What to do when a computer dies.

I used the lap top last night, checked emails and wrote up my blog before turning it off to cook dinner, yep, even we are on holiday some one still needs to cook! After setting it aside and getting up, I asked Warren if he wanted it to check out what there was to do in Warrnambool. Agreeing to do that, I passed it over to him.

He couldn't get it to connect to the internet, it appeared to be stuffed/broken/def not working. We checked our internet device was on, yep that was working, tablet was working off that, still no lap top.

This lap top has been a real work horse, we bought it second hand in China for not much money, it has been back and forth there several times, it has been to work with me so in my off times, I could continue writing my book, it has been used to write six novels (and they were still on it!)been on several camping and caravans trips and never missed a beat. I think we have had it about seven years. Warren tried to reset it and then realised that no wifi was showing up.

He went to the help thingy and it said "Ensure that your internet switch is turned on" what! theres an internet switch!. He turned it upside down and checked all around the edges and sure enough there was a small button. Seven years and we had not known that. We assume that by changing hands, one of us brushed the button and turned it off.

As this one is classed as my laptop, it was a relief to realise that it has not died and thankfully is still going strong as long as it is turned on.

Creswick to Warrnambool

Today we left Creswick and travelled to Warrnambool. We opted to go on the secondary country roads rather the usual trip along the Great Ocean road. The roads were all bitumen but small were a trifle narrow, thankfully on the narrowest of roads which went for 35 kms, we only met one car coming the other way.

It also rained on and off for most of the trip and was quite grey, it appears to be in the middle of winter instead of summer!

We saw some of these off in the distance probably 20 or so and then later we came very close to a few, they are so majestic, I think.

Arriving in Warrnambool, we located the caravan park, the gold plated one, costing us $58 a night. Its busy and crowded with lots of families and kids. When we checked I saw that it is a Family park, we are a member of Family parks and as such entitled to 10% discount. They told us that we couldn't not get the discount as the money had already gone thru to council, the only way to recover the discount was to stay another night and then they could adjust the price, so we stay one more night and only pay $30 rather $58, not likely.

Our camp site required us (Warren) to scramble up a retaining wall and thru three metres of bush to plug in.

There is also no sullage here people seem to let their sink waste go on the ground.

We are not far from the toilets but it is up a flights of steps/stairs. Not real happy!

The beach is about 200 metres walk and while there was a lot swimming, it looked cold and bleak. The kids across the way were dressing in wetsuits to go which was probably a good idea.

We walked along the foreshore for a couple of kms, I was glad to be wearing my cardigan that I bought at the woollen mills yesterday.  

Creswick woolen mills

I did not know these existed which seems a bit strange as how we used to live not far from here, I guess it was before the internet was so widely used.

We were going to go back to Ballarat and go to Sovereign hill but it started to rain and it rained all morning so we had a very lazy morning,stayed in bed reading it was nice and warm and comfy.

As our water was empty and Warren had fixed it he put a bucket out to catch the rain and once that filled he then put it into the water tank, nice fresh water.

This was the entrance this afternoon, it stated $15 for the tour but they gave us one for nothing. I think they have quite a few Chinese bus loads and there were tables and chairs so maybe they give them a full tour and morning tea. Three of the girls were multilingual, speaking Malay, Cantonese and Mandarin. 

Eileen who had all four languages took on the start and then left us to look around, we enjoyed speaking with her in Chinese.

This was part of 100 metre picnic blanket that they made, the previous record holder was 49 metres. Afterwards it was cut into blanket pieces and given to charity.

This was one of the displays, it was very well set out with videos and hands on things to feel. Even though it is called Woolen mills, very few items are pure wool, mostly it is mixed with Alpaca wool to make it softer. None of the wool, sheep or alpaca is imported, all Australian. They do some possum in some items and that is imported from New Zealand.

We came away with some socks for Warren and a cardigan for me, his socks were on specail, buy four pairs and pay half price and mine was $19 marked down from $69 

Lunch and the botanical gardens in Ballarat

I have been very good at packing lunch while on the road but today i didn't, we thought we could pick up lunch somewhere in Ballarat, well we did, just as well the rest of the day was cheap.

It was yummy and we couldnt eat it all thank goodness we had decided to get this between us. The "Kiosk" was at the lake and a little more than a cafe or kiosk. We chose to sit outside facing the lake and had a good view of all the waterbirds.

We took some of the wedges that we didn't eat to feed the ducks, Warren had them coming for several metres away.

