Family and friends

Tamborine Mountain

| Chris Riley

We’ve now been staying at Tallebudgera Creek on Queenslands Gold Coast for a week, and have booked a further two days. We’re awaiting mail from Perth, but now with so much email, paper mail seems to travel at less than snail speed. We’ve booked a further two days hoping the mail will arrive. If it doesn’t, we’ll try and arrange for the post office to forward on to a future destination.

We’ve caught up with my sister-in-law, Marie and her sister a couple of times. A couple of days ago went out for lunch with them to The Paddock, where we sat under the trees and enjoyed a lovely lunch.

Lunch with Marie.
Lunch with Marie.

Yesterday was a mixed day. It started off not so good with heavy news from England. Paul’s dad’s not doing so well again. He only seems to manage a couple of months on his own before he sinks into his illnesses. Medical tests again indicate his health, while not good, is not at a stage to be causing his current state. We can’t go over again to help pick him up at this stage, so we have to rely on the medical profession over there. Yesterday started with several emails to the health professionals. Today started the same way – whether or not we’re with dad, it’s still almost a full time job, or at least a part time job ensuring he’s getting appropriate care. I’m constantly reminded of the need that every old person needs an advocate. Without one for dad I would fear for him being left at the mercy of the UK medical system. Currently he has us looking out for him, and also Paul’s cousin, Margaret following up on several things in the UK. I don’t know what dad, or we would do without this additional help.

I know there’s always a tendency for people to judge complainants as at least being contributory when things go pear shaped. I have a tendency to judge similarly myself. Whilst I’m not pleased at the pear shape of the medical attention dad has been receiving, particularly in the case of the district nurses, it’s almost refreshing to hear our own complaints and findings being mirrored by Margaret. It’s refreshing because when so many things are going awry, not only do others tend to judge one as being contributory, but one starts to also think the same of oneself.

More worrying news yesterday in relation to the condition and consequently, possible sale of dad’s house.  Goodness knows what we’re to do if the sale falls over. I’m now wishing we’d listed it with an estate agent before leaving the UK. At least then it would already be in someones hands, and we could have kept liaising with the agent to adjust the price until it met the market price for a house in need of attention.

With a bad start to the day and despairing hearts, we headed off up to Tamborine Mountain in the Gold Coast Hinterlands.

Firstly to the Botanical gardens. What a pleasure. An amazing array of gardens and plants. Firstly a beautiful rain forest walk.

Carved owl centaurs to the rain forest walk.
Carved owl centaurs to the rain forest walk.

Then the Japanese garden with inviting paths and bridges winding between gardens and ponds.

Bridges built for walking over, and paths for walking down.
Bridges built for walking over, and paths for walking down.
Lake complete with huge artificial dragonfly.
Lake complete with huge artificial dragonfly.
A water bird also enjoying the tranquility of the gardens.
A water bird also enjoying the tranquility of the gardens.

And throughout the garden contemplative seats overlooking serene vistas with poetic verse to contemplate. My favourite, and appropriate for the day was a quote from John Muir,

‘Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.
Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.
The winds will blow their freshness into you…..
While cares will drop off like Autumn leaves.’

After our time at the botanical gardens we headed to a winery overlooking a lake where we enjoyed a shared trio of dips for lunch. Then a visit to a glow worm cave – very interesting, a walk down the main street of the town which houses some quirky little shops, and then home. We were going to add a couple of short bush walks to waterfalls, but as there were controlled burn offs happening on the mountains the tracks were closed. Next time round perhaps.

By the end of our day enjoying the fresh air and natures mountainous bounty, our cares had certainly dropped off, just like autumn leaves.

A week to go

| Chris Riley

A week today and we should be on our way to Hong Kong. We’ve done about as much as we can do now, I hope it’s enough.

Dad’s still getting used to things. It’ll take him a while to get used to using the communal laundry etc.

We’ve touched base with the solicitor today, and we’re going to do all the liaising in regards to the house sale, right up to the final signing of the contract. The solicitor will make a house call to get that finalised for the final sign off.

