This Adventurous Age

Adventures travelling and working around Australia.

Tag Archives: Bright


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2016 Travels April 22

FRIDAY APRIL 22     POREPUNKAH

Cooler today, but the rain had gone.

The first part of the morning was lazy. After my breakfast and coffee, sitting outside, I read for a while. John had a long sleep in. Dog elected to join him in Bus – after I’d done her morning walk, of course.

Then, it was moving day for us. Carried our gear over to the site diagonally behind, then put in the awning and moved Bus around there. I confined Couey – and her loud complaining that we might be going somewhere without her – to the Terios. Nicely muffled.

The new site was better than the one we’d been on, in terms of size. We were now no longer on a corner, with vehicles and vans coming too close to the front corner of Bus. There was more room for the car, and the dog.

New site

The down side was that we were right under some lovely big trees, busily dropping autumn leaves in great volume.

After setting up again, just lazed around for much of the day. John spent time on his laptop. I did some crochet. Not long before we came away, I received a parcel of wool from Bendigo. The crochet patchwork blanket that I’d made, a while ago, for the younger grandson, had been so well received that I had been asked to make a similar one for the family to gift to an expectant friend. We’d agreed they would buy the wool and I’d do the work. I was happy to have the project.

New site before we moved – and before the holiday influx

Around lunch time, new occupants arrived for the site we’d vacated. It appeared they were rather novice campers, as they fuffled around putting  up a brand new tent, trying to work around the cement slab. John took pity on the man who was trying to hammer in tent pegs with a small rock, and took across our block hammer for him to use. It was appreciated.

They turned out to be the advance guard of a group of families – all sub-continental – who arrived, one lot at a time, through till about 9pm. With one exception, they proceede3d to put up tents, occupying seven sites on three sides of us. Almost surrounded! One family occupied a cabin opposite, the man making comments to the others to the effect that camping was not for him – somewhat less politely than this, though. The group set up a gazebo, and a fire brazier – the latter on the site next to us. They were all very nice people but – as one of them said to us, later – “Indians are noisy people.”

The en-suite site next to us was empty overnight.

Mid-afternoon, John felt like a drive, so we set off up the Buckland Valley. More superb autumn tree displays. Apple orchards too, extending towards the flank of Mt Buffalo, in the distance.

Buckland Valley road

We eventually drove out of the farmed parts of the valley and into native forest. Crossed a bridge over the little Buckland River, but did not go much beyond that, after the road turned unsealed. Eventually, this track beside the Buckland River heads up into the Barry Range and onto the High Plains, but this was not an occasion for adventurous rough driving. We backtracked.

Mt Buffalo from Buckland Valley

At Porepunkah, took the Back Germantown Road, that follows the northern side of the Ovens River to beyond Bright. Turned right by Bright and crossed the Ovens River bridge to the main part of town.

Ovens Valley farmland

Located the pizza shop that would provide tonight’s tea. Its menu was amongst the material I’d previously collected at the Visitor Centre. It looked nicely extensive.

Bright

The town was really busy, already.

I did a quick pick up of a couple of items at the supermarket, then we went back to camp, in time for Couey’s afternoon walk and play in the river.

Between Bright and the caravan park, the traffic coming towards us and Bright was a line worthy of peak hour in Melbourne!

The Autumn Festival events began tonight. It was also the start of the long weekend.

New arrivals in the park included some campers who had brought in quad bike type machines on the backs of utes and on trailers. There was a group with lots of trail bikes between them, too. Clearly, the forest trails and fire access tracks in the surrounding mountains were in for a massive assault over the coming days.

By late afternoon, the noise levels in the hitherto peaceful park had risen greatly. And we remembered why we liked to avoid popular places at holiday times! The motorized monstrosities seemingly had to all be turned on to see if they had somehow stopped working since leaving home. Actually, it seemed more like a “mine is louder than yours” competition.

On top of these, and these chatter of the Indians, there were several families with numbers of young children – too many of whom were tearing around the places on bikes. Unfortunately, not all of the kids had been educated in camp ground manners, about things like running through any site they felt like.

The group of trail bike riders had laid claim to the camp kitchen, congregating there to sit round drinking and talking – not cooking – in such a way to make it impossible for others to use it for doing a BBQ or other cooking. Yes – holidays bring forth the worst sort of fellow campers.

