An exciting afternoon

We sat down with our daughter and planned our trip around Australia! (She and I planned we figured that we will just tell hubbies what and when we are doing something).  Its a while off yet but we want t get an idea for how much time we will have to spend at different places. I didn't think we would have enough time to go to Cairns but its in the plan Woo hoo!

I have even worked out a budget that we will/may need.

Watching a DVD of a family who went with two small children and the stuff they took, we each have said we are NOT taking that much stuff. We have already bought a washing machine between us as the washing for six will add up but don't want to take a lot of clothes so washing will need to be fairly regular.

Going on our second little shake down tour in a couple of days, again to see what we need and what we dont use. Ugh going in school holidays as it costs more damn!

Batteries

Warren has been looking on-line for batteries for the caravan. Once we have some, they will enable to caravan's fridge to run when not hooked up to electricity. Last night he found a couple on Gumtree so this morning saw us head off to South Brisbane to see if they were any good.

These days with cards available to purchase most things, its always a bit of a worry to know if we have enough cash on us or do we need to go to a bank/ATM first. Luckily we had cash between us and off we went for a 150 km round trip.

To a suburb that neither of us had herd of before but a trusty map book showed us where it was, pretty close to our eldest son place but they were away for the weekend. The GPS worked well and we got there and yes, batteries were very suitable so we exchanged 60 bucks for them.

Warren had installed them in the van and yikes they work, we can chose now between electric lights or 12 volt batteries. I had to do the oh argh! after he was finished. (When one of us competes something and we show the other we always call it an OH/Argh!)

We will get a solar panel at a later time to top up the batteries but for now we are set. This week we have bought little things to add to the van, Like a dishdrainer, to hold the dishes while we travel so that hopefully we wont have breakages, got a small thing to dry clothes on we used them all the time in China and will be suitable for small stuff. I also bought a small frying pan, we will cook mainly outside but it rained and I couldn't (didn't want to) cook vegetables outside on the camper stove. Had fish to grill in the oven so there was no other thing to do but to buy chips from the cafe.

Well surprise surprise!

Warren's team won, they didn't really look like losing. It was also the biggest margin in a grand final for many years but thankfully both teams played as though they were about to win.

Grand Final day

Warren's team is in the final. Neither of us think they will win though as they had a very hard fought game to win the chance at the final this week. It should be a good game though, I hope so, its disappointing when the grand final which should be the best game of the year turns out to be a run over by one team.

As we are having visitors for dinner, we needed wine and cream, Warren had been to get them and brought home some snacks to chew on while we are watching.

The game was scheduled to start at 1.30pm but its all the prelim stuff with the first bonce happening around 3pm. The TV is warmed up though and ready to go. Tom Jones (thats The Tom Jones) is entertaining the crowd at the moment.

I have corned silverside cooking in the crock pot and I'll prepared the veges for the oven at half time. Cheating with dessert, pulled out a cheesecake from the freezer.

After 5.30pm tonight , footy will be over for five months, what on earth are we going to do on Sat and Sun afternoons with no games to watch?

Stormy weather

Yesterday when we went to Redcliffe, Warren was wearing shorts and said when he got out of the car that he should have worn long pants as it was a bit cool. At the time it was cloudy.

Sun was shining after we had lunch and it was very pleasant. Drove home in sunshine and two hours later, there was no sun and on the news there was talk of thunderstorms in Sydney. Overcast here and then the rain started. Oh my, it was heavy.

Probably hard to see but the driveway had about an inch of water on it. We had been sitting outside but the rain started to be blown in under the patio.

Water is streaming off the annex of the caravan and running down the post, already tere is puddles on the grass. Twenty minutes after this the rain had stopped and the sun was out!

Headache

I woke up yesterday with a headache and that's unusual for me, I would be lucky/unlucky to have a headache once or twice in a six month period. I realized that I had not been out of the house for three days except to hang washing out or go to the bin. Thought a drive would/could/should solve the problem so suggested to Warren to go somewhere.

Still trying to locate a cafe in Redcliffe that I met some GFs a couple of months ago so that was our plan of attack. I knew that we parked in a shopping centre and walked up a rise past the jetty, Warren found an area that he thought was probably it. Last time the GPS kept telling us to go North when I knew it was South.

