The morning blues

Snuggled up in bed I was this morning when Warren nudges me and says "That's your alarm", I didn't even hear it. As I didn't have to get out of bed this morning, it wasn't by my bed. I stumbled out of bed to find it. My phone is my alarm clock and it will continue to go off and get louder each time so I knew I needed to find it and turn it off. My handbag was in the kitchen and my phone was inside, as it was a little chilly out from under the covers, I grabbed it and hurried back to bed. Couldn't turn the damned thing off, why? because I have a cover on the phone which is plastic and the plastic had become hard with the cold.

I had to remove the cover to turn the alarm off of course by this time I am almost fully awake and it was only 6.13am. Last week I had to get up at this time to have enough time to leave for work, silly me forgot that the alarm was set for each work day morning.

Fixed that problem and hunkering down for a bit more sleep and Warren is talking to me (unlike me, he wakes wide awake around six every morning, with or without an alarm) then his alarm goes off at 6.30am and the news comes on the radio. Arrrgh! more noise, I just need/want a little bit more sleep.

I did get a little doze in and then decided to get up as my sleep-in had been shot to pieces. Warren left for tennis at eight and I have done the washing, cleaned the kitchen, checked my emails and now the morning is mine to do as

I wish. Fresh orange juice from our tree for breakfast, the above photo was taken a few days ago (afternooon tea last week) but I did squeeze some for brekkie this morning as well as I had time to do it .

This is our orange tree with heaps of oranges as you can see, they are very juicy and sweet this year

Wimbledon tennis

I love watching the tennis and have been watching Wimbledon this week, unfortunately it is only shown on TV at 8.30pm. I have et the rule that i will watch the first set as its usually an Aussie up first and we tape the rest of the match.

Even though we heard that Lleyton (Hewitt) our number one player had won his first match we still watched what we had recorded.

This year Australia had the most player in years, I think thirteen, maybe it was an unlucky number as we only have one after the first week. Nick Kyrgio played last night but it was delayed because of rain so we were able to watch all of the footy (Brisbane v North Melbourne) I'm sure no-one expected Brisbane to win but they got in front and managed to stay there, winning by nine points in the end. During the week Jono Brown had retired, he had been their go to player for years but in his last game had been concussed again and doctors advised him to call it quits.  It did seem as though the players were giving 110% to win a game for Brownie, he was there for his send off and walked the boundary at half time with his kids. In an interview, he said that it had been a busy week for him, Sunday evening he had met with his coach and discussed his options, Monday he announced to the media his immediate retirement and next Tuesday morning his wife gave birth to their third child, since then he had been between the hospital and giving interviews.

Anyway, rather than chose between the footy and the tennis, we got to see both until the rain came and stopped it. Nick was down four games to one and we really thought that he may have gone out but we taped it anyway. This morning's news before we could stop it we heard that he had won thru.

We havent seen the match yet but will probably watch it tomorrow. Nick was/is the only teenager playing (male) as there is a sixteen year old female who has now gone out. Nick had to play qualifying to get a place and has already put out the thirteen seed no hes no slouch, looking forward to seeing him jump up the ranks. I have an app on my tablet re tennis and after his game two days ago he has gone from 245 place to 86, there are now five aussies in the top one hundred.

So many clothes

I do have heaps of clothes and two years ago just before going back to China for another year, I know that I bought extra "to take to China" as there was very little that I could buy there to fit me. Many of the extras that I bought didn't make the "cut" to take to China because of weight restrictions.

When I was first asked to do the five week relief work, my thoughts turned to clothes, what should I wear? I had set myself a challenge for the year of not buying any clothes as I didn't need any more. I did buy two pairs of boots, why two pairs? because I couldn't decide on between a black pair (more serviceable) or a suede burgundy pair, the price was ten bucks each so what the hell, I bought both. The burgundy one I have worn once but I have had quite a few wears from the black ones.

After two weeks I realised that I hadn't worn the same shirt/top so i wondered if I could continue and yes I could, as i worked four and a half weeks, that's twenty three days, really I must have too many clothes. Although to be fair (trying for a bit of justification here)the days were still warmish at the start and so short sleeved shirts were fine but needed something with long sleeves for the last couple of weeks.

