We’re still here at Myrtle Park and have booked for another week. We’re certainly enjoying the solitude and coping well with the lack of power. In fact, compared to others in the park, we’re in the lap of luxury. One couple, no younger than we are, have a 4WD with a rooftop tent and a 3m ladder to climb up. The back of the 4WD opens up and they can cook a meal but there’s nowhere for them to sit under cover. It must be miserable when it’s cold and wet.
We took a trip down to Deloraine yesterday to collect some warmer clothing and check the mailbox on the way back. We also discovered that Kmart had folding bicycles on sale for only $40 so decided that we couldn’t live without at least one of those. Of course, it came in a box and needed some assembling but I had the right tools so put it together this morning. It’s a great machine with 6-speed Shimano gears and a seat that adjusts high enough for me to ride it comfortably. It only has 50cm wheels so it’s not good on rough ground but we’re not into cross country riding anyway. It was originally on sale for $99 so we’ve got a bargain.
Marilyn worked out that we could hire a little fire basket at the camp kiosk so we’re now well set up with all the amenities. We bought a basket of wood and I brought some more back from Deloraine yesterday and that should see us through for a few days.
Tomorrow is my birthday and we’re heading up to Launceston to have lunch with Jamie. I don’t normally celebrate my birthday (who needs reminding that the years are passing?) but it’s a good chance to have a nice meal in a restaurant. Jamie has bought himself a new car, a very nice blue Lancer, but he’ll be many thousands of dollars out of pocket after the theft of his previous vehicle.
Thursday, 10th
We really enjoyed lunch at Peckish, a very nice café in Kings Meadows and that seemed to put us in the mood for more shopping. We had been looking at getting a generator to give us the security of having power when we were free-camping. The solar panel is limited in bad weather and on a cloudy day, we have to be careful with running lights, the heater and the TV.
Both of us have agreed that free-camping is the way to go. Caravan Parks have all the amenities but the sites are small and, at busy times, you are parked hard up against people on both sides. On our last stay at Hadspen, the people next door to us fought with each other all the time. We’ve had neighbours who play their radio too loud, or swear all the time, or encroach on our site. Truth to tell, we’re a little anti-social.
Having power completes the picture for us: when we are parked in a pristine free site, we can still have hot showers, run the heater or air conditioner, use the washing machine, and charge the computer, phones, etc. All the advice we received pointed us to a Honda 2000 watt generator and so we bought one today. I suppose it could be regarded as my birthday present. It cost a bit more than I had anticipated but we can justify the expense by calculating that it will be repaid by the park fees saved in less than three months of free camping.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Monday, February 7, 2011
Saturday, 5th February …..
At last we’re back on the road. We left Siaren’s on Monday and spent a few days at Hadspen Caravan Park, sorting out a couple of issues, but now we are at a wonderful spot: Myrtle Park just 32Km from Launceston but a generation or two from modern-day society.
It’s a real old-fashioned holiday camping ground, with lots of space and no formality. There are toilets but we can’t even see them from where we are. There are modern, self-contained caravans like ours but across from us I can see a classic tear-drop shaped van from the fifties. Clearly, families from Launceston come here for the school holidays with their caravans and tents. There are campfires, and barbecues and kids on bikes and everyone is having a jolly time.
Those clever enough to book early get a site on the river but we just called in on spec so have had to accept a site about 20m from a little gravelly beach. The site is enormous with lush grass, shady trees and a picnic table. We feel very privileged to have such a great spot. We’re ‘free-camping’ which means we don’t have electricity or running water but we can run our TV from the solar panel, cook with gas and draw on our built-in water tanks, so we have no problems. I didn’t mention that it costs only $3 per night to stay here and that includes access to the camp kitchen, with a microwave and barbecues, and to the hot showers. What a paradise!
People seem to come here in groups of 4 or 5 vans or tents. Maybe that’s why the sites are so large; they’re to accommodate multiple occupancy.
The only drawback is that there is no mobile phone access so I can’t check emails or download additions to my eBook collection. And it also means I’ll have to wait until we go to Launceston to upload this blog episode. However, these are minor considerations when they are balanced against all the other advantages of being here. There is a public ‘phone at the little kiosk if we need to make an urgent call. The kiosk also sells fish and chips if we run out of food.
Marilyn and I had a rare trip to the movies yesterday. We had a couple of hours to fill in Launceston and decided we should see Dark Swan, the movie which gave Natalie Portman an Oscar. I couldn’t say that we enjoyed the experience. The movie was very dark, with some challenging (and I think gratuitous) sex scenes. It was hard to tell what was real and what was fantasy, but that only proves that I’m old-fashioned and haven’t kept up with modern trends in movie-making.
Those of you who keep up-to-date with what Jamie is doing through Facebook will know that his car was stolen during the week. It was found on Thursday morning, burnt out and totally destroyed. Sadly, he had left his collection of glass and jade in the boot. There were some very expensive pieces among them and he has accepted that they may never be found. Another problem is that his insurance company, as a ‘matter of policy’ investigates thefts where the car is burnt, and, apparently, rarely pays out. I suppose it’s a good way of someone getting rid of an unwanted car and collecting the insurance money but it’s a bit hard on the honest victim of crime when he is treated like the criminal. Also, ‘as a matter of policy’ payouts for theft and burning are at the bottom end of the of the value range. So, if Redbook says a particular car is worth between $2500 and $4000, depending on condition and mileage, they will only pay $2500, no matter how carefully it was maintained.