A social worker here suggested dad could have dealt with a move on his own with just the help of a removalist. Seeing what’s been involved, the mind boggles. We’ve done almost everything, and still dad seems to be walking around in a bit of a daze. To deal with it all alone would have been devastating. Although we know we’re leaving him in a better place, we’re still a little worried about leaving him at all. . But I suspect no matter how long we stay here, it’s not until we leave that he’ll find his feet in his new home. Speaking of finding his feet, I’m pleased to see he’s finally using his walking stick. That’ll make a big difference to his stability, and consequently his independence.

We’re going to try and give his kitchen a quick paint freshen up on the weekend. We have been trying to match the paint colour for a couple of spots that needed touching up. We’ve not been able to find a match though, so will give a quick one coat re-paint in the closest match we can get.

Pauls got the flu, so the last few things are really doing him in a bit. I hope he doesn’t pass it onto his dad, or me, and I hope he’s over the worst of it before we fly next Tuesday.

The home stretch

| Chris Riley

Dad moved into his new flat on Tuesday. It all happened so fast, and initially he seemed a little shell shocked. He seems be settling in now though, and says he’s sleeping better than ever.

image

The house sale looks like it’ll go ahead, and our little Yaris has been sold. We’re now in a hire car until we leave, which all going well will be in only nine more days. It’s been like a whirlwind here, but we’re almost at the end now. It’s amazing what we humans are capable of when we set our minds to it. We feel like we’ve been running on adrenaline for so long now, with this house, and not so long ago, our house in Tassie. I hope we don’t collapse in a heap as soon as we get to relax again.

It’s going to feel a lot better going home leaving dad in the flat rather than rambling around in his big old house. He won’t be so isolated, and he’s closer to shops and medical facilities. It’s all strange for him, but I think he’s already feeling it’s a life change for the better.

Many days and many miles later….

| Chris Riley

Wow! It’s been a long time between posts, a long time and more than 10,000 miles in fact.

The house was finished and photographed for listing on the rental market. It’s a totally different house than the one we moved into in June, and I’m pleased to say, the agent has now found a tenant.

Tom and Paul finished the shed without any hitches. We had all our belongings locked up inside and the house listed for rent by the the 10 October. We then spent a relaxing two days with my sister, Wendy, before flying over to Melbourne. We spent another two days there relaxing before the long haul flight to Manchester. After having crammed three months worth of renovations into three weeks, those few days of relaxation were so, so welcome.

Fast forward another two weeks – Paul’s dad, Glyn, came out of respite the day after we arrived and he’s improved remarkably since then. I have him (and us) on a low salt, high iron diet, and I think it’s helping considerably. He has a good appetite (that’s putting it mildly), and I certainly don’t have him on a calorie restricted diet. Yet he’s managed to lose approximately 6 kgs, which must be from fluid loss attributable to the lower salt. Previously he was buying pre packed meals, canned soups etc and warming them in the microwave. Not really the thing to be eating when you’re retaining copious amounts of fluid and are supposed to be on a low salt diet.

With his heart problems, fatigue is inevitable. Apparently, his heart is weakened so it struggles to get sufficient oxygen around his system. I figured high iron levels can only help, so we’re having one meal of liver each week, one meal with a lot of kidneys incorporated, and I’ve frozen lots of small pieces of liver to add to soups and sauces. We also eat copious quantities of fresh veges. We’ve always eaten more veges than most people I know but now we’re eating much more than we normally eat. It’s amazing how many veges you can get into a blended soup.

Thank goodness for my Thermo-mix. Yes – I brought it over with me. It’s invaluable for blending liver into sauces and soups, and works just like a stock cube for adding flavour. Tonight we had chicken cooked with a mushroom sauce. To make the sauce I used the thermo-mix to cook onion, garlic, celery, a few chunks of liver, a tomato and two large mushrooms. When cooked, I blitzed it all with a small amount of cream, and then added it to a cooked chicken thighs and sliced mushrooms. The liver was totally unrecognisable as liver, and it didn’t taste half bad, even if I do say so myself.

