This Adventurous Age

Adventures travelling and working around Australia.


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2015 Travels May 13

WEDNESDAY MAY 13    COWRA

We had rather a slow start to the day, again, though John was up earlier than was usual for him, in order to get on with fixing the TV aerial. He had to drive down town to a hardware store, in order to get things he thought he’d need.

The park owner was not allowed, for legal reasons, to lend us the necessary ladder to access the Bus roof, but there “just happened” to be one lying about on a cabin veranda.

So, with some help from me holding things, the winding mechanism was fixed, and a generous application of silicone spray was spread around to make its operation easier.

I always breathed easier when John descended safely from any ladder work. With two replaced hips, he was supposed to keep feet planted firmly on solid ground, of course!

There seemed to be quite an exodus from the park today, for no obvious reason.

After all was repaired  and lunch was had, we drove into the town. I was really rugged up in the warmest of winter layers I could find in Bus. It was freezing outside. I’d unearthed a wool beanie, knitted scarf ,and gloves, from the back of a cupboard.

We headed for the Information Centre, via back roads that took us past the railway station. Trains no longer came to Cowra and I thought some of the old infrastructure, and the rather substantial station, might offer some photography options. But it was just too cold to get out and go exploring for same.

At the Info Centre, I collected some material about places we planned to visit, and also some on the Cowra Rose Gardens, which were in front and to the side of, the Info Centre. Since we were already there, I went for an interesting wander amongst the roses. John and dog stayed in the warmth of the car.

I was sure that, on a better day, I’d have taken the trouble and time to note the names of some of the roses, with a view to obtaining same and planting them at home, where our rose garden needed a makeover. However, I was heartened to see that, despite presumed expertise, some of their specimens had the dreaded black spot, too.

We then drove an alternate road back across the river – a low level one that involved going under the main highway, past a number of decorated poles and pylons, and across a low bridge, almost a ford, across the river. The parklands in this part of town were very pleasant. In better weather Couey would have loved a walk there and a splosh in the river, but that was not going to happen today.

John dropped me at the Cowra Patchwork shop, whilst he went off to different shops. I had a colour plan emerging for my next quilting project and wanted to take any chance I could to hunt for fabrics. I bought some fat quarters – for the uninitiated, picture a yard piece of fabric, cut in half lengthways, then in half across, to create four “fat” quarters. Quilt shops pre-cut lots of these and put them out on display to tempt browsers like me. Also bought a couple of books showing quilt designs.

Back to Bus and a heater turned up to high.

John gave the park man some port – which he’d previously mentioned he liked – as a thank you for his help. This was certainly a caravan park that I’d come back to.

I made potato rosti, bacon and eggs for tea.


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2015 Travels May 12

TUESDAY MAY 12     COWRA

Another slow start to the day, meaning the elder one of us slept late, while the younger one exercised and fed dog, and breakfasted at my leisure. Brunch for one was early lunch for the other!

Drove into town and then on out to the Breakout Centre – a display about the attempted escape of Japanese POW’s in 1944 – located on the site of the former POW Camp. It is out of town a few kms, in farmland – rolling country. The prisoners probably didn’t appreciate it, but they had very pleasant scenery.

Site of the POW Camp

A replica of one of the guard towers stands near the car park. As we discovered, it rather spookily plays an information recording as one approaches – must be movement activated.

Guard Tower replica

Little remains of the buildings and other structures that were there, as the facility was dismantled and mostly sold off, including some of the original land.

Not much remains….

The Cowra POW Camp was much bigger than I had realized, both in area and in numbers contained. Although planned and built for 1000, it came to house more than double that number of prisoners. Another surprise was the mix of nationalities held there, not just Japanese but also Italians, Chinese, Koreans, some from the Dutch East Indies.

It was the Japanese who staged the outbreak. Given the psyche and culture of the Japanese soldier of the time, being captured was a major disgrace and source of shame. It was almost a duty to try to escape, or die trying. About 400 staged the breakout, about 230 of those were killed or committed suicide in the resulting conflict before the escapees were recaptured. Four Australian soldiers died.

By contrast, many of the Italian POW’s really liked the place ( especially many of those who were sent out to be farm labour in the district). So much so that they did not want to leave at all. Some of these Italian POW’s managed to escape too – not in 1944, but in 1946, well after the war’s end – to avoid being repatriated back to their homeland! The last of these escapees was not rounded up until 1950. Some of the Italian POW’s returned to Australia in the 1950’s, as migrants.

