November 2014

Saturday 8th November 2014 - Australind, WA

A week has passed and there’s not much to report as we haven’t been up to much.

Last Saturday Geoff drove Martin and Ati into town so they could catch the airport shuttle then went on to have his blood test.

After a day Max seemed quite relaxed and contented. He sleeps on the bed and really snores, just like Mia. I suppose it is because he is part Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. He loves his food and likes his morning walks but is not so keen on going on an afternoon walk. Since then he has been quite happy and enjoys his walks but is a bit of a glutton which shows in his girth!

We have been into Bunbury a couple of times shopping but haven’t had a good look around yet.

We also caught up with a couple we met on the road, Meryl and Ross who also live in Australind and Geoff went round to have a look at Ross’s computer which was not working. Geoff had to go round with a boot disc but eventually had to say he thought the hard drive had died. Ross had left it switched off for 8 months whilst they travelled but Geoff says that was not a good idea as things often go wrong if they are switched off for too long. Ross took it into a computer place which confirmed that he had lost his hard drive which was a shame as he had a lot of personal photos and movies he had made on it.

We also had a call from Ken as he and Lorraine had spotted our motor home in the driveway on their way to Bunbury for business. They had popped in but we were not there. He also popped in another time but we were out, yet again. This time we were at the dentist. We took the opportunity to get our teeth cleaned and checked out which resulted in a filling for me as I had chipped a back tooth, which I knew about. It also resulted in two fillings for Geoff so there was $1,000 gone, just like that!

Since we have been here the weather has not been particularly nice. Low 20’s, blowing, overcast and showers on and off. Brrrr! Doesn’t seem to be much warmth in the near future forecasts either.

Apart from the above Geoff managed to buy a 12 volt power adaptor for the Vast Sat TV box so he fitted that. We visited a few car wreckers to see if we could get another rim for the Fiat but with no luck. Plus Geoff caught a mouse in his plastic humane mouse trap. Martin is paranoid about mice as they had recently completely wrecked the ceiling in the garage by chewing through some of the plastic water pipes.

 Sunday, 9th November 2014 - Australind

Nothing much to report, just the normal dog and house sitting chores. Geoff did go up on the roof to see if he could tighten up the TV antenna but he couldn’t so he just cleaned the cobwebs off.

Monday, 10th November 2014

After Max’s morning walk we headed up to Mandurah by the loan car to the Fiat dealer to pick up an oil and air filter … goodbye $140.

 On the way back we popped into the retirement village we had worked as relief managers for six weeks in Erskine in 2007, just for nostalgia sake. We hadn’t noticed the time and it was lunch time when we got there so we didn’t interrupt the proceedings. We did chat to one resident who had been there a couple of years and said there would still be two or three people left who were there in 2007 and she said the current manager was a nice lady who had been there about five years and the village is now full with a waiting list. This was really nice to hear as when we arrived it was only on 33% occupancy and they had had multiple managers.

We then popped in to see Ken and Lorraine with cake and had a cuppa with them.

A quick visit to Woollies to get some supplies and when we got back Max was very pleased to see us. We also got a call from Sebastien and he and Flavie will be here tomorrow.

 Tuesday, 11th November 2014

Remembrance Day today AND my dad’s birthday so I sent a FB birthday message.

Geoff tried to move the motorhome this morning and it was well and truly stuck so he tried to jack it up and put some bricks and pavers under the wheels to give it a solid base to try to get it out. He had to leave it for a while whilst he went off to the dentist for his final filling … poor thing. To say he is a little stressed this morning would be an understatement!

When he came back, with a lopsided mouth, we managed to move the motorh0me backwards about a metre before it bogged again so Geoff had to start the process all over again but it was not moving. We then decided to wait until Sebastien and Flavie arrived in their Pajero and hoped they could help pull us out.

Meanwhile the postie came and dropped off a parcel card so Geoff scooted off to the post office and found it was our motorcycle helmet intercoms so Geoff started to program them.

Sebastien and Flavie arrived mid afternoon and soon hooked up their Pajero to the motorhome and pulled the motorhome out onto a solid base … hooray … and that is where it is going to stay. Geoff and Sebastien then went off on the scooter to the supermarket for some herbs we were short of and Seb drove the scoter back with Geoff as a pillion passenger. This was when Geoff found that you really do get aching hips on the back. So now he knows I’m not pulling the wool over his eyes. We all then took Max for his walk and when we got back Geoff cooked Chilli Bacon Beef for dinner followed by lemon/lime ice cream.