Sticking to a low salt diet means very little pre-bought products. Reading the labels on packaging, there’s way to much salt plus the dreaded corn syrup in so many things. Wow, how clever marketing is. The marmalade Glyn normally buys is marketed as having a reduced sugar content. Reading the label, sugar is listed third behind ‘fructose/sucrose syrup’ (another name for corn syrup). So, sugar has been replaced with dreaded corn syrup. Thanks, but no thanks – I’d rather take care of my liver. I’ll be pleased when they put back the sugar, and leave the fat in milk, yogurt etc back where it belongs. And now I’ll get off my bandstand….

Anyway, between shopping, cooking and gardening we’re keeping busy. The garden was very overgrown when we arrived. The lawn, which was almost a foot high has now been cut, the gardens have been weeded, re-planted and mulched for winter, and we’ve removed a lot of the moss from the paths.

dads back garden

Now with things sorted in the house, and with Glyn currently doing so well, we’re hopeful of being able to take advantage of our time here to experience England in more detail, and also to get to see some of Europe.

On the horizon at the moment:

This Monday, a night in the Yorkshire Dales.

A Week-end in Norwich and an opportunity to catch up with Kerriann. We were hoping to do that next week-end, but then we realised we have a Bridge commitment with our good friends Joan and Gordon on the Sunday, so perhaps we’ll have to put that off to the following week-end.

Early in December we’re hoping to have 3 – 4 nights in Prague. Prague apparently has the best Christmas markets in Europe, and being a bit of a Christmas freak, I can’t miss that opportunity.

And then before you know it, Christmas will be here. There’s talk that this year England may get a rare ‘white christmas’. That would be rather special…

Pictures from Bay of Fires, and Pub in the Paddock

| Chris Riley

After Bicheno we travelled up to the Bay of Fires and camped a night. Gorgeous, but the sand was very boggy so walking on the beach was difficult. For us, beach walks are the main purpose of being at a beach, so nice to look at, but not so great for any long time stays on this occasion. We will give it another try another time, perhaps different tides will compact the beach for better walking.

Bay of Fires.
Bay of Fires.

Next on for our night at the Pub in the Paddock. A fabulous ‘pub grub’ meal at a reasonable price. No new calves to be seen on the way there though.

'The Pub'.
‘The Pub’.
In the Paddock.
In the Paddock.
And us camped there - what a gorgeous view out the back window.
And us camped there – what a gorgeous view out the back window.

We then moved up to Beauty Point on the North West side of the Tamar River and have been here for a week. Kelv has been staying here, so we’ve spent this week with him. We’ve enjoyed his company, and I think he’s enjoyed a week of being looked after by the ‘Jiffy Van’. For those of you who aren’t aware of what a ‘Jiffy Van’ is – Jiffy vans are mobile lunch shops that visit industrial areas in Perth. He’s now had all his clothes washed, and has had a week of home cooked meals, which I’m sure he’s appreciated as he’s been working 11 – 12 hour days. Once a mother, always a mother eh!

The orchard he’s working at is now letting him move his caravan onto the farm so as they can have an older person there supposedly keeping the younger tent back- packers under control. I wish them luck with that, he’s more likely to lead them astray than keep them under control, LOL!!!! He’s moved there today.

Next for us is a visit to Stanley on the North Coast.

Catching up with friends

| Chris Riley

It’s been sometime since I’ve written here. We’ve been busy catching up with friends, and I hadn’t realised how long it’s been since I last wrote until a good friend from England let me know yesterday. Apologies to anyone who has been wondering where we are, and what we’re doing.

We spent close to two weeks down at Magra. Our friends from Perth, Marina and Terry’s son, Iain, has a few acres in Magra with their house, and a chalet on it. Marina and Terry are currently staying in the chalet, so we plugged our van in next door to them. We had a great time, eating too much and drinking more than we usually drink – but hey, that’s what happens when you’re catching up with friends.

