Nov 5th to Nov 23rd 2009

Thursday 5th November 09

Home day for Merry to catch up on some accounting work.

Friday 6th November 09

We packed lunch and took a slow meander along the coastal roads from Seaford to the Melbourne Harbour stopping to check out the various beaches and cliffs with the Brighton Beach change huts being one of the highlights. By all accounts, one recently changed hands for $200000.

We checked out the ‘Spirit of Tasmania’ Ferry and gained some pricing information for future reference then returned to St Kilda for a stroll along the only beach that that allows dogs at any time off leash, so Foxy had her moment of glory.

Saturday 7th November 09

Visited Garon/Sue and helped remove unwanted creepers, trees, etc from garden in readiness for a tip trip. Merry painted the timber beams for the ‘cat run’ that is being built over the narrow garden outside the kitchen window. (It is against the law to allow cats out at night in Victoria). Garon and Barry mounted them on the existing framework. We stayed the night with Garon/Sue in readiness to continue on Sunday.

Sunday 8th November 09

Garon/Sue returned to their old house to replace the letterbox whilst Barry installed the water tubing to the fridge that produces cold water and ice blocks. Garon/Sue removed to the garden debris to the tip with a hired utility whilst Barry installed another towel rail in the master bathroom. Garon/Sue/Barry then installed the shade cloth and roof sheeting over the ‘cat run’ framework. This also cuts out a lot of direct sunlight into the kitchen, therefore helping with the cooling without affecting the light to any great extent.
We stayed for a second night with Garon/Sue as all of the activity created a rather late dinner with us using the one and only daylight saving advantage.

Monday 9th November 09

Returned home via Southland shopping centre to allow Merry to find and buy a clock for the caravan, which happened to come with a matching barometer. That will help her work out if it is wet or dry outside without having to go out there. Fitted these items in the van later in the day and have to admit they look good.

Tuesday 10th November 09

The weather has remained hot now for about five days with more to come, so stayed in the air conditioning.

Wednesday 11th November 09

Stayed in like yesterday for the same reason, but we did add some Velcro strips to the seats in van to stop them sliding forward.

Thursday 12th November 09

Drove over to Garon/Sue’s and placed plastic netting down the bottom of the fence and under ground to ensure Foxy is not able get under the fence when we leave her there whilst we do the tourist bit were dogs are not invited.

We returned to the caravan and watched the Australian Masters Golf with Tiger Woods, on TV. We had tried to get tickets for the event but they were all sold out months before.

Friday 13th November 09, Saturday 14th November 09 and
Sunday 15th November 09.

Continued watching the Australian Masters.

Monday 16th November Nothing of significance.

Tuesday 17th November 09

We drove over to Garon/Sue’s and left Foxy there and took the bus/train into Melbourne.

Walked along the river bank to the Aquarium and spent several hours viewing the fish/sharks, etc and then crossed the footbridge to the south side for lunch.

The aquarium has a café but doesn’t have much to offer. We then returned to the aquarium to finish off what we had not already seen.

We are probably biased, but didn’t feel the Melbourne aquarium came up to the standard of the Perth aquarium at Whitfords although it had the benefit of the Penguins in their own little ice field. We saw a similar set up in New Zealand a few years ago

We crossed to the south side of the river again to walk back passed the Alfresco area but managed to drift off into the Crown casino (purely for a look) and came out where we had started our walk.

On the second attempt we were tempted to take a return cruise down the river to Williamstown, and on returning we elected not to get off where we started but went on to the next stop on the other bank at Federation Square. The Alfresco strip will just have to survive without us.

We caught the train back to Mentone and found that the trains and buses do not work in conjunction with each other as the bus left just before the train arrived. We therefore walked the remaining distance back to Garon/Sue’s place as there was not a bus due for another half hour. We arrived at our destination about two minutes or so before the bus was due to arrive at that point.
The dog proofing of the garden had obviously worked as Foxy was still there. We assisted Garon for a while thanks to daylight saving with the cat run that he is building, and stayed for dinner which was great as we both were not looking forward to driving back to Frankston and then producing our own dinner as we were both feeling a bit weary.

Wednesday 18th November 09 Declared a day of rest by our feet.

Thursday 19th November 09 Merry visited the Sunspot clinic

Friday 20th November 09 Finally collected our repaired Microwave oven.

Saturday 21st November 09

Visited Garon/Sue and assisted with the cat run project and then went out with them to St Kilda for lunch on the beach front, and then a walked along the popular Acland road, well known for its Alfresco strip with numerous cake shops included. When we arrived home Foxy was sitting in the driveway outside of the dog proofing. We had notice some strands of the plastic fencing had been damaged before we left but didn't think it affected anything, but how wrong we were. Fortunately she chose to stay beside our car rather than try to find us. The damage is now worse so it was obviously Foxy chewing her way out. Back to plan 'B' for our next trip out without Foxy. We continued with the cat run project later in the day. Melbourne enjoyed its best rain for months during the night.

Sunday 22nd November 09

Still raining hard so the attention was turned to indoor projects such as mounting the clock on the wall and shelves in the fridge recess as the fridge is too big to go in there. The rain cleared after lunch so the cat run became the priority again.

Monday 22nd November 09

Returned to Frankston. Merry received the results of her sunspot tests and was cleared of any problems.