After dinner I rang my dad for his birthday but got the answering machine so can only hope he was out for a birthday lunch.

Wednesday, 12th November 2014

Seb and Flavie had a nice lay in this morning. They have a bed in their 4WD but they said it was nice to sleep in a proper bed. They left just before midday as they needed to go into Perth to the post office as Flavie was desperately trying to track down a parcel from France which contained 7,000 euros worth of disposable contact lenses. Later we received a text saying that all was well and they had managed to located the parcel so Flavie was very happy. They are now on their way to Wave Rock which we will visit in December.

Geoff then completed installing and programming the intercom helmets and we went out for a ride to check them out. They were good and he can even answer his phone via blue tooth now which is really good. We rode to Eaton Fair shopping Centre and bought some yummy American style beef ribs. Mind you, the ride was cold and it started to rain. Brrr - so far we have had only one really nice, warm sunny day since we arrived!

Thursday, 13th November 2014

My ebay ‘below the knee shorts’ came today and they are very good so I have ordered another couple of pairs. This is what we do when we have a long house sit … go on the web and order lots of things as we have an address.

Geoff spent the morning working out how to change the diesel oil filter on the Fiat engine. He went on the web and watched a couple of u-tube movies on how to do it which helped. Stupidly, Fiat re-quires a special tool to open up the canister which, of course, an owner operator doesn’t have so he had to be careful when he opened it up that he didn’t damage it. Anyway, he managed to do it properly so saved himself at least 30 minutes of the dealer mechanic’s time so at least $55.

When Geoff checked his emails there was one from a courier company asking him to ring about the delivery of his new camera so he rang. They said they had left a card in the mailbox but we had not checked and Geoff said he would go down to Bunbury tomorrow and pick it up.

Friday, 14th November 2014 .

We headed off to Bunbury this morning taking Max with us so we could take him, and us, on a different walk. We stopped at Eaton where there was a park running along the river. We chatted for a while to another guy who was playing stick with his dog before walking further upstream with Max. It was here that Max must have got the whiff of a possum or something similar. He had his nose stuck in a hole at the bottom of a tree and would have climbed the tree if it was at least possible. We had to laugh as he looked so comical.

On to Bunbury to pick up the new camera and then head straight back where Geoff got stuck right into trying to find out how to operate the new additions. He was a bit annoyed when he found that they had taken away the panorama stitched function which Geoff uses a lot. He can get around it as he can download a photo stitch program that does the same thing but it will not be as easy.

 Saturday, 15th November 2014

Geoff fiddled around on my laptop for most of the day as he was going to restore it back to its factory default but, in the end, he was not sure if he could do it so left it as it is. It is getting a little slow and has a bug from a virus from ages ago which he has never been able to fix.

Sunday, 16th November 2014 - Australind Day 531 of our ‘Around Oz Tour’

Hooray … at last I have a little to write about!

After bacon and eggs we walked Max and then left him with some dry food (which was probably demolished before we got out of the door) and then had a full on tourist day.

As we drove south towards Bunbury we remembered to stop at the Farmers Market on the way. Wow … what a market … it was huge and full of fresh produce, fruit, veg, dairy, meat and poultry plus a lot of other items . All we bought at this time was some avocados and a butternut pumpkin and we said we would go back and fill up on another day when we weren’t on the way out and it was less crowded.

From here our first stop was Busselton. Yippee, there was a large market on the foreshore for us to browse around.

We got away from there relatively cheaply as we only bought jerky and coffees. Geoff took lots of photos on his new camera and has a lot of work trying to work out his new stitch program when he gets back.

After the market we wandered to the foreshore close by and found the Busselton Jetty. It seemed to stretch a long way out to sea and we later learned it was 1.8 kms long and is supposed to be the longest wooden pier in the southern hemisphere. Now … haven’t I read that before? I’m sure Carnarvon boasted that too! Now I am going to check. Ha … Port Germein in SA is also reputed to be the longest jetty in the southern hemisphere but it is only 1.678 kms long so it comes in second! We wandered onto the jetty/pier but they wanted money to walk it so we just went into the interpretation info centre and them wandered back along the foreshore and treating ourselves to a cinnamon and ginger ice cream from Simmo’s (famous????) on the way. I will say they were extremely nice.

