More Bad News

We are now in Newcastle staying with friends Janet and Mick. Mick doesn't sleep well if he drinks too much alcohol! He had a bad night's sleep last night!

I managed to see my 88 y.o. uncle yesterday who is seriously ill in hospital in Canberra before we drove the next 450k's to where we are now. I have just learnt he passed away peacefully this morning at 2:45 am.

We are just about to head off to Trish's brother's funeral this morning. We will probably stay here in Newcastle for my uncle's funeral now. This will mean another drive through Sydney to get back down to Canberra.

From Yass

Monday at the cricket was great. The weather was warmer and I again met a chap I had sat with the day before. We both enjoy our cricket and took it in turns to tell each yarns from our days gone by. In between we watched as Australia began to take control of the match. When I eventually got back to Berwick, Trish and I had fish and chips for tea and got everything ready for our drive to Canberra the next day. We packed as much as we could and soon were ready for a good sleep.

We were on deck early Tuesday. Trish wanted to do some last minute washing too. We were on our way by 8:30 am. The traffic was minimal as it is holiday season. We dropped Kate's car at Chris' near Tullamarine airport so they could get home to Berwick easily.

650 k's later we pulled into a motel at Yass not too far from Canberra. The motel room was small but the air con worked well and everything was clean. There was free internet, thus I am doing this post and keeping one eye on the cricket on TV. The road between Melbourne and Sydney is nearly all dual highway nowadays but as you can see this part of Australia is very dry. Sorry about the dead bugs on the windscreen.

I have rung ahead to ensure all is OK for our visit in Canberra first thing tomorrow but there was no answer. Hopefully all is OK.

Eventually we got a call through and did not get good news, my elderly uncle now has pneumonia and hospital staff now intend to keep him as comfortable as possible.

Drouin And Then To The Test Match At The MCG

Our trip to Drouin was great. Again there was too much to drink and too much to eat. Plenty of friendship was found there too. It was great to catch up with everyon again and exchange our news. The weather was cool with a breeze ensuring people kept jumpers and jackets on. Trish had had a great Christmas day and was in a form of "Recovery Mode" for Boxing Day so we arrived back in Berwick that evening while there was still plenty of daylight. I think Trish has her brother's funeral on her mind too.

Today (Sunday) Trish dropped me at Berwick Station and I travelled almost an hour into the city and the Melbourne Cricket ground (MCG). I arrived at the ground much too early, got a sensational seat and settled down to enjoy the day's play. The cricket was slow and the breeze was very cool again. However I enjoyed the day very much. I played for Dandenong when I played cricket many years ago. Peter Siddle (Australia's opening fast bowler) plays with Dandenong too so there is a real interest here.

I travelled home by train as far as Springvale where I met with Trish as well as very good friends Eddie and Patsy. We all enjoyed a wonderful Vietnamese meal together. It was a great end to a great day.

I won't head in to the cricket as early tomorrow. Early tomorrow morning (Monday) Trish is driving Kate, Arj and the two kids to Tullamarine Airport for them to take off for Perth in Western Australia for a two week holiday. Perth is expecting 40 degrees.

On Tuesday we head north to Nelson Bay and the funeral with two major stop offs on the way.

Now It Is On To Boxing Day

After the excitement of receiving gifts in the morning the rest of Christmas Day day was relatively quiet. Christmas night was Arj's family's get together and it was being held at Kate's this year.

In true Sri Lankan tradition people arrived after 6:30pm and we ate about 8 pm, a tad late for the kids but this is the way it has always been.

Arj has a great family and his two older brothers plus his Mum and Dad come with all their kids as well as in-laws. The three boys and Arj's mum cook various Sri Lankan dishes while others supply sides, sweets or nibblies. Again there are more gifts and as usual the young kids get spoilt. We have another 'Kris Kringle' to keep costs within reason.

After too much to eat and drink, people started to find their way home at about 11pm. With cleaning up out of the way it was bedtime about midnight.

Today we are down to Drouin to the home of former neighbour's Barry and Rainy by 11am. John Loagan and Sue will be there along with other friends Wayne and Launa. Again there will be too much to eat and drink.

Tomorrow Sunday I am off to the cricket for Day 2 of the Test match, Australia Vs Pakistan.

Our arrangements are all in place for the funeral of Trish's brother, Bevan, in Nelson Bay NSW on Thursday morning. We will be leaving here about 10 am on Tuesday and will be staying with friends Janet and Mick in Newcastle. We expect to arrive there about 5pm or so on Wednesday of this week.

