Advertisement
Published: October 9th 2011
Friday 7th October – Once again the weather seemed a bit unsettled. It wasn’t actually raining but the clouds looked a bit threatening. We decided against a major day out and, as we had a few more domestic chores that needed doing, we thought we’d tackle those and perhaps have a walk by the river in the afternoon. So the morning was taken up with a bit of washing and a bit of shopping. The shopping included obtaining another round of tablets for Graham’s heart condition – the total cost was over $100 and, despite a so-called “reciprocal” health arrangement, we don’t think we can claim any of that back, although we will have another go at that. This makes the much criticized British National Health Service a major success in our eyes as, being over 60, Graham would get his tablets free if he was back home. We also made enquiries about the health of our computer as it’s not behaving itself - it’s very, very slow and occasionally turns itself off for no apparent reason. Having explained the nature of use and age of our computer to the lad in the computer shop, he gave us a very fair
Three beautiful sculptures in a row
with 'Tiddalik' the frog in the centreassessment and his view was that age, wear and tear were probably the cause of any problems. He was happy to have a look at it but wasn’t convinced that a clean-up would eradicate all of the problems we’re experiencing. Perhaps we’ll just persevere for the time being but it is a bit of a concern as we’ve grown to rely on the computer for so many things including day to day processes.
The weather brightened up a bit so after lunch we went for a walk down by the river. There’s some splendid parkland in Warwick and a particular pleasant footpath that extends for some distance on both sides of the river. We walked for over an hour before returning to David’s to prepare for our special guest. Mele was joining us for dinner and David had prepared one of his special concoctions. Mele duly arrived at about 6:30pm and a delightful evening ensued with much chatter and merriment during which David’s Spanakopita dish was consumed followed by apple crumble and his special honey-laced custard. A serving of English tea in David’s exquisite bone china tea-service finished off a splendid meal. All too soon the evening was over
and Mele left at about 11:00pm. After the washing up, we retired to bed for what we hoped would be a good night’s sleep. Alas, a couple of nearby frogs thought differently and croaked loudly and continuously throughout the night. Some heavy rain and claps of thunder didn’t help either so we both had a bit of a restless night.
Saturday 8th October dawned dry but there was much evidence of the overnight storm. Today is the day of The Warwick Cup – Warwick’s annual horse-racing extravaganza. We had contemplated going to the races but the weather was a bit of a concern as well as the fact that it’s a big “dressing up” occasion for Warwick and we don’t have much to dress up in. But the local paper was full of it, including tips for the likely winners of the six races. As the only racing experience we’ve had on our trip so far has been the recent yabby racing at Charleville, we decided to go for it. Because of the night’s rain we donned our walking boots, long trousers and also put our umbrellas in a rucksack as a back-up. Then we popped to the caravan
to rescue my long lensed camera for those difficult-to-get photos of racing horses. We arrived at the race track at about 11.45 and could see that there were already plenty of people there and we could hear announcements over the tannoy. But imagine our disappointment at the gate when we were told that entry to the course would be free as the day’s racing had been cancelled because of a waterlogged racetrack. We decided we would still go in, though, as most of the planned festivities were still taking place and plenty of immaculately dressed patrons, local dignitaries and the “social set” were still able to partake of their special luncheons. Also, racing from Caufield was being broadcast on the big screens in one of the marquees so punters were still able to have a wager with the 3 or 4 bookies. We went in and were immediately encouraged to buy draw tickets for the Melbourne Cup which would take place in early November. The draw will take place on 31st October – Graham’s birthday – so that’s a good omen. We bought a couple of tickets and then strolled around for a while taking in the empty parade ring
David with yet another culinary delight
This one is a Spanakopita - a Greek dish made with spinach and feta cheese and the empty stalls. Actually, to our un-informed eyes, the track looked fine but it must have been in a poor condition on the far side to necessitate the cancellation of such an important event. We pondered staying and having a bet or two but decided that just wouldn’t be the same so we drove back into Warwick, parked up and found a very nice café for lunch.
Back at David’s we found him busily making a ‘Dorset Tea cake’. The upside of the cancelled race meeting was that we could watch the Rugby World Cup quarter-final clash between Wales and Ireland. It was a very entertaining game with a brilliant result as far as Graham is concerned. Wales won reasonably comfortably but the going gets even tougher now as they will play either England or France in the semis. We‘re hoping for an England win, which will, at least, guarantee a “home” nation in the final. We remember fondly watching England beat Australia in the final eight years ago. We were in the television room of an Esperance caravan park surrounded by barracking Aussies when Wilkinson kicked his infamous drop-goal to win the match. We were given a
Enjoying a cup of tea
and David's beautiful tea service gets an outing tough time then but we’d settle for a similar result this time although both England and Australia will have to play better if that’s going to happen.