Insurance companies are getting away with murder. Look at the nonsense following the Queensland floods where companies are rewriting their definitions of ‘flood’ to avoid paying out. For goodness sake, a flood is a flood is a flood. And there’s not much point in changing companies; they all seem to be tarred with the same brush.
Sunday, 6th: Sitting outside the caravan in the sun is a great way to meet passers-by. There seems to be an invisible line which they won’t cross so they stop about 15m from where we’re sitting to pass the time of day and find out as much as they can about us without appearing nosey. A couple this morning opened with the classic line, “Another beautiful day!” Then it was straight into, “Where are you from?” and “Where are you going next?” It turned out that they are planning to head for the mainland in May, as we are, but haven’t made a booking on the Spirit yet. When I told them that we had one for the 10th May and thought there may not be many spaces left, they decided they should look into it soon.
I found the most interesting question was, “What are you doing about your house?” I love the assumptions behind that question. Anyway, I explained that we didn’t own a house, having lived in school premises for over 20 years, and we moved back to commenting on Myrtle Park and how nice it is.
It’s mid-afternoon and the park is clearing out rapidly. Some ‘vans had moved on quite early but others are leaving now, clearly heading back to Launceston for work or school tomorrow. We could have our choice of sites now but we’ll just stay where we are.
Seeing how other people operate is nice and looking at their setups is educational. Generators are popular and so are bicycles; many families have little boats of one kind or another. Others have portable fridge/freezers. Some put up a small tent to store their gear during the night or have little choofers – little wood-fired heaters made out of old gas bottles. You can buy firewood at the kiosk and many people are taking advantage of that. The trouble is that everything we carry adds extra weight and we’ve got to be sure they’re worth the expense and effort.
No doubt we’ll add to our ‘stuff’ as we get more experience of travelling. In the meantime, we seem to be set up pretty well and don’t lack for comfort.
It’s a real old-fashioned holiday camping ground, with lots of space and no formality. There are toilets but we can’t even see them from where we are. There are modern, self-contained caravans like ours but across from us I can see a classic tear-drop shaped van from the fifties. Clearly, families from Launceston come here for the school holidays with their caravans and tents. There are campfires, and barbecues and kids on bikes and everyone is having a jolly time.
Those clever enough to book early get a site on the river but we just called in on spec so have had to accept a site about 20m from a little gravelly beach. The site is enormous with lush grass, shady trees and a picnic table. We feel very privileged to have such a great spot. We’re ‘free-camping’ which means we don’t have electricity or running water but we can run our TV from the solar panel, cook with gas and draw on our built-in water tanks, so we have no problems. I didn’t mention that it costs only $3 per night to stay here and that includes access to the camp kitchen, with a microwave and barbecues, and to the hot showers. What a paradise!
People seem to come here in groups of 4 or 5 vans or tents. Maybe that’s why the sites are so large; they’re to accommodate multiple occupancy.The only drawback is that there is no mobile phone access so I can’t check emails or download additions to my eBook collection. And it also means I’ll have to wait until we go to Launceston to upload this blog episode. However, these are minor considerations when they are balanced against all the other advantages of being here. There is a public ‘phone at the little kiosk if we need to make an urgent call. The kiosk also sells fish and chips if we run out of food.
Marilyn and I had a rare trip to the movies yesterday. We had a couple of hours to fill in Launceston and decided we should see Dark Swan, the movie which gave Natalie Portman an Oscar. I couldn’t say that we enjoyed the experience. The movie was very dark, with some challenging (and I think gratuitous) sex scenes. It was hard to tell what was real and what was fantasy, but that only proves that I’m old-fashioned and haven’t kept up with modern trends in movie-making. Those of you who keep up-to-date with what Jamie is doing through Facebook will know that his car was stolen during the week. It was found on Thursday morning, burnt out and totally destroyed. Sadly, he had left his collection of glass and jade in the boot. There were some very expensive pieces among them and he has accepted that they may never be found. Another problem is that his insurance company, as a ‘matter of policy’ investigates thefts where the car is burnt, and, apparently, rarely pays out. I suppose it’s a good way of someone getting rid of an unwanted car and collecting the insurance money but it’s a bit hard on the honest victim of crime when he is treated like the criminal. Also, ‘as a matter of policy’ payouts for theft and burning are at the bottom end of the of the value range. So, if Redbook says a particular car is worth between $2500 and $4000, depending on condition and mileage, they will only pay $2500, no matter how carefully it was maintained.
Insurance companies are getting away with murder. Look at the nonsense following the Queensland floods where companies are rewriting their definitions of ‘flood’ to avoid paying out. For goodness sake, a flood is a flood is a flood. And there’s not much point in changing companies; they all seem to be tarred with the same brush.