John tried to phone our order through to the pizza place, but the phone stayed busy. In the end, he decided to just go and get our meal, and put up with a wait. I wanted a puttanesca pizza and John a hot and spicy one. He had to wait in the very busy shop for nearly half an hour, before collecting them. It cost $43 for the two – of a size I would call medium. They were rather too thinly topped for my liking, especially given the price. The base sauce appeared to just be tomato paste, smeared on – there was lots of it visible between the meagre bits of topping – and only a very light scattering of cheese on my pizza. I think making our own pizzas at home has rather spoiled us for the commercial product.

John phoned a friend from teacher college days, who lives near Bendigo, to see if we could go visit him and park at his place on Sunday. Disappointingly, he wouldn’t be home. So we decided to just make our way home again on Sunday.

John watched football on TV, after dinner. I went to bed early, and read for a while. The background noise of the TV did not keep me awake for long. All this fresh mountain air tires me out!

We both had indigestion through the night.


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2016 Travels April 20

WEDNESDAY APRIL 20     POREPUNKAH

It was another lovely day, with more sight seeing. There was some cloud build up through the day, though.

We set out to drive over the range via the Tawonga Gap, and make a circuit back to Porepunkah. This would take us from the Ovens Valley, over to the Kiewa River valley, and back.

Refuelled the Terios at Bright. No one can accuse these travellers of not spending money locally!

Spent some more at the Snow Farms roadside stall, located at the corner of the Alpine Road and the Tawonga Gap road. A very strategic position. John initially stopped because he wanted to buy some chestnuts. Seems it was chestnut season. These are a product I know little about, except that I tried one years ago and did not like it. He seemed confident that he knew how to prepare and eat them, though. We also bought a couple of half kilo bags of walnuts in the shell – good sized ones, some local Pink Lady and Jonathan apples, and a lot of local garlic. That is something I use a lot of, and much prefer to have the Australian grown product that has not been chemically treated. Overall, a good haul.

Onto the winding, steadily climbing Gap Road. The Terios really handled the hilly, winding roads well. Might be a little car, but it really punches above its weight in terms of versatility.

Tawonga Gap road

Came across a wallaby on the road that appeared as if it had just been hot by a vehicle. A couple of cars had just passed us, heading towards Bright. The poor thing was distressed and had a gaping wound under a front leg. When we slowed the car, it hopped off towards the scrub. There wasn’t anything we could do, except leave it in peace and hope it recovered. At least it was off the road. It put a dampener on our mood though.

Had a couple of stops at lookouts.

At Tawonga Gap

The first one gave detail of the building of the Tawonga Gap road – a slightly unusual history. In the late 1890’s, farmers around Tawonga, in the Kiewa valley, wanted a road built across the range so they could get their produce to the railway at Bright. A deal was done that saw the Bright Shire build the road, after a section of the Yackandandah Shire was separated off and given to Bright. The new road opened in 1896.

Plaque at lookout

There were great views over the Kiewa valley, with its string of little villages along the valley length.

The Kiewa River valley

A short distance further on, another lookout gave us views over Mt Beauty township towards Mt Bogong.

View across the valley towards Mt Bogong

 It really is beautiful country, though winters can be so cold. Daughter worked a few snow seasons at Mt Beauty, over twenty years ago now. Her seasonal job in a ski hire shop dovetailed nicely with her equally seasonal job in an outdoor education camp facility, that closed down over winters.

Mt Beauty township

The trip down the range to the valley was much shorter than the trip up the western side had been.

Think we had a total lapse of focus when we reached the Kiewa Valley Highway. Intended to visit Tawonga South and Mt Beauty, and so should have turned right. But something distracted us and John went left. We were kilometres further on before it occurred to me. Too far to back track. Next time…

Down in the valley…

This morning, we’d discussed including Yackandandah on the round trip. But John thought we could tour that, and Beechworth, on another day. He wanted to head straight to Myrtleford – and a pasty lunch! He was also very keen to visit a machinery sales place he’d noticed there, to find out the price of a little machine that is a combined mower and baby front-end loader. A boy’s toy. He was justifying his interest by saying that it would move rocks for the rock walls he was contemplating rebuilding. News to me! So we took the Happy Valley road to Myrtleford. This was a much less hilly and winding road than the Tawonga Gap one.

