This Adventurous Age

Adventures travelling and working around Australia.


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2018 Travels November (1)

NOVEMBER     SETTLING IN

The month was quite a flurry of activity.

Had work done by an electrician recommended by family – having these local contacts really helps. John wanted some extra power points and a safety cut out in his shed. We had decided to instal some extra ceiling fans in the house; there were already fans out on the patio, and in the main bedroom. We wanted them in every room. Bought the fans online and had the recommended electrician instal them.

Arranged for another recommended local tradesman to instal blockout blinds on sun exposed windows and doors at the back and western side of the house. These would help keep the place cooler in summer and in winter reduce heat loss through the glass expanses.

Had both the air conditioning and the gas heating checked and serviced by yet another tradie, because we had no way of knowing when these were last done.

We both noticed and commented to each other that the tradesmen up here were different to those we’d encountered over the years in Melbourne – much more friendly, obliging, punctual and generally helpful. It made for a really refreshing change. They seemed cheaper too.

I was itching to start work on the gardens, which had potential to be so much nicer. Started research into what native plants grew best in the conditions of Central Victoria, and which would be most bird attracting.

There was already a raised up rectangular garden bed in the yard, which we assumed had been used for vegie growing. A real estate photo I’d found, dating from 2008, showed this already in existence, but fringed with rosemary bushes which were now gone. That was only about four years after the house was built, and whilst the area was still severely drought affected. From this photo, I suspected that the central gravelled area, shown with a garden seat, had originally been meant to contain lawn, but water shortages and restrictions had changed plans.

John soon had this long bed dug over and filled with tomato seedlings.

Back garden as it was in 2008, with raised bed on right

After less than a month here, we were already feeling oriented. Had undertaken the essential task of finding a new GP doctor. Daughter had put our names down at the clinic she attended, but when John discovered that they did not bulk bill, he took himself off to find one that did. Our brilliant Melbourne dentist had given us a recommendation of a Bendigo one. Family recommendations led me to a good podiatrist. Our little village settlement had a Post Office, bakery, chemist, small supermarket and a very good fish and chip shop. John already knew where Bunnings was, from times he’d visited on our travels. A city the size of Bendigo has quite a choice of major supermarkets – no problems there. It was harder, however, to find specialist food retailers – fresh fruit and vegies, fish, in particular. The place where we bought ourselves a new gas barbeque recommended a butcher, who turned out to stock excellent meats. I eventually found a small fresh seafood shop; it opened only a few days each week, but met my needs beautifully.

We visited the central branch of the Goldfields Library – impressive – and took out memberships. I spent some time browsing their local history collection – Bendigo has a much more complex and fascinating history than I had realized.

Exploring our new home city, and starting the process of settling in, was great fun in itself. Well, mostly… by the end of November John had changed bowls clubs. Another new uniform…


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2018 Travels October 29

SUNDAY OCTOBER 29     THE FINAL UNPACKING

Last Wednesday was a day of much excitement for John – the truck bearing his wood working machinery arrived. Offloading this and putting it in the shed was so easy, with a cement drive, gravelled solid driveway up to the shed, and two large roller doors to it. Couldn’t be easier.

Arranging and re-arranging shed kept John busy – and tired – for much of the week. He decided to put some of the big machines on little platforms with wheels, so they could be moved around, depending on the latest project.

New shelving was also required and acquired. Was it actually possible that the shed contents had expanded in the move?

Some shed contents

I had somewhat naively assumed there would be a corner of the shed – a considerably larger one than we’d had in Melbourne – for my gardening implements and bit and pieces, maybe even a little potting table. Not so.

A novelty for us was having a built in garage, after only ever having carports, or open air. Not only did it securely house our vehicles, but also provided some very useful extra storage space. However, after a lifetime of not having same, I did make a very firm mental note to self – remember, you must operate the roller door before reversing car out!

A built in garage

John went to bowls practice a couple of times but did not feel at home or particularly welcomed there. I think he had assumed that he would be the “big” new bowler from the big smoke – but he had totally underestimated the quality and standard of the local bowlers. Again, he was relegated to the lowest Saturday pennant side – and again, he did not play well. He did not seem to have established rapport with any fellow bowlers at that club. I suspected he may have been telling some of them how clubs were organised in the city – trying to be helpful, but misjudgement on his part.

