New Additions

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Wednesday 12th October - during the last few weeks we have been debating whether or not we would be able to get to Tasmania. We spent some time there 8 years ago and loved it. Graham has an old school friend who lives in Burnie and they have been communicating throughout our travels around Aus. Today, Wednesday 12 October, we took the plunge and booked our tickets for The Spirit of Tasmania ferry and will travel there overnight on Tuesday 3rd January 2012. It cost a bit more than we had anticipated and would not have been possible if we had had to rely on our credit cards. But a generous offer from David made an immediate booking possible and we hope to be able to return the favour when he visits the UK next year. We won’t be taking the caravan to Tassie so that’s another issue we still need to resolve. We’re hoping to be able to leave it in storage in Melbourne and to pick it up again on our return from Tassie. We’re planning to take our tent with us but I suspect that, when we’re not staying in Burnie, we’ll be looking for cabins/motels for our overnight accommodation (unless the weather is dry and warm). That arranged, we did a bit of shopping in town and then went back to David’s for some lunch.

During the afternoon I pottered in the garden (and Graham joined me after he’d had a doze – poor old thing can’t stand the pace) but it was very, very hot and we soon retired for a “smoko”. We do have a passion for pottering and David’s garden provides for endless opportunities. We’ve hardly “touched the surface” and his open invitation to stay as long as we want to tidy the garden would, on another occasion, be very tempting. We had dinner early tonight – homemade salmon fishcakes and veggies in parsley sauce – as Graham wanted to go to the Warwick Folk Club. I went with him and it was quite an emotionally charged evening. Graham has sung there regularly each time we’ve been in Warwick and it was likely that this would be the last time he would ever be able to attend, certainly for a few years. All of the regulars made a big fuss of him and their favourites of his songs were requested often so Graham had more than his fair share of the floor. The evening was filled with a mixture of wonderful Aussie ballads and poems and English and Irish folk songs. Graham started it off by singing a song by a local folk legend – Bill Scott – who sadly passed away in 2005. He was a patron of Warwick Folk Club and was also a famous songwriter, poet, author - you name it and he did it and there’s a plaque in the folk club in his honour. It transpires that he was also an acquaintance of David’s, as is Sue, another singer at the club who, we both agreed, has the most beautiful folk-singing voice we’ve ever heard. It was a great night that went on far later than the scheduled 10:30 finish.

The weather forecast for Thursday 13th had been a poor one so we hadn’t planned anything special. As it happens, it was a pretty pleasant morning so once we got going we went to the caravan to begin preparations for our on-going journey to Goondiwindi at the weekend. There’ll still be a bit more to arrange tomorrow but hopefully, come Saturday, all we’ll have to do is hitch up and drive away. The preparations mainly involved putting some heavy camping related stuff back into the boot of the car – camp oven, spare gas cylinder, spare fuel containers etc. Graham has worked out a good storage procedure so it all fitted back in nicely. A few lighter items still have to be transferred but they usually sit on the back seat and can be moved easily just before we set off. We drifted down into town for a bit of shopping but it must be the main shopping day for Warwickians – it was packed. We abandoned the Post Office and a chemist because the queues were almost out of the door so we’ll try again tomorrow. We managed to get a few groceries and then retreated back to David’s for lunch. The afternoon proved to be a wash-out as the bad weather that had been forecast hit Warwick with a vengeance. Gardening was put on hold as the severe thunder and lightening passed through along with torrential rain. It gave me a chance to launch another blog, to process a lot of photos and to record a couple of CDs. David and I got busy making two apple crumbles – one will be taken to a dinner party we have been invited to tomorrow night while the other will be consumed here, later.

Friday 14th October - Happy Birthday to Graham’s cousin Phil who lives in Derby – we hope you enjoyed the day, Phil.

The morning of Friday 14th October followed a very similar pattern to Thursday. The bad weather hadn’t hit us yet so we ventured to the caravan for a bit more preparation for Saturday. Actually, the forecast for Saturday is probably the worst one yet so we may well delay our departure even more and leave on Sunday, with grateful thanks to David for his tolerance and hospitality. Whoever nicknamed Queensland as The Sunshine State certainly had a sense of humour, but in reality I suppose we’ve just been a bit unfortunate lately as we have had more than our fair share of warm sunshine on our travels up ‘til now. Shopping was a bit easier today – certainly not as manic as yesterday. We had lunch back at David’s (he was out on a job) and the weather still looked good so we contemplated a short drive into the countryside and a brief visit to Pringle’s Cottage – a local museum that has a splendid rose garden which is now in full bloom. On the way through town we filled up with diesel at a pretty reasonable rate. We found Pringle’s Cottage with its new garden, which was still under construction when we were here 11 months ago, and it looks a treat. The stonework is of the local sort used in the sculpture symposium that we admired and enjoyed so much last year, and the garden layout is excellent. We then enjoyed a stroll by the river – the opposite end of the park to where we went last week and it was delightful. Afterwards, and with the weather still favourable, we had a short drive out into the countryside taking in the “villages” of Yangan and Emu Vale. We understood that a new sculpture had been established at Emu Vale but if it has, we couldn’t find it. The excursion was lovely and a short stop at the small Yangan store enabled us to get some ice-creams that went down very well.