After we had taken in as much as we wanted of Busselton we continued on towards Augusta and popping in to have a look at Yallingup where there were some superb ocean views and we watched the kite surfers working the rough breaking waves.

Next on the list was an area of coast called Canal Rocks which had been recommended to us by Lorraine up at Waroona. What greeted us was a short boardwalk that spanned some large and interesting rocks that formed a canal type fissure from the open sea into the bay. As the waves pounded the low rocks forming a small barrier to the entrance the spray flew and the ensuing wave would break over and then roll down the canal into the calmer bay. It was quite spectacular and interesting to watch. Thanks Lorraine.

 

It was then time to head to our final destination on our journey south today which was Augusta and Cape Leeuwin. Well, Augusta turned out to be a small sleepy coastal town although the guy from the service centre was originally from Beechworth in NE Victoria so we chatted with him for a while. Cape Leeuwin was a few further kilometres up the coast road and it cost us $7.20 each to get into the lighthouse complex. For that meagre cost we also got an audio device which we could wander around with and listen to the history of the place. Cape Leeuwin is where the Indian and the Southern Ocean meet and it is, apparently, quite spectacular in certain weather conditions. Not today as it just looked like the same ocean when you looked. We spent a good hour wandering around and then had a great talk to the guy in the shop about the guy who mapped the coast of Australia, Matthew Flinders whose remains, apparently, were discovered recently under platform 15 of Euston Station in London when the area must have been a graveyard (click on hyperlink for more info). Also, we were told, Richard Branson had named one of his rail carriages after him.

On the way back we decided to take a different route only to be stopped half way with a police car slewed right across the road blocking traffic. The told us and the car behind us to take a detour around and down a country road (which ended up a 13 km detour) but they were going through everything in the Mitsubishi in front of us. It seemed to us that they were after him and him only and it is annoying that we never got to find out the story behind it all.

We picked up fish and chips at Australind on the way home and got back around 7 pm to a happy but hungry Max whose stomach thought his throat was cut.

Monday, 17th November 2014

I had a shocking night with the arthritis in my right foot playing up. After a couple of Panadol Osteo I was able to get some sleep. Getting old sucks, I can tell you!

Geoff started working on my laptop to see if he can take it back to it’s factory default and reload everything without spending too much money. He’s not yet sure he can achieve this goal so we will see. He also played around with his new photo stitch program to see how it worked and I just cleaned the house etc.

In the afternoon a friend of Martin and Ati’s popped by and we had a cuppa and a chat with him and then it was time for Max’s second walk of the day.

At 9pm we had a power cut but it only lasted for about an hour which was good.

Tuesday, 18th November 2014

The scooter battery was flat again this morning so he will definitely have to buy a new one. Meanwhile we put it on charge.

Later we went back down to the Farmers Market and bought a few things including four scotch eggs … yum yum. Geoff’s camera case arrived today but I am still chasing up a pair of Teva sandals that were coming from the UK which seem to have gone AWOL. I also bought a used pair off ebay that also did not arrive so I am chasing up a refund for them as well.

Wednesday, 19th November 2014

Geoff was up early to put the scooter rack on and load up the scooter to take the motorhome in for its 90,ooo km service in Bunbury. I walked Max and then got some Osso Bucco going in the slow cooker. I have never cooked it before but it sounds like our sort of meal (ok but not as good as lamb shanks). Geoff bought a new battery for the scooter in Bunbury and then in the afternoon went to pick the motorhome back up.

Thursday, 20th November 2014

Geoff went off to the doctors today to get the results of his blood tests and everything was fine but he did give him some voltarin tablets for his bad neck. Rain showers and cool today.

We went off to Bunbury to do a couple of chores and whilst we were there we climbed up the Rotary Tower Lookout which had good 360º views. Geoff did get a little puffed climbing up all the steps but so did I.

 Friday, 21st November 2014

My extra two pairs of ‘below the knee’ shorts arrived today but still no sign of Geoff’s glasses yet so we hope they come before the end of the week. I have a new pair of Teva sandals on the way from the UK and going to Geraldton so I hope they make it this time.

