Golden Year

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DAY 441

Yes, it is actually our 50th Anniversary today, well ok, not our wedding anniversary, goodness we are not old enough to have been married that long! But it is our Golden anniversary in terms of Kangaroo Jacks blog for today we reach the magic number of 50,000 hits. A very big thank you to all of you who are reading about our adventures.

Andy was already up and sat in the chair catching up on the blog and emails, Susan was leaving later for work this morning as she had a couple of things to pick up on her way in to the office.

I made us some breakfast, watched the morning news which was pretty much the same as it has been all week.

This morning I was off shopping into Canberra on my own as its not really Andy’s thing and he said he would only slow me down, really I think he just did not want to be taken around the shops and being bored senseless. To be honest because I was shopping for clothes for work I knew that he would distract me from what I wanted to do as well, so it was best all round.

I was a little bit nervous taking the Patrol in to Canberra on my own, it is a while since I have driven, especially around town, but those feelings soon left me.

I parked up easily enough in town in the car park that we usually park in, it seems strange saying usual but in a couple of weeks it is surprising how comfortable you get somewhere. The parking is easy they have sensors for each bay and the light above each bay shows green or red, green obviously means vacant so I just looked for a green light and took that bay. Surprisingly for a Friday the car park was exceptionally quiet.

I wont bore you with the minute details from my shopping trip, but basically I needed to buy a decent suit and a couple of blouses so that I can look smart when I go to work, all of my work stuff is back in England in storage along with everything else, so off I set to visit a few of the key places that I had been told about to shop, I went into a couple of shops first tried on a suit but the sleeves on the jacket were way too long, so I went on, checking out a few other shops before coming to Jacqui E, immediately my eyes caught a suit that would be perfect, the shop assistant chatted to me about what I wanted but again the sleeves were too long on the jacket, by now I realise that I am not going to get round this, so I tried the suit on anyway, found a couple of blouses and went to try it all on.

I have to say that the assistant here was really very good, I bought the suit and a blouse, she gave me a 10% discount voucher for the tailors across the way so that I could have the sleeves taken up and also I got 15% off my purchase, which actually saved me quite a bit of money so I was pleased.

I wandered around town for a while, checking a few other things out, but I guess in time I will get everything I need, I can get away with what I have next week as I will only be working for a couple of days and really I don’t want to buy too much as I don’t have the wardrobe space for a huge selection of clothes. I wish I could buy some of the shoes that I have seen however they would just be because I wanted them, not out of necessity, I have shoes that I can wear already.

I popped into the Telstra shop as we had difficulty setting up voicemail on our new service, the guy was very helpful and said that it had not been set up for us so he sorted it out and before long it was enabled. The number was different to the one we used on Vodafone and the one we had for pay as you go.

I could have shopped all day but there was no necessity so the best thing for me to do was to head back to the house where Andy was having an easy morning.

Coming back from shopping, I pulled up at a set of traffic lights and watched the car in front of me, I saw something move and amazingly I saw this huge spider wander over the roof, it was so huge I thought it was going to run away with the car. Ok, actually it was not that big but it seemed like it. I felt sorry for the driver and wondered if the spider was living in the car somewhere, even more so I had hoped that it would not blow off the roof and onto the bonnet of the Patrol, I don’t fancy tackling one of those monsters!

We managed to get away from Susan’s at around 2.30 and needed to pop in to Bunnings to collect some white paint and undercoat for a little job that Andy wants to do for Helen when we get to Woodstock.

Once the Bunning’s thing was done, we were on the highway and heading for Yass then onward to Gundagai, then straight in to Nangus.

We noticed one of those electronic signs along the way, noting Double demerit points this weekend for traffic violations, I think because it is classified as a holiday weekend as it is Australia Day on Tuesday, they had these signs up for the Christmas period too.

Whilst we were driving along I saw a snake basking on the hard shoulder of the Hume Highway, we went past it so quickly we did not get a good look what it was but it was definitely a snake.

We popped in to Gundagai to try and get some flowers for Helen, found a florist in plenty of time but sadly they were closed so we popped in to the IGA supermarket to pick up some wine so I thought a White Shiraz was the order of the day. The breeze, actually when I say breeze I mean the wind, in Gundagai was so hot, it was amazing, they said that the weather was going to be a hot one over the weekend maybe around 43 degree’s C. We wondered if there had been any recent fires, as the conditions seemed perfect for an outbreak. The heat was different to Canberra.

We arrived at Woodstock at around 5.30, it seemed so nice to be back, we parked the Patrol where we usually park it and went in to find Helen sewing in the cool of the house, the veranda thermometer was saying about 38.3 degree’s.

We sat around the breakfast bar, with loads of questions for Helen, what has been happening on the farm? How was Robert and Jason? Have they had any rain, etc etc? We were just bombarding Helen with questions.

The dogs, oh how we have missed the dogs, were all up in the usual places, Robert was going to let them all off but for some reason didn’t so Helen said she would go up and let them loose, we jumped at the opportunity to go and see them all and let them off for a run.

I asked Helen if she wanted me to even let Kimba off as she was in season and she told us that Wally has already jumped her compound fence and done the very un gentlemanly thing so we might as well let her off as well.

When we went to see them all they went ballistic, and as each one was let off they just flew over to the house about 200 meters away and took up there usual positions in the shade on the veranda.

Well I know we are adults but we were shocked Wally and Kimba were already doing the horizontal tango on the veranda without a care in the world as to who was watching, they had such strange looks on their faces and didn’t separate for about 15 minutes, but when they had Toby wandered past Kimba equally hopeful to try his luck with Kimba who growled at him but Wally got involved and defended his lady love so Wally and Toby where now fighting, really fighting and it ended up with Wally bleeding profusely from his nose!

It would appear that Wally was no match for Toby’s strength, who had sunk his teeth into Wally’s nose. Well that’s what happens when you make a move on your mates girlfriend isn’t it?

Robert had checked his book and according to the data available on dog breeding it seems that Kimba will be having puppies on around the 25th March. This is the second time in 2 days so Robert and Helen are pretty sure that it will happen so watch this space.

We take our stuff in to our bedroom and get ready for dinner, we are watching the news about Prince Williams visit and Caroline and Helen are taking about William, Helen describes him as a “Hunk of Spunk” which they both agree on.

Helen had prepared one of Andy’s favourite dinners, which was chicken and rice, Helen and I had already started on the wine, nothing unusual there then.

But by 9.00 Andy was ready for bed, so we made the bed up with clean sheets and then Andy retired, I went back into the living room to read for a while.

Robert was trying to watch the cricket but as he had been up since 3.00 this morning baling he was fighting a losing battle and in no time at all his eyes were closed and no cricket was being watched except everytime a cheer rose up on the television Robert would say something and head back to sleep.

It was just after 10.00 and I retired too, it was not long after that the cricket finished and Helen managed to wake Robert long enough to get him to bed.

It was a hot night, the wind outside was still hot, the temperature outside was still around 30 degrees c, so Helen left the cool air on all night.

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Comments

[Gary]

Congrats
Congratulations on the job. Like you say, a necessity!!! Congratulations on the 50K. What a great accomplishment. Well deserved as it is one of the best blogs around. So very informative. I will keep reading, even when you are not travelling.

[Jo Trouble]

Congrats!
Hi guys - congratulations on the 50,000 - no show of keeping up with that ;-) Congrats on the contract position too!