The remainder of the afternoon was spent getting ready for our much-awaited dinner party. David’s friend, Mele, had invited a Tongan friend of hers, Sita, together with her husband David, two young children and her in-laws who they live with. We all met at Mele’s about a year ago and it led to our blog called “A Touch of Tonga” which was, and still is, one of our most read blogs. The evening was another huge success and the only difference this time was that we were joined by 3 week old Micah – Sita and David’s second son. Joshua, their first son, now two years old, has shot up and is a delightful little chap. He wasn’t a bit concerned by us strange old folk and just wanted to play. Micah, meanwhile, is a beautiful baby and it was hard to believe that he was only a few weeks old – he was very content and mainly slept the evening away. We were overwhelmed with plenty of food, some of which David (that’s my brother David) and I contributed towards. Graham’s compilation CD was used as background music amid much conversation and eating. It was a bit late when I remembered that I'd brought my camera so David helped by taking a few photos. Time flew by and when the two youngsters were both “out to the world”, Sita and David made their farewells but by this time it was already about 10:30pm. David’s parents, Rod and Kathy, drifted away about 20 minutes later and we left at about 11:30. We thought it might be the last time we would see Mele for a while so our departure might have been a bit sorrowful but then brother David brightened us all up by inviting Mele over for dinner tomorrow night.

Throughout the night, the combination of frogs, loud thunder and Graham’s snoring meant that I didn’t sleep too well. The thundery weather had cleared through by the time we got up but, with the forecast still un-settled, we decided against doing the trip to Stanthorpe that we had considered. Instead we helped with a bit of vacuuming and dusting around the house, Graham did a bit of gardening and then we did as much preparation as we could for our departure for Goondiwindi tomorrow. Our on-going plans are now beginning to take shape as we managed yesterday to secure a “berth” for the caravan at a caravan park in Melbourne over Christmas and, of course, our trip to Tasmania in the New Year is also in hand. Between now and Christmas we are looking to drift back down country towards Melbourne, visiting friends in Wangaratta and Mansfield on the way, and spending time with sister Daphne in Camberwell. Our decision to delay our departure by a day proved to be a very wise one. Just after midday the skies began to darken until, by about 2:30pm, it was as if night-time had descended upon us. The heavens opened and we experienced one of the most dramatic thunder storms and torrential rain we have ever seen. The lightening was incredible and, at one point, set off the alarm flashers on the car. We counted our blessings that we were in the comfort of David’s house and not trying to set up the caravan in a storm-hit caravan park somewhere in Goondiwindi. The forecast for tomorrow is very much better but we will find it a bit strange being back “on the road” after our extremely comfortable two weeks in Warwick.

The evening proved to be a mixture of emotions. We watched in anguish as Wales made a mess of their game against France in the Rugby World Cup semi-final. They clearly played the better rugby but couldn’t secure enough points when they had chances, and playing one man short for much of the game didn’t help. But then Mele arrived for our last evening meal in Warwick and cheered us all up. We all enjoyed another delightful evening and David’s culinary expertise came to the fore again. This time his Mulberry Summer Pudding was the successful finale to a splendid meal and all too soon we were saying our final farewells to Mele. We will see David again soon when we meet up at Daphne’s for Christmas and there’s also a chance that we will meet Mele again sooner than we thought as she may well undertake a bit of a tour of Europe next year - let’s hope so.

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Photos

'Babs' is a Noisy Miner chick who, at least until it fledges, spends its time in the trees in David's back garden
while its parents, true to their name, make a loud din at the first sign of danger! David has kept a close eye on the family and does his best to keep the local cats away

Bob singing his own version of 'The Galway Shawl'
watched by Harry, who entertained us with some great poetry including a couple by local poet, Bill Scott

Great place to park the car!
(house on the outskirts of Warwick)