We walked around some of the paths through the old camp area, reading the various information boards.

Did some food shopping, then back to Bus.

Realised this afternoon that the lovely, lush, grassy area where we have been throwing a ball for dog and letting her have a run around, is in fact the area where the campground’s recycled sewage is sprayed! It smelt a bit after the sprinklers had been on. I was now a little concerned about the wisdom of ball retrieval on the area…

Tea was chicken noodle soup based chow mein. An old standby.

John was trying to adjust the TV aerial and the winding mechanism fell apart. I was just grateful that it was him trying to work it at the time, and not me! Since it was dark outside, and to fix it he would need a ladder and maybe some parts, and the thing could not now be wound down for travel, we agreed we’d have to stay an extra day, not leave tomorrow as planned. John went off to tell management, hoping our site would still be available, which it was. The very obliging park owner came back with John, bearing a TV cable to lend us for the night. Very nice of him.

It was a cold night.


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2015 Travels May 11

MONDAY MAY 11     COWRA

A slow start to the day. The Cowra night was nowhere near as cold as Canberra had been.

I had a wonderful morning shower – continuous hot water. But there was the problem of the shower curtain getting too up close and friendly. I hate shower curtains!

After an early lunch at Bus, set off to visit the Japanese Gardens.

Cowra was the site of imprisonment of Japanese prisoners of war during WW2. These modern gardens are symbolic of subsequent friendship and Cowra’s modern emphasis on peace.

The town also has a Peace Bell, a replica of the one that stands in front of the United Nations building in New York. It was apparently a great honour for Cowra to receive one of these.

John and the bell

We left Couey in the car. The day was not hot, so she was fine there. Entry to the Gardens cost $13 each, which turned out to be good value.

The Gardens were huge and it took us quite a while to wander through them and admire all the different outlooks and cameo views that such gardens feature. These were beautifully done, and in our view, worth visiting Cowra for, all by themselves.

The upkeep required would certainly generate employment in the town – all the highly manicured lawns, for starters.

What an intensive design effort must have gone into the Gardens, in the first place, because there were so many micro elements and features within the larger whole. Just nothing had been left to chance – except maybe the odd wild bird that had taken up residence.

There were little features to look at around every curve, like a particularly shaped rock, or a diosma bush trimmed to a circular shape.

One needed to look at the immediate foreground, as well as the distant vistas, I loved it and John was pretty impressed, too.

Traditional Japanese tea house

The only part that left us cold was the bonsai display house. I know that creating bonsai is an ancient art that takes huge skill and time, but to me it is cruelty to plants.

Way back in 1998/9, we spent the Xmas holiday silly season hiding out in Toowoomba, away from the hordes at the coasts. I used to enjoy walking in the Japanese Gardens there, but they paled into insignificance beside the Cowra Gardens.

In the inevitable gift shop, we succumbed to temptation. I bought a set of wind chimes – large hanging tubes. Something I had wanted for a while but had not been able to find quite the right ones. I wanted to be able to hear them on even a slight breeze, but for them not to have a tone that would scare me awake in the night if there was a sudden gust of wind. These had really pleasant tones.

John was very taken with a dichromatic glass small platter in tones of blue, so we bought that too. Both items were reasonably priced, I thought.

After the experience of the Gardens, any other sightseeing today would be an anti-climax, so decided to head back to Bus. But the road that had taken us to the Gardens, led on to a scenic hill lookout, so we went that way.

That, too, was worthwhile. There were extensive outlooks over the town and surrounding countryside. We walked from the car park area up a short foot road to the top. This was also a walk for dog.

It was attractive countryside around Cowra. From the lookout, we could also see the Lachlan River winding around the town.

Cowra from Lookout

Continued on – driving down the very steep and narrow, one-way, road from the lookout, direct to town.

Packed our new treasures carefully away in Bus, under my bed.

I made hamburgers for tea, using a slice of toast for John’s, instead of a bun. Maybe a bit more healthy? Mine came with no bread. Did that make it not really a hamburger at all? I pondered that philosophical question whilst cooking…


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2015 Travels May 10

SUNDAY MAY 10     CANBERRA TO COWRA     208kms

It had been a really cold night in Canberra. The weather forecast for today was not great – strong and gusty winds, with a severe weather warning. Not what the Driver ordered. If our site was still available, we would probably have stayed another night to avoid travelling in the forecast bad weather – but it wasn’t.

