1st – Lovely blue sky so I got the washing done early then after I had hung it all out a dark cloud came over and rained on my washing! Disadvantage of being beside the hill and surrounded by trees – bit hard to see the weather coming.
Hair cutting day for Steve, Dad and Mum – saving heaps on hair-dressing and podiatrists now for Mum and Dad.
Nice lunch of hot soup as it is cold and miserable. Then baking time to top up the cookies and slices. Made some ‘fudgy wudgies’ for our boys and Steve’s brother, Brian. Steve, Mum and Dad had some for afternoon tea too.
Something has happened with Mummy Sunbird and her babies as she was feeding one day and now has disappeared. Maybe the nasty ‘drongo’ bird got her babies or something else happened. Sad but that’s nature.
Work is getting busier as the kids buy more food and drinks. Must be the extra money families are getting due to the CoVid19 Pandamic economy supplements. It has been crazy – we don’t even get time to sit down to eat our lunch!
7th – Warmer day, 29 degrees. Another big day at work – like a Red Day, where we can sell softdrink and chocolates.
8th – Morning tea with the Melbourne Cup girls to celebrate Wendy’s birthday – she is having a wonderful birthday couple of weeks.
9th – Lunch with Kaylene, Rick, Steve and Sandra at Palm Cove. Very nice except for all the CoVid19 sign in rules etc – the way things will be for a while yet.
Home for a cuppa with Greg and Kristine.
10th – Baking cookies and slices after lunch. Rebecca arrived for a cuppa and freshly baked cookies.
Received an email from Sam at Styromax – they should start building the camper next week and will send us some photos.
13th – 37th Wedding Anniversary – where have the years gone. Decided not to go out for dinner but celebrate it at home with Mum and Dad and a nice Shepherds Pie.
15th – Supercars are racing again – this time in Darwin. They had to travel up and quarantine for two weeks so there will be two weekends of racing with three races on each weekend to catch up on all the race meetings they have had to cancel due to CoVid. It was on free-to-air TV so we watched it here rather than on Foxtel at Brian’s.
16th – Today, 6 years ago, we said farewell to our family and friends at the Esplanade and headed off in our van to explore Australia. Well we have seen a lot but there is still so much to see and we look forward to being free to travel again once they sort out this virus that has Australia locked up.
Whilst
hanging out the washing I noticed a very long snake skin on the wire mesh out
the back near where the big one was that was caught by the snake catcher. So he
had a mate! Steve climbed up and got it down – 3 metres long. I remember
hearing a noise yesterday when we were watching TV in the van and thought it
was Dad having a wander – must have been the snake.
Kaylene and Rick popped in for a cuppa.
Daniel, Jonathon and Annalise along with Greg and Brian joined us for dinner to celebrate Steve’s birthday on the 18th. Steve got more grog as presents and Jon gave him Korean chicken wings as his present – yummy.
I
hung up a sheet to get some photos – first of us in our ‘2 geckos travelling’
shirts the boys gave us when we left 6 years ago.
Then the family ones.
Brian,
Steve and Greg
Us
and Annalise & Jon
Dan,
us and Jon – suck that tummy in Steve.
Us
and Daniel – sadly Fran was not feeling well so will have to get a photo of her
and Dan next time.
Us
with my parents, Lena and Alex then with our boys too.
I
got out the Tripoli (Calianti) board/box that Margit made for me years ago –
complete with all the one and two cent pieces for us to bet with. We had a
great time.
Of
course there was cake too.
18th – Steve’s 61st birthday – posted up photos from Sunday night on Facebook and he received lots of lovely messages from family and friends. It is also Amanda’s birthday so we gave her a call – recovering from shoulder surgery isn’t quite the birthday she would have wanted.
Valerie had messaged that Kirsten was doing well after her operation so I rang her and we chatted away for a while. Margaret had texted asking for my recipe for my zucchini slice so I rang her back to a chat too. Leanne and Rick rang to wish Steve a happy birthday – so lovely to hear from them both too.
19th – Kerry and Brian popped in for a cuppa. So great to see them both again.
20th – Another big day at work. Rochelle and Wendy are away so I had to step into Rochelle’s job for the day and do the ordering etc. Glad I had the other girls to help me – been 6 years since I had to do that job!
21st – Red Day at Tuckshop. Luckily Wendy is back so we had the extra person as it was frantic again.
Steve headed off after lunch to the Palmer River with Greg Nolan. Greg is going to buy ‘Pat’ so he and Brian followed Steve up in that as Greg hadn’t been up there before. Rick and two friends were joining them too to finish off the adjustments to his machine.
Sam
sent photos of our camper with its walls up – exciting.
