25th
September 2013
Since the last
posting of the blog, when we arrived in WA, it has rained most of the time so
not a lot has been happening except a few noteworthy events. Our first Saturday in WA the 14th,
other than the one we arrived on, we watched Emma and Abby play their netball
semi-finals which Emma’s team won and advanced to the grand final. Abby’s team was not that lucky despite
playing extremely well. Their opposing
team had some much taller girls in their ranks that gave them a big
advantage. The teams are within
respective leagues based on performance, not age or physical size, so Abby’s
team was playing against older, taller girls with similar abilities. The following day we had a re-union lunch with
Ann and Ashley Merry flew to Melbourne on the 18th stayed overnight
and saw her specialist on the 19th who gave her a clean bill of
health as far as the cancer, but it will still take some considerable time to
get over the after effects. Which is why
have elected to stop travelling, temporarily at least. Merry flew back to Perth that evening. On Saturday 21st we watched Emma’s
netball grand final game against a team that has beaten them twice this
season. However, their better mindset
and determination helped them beat their opponents quite substantially. On the following Sunday we had the pleasure
of Garon and Sue calling in for lunch with us and Colleen’s family. The only other vaguely interesting thing is
the computer that I normally use has died, which is why you are only getting a
summary of the last couple of weeks.
Whilst we are in Perth, waiting for our tenant to move out of our house
in Geraldton, it is unlikely that we will be doing much in the way of
excitement therefore blog posting will probably be less frequent.
26th
September 2013
Yesterday was
almost a reasonable weather day with sunshine throughout most of the day.
However, the weather has now reverted to rain and wind again although the wind
is nothing like the heavy duty winds of a few days ago.
We went for
dinner with Colleen, Craig and Abbey, Emma was having a sleep over at a
friend’s house, at an Asian restaurant called Chatters in Midland which was
excellent.
29th
September 2013
We discovered
that the caravan hot water system is leaking but can’t actually determine were
but are managing to catch most of the water in a bowl and turn the water off at
the outside tap when not required.
We drove out to
the Jayco sales yard where there is a ‘Toy shop’ for spare parts and bought a
new water heater for the van.
We moved the
caravan down to Ann and Ashley’s place in Spearwood, south of Fremantle, to
stay with them for a while whilst we get the water heater replaced as we
couldn’t use the van to live in and do the replacement job at Colleen’s as
there was no sleeping room there without the use of the van. The van’s bed had to be up to allow access to
the inner end of the water heater.
6th October
2013
Barry removed
the leaking water heater from the caravan but couldn’t release the hoses from
so-called quick release fittings and had to cut the hoses.
8th
October 2013
We drove back to
the Jayco Toy shop to buy two new quick release fittings for the water heater
and installed them
10th
October started the installation of the water heater
15th
September 2013
We drove out to Herne
Hill and had the gas system on the car serviced as we discovered a while ago
that we weren’t using the usual quantity of gas to diesel. It turned out that the solenoid was gummed up
and not opening properly, if at all consequently no gas flow. It is now cleaned up and retuned and running
fine. It is a pity we didn’t have this
done in Victoria as the fuel consumption would have been improved on the four
day trek across the Nullabor.
Barry fitted the
new water heater into the caravan but has still got to connect the water hoses
and gas supply.
17th
September 2013
Barry managed to
theoretically finish fitting the new water heater but has found the inlet hose
dripping through the new quick release fitting.
18th
October 2013
Merry went with
Ann and Ashley to the Perth Concert hall to listen to the West Australian
Symphony Orchestra. It was a rehearsal
performance in readiness for the evening performance but at a much reduced
price.
21st
October 2013
Having had
several more attempts at stopping the leak Barry has had no success and the
quick release fitting will not live up to its name and release the tubing in
any way. Meanwhile, Merry has gone to
the cinema with Ann and Ashley to see ‘Blue Jasmine’.
22nd
October 2013
Barry has
finally managed to get the heater tubing fully into the fittings which has
solved the dripping problem so we can now return to Colleen’s front verge and
life in the van prior to our eventual move up to Geraldton.
24th
October 2013
We used the bus
into Perth and met up with Heather who was one of our Geraldton friends many
years ago and who has maintained the relationship by email or phone. The last time were enjoyed her company was
about five and a half years ago before we started travelling. She is younger than us and still working but
we managed an elongated lunch break in Miss Maude’s in the Carillion Arcade.