Left the park at 10am and immediately went to fuel up at the servo by the caravan park. John got confused about the colour of the diesel pump. I had to argue with him! We did not want any more petrol in diesel episodes. $1.228cpl.

It was a really hard drive for John, because of the gusting wind. Side-on, Bus was about as aerodynamic as a house brick. He made an absolute hash of the turn from the Hume onto the Boorowa road – had the exhaust brake on, mashed the gears. We got an immediate very strong smell of burning rubber, which was not a great omen. However, this dissipated as we went along. John only gained his MR licence in 2006, and trained on modern vehicles, so he does not tend to use the double de-clutch technique, which would be of benefit when changing down gears in the Coaster. When I’m driving Bus, I do it, but then I got my “endorsed” licence over thirty years ago, when “crash” gearboxes were common in larger vehicles. So it comes more naturally to me.

Stopped in Boorowa for a leg stretch that turned into an early lunch, after we spotted a convenient bakery cafe. The town had a pleasant central rest area, with parking in the adjacent streets, toilets and an Information Centre (which was more of a craft sales outlet).

The nearby Superb Bakery was pretty good. Whilst John and dog waited outside, I went in and bought an egg and lettuce sandwich and a coffee that turned out to be excellent. Was tempted into also buying a chocolate eclair and a vanilla slice – tonight’s dessert. Then it was John’s turn to go in and buy a pepper pie and a sausage roll. Unfortunately, I was juggling information booklets, coffee container, sandwich, cakes and a dog that was trying to run off and find the Master, so the dessert got somewhat mashed.

Boorowa

Boorowa looked a very pleasant little town, perhaps worthy of a future stay and explore.

The Shamrock Hotel had beautiful wrought iron lacework. The town dates from the pre-gold rush squatting era, so lots of history there.

North of Boorowa was rolling hills and sheep country – they were all sheltering in the gullies. Who says sheep are dumb critters? There were some showers of rain. I noted lots of dead or dying gum trees – a disease, or a sign of land salting?

We drove straight through the town of Cowra and out to the Cowra Holiday Park, about 4kms  to the north.

I paid $36 a night for an en-suite site, requesting one without steps, remembering that John had found those a bit of a challenge last time here. Out allocated site had no steps to the loo, but was not very level where we had been told to park the rig. John had driven Bus in frontwards, but we then decided to unhitch the car, and put Bus in the other way, on the other side of the slab. I drove while he directed. Over the years, we had gotten to be very good at parking our caravan by this method, but we sure as hell needed a lot more practice with Bus!

Corowa site

I solved the usual problem of Couey going crazy and barking whenever Bus starts up without her in it – by tethering her in the Terios and shutting the door. It muffled the barking! Must remember that…

So, we had an annexe slab and a great shower in the en-suite. The park featured a lot of railway memorabilia, like old seats from stations, station signs, signals on poles. It gave the place a lot of character, in a good way. The rustic camp kitchen had a campfire pit where there was happy hour every afternoon. We were told we could take Couey up to the end of the park, where there was a large grassed area, and give her ball chases. Excellent!

We set up, then relaxed in Bus for the rest of the day. The windy weather was not conducive to much else, though that eased off a bit later in the day.

I thought about going to happy hour, which looked to be well patronized, but then heard the sound of guitar music wafting down from the camp kitchen. I go to happy hours to talk to other travellers, not be a captive audience for some amateur performer. So we gave it a miss.

Tea was pork chops marinated in lemon juice and rind, with garlic and oregano. Very nice, with potato and green beans. The cakes were nice too, after I scraped them off their paper bags.

The park was by the road to Bathurst, A bit beyond it, this highway comes down a hill towards Cowra, around a bend. Outside, the engine brakes from trucks were audible at this point, but inside Bus we didn’t hear any road noise.

Park management had advised us not to drink the tap water, which came from a bore and had a high calcium level. I didn’t want to put that into our hot water service, so we didn’t hook up to park water, existing on our own tank supply. However, I did fetch hot water from the en-suite to do the dishes.

Today was Mothers Day. I received a text message from my daughter. Son and family were incommunicado on a holiday in Fiji. Also had a text from friend M, back in Broome after a superb two-week cruise around the Kimberley coast. Her Troopy had a new engine installed, to replace the one she killed on the Tanami Track. But it had just been found that a new drive shaft was needed – due to damage caused by a forklift when it had been trucked from Halls Creek to Broome. It was proving to be a very expensive trip up the Tanami! I was so looking forward to seeing her coast photos when we were all home again.