On the Happy Valley road

At the Myrtleford Bakery – no pasties! So John bought a pepper pie. The shop sold focaccias filled to order, but just about all their filling containers were empty. It was only 1.15pm too. I got them to scrabble together a cheese, ham and pineapple focaccia from what was left in the containers. It was alright – just. John thinks I am too fussy about lunches. But pastry items play havoc with my gut, and I really dislike claggy white bread.

The machine John was coveting turned out to cost $21,000. He will not be getting one of those! The subject was promptly dropped – forever.

Back to Bus. A Couey walk and river games filled in what remained of the afternoon. At one point she got into a bit of a current in the river, and had to swim and battle a bit, but didn’t panic. She loved it all.

Tea was the same as last night. There was plenty of the bread loaf left, and it was only slightly stale.

I phoned a friend and former work colleague who now lives in Wodonga, and we arranged to meet in Beechworth tomorrow, at midday, for lunch.

On these cold nights, the Bus beds were really cosy and warm to sleep in, despite being a bit on the narrow side.

The area surrounding Porepunkah


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2016 Travels April 18

MONDAY APRIL 18     POREPUNKAH

Last night, after we had relaxed and absorbed some of the atmosphere here, John said he wouldn’t mind extending our stay here longer, maybe even for all of our available time. Seems the idea of packing up and moving further on had lost its appeal. I wasn’t upset by this – I like it here, too, and could always file away the Corryong area for another time.

So after the usual morning dog walk – along the riverside path towards Porepunkah village – I checked with the office. Found we could extend on our current site until Thursday, but on Friday would have to move sites. Even then, could only stay until Sunday morning. Fair enough and actually a bit of a surprise. We hadn’t realized it until our arrival, but the annual Autumn Festival, in nearby Bright, begins on Friday. So accommodation in these parts would be at a real premium. Our site fees would be higher for Friday and Saturday, jumping to $58.50 a night after discount. Still, we counted ourselves lucky to manage a week here.

The day was another beautiful, sunny, warm one.

We drove into Bright. Went to the Information Centre. There, of course, John enquired about bowls and was told of a couple of occasions when he could play, during our planned time here. I, of course, collected some sightseeing information. I bought a jar of local crab apple jelly, to give to our flat tenant for keeping an eye on our place.

John was attracted to a chocolate making establishment in old of the old buildings in the river side precinct and went to investigate. He was hoping there might be a tour and demonstration, but not today. He managed to leave the place without buying any of their product – well done, him.

Bright Chocolate Factory

We parked the Terios down by the Ovens River, in central Bright.

Ovens River in Bright

Couey was soooo anxious to investigate the water, so we let her off the lead at the river’s edge – and she was in. She splashed and cavorted and chased sticks and generally had a great time.

Dog in there

Then we walked around some of the shopping centre, drying out dog, looking in windows, checking out what was there. The area was quite busy.

Everywhere we looked, there were trees in glorious autumn colours – and plenty of fallen leaves about too.

We were standing outside a bakery, trying to work out where to walk next, when a lady asked if this was the only bakery in town? We must have looked like locals – maybe it was the wet dog with us? She said that she and her husband had been recommended to go to the bakery on the edge of town, but they weren’t sure if this was it. She then went on to explain that they were rather wary about where they obtained food here. They had been up to Mt Hotham for a drive and had seen a man lying underneath his caravan, there. He was really ill from food poisoning. Told her he was in the region for a wedding and had eaten at an hotel in Bright. He was too ill to continue driving, and his wife did not drive the rig, so they were rather stranded. Our lady’s husband had offered to drive their rig down the mountain, because she could drive their car. But the sick man and wife dithered around and couldn’t make up their minds what to do, so the people we were talking to had left them to it. When you hear about something like that, it does make you think twice about where you eat.

I took a photo of a sign under a big pine tree: “Beware of large falling cones”. Couey has a passion for finding pine cones and carrying them as we walk, but the area under the tree was without any booty for her.

Stand under at own risk

John was in a mood to explore, so we drove out the Alpine Road, towards Harrietville.

Went into a salmon and trout farm that we came upon, where one can catch their own trout, as well as buy the products. There was a family there, of Middle Eastern appearance, trying their luck in one of the ponds and seeming rather frustrated by the process. John was not inclined to try the fishing. I do not eat trout, anyway – to me it is akin to eating river mud with lots of added bones. Cannot see the appeal. With our recent conversation outside the bakery in mind, I was not tempted into buying any of the salmon pate, or other offerings, so we left again. The shop and office had been unattended anyway.