Sunday, 6th: Sitting outside the caravan in the sun is a great way to meet passers-by. There seems to be an invisible line which they won’t cross so they stop about 15m from where we’re sitting to pass the time of day and find out as much as they can about us without appearing nosey. A couple this morning opened with the classic line, “Another beautiful day!” Then it was straight into, “Where are you from?” and “Where are you going next?” It turned out that they are planning to head for the mainland in May, as we are, but haven’t made a booking on the Spirit yet. When I told them that we had one for the 10th May and thought there may not be many spaces left, they decided they should look into it soon.
I found the most interesting question was, “What are you doing about your house?” I love the assumptions behind that question. Anyway, I explained that we didn’t own a house, having lived in school premises for over 20 years, and we moved back to commenting on Myrtle Park and how nice it is.
It’s mid-afternoon and the park is clearing out rapidly. Some ‘vans had moved on quite early but others are leaving now, clearly heading back to Launceston for work or school tomorrow. We could have our choice of sites now but we’ll just stay where we are.
Seeing how other people operate is nice and looking at their setups is educational. Generators are popular and so are bicycles; many families have little boats of one kind or another. Others have portable fridge/freezers. Some put up a small tent to store their gear during the night or have little choofers – little wood-fired heaters made out of old gas bottles. You can buy firewood at the kiosk and many people are taking advantage of that. The trouble is that everything we carry adds extra weight and we’ve got to be sure they’re worth the expense and effort.
No doubt we’ll add to our ‘stuff’ as we get more experience of travelling. In the meantime, we seem to be set up pretty well and don’t lack for comfort.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Tuesday, 25th January …..
Tomorrow is Australia Day and already the flags are staring to appear in people’s gardens and on their cars. We had our celebration a couple of days early with a barbecue yesterday for a couple of old colleagues from Giant Steps, and their wives. Since I left, Tim has been appointed Assistant Principal, and Rod is moving on to a new position after three years as teacher in Red room.
We wanted to do something a bit different so organised the menu as a series of small entrée dishes before the main course quite late – something like a tapas menu.
We started with some simple green prawns on skewers, cooked on the hot barbecue plate and served with a choice of lemon mayonnaise or thousand island dressing. There were only enough prawns to give each person three or four but it was easy to see who had more than their share when we counted up the discarded skewers on each plate.
Second entrée saw skewers again, this time with a mushroom and a couple of pieces of capsicum cooked on the barbecue. I rubbed the mushrooms with oil and salt and added some honey mustard just before serving. Fantastic!
Third course was chipolata sausages, beef and chicken, served with sweet chilli sauce, and the final mini-dish was marinated steak, sliced and served on turnip mash with fresh dill.
Everyone seemed to enjoy it and we had to delay the main course to give our appetites a chance to recover. However, there was no-one who refused the scotch fillet steak, lemon-marinated chicken, sautéed red onion, and fresh peaches rubbed with oil and brown sugar and grilled on the barbecue. We had new potatoes with sour cream and a Caesar salad as well.
Dessert was a platter of fresh fruit and cheese.
We are lucky in Australia to have such an abundance of good, fresh food and the culture of taking the best of other national cuisine to produce an imaginative and healthy diet of our own.
We’re still house-sitting but Siaren comes back from the Philippines on Monday and we’ll be able to resume our caravan travels. At this stage we plan to head south to Hobart and beyond. Years ago, we camped at Recherche Bay in the South-West National Park. In the 1800’s more people lives south of Hobart than north, but over the years the area has become virtually deserted. The only large-ish town there now is Southport but you can still find remains of houses, hotels and railway lines in the bush. Our books tell us that it’s safe to take the caravan into the national park over a dirt road and a bridge restricted to 5 tonnes but we’ll probably leave the caravan at Southport and take the car on from there so we can check it out.
I remember one bridge from the last time we went (which must have been about 1977); it consisted of two ancient tree trunks, with railway sleepers lying across them. We were with a few other vehicles so everybody piled out while the drivers tentatively inched across not knowing whether the whole contraption would crash into the creek below. Maybe a new bridge has been built since then but we’ll need to check it out before I take the four tonnes of car and ‘van across it.
One other memory of that trip is how sick we were after eating what they called periwinkles collected from the rocks. Some of our party had canoes and brought the shellfish back from rocks out in the bay. They were cooked on an old piece of iron over an open fire and we vomited all night!
We wanted to do something a bit different so organised the menu as a series of small entrée dishes before the main course quite late – something like a tapas menu.
We started with some simple green prawns on skewers, cooked on the hot barbecue plate and served with a choice of lemon mayonnaise or thousand island dressing. There were only enough prawns to give each person three or four but it was easy to see who had more than their share when we counted up the discarded skewers on each plate.
Second entrée saw skewers again, this time with a mushroom and a couple of pieces of capsicum cooked on the barbecue. I rubbed the mushrooms with oil and salt and added some honey mustard just before serving. Fantastic!
Third course was chipolata sausages, beef and chicken, served with sweet chilli sauce, and the final mini-dish was marinated steak, sliced and served on turnip mash with fresh dill.
