Thursday...31 March 2011

Well now, we sure have been busy.
On Monday we were invited to lunch by a gentleman who was showing his gratitude to Keith and Kelvin for shifting his two caravans out of a caravan park where they had sat for 25 years and onto his property further down the road. Lunch was very pleasant at the local RSL club. While we were eating, we learnt that after lunch Kelvin was going to move house and naturally his friends wanted to help! A fun afternoon with many helping hands had enough of their stuff moved to allow them to spend that night at their new address. Keith returned the next day to help Kelvin complete the rest of the heavy shifting.
On Wednesday me and one of my sister in laws went into town and got a full set of acrylic nails at one of those little asian happy nail places. My goodness those girls work hard and are so clever and precise with what they do. We had a pedicure too!
Just around the corner from the nail place but still in the same shopping mall is the Dusk shop and I was able to catch up with a friend who used to live in Perth but has moved to Victoria. We took her out with us when we went to dinner that night with my brother whose son runs a nice little place in the CBD.
Food was great, service superb.
Tonight we went out to dinner with Keiths brother and family at the RSL again. You just cannot beat an RSL club for value for money meals. We followed this up by going into town to another resturant for coffee and dessert.
I am loving the social life here in Bendigo.
Tomorrow is the Friday get together at Keiths brothers place. His brother said tonight he was going to cut some wood tomorrow so that we can all enjoy a nice log fire while we watch the footy and have a chat and a glass or two.
Does life get any better than this?

Monday...28 March 2011

Geelong beat St Kilda by one point in a last minute thriller. I was very happy just to be there. I do not know the rules of the game but it appeared very scrappy and I am definately not a fan of kicking the ball backwards just to waste off the clock at the end of the quarter. Surely that time would be better used trying to score another goal!!!
There was 42,862 people there and it was awesome to hear them roar as one, especially at the end of the game. The roar they let rip drowned out the final siren. Another memory created.......
Traffic in Melbourne was heavier than usual, probably caused by the Grand Prix which was also on last weekend in Melbourne.
Beginning April 8 the Melbourne Museum has a display of King Tut artifacts which we are planning to see if possible. That would be very interesting to see ancient history from such a far away place.
We got home from the footy very late at nearly 2.00am. Was a long day.
During the day on Saturday Keith went to his brothers place and made up a tripod to go under the hitch at the front of the caravan which helps prevent rocking at the front area of the caravan when we are parked up.
Saturday night we went out to dinner with old friends of both Keith and his sister, matter of fact this couple were in his sisters wedding party! Hilarious night listening to all of them walk down memory lane. Learnt a lot about the things himself got up to in his youth. Many comments of 'do you remember......' or 'wonder what happened to...'Much discussion on who had what car at the time etc.
On Sunday Kim and Stephen and the boys came over from Horsham to visit. What a nice surprise as they made a spur of the moment decision to drive over. We sat around the caravan chatting and catching up.
Today we are off to lunch with more of Keiths friends and we have had two different invitations to dinners during the rest of this week with friends and family.
Will be in Bendigo forever just to get through the social schedule.

Friday...25 March 2011

Happy birthday to my neice, Sharon.
Tonight I go to the MCG for the first time ever for me, to watch Geelong play St Kilda.
Fancy getting to my age and having to admit you have not seen the holy grail of Australian Sport. Oh well at least I will be in the members stand!!! Amazing how we always seem to have friends in the right places........
Tick another one off my bucket list, at this rate I may get most of it ticked!!.
Thats the good thing about lists, they can be never ending, just add new idea as they come to mind.
Visit the MCG
A visit to Tasmania
Autumn in Bright/Beechworth again
To see Ayers rock again
Tour South Australia
Visit some of the islands off our coastline
Canada/Alaska/Europe/Great Britian
Hot Air Ballooning with my sister for our 90th birthdays
Learn formal cake decorating
Get a degree Nah I got a diploma, that will do
Read more books
Find a house big enough to store the books I already have
Go to the Australian Open
Go to Tamworth for the Country Music festival

I wonder what is on other peoples lists, maybe you have ideas I would like to borrow.

Friday...19 March 2011

Well there you go, I survived St Patricks Day in a town with a well known pub called The Shamrock!! Did see some silly looking men wandering around with oversized green  hats......am thinking that by today they would be hoping no one recognised them when they were pissed and looking silly walking down the street singing limmericks whilst hugging best buddy who also was pissed and wearing a silly green top hat.
Nothing to tell, been laying low (pardon the pun!) since the footpath tumble. Bit shook up. Not done anyting of interest either.
On Friday nights we all gather at Keiths brothers motel for a get together, his place as he cannot go too far if he has overdue book ins. Very pleasant night sittting listening to the siblings chatting over the current state of politics or their childhood, whichever comes along. Will miss our Friday nights when we move  to the next location.