Thankfully the three cardigans that I had made for me in China have made an appearance as well as I was starting to think they were a waste of money but where else would I have got cardigans made to fit (in cashmere)at an affordable price?

My many scarves also got quite a bit of use too,  so maybe I should continue my no buying clothes for next year as well.

A crazy week

leading up to end of term and the end of my five weeks of work. Kids and teachers were getting tired and there was still some work for some students to do. Some classes that I went to, were showing movies or parts of them. Science class watched a couple of episodes of Myth busters and then did a couple of experiments themselves outside, seeing how far different types of balls would bounce. That was interesting, one group were upset as they thought that they had used the measuring stick the wrong way. When I pointed out that the actual measurement didn't matter as they weren't competing with others, they just had to compare the three balls that they did, suddenly they were all smiles again. Of course the super ball went higher than the tennis ball or the poly ball, some got as high as 76 cms, others around the 60 cms mark.

As I have been going to many year eleven classes and they had block exams, I found myself going to different classes to help students get assignments finished. I accompanied two boys to a music lesson only to find that their assessment was actually playing in a group and being filmed but I did assist in some behaviour management, the next day I was with the same class and typing up their written assignment which was on Aussie bands, one was about AC/DC, that was great. Although kids use computers a lot and from year nine, they have their own or the use of, many of them struggle to think and type so I type what they tell me.

During the week, the one boy in the wheel chair had his gear box malfunction and staff had to get the maintenance people out and then yesterday there was an accident with a door being pushed open while he was heading towards it (probably at a great rate of knots lol) which resulted in one of his foot plates coming off, again he was stationary while a new bolt was found (it had sheered off the bolt). The staff room has its own tool box to cope with these types of things but he was motionless for a little while.

Also during the week, I was asked if I would consider returning next term for fifteen hours a week, Yes please, I said so in two weeks, I go back for three days a week until the position is advertised and then i can apply for the permanent job. Yippee (do you get the feeling that I like it!) Don't know what I will be doing  yet.

Come on Lights

Due to certain circumstances our youngest grandson is spending the night with us tonight. I picked him up after school where he asked if I could take him to Coles to get something to eat. Coles is just across the road but I would have had to move the car etc etc and I wanted to start for home so I suggested that we stop at the next township. He agreed which was lucky as he really didn't have a choice, it was my way or none.

Half way there, he asks if it was where he went to kinder and I said yes whereupon he said, "There's a nice bakery there" see, definitely our grand kid.

He directed me to the bakery and we bought cheese and bacon rolls and a drink, then he sees a croissant.  and asked if he could have one of those instead, I said yes and we bought both. last week I had bought him a croissant at a coffee shop and he really liked it. We set off for home and there is this sigh from the car seat and an exclamation, "There's no ham in here!" "No" I told him "Its a plain croissant" "But I wanted ham and cheese like last time" "Too bad, you asked for a croissant and that's what you got, so eat it please." Grudgingly I got an "okay"

All was quiet for a while and then a voice said, "Nanna, I've finished can I play on your phone please" "No, I'm driving so cant get it for you" "When you stop?" "Won't be stopping until we get home" Silence! Should have just said no but six year olds can twist things to suit.

Heading to lights and the same voice says 'yes,yes, come on" What are you talking about/" "Nothing!" the lights change and I sailed through them. heading for a turn to the left again I didn't have to stop. "Why did we turn?Nana" "Because this is the way to go home." Then it dawned on me what he was doing, he was trying to will the lights to go red so that I would have to stop!

Four more lights and I didn't have to stop, the voice tone went from Come on (pleadingly) to a very strong Come on (as in you have to be joking) on the sixth set of lights, he was in luck and I had to stop, so I grabbed my phone out of my bag and passed it over the back. The rest of the way home it was quiet except for shooting noises and the occasional Arrhg, when he missed one.  Maybe I should try "willing" lights to stay green when I am in a hurry, I cant remember the last time I got six lights in a row when I didn't need to stop.