Everyone seemed to enjoy it and we had to delay the main course to give our appetites a chance to recover. However, there was no-one who refused the scotch fillet steak, lemon-marinated chicken, sautéed red onion, and fresh peaches rubbed with oil and brown sugar and grilled on the barbecue. We had new potatoes with sour cream and a Caesar salad as well.
Dessert was a platter of fresh fruit and cheese.
We are lucky in Australia to have such an abundance of good, fresh food and the culture of taking the best of other national cuisine to produce an imaginative and healthy diet of our own.
We’re still house-sitting but Siaren comes back from the Philippines on Monday and we’ll be able to resume our caravan travels. At this stage we plan to head south to Hobart and beyond. Years ago, we camped at Recherche Bay in the South-West National Park. In the 1800’s more people lives south of Hobart than north, but over the years the area has become virtually deserted. The only large-ish town there now is Southport but you can still find remains of houses, hotels and railway lines in the bush. Our books tell us that it’s safe to take the caravan into the national park over a dirt road and a bridge restricted to 5 tonnes but we’ll probably leave the caravan at Southport and take the car on from there so we can check it out.
I remember one bridge from the last time we went (which must have been about 1977); it consisted of two ancient tree trunks, with railway sleepers lying across them. We were with a few other vehicles so everybody piled out while the drivers tentatively inched across not knowing whether the whole contraption would crash into the creek below. Maybe a new bridge has been built since then but we’ll need to check it out before I take the four tonnes of car and ‘van across it.
One other memory of that trip is how sick we were after eating what they called periwinkles collected from the rocks. Some of our party had canoes and brought the shellfish back from rocks out in the bay. They were cooked on an old piece of iron over an open fire and we vomited all night!
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Monday, January 17th …..
It’s true that more gets done when you’re busy. Certainly, very little has been done on the blog in the past three weeks while I’ve been involved in almost nothing.
Currently, we are ‘house-sitting’ for our friend, Siaren, who has gone back to the Philippines for the summer holidays. She was married in September but has had to leave her new husband there until his application for a visa to come to Australia is approved. Siaren, of course, had to return to Australia to work after the wedding. She tells us that she and Jan have rented a small apartment while she is there so they can enjoy each other’s company and start their married life without having to worry about other family members tripping over them.
Siaren adopted our cats when we retired and took on the nomadic lifestyle so we were quite happy to look after her house and feed the cats while she was away.
The days just slip away. Marilyn is using the time to recover from her knee operation and I have been re-building my ebook library in my new Sony Reader, and doing some minor chores around the house. We’ve also been able to catch up on some TV series we have on DVD. Monk is a favourite at the moment and we’ve just finished the first series of Dexter.
We wander into Launceston occasionally, checking out all the bargains to be had in the New Year’s sales. We’ve supplemented our cruise wear although we certainly had enough to go on with. Still, having the right shoes for the pool and a spare pair of shorts won’t be a disadvantage.
A colleague from Giant Steps was married last weekend, coincidentally on our anniversary. He has married a Filipina, from the southern island of Mindanao and we enjoyed their garden wedding in his father’s house in Relbia, a rural part of Launceston. Tim’s father was a farmer in the area but most of the farm has recently been sold off to developers. The day was very hot but we found plenty of shade and had a very pleasant afternoon.
I’m writing this episode of the blog on my desktop computer which I had left with Siaren to look after. Unfortunately, my little netbook has been ‘playing up’. Fortunately, it decided to expire just a fortnight before the warranty expired. This is contrary to my usual pattern where the warranty expires a fortnight before the item decides to conk out. The netbook has been returned for repair so I hope it will be back before long.
The TV has been full of the dreadful floods in Australia, particularly in Queensland but in other states as well. Even in Tasmania, we’ve had a number of houses inundated. One of our friends in Deloraine came home to four feet of water around his house. Luckily, the living quarters are up high but the garage and workshop was totally immersed. It’s the third time in five years and he’s fed up with it, so as soon as the place is dried out and memories fade, he will put it on the market. There’s such a demand for houses in Deloraine at the moment that some retiree from the mainland will snap it up. I wonder if the real estate agent will be honest enough to point out the likelihood that they will eventually get wet feet.
Sadly, I heard from our friend Kit in Calamba that there was an attempted robbery at her house last week and, in the melee, her security guard was stabbed and died. When we travel to the Philippines and stay with Kit we always feel safe because of the security measures she takes. It seems now, though, that you’re never safe.
In my search for interesting books to load on to my ebook reader, I came across a book called The Good, the Bad and the Unready by The Rev Robert Easton. It’s an irreverent look at famous (and infamous) people of history who have acquired nicknames. Some are wonderful: Elizabeth the Red-nosed princess, King Charles the Silly, Wilfred the Shaggy, and so on. Rev Easton admits that his childhood nickname was Robert the Ridiculous, and dedicates his book to someone called Harry the Dirty Dog.
He also drops in a comment that Private Eye magazine in the UK uses nicknames when talking about the Royal Family. The Queen is called Brenda, Prince Charles is Brian and the late-Princess of Wales was Cheryl.
Very little has been organised for the next week or two. We plan to be out of here by the end of next week and back in our caravan for all of February. Hopefully, our lives will become more interesting then and I’ll have more material for more regular blog episodes.