Nailed it and oh dear the cafe was called The Rustic Olive not the Soul Food Cafe! I guess not much wonder the GPS was confused.

Food was good, ended up having an early lunch rather than morning tea. On our walk to it, Warren saw a shop and said to me "Look its an Yi Wu (E woo) shop!" Sure enough it was an Yi Wu shop. Yi Wu is where small commodities are made and sold mostly wholesale in China and we had two Yi Wu shops in Shaoxing. It was the place to go to get the little things for our apartments to make them more homely without spending a fortune. We spent quite a bit of time wandering the aisles and looking at things that had been available in China, quite like a trip down memory lane, Warren did buy some occy straps.

Cant leave the sea side without a walk out on the jetty. Wandered past the Bee Gees walk and their statue but I couldn't see what I was taking (it was into the sun so deleted that photo)

Beautiful sunny day our lunch cafe was to the left and I was intrigued by the orange circles in the middle of the photo, they were like a windmill but circular.

Bloody Jeep

Nice car but its costing money. First there was the initial cost, then it cost almost $500 to change the rego. As it had done 82,000kms it was due for a service, apparently the 80k is a big one and yep! $900 odd dollars. At least we knew that everything was A okay.

Rego was due 26 September, another 500 and then, then the battery decided to die. New battery was $320.

Of course there is the extra insurance and road service as well. Don't want to work out how much another car is costing.  

I drove a friend home the other day, she has never driven and now she is a widow and reliant on buses and friends, how glad I am that I have a vehicle to drive and can choose to go where and when I want.

Fingers crossed that no money out except for fuel for that Jeep.

Shocked!

Last week when I was applying for my position, I sent an email to each of my referees, I also had their written refs but I got in touch with them to advise them that I was using it and may be contacted.

Karen who we saw in June and Brian who we visited at year replied the next day. Jason from Western Australia, I didn't hear from and thought that maybe he had moved jobs as we hadn't been in contact for a couple of years. Jason used to visit the school in China and he was the overseer that the course was being taught and marked correctly as the students if they passed would receive a certificate from WA TAFE. When he was in China we spent quite a bit of time with him both work wise and socially.

Last night I received an email from his wife to inform us that Jason had been diagnosed with cancer in 2010 and had died last June. It probably was 2010 that we ad last been in contact. What a shock, I think he would have been about eight to ten years younger than us.

Shocks were the order of the week as Karen, again I have known her in a work capacity for about ten or twelve years, replied that I was too young to retire and she is the same age as me. She is Chinese and as such if some-one had asked me what age she is, I would have thought mid forties.

The first shock was through a phone call on the weekend. A friend from Red Hats asked me abut the house sitters that we had had. I said that I couldn't fault them and arranged to put her in contact with Lesley. The sit was for three weeks, finishing on Friday. Apparently the house was untidy with nuts and washers in the passageway, car had been damaged and she had unpaid tolls. She was not happy. I felt awful but all I could say was that wasn't our experience.

Due to people overstaying on a previous sit, they split up and one did one sit and one the other. We were going to get them back when we go for an extended trip next year, now we are not sure if we will or not.

BBQ pork buns

I took Sheridan to Costco well she drove but I had the magic card to get in, which had cost me $60. She was interested in seeing if buying a membership card would work for them. She bought  few hings and we bought some things which we went halves in later as too much for each of us.

I love the Asian aisle and have bought a few things from there before but bbq pork buns I had not noticed before. They looked like the ones were sometimes had when we had a dinner in China at the school. Just had to have a pack, worked out at around a $1 for one.

OM Goodness they are good! One minute in the microwave and they are perfect. Another plus, they are actually made in Australia, something that is becoming rare these days.

First day of holidays

I feel a little at a loss as house is tidy, thanks to Warren doing the housework when I am at work. Of course there is stuff like bed making, washing that always needs to be done but that doesn't take that long.

I wandered into my sewing room to finished making our dirty laundry draw string bags that I started last week and only got one done. There on my table is at least three projects in various stages plus new material that I haven't done any thing with yet except to wash it.

There and then, I vowed (just to myself) to make and finish at least one item a day, two weeks holiday so should be fourteen articles.