There were quite a few of these black swans, so majestic looking, most of them were out further but this one came for a closer look. We had to go for a walk through the lake and gardens to walk off lunch.

I found a craft shop to wander through, it was based in Adam Lindsay Gordon's home, a small four bedroom place, Warren found a park bench to rest on.

I was impressed by the size of the trees in the park but we had been told that the gardens were started in 1888 so I guess that why they are so huge.

The brass plates told what they were and how old or how tall.

A very cold shaded place.

Ballarat has the busts of all Prime Ministers, the last one there is Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd has both his stints on his. 

Beautiful display of marigolds but Arghh! the gardeners were at the other end cutting off the flowers! What the? They explained that the flowers were too big for the bushes and there is expected rain in a couple of days so they were taking the flowers off to spare the bushes. The rain would knock them over with the weight of water and blooms. He said that in three weeks they would flower again bigger and better and the bushes would also be bigger and stronger. In the photo is part of Robert Gordon Menzies, who was Prime Minister during the war years.

Tram Museum in Ballarat

We have done the big things in Ballarat such as Sovereign Hill and Kryal Castle so we decided to do some lesser or maybe less well known things hence the Tram Museum. Best thing was it was free although there was a donation box at the entrance, I emptied my coins into it.

This is a horse drawn tram built recently and still used, will be in use on Sunday. It is a replica of what were used. The horse tram started around the 1880's and was up graded to electric in 1905.

We went for a ride on a tram that goes around part of the lake, the driver was changing the lever over so we could go back the other way. This one was built in 1916 and had beautiful wooden seats and leather straps to hold.

Back in the days when they wanted to abolish the trams some people fought to keep at least some for history sake. There was a comprise and they were allowed to keep six and run only where there were no houses as it was considered the trams were very rattly. We found it was a great ride and at $4 each well worth it. The driver was also the commentator. 

  

 

We woke to rain.

Our last morning in Melbourne and it was raining, not a great deal but enough to be annoying while we were packing up. We were heading to the Ballarat area which meant driving from one side of Melbourne to the other and then some.

About to crest West Gate Bridge, we used to drive over this regularly when we lived on the west side and worked in Melbourne city.

It was still slightly raining and thankfully cool.

We weren't real sure of where we were headed and later we wanted to pull off for a coffee and sort out the caravan park that suited us. I had seen signs suggesting to "take a 15 minute power nap if tired" good idea but there were no rest areas to pull over. Finally we had to take an exit into a small township to have our coffee and set a route for our next stop.

Arriving in Creswick which is about twenty minutes from Ballarat, great reviews on this park but we were lucky to get a park as there are two large groups  booked in for the weekend but he fitted us in. We are up the back, backed onto and over looking the lake.

We discovered this afternoon that we had run out of water, bit surprising but we had not connected to mains water all the way down, but as the tank was empty, Warren took the opportunity to do some maintenance on it.

While we are coming to terms with daylight saving it is rather nice to eat outside and stay out until 8 pm or so, trouble is the waking up later in the mornings but cant have it both ways.

Our day at the Aussie Open

Today was the day that we had tickets to the Aussie Open in Melbourne. We checked in at the local railway station yesterday it took about fifteen minutes to get a car park so we figured that wasnt an option. We got Myiki tickets, $3 for the card and the guy put $4 on them which he said would be what we needed to take bus and train plus return for the day.

Gates opened at ten with the matches underway at 11 am. We left the caravan park at 8.15 to catch a bus, had about a five minute walk. As we walked into the train station and found a seat the train pulled in. The station is the end of the line so it wasn't going anywhere for a few minutes.There were a few people going to the tennis and I hear them say that during the tennis they open the other end of the station so people came walk straight there.Once we got to Richmond, hoards of people got off and swarmed down the footpath, we were swept away with the crowds. That was no problems but finding where to go once we got into the arena was more of a hassle, luckily it was sign posted and we walked around the main arena because it was cooler to find the Margaret Court Arena where we had seats.

Although we were up high about nineteen rows back from the action, we were able to see everything, it was brilliant.

The camera does seem to put it further away than it actually was.

We saw Madison Keyes and Andy Murray.

Warren decided to wear his Emirates hat that he was given at the Brisbane International, I just had to take a photo of it.

Once we has finished watching, we took an easy walk back to the station and as we walked in, the train pulled up, I'm sure we were just lucky but it was great timing.