KFC

Warren did his grandparent/parent duty today and went to sports day at school with youngest grandson. As he and I had been out all day (and I hadn't taken anything out of the freezer for dinner)I suggested take away. We decided to buy KFC and take it home. Five pieces of chicken, two individual serves of coleslaw, two small tubs of potato and gravy, a serve of hop chips and a pepsi each and a few cents change from $20.

After we had eaten i asked warren how was his chicken and he said "Quite frankly, the KC that we used to buy in China tasted much better" I had to agree. We had bought KFC quite often while we lived in China probably as much as once a fortnight, some nights we would walk to one KFC outlet, eat and then walk home again a distance of between five or six kilometres. (In our city in China there was at least six KFC outlets and only one Maccas)

Often we would buy a bucket of chicken which would include ten pieces of chicken two bread rolls, two sweet corn cobs and a large bottle of Pepsi for 74RMB (approx $16) included in the pack was three large disposable cups and ice.

Tonight's meal was the first KFC that we have eaten since returning from China twelve months ago. I have already taken meat out of the freezer for tomorrow nights dinner.

Baby lambs

I went to Agriculture science yesterday with a student and while we were there, one of the farm support guys came to the class and said that there had been new lambs born and would the students like to see them. I had not been to the farm before so off we set, up a hill thru a water course another hill and finally after about 300 hundred metres we arrived at the "farm".

It is a couple of paddocks behind the playing fields of the school and there were some sheep with new lambs, the oldest was two weeks old and the others had been born in the last few days, two that morning.

The kids were ecstatic about seeing such young lambs and couldn't get over the size of them. One asked why the newest one was sleeping, poor thing had been delivered in the last two hours and had been drinking when we first got there and of course was a bit tuckered out after having a feed.

Just think i am getting paid for this!

Local markets

Our city holds a weekly market every Sunday morning, we haven't been for  year or so but Warren suggests we go along this morning. We didn't really have anything that we wanted/needed to buy. Must always remember its Needs not Wants that is important here.

Wow, I could have gone crazy buying fresh fruit and vegetables as our fridge is getting rather empty but my delivery of F & V is due tomorrow so no point in buying any more.

Judging by the cars parked if each car had two or more people in them, then I would have to say that there were two to tree thousand people there. i know it took us an hour or more to get around and we missed a few rows.

Lots of plants and i was reminded that we bought our lemon tree from the markets, of course there are many places selling breakfast or morning tea most people eat and walk and we did the same with a dagwood dog. These are a treat, not that good, health wise but they taste good especially with tomato sauce dipping off them. I was too busy eating to take a photo of them.

We ended up only buying MT and just before we left, I bought five pots of parsley for a dollar each. Our house sitters had planted parsley and it was doing beautifully and I used it a lot and then it died, possibly dried out. Hopefully these plants will survive for me, I might grow them on the back patio so we will remember to water them

$2000 a year to be saved off your electricity bill

This was a news item that was on the ads on TV a couple of night ago. Warren wanted to change channels and look at something else but I persuaded him to wait to see what they had to say about saving on electricity.

A professor had made this statement and had the figures to back it up, hummmm, how? I wondered.

First up was turn off the pool in winter saving s $200, we don't have one.
Next turn off second fridge another $200 saved, we don't have one.
That second TV, get rid of it and save $150, we don't have one.

There were a few other things such as the above so bit pointless for us. The last two things we could do and one was, instead of ten minute showers restrict them to four minutes and save $150 and turn off appliances at the wall for a savings of $80 a year.

I did set myself a challenge and that was to cut our electricity bill by 25% (even I thought it was high but figured it was just a ball park figure). Our three monthly account came in sometime in March and it was $382, wow! for just two of us and we have solar panels! Some times I speak without thinking (I know that's hard to believe!) and after, I did think 25% was way too much.  

Anyway, I started washing earlier and turning off lights, cooking two things in the oven at once, even had a few days of filling the flask with hot water for cuppas during the day rather than boil the jug again. This week the second electricity arrived and it was for a small sum of $237 a whooping $145 off the first bill.