Before lunch, I finished a pair of pants, just needed the hems and the elastic put in the waist band. I sewed up two small jumpers that I had made while watching TV and added a button to a jacket. Four things already!

Now I am on the computer considering what next to make.

Fans

Earlier in the year we bought ceilings fans for the bedrooms, lounge and dining room. It was very hot and I didn't like the idea of some-one having to get up into the ceilings. Winter came and we didnt need them, suddenly the weather is getting warmer so I tod Warren that I wanted them fitted by the end of September.

His great nephew is an electrician and we had spoken to him before about doing a job for us, we wanted other things as well around the house. Well, what do you know, he has moved from fifteen minutes away from us to five hours away, buggar, there's goes the mates rates!

Warren contacted some-one from the local paper and they came and gave us a quote, ekk! a bit more than  expected but Warren did ask for an extra point that we hadn't discussed and it didn't have a corresponding one already behind it so that put the price up. Phone call and two days later he arrives to do a quote and fans were done the following week.

All up we had six ceiling fans installed, two points replaced, two new one that backed on to another, a brand new one and an new TV port for the cost of $1453. Each fan has a remote control and a light, very comfy to sleep undet the fan with a doona.

Silent Movies

As part of our weekend, we took a bus to Pomona to the local Majestic Theatre. It is the only silent movie theatre in the world that is still operating. I was surprised to see single chairs set out in rows and thought that the original seats must have been replaced at some stage but not so. We were entertained by a short history of the place and some-one had the idea that if they had seats that could be removed the area could be used for dances and sports as well.

The gut who did the history also did the music, in his top hat and tails he at down to play and the organ music accompanied the silent movies. The first one went for about 30 minutes and was so politically incorrect and I have always though that I don't worry too much about that but it really was just so wrong and only mildly amusing. There was however several of our women who were almost on the floor laughing so much.

The second one was very slapstick but acts or things were repeated many times which I found rather boring. I used to say to my kids once is funny, twice is amusing third or more times just annoying and the same with this. The third movie went for about fifteen minutes and was Laurel and Hardy which I do remember from my childhood days of going to the pictures every week. My dad was one of the film operators so we had to go each week whether we wanted to not. They were a bit funny but not roll around the floor laughing my head off type of funny.

I am glad to have had the opportunity to have been and seen but probably wouldn't go again. We did get Jaffas but on the packet there was a large sign to say they were not suitable for rolling down the aisles!

I have a clever car

so my seven year old grandson tells me. I was driving him home from school last week and we turned off the main road and he remarked, "How does your car know that it can turn the corner Nana, it must be very clever"
"Yes" I agreed being a bit distracted and wondering what he was talking about.
He went on to say "If there's a car coming does the light shine red?"
My brain is scrambling to think what is he on about, suddenly like a light bulb it hits me, from his car seat he can see the indicator light and it is green.

 When he was three I taught him that we couldn't drive on until the light was green (his favourite colour!) Of course he has put two and two together and came up with five. I had to explain that it was me pushing the lever down for right and up for left which makes the light go on and no its doesn't change colour if other cars are coming, The person driving just had to watch for cars and go when it was safe.

I explained that there were also lights on the outside of the car for people to see and know what I/we were doing, I had to show him once we got home.

I think he was a bit disappointed to learn that the car wasn't as clever as he thought, maybe one day!

I took the Jeep on the weekend.

The car (Hyundai) did a bit of a shudder on Thursday morning as so Warren suggested that I take the Jeep for my weekend away as it was an hour and a half drive.

He cleaned and fueled it while I was at work and also added the addresses that I needed for said weekend. I had packed on Thursday night so had a coffee with him, showered and put my stuff in the back. As I hadnt driven the Jeep at night I checked with him where the lights were as the indicator stick is opposite to the Hyundai. That was all good and so I set off.

Arriving at the RSL where every one else was for dinner, one of the other girls had picked up the keys to my room.

The function room was packed and everyone had finished dinner but the wait staff brought me a meal, good music but too loud to chat so after dessert and a quick turn on the dance floor, we set off for our accommodation.

I took two of the girls back with me and when I went to open the back of the Jeep, it wouldnt open, tried again and finally gave up and hauled my bags over the back seat and out the back door.