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2015 Travels May 9

SATURDAY MAY 9     CANBERRA

John did not rush to leave for the boys’ soccer matches, but the first one was not until 11.30, so he was not late. The match was at the boys’ school, so John got to see some of their buildings and facilities and was most impressed.

He did get lost trying to follow the family to the afternoon match, which was at the Australian Institute of Sport. After the game, he drove daughter and the elder grandson back to their home. The kid got to ride in the very “doggy” back seat of the Terios – which he will probably remember for quite some time…

I spent the usual sort of time back at Bus. Read. Some computer time. Played games with dog.

Rows and rows of bunkhouse accommodation…

In amongst the wind squalls and icy showers, took some photos of the caravan park, with its long rows of bunkhouses for tour groups, and its very small caravan section. I wondered why they even bothered with the caravan part? Was there some legal reason to do with zoning or classification?

The small area of caravan sites

As agreed last Thursday, we were to have dinner with the family. Left the park at 5.30 to go over there. When we arrived, discovered that SIL had decided they would be going down to the coast, to their beach house, for the remainder of the weekend. Daughter did not want to go, so the atmosphere was decidedly tense. SIL and the two boys were quite contemptuous of us and their mother, the boys taking the lead from their father. Dinner – spag bol – was a very hurried affair, we were rushed out as soon as the last mouthful had been eaten. No offer of dessert or a drink, and we were back at Bus before we knew it. Not quite the convivial evening we had anticipated…


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2015 Travels May 8

FRIDAY MAY 8     CANBERRA

It was really, really cold last night. I slept as late as Couey would allow – until nearly 9am. John slumbered on till later.

There was a really chill wind blowing all day. I concluded that the only reason one would choose to live in Canberra would be a work imperative!

The en-suite sites…why do we feel like second class citizens?

Today was a day of doing oddments, and looking towards departure on Sunday.

Changed the dressings on my leg – that accounted for nearly an hour.

John went online and checked our Telstra bill. The charges seemed high, since we got the new phone a couple of weeks ago.

Went to the airport area shopping complex and filled scripts, got some food supplies. I bought a very nice pull-apart loaf that we had for lunch, back at Bus.

Re-rolled the awning, pulling it out and trying to put it back in the line that would enable locking for travel, after my solo effort of the other day. Got it done properly, after a couple of tries. We had found that, with this awning, if wind had moved the material along the roller, at all, the arms will not slot away properly. Marked the right places on the roller with texta.

Phoned daughter, who gave us details of some bills that we needed to pay online.

For tea, I cooked hoki fish – bought pre-battered and frozen, and made fries. I quite liked the hoki, but John hated it. Guess I won’t be doing that again.

Another very cold night and a solid work out for the little fan heater.


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2015 Travels May 7

THURSDAY MAY 7     CANBERRA

John could not sleep in late, as he was to attend the boys swimming sports – an inter-school regional type of meeting. I was certain that the chlorinated atmosphere would be bad for my cough! This cold had turned out to be far more convenient than such things usually are…

John was back earlier than I’d expected. Both boys qualified for their next level of competition.

While he was gone, I emailed  my daughter – to whom we’d had mail redirected – asking her to open and check for anything that needed attention – like the electricity bill.

John’s opal mining friend phoned. He’d had to go up to Lightning Ridge earlier than he’d expected. He’d arrived there at 2am this morning – and had hit two kangaroos on the way, driving his Coaster, an older model than ours. I considered him crazy to drive in those parts after dark, but some people are risk takers. He said he would have to be back in Melbourne before we get up there. So John would not be getting to explore his mine, this trip. Couldn’t be helped – the man did have a business to run at home.

I phoned and booked a Cowra caravan park for three nights.

John put the wardrobe door back in place, now glue was dry. It was all fixed well, and no longer was hard to open.

Grassed area in front of our site

We were to be at the family’s place for dinner, by 6pm. En route, we only missed one of the GPS lady’s directions, which, given the nature of Canberra roads, was pretty good.

Couey got tethered in the back yard, about which she was not happy. But she settled, after a fashion – never taking her eyes off us, visible through the large glass wall of the room we were in.

We enjoyed a very nice roast lamb meal, with a chocolate self saucing pudding for dessert.