I did a happy dance but I don't think I can lay claim for all of it, after all the weather has turned cooler and therefore we are not using the A/C at all but whatever a $237 account is far better than $382. I wonder if I can get it lower for the next bill, hummmm something to work on.

A winter picnic

Warren had gone to archery for a shoot on Sunday morning and I was reading some forums, one woman was asking for ideas for a picnic without needing to heat/cook anything while out. The picnic idea appealed to me as it was a nice sunny day  Didn't have much in the way of picnic food (I thought), raided the freezer for some frozen spring rolls, heated them in the oven and when heated through I wrapped them in some tin foil.

I made two small individual salads with some tinned meat, couple of cupcakes again from the freezer, couple of pieces of fruit and a flask of hot water. I found my choc/coffee mixture which is brilliant to take as the milk is already mixed in. Two cups wrapped in a couple of paper towel and it was all done.

Luckily Warren, is most times just happy to fall into my ideas. Next thing was where to go, he decided to check out a place on the way to tennis, its alongside the river off the road and reasonable quiet. Well, on a Sunday it wasn't that quiet as there were heaps of people fishing. We choose a place between the fishing groups, laid out our blanket, mixed the coffee and enjoyed our lunch and the sun. Forty minutes after we packed up and drove home after a restful hour or so.

Knives

I was chopping vegetables at hte weekend and while I have lots of knives, complete with knife block, these as pictured are my favourites.

The one on the top is my all time favourite and it has been used for just about everything. It has a wooden handle which is getting very worn due to use and the dishwasher butt considering it was part of a wedding gift and we have been married over forty years, then I guess it is entitled to be showing some age.

The cleaver on the bottom was a buy that I made in China after doing a cooking class and this was used to chop the food as well as transferring the food to the wok. I use it but only for big amounts and it makes a fantastic pizza cutter. It has English and Chinese writing on it.

The middle one is the one that I am using more and more now, it is one piece of steel and has a story to it. Last year when we were in China, every twenty yuan spent buying food at a certain store, you were given a stamp, as we bought imported yoghurt, the money soon toted up (20yuan was equal to approx $4). Once a sheet was filled with the stamps, you could exchange them for some type of knife, I selected this one and bought it home packed in the suitcase of course. It is a beautifully weighted knife and easy to use, luckily I have not cut myself with it as it is very sharp

The things you see

on the way to work. I did actually leave a couple of minutes earlier this morning and therefore arrived ten minutes earlier than  have been.

However, not far from home is the road works and about one kilometres before the road works is one of those flashing lit signs which usually says "Warning, road works prepare to stop". This morning though, I did a double take as the sign was flashing as usual but it was announcing "Insert memory chip" I did have a laugh at that and believe me at ten past seven in the morning, it takes a fair bit to get a chuckle out of me. (I am NOT a morning person).

Lock down!

In class on Friday and the sirens sounded, it was a lock down drill. In our classroom the blinds were already down as earlier we had been looking at a script projected on the screen. The kids scrambled to get under the tables while the teacher and I closed the windows and secured everything. Five minutes passed and one of the kid asked to go to the toilet, was really surprised when they were told No. Then the giggling started, trying to keep them quiet was a bit of a nightmare but I guess in a real life situation with possible gunfire and screaming, they would be very quiet.

Unlike a fire drill we didn't have to go outside, "in my day" we didn't have "Lock downs." I hadn't thought about the possibility of a practice drill but I guess shootings and such are happening and its good to be as prepared as can be.

Shanghai Girls

This was the title of a book that I re-read during the week. It is an interesting read, based on a true story and follows the lives of two girls from Shanghai just before the second World War. Their father was fairly wealthy but then he got into debt and sold the girls (21 and 18) as wives to another Chinese american man for his sons.

It talks about "paper sons" which I had not heard of before but it was quite common apparently. The book also mentions Shao xing wine and Lu xun both are famous in China and coming from the city where we used to live, Shaoxing, although the English spelling was different.