On the way back to Bright, detoured to have a quick look at the caravan park at Freeburgh. Friend M usually stays there, with friends, for two or three weeks, every summer, and loves the place. We decided that it looked quite pleasant, and it was dog friendly too. Would tuck that one away in the future reference mental file, although I don’t think we could do much better than where we are.

I did a quick trip into a supermarket for some olive oil and a jar of sweet and sour sauce.

Had a late lunch back at Bus, then we took dog for a walk along the riverbank track, towards Porepunkah village. Managed to keep her from trying to clamber down the steep banks to the water, though she clearly wanted to go exploring same. Told her she’d had her water “fix” this morning.

Tea was a chicken sweet and sour stir fry, and rice.

John tried to phone a friend from home, who was holidaying in Bright, with a mind to playing bowls together. But there was not answer.

The nights here were chilly, but Bus was cosy enough, without needing the heater.


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2011 Travels May 4

WEDNESDAY 4 MAY     POREPUNKAH

John had volunteered to do the early morning routine with Couey today, so I could sleep in. Nice of him. However, he needed to ask about things a couple of times, and was in and out of the van several times, so there was actually no hope of me staying asleep! I got up before they were back from the morning walk.

Son’s birthday. I sent him a text.

It was a lovely day, after yesterday’s rain had freshened up the place.

We drove into Bright and parked down behind the Visitor Centre, near the Ovens River.

Ovens River at Bright

Then walked across the nearby bridge and turned onto the Canyon walking track.

from tourism information – route of Canyon Walk

The Canyon is just that – where the river has cut a narrow little course through rock. It is neither all that deep, nor all that long, but made for an interesting walk, having seen historic gold mining activity.

Information board about historic gold mining in the area

Some of the sluice channels cut by miners remained.

The canyon section of the walk; southern track visible to left

M opted to do the full Canyon circuit, which returned her to Bright via the somewhat rugged track along the southern side of the Canyon. John and I opted to continue on to where the former railway bridge crosses the Ovens, and walk back to town along the Rail Trail. This was longer, but easier going.

One of the crossing points

John had Couey off lead for some of the time. She did really well, moving out in front of us a little way, but always watching us, and then running back to the last person to “check” them, before going back to the front. Interesting to see the herding instinct coming out, and being applied to people.

John needed to rest a couple of times on the walk. It really stretched him. We probably did bout 5kms.

Thoughtfully provided seats on the footbridge across the Ovens River

Encountered a man about to set out on a bike ride with a group of school children, from out of town. He commented on our “Smithfield” dog – rather a common error as they both have bob tails. After a bit of a chat about dogs and what we were doing, he invited us to go camp on his cattle property, down towards Cheshunt. He thought he knew the other John and his wife. It was an interesting offer, but I explained that we were planning to follow the Murray downstream.

Met back up with M in town and had a Subway lunch. I went to a gourmet butcher shop and bought some meat and sausages.

In Bright

Back to camp. Couey was worn out and slept all afternoon. I read, and sewed. John napped.

Later, new neighbours moved onto site. Another test for dog. She watched them arrive and set up, but didn’t bark or growl. She really is so good.

John had been thinking about our plans again. Never a good sign. Now, after catching up with the other John, he had decided we should go straight to Broken Hill. His younger daughter had recently moved there for work, and he wanted to visit her. Seemed work was going to take her to Sydney for several days, in twelve days’ time and John wanted to visit before then. He seemed to think we could comfortably get there in one or two days, clearly having no idea of the distances involved – and not wanting to hear any different!

This would put paid to the idea of a slow meander along the Murray, or staying longer in Bright, which I’d have liked. So, it looked like my pleasant holiday would be ending in a couple of days. I was not enthusiastic about the visiting idea. Based on past experiences, daughter would be busy and would have little time to spend with John. It would not be long before there was some sort of angry clash between them, and that would end the visit!

I made spicy marinated pork strips for tea, with potato and zucchini. M shared the marinade with me and we cooked the pork on the BBQ in the camp kitchen.

Phoned son and had a very pleasant chat with him. John phoned his namesake; there was some stuffing around about a possible meeting, but then John handed over to me. We arranged to meet in Myrtleford  tomorrow, for lunch. That got neatly around John’s idea of moving camp to Beechworth.