Geoff is still working on my laptop but, apart from that, there is nothing to write about as we do the normal house sitting chores.

 Saturday and Sunday 22nd and 23rd November 2014

Same old routine so nothing to talk about apart from the fact that my laptop is now back to its factory setting and the bugs have been ironed out.

 Monday, 24th November 2014

We have used up 15 GB of internet this month when we normally only use up 4GB. This is because of all the down-loads with Geoff working on my laptop. The internet has now gone on a ‘GO SLOW’ but that’s ok as the new data starts again tomorrow.

My bro-in-law, Tim, is over in WA from the UK at the moment and he rang today and is catching the bus down from Joondalup, north of Perth, tomorrow to spend a night with us. This is a two and a half hour journey by public transport so it is much appreciated.

Tuesday, 25th November 2014

After brekky Geoff took Max for a walk and then we (Geoff and I) headed off to Treendale to get a senior’s hair cut each and then it was off to Collie for a visit. Basically, we went there as it was reasonably close and it was where our friend Kay in Bright originated from. When we got there we gave her a call to let her know where we were and she said she would be there on the 28th December so we will only miss her by a month. We had a look around the info centre and then wandered through the steam loco-motive display outside and read their history of when they had been used for hauling coal. It said ‘No climbing on the Trains’ so, tch tch, Geoff did so he could get a photo taken.

 

When we got back to the car I noticed a trickle of green fluid coming out from under our car. “What’s this” I asked Geoff so he looked under the bonnet and underneath and decided we had done a radiator hose. Martin, luckily for us, had RAC roadside assist so we gave them a call and they came out and looked at it then went off to buy a new radiator hose and we were all fixed up within 90 minutes for just a $33 cost for the radiator hose.

Whilst we were waiting for the guy to fix it we got talking to a couple in a car with a Qld registration. We soon found out that we were all from Bundaberg and that their unit had gone under during the 2013 floods ad we told them we had lost our boat. When we said we did house sitting they said they did too and gave us their card so we dug out one of ours to give to them. When they saw the name Maz and Geoff they laughed and said “Do you know Jum and Jenny”? Well, of course, Jen is our mail lady and their place is our postal address. Colin and Helen had also house sat for Jum and Jen and we had met them once after the floods. Once again we were amazed at how small the world can be. Amazing to meet someone in a small country town like Collie!

After some lunch we decided to visit Wellington Dam in the Wellington National Park. It was very scenic with the water gushing out from the base of the dam.

We took the tourist drive back to the highway through tall and shady trees which followed the Collie River all the way to the main road. On the way back to the house we had to keep the A/C off as the radiator only had water in it and no coolant so we needed to keep the engine temperature constant. We got back without any dramas to a welcome and cuddle for Max.

We checked the mail and we had a parcel notification so we went down to pick it up and take Max for a walk at the same time. At last, just in the nick of time, Geoff’s glasses have arrived and they look good and also sturdy. He is not 100% sure they are as good as his last ones for long distance but at these prices he can always order another pair using his old prescription.

 

Wednesday, 26th November 2014

The morning was spent giving the house a spruce up and mopping the floors etc. I also got some lamb shanks cooking in the slow cooker.

At 2pm we headed off to pick Tim up from the bus stop. The bus was about 30 minutes late but there he was, a little slimmer, perhaps. Alas, he had brought the rain with him. Back to the house and it was ‘natter, natter, natter … eat dinner and natter, natter, natter for about 8 hours in total.

We then checked our emails and there was one from Martin saying they would be ar-riving back tomorrow evening which was a couple of days earlier than we expected. Not a problem as the house was clean but it meant we would have to do a final clean and pack up tomorrow morning before we go out with Tim. Such is life.

Thursday, 27th November 2014

It was raining quite hard this morning which was a bit of a bugger. Still, never mind.

We were up early transferring stuff out to the motorhome, stripping the bed and getting the linen washed and out on the line (under cover, of course), making the main bed and moving our things to the spare bedroom. Whilst I vacced Geoff blew the leaves out from under the patio and the paths. When we thought we had done enough and Max had been walked we headed off to Bunbury to the Dolphin Discovery Centre which was only $5 each admission. It was small but interesting but the weather was atrocious so the dolphins didn’t come in whilst we were there which was a shame as it would have been good for Tim to have been able to get up close and personal with them and, perhaps, feed them.