Tuesday...15 March 2011

Went back to the CFA comp, yesterday to watch the final events and spend a bit more time with the Benalla group. Nearly didnt get to see them. Walking along the footpath towards the entry gate out the front of the oval, I tripped on a section of the path which was not as level as it appeared, and fell. I banged my head on the concrete and took skin off a few fingers. The on site first aid helped me and cleaned me up. The CFA people told me that I was one of several people who had fallen at that spot during the weekends competition!
Today I ache all over and have a swollen hand and black and blue bruises in interesting places!
Went to visit the baby brother but my heart wasn't in it as I hurt and just wanted to crawl into bed and sleep. Which is what I did do when we came back to our caravan. Took some painkillers and went to bed.
Later in the day we went into town for dinner.
Yesterday the neighbours gave our hostess a huge zucchini, so today I made her a double batch of zucchini slice.  We had some for dinner and the remainder is in the freezer.
No plans for tomorrow so am hoping to be ultra lazy and let the bruising do its thing.

Sunday...13 March 2011

Yesterday I went to watch the State CFA competition and to meet with my foster sister and her family. Was lovely to see them, and to watch the Benalla team competing. It was interesting to watch the events and know that while the competitors were having fun and trying to win, they were actually honing skills which one day may be needed to help you or me in an emergency. They were an awesome sight.
Was going back again today but got a bit sidetracked. I will definately make it there tomorrow for the last day of the three day competition.
Today, I spent the morning setting a batch of beef jerky to drying and did a spot of house work, then we went to visit my younger brother at his weekend job being a DJ at the local community radio station (KLFM, 96.5 Bendigo). Fascinating place. It is housed in an unused railway station (which is heritage listed), so every so often the trains come thundering past. He works an 8 hour shift, the first three being country and western and the last five being easy listening requests. That phone keeps him busy and it is fun to see what people request.

My Brother, the radio DJ

I spent most of the afternoon watching him work and chatting while Keith went on to visit a mate that he did his apprenticeship with way back when it was still possible to leave your front doors open and your cars unlocked.
Tomorrow I will go back to the CFA comp to spend more time with them before they finish up just after lunch and return to their home towns.  I have also been invited to visit the brother again if time permits.
Note to self, moved to Bendigo, it is now raining........hmmmmmmm.........

Thursday...10 March 2011

Well we seem to have settled into Bendigo. On Tuesday we went into town and Keith had a haircut and found a jeweller capable of fixing his Tag watch, (just needed a battery apparently!) and we left his broken spectacles at OPSM to be sent away to have the titanium frames welded back together. Apparently sitting on them voids the warranty....lol. Took a walk around the CBD. Wow what a lot of shops.....wonder how long we are staying and if I will have time to see them all.
Yesterday we did a day trip to Shepparton to see my Big Brother who is in rehab following a stroke. BB is looking much better than when I first saw him in the Royal Melbourne not long after the actual stroke. The progress is visible to me, but of course he is finding the recovery and rehabilitation process very very frustrating, as most people who were normally active prior to their strokes do. Saw my sister-in-law and my sister and also my neice who was at the same hospital to have day surgery on a ongoing ankle problem. She is now in plaster and on crutches with instructions of no weight bearing for six weeks....not quite what she was led to beleive was going to be the outcome!!!
Today was a nice quiet day just getting the hang of life in Bendigo. Tomorrow I am hoping for fine weather to do the washing and have it out of the way before the long weekend.
There is a large CFA competition in Bendigo over the long weekend and I am looking forward to catching up with some of the Benalla mob who are coming to compete.

Monday...7 March 2011

Up nice and early, thanks to the tooting car horn at 6.00am.  Still that made sure we were up and ready to wave the grandkids off on their school bus and to say farwell to them. Then we packed up the camp which is fairly straight forward so long as we do not get too comfortable at a given stop because if we do it takes forever to sort ourselves out and get going again.
First stop was into town to the council dump point to offload some unwanted cargo!!! Kim came and said  her farewells while we were unloading our waste water. Then it was over to Blue's place to run his very efficient pressure spray cleaner over  the entire rig, ute and caravan. Thank you Blue, the outfit looked a million dollars by the time we finally hit the road to Bendigo.
So there we were tootling down the road, sun was shining, traffic was minimal, just us and a few million locusts.....The front of the ute, the windscreen, the front of the caravan and the underskirt of the caravan were all bright yellow by the time we got to St Arnaud. What a waste of time cleaning it in Horsham!
So we arrived at Keiths sisters place and set up our camp beside her garage, then got out the hot water, soap, broom, buckets and hose and cleaned the caravan again. After that we drove down the road to the car wash and paid a fortune to use their pressure cleaner to get the rest of the yellow muck off the front of the ute.
We are very tired little teddies now. Me from watching and supervising all this activity and himself from the actual doing of the daily double carwash.
We went to the local supermarket and got some groceries and a bottle or two of wine, so with any luck we should now be organised enough to actually sit back and relax again.
Ok Bendigo, we are here now, give us your best shot..

