Eighty Six

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DAY 251

Despite listening to a dog howling at some ungodly hour this morning we both slept well, waking at the lovely late hour of 7.45. We must need our sleep! We can hear the Ibis wandering around outside and listen to the sound of their beaks tapping at our bins outside to see if they can find anything of interest.

We are, or were should I say, going to have an easy day today, but it did not actually quite work out that way although really it was nothing exciting at all.

After a nice easy start to the day, an early shower followed by breakfast, I sat around doing sudoku, Andy was busy typing up the blog. Our neighbours Joy and Laurie popped around, we made a cup of tea and sat chatting in the cool shade, again putting the world to rights, or at least the bit that we did not put right last night.

I got some washing on the go, it was gone 10.00 and as anyone who is vacating sites should normally be gone by now that means it stands a fair chance that the washing machines are quiet. I was in luck they were mainly not being used.

Trouble is I picked a machine, loaded it, put the money in and it was exceptionally slow to fill up with water, so the usual 25/30 minutes washing time had increased to about an hour. Still it meant that I was in time to add the conditioner to the wash, these top loaders on caravan parks don’t have the means to automatically add conditioner to the wash, which can be a nuisance.

We watched and listened to the jets fly overhead this morning, I think Andy mentioned those in yesterdays blog, the sky is full of them at the moment, we found out that there is a joint American and Australian training exercise consisting of 18,000 soldiers, a United States Nuclear Aircraft Carrier and about 30 F18 Hornets (I may just point out that Andy is dictating this bit, I have no idea about all this stuff). This event is biennial and therefore occurs every two years, they train across the Top End and as far down as Rockhampton on the East Coast.

The exercise is called “Operation Talisman 09”, it is great to watch the jets at night flying out on full reheated engines, the large heat plume behind them is visible as they take off, its all a bit boring really, for those of us that like shopping.

Andy had a telephone call from the recruitment people here, unfortunately there is not much happening up here after all, and people are not recruiting. We are told though that there is a pretty major project happening up here at the end of the year worth about 10 billion dollars.

After a light lunch of Vanilla Custard (yummy) we could not resist having some more of the delicious custard that we had for tea last night. We decided to pop out and do some stuff, i.e. a trip into TJM for a aerial bracket, this is so that Andy can attach the internet aerial to the Roo bar on the truck, just to tidy it up really and then it was onto Bunnings, which seems to be our favourite place.

In Bunnings we buy some cheap plastic tumblers, we have realised that after 8 months 2 tumblers is not enough!! I also picked up some citronella candles in a bid to fight the mozzies off.

Andy picked up some wood, there is a job that he wanted to finish on the inside of the trailer which means that tomorrow everything needs to be taken out, including the mattress so that he can install some wood surrounds which will stop the mattress from sliding around.

And then onto Woolworths just to pick up a loaf of bread and some milk, plus a few other bits and pieces while we are there.

I had come up with a notion that my mind was getting bored, which is why I seem to keep sticking my head in crossword puzzles and Sudoku, I enjoy puzzles and because while I am not working I seem not to have my head engaged in spreadsheets, budgets and other interesting stuff so I decided that I should get a Nintendo DS with the Brain Training game.

So we pop into Betta Electrical, they sell the unit, but they don’t sell games, but they have a bonus pack of extra stylus (people lose these frequently I am told) and case, they tell me where we can go to get the brain training game. So we drive over to the other shopping centre (its too hot to walk and they have undercover parking!), we look in EB Games and then we look in Target. So with my homework done on the cost (they all seem to sell for the same price) it is down to what you can get in the package. Target to do not have the Brain Training game so it counts them out, back to EB Games, I tell them what Betta Electrical can do (without the game) so he comes up with a deal that makes it a better option for me to buy it from them, with the Nintendo Dsi, the Brain Training game and the bonus pack of extra stylus etc.

Job done, I am thrilled to bits with my purchase, although it seems to me that most of these people selling them don’t really know too much about the functionality and the improvements from the older model, the one I have just purchased should also connect to the internet, but how does it connect? Good question, because none of them can answer it, but you can be sure that it is not going to be as straightforward as one would hope.

Back at camp I edit the blogs Andy had been typing up and get them ready for publishing, we are a day behind, but soon they are published.

The day seems to have escaped us today; we did more than we anticipated so not really the relaxing day that we had hoped for.

We did not have too much for dinner; neither of us was that hungry but we had a pre prepared curry and rice.

We had the usual abundance of mortein and citronella on the go, not to mention the usual spray of Bushman, but those mozzies just don’t get the message, they find a way to get you!

We settle down for a game of cards, we just cannot help ourselves. It was going to be a slow start to the game, Andy was winning but I only managed to keep knocking 1 off my score in the first few games. I started to take a few risks but they weren’t paying of for me tonight, Andy was on a winning streak, the cards were running in his favour. So I had to start playing safe.

While we played we heard and could see the lights of the fighters returning from their evening Sortie, the noise of the afterburners was quite deafening.

About 10 games in we had just started the game, Andy had that look of “I’m going to wipe the floor with you,” I had a reasonable hand but could not quite get anything together to lay down and within the first 3 moves, Andy suddenly started to lay his hand down and one by one there it was complete, Andy had no cards left and 3 runs on the table, my jaw fell open as I revealed my hand, it was not pretty, I was holding some big cards ready for my runs, I totalled a score of 86 which completely wiped me out of the game.

I guess this was only payback for the night of “Read ‘em and weep”. Andy was going to be out to get me and this was it, he could not yet get me on the golf course so he has sharpened his card game tactics and is giving me a run for my money.

It was just before 10.00 we were both tired and almost ready for bed, Andy wanted me to try the brain training game, so I got it out and set it up, but I did a quick session to calculate my brain age, oh dear, this is a bad night, it says 75 so that does not bode well. My excuse is that I am tired, the card game was trying and it has been a tiring day. Watch this space there will be some improvement.

So we retire to the comfort of our bed, the night is cooler so we get into the sleeping bag.

Oh, except that Andy cannot resist rubbing it in about the card game tonight, he must of fallen asleep muttering the words Eighty-Six!

Next Time!
KJ

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Comments

[Helen Sheridan]

Phone call
Hi Andy and Caroline, Thanks for the call and Wally thanks you as well. He really is frustrated having to sit on the verandah and watch the world go by. Robert wanted to take him over to the shed yesterday but I said no - he is not allowed to run around. He is happy and well and being thoroughly spoilt. It is going to be a very long 10 weeks though until he is back in circulation. I take him back to the vets. on Tuesday of next week. We will miss him as we will start the next lot of shearing next week and can't use him to help get sheep in. Oh dear, I had better practise my barking hadn't I. It was lovely to hear your voices and Robert and jason were interested and happy to hear that you had rung and wanted to know all the details. Big frost and fog this morning, you are in a better place I can tell you. Love Helen