Dessert

While catching up on computer stuff last night, I read a recipe to make apple crumble which sounded good and easy to make. I probably have made it in the past but who knows where the recipe is or even if I had one.

I knew there were some small apples in the crisper than probably were not going to be eaten, they come in the fortnightly fruit and vege box that I have delivered. I confess to being an apple snob, I only eat Pink Lady apples and of course they are usually the most expensive.

Anyway back to dessert

I took the small apples, peeled and sliced them and cooked in a small amount of water, just enough to stop them sticking to the pan. Meanwhile I melted a teaspoon of butter added some brekkie cereal (recipe said oats but we add our add and muesli together and so there are oats, sultanas,coconut and some nuts)and a spoon or two of powered milk. Supposed to bake in the oven but for two small bowls, was it worth heating the oven, no so two minutes in the microwave. I added a dollop of yoghurt on top (after I took the pic, I added a passion fruit to each as well) so there was definitely our two serves of fruit for the day.

We bought a caravan

On Sunday we went to the caravan and camping and came away being the owners of a new caravan. How the h......did that happen?

We had looked at another camper and it was set up similar to ours with a north south bed, more room and a bit stronger than ours BUT we want to be able to pull up on the road and get into the van, make a coffee, have lunch even have a quick lie down if we want so another camper doesn't fit the bill (plus we have a caravan! even though we have nothing to pull it.)

We looked at Jayco Doves, Swift and a Hawke, all light weight but again cant access them without setting them up. Then a salesman came over and starting chatting and we were discussing what we wanted from a van and he said something along the line of "There's a light weight one over here that would probably suit" of course we went to look and within thirty minutes we were signing on the dotted line.

We had done what we always do with one saying no we cant, the other well yes we could and we go back and forth until we both agree.

Positive things are we don't need to buy another car, it will fit in the garage therefore we don't need to concrete outside or erect a new fence and gate, its new so hopefully no problems or it will be under warranty and finally stuff it its only money. (we have since realised that even though it will fit inside the garage, the door opening is not high enough to allow it to go through the door, bummer)

negative side is the cost (again stuff it, its only money)

It does take three months for the vans to be made but we could nominate a date up to the end of the year, as we had no plans to go anywhere except motorbike riding, we asked for a pick up date in early December.

This is a picture of our new van, we went for single beds (gives a full length bed and a little more room inside by having singles) have an A/C, and a microwave, no oven which I didn't want anyway. An awning on the outside and we opted to have an TV aerial fitted which they added in the price, bonus. Now we need to sell our fixer upper caravan.

Freebies

Just love freebies. In the last week we have been given two hands of bananas, a pawpaw a couple of tins of coconut milk and mushrooms.The fruit needed to be left to ripen, our last house sitters are sitting a place with lots of fruit and they cant keep up with it so they brought us some. We sat them out side and I had one just now, wow, they are a different taste than the shop bought ones.

The pawpaw is still green and will probably take another couple of weeks to be ready to eat.

Tonight I didn't feel like cooking so I suggested we go to the club for a meal which left the sausages that  had taken out of the freezer to cook for tomorrow nights dinner so maybe a curry using one of the coconut milks.'

Catching up with friends and family

Long weekends are good for catching up. Our sister in law rang last week to say that she was in the area as I was working during the week, we had coffee with her and her daughter Saturday morning as she was flying home in the afternoon. Jan is almost twenty years older than me and when we were first married she helped me a lot and made me feel part of the family. Its two years since we have seen her but we keep in touch by email.

Today I met a friend for a quick coffee as we hadn't seen each other for awhile, then the kids came over for lunch and afternoon tea, later one son rang and the other was in touch via face book. Often on a weekend, its just us but being back working,then the weekend and esp a long weekend with the weather being fine and cool, it was ideal to get out and about.

Caravan and Camping show.