Currently, we are ‘house-sitting’ for our friend, Siaren, who has gone back to the Philippines for the summer holidays. She was married in September but has had to leave her new husband there until his application for a visa to come to Australia is approved. Siaren, of course, had to return to Australia to work after the wedding. She tells us that she and Jan have rented a small apartment while she is there so they can enjoy each other’s company and start their married life without having to worry about other family members tripping over them.
Siaren adopted our cats when we retired and took on the nomadic lifestyle so we were quite happy to look after her house and feed the cats while she was away.
The days just slip away. Marilyn is using the time to recover from her knee operation and I have been re-building my ebook library in my new Sony Reader, and doing some minor chores around the house. We’ve also been able to catch up on some TV series we have on DVD. Monk is a favourite at the moment and we’ve just finished the first series of Dexter.
We wander into Launceston occasionally, checking out all the bargains to be had in the New Year’s sales. We’ve supplemented our cruise wear although we certainly had enough to go on with. Still, having the right shoes for the pool and a spare pair of shorts won’t be a disadvantage.
A colleague from Giant Steps was married last weekend, coincidentally on our anniversary. He has married a Filipina, from the southern island of Mindanao and we enjoyed their garden wedding in his father’s house in Relbia, a rural part of Launceston. Tim’s father was a farmer in the area but most of the farm has recently been sold off to developers. The day was very hot but we found plenty of shade and had a very pleasant afternoon.
I’m writing this episode of the blog on my desktop computer which I had left with Siaren to look after. Unfortunately, my little netbook has been ‘playing up’. Fortunately, it decided to expire just a fortnight before the warranty expired. This is contrary to my usual pattern where the warranty expires a fortnight before the item decides to conk out. The netbook has been returned for repair so I hope it will be back before long.
The TV has been full of the dreadful floods in Australia, particularly in Queensland but in other states as well. Even in Tasmania, we’ve had a number of houses inundated. One of our friends in Deloraine came home to four feet of water around his house. Luckily, the living quarters are up high but the garage and workshop was totally immersed. It’s the third time in five years and he’s fed up with it, so as soon as the place is dried out and memories fade, he will put it on the market. There’s such a demand for houses in Deloraine at the moment that some retiree from the mainland will snap it up. I wonder if the real estate agent will be honest enough to point out the likelihood that they will eventually get wet feet.
Sadly, I heard from our friend Kit in Calamba that there was an attempted robbery at her house last week and, in the melee, her security guard was stabbed and died. When we travel to the Philippines and stay with Kit we always feel safe because of the security measures she takes. It seems now, though, that you’re never safe.
In my search for interesting books to load on to my ebook reader, I came across a book called The Good, the Bad and the Unready by The Rev Robert Easton. It’s an irreverent look at famous (and infamous) people of history who have acquired nicknames. Some are wonderful: Elizabeth the Red-nosed princess, King Charles the Silly, Wilfred the Shaggy, and so on. Rev Easton admits that his childhood nickname was Robert the Ridiculous, and dedicates his book to someone called Harry the Dirty Dog.
He also drops in a comment that Private Eye magazine in the UK uses nicknames when talking about the Royal Family. The Queen is called Brenda, Prince Charles is Brian and the late-Princess of Wales was Cheryl.
Very little has been organised for the next week or two. We plan to be out of here by the end of next week and back in our caravan for all of February. Hopefully, our lives will become more interesting then and I’ll have more material for more regular blog episodes.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
December 30th .....
When we came to stay with our friend, Robyn, on the evening of December 21st, she was showing us details of a cruise she is taking in May next year. She is very excited and is looking forward to the experience.
Something must have triggered in Marilyn’s brain because less than a week later she announced, ‘I feel a cruise coming on.’ Half an hour on the Best Cruises website and we’ve decided on a Sydney to Fremantle cruise on the Sun Princess leaving on April 16th, stopping at Brisbane, Townsville, Port Douglas, Darwin, Broome, Bali, and Geraldton. We’ll be able to visit friends in Brisbane, Townsville and Perth as well as see some parts of Australia we haven’t yet visited.
We left Mudgee on Boxing Day just after 7am, hoping to be in time for lunch at Sharon and David’s home in Pennant Hills. Sharon is Marilyn’s niece and is just about the same age as Jamie. They have two small children.
There were more than a dozen adults and half a dozen children and it was great to be part of a large-ish family gathering after too many years of spending Christmas on our own. Sharon and David were generous, with wonderful food and outstanding wines. The desserts were a particular triumph. Of course, the guests contributed to the feast and that’s how it should be.
We stayed there overnight and left early to meet other old friends for lunch. Marilyn has known Barry since he was a child and his wife, Lynne, is her cousin. They were both in our wedding party and it is too long since we caught up with them. Our resolution this year is to make every effort to see the friends we have neglected over the years and at least we have started the process.
Our GPS, Dorothy, decided we should travel back to Wollongong via Campbelltown and the Picton Road. This is not the way I might have chosen but Sydney traffic has developed significantly since we moved to Tasmania and Dorothy chose a route which had no hold-ups and was fast all the way.
