14-17 Dec, 2024 Bob & Margaret’s place, Dawesville, WA

Sat, 14^th

Blue sky and a few clouds this morning. Lots of birds starting their morning chorus far too early! BOM says we are only getting to 23 today. It only got down to 21 last night and at 7.30am it was already 26 in the camper so something went wrong with their prediction.

Jakob’s birthday - sent him a message to enjoy his day.

Put my washing on then helped Margaret put up her Christmas tree and fairy lights along the verandah. We had a cuppa with her then she headed in to see Bob in hospital.

Steve dropped the oil out of the automatic again as it was still a bit dirty. He also added another oil cooler to help keep the temp down while we don’t have the lock-up clutch working on the torque convertor.

Quiet afternoon reading and uploading my blog. Washing all dried and put away.

Clouded over in the late afternoon - didn’t get much hotter than 26. Bob doing well though hanging out to get home again.

 

 

Sun, 15^th

Overcast morning with a short misty shower of rain.

We went for a walk to the Cut and back - windy but at least there were no flies today.

When we got back home Margaret had gone - Bob had rung to come and get him out of hospital. They said he was good to go home - amazing. He has two crutches and a neat straight bandage down the front of his knee and no pain.

I updated my Big Map as I could spread out on the patio table upstairs. 10 years of travelling as well as the trips we did previously so lots of roads marked off.

Had a lovely chat with Kaylene today. She is glad to be on holidays.

The sky cleared and there is a cool breeze. Another 26 degree day.

 

 

Mon, 16^th

18 degrees min but warming up quickly even though it is cloudy.

Steve found a broken bracket on the exhaust so another maintenance job to do. At least he has Bob’s workshop to get things fixed up. Always maintenance whether you have a home in one place or one on wheels.

I went for a walk to Coles for a couple of things I missed. Lots of blow up Christmas decorations about.

Margaret and I started the 500 piece jigsaw Linda had given me. Margaret likes doing jigsaws too and has a few that she kept together by gluing them. It didn’t take us too long.

After lunch Uncle John rang - ESP, I was going to ring him tomorrow. Had a lovely chat - he sounds well and will have the family there for Christmas so I will ring to say to everyone then.

Photos came through of the Christmas stockings I made for my darlings - hanging on their trees. Next year Sophia and Beau can put them on themselves.

Cool afternoon and evening - closed up the camper again.

 

 

Tues, 17^th

Blustery wind from the east this morning and clear sky.

We headed towards Perth on the Kwianna Freeway and stopped at the auto transmission place to chat with the chap there about making a new lock-up to fix our problem. Steve can drop it out and probably the whole transmission before we fly home in Feb so he has 5 weeks to look at it and make a new one and we won’t be without the truck then. If we had to send it back to Vic it was at least an 11 week turn around plus freighting. The chaps were very helpful and had worked with Wholesale Auto transmissions before which is also good.

We drove along the road for a bit and found a coffee shop in Applecross - ritzy suburb - lots of flash homes about. Popular cafe but we only gave them a 5 out of 10 as they brought out our toasted banana bread (which was delicious) but we didn’t get our coffees for another 15 minutes!

Walked down the road to the water and found a lovely set of angel wings.

Scanned around to get the full view.

Back to the truck and back onto the Canning Highway then over the Narrows and onto the Mitchell Highway to visit Gordon and Sheila - we met them on the Plenty Highway when Steve was welding up the chassis!

We were early so found a park nearby and rang Rick to catch up on his news.

Around to their house and chatted the afternoon away over a lovely lunch. It was great to see them both and hear about their trips etc. Will catch up again in the new year too.

Much hotter day - always hotter in Perth apparently. Got to 36 today.

Back on the highway - I let Google Map’s girl chose the way (our Hema sometimes gets confused as she doesn’t know about some of the freeways around Perth!) and she said this is the best even though there is a congestion area of 19 minutes when we hit the city. Lucky we aren’t in any rush and it is interesting to watch what others do - darting in and out of the lanes but not getting any further ahead. Eventually we got through that and across the Narrows and onto the Kwianna Freeway again. Lots of smoke ahead so I checked the app and there is a big fire near Rockingham.

Got home at 6.30pm so got dinner ready - missed drinkies! Much warmer night so left the camper open.