John phoned daughter. No answer, so he left a message. She often did not answer her phone if she did not feel like talking to him.


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2011 Travels May 2

MONDAY 2 MAY     POREPUNKAH

There was definitely a morning routine developing with dog: up early and ready for morning walk with me.

After breakfast, John helped M change a  tyre that had gone flat on the Troopy. Then we drove into Bright. M took the tyre in for repair – it turned out to be a worn tube, so she had to buy a new one of those.

Went to the Information Centre which was well set up and had a lot of information and things for sale – lots of browsing. John sat outside with dog. Then to the Bright Brewery. No live entertainment today, but M and John sampled the beers. I had a coffee.

Walked around the town for a while. I was looking for the Post Office, to mail a birthday card to son.

Bright had a number of interesting seeming shops. We couldn’t really go browsing in these, because of dog, but it was quite pleasant just walking around. Couey got better every time we took her around people.

Went to Woolworths. John and dog stayed in the car while M and I got various supplies.

Back to the van for a very late lunch.

Took dog for a little walk along the riverside track. Then it was time for happy hour at our van.

Ovens River at Porepunkah

Tea was soup, bacon, eggs, mushrooms, potato, tomato. That was a meal that John really enjoyed.

I had an early night. John watched TV until later. Apparently, he came back from his final trip to the bathroom, to find Couey on the bed beside me, with her head on his pillow! Fast learner that one.


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2011 Travels May 1

SUNDAY 1 MAY     POREPUNKAH

Dog was up and about early, again, so I took her off walking, so John could sleep in, in peace.

After breakfast, we went off driving again, this time to Mystic Mountain, just to the south of Bright. The para gliders yesterday had intrigued John and he wanted to see where they launched from. We followed directions given in some tourist propaganda we’d picked up at the park office.

The designated minor sealed road turned into an unsealed dirt one, with lots of hairpin bends, and quite severe drops to one side. Not my favourite sort of road. At the top was a launch area – a big, cleared, pad with synthetic grass, leading to a steep drop off.

Launch area on top of Mystic Mountain

The outlook from here was pretty good. It was, after all, high up, in order for gliders to catch updrafts and currents that swirled amongst the ranges. Logging tracks in the forests were obvious. I suspected the track we’d come up had started its life as a logging track too.

Recently logged sections on mountains behind Bright

Unfortunately, also obvious were recently logged areas – a real landscape scar. Still, we need timber and if that is gained from pine plantations rather than native forests, I can cope……

Bright and the Ovens Valley from Mystic Mountain

A man arrived not long after us. He assessed the flying conditions as “marginal”. John chatted with him for a while. M and I walked further along, to look at different view angles. He didn’t launch his glider off whilst we were there. Pity – it would have been interesting to watch.

Clearly, dog did not like it when John and I were separated by some distance. She whined and complained. I presumed her pack instincts were kicking in, and she wanted said pack in one place – close!

We set off back down the “hairy” mountain, but detoured along a similar track to get to Huggins Lookout – lower down and closer to Bright.

From that Lookout, there were good views over the town.

Bright from Huggins Lookout

M and I had plans for this afternoon – to visit the Bright Brewery and listen to the live entertainment that would be on there. However, John had other ideas, having spotted the bowls club on our drives around town. He checked it out and discovered there was a game at 1pm today. So, after a quick lunch, he was away.

M and I went walking. Just along from the caravan park there was a little suspension bridge across the river. We took that – Couey wasn’t too sure about it at first, but trusted us, in the end. We intersected with the Rail Trail and followed that, towards Bright, as far as the 3km marker, past the pretty golf club. Then we backtracked to Porepunkah village. At the Rail Trail Cafe, we sat and had coffees. Couey had a bowl of water. I like places that think of dogs.

From there, we crossed on an old bridge, now pedestrian only, and followed the riverside track back to the park. It was a very pleasant, reasonably long walk that I thoroughly enjoyed.

When we got back, John was home from bowls, which had finished unusually early. He’d enjoyed himself and played well. Those two facts were probably linked!

We sat round chatting for the rest of the afternoon, talking about what we might do, after here. The original idea was – if the dog behaved acceptably – to mooch west along the Murray, until we felt it was time to go home. M might then head further on by herself – maybe up to Birdsville. Rutherglen was an attractive first place by the Murray to base ourselves for a few days, M and I thought.