We’re now back in Wollongong, again staying with Robyn and seeing Mum and Uncle Archie when we can. I saw them this morning and we’ll take morning tea in to them tomorrow to celebrate the New Year.
Yesterday, Marilyn and Robyn decided we should go to see the new movie, The King’s Speech. It’s just been released and hasn’t got to Wollongong so we had to travel to Cronulla to see it. We
caught a train at Oak Flats at 11.20, changed at Sutherland and were in plenty of time in Cronulla to catch the 1.50pm showing. After a nice afternoon tea we caught a train at 5.27 and were home by 7.30. A great day out!
The King’s Speech is a wonderful film. The audience clapped at the end, and rightly so. The story was fabulous and the acting superb. Jeffrey Rush never ceases to amaze and Colin Firth was a very believable Duke of York. I was surprised to see Guy Pierce as Edward VIII but he did the accent very well. I can never think of him without remembering Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, but he has had a more varied career than that.
All of us thoroughly recommend the film.
Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve. Sandy and Janet are meeting us in the evening and we’re going to the Oak Flat Bowls Club for dinner. We’ll probably come home in time to watch the fireworks on television. Last year, we celebrated Christmas and New Year on the Diamond Princess but this years’ celebration will be a little more low-key in comparison. However, that can only be a good thing.
Something must have triggered in Marilyn’s brain because less than a week later she announced, ‘I feel a cruise coming on.’ Half an hour on the Best Cruises website and we’ve decided on a Sydney to Fremantle cruise on the Sun Princess leaving on April 16th, stopping at Brisbane, Townsville, Port Douglas, Darwin, Broome, Bali, and Geraldton. We’ll be able to visit friends in Brisbane, Townsville and Perth as well as see some parts of Australia we haven’t yet visited.
We left Mudgee on Boxing Day just after 7am, hoping to be in time for lunch at Sharon and David’s home in Pennant Hills. Sharon is Marilyn’s niece and is just about the same age as Jamie. They have two small children.
There were more than a dozen adults and half a dozen children and it was great to be part of a large-ish family gathering after too many years of spending Christmas on our own. Sharon and David were generous, with wonderful food and outstanding wines. The desserts were a particular triumph. Of course, the guests contributed to the feast and that’s how it should be.
We stayed there overnight and left early to meet other old friends for lunch. Marilyn has known Barry since he was a child and his wife, Lynne, is her cousin. They were both in our wedding party and it is too long since we caught up with them. Our resolution this year is to make every effort to see the friends we have neglected over the years and at least we have started the process.
Our GPS, Dorothy, decided we should travel back to Wollongong via Campbelltown and the Picton Road. This is not the way I might have chosen but Sydney traffic has developed significantly since we moved to Tasmania and Dorothy chose a route which had no hold-ups and was fast all the way.
We’re now back in Wollongong, again staying with Robyn and seeing Mum and Uncle Archie when we can. I saw them this morning and we’ll take morning tea in to them tomorrow to celebrate the New Year.
Yesterday, Marilyn and Robyn decided we should go to see the new movie, The King’s Speech. It’s just been released and hasn’t got to Wollongong so we had to travel to Cronulla to see it. We
caught a train at Oak Flats at 11.20, changed at Sutherland and were in plenty of time in Cronulla to catch the 1.50pm showing. After a nice afternoon tea we caught a train at 5.27 and were home by 7.30. A great day out!The King’s Speech is a wonderful film. The audience clapped at the end, and rightly so. The story was fabulous and the acting superb. Jeffrey Rush never ceases to amaze and Colin Firth was a very believable Duke of York. I was surprised to see Guy Pierce as Edward VIII but he did the accent very well. I can never think of him without remembering Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, but he has had a more varied career than that.
All of us thoroughly recommend the film.
Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve. Sandy and Janet are meeting us in the evening and we’re going to the Oak Flat Bowls Club for dinner. We’ll probably come home in time to watch the fireworks on television. Last year, we celebrated Christmas and New Year on the Diamond Princess but this years’ celebration will be a little more low-key in comparison. However, that can only be a good thing.
December 25th .....
This time of the year brings out the best and the worst in people. The last fortnight has shown us just how pleasant and helpful people can be, but also how rude and offensive others are. No doubt, the stresses of Christmas: the expense, the busyness, the expectations, all make it a difficult time, but it will be great to get past January 1st and get on with a more realistic life.
We flew to Sydney on the 21st, picked up a hire car and drove down to Wollongong. Our original plan was to drive straight up to Mudgee but it’s a good five-hour drive and we didn’t get the car until 6pm so it put on too much pressure. Instead, we decided to have a night in Wollongong and drive to Mudgee in daylight. We hired the car from Redspot this time; I’m fed up with trying to compare the prices from the major companies and there is always some item I don’t know about until the final bill comes in. Redspot quote an all-inclusive price, with no insurance excess so you know what the final cost will be before you start.
We picked up a nearly-new Commodore which gave Marilyn plenty of room for her leg and headed for Sandy and Janet’s for dinner, before driving to Warilla to stay with our friend, Robyn. She had been at a Christmas Party and didn’t get home until about 9.30 so it all fitted in very well.