Iain and Barbara’s place is amazing (but what isn’t amazing on this little Island). Magra is in a valley and is completely surrounded by hills. Although it’s summer, the nights were often cold with mist shrouding the hills in the morning, very, very pretty. Iains property has a vege garden, chooks and abundant fruit trees laden with fruit. We had the sweetest plums picked fresh from the trees each morning on our cereal, feasted on apricots during the day, ate eggs with the most orange yolks I’ve ever seen in eggs, and herbs, squash and zucchini from the garden were frequent additions to our meals.

I hate to prattle on about food, but it seems every where you go on this little island you see fruit trees with branches almost weighed down to the ground  with more fruit than any one family could possibly eat , and lots of people have veges growing in their gardens. We don’t know many people here, but frequently we’re being given fresh produce from someones garden. Even the owners of the caravan park we’re currently staying in invited us to their house for morning tea last week-end and we came home with a big bag of fresh nectarines from their garden. But I digress…. What did we do, and where did we go while we down in Magra.

In the first few days we visited Peta, an old friend from Perth who now lives here in Tassie. Peta re-married a few years ago, and this was the first time we’ve had an opportunity to meet her husband Ron. Peta and Ron left Perth a few years ago in a yacht to sail the seas, which they did for a little over a year. They sailed into a little place at the south of Tassie, loved it, and decided to make a new home for themselves there – not an unusual occurrence here – we hear similar stories from people where ever we go. It seems this place understandably captures many people’s hearts.

Anyway, we had a lovely lunch with Peta and Ron, and enjoyed catching up immensely at their property down in Middleton. Their house is amazing, also on a small acreage. They overlook Middleton Beach, although their view is a little obscured by a few too many trees lining the beach. Peta tells me every time there’s a strong wind she hopes it will take out a couple of the trees.

Marina and Terry took us to Richmond which is one of the many heritage listed villages in Tassie. It’s a lovely place, and we can’t wait to visit it again. It’s sometimes hard to do justice to a new place when you’re visiting with people who have been there before. It’s not easy to get the balance between doing justice to our own visit without it all becoming a total bore for the people with you that have seen it all before. We found the best way was to have a quick look with a mental note to re-visit at another time.

Marina had her birthday while we down there, so we shared the costs of a unit in a little place called Eagle Hawks Neck to celebrate her birthday in style. Eagle Hawks Neck is the narrow strip of land between most of Tasmania and Port Arthur. Port Arthur was a penal colony when Australia was first settled, and is now probably one of the most visited tourist destination in Tassie. As the neck is such a narrow area, they confined the prisoners in Port Arthur with a row of guard dogs across the neck.

Sitting on the balcony of our unit at Eagle Hawks Neck.
Sitting on the balcony of our unit at Eagle Hawks Neck.

We spent a few hours there, and purchased a two year pass to enable further visits. There’s far to much to see on just one visit.

Sadly though, Port Arthur is also the place of the infamous Port Arthur massacre which took place less than two decades ago and made news all over the world. The site of the massacre was a sobering place for silent reflection on the senselessness of it all. There are no words to describe what it felt like to realise we were in the same place dozens of people had been such a short time ago, doing the same things they were doing only to have their lives mercilessly cut short by some crazy gun man. No words at all….

I’m sure Marina and Terry had probably had enough of us by the time we left.We’re now back up in the north of the state staying at a little place called Longford.

Today we picked up my sister Wendy and we went up the Tamar river to a place called Beauty Point and again had lunch with Peta and Ron, who are moored there for a few nights in their yacht. They’re currently on a six week sail around the Island. How celubrious that was, sitting on the deck of their yacht, Finesse, sipping wine and eating lunch moored on the picturesque Tamar River. We’re hoping to catch up with Peta and Ron again in a few weeks when they reach Strahan. Strahan is another favourite place in Tassie for locals and tourists alike, so having a reason to get there soon is something we’re really looking forward to.