In daylight I took my keys and checked at the car, thought that I had locked the car and that was why it wouldnt open, no further problem.

Arriving home with more stuff than I left with, the bl....... door wouldnt open again! Then I actually look at the key unlocker thingy and to open the back door, need to press it twice! DUH!

I guess that it was a small hassle and easily fixed or got around but I certainly wont forget that it needs two presses!

Roadside stops

These are wonderful and on our shake down caravan trip we stopped at one on the way about two hours from home. I had prepared some lunch and a flask of hot water and we sat in the van and had lunch. It made a nice change as with the campervan, we have to find seats or stand up. Getting too old and want/need our comfort.

This is a very popular place to stop called Chatswood park, Can even over night as the length of stay is 20 hours. Toilets but no shower or electricity. As we walked back from the toilets about a hundred metres or so (couldn't park the van closer because of the numbers) there were even a couple of blokes lying on the grass sun baking, it was quite warm out. 

There is plenty of parks and there is even a turning circle so no need to back around. Behind the toilet block is a small lake/dam and heaps of ducks and birds can be seen there.

This was the spot that we took a break on the way back, Nice open spaces not too far off the highway, tables and benches and a toilet block, all that it needed for a short break. 

Bollywood

I spent a fab weekend away with Red Hatters. The theme was Hollywood and dress for Saturday night dinner. The six of us who were going weren't real sure what we were going to do and I suggested a play on words Bollywood. Ideas came thick and fast, as it happened one of the girls was going to India and she offered to buy sari's for us and the head jewellery. We were able to buy glitter slippers and we were set. Cost of outfit was $30 for sari, $6 for jewellery and $5 for the glitter slippers bought at a local chemist.

The above photo is not us but another group before they went for a limo ride, can see the red carpet, the tiaras are out in force.

This is the girls from our group, one joined us late and so there were seven,

just a lucky number as that was how many the limo took. Sari's dont do a great deal for the figure esp if one has a bit of a tum as lots and lots of pleating needs to go at the front.

Seven to nine metres of material are in a sari, we had two dress rehearsals to try to get them right and we starting dressing an hour before the dinner and all helped each other to get into them.

Many of the old actresses made an appearance, they was Cleopatra, Liz Taylor, De Ville and two of her puppies, batman, Lot of laughter and fun.

A Hoist!

Yesterday at work I was invited along with other teachers and aids to see the hoist in operation. We troop along to the main classroom and and there was a lady from Disability something or other and our student who is in a wheelchair.

Luckily for everyone concerned the hoist has not had to be used but it is needed just in case and we need to know how to operate it. Last term the wheelchair chucked a wobbly and refused to work (its an electric one) and so the student was stuck in the one place until a techo came out. He was only there for an hour and the chair was able to move a little and said student was in his element as he was with older kids for a lesson and loved the attention.

It was quite interesting to see it and learn how to put the sling on and then raise him in the air. Poor kid was a bit embarrassed to have so many teachers/adults around but as he was told we need to know how to assist him when need be. He came to the staff room at the end of the day and said that he needed the bathroom, I volunteered to go but didn't want to be the first one to use the hoist, he assured me that that was not necessary at that time.

Shake down trip.

Well, we set off on first trip! Up to Woodgate about four to five hours away. We have been there twice before, six and four years ago. Sleepy little town about 20ks off the Bruce Highway. Warren in particular wanted to go because we had been there before and the sites were reasonably flat and easy to get into.

Got a great site just inside the main gate, the beach is a short walk across the road probably 50 metres from the caravan entrance. He had to back into the site but couldn't do it straight in as there was a cabin opposite so had to do it on the turn. First up, the van was a bit crooked, I was happy with it being one foot the difference between the front and back but not so Warren so he did it again with me giving directions, next time it was probably one inch difference and he decided that was close enough.

We had very little to unpack as most of the stuff was already in the caravan, a bonus! In the camper van we would have the back seat full of clothes and fridge and just stuff.

Got the annex up and out then realised that whoops! we really should have raised the top first but only had to slacken off the annex a little and the top went up no problems.

Time for coffee and check out the wild life or at least our neighbours, lots of people in, mostly retirees like ourselves.