With order established in the house, we realized that it was actually bigger than the one we’d left. There was the same number of rooms, but they were larger. So, contrary to some people’s assumptions we hadn’t really downsized, apart from having a bit less land and no pool – and John was so happy to have left both pool and lawns behind us.

To compensate dog for the lack of backyard grass, we had already developed the habit of taking her for a daily walk in a nearby area of bushland and adjacent sporting oval. The bush was great for sniffing stimulation and the fenced oval a secure area for ball chasing games where she could really be stretched out. Who needs a lawn? But I thought I might try growing some grass in a shallow plant container, so she had some to nibble on, if the need struck.


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2018 Travels October 22

SUNDAY OCTOBER 22     ALMOST A DISASTER…

Late morning, daughter arrived to drive John out to the caravan park at Marong, to collect Bus.

The plan was to drive it to a relative’s place a few suburbs away, to be stored in her barn-like shed, along with the caravans of various other family members. I took the Terios and met them there.

The best-laid plans…almost turned into a disaster.

Daughter was directing John as he reversed into the shed, through lovely wide doors. She screamed very loudly, “Stop”. Which he, did, instantly and fortunately.

Shed length and width of doors opening – no problems. But we hadn’t thought of height. Dumb. Just luckily, daughter had been standing at an angle where she could see the Bus air con unit only a few cms from being scraped off if John went any further under the door frame.

So, scrap the shed storage.

For the time being, Bus would just have to stay outdoors, parked under some trees on aunty’s acreage block.

This would not be a permanent solution, as I really wanted it under cover.


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2018 Travels October 21

SATURDAY OCTOBER 21   NOW WHERE DID I PUT THAT?

After two days of solid unpacking and ordering of belongings, John took himself off to bowls, having already sussed out clubs, joined the one of his choice and even bought the uniform.

I continued excavating boxes. It couldn’t possibly take as long to empty these as it had to fill them – just felt that way.

We had amassed impressive piles of flattened boxes and mini mountains of bubble wrap, out on the patio. Would have to work out what to do with all that – be nice to sell it, Had cost me a small fortune to buy in the first place.

We had emptied daughter’s trailer of my pot plants, putting them temporarily in the shade of the largest tree in the back yard. Redistributing them to proper placement was another job waiting in the wings.

With husband out of the way, I fancied some background music to work to, being in the habit of playing the sounds I prefer when he was at bowls. The big sound system had a rats nest of cables and wires between its components including two independent speakers. When packing in Melbourne, I had labelled each lead and made a careful diagram of which wires went where, so I could set it all back up again. But…where the hell had I put the diagram? It never did resurface. Trial and error over a frustratingly long time saw me eventually get the sound system working again. I was very proud of myself – until a helpful family member commented that it would have been so easy, had I just thought to take photos of the back of it all, on my phone, before dismantling. Nup – didn’t think of that.

Sound system in background

Today’s other great achievement was finally emptying the last box occupying our big dining table. Tonight we could eat without a cardboard wall down the middle between us.

John had not enjoyed his bowls as much as expected. As an unknown quality, he’d been placed in a lower side, which rather affronted him. Then, to rub it in, he hadn’t even played well.


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2018 Travels October 19

THURSDAY 19 0CTOBER     WE HAVE A NEW HOME

Excitement made it impossible to sleep later than 8am.

We breakfasted, packed the camp table and chairs into the back of the Terios, put in the awning, disconnected the water to Bus. It would be staying here without us for a few days.

Our solicitors had said settlements on our old place – and then on the new – were scheduled for 11am. By 10.30 we and dog were in the Terios, parked at the sports ground across the road from the new place, waiting … and waiting. I couldn’t help but worry about some last minute glitch.

John filled in the time by walking the dog on the grassy oval. I watched them, clutching my phone, waiting on notification that all was well.

At 11am, two removal trucks pulled up outside the house. One contained the house contents packed yesterday, the other those from storage. A lot of “stuff”.

Removalists were right on time. The legal processes were not. It was a very long 45 minutes after 11am, when we got the expected phone call. All done, new home was ours.