More news. Our son Kelv is currently on his way to Tassie. He’s booked onto the ferry to come across on Sunday night, so Monday we’ll be catching up again. How exciting is that!!!  It’s hard to imagine that life could get any better.

Apologies for the lack of photos – we’re having a little trouble dropping photos into the blog. Where is our grand son, Tim when we need him! He’d have it sorted for us in no time at all, and I’m sure he’d also show us how to enlarge the photos we do manage to drop in so as to show them full sized. One day…..

Tassie

| Chris Riley

We’ve been here a week now after a pleasant sail across on the Spirit of Tasmania last Tuesday night. We drove down to Deloraine the first day, and nine days later are still here.

Deloraine is perfectly located for so many things. How do I start describing Tassie. Goodness, I could write book, a really lovely book, and it’s still only the first week.

Meander River from bridge in Deloraine.
Meander River from bridge in Deloraine.

We’ve been to Launceston several times, we’ve driven up to the North Coast and had a look at Wynyard, we’ve done a quick drive around the Vineyards in the Tamar Valley, we’ve had a look at Mole Creek, we’ve driven down the Great Lake which is around the middle of the Island. Okay, so that’s where we’ve been, but what have we been doing and seeing …..

Firstly, what’s amazing about the above places we’ve visited for a snap shot look is that all those places are within an hour or twos drive at most from Deloraine, and we’ve probably covered close to 1/4 of the Island. Nothing is far away if you base yourself in the right place.

The stand out highlights so far have been firstly, catching up with my sister. Wendy lives in Launceston which is only 45 mins from here, so we’ve managed several catch up visits. Yesterday we hooked up for a trip to Lilydale Falls for a picnic. It was only a short walk into the falls which were very pretty. Then, after we had our picnic lunch Wendy took us to a ‘pick your own’ blueberry orchard. That was amazing and Im sure rural France couldn’t have felt better. We ate our way down the rows of trees whilst at the same time filling our buckets with plump, fresh, sun ripened blueberries. We gathered 6 kgs, at a total cost of $39. It just doesn’t get any better than that. Our freezer has enough to keep us going for many months and we have enough fresh blueberries in the fridge to binge on over the next few days.

Wendy and I at Lilydale Falls.
Wendy and I at Lilydale Falls.
Blueberry picking, - how good is that!
Blueberry picking, – how good is that!

Today we took a drive down to the Great Lake which is around the centre of the country and about half way between Deloraine and New Norfolk (near Hobart). We’re going down to a place called Magra, near New Norfolk this Saturday to catch up with our good friends Marina and Terry.

On the way back we visited Liffey Falls again. We first went there in 1995, so nearly 20 years between visits. It’s an easy hike down a walking track shaded with trees and ferns, and brimming with fungi, moss and all the other gorgeous plants you’d expect in a cool rain forest. The falls are gorgeous.

Liffey Falls.
Liffey Falls.

Christmas in Adelaide

| Chris Riley

Being a bit of a Christmas freak every common room in our house has traditionally been decked out with trees, bells, tinsel or some other form of chintzy Christmas ornamentation. Packing up our belongings for the big road trip meant most of the Christmas collection had to go along with everything else. We did manage to find room in our van though for most of my collection of father christmas ornaments that used to adorn our tree, and a treasured table carousel given to me by the grand sons for Christmas one year. A few of my father christmas tree ornaments were too good to risk bringing, so they are safely wrapped up and are stored amongst our two small plastic crates which house the few items we decided to keep.

Our house decorated in Christmas's past.
Our house decorated in Christmas’s past.
Outdoors.
Outdoors.
Even the loo wasn't forgotten.
Even the loo wasn’t forgotten.

This year only our annex is decorated simply with two strings of Father Christmas tree ornaments suspended across the ceiling, a Christmas table cloth, and my Christmas carousel ornament.