Next morning, Marilyn wanted to go to the crematorium to put flowers on her mother’s plaque. It’s been a family tradition to visit the placements on Christmas Day so it was good that she was able to represent the family on this task. My father and niece are there too, and Marilyn’s grandparents, aunts and uncles, and her brother-in-law’s family as well, so there were quite a number of small bunches needed.
This task completed, we called into Macdonald’s for coffee and cakes to take to Mum and Uncle Archie at the nursing home. It’s too difficult to take them both out for morning tea (we can’t get both the wheelchair and walking frame in the car) so we bring in the little delights which they miss.
Sadly, Mum was very sleepy and kept dropping off so she didn’t get to enjoy the occasion. Uncle Archie, though, was in good form and really got stuck in to the sweet treats. I suspect he doesn’t always go to breakfast so he was probably hungry.
We got away before lunch and headed up the road. The section between Wollongong and Penrith is pretty quick but once we hit the Blue Mountains, the traffic slowed down. There’s a lot of roadworks going on, which will be terrific in the long run, but keeps the traffic to a crawl in the meantime.
After Lithgow, we get on to the narrow road to Mudgee. It’s quite a reasonable road but slow in parts. However, we arrived in plenty of time to visit Bill’s nursing home and pick up the keys to Anne and Alan’s house.
Bill seemed fine and was very pleased to see us. The difference between The Links in Wollongong and the Mudgee Nursing Home is very marked. At the Links, the staff are few and far-between and often there is no-one on the floor. In Mudgee, there are always many staff around. Even on Christmas Day, the ‘skeleton staff’ was six people plus the cleaner and laundry lady who were on for four hours in the morning.
Mudgee is very green; they’ve had a lot of rain and it shows. The sheep on Alan’s property are healthy and very heavy with wool. Apparently, they’re due for shearing but it probably won’t happen until the new year. The sheep are in the habit of sleeping outside the gate to the house enclosure so the ground there is covered with sheep manure and the smell is appalling. I think we’re city people at heart.
The property, Saxby Downs, is about 20 minutes out of town. When Marilyn decided we would bring Bill out for a visit, we rang the local Maxi Taxi who picked him up and brought him out. The driver, Amy, said it wasn’t worth her while driving back to town so stayed and had afternoon tea with us and then took Bill home, with no extra charge. It could only happen in the country.
The house is beautiful with stunning views. It has been renovated to accommodate three families and guests so there is plenty of room.
Christmas Lunch at the nursing home was great. They set Bill and Marilyn and I in a separate room with another resident, Heather, and her mother. The five of us were served separately. The meal was very tasty: ham and turkey, roast vegetables, and Christmas pudding and custard for dessert. We missed the wine but you can’t have everything.
It was an unusual Christmas but enjoyable, none-the-less.
We flew to Sydney on the 21st, picked up a hire car and drove down to Wollongong. Our original plan was to drive straight up to Mudgee but it’s a good five-hour drive and we didn’t get the car until 6pm so it put on too much pressure. Instead, we decided to have a night in Wollongong and drive to Mudgee in daylight. We hired the car from Redspot this time; I’m fed up with trying to compare the prices from the major companies and there is always some item I don’t know about until the final bill comes in. Redspot quote an all-inclusive price, with no insurance excess so you know what the final cost will be before you start.
We picked up a nearly-new Commodore which gave Marilyn plenty of room for her leg and headed for Sandy and Janet’s for dinner, before driving to Warilla to stay with our friend, Robyn. She had been at a Christmas Party and didn’t get home until about 9.30 so it all fitted in very well.
Next morning, Marilyn wanted to go to the crematorium to put flowers on her mother’s plaque. It’s been a family tradition to visit the placements on Christmas Day so it was good that she was able to represent the family on this task. My father and niece are there too, and Marilyn’s grandparents, aunts and uncles, and her brother-in-law’s family as well, so there were quite a number of small bunches needed.
This task completed, we called into Macdonald’s for coffee and cakes to take to Mum and Uncle Archie at the nursing home. It’s too difficult to take them both out for morning tea (we can’t get both the wheelchair and walking frame in the car) so we bring in the little delights which they miss.
Sadly, Mum was very sleepy and kept dropping off so she didn’t get to enjoy the occasion. Uncle Archie, though, was in good form and really got stuck in to the sweet treats. I suspect he doesn’t always go to breakfast so he was probably hungry.
We got away before lunch and headed up the road. The section between Wollongong and Penrith is pretty quick but once we hit the Blue Mountains, the traffic slowed down. There’s a lot of roadworks going on, which will be terrific in the long run, but keeps the traffic to a crawl in the meantime.
After Lithgow, we get on to the narrow road to Mudgee. It’s quite a reasonable road but slow in parts. However, we arrived in plenty of time to visit Bill’s nursing home and pick up the keys to Anne and Alan’s house.
Bill seemed fine and was very pleased to see us. The difference between The Links in Wollongong and the Mudgee Nursing Home is very marked. At the Links, the staff are few and far-between and often there is no-one on the floor. In Mudgee, there are always many staff around. Even on Christmas Day, the ‘skeleton staff’ was six people plus the cleaner and laundry lady who were on for four hours in the morning.