Christmas Day

We all ventured out on Christmas Eve for a meal at a favorite Malaysian restaurant here in Melbourne. It was fine, but they have changed their Chicken Curry recipe and we think we prefer the older one! Christmas Eve was spent enjoying the Carols on TV. The two children, Charli and James slipped off to bed leaving Santa some milk and bikkies and some water for the reindeer!

The kids did not wake early!

It was about 8 am when Charli emerged with a look of gleeful dismay on her face at the range of gifts Santa had left. She had a quick ride on her new bike, then a quick scoot on her new scooter before delving into her Santa Sack to retrieve everything she could.

Dad (Arj) then put the new doll's house together. He was a study of concentration as he carefully followed the instructions so the 25 included wooden pieces fitted together to create the new Doll's House. Some nerves were tested as the product slowly but surely reached completion.

James actually had to be woken after 8 am but he soon was fully active checking out his Santa Sack as well. This checking out is a big deal when you are only two and the Santa Sack is so full! But he managed OK!

Nanna was put to work putting the train set together for James. There were great looks of glee and surprise on all faces as the morning progressed!

Christmas Day had got off to a great start.

Funeral Update

After some discussion the funeral for Trish's eldest brother who passed away on Wednesday morning will be conducted at 10:30 am on Thursday December 31st in Nelson Bay. It is over 1000kms to Nelson Bay from Kate's home in Melbourne so it will require an overnight stop for us as we drive up.

At this stage we are hoping to make a quick visit to Canberra to visit my uncle who is now in his mid 80's. This will mean we will need to leave Melbourne Tuesday morning and drive about 650k's and stay overnight possibly at Yass. The next morning we will drive the final 70k's into Canberra for the quick visit. Then it is another 450+k's to Newcastle where we will stay if possible with friends Michael and Janet on Wednesday Dec 30th.

We would then hope to spend two further nights with Michael and Janet in Newcastle before setting off for another 1000k's back to Caloundra.

Great Night Out Soured By Sad News.

Last night we caught up with good friends for our annual Christmas get together. The ladies share the meal preparation and the venue is rotated from year to year. This year it was a June and Keith's turn in Berwick so it meant this time we did not have to travel far. We had plenty to eat, heaps of laughs, enough to drink and exchanged Christmas Gifts Kris Kringle style. We seem to start a little earlier these days which allows us to finish a little earlier. We don't seem to drink as much as we used to either. This means we either have more sense nowadays or we are growing older!

We arrived back home at Kate's place well before midnight.

One of the reasons for driving down to Melbourne this time was so we could visit Trish's eldest brother Bevan in Nelson Bay. Bevan has been suffering from Parkinson's these last 10 years or so but only recently he started to deteriorate quickly. He is 75 years of age and is in full care.

Another of Trish's brothers, Billy, rang last night at about 8 pm to say Bevan had suffered a turn for the worse. Bevan passed away at about 1 am this morning.

At this stage no arrangements have been announced so all our plans for our trip here to Melbourne are in limbo. We will just have to wait and see.

Christmas Day Approaches

Days have been reasonably quiet while here in Melbourne. Some of the time has been spent keeping an eye on the grand kids while last minute shopping is being completed. The Cricket has been on TV too so I have been occupied. I bought myself a 500GB external USB powered disk drive which I have 'set up' to be my new place to keep movies for the Media Player. It has taken some time but all is up to date now.

The internet connection has had a battering, this morning I downloaded 6 movies in just an hour and a half!

We had our family Christmas get together on Sunday here at Kate's. Our three kids and their families (where appropriate as Kim doesn't have kids) were all there along with my brother's wife Jeanette. Presents were exchanged and there were shouts of glee from those receiving them. James (seen here) is just 2 years old and really enjoys presents. We enjoyed a great meal consisting of baked fish, ham, prawns, chicken and salads. Everyone brought some food offerings and we had a sumptuous feast.

Monday night saw us head out to friends of Kate and Arj's home for a BBQ. Her parents were there too so the oldies sat and chatted while the young ones cooked, prepared and cleaned up! Spicy chicken, prawns, salmon and good old sausages were there as well as several salads. It was a sumptuous feast yet again!

Tonight it out for a meal with other friends and Wednesday night we will see our daughter Kim for a meal at St Kilda. Kim is heading to Thailand for her Christmas hols and won't be here Christmas Day.

I must contact Tony back home to see how all is there. Tony is keeping an eye on 13 Kilbride for us.

The weather is warming up at last and 36 is expected here tomorrow. Today will be about 26 while Christmas Day looks like being "Clearing Showers" and about 20.

In Melbourne

According to my car trip meter it is 1866k's from our home to the home of our daughter in Melbourne. Trish and I did 900k's the first day and the rest on day 2.