22nd - Pete had given Steve a big pumpkin so I cooked up half of it as pumpkin soup – yummy.
Nice afternoon at the shops with Rebecca and Wendy.
Kaylene joined us for dinner of pumpkin soup and toasted sandwiches since Rick was away with Steve.
23rd – Lovely sunny day with a gusty breeze – lovely to sit outside and get a bit of sun.
Graham and Sharon called in for afternoon tea. They will head up Cape York now it is open. Steve’s cousin has just returned so we will hopefully catch up with them in early September. Steve arrived home just as Graham and Sharon were about to leave.
Steve’s photos from the Palmer – they had a good time though the spare wheel decided to jump out on the way back and he and Greg Nolan had to spend a while climbing down a hill to retrieve it! They explored the historical sites.
There were a few horses about too.
Next historic site. Amazing to think of how they managed to transport all this equipment into this remote area.
My
brother Greg is buying ‘Pat’ so this is his first trip away in it.
The
once busy township of Maytown.
Only
bricks remain of the bakery and a few bottles of the many hotels that were
here.
Steve
took them to Frank’s place to see the ‘new’ museum they have set up, higher on
the hill away from the flood waters.
Very dry up there now though with no water in the Palmer River and the North Palmer only has some pools.
24th
– Steve saw two recliners and footstools on Facebook that were cheap ($100
each) and looked like we could use them in the camper. He got hold of the chap
and they were still available to he drove around and bought them. The material
has a few nicks but overall they are in great condition. I shifted Mum’s lounge
around (not the most comfortable lounge now) and we set up out chairs and
footstools. Might even be able to nod off in these ones while we are watching
Midsomer Murders etc!!
One
of Dad’s orchids has flowers emerging – beautiful.
Margaret
sent a photo of the ‘little red car’. She said ‘spot the difference’ – it had a
number plate. At last they can go for little jaunts – Margaret will need a long
red scarf and Bob a cute little cap to look the part!
Sophie and Nathan called in for a drink and chat about heading up Cape York. It was definitely on their travel list after we took Sophie’s parents, Malcolm and Kerry, up there in 2018. They had just made it into Queensland and had a job organised at Esk when CoVid19 was bad so they stayed there for 5 months but wanted to see some of Queensland so continued north. Nathan has work in Mackay from Oct to Dec with a sugar mill so they will base themselves there for the summer – being from Tassie they will struggle with the humidity here. We offered for them to leave their van here with us for their trip to Cape York.
27th – Sophie and Nathan arrived and parked up the back with us. They got to sorting out their gear and packed up their truck ready for a few weeks up the Cape.
We had fish and chips for dinner – home made of course with fresh corn on the cob. Malcolm rang to chat and wish Sophie and Nathan a good trip and remind them to watch out for those big things with teeth!!
28th – Showers of rain throughout the day.
I bought a new lap top as mine is starting to misbehave. It has done well for 7 years whilst we travelled. Steve is making up a shopping list of things we need for the camper.
On Styromax’s Facebook they had a Friday Factory video of all the customer jobs happening in the workshop. They showed our van and a short time-lapsed video of the walls being erected. Very exciting. They are still waiting for the pop-top frame.
29th
– Visited Valerie and Russell for afternoon tea to celebrate her 60th
birthday which is on the 31st. Lauren and Dean had their pop-top van
there too which we checked out. They are planning a trip around Queensland over
the Christmas holidays with their two children then in 2022 they would like to
have 8 months travelling Australia. Let’s hope the CoVid thing is sorted out by
then so we can all hit the road. Had a great time chatting. Lauren had
organised a beautiful cake complete with real flowers that you can eat! We just
stuck to the cake.
Due
to CoVid we don’t blow out candles any more – you clap your hands to put out
the flame, and it worked!
Valerie’s
mum, Val, came up from Brisbane too for the celebration. Only Kirsten and Simon
are missing from the family photo as they live in Perth.
30th – Amanda, our next door neighbour came up with her neighbour, Quita. Amanda’s mother had just passed away aged 91 and she had a ‘comfort’ cat for her dementia. They thought Dad might like to have him as he loves cuddles with Amanda’s real cat, Alan and pats of her dog, Ella. Dad took to him straight away. He is movement activated so meows, purrs, blinks, licks its paws and even does a bit of a roll over so you can scratch its tummy. So life-like that Dad thinks it is real and was concerned when I put him on a table that he might fall off. I found a brush so as its coat needs a comb which he loved doing. It is such a lovely gift and Dad will love it – we named it ‘Socks’ as it has 4 white legs.
I popped down the shop and got some flowers to say thanks and as a
condolence gift for her mother’s passing.
