds-R-Us, Harvey Norman, Carpet Court, all were honest and genuine, and a pleasure to deal with