The removalists were into the place before us!

All the boxes of household goods were well labelled so once they got the hang of the house layout, the trucks were rapidly emptied. Daughter was still on leave from work, so she arrived to help with unpacking. Her priority was to get beds set up and made, so we would have somewhere to collapse at the end of the day.

Couey spent a few hours out on the patio, tethered to a post, still being confused.

John had immediately headed to his new shed, in order to direct the unpacking of the shed boxes that had been shovelled together yesterday morning. He would have time to ponder best layouts before the big stuff arrived next week. At least in this new place, there was a wide straight gravelled driveway right up to the shed.

Easy access to this shed.

The removal trucks were gone by 2pm. I had chosen Allied Pickfords for the job because I knew that firm did all the uplifts, storage and moving for our diplomats and government staff relocating between overseas posts. John’s daughter had been moved by them several times. I was confident in their professionalism. They lived up to my expectations and then some, giving us a seamless transition – packing, storage, moving – and were very pleasant to boot. There was only one damaged item – an ordinary terra cotta garden pot, that had been put in loose at the last minute, and which mattered not at all. I couldn’t fault them – and the overall cost, considering the complexity of it all, was very reasonable.

By the time daughter left to collect the boys from school, we had rooms full of boxes, a place to sleep tonight, and an unbelievable number of “kitchen” and “living room” boxes piled up on our big redgum dining table and any other flat surface in the room. We also had the camp table and chairs set up out on the patio, so at least we had a flat surface on which to rest food and drink.

John suggested he go and buy a cooked chicken from the local  supermarket. There was no way the kitchen was ready for anything other than making tea and coffee, so I gratefully made an exception to my cooked chicken rule.

We sat out on the patio and ate our chook – with our fingers. The overhead fans cooled down the quite hot late afternoon. We discovered there were coloured lights strung around the area, so we turned those on for a festive note.

Poor Couey was discovering that she no longer had any lawn to ablute on – just gravel and pebbles! Her feet would have to toughen up.

We talked about how it was so good to be sitting outside at our home whilst noticing how fresh the air smelled. Just like when we’re travelling away from Melbourne. It was only now we were realising how polluted with vehicle emissions the air had been at our old home, with busy roads nearby. This was bound to be healthier.

Our outlook from the patio featured tall eucalypts in the distance. Good to have trees around us again; over the past few years just about all those that had originally been in the vicinity at the old location had been cut down to make way for development.

Despite our exhaustion, I found it hard to sleep soundly that first night. I realised next day this was because it was so quiet. We no longer had the pervasive, background hum of the almost constant traffic, drifting up the hill from the main connector road below. Seemed a bit ridiculous, not being able to sleep because of the silence!


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2018 Travels October 18

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 18     MOVING HOUSE

Thursday October 19 was the day. Settlement was scheduled for 11am and then our new home would be ours.

The removalists would pack up our old house and John’s shed, and a heavy machine moving specialist would come and load up his big woodwork items, and store these for a week before delivery. All this would happen on the Wednesday, as we wanted to be firmly in Bendigo on Thursday morning, at the very moment we could move in.

It had taken some planning, but worked out as I’d hoped – mostly.

I’d packed all the house contents into boxes, except for a couple of items the removalists were to do, like the large TV set. The pot plant collection was all lined up to be put into daughter’s trailer.

These are going with us

We were up very early on Wednesday. The beds we had used last night were stripped and the bedding packed away into the last of the boxes. We’d eaten “out” last night, so I hadn’t needed things for making the evening meal. Our few breakfast needs were soon also packed away.

The moving team – the same ones who had uplifted our storage items earlier in the year – arrived before 7am. As before, they were so efficient. As the furniture was emptied from a room, daughter and I did the final clean of the floor there. Within a couple of hours, the house was emptied.

Was my study

The glitch was, probably predictably, John’s shed. His idea of having packed it up and that of the removal team’s, were poles apart. They certainly had to do a great deal more there than had been anticipated by them. Lots and lots of “stuff” got shovelled into boxes any old how – and that served him right!