We went today just to have a look and see what new ideas etc we could pick up. Its a nice day out although Sunday is probably one of the busiest days. Unfortunately the trains were not running due to maintenance, it was also the Caboolture show this weekend which no doubt was probably affected  as well. The transport people did this on the Ipswich line a few weeks ago, closed for track work when the Ipwich show was on. These shows are only once a year so one would have thought tat they could pick another weekend in the year after all there is 52 weekends to choose from.

Rant over, we drove to Northgate and picked up the train there, we had bought our tickets on-line and they include free travel on the trains.With our pensioners discount it was only $12, non concession it would have been $18.

We were there on opening time and wandered through an area and I was interested in looking at a small van, Warren told me it would be expensive, couldn't be, as there was a double bed which took up most of the room inside and at the front were a couple of cupboards and a sink. Outside was a pull out cooker and the price, Oh My Goodness, they wanted $59,000 for it. Crikey, I would want a hell of a lot more if I was going to part with 59 grand.

We moved on and looked at camper trailers, one similar to ours but more robust was priced at $16,500 and we talked to the salesman a bit, its actually bigger than ours with an North/south bed, price wise we thought it was pretty good.

We had a coffee early therefore being able to get a seat at a table, then we went to a seminar and wandered a bit more. Had a look at Jayco, both the boys have Jaycos, the ones that the ends are sleeping bays. Not sure that I would feel safe on one of those although they can cater up to 350 kgs. The salesman who assured me they had not lost anyone in the sleeping bays yet also told us that they usually sell about 350 vans in the six days, that's a lot of new vans going on the roads.

Caught the train back to the car and managed to get $1.42 a litre for fuel so I'm ready for next week.

Good news story (for a change!)

I don't read,watch or listen to too much news as I find it depressing but of course I am exposed to "news" most of the time. Warren watches the news on TV while I get dinner so I do get to hear it and we watch the Project which does advertise itself as "Its news but not as you know it."

Last night there was an item that did catch my attention and it was about a couple on their way to hospital as Mum was about to give birth. Things progressed very quickly and hubby was passing a police station and called in there for help. Where upon two female constables helped the mum deliver the baby in the front seat of the car. There were shots of the baby and mum and the two coppers talking about how quickly they had to prepare for the birth and of course smiles all round.

An interesting thing though, was the fact that the two women police officers were in uniform with names badges but the badges only had their rank and numbers. Apparently that is something of recent times so that they cannot be identified, well its a step in the right direction. Its like anything else, if someone is really determined to find out somebody's id then they could but it does make it a little more difficult.

Friday night

We don't eat enough fish so I have been trying to introduce fish on Friday nights, sometimes it might just be a piece of fish and home-made chips as Friday nights is also footy night.

I decided to go a bit up market tonight and had taken out of the freezer last night a pack of mixed sea food, lots of squid, mussels,prawns and some pieces of fish.

A dish that I make is called a corn chowder but its more fish than corn but what's in a name? Its a Jamie Oliver one that I saw on TV and then made it, one of his 30 minute meal and really its takes much less than that. Mine is probably a bit different each time I make it and I don't get the recipe book out but the main things are there.

This is how I made it tonight, half an onion diced and some bacon (I have a diced pack in freezer so I just grab some) fried in a knob of butter. Add 1,2 or potatoes (I only had one so only one went in the pot) 2 or 3 sweet corn (tonight I used a tin). It seemed light on vegetables so four mushrooms and some shredded cabbage went in the pot as well along with a tin of coconut milk, then in went the fish pieces, lid on and I checked my emails.

Added a dash of fish sauce and a dollop of mustard sauce, stir in and ready to serve. I had nan bread in the cupboard so we shared one of these to dunk into the chowder. Eat, watch the news, clean up and ready to settle down and watch the AFL.

Locked out

Today at school, I was with year elevens doing Australian History, the next lesson was maths with some of the same kids. I walked to the classroom with one of the boys and we found ourselves outside a locked classroom. The teacher was inside with some students, he came over and opened the door and told me that I could go in but not the students who were outside. I figured that he wanted to speak to those students in particular. Well, he did! regarding their lateness.he continued to speak about lateness and toilet breaks, anyone who was late or needed to go to the toilet would have to stay five minutes after class into their lunchtime.