John showed the boys a presentation, on his laptop. This had been prepared by John’s brother, on the boys’ great grandfather’s service in World War 1, on the Western Front. They were quite engrossed with this, in the context of all the current attention on that war.

We left before 9pm, being conscious that tomorrow was a school and work day for the family.


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2015 Travels May 6

WEDNESDAY MAY 6     CANBERRA

This morning, the antenna man finally turned up. He came into Bus, fiddled about a bit, and got a great picture. I suspected the usually tech-savvy other half may not have had the controls set for digital TV. But no-one said anything, and – on further inspection – the man did find something wrongly wired outside, on the antenna. He rectified this. When the new antenna was installed, in 2013, the work was done by John and a mate and that is when the wrong wiring must have happened. Mind you, it all worked perfectly well through our 2013 trip….Anyway, all fixed, we were told, at a cost of $110, which seemed quite reasonable.

Now we were free to play tourists,  after an early lunch.

I had looked online for information about dog parks in the ACT and found that the place seemed quite well endowed with places dogs could play off leash, and also places where they could swim. Too cold for that, now, though.

We drove to one of the special dog parks, at Forde. This was not a very large area, but was securely fenced, with water bowls, agility equipment, and even some tennis balls lying around. Not very hygienic, that! We tried to get Couey working over the agility equipment, with varying success. She definitely liked going through pipes – and running along the top of same; ditto walls. But she could not be persuaded to jump the set jumps, even though they were all lower than she jumps at home in order to short cut through the garden. Anyway, we all had fun. She encountered a couple of other dogs there, too, with no dramas – always good to see.

After that we were in the mood for something panoramic. The obvious candidate, the Telstra Tower, is contained in the Black Mountain Nature Reserve, where dogs are not permitted at all. So we did not try to revisit that- had been up there in 1998.

Instead, drove to the top of Mt Ainslie to look at the view from there, across Lake Burley Griffin, to Parliament House.

In line: Australian War Memorial, Anzac Parade, Lake Burley Griffin, Parliament House

Across to the eastern end of the Lake, we could see the reclaimed area and the lakefront apartments where the family was living in 2013.

From Mt Ainslie: central Canberra, looking towards Scrivener Dam

We walked around the pathways that were up there and read the information boards.

Telstra Tower on Black Mountain

We set out, then, to drive around the Lake, towards the western end first. Back in 1998, we cycled around the Lake, which took us most of a very hot day. Formal bike paths did not go all the way round and we did some riding on roads. Today, the driving was easy, on multi-laned roads, though the Driver didn’t get to look around too much, in the traffic.

Visited the Scrivener Dam at the western end of the Lake. This dam wall across the Molonglo River created Lake Burley Griffin, and controls its levels. It was named for an early surveyor of the Canberra area. I was surprised to find that the dam wall was not completed until the 1960’s. Had assumed it was created at the same time as Canberra was commenced.

The Molonglo is not a big river – seems more like a creek to me. Like a number of the water courses in the area, it is lined with weeping willows, planted by well-intentioned early settlers. It makes for picturesque scenery but is not great, environmentally.

Molonglo River valley

Not far from the dam wall was the Government House Lookout, with its views uphill to Yarralumla, the official residence of the Governor General of Australia.

Yarralumla House

Again, I found new information: that Yarralumla was not purpose built, but was originally a private residence of major pastoral families of the district. The original pastoral property was a large one. Walter Burley Griffin, the designer of Canberra, had included in his plans a grand vice-regal residence, but – as with quite a bit of his original plans – a cheaper option prevailed.

From the Lookout, we could look towards the valley of the Molonglo and see the large former woolshed of the original farm.

Looking across to the grand old woolshed

By this time, the afternoon was getting on and we decided not to continue round the Lake, but to head back to Bus to avoid the late afternoon traffic build up. The GPS took us round the back of Black Mountain, on Caswell Drive, a way we hadn’t been before. Saw yet another traffic rear-ender accident.

John re-glued the wardrobe door back together. I had to help him get the strap clamp round the outside edges of the door.

Tea was steak, with green peppercorn sauce, and vegies.

A decision was made that our next destination would be Cowra – a place we hadn’t previously stayed at long enough to see its attractions.