Sunday...6 March 2011

Moving time again!
After two and a half months in Horsham, we are moving lock, stock and two tired tatty old retirees with caravan in tow, to Bendigo tomorrow.
Most of the flood waters, (notice I say most, not all), have dried up......BUT....someone out 'there' is trying to say that Horsham is about to get another 8inches of rain, beginning around the 19th March......so guess what? Enough! We are out of here. I is too old to learn how to swim!!!!
We have done some good stuff other than bucketing water and filling sandbags. We travelled together to South Australia and renovated a bathroom and took a trip to the drags. Wonderful to spend time with the grandkids and daughter and son-in-law and we will miss them. They may even miss us a little bit.
We won't miss the oversized steriod taking mosquitos. Until all that water dries out I guess they will continue to party at will on the local human inhabitants, and their pets.
Ok more on this move after we settle in Bendigo.
Huge thank you to Kim & Stephen and the boys for putting up with us for this long, we did enjoy the visit.

Wednesday...2 March 2011

Yesterday we were taken on a magical mystery tour of Phillip Island and surrounding areas by our very good friend Bob.
We started with a visit to Churchill Island to see their Highland cattle but the cows must have been in a back paddock of the property as we could not find them, however we did see lots and lots of Cape Barren geese and some black and white sheep which we think were Suffolks. They had white wool but their bodies were black, talk about identity crisis!!! There was also a group of schoolchildren riding bicycles with their teachers on some very rough tracks in the drizzling rain, what a fun day for them......
Next stop was Inverloch, we did not get out of the car as the wind was blowing a gale that went through rather than around you. We settled for parking on the shore front and watching the waves rolling in off Bass Strait and the Southern Ocean.
From there we travelled to Wonthaggi via Cape Paterson along the ocean road. Very windy but wonderful views of a raging ocean thundering against the little beaches and cliffs of the mainland.
We tried to visit the State Coal Mine at Wonthaggi but it was closed to the public until April 8. Bother!
We had lunch and went for a look at one of the big talking points of Victorian politics, the Desalination plant just a few kms out of Wonthaggi. The lads found this an interesting site, and we passed a windfarm to get to it. I do not know much about wind farms. I know they say they are noisy and apparently it is even said the noise can send a sane man ga ga, but the big windmill things look so graceful as they slowly turn in the breeze, I quite like seeing them on our travels.
From Wonthaggi we returned to Phillip Island and went to Woolamai Beach, which is a lovely surfing beach facing the open ocean, but once again we struck out as it was so windy the paint on the car was being sandblasted by the "stiff breeze" that was blowing the sand into the carpark and no one was surfing!
Onward we went and showed Keith the Phillip Island Motor Racing Circuit. We got lucky as it was Rider Day and there were heaps of motorbikes whizzing around the track and while they were not the professionals it gave a bit of authenticity to our visit. We were able to access the public viewing platform which gives a perfect view of the entire track at one glance. Another to do box ticked...

The track

From there we went to The Nobbies which are a collection of interesting rocks in the ocean known for their seal populations. No seals that day,  but another bonus was finding groups of the Island's famous Fairy Penguins nesting under the boardwalk used to view the seal colony. The groups we found were moulting which takes about three weeks during which time they do not eat. Once they have their new coats they return to the sea to fish again.
From there we went to the area of the Island where you can actually watch the Fairy Penguins returning at dusk to their burrows in the sand dunes. Having already seen some penguins up close and personnal we did not stay to watch the Pengiun Parade. Another one of those attractions that is overpriced and overcrowded and why pay good money to see something we have already seen for free???

Fairy Penguins under boardwalk

From there we went back to our camp with plans to eat out only to find the park resturant was closed so Bob the wonderful cooked a superb slap up meal of roast lamb in his BBQ with all the trimmings ably assisted by his lovely wife Deb on her retun from her trip to the city. Lovely meal. Another perfect day.What wonderful hosts.
Today they took us down to San Remo to watch the Pelican feeding, just us and several hundred school children on excursion!!! Bus load after bus load of the little darlings. There was at least three different schools represented. I feel  there was more but when some are out of uniform it is difficult to allocate the blame for their disgraceful behaviour.  The little pets decided to throw rocks at the waiting pelicans and of course not one teacher claimed to be in charge of the transgressors!!!!!!
Several of us 'grandies' , all waiting for the pelican feeing session, made our displeasure of their behaviour clear to them.....their comment was "stop ruining our fun"!

Pelican at San Remo

Lunch was fish and chips eaten from paper packages whilst parked facing the beach watching waves and clouds skudding along the horizon. How beach/island/perfect was that????
To round out the day we said fond farewells to our marvellously wonderful hosts and set off for Horsham, just a hop, skip and five hours drive away.......
Guess who is a tired little traveller??????
Tomorrow is the Wimmera Field Days.
Thank heavens we are retired and moving through life at a snails pace, any more speed and I would be in meltdown............