We left Caloundra just before 5 am on Wednesday and arrived in Gilgandra 900k's away after 10 hours travel. The temperature on arrival was 40 degrees with a stinking hot wind blowing. The motel room had a new air conditioner fitted a few weeks earlier. The air con was effective and quiet. We enjoyed a meal at the local bowls club. Because of daylight saving we 'lost' an hour after crossing the border into NSW. We were on our way the next morning at about 5:40 am. The temperature was still 28 degrees at that time of the morning.

As the trip continued the temperature continued to rise until it peaked at 42 degrees. The car and its climate control worked perfectly all the way. We stopped for a bite to eat for lunch at 40 degrees just south of Wangaratta which is in northern Victoria.

We arrived in Melbourne three hours later where the temperature was 20 degrees and heavy rain was falling, the cool change had arrived. It wasn't much fun battling the peak hour traffic and wet weather through the suburbs. We collected Trish's car from where she had parked it in St Kilda the week before and through stop start freeway traffic eventually arrived our destination at about 5:30pm.

Some quick observations, the grandkids have grown, the tap water is cold and it is strange to again be wearing track suit trousers first thing in the morning. There is a chill in the air when you put your head outside first thing in the morning!

Travel Day Tomorrow

Our drive from here down to Melbourne will begin at about 5 am tomorrow morning! The total trip is about 1900k's (about 1200 miles) and will take a couple of days. As we drive via the Newell Highway through central New South Wales we expect temps to get to about 40 degrees. With such hot weather we will need to take it a bit easy with the car. We will get to about Gilgandra and hopefully arrive there mid to late afternoon. We would then hope to finish the trip off the next day and get into Melbourne late Thursday afternoon. Melbourne is expecting a cooler wet day on Thursday which will be a lot easier for driving.

Our bags are pretty well packed now. We are all (Tony, Angela, Paul and Linda) heading to our newly discovered little Thai restaurant this evening for a Christmas meal and will get back home tonight about 8:30 and finish packing the car.

I awoke this morning to find this chap swimming in the pool. I fished him out with the leaf net and put the three iron to work. These toads are pests in this part of the world and authorities want them disposed of! Speaking of the pool, Tony came round yesterday and we went through the watering and pool maintenance routines. Tony will keep an eye on the place while we are away. The most important job is to ensure the water level is maintained in the pool. If the level drops too much it will not feed the filter and then the pump will overheat and require replacement!

We did a 14 kilometre bike ride this morning and decided to do the 'beach' ride. At last the wind has backed off and the riding is a lot more comfortable now. However it was about 28 degrees this morning at 7:30 am and humidity was around 75% so plenty of sweat was lost during the ride! How great the pool is to come home to after a ride like this today!

I am considering changing my Internet Service Provider from Netspace to Internode. I currently get 30GB download per month for $60 where Internode will give me 50GB for $50. Internode will charge me for upload too but this would still see me much better off. Still thinking about it right now though! It is a hassle changing your email address and we use the Netspace Address as our main email contact address!

There isn't much more news. The next post I make on the blog will come from Melbourne.

A Little Cooler

The pool has had quite a workout this week with most days sunny and above 30. Nights are pleasant enough, we put the ceiling fan on "Low" and sleeping is no problem. As usual at this time of year there is always some humidity around. I usually have a quick swim before heading to bed at night, this too ensures a good night's sleep. A 'cool' change went through yesterday so today is expected to be high 20's rather than 30+.

Busy doing the pre Christmas and a trip to Melbourne things the last few days. Pool water has been checked at the Pool shop, lawns are to be cut, and general tidy things up prior to getting away. One of my riding mates (Tony) will be looking after things while we are gone and I am sure he and his wife will use the pool.

Trish has been busy with End Of Year Christmas lunches this week for Stitchers and for Quilters. Trish also attends a Trivia Night each Thursday with a group of girls (including our GP). They were just pipped for first prize on Thursday night with a Tie-Breaker question required to split the top two teams.

Yesterday was the last day for 2009 for the Computer Club. Again I was busy helping some people out. When I got home I did another bottling. My beer supplies are now all up to date! The boxes are looking a bit tatty now and are probably due for replacement

We have enjoyed a couple of good movies which I have recently downloaded or copied from the TV. One was Samson and Delilah (which has just won the best Australian movie award) and the other was Balibo. We found Samson and Delilah a bit slow but Balibo was a very good movie.

The pool filter cover has been painted and all looks pretty good back there. My shoulder is improving but could be another three weeks yet till all is fine again. It is to do with the shoulder Rotator Cuff. These can take quite a while to heal.