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2015 Travels May 5

TUESDAY MAY 5     CANBERRA

John went off, after an early start, for him, to watch the boys compete in the inter-schools cross country competition. It was out at the Stromlo Forest Reserve – across the other side of the city from us, naturally. John and the GPS managed to get themselves rather lost, and did a lot of extra kms.

I did the washing. One feeds a token into the machine. But first, one must do the long walk up to Reception to purchase said taken – for $4. I wasn’t sure of the point of the token. Did it deter people breaking into the machines, for coins? I couldn’t conceive this would be a significant problem…Did it mean the price of a machine load could be changed without having to adjust the machine> Or was I missing something here?

During the morning, the wind – which initially had signalled a good day for drying washing – became much stronger. It then signalled good idea to wind awning in, before it got damaged. But there was only me and it took a while to remember the various steps. It was not something I usually did and not since 2013. There was some trial and error. But I managed it in the end, despite some periods where I was just hanging on to the awning in the wind. It probably looked quite comical, had there been anyone watching. I was quite proud of myself. It was good to know this was something I could do by myself, however inelegantly.

I exercised dog, spent some time on laptop, and went to rescue the washing before our underwear ended up in Yass or parts beyond.

There was a small group of red-rumped parrots that foraged around, near Bus. I tried to get a decent photo of them, but the zoom on my new camera was not all that effective, and they were a bit camera shy.

Red rumped parrots

I had, earlier in the year, bought a new “retro look” Pentax digital camera and this was its first outing.

John returned mid afternoon. The boys had both qualified for the next level of competition and he was pleased with the photos and videos he took on the tablet. He’d been to Masters on the way back to get stuff needed for the wardrobe door repair.

I made a healthy version of hamburgers – on a slice of toast, instead of in a bun – for tea. John liked it.

The nights were getting much colder – heater needed – and the chill was tending to persist into the day.


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2015 Travels May 4

MONDAY JULY 4     CANBERRA

Today was a rather boring, even wasted, day. But, I had accepted that the main purpose of being here was for John to visit his family and have time with grandsons, not for playing tourists. We had, in any case, spent some weeks here in 1998, early in our retirement travels, and enjoyed extensive sightseeing back then.

John phoned the antenna man – again! He said he would come about 4pm and would phone first. We weren’t convinced…

We needed to shop – for door repair materials, and some food. Not wanting to repeat the Belconnen experience, I suggested there might be a Bunnings in the new, spread-out retail complex we’d passed, by the airport, yesterday. Off back down the Majura Parkway. This was being made when we were here in 2013 and there was still work in progress, with a detour at one section.

We saw a Masters hardware store, but John decided to drive around the spread-out complex, to see what was there. Spotted a Big W and supermarket. John was cruising slowly, looking for a parking spot. As he was turning left to pull into one – with the indicator going – we were nearly hit by a woman driving a big 4WD, who went past – on our left –  at some speed. She just fitted between us and the parked cars. I said that ACT drivers are aggressive! Had never had that happen in a supermarket car park before. John certainly let her know he was not impressed with her driving.

Checked out Big W to see if John’s preferred type of track pants was in this store. No – but it gave me the chance to buy a couple of windcheaters, having decided I had not brought enough of these with me, given the cold weather.

John spotted a retailer of computers and similar goods, and decided then and there that he really must buy a tablet, so he could film the boys running in their races tomorrow. Apparently, a standard camera was no longer preferable. He was interested in a Samsung one, but had trouble finding anyone in the store who was able to show him the features of same. Very poor service. Then, they didn’t have one in stock, despite it being on display, so we would have to go to Gunghalin to collect one.

Did a very quick whiz around the supermarket, collecting the items on my list. There was no time to go to Masters, because we needed to be back for the antenna man. Maybe? That tablet purchase had taken ages.

The GPS directed us to Gunghalin, which at least was in the same direction as the caravan park. Tablet duly collected – another toy.

Sat around at Bus, waiting for the antenna man, who, predictably, did not come. But he did phone, very late in the day, and arranged to come Wednesday. I could see another boring day coming up! My suggestion that we not bother about TV until back home, was not well received.

Our site, with large grassed area in front

At least John was distracted by trying to work out the operation of his new toy. I spent some time checking emails and catching up on the news on my laptop – my toy…

Tea was poached chicken thighs with potato and bok choy.

After visiting with his daughter today, John had decided we would stay on here until next weekend, as the boys had a variety of activities happening that he wanted to see

Today was the birthday of my son and his girlfriend. Since they were overseas, there was no contact.