Now, John had the idea that he would like to go and stay at Beechworth for a few days, from Friday next. That would be pleasant enough.

Several years ago, John met a fellow traveller namesake in the remote reaches of the Kimberley. That John hailed from these parts, having grown up in Beechworth, where my John’s parents hailed from, and was some sort of cousin. We had kept in touch. They now lived at Cheshunt. My John wanted to meet up again, to discuss some family history stuff that daughter had told him about. Hence the Beechworth idea. He couldn’t seem to grasp that Cheshunt is actually a considerable distance from Beechworth!

Had soup for tea, and the pasta I’d bought yesterday. I made a tomato and caper sauce to go with it – very nice.

After tea, while watching TV, John ate a lot of the walnuts bought yesterday. I am not sure of the limit of how many walnuts are good for people and how many are too many?

Caravan dog…..


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2011 Travels April 30

SATURDAY 30 APRIL     POREPUNKAH

The dog woke up just before 7am. John had not tied her to the table leg, so she bounced up to us and  onto the bed, doing that “Aren’t you glad to see me?” act. I got up and gave her breakfast and took her for a walk; dog might be a morning creature, but John isn’t. We walked for about half an hour along a trail beside the Ovens River – very pretty. Dog stayed firmly on the lead as I didn’t want to risk her running off in an unfamiliar area.

When we got back, I made a coffee and sat outside. Couey seemed content to be tethered to the van – as long as I was in reach. She surveyed the caravan park activity around us, with interest, but  quite calmly. Very encouraging. M appeared, and that did elicit some excitement; she and dog are already firm friends.

Eventually John got going. After breakfast, we walked along the riverside track to the Porepunkah shops, where I bought a paper. On the way back, I stopped at the site of a couple I “knew” from a caravanning forum site – had known they were camped here for a period of weeks. Made myself known to them. It was nice to finally meet up in person and we chatted briefly.

Porepunkah-Bright area (Google)

The townships of Bright and Porepunkah, only a few kms apart, are located beside the Ovens River, in a valley surrounded by ranges. In this part of the State, settlements and farms follow the little creek and river valleys. The surrounding hillsides are covered by a mix of native forest and plantation pine trees.

The annual Nut Festival was happening this weekend, at Wandiligong, so we drove there. “Wandi” is an interesting, historic village, the location of a minor gold rush back in the 1860’s. This has left its legacy in old buildings and other structures associated with those times. These days there are orchards in the valley, and chestnuts, walnuts and hazelnuts flourish.

We found lots of cars parked in the narrow main street. Figuring they knew what to do, we parked also, and followed a small stream of people walking, eventually getting to the park where the events were – and where there was lots of parking available! How do these herd movements start?

The festival was fairly small and rather disappointing. There were some produce and nut stalls, some food, some live entertainment. Half an hour saw us having been right round the stalls and with really nothing else to do there. One of us had to hold the dog, on her lead, and that really wasn’t conducive to browsing. But she behaved quite well, rather bewildered and a bit scared by all the people – and other dogs.

I bought a kilo of walnuts, in shells, and some home made pasta. John bought a chorizo sausage for his dinner tonight.

On the way back from Wandiligong, we stopped for a few minutes on the roadside, to watch para gliders landing in the adjacent paddock. The area is a centre for this sport, and hang gliding too. The idea of jumping from a great height in the hope of defying the laws of gravity, definitely held no appeal for me.

Went to a supermarket to buy a cask of water, as I’d found the tap supply very heavily chlorinated. There are few things worse than chlorinated coffee. As this was to be a relatively short trip, John had not bothered to refresh the van’s tank water.  Bought some ciabatta rolls too.

The autumn colours in the district were wonderful, as was the crisp, fresh, air.

It was back to the van for a late lunch, after which we sat round reading the paper.

I’d asked the acquaintance couple to our camp for happy hour. M was there too. It was pleasant chatting to them about our respective travels, although it got rather chilly sitting outside, which put a natural end to proceedings.

Tea was soup, followed by sausages in bread rolls. I had a couple of lamb and rosemary sausages, from the freezer, John had the one he bought earlier.

John watched football on TV. I intended to read, in bed, but quickly fell asleep, despite the TV noise.