Now the school's timetable has the second lesson finishing and the start of the third lesson at the same time. This would be fine if students are using the same classroom but many have to move from classroom so not possible.

Apparently he is a student teacher being assessed and was flexing his muscles as it were, I wondered if he had looked at the timetable. We had arrived three minutes after the time.

Meat City

This retail store has been in our area for awhile and I have been there once before. While the meat and price were good, the smell and cold was off putting so I had avoided it.However they have moved to new especially built premises which is actually closer to home and I tried them again on the weekend.

What a pleasant surprise, well laid out, lots of different cuts of meat some in small cuts and others in larger amount. It is called meat city but there were seafood, fruit and vegetables plus bakery items. I had done my food shopping and dropped in to get meat/top up the freezer so only needed meat.

I bought 2 kgs of pork chops, two trays of gourmet sausages, 10 small boneless chicken roasts, 2 kgs of crumbled steak, a pack of smoked chicken (3 marylands of chicken)and a full piece of corned beef and finally a side of veal. Cost was $77 plus a Turkish bread. It took me nearly an hour to break it up and pack it into meal sized pieces to pack into the freezer and make a list so that I know what is in there and when it was frozen (never done that before!)

Saturday night we had one of the corned beef, I cut it into four pieces and it was hot with white sauce and vegetables, cold meat and salad in half the Turkish bread for Sundays lunch and then there was just enough to take for lunch on Monday so six meals. had a pork chop for dinner last night and each meal was delicious. Very happy that I tried it again, I'm hoping though that the meat will last us for a month or more.

Road works

On my way to work this morning, I went through four lots of road works! It must be that time of the year. The first one is not far from home and it operated by lights, its also very short probably only about 100 metres, today the light was green and I sailed through it,feeling very pleased with myself as it was the second morning in a row that I did not have to stop.

I was driving the whole way today and therefore taking some different roads, its a very nice drive, one patch is dirt for about six/seven kilometres. As I reach the dirt there were signed stating "Prepare to stop delays up to fifteen minutes" 15 minutes on the way to work, that's a lot! Could not see any one else around so I continue and suddenly there is one single guy with a stop sign. After a couple of minutes, he walked over the car and said that it would be at least ten minutes, thank goodness I had left early. Apparently they would be there for the next week at least, I intend to drive that way again on Thursday so will need to allow extra time just in case. They were grading one side of the road and of course had closed the other side for three kilometres.

Finally after twelve minutes, I was able to continue and by then there were another four cars behind me. At the end though there was a long line up. Two more road works but karma was with me and I didn't need to stop. Took me an hour and twenty to get to work.

 

Three generations of bike riders

Today we went south of Brisbane to a bike ride, usually we go for the weekend but these particular rides are only for one day. The place is about a hundred and thirty kms from home or an hour and forty minutes. Even though the bike is registered

and warren spoke about riding it there, I just think that's too much in one day, ride there then ride on the tracks and back home again.

The options are to put the bike on the trailer which is at Chris' or load up the camper trailer with its bar on the front to hold the bike. I wanted to take the camper as then, those of us who don't ride have some shelter, I won.

Bike strapped to the front of the camper.

 Eight year old grandson has his own bike and is a keen and careful rider. He has only ridden on the pee wee course before, some kids on there look about five, usually they are between four and ten.

Father and son went on the open track which was about twelve kilometres and J, oldest son in the middle says to me "You need to tell your husband....." he paused and I asked what do I need to tell him. J then said in a rush "That hes 63!" he went on to tell us how he got left in the dust! Apparently Warren was quite a bit
faster and J couldn't catch him. Then the boys all went on the novice track and had D riding between them, he had a ball but all three were pretty tired packing up. It costs $35 for adult rider and $10 for kids, the track is open from 8.30am until 3 o'clock, pretty cheap day out of course then there is getting there. I pack lunch and as we had the van there, we could make coffee. I even had a short sleep inside while they were out. Not a quiet day though as lots of bikes revving and accelerating and today there were lots of cow pats to avoid while walking around.