We did a car tour of Bunbury and also took Tim into Bunnings (hardware) which he found interesting and we also browsed the Bunbury Cash Converters … I mean, what else do you do when it is raining? We also stopped at the Farmers Market on the way back to the house to grab some bits for lunch. All these sort of things are interesting when you are in a new country.

Back to the house to make lunch. By this time it had stopped raining so I said “let’s go up and look at the Thrombolites” thinking it was just up the road about 10 kms. Wrong as it turned out they were only just 25 kms south of Mandurah at Lake Clifton which was a return trip of about 140 kms. Never mind, we were there by the time we realised how far they were. Thrombolites are a cousin to Stromatolites but are rounded like a mushroom whereas Stromatolites have flat tops and walls. These ones were about 2000 years old but I had warned Tim they were not much to look at it was more their history and their contribution to life that was fascinating. He assured me that he did, indeed, find them interesting (was he just humouring me?).

Back to Australind for a short while and then we took him back to the bus stop to catch the bus at 6pm. The bus was late again but we eventually saw it pass the shops on the lower road and expected it to turn up and into our road but this didn’t happen as it disappeared up another road so we could only guess that we had been waiting at the wrong stop. Tim tried to ring the bus company but they were closed for the day so the only thing we could do was take him back to the house and put him in the motorhome overnight. To save cooking the boys grabbed fish and chips for dinner and Tim went of to bed about 9.30 and Geoff went off to pick up Martin and Ati from the airport shuttle. Max was very pleased to see them. So pleased, in fact, that he tried to bonk Ati’s leg … a thing he had never done before according to Martin. We then sat chatting with them until after midnight.

Friday, 28th November 2014 - Waroona

Up at 7.30 and go out to grab Tim and introduce him to Martin and Ati. Martin then cooked a huge brekky.   

Then it was in to strip the bed, wash and hang out the linen and pack more stuff away and transfer it to the motorhome. Eventually everything was packed away and we were ready to leave so it was time to say a fond farewell and to give Max a last cuddle and treat and we were on the road. Tim was up front with Geoff so he could do the tourist thing and see more and I was in the dinette seat. We did a quick tour of Mandurah, which Tim had just glimpsed from the bus, before dropping him at the railway station. We couldn’t find anywhere to park otherwise we would have seen him off at the platform. Hope all goes well for him this time.

We then drove inland to Waroona where Ken and Lorraine asked us to stay a couple of days to help Ken with his skipper training course modules which we were happy to do. He went off to Bunbury to get some more hours up with a commercial skipper and we did out own thing for the rest of the day and evening as Lorraine was getting an early night.

Saturday, 29th November 2014 - Waroona

After brekky we spent the morning with Ken going through his boating practice modules and giving him an idea of what they were asking and how to go about it. A couple of the exercises had an error in them which was confusing and a bit annoying, especially for Ken. We stopped at lunchtime as his head was spinning. After lunch he went off to Bunbury again to get some more boat hours in and we washed his large coach, which he had sold. As Lorraine was working on their tour business we mucked about in the motorhome for the rest of the day. I caught up with my journal and Geoff worked on his computer on some photos for me.

 

 

Sunday, 30th November 2014 - Waroona

We had a late bacon and eggs this morning and then I did some final washing before we head off. We also went and tested Lorraine’s new Eurobed which has been advertised on the TV as they looked good. It seemed good and is the sort of thing we could buy to accommodate guests when we buy our small cabin when we settle down.

 

Ken has sold his large coach to two ladies that have about 13 foster children. They arrived today to get some driving lessons and learn about its little intricacies. Better them than me … all those kids and driving a bus around Oz!

In the afternoon Geoff gave Ken a hand with a couple of jobs to help him get the bus ready for when the ladies pick it up as Lorraine and Ken are off taking a tour group to Singapore in the morning for a week. They have SO much to do before heading of to Karumba.

In the evening we all headed off to the Drakesbrooke Tavern again. I had forgot-ten how big the meals were and should have ordered the cheaper senior’s size meal. I ordered crispy salt and pepper calamari and it was huge. Lots of calamari but no chips only salad but I stole some of Kens chips. Geoff had the Caesar Salad with prawns and said it was very nice.