25th
October 2013
We used the same
method of travel, but at a later time, to meet up with Sue (our Sue, not Steve
and terry’s Sue) outside the BHP building and then entered and met up with
Garon for a tour of the building, as he now works for BHP as well as running
his own business. The building is more
impressive on the inside than the outside with numerous secured areas that
require a pass to enter. We didn’t
explore every floor as many are used by other companies and are work areas that
do not appreciate tourists wandering around, so basically we saw his work area on
the 39th floor from the doorway and then went up to the 41st
floor which is available to all personnel in the building as their common rest
area for tea breaks, lunch or just relaxing. As the building is virtually all
glass, all of the open plan offices have a view out over the city in one
direction or another and takes in Fremantle, the ocean and south to the Kwinana
industrial strip which is 30 plus kilometres away. This is not the absolute top floor but not
far of it and there is now access to the roof for tourists so all photos hat be
taken through glass. It is many years
since we had an overview of Perth from the Legacy Lookout that was the tallest
tower block offering views in the 1970’s and is now quite miniature. The view of Perth and the Swan River from
this height is very impressive and comparable to city views from the various
towers in Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra and Auckland that we have
experienced. Unfortunately, the BHP
building was not built as a general public viewing opportunity, so we were
quite lucky with having a relative working there.
29th
October 2013
Ann returned
from her Adelaide visit arriving home around mid day and confirmed a night out
arrangement with her friend (another Ann) for a night’s entertainment watching
Andre Reiu at the Perth Arena. Ann was
taking the place of the other Ann’s husband who elected not to go. This
interested Merry who managed to obtain tickets for us, so we went with the two
Anns but couldn’t sit near them as our late booking put us much closer to the
back in the third from back row and to one side. Surprisingly it wasn’t a complete sell out so
we moved soon after the start to a more front on area. It was a spectacular show, and well worth
the expense.
6th November
2013
We used the bus
to visit Perth again to take a walk around the park alongside the Narrows
Bridge that crosses the Swan River. This
is a very pleasant park providing an easy walk ending by using a bridge over
the road to catch a Cat Bus (free) into the bus terminal where we had lunch. This was followed by another Cat Bus Trip to
Harold Baos Gardens in West Perth which is another of Perth’s parks and is
often used for photographic sessions after weddings in the local churches. We then went back into the business district
and visited the visitor centre who informed us of the whereabouts of offices of
the seniors card suppliers, which turned out to be very close by. We visited this office and acquired a new
seniors’ card for Merry as her current one was falling apart and the timing was
good as they produced the new one on the spot.
16th November
2013
There is still
no real excitement happening here, other than Barry changing the oil in our car
in readiness for the next big move to Geraldton, in a few weeks time.
17th
November 2013
We used the bus
once more to go to Perth and visit several heritage building that were open for
their once a year viewing by the public.
We visited the old Law Court which is now a museum and the new law
Courts which included a 15 minute talk by one of the Judges on the history and
workings of the court. This was followed
by a tour of the chambers, holding cells, etc.
We then wandered back into town and visited the Perth Town Hall before
grabbing some lunch, and then headed for the Government House and Gardens. The tour was a slow wander, in single file,
through the ground floor only of the building as the upper floor is probably
accommodation that is in use. The
Gardens weren’t as good as we had expected but were still quite nice but much
of the lawn was covered with food tent and a stage for various performers to do
their thing. After leaving the Gardens
we crossed the road for look inside St George’s Cathedral which coincided with
a talk by some woman on the life story of Edith Cowan. We listened for a while but gave it away
after about five minutes as she kept repeating herself and made our way back to
the bus terminal to head home. It was a
pleasant day out on a fairly warm day around 35°C with only the faintest of
breezes.
28th
November 2013
We did a dummy
run to the Sir Charles Gardner hospital using the 920 bus from the Pheonix
Shopping Centre to Fremantle Railway/bus station and then the 98 bus, which
does a huge clockwise circuit around the Perth outer suburbs), and calls into
the hospital on the way. This allowed us
to determine our timing for the buses to ensure being on time for the real
appointment.
We met Colleen,
Abby and Emma in the Cockburn Central shopping Centre where Colleen treated us
to lunch to celebrate Barry’s 71st birthday, and in the evening Ann
and Ashley took us out for dinner at Flames in the Rossmoyne area for the same
reason, and both greatly appreciated.
30th
November 2013
We visited
Colleen, Craig and the girls to say goodbye before heading off to
Geraldton. Craig didn’t actually make it
due to the previous nights cricket club celebrations, however, Emma made up for
that by provided us with a wonderful mini-concert to show off her great
progress since Barry started teaching her to play the guitar. She very ably accompanied herself whilst
singing two songs for us. They weren’t
songs that we are familiar with but it was great and Abby joined her on the
choruses. Half a dozen lessons from her
Granddad and a lot of hard work from Emma has worked wonders. She is now working on learning some more
songs for their Christmas camping holiday with the families friends.