It was a pleasure to have Chris, Clare, Luka and Em join us for our first Christmas in our home on wheels away from Perth.

It was a ‘no fuss’ day. Dinner was oysters, a festive roast and an ice-cream bomb. All simple with most of it prepared the day before. We sat around and chatted for most of the afternoon over a drink or two before having an early evening dinner. Of course there were the obligatory Christmas cracker hats and jokes (yes, all heard before, but cause for a chuckle all the same).

After dinner Emma and Luka were tiring from their long day, so we turned TV on in our bedroom and they seemed to enjoy the novelty of watching a well repeated Christmas movie lying on our bed in the van. Chris, Clare and ourselves played a board game. It was a game that involved spacial awareness, and spacial awareness is certainly not one of my stronger attributes. However, I won two out of the three games we played, so either it was beginners luck on my part, or the others really, really suck at spacial awareness. I suspect it was the former!

Now looking forward to New Years Eve. We’re only a couple of kilometres from Brighton Pier, where fireworks are let off. We should get a good view of them from the beach in front of the van park.

Shortly after that we’re going to move on towards Tasmania. A little earlier than planned, but we will have been in Adelaide for about a month by then, and that’s the beauty of this life – as soon as you feel it’s time for a change of scenery, it’s up wheels and off.

A long time between beaches

| Chris Riley

We’re now camped alongside the beach at Brighton Caravan Park in Adelaide. It’s very, very pleasant.

It’s been a long time since we were last able to walk along a beach and swim in the sea, not since Broome, in June. We had a very short stay near the coast at Nelson Bay, and a couple of day trips to the coast at both Yamba and Coffs Harbour. It was winter though, and therefore didn’t really count. I don’t think I’ve been away from the coastline for this long before in my whole life, and I don’t think I’m likely to be away from it again for this long a second time. I really missed it!

We’ve now been in Adelaide a week. The heavy duty clutch has been fitted to the car. A made to measure mattress has been ordered for the van. A replacement awning has been organised after our current one was damaged in a hail storm at Pinnaroo. Our Christmas shopping is done, and we’ve both treated ourselves to a bit a of wardrobe update for the coming summer. So that’s all the business taken care of.

Now we can get down to the business we signed up to do when we took on the ‘Grey Nomad’ lifestyle – walking on the beach, swimming, more walking on the beach, a bit of sight seeing, more walking on the beach, reading books, playing cards, meeting people, and of cause, more walking on the beach….

We went into the Botanic Gardens yesterday, a lovely place to walk. Then we met up with Chris (Paul’s 2nd cousin), Clare, Luka and Emma for a light dinner at the surf club next door to the caravan park. Chris and Clare had just completed a ‘tough mudder’, fund raiser (I think that’s what it was called). They both looked normal before the event, and still normal after it. However, I’m sure their looks must be deceiving as from what they told us is involved in the event, you’d have to have rocks in your head to even contemplate it – running through mud, and up steep, slippery, mud and water soaked high walls, diving into and swimming under submerged beams in an ice filled water pond, and scrabbling under live, electric currents where getting shocked was inevitable….. I think it was a couple of hours of what sounds like nightmarish hell to me.

Anyway, they both completed it and didn’t look any worse for it afterwards, and I believe it was all for a very good cause. Kudos to them both and to everyone else who took part in the event. I would never have been capable of completing any such thing at any stage of my life to date, and if there’s lives to follow this one, I’m sure it won’t be on my list of, ‘must do’ things then either, LOL!!

We’ll start having a good look around Adelaide, and this part of South Australia soon, hopefully getting to one of the nearby wine regions sometime later this week. Then, before we know it, Christmas will be here.

We’ll be spending our first Christmas on the road with Chris, Clare, Luka and Emma. They’re coming here for the afternoon, and we’re hoping the weather will be obliging for swimming and perhaps a game of bouchee on the beach before dinner. Of course, if the weather isn’t up to it, we can always suggest a card game of infamous, ‘spoons’. I’ll make sure my finger nails are short….