Another tremendous thunderstorm meant that there was nothing else to do but watch the second rugby semi-final. Alas, England weren’t able to reproduce the success of the Welsh, going down to a surprisingly spirited French team. They put up a better show in the second half but the first half was a bit one-sided. Ironically, Graham thinks Wales have a slightly better chance against the unpredictable French than they would have done against England. We’ll have to wait another week before we find out. Whoever gets through will have to play pretty well to beat New Zealand. The rest of the evening passed by uneventfully and because we have a fairly early start in the morning we went to bed quite early. Unfortunately, it seems that frogs never sleep so we had to contend with their croaking again and also the mewing of a nearby cat!
On Sunday 9th October our planned early start was intended to take in the Markets of the Mountains – a fortnightly craft and food market
Warwick racetrack didn't look too bad
but the overnight rain made it dangerous for the horses to race on that takes place in the town of Stanthorpe, about 60 kilometers from Warwick. We were all up reasonably early and got away at the planned time of 9:00am. The markets take place between 0800 and midday so we estimated that at about 10:00am, our probable arrival time, things should still be going well. Sure enough, we arrived just before 10:00am and managed to park within easy walking distance. The first thing we noticed was the drop in temperature. Even though the sun was shining, it was considerably cooler in Stanthorpe and with a persistent chilly breeze. The town is the highest in Queensland at around the 1000 meter mark above sea level and even though the market was mainly indoors – they use the huge Civic Centre – a jumper was still the order of the day. It was a great, well run and well set up market with excellent stalls spread across three big rooms and some more, mainly plants and garden goods, outside. There was also a popular café area with a resident “muso” – a pleasant singer/guitarist. I thoroughly enjoyed poking around the stalls which were mainly locally made crafts and managed to spend quite a lot
All set up for a grand day's racing
but the social event in the marquee still went ahead of money which, to me, was a fair reflection of how good the market was! Afterwards we managed a stroll around the town centre – an area we went to last September when David was in Africa and Daphne was staying in Warwick with us. One of the statues that amused us then was of a brass monkey in a suitable state of distress – an indication of just how cold it gets in Stanthorpe in the winter!!! Of course, the official explanation for the statue and, apparently, of the well-known expression, is a perfectly respectable one with a naval connotation and no anatomical reference whatsoever. Try convincing the many tourists who stop to take photos of the monkey!!
Our stroll took us towards the Information Centre which is one of the most delightfully sited centres we’ve come across. It overlooks a well manicured, grassy creek area with plenty of picnic tables, barbecues, seats etc and we thought it would be an ideal spot for a cuppa and cake. David and I strolled on while Graham dashed back to get the car and he met us there. We couldn’t escape the cool breeze but the location and the wildlife
made up for that. David’s pineapple and carrot cake and also some Dorset Tea cake went down very well. We visited the Information Centre and got some details of an area called Giroween – a National Park -which we hope to visit one day next week. Graham spotted a CD for sale of well-known local folk artists which he has been trying to get for some time so I bought it for him and he forgave me for spending all that money at the market. Our next move was to find somewhere for a light lunch and we were aware of a restaurant back on the main highway at Applethorpe which we had used with Daphne. David visits it quite often as it’s a good place for “sampling” cheese so he was happy to give it a try. Vincenzo’s was perfect and as well as the free samples of cheese we each had soup and a roll which was ideal. As well as being a restaurant, Vincenzo’s is also a shop selling unusual craft items so it was a great place for “mooching” about. I resisted the temptation to spend even more money and we made our way back to
Warwick along the Old Stanthorpe Road – a quiet country road, part gravel, with lovely views of the countryside and plenty of wildlife to avoid. It brought us back into Warwick near Morgan Park – a huge sports area catering for a variety of country sports – and eventually back to Hawker Road.
The latter part of the afternoon was spent gardening. David’s garden is big by pommie standards and contains a large number of trees and shrubs. Most of the rear garden is grassed and it is a lot for one person to keep under control. We managed a bit of weeding and tidying up before darkness began to fall but there’s still plenty to be done.
We had just finished another delicious vegetarian meal (chickpea patties) when Graham’s sister Barb and her hubby, Tony gave us a Skype call. We had a great chat and then finished the evening with some homemade pineapple and carrot cake covered with custard.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.101s; Tpl: 0.027s; cc: 10; qc: 29; dbt: 0.0553s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