2nd
December 2013
We attended
Merry’s appointment at Sir Charles Gardner Hospital and were disappointed with
both the off-hand specialist and the hospital; however, all is okay in Merry’s
throat and she doesn’t need another check for 6months which may be possible at
Geraldton hospital.
3rd
December 2013
We left Ann and
Ashley’s at about 7.00am which didn’t beat the congestion on the Kwinana
Freeway but it wasn’t too bad and where well north of Perth soon after 7.30am
and the traffic on the Mitchell freeway soon became quite in the northerly
direction. We didn’t envy the people on
the southbound lanes as they were virtually at a standstill. We stooped in a layby for a drink break and
rest after two hours travel, and again in Leeman on the new Indian Ocean Drive
for lunch. The new Indian Ocean Drive is
much easier driving than the Brand Highway.
Other than the right turn at the end of the Mitchell freeway, at Burns
Beach road, and the left turn onto the Wannaroo Road, it is a straight forward
continuous drive to the Brand Highway just before Dongara, with some ocean
views. We arrived at our house at about 2.30pm and
dropped off the caravan and crossed town the back way to the real estate agents
to collect the keys. This didn’t allow
much time for unloading the sea container in the hope of at least getting a bed
so that we could sleep in the house.
That didn’t happen as the padlock on the sea container was so badly
corroded that the keys wouldn’t turn and the local locksmith was not available
until the next day, so we settled down in the van again, but in our own front
garden this time.
4th December 2013
The lock on the
sea container was cut off by the locksmith at great cost for five minutes work
and the unloading began, but not at a particularly fast pass as some of the
first pieces of furniture happen to be the heaviest, which we choose to work
around. This meant that we didn’t
extract a bed yet and spent another night in the caravan.
5th
December 2013
Having now had a
good look at how the tenants have treated, and neglected the place, we have
been out shopping for Fridge, TV, microwave oven and washing machine and doggy door
plus replacement toilet, laundry trough and cupboard
7th
December 2013
Barry has now
fitted the doggy door through the laundry door and Foxy has learnt that it is
available and takes advantage of it. We
have also now unpacked the corner pieces that made it possible to assemble the
base for our water bed, fit the foam and water bags, fill and use the bed. This has added supreme comfort to our lives
along with our rocker/recliner chairs.
8th
December 2013
We have now
moved much off the furniture and packing boxes into the house, which included
the benefit of a bed, but have still got a lot of sorting to do plus work out a
plan for getting the last 4 pieces of furniture into the house. One of them in particular will probably
require burly removalists. Being back in
our home with plenty of space compared to living in the confinement of the caravan
for nearly 6 years gives a feeling of freedom but is not yet fully realised as
much of the space filled with boxes waiting to be unpacked and then the problem
of finding homes for everything. We have
brought back much more to this house than we took out of it when we left to
move to Karratha.
10th
December 2013
The new toilet
has now been installed which not only improves the look of the room it also
saves a lot of water as the old one poured about ten litres of water away with
each flush whereas now there is a choice of 3 or 4.5 litres, subject to
requirements. Meanwhile we have been
unpacking boxes and finding homes for some items and producing a pile to go
either the Red Cross or a garage sale.
We still have 15 large boxes out of 67 and 4 small boxes to bring into
the house to unpack which will be done during the earlier morning hours from
here on as WA is about to enjoy its first heat wave of the year, and
Geraldton’s temperatures are slightly higher than Perth’s.
12th
December 2013
We are still unpacking
boxes and moving furniture into the house.
The is only one piece of furniture to come into the house now but it is
way too heavy for us to move but Barry have has found a way to separate the top
section from the bottom section and removed all of the doors so we may be able
to manage to bring the sections in when the lounge has been cleared of boxes
and homeless items.
13th
December 2013
Today’s
temperature reached 43°C but we spent most of our time in shops to aid our home
improvement and comfort. This included
having the track of the kitchen vertical blinds overhauled and buying a slide-out
unit for the bathroom cupboard. The
cooler part of the afternoon was used to fit new lever type door handles to all
of the rooms in place of the round knobs.
This is recommended for older people whose wrist and grip aren’t too
great but it also allows the door to be opened with an elbow if both hands are
full, so long as the door swings away from you.
It is a costly exercise but worth it in our case as the old knobs were scruffy
and the replacements look good. We have also discovered that the locking pins
of every window have been removed so we can’t lock any of the windows in the
either the closed or slightly open positions.
Just part of the joy of having tenants that steal or damage as required and useless real estate agents
who charge for inspections but notice nothing despite having an inventory and photographs.