In the midst of that chaos, the men arrived to move the big machines. I had been dreading that process because there was no easy access to the shed. Things had to be transported down the sloping side lawn – with the clothes line in the way – then turn a sharp corner through a gate, go across the front lawn and down a grass ramp to the driveway. Past experiences when these machines had been delivered new had been fraught.

Shed access

At one stage earlier in the year, I’d wondered if we would need to hire a crane to take these things out over the back fence! Our removal firm had assured me that their specialist would manage. And they did – with a nifty little bobcat type machine that could manage crazy angles – and that bit all went seamlessly.

Then, John suddenly remembered the other shed – the small one that contained all the gardening implements and “stuff”. I deemed it wise to stay well away and leave him and the removal team to deal with each other. I felt sorry for the latter.

Yes, there are two sheds there!

But all got packed and the truck left late morning. I didn’t know where they would be tonight, but they would be in Bendigo tomorrow.

Daughter and I did the final clean and packing of things like cleaning items, mop and bucket, vacuum cleaner and so on, into the cars.

The last of it all

Friend M arrived, very thoughtfully with a lunch of sandwiches and cakes for us, which we ate sitting out on the patio for the last time. The table and seats there were being left for the new owners.

M would wait at the house through the afternoon, while a man did a final carpet shampoo. Then she would lock up and take the keys to the agent.

Our convoy left after lunch. John in his car, loaded up with aforesaid boxes of cleaning things, vac and so on – plus gardening tools that the removalists had baulked at. Daughter in her car, towing covered trailer with pot plants. I thought I’d been fairly ruthless in clearing these out and only keeping the best, but there still seemed to be a lot more than I’d realized. Me in the Terios, complete with confused and apprehensive dog and her stuff.

So it was goodbye to home of 27 years…

Daughter and I stopped at Maccas in Seymour – not my usual stopping area, but daughter wanted coffee! Then on, the usual route, to Bendigo, where she peeled off to go home and I went on to the caravan park at Marong, arriving at 4pm. John had not long arrived.

Between homes for the night

We were spending the night in Bus. Very handy to have!

Around 6pm, we had an unexpected visitor – the agent who’d sold us our new house. He had decided he would drop the keys to the place around to us, to facilitate an easy transition tomorrow – and assuming settlements all went through as intended. He also gave us a bottle of bubbly – to toast ourselves in the new place, tomorrow. So nice of him.

Despite the excitement, we had an early night. It had been a long and tiring day and we were both exhausted.


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2018 Travels October

OCTOBER 2018     MOVING PREPARATIONS

Early in the month, Bus was trundled off to our mechanic to have the little radiator leak rectified. I was not looking forward to the prospect of finding somewhere in Bendigo to do future services and repair work on Bus.

Four days before we were due to move, John drove the Bus to Bendigo and left it parked on site at the Marong Tourist Park. Daughter drove him home the next day and stayed on to help with the final packing and cleaning, and to transport our collection of potted plants in her covered trailer. That was one type of item the removalists would not take.

Another had been John’s pile of several large slabs of African Mahogany timber, that he’d had shipped from Darwin back in 2006. These had lived in an alcove at the back of the carport, until such time as he got round to making tables out of them. Back in April we had, with a huge effort, loaded them onto John’s new tandem trailer and he’d taken that to Bendigo, to live, trailer and all, in a shed that daughter had arranged, until we moved. Getting rid of those had really improved the appearance of the front of the place – and was something that had been “going to happen” for over a decade!

Much neater without a great stack of timber in there…


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2018 Travels Mid-July

MID-JULY 2018       NOW WHAT DO WE DO?

After the initial excitement of the new house purchase had died down, we faced the question – now what? The radical de-cluttering of a few months previous had seemed like a good idea in order to present our home in the best possible way. However, the thought that we might have months to fill in hadn’t really entered my mind.

The winter garden did not need much work to keep it looking good.

There was not so much packing still to do that I needed a whole three months in which to do it – and besides, we still needed our clothes, dinnerware, dog utensils and the like.