Monday 19th October 2009

Monday 19th October 09

Stereo/DVD player produced a lousy picture. Tried several different DVDs but all were the same so checked all connections but achieved nothing. Tried another DVD but it wouldn’t play at all, and it will not eject it either.

Tuesday 20th October 09

Merry discovered water on the en-suite floor whilst the washing machine was on. It was coming from the washing machine during the filling process but not from the external inlet pipe. Can only assume there is a leak in the machine or the internal inlet pipe.

Wednesday 21st October 09

Rain stopped play

Thursday 22nd October 09

We drove over to Garon/Sue’s original house to see it with its newly sanded/polished floor which looks really good along with the new paint job.
In the evening, just to add to the joy of owning a new caravan, the Microwave died.

Friday 23rd October 09

Contacted Jayco about the equipment failures but didn’t gain much other than ‘I’ll call you back’ which didn’t happen

Saturday 24th

Rain stopped play.

Sunday 25th October 09

Garon/Sue drove down to us to see the new caravan and we all drove down to Mornington for lunch which gave us a brief look at the town and a very tasty meal. This ended a bad week pleasantly or started a new week pleasantly depending whether you consider Sunday to be the last day of the week or the first day of the following week.

Monday 26th October 09

Contacted Jayco again but still didn’t gain much response.

Tuesday 27th October 09

We took a late morning drive down the Mornington Peninsular to Portsea and Sorrento where we had lunch. We then went back to the end of the road in Portsea and visited the National Park and took a walk out to the beach and then back a different way to the car park.

We headed back to Sorrento and watched the ferry to Queenscliffe leave, and are considering using it to go across and look at the Great Ocean Road to travel the western side of Victoria.

We also checked the beach in this area but found that in this State you can not exercise your dog on the beaches during daylight hours when ‘Daylight saving’ is in effect, or effectively during the summer months.

Merry hiked up to Coppin’s Lookout. We started to drive home which took us through several small coastal towns which had caravan parking along the foreshore which looked appealing and at reasonable cost, so we checked out the possibility of us using this area when we leave Frankston and over the post Christmas school holiday period. This proved negative as dogs are not allowed during the peak periods. We then drove out to Flinders and back to Frankston via the more casual route rather than the main highway.

Wednesday 28th October 09

Contacted Jayco again and his time gained a bit of attention in as much they arrange for the various equipment agents to contact us to inform us of the nearest respective service point.

Thursday 29th October 09

I took the microwave oven to Mornington to the LG agent for repair and discovered from the serial number that the machine was built in March 2008, so it was 19 months old before it became ours. We don’t know yet if LG work from the time we bought the van or from the time they sold the item to Jayco. If the later is the case, Jayco will be getting a wake up call.

We drove to Garon/Sue’s place for dinner and to stay the night. We took the washing machine with us as we had to take it to a place on Kooyong Road in Caulfield to have it repaired. The possums in the trees in the adjoining gardens make a heck of a noise at night.

Friday 30th October 09

The washing machine was found to leak where the inlet solenoid is connected to the inlet nozzle via a shot hose which did not have a clamp around it, which is now cured. The service agent waited until I had returned to Frankston and re-installed it in the van and then rang and asked us for the serial number that he didn’t check whilst he had the machine. This of course meant pulling it back out.
The agents for the Stereo/DVD player rang and told us they were posting out a new unit for us. Apparently, a different brand and more upmarket unit.

Saturday 31st October 09 and Sunday 1st November 09

Very dim drizzly days

Monday 2nd November 09

We drove south to a small village called Loch to check out the memorial reserve that offers cheap camping at $10 a night including power, water and gas BBQ. It is the village footy/cricket pitch in a very quiet, pleasant setting, alongside a river. The river has a $54000 pedestrian suspension bridge across it which is guarded at one end by a soldier at attention with is rifle, carved from a tree trunk. The bridge is the result of the local committee known as the ‘Loch, Stock and Barrel committee’.
On arrival back home, the replacement stereo/DVD had arrived.

Tuesday 3rd November 09

Victorian public holiday for the Melbourne cup horse race. At the moment we are experiencing very strong blustery winds and the threat of rain. We have installed the new Stereo /DVD upgrade but it didn’t cure the problem but it does return our DVDs when we want them back. The original one returned our DVD after disconnecting and reconnecting the power. After experimenting with both units and a domestic type recorder, we are now convinced the poor picture quality is due to the cabling, but as this is encapsulated in the roof there is nothing we can do about it. When we contacted the suppliers to find out where to return the original one to, they told us to dispose of it rather than return it. We now have two units.

Wednesday 4th November 09

The first few hours of the day presented a continuous drizzle, but cleared later so we drove down to ‘Ashcombe Maze and Lavender Gardens’ despite the threat of more unpleasant weather.

Ashcombe boasts two hedge mazes a rose maze and a lavender maze plus lake complete with water lilies, a rock garden a potted plant garden all surrounded in acres of woodland.

They are set up with a café and a marquee for wedding receptions. We spent several hours meandering through every area and then used the café for a coffee just as the threat of more drizzle became a reality.

The hedge mazes have grown so thick that there is only just room to pass along the pathways whilst brushing both sides. The roses where not at their best but still very effective, whilst the lavender was in it’s peak.

Despite the frequency of the rain, the dams are still less than 40% full.