Mudgee is very green; they’ve had a lot of rain and it shows. The sheep on Alan’s property are healthy and very heavy with wool. Apparently, they’re due for shearing but it probably won’t happen until the new year. The sheep are in the habit of sleeping outside the gate to the house enclosure so the ground there is covered with sheep manure and the smell is appalling. I think we’re city people at heart.
The property, Saxby Downs, is about 20 minutes out of town. When Marilyn decided we would bring Bill out for a visit, we rang the local Maxi Taxi who picked him up and brought him out. The driver, Amy, said it wasn’t worth her while driving back to town so stayed and had afternoon tea with us and then took Bill home, with no extra charge. It could only happen in the country.
The house is beautiful with stunning views. It has been renovated to accommodate three families and guests so there is plenty of room.
Christmas Lunch at the nursing home was great. They set Bill and Marilyn and I in a separate room with another resident, Heather, and her mother. The five of us were served separately. The meal was very tasty: ham and turkey, roast vegetables, and Christmas pudding and custard for dessert. We missed the wine but you can’t have everything.
It was an unusual Christmas but enjoyable, none-the-less.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
December 15th .....
I think my last comment before I took a break from writing was that we had no plans and would wait to see what unfolded. The short answer to what unfolded is ‘not much’.
It’s been four weeks now since Marilyn’s operation and she is recovering very well. She had optimistically allowed herself five weeks for recovery before we head off to Mudgee and she is well on track to be ready for that. Of course, she has the right attitude and that makes all the difference.
We’ve found the caravan a particularly good place for Marilyn to recuperate. Everything is within easy reach: the shower and toilet is just a few steps away as is the kitchen. It’s great, also, to be free to move around from town to town if we feel like it. We’re in Latrobe at the moment, free-camping. The caravan is pretty self-contained and the solar panel on the roof gives us regular 12v power for the water pump, TV, and so on. We do miss the microwave which can only be used when we have access to 240v but that’s a small price to pay for the independence.
I had an appointment with the radiation oncologist who supervised my treatment for prostate cancer. A blood test showed that my PSA count is too low to measure so that’s the best news I could wish for. We can now put that behind us and get on with life.
There has been one little sad moment recently. I carelessly dropped my Bebook which I use for my electronic book collection. I think I’ve had it for more than 3 years and it’s already had a new screen following a crash on to concrete and a replacement mother board and battery. I won’t bother having it repaired again. New models have many more features and they have become much more sophisticated so I’ve ordered a new Sony with a touch screen and in-built dictionaries. It’s more elegant than the bebook and I hope will last me for many years – if I can avoid dropping it.
I was asked to talk to my Rotary club last night about our recent trip to the Philippines. It was a good chance to re-visit some of the interesting times we had. I focused on the parts of the trip which related to our club’s involvement in projects there and said a little about possible future projects. Of course, I could have talked for hours about the beautiful new places we saw and people we met but if you talk for more than half an hour, the members get very toe-ey. Is that how you spell it?
We’re heading back to Launceston tomorrow for a Christmas party on Friday night and to get organized for our trip to Mudgee on Tuesday. There probably won’t be much to report until the middle of next week
It’s been four weeks now since Marilyn’s operation and she is recovering very well. She had optimistically allowed herself five weeks for recovery before we head off to Mudgee and she is well on track to be ready for that. Of course, she has the right attitude and that makes all the difference.
We’ve found the caravan a particularly good place for Marilyn to recuperate. Everything is within easy reach: the shower and toilet is just a few steps away as is the kitchen. It’s great, also, to be free to move around from town to town if we feel like it. We’re in Latrobe at the moment, free-camping. The caravan is pretty self-contained and the solar panel on the roof gives us regular 12v power for the water pump, TV, and so on. We do miss the microwave which can only be used when we have access to 240v but that’s a small price to pay for the independence.
I had an appointment with the radiation oncologist who supervised my treatment for prostate cancer. A blood test showed that my PSA count is too low to measure so that’s the best news I could wish for. We can now put that behind us and get on with life.
There has been one little sad moment recently. I carelessly dropped my Bebook which I use for my electronic book collection. I think I’ve had it for more than 3 years and it’s already had a new screen following a crash on to concrete and a replacement mother board and battery. I won’t bother having it repaired again. New models have many more features and they have become much more sophisticated so I’ve ordered a new Sony with a touch screen and in-built dictionaries. It’s more elegant than the bebook and I hope will last me for many years – if I can avoid dropping it.
I was asked to talk to my Rotary club last night about our recent trip to the Philippines. It was a good chance to re-visit some of the interesting times we had. I focused on the parts of the trip which related to our club’s involvement in projects there and said a little about possible future projects. Of course, I could have talked for hours about the beautiful new places we saw and people we met but if you talk for more than half an hour, the members get very toe-ey. Is that how you spell it?
We’re heading back to Launceston tomorrow for a Christmas party on Friday night and to get organized for our trip to Mudgee on Tuesday. There probably won’t be much to report until the middle of next week
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)