Noticed some oil under the car during the week. It appears to be the result of a spill when it was serviced recently. It certainly sent shockwaves through the place as we are driving to Melbourne on Wednesday! Not sure if I will use that car service centre again after this. I even had oil dripping on to my driveway yesterday.

I had a call from Eddie saying tests had all proved OK and he was pretty fit for a guy his age. We will enjoy a couple of beers together when we get to Melbourne.

Trish Is Home

It has been quite warm here lately with temps into the low 30's. The wind has been strong though making it unpleasant to sit outside for long. The wind generally freshens during the afternoon but by then it is a sea breeze bringing slightly cooler temps to the coast.

I collected Trish from Maroochydore airport yesterday. She left Melbourne in driving rain and arrived here into blustery north wind.

Trish is off to a Christmas Lunch today with one group of quilters. I have been putting a How To sheet together on editing the Bellvista Community Association website this morning. At this stage I am the only one who knows how it all works.

Tony and I did our 13k bike ride this morning. This looks a pretty good way to spend a few months of the year doesn't it! We spotted the yacht on our ride this morning! The strong winds made the bike ride a good workout for us.

Trish went through the mail upon her return. It was intersting to see the many entries on the bank statement which read one after the other, Paypal, Paypal, Paypal! This is the way I pay for stuff on the internet. It looks like I have been busy buying online.

My most recent purchase is this power board. When I look at the entertainment unit I can count over 11 items plugged into cheap power boards. This one will allow me to individually turn items off when we travel away from home. I now need my back to come good so I can bend down behind the unit and put the new power board to work.

Looking Busy Already

Trish is due to fly home from Melbourne tomorrow (Tues) and then on Wednesday Dec 16th we are planning to drive to Melbourne for Christmas. Already our time in Melbourne is looking busy.

We expect to arrive in Melbourne during the late afternoon of Thursday 17th. We already have babysitting duties for Friday afternoon/evening. I am then hoping to catch up with Keith and the boys on Saturday afternoon. Our "Thomas Family Christmas" will happen on Sunday 20th and we have a commitment for the evening of Monday Dec 21st. We also have a 'booking' for Tuesday night as well.

Christmas Eve will be spent with the kids getting ready for Christmas Day! Christmas Day I expect will be with Kate, Arj, Kim and two of the grandchildren while Christmas Night we will be with Arj's family. Boxing Day is traditionally spent with Barry, Rainy and friends at Bazz's place in Drouin while on the following four days I am hoping to get to the MCG for the Test Cricket match at the MCG.

Soon after that we will be driving back north to the Sunshine Coast where we are hoping to catch up with friends or relations in Canberra, Newcastle, Nelson Bay, and possibly Burleigh Heads.

During the day seems the best time for us to try and catch up with people.

Let us know if you want us to catch up with you while we are in Melbourne and if you have a time and date that suits everyone.

It Is Saturday Already!

Time flies! I did not realize it was so long since I last posted here on the blog.

My trip to Kingscliff was great. Kingscliff is about 200kms from here just over the border with New South Wales. I have to drive past the Gold Coast and its theme parks to get there. The road is quite good and there are improvements to it each time I drive down. Graeme lives in an apartment which overlooks Gudgen Creek. As you can see from this photo taken from Graeme's balcony, it is a bit more than a creek. The new boardwalk footpath will take away his privacy and the unit right next door is now a permanent rental. Graeme has just sold the unit and with the changes going on and the loss of privacy it makes selling the apartment seem less of a loss. We had a few drinks, a lot of laughs and a bit of a look around the town. I drove back home on Wednesday.

I had put a brew on the previous Sunday and this means a bottle washing session as well as a bottling has to be done during the following week. It is now Saturday morning and I have just finished bottling. The brewing equipment is drying in the sun after it has been cleaned. 32 bottles are now spending at least two weeks completing the brewing process before they can be chilled and enjoyed.

There has been plenty of cricket on TV the last couple of days so much of my time has been spent camped in front of the TV. Trish is still in Melbourne and she is loving her busy time down there. She is flying home on Tuesday.

In between I have been finishing off the pool filter cover by re staining the timber and putting primer over the metal side strips. I have added a small cover for the Controller which keeps the hot sun off it, especially the plastic covered control pad buttons. The plastic cover can harden in the sun and crack allowing water in.

This afternoon I have a public meeting of the Community Association to attend. 6 of the 8 Committee members are unable to be there today so I have to drag myself away from the cricket on TV to run the meeting and help with a sausage sizzle. Not happy about it at all! I will give the Computer Club a miss today.

I had a call from my brother this morning where he is now at Beechworth. He hopes to give us all a call again on Christmas Day when we are all in Melbourne.