This was Sunday morning after I had done the housework. As it was Fathers day and we were on holidays, I cooked bacon and eggs for breakfast only to discover that there was no egg slide in the van so that was the first thing on our list to add. Thankfully I had taken a non stick fry pan, although not quite as good as my blue stone pans, a pair of tongs worked just as well to get the eggs out.

The other end of the van, there is no permanent table but the extendable one works fine, there is another one the same size that can be clicked together to make a bigger one and there are three different lengths of leg, one in the picture is using all three.

We went shopping for the bits and pieces that we needed, even though it was probably a bit more costly, at least we could get the things and leave in there. So, an egg slide, pegs,foil for the oven, can opener, thought we did pretty well over all.

What a weekend to go to the beach though, it rained particularly all afternoon Sunday, we had read the papers and gone for a bike ride even rode on the wet sand, it was like riding on bitumen. Warren went fishing while I wrote some of my application. Mid afternoon we set off for a walk and afternoon tea on the way back it started raining and we were 15 minutes away from shelter, at least it wasn't freezing.

Teacher's Aide Day

I had not heard of this before but apparently it was today 5 Sept. The guidance officers bought us TA's a big bag of chocolates.  The school put on a morning tea for all the teacher aides and there was a small gift bag with my name on it when I walked into the staff room this morning. Inside was a card with a hand written thank you note for supporting the team and a heart shaped ceramic plate with the word laugh on it, so nice to be appreciated.

Pens!

Working at a High School, you would expect that the kids would come to class with pens, wouldn't you? Today I have been to four classes, one was a computer class of year eights so all computers. Two were English classes with a small number of students, fifteen and eleven, these were year eights and year tens, Year twelve maths was the other class that I help in. I lent out six pens or pencils in the day because students didn't have a pen!
 Not sure what they expected to do or maybe there's a devious plot from those kids, huh, no pen, no work! I am pleasantly surprised though at the end of class, pens are delivered back to me with thanks so that's good.

Heavens to Betsy!

We were off! Our first move in the caravan nicknamed Maggie. I will buy a plate with the name on it, not sure if it will be an actual number plate or just a wall hanging type thing. Number plates cost upwards of $400 and as I am a cheap skate the jury is definitely still out on that that, Warren says no way that we are spending that type of money when it already has a number plate, we will see!

The name is to compliment our Daughter and Son-in-laws caravan, they bought one and named it Dennis and as we will be travelling with them next year, Maggie is/was Dennis the Menace's friend/cohort, so next year Dennis and Maggie will head out into the great outdoor and follow the black tarmac.

Anyway we hitched the Jeep up to Maggie and surprise surprise everything worked except for one side light which Warren took the cover off and cleaned it, it was a bit (a lot) corroded!

We drove it slowly out the road and it towed well, mirrors needed a bit of adjustment and we went around the big block about eight kms. Then the problem was getting Maggie back into the back yard. Doesn't help that we live on a corner but luckily its not a busy road.

My job was to watch the gate and the side of the house and the eaves.

Only needed a couple of up and backs, the driveway is not that wide. The ladder was in place as Warren had washed the top of Maggie before we took her out.

Ha, now to pack it and take it up the road a couple of hours away and really test her out and see what we have forgotten.

Spring

First day of spring today and it is a beautiful day, 25 degrees on the patio. I feel as though I have an extra afternoon off today as we were going to go to the Tennis centre and help out with a mail out, but they rang this morning to say that things were not ready yet so we have the afternoon to ourselves.

I shopped this morning and used my Coles voucher so got $107 worrth of food for $53, I stocked up n some items for the pantry. MY DD say that its not savings unless the money that you didn't spend goes into savings so I took it and added it to the car loan. I reached my own goal for the end of the month so feeling a bit chipper about that. I like to challenge myself to see if I can do it. My next goal is to be under a certain amount by the end of October, doable I think but will need to be on top of things to achieve it.

Anyway, with our free afternoon we are continuing to prepare the caravan for its first trip with us. Warren is cleaning the roof and I am going to clean inside the cupboards ready t put crockery and cutlery in. We also need to check if the lights etc work as it has sat in the back yard for eight months.

I also want to change over my clothes, put away the jumpers and get out the lighter things out.