This Adventurous Age

Adventures travelling and working around Australia.

Tag Archives: family


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2019 Life and Travels December

This became a really social month – much more so than our old norm.

With the neighbours from each side, sampled one of the Thai restaurants in town. Bendigo is so well endowed with interesting and great places to eat. It was such a hot month. The restaurant was quite crowded and the A/C was barely coping. Maneuvering neighbour’s wheelchair to our table was a challenge – it is a rather crammed place. But the food was great, for those that like Thai. Not all of our neighbours do, it turned out.

The older Bendigo grandson departed for Europe, with a touring hockey playing group. They would play matches in France, Spain and England, returning in time for the new school year.

Mid-month we hosted a family get together. Son and family from Melbourne. Extended Bendigo family. Friend M, who came up early to help me prepare the food, assisted by daughter and partner’s mother and aunt. Plenty of lovely food: afternoon nibbles included John’s order of party pies! Cold meats, seafood, salads. Usual fruit salad and trifle for dessert, with the addition of a cheesecake  turned into a birthday cake for me – present from daughter-in-law.

Part of the party spread

My birthday “cake”

It was a great afternoon and night, though too hot – the Perspex panels inset in the patio roof allow too much sun in at certain times of the day!

Three generations

The guests returned for brunch on Sunday morning: juices, leftover fruit salad, avocado and fetta on sourdough toast, bacon, French toast, waffles with maple syrup and icecream, plenty of brewed coffee.  With a cake, we made an early birthday celebration for grand daughter, who would turn 18 next month.

Grand daughter’s birthday cake

Guests, except for M, had all departed by mid-afternoon. What a great weekend it had been. M stayed an extra few days, then departed back home, for her round of festive season celebrations – the annual party for the unit complex where she lives., then came back here for Xmas itself.

Daughter and family had Xmas Day with her partner’s extended family, as happens every two years, so it was just the three of us for my Xmas lunch of roast turkey thigh and vegies, with Xmas pudding dessert. But we enjoyed it together. Then went to the neighbours’ for late afternoon drinks.

One of my step daughters came to stay a night after Xmas. That was a fraught visit, as she was attempting to deal with much nastiness and acrimony from the break up of what had been an abusive marriage. Clearly, the divorce was going to be a really difficult time for her, especially with children being used as weapons against her. Times like that, one feels quite powerless.

Son, wife and his children drove from Melbourne to Narooma on Xmas Day, to visit with her mother there. M went home on 30th. We hoped she was seriously considering the benefits of moving up here!

Friend M at the family party

Our New Year’s Eve was quiet – and sad. I was becoming quite worried about son and family, in Narooma, with bushfires spreading in that area.


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2006 Travels March 30

THURSDAY 30 MARCH   HOME TO BENDIGO   230kms

John declared that he wanted us to be ready to leave by 1pm. Fine by me, and I was all ready to go by then, but John’s packing went on and on……..The gear in the back of Truck and the boot of the van, his clothes, and such like.

He decided to take Truck to the local servo and fill it before the van went on the back. He also filled the jerry can we carry as reserve diesel – and which occupies a key position in back of Truck and affects the sequence of packing.

He couldn’t find one of our gas bottles. Finally worked out that he had left it over at son’s place, where we had earlier done some renovation work for them. Phone call ensued. Son’s wife brought it over.

We finally left at 3.30pm! There were fond farewells to the old cat who, once again, we were not sure we would see again. The poor house sitter had been waiting until we left, before she could get her car out to go down the street to buy provisions for her lunch!

After all the tension, at least we had a straight forward run to Bendigo. The usual way via Yea.

At daughter’s place, we backed the van down their side driveway, and stayed hitched up. This was the first time we had done this, rather than stay in a caravan park. Daughter wanted us to do this, so we would see a bit more of grandson.

Their drive had a distinct down slope, which would make it very hard to hitch van back on again, should we separate the two. The cost was that we slept on a lean!

Daughter and grandson – now three – had just gotten home, so they saw us arrive with the van. I thought that might help the youngster begin to understand what we did with the van, seeing it mobile.

We had an enjoyable couple of hours with the boy, before he went to bed.

Resize of Aaron and us 4

Over summer, daughter had requested that John make the boy a bed, in the shape of a Ford racing car. Both his mother and her partner have  Fords. John had duly made same – he had fun doing so. Earlier, the family had come down for a visit and brought S’s work van, and transported the new bed  back to Bendigo. She was to make and put the decals onto the bed that John had painted blue.

We had not seen the finished product. It looked very impressive. He is a clever man with wood. Grandson was obviously very happy with it.

Resize of Ford bed 2

After tea with the family, we retired to the van. They go to bed really early. Then John realized that he had forgotten his blue expanding file box, that had all his taxi licence documents and photocopies in. The same photocopies he had sent me off to get done and certified yesterday! Grrr…..

After some “discussion” it was decided that we would contact friend M and get her to call in and collect it – she was planning on meeting up with us, at Adels, to work there too.

Resize of 03-30-2006 to b home