John could still work in his shed because that had not been de-cluttered yet. Given the valuable contents, he had not wanted it on display in the sale process. He was actually the one who could start to do some packing, but first there were still bowls to turn and boxes to make…

We weren’t game to go on a trip with Bus and leave the house unoccupied – in case something happened that would mess up our sale. Call it superstitious, but…

Mid-winter was a good time for me to settle in with some quilting work – but all my crafting things were in storage. My embroidery – ditto. Not a knitting or crochet needle left in the house. What about my colouring books – no, they were hiding in a box across town. I could go and buy a colouring book, but balked at the expense of decent pencils because mine too were packed away with the books – and the sudokus, crosswords… and so on.

Thank God for the computer! At least I had Solitaire, Mahjong and online jigsaw puzzles.

With all the screen time, a trip to the optometrist for new glasses became necessary. Along with a final session with our wonderful dentist, almost a welcome interlude – something to do!

Earlier in the year, consultation with a neurologist about increasing discomfort when walking had led to a series of tests and screens, squeezed in amongst the house preparation. August saw my follow-up visit to him, and the not-so-welcome news that ongoing deterioration of the old various damaged  L bits in the lower back was now accompanied by some issues higher up, and general compaction of the spine. In other words, it ain’t going to get any better.

The garden put on a final impressive late winter into early spring display for me. I wasn’t going to have plants like azaleas and camellias in the hotter and drier climate of Bendigo.

The spring garden

Some of the shrubs had sentimental attachments: the camellia that had been a wedding present, the white one in front of the unit that my father had won at bowls. There was the beautifully delicate one that had grown from a cutting from mum’s garden – the original a Mothers Day present to her some 35 years ago. I thought about trying to strike cuttings of my favourites, but decided that both climate and  poor soil would make success unlikely.

Mum’s camellia

In September, I commenced the final packing process – at a leisurely pace. It still resulted in an impressive number of boxes stacked up in the back rooms.

With hindsight, John should have done the same in his shed. That was a mammoth task and he kept putting it off…


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2018 Travels July 4

WEDNESDAY JULY 4 MARONG TO HOME

Packed up to make the trip back across the Divide to the eastern suburbs. Left sat 11am.

If one had to pick the most inconvenient time for the agent to call about a house sale detail, it would, of course, be as I was trying to navigate John around the edge of central Bendigo. I had to ask him to give us half an hour and then call back. In the brief moments I was talking, John managed to take a wrong turn!

Help – which one goes to Heathcote?

Stopped at the very accessible Caltex servo on the edge of Heathcote, for fuel. $1.499cpl.

I was quite relieved when we reached home again, uneventfully. John had chosen not to put the Stop Leaks into the radiator ahead of the trip and I’d been a little on edge the whole of the time driving, that the leak might get worse and strand us on the highway somewhere.

Next time Bus makes this trip, it will have a new radiator.

Our new home has a driveway at the side, where Bus would fit – having a place to put it was one of the pre-requisites we had. We also had the option of storing it in a large shed on the Bendigo property of a family member – that might be the easier option. To be decided.

Even more exciting – once we are moved and settled in – areas across the north of the State, and beyond, are going to be more easily accessible for trips with Bus.

We had a goal to explore the length of the Murray, from Corryong to Lake Alexandrina. Whilst we had visited some places along the river, the idea of such a trek really appealed. Hopefully in 2019? Then there is the Barossa Valley of SA, the Fleurieu Peninsula…lots more places to go…


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2018 Travels July 3

TUESDAY JULY 3     MARONG

Having come to spend a few days house hunting, the rest of the time was now a bit of an anti-climax.

Come to think of it that also describes the next three months!

We had some paper work to complete. Went and found Bunnings and had a browse. Yes, it was big and diverse enough to suit John well.

The new house had a lovely large, roofed outdoor living area. We would need to buy a BBQ after the move, so had a look at the ones on offer there. John was interested in looking at the range of portable pizza ovens, rather than build another like he had at the old home.

What will we be able to do with this?

Caught up with the family, briefly, after school and work hours. Daughter was, of course, so excited that we had found a house and confessed later to doing some drives past to peer at it, being frustrated that she could not see much from the street.

A lovely part of staying at the Marong park was the sound from frogs in the adjacent paddock, where there was a dam and swampy area. It was a loud amphibian chorus for much of our time there.

Frog country around the caravan park