14th January 2015
Christmas new year period
Richard arrived on R&R from Gove and spent
Christmas with us at Ron and Pamela’s place across the road, just like last
year, which makes for a cheerful and entertaining day and evening. We also spent the evening of New Years Eve
there playing cards until well into the New Year.
Jack and
Rory arrived on the 4th January to spend some time with
Richard. There isn’t a great deal for
youngsters to do in Geraldton but Richard managed to keep them occupied on the
beach, cinema and video games/films. He
drove almost to Dongara (half hour drive) with them to do some archery but
found he had left his wallet behind so that didn’t happen.
Colleen, Craig, Emma and Abby drove up from Perth
for a couple of days which was good for the kids and gave us the opportunity to
hear Emma’s progress with her guitar playing.
There is was very significant improvement in her playing and Barry was
able to teach her to play ‘Chariots of Fire’ which she learnt almost
immediately and gave us all a note perfect recital the next day. She had a new guitar bought for her recent
birthday which she also wanted to show us.
Rory has also started to learn the guitar which
involved Richard and us adding birthday/Christmas money to her savings and
bought one from the Geraldton music shop.
There is no music shop in Katherine where she is living which would mean
a 4 hour drive each way to Darwin to buy one up there in the Northern Territory.
Colleen and Co returned to Perth last Friday so that
Craig could play cricket on the weekend and Richard, Jack and Rory departed
today (Wednesday) for Perth and will stay with Colleen and Co until departing
for Darwin on Saturday. That gives them
time to go Paintballing and Archery to pass the time before leaving Perth as
Richard has some free entry passes from their last visit.
17th January 2015
Despite the general daytime temperatures being 32
degrees C plus, and the rest of the
family returned their normal living areas,
Barr y has returned to work in the garden to finish off a couple of the
unfinished projects, All of which
involves mixing cement and brick or stone work.
21st January 2015
The cement work is progressing but rather slowly due
to the high temperatures but mostly due to the fact that there is a lot of
cricket on the TV that needs our attention with the tri- nation series and the
Big Bash league. We will be in Perth for
Merry’s throat check up just as the Tri-nations series final is played at the
WACA and we just happen to have tickets for it. When that has finished we will have the world
cup to contend with, plus currently there is also The Aussie Open tennis
tournament.
31st January 2015
We drove down to Ann and Ashley’s in Perth and
settled in for a long weekend, which included putting our dog fences up around
their gates to stop Foxy escaping and as a result of ten units having been
built on the block next door the them which originally had a house and separate
garage on it, Barry had to put bricks into various places along the dividing fence
line as gaps under the fence have now appeared and are still waiting for the
builder to sort out.
1st February 2015
Merry’s Birthday which meant a bus trip into Perth
to the WACA to watch the final of the tri-nation series in which the Aussies
decimated the Poms. This was followed by
Meal in Jamie Oliver’s restaurant, courtesy of Richard for his mothers’
Birthday. He had just arrived in Perth
on his exit from the job he had in Gove as the contract has just ended. The restaurant meal despite its name was not
worth the time or money, and Jamie can count us out for future reference.
2nd February 2015
Richard travelled up to Geraldton to our place
whilst Barry took merry to Charlie Gairdner Hospital for her three monthly
throat check. Unfortunately Richard was
unable to cancel his bus ticket to come back with us plus he had a lot more
baggage than usual, but we would have managed if he could have cancelled. He arrived in Perth too late to contact the
office and it didn’t open on the Sunday.
Merry’s throat is in such good condition that the specialist had to
consult her notes to determine exactly where and what to look at as there is no
physical evidence of there ever having been a problem. She now only has to have six monthly checks
instead of three monthly checks.
3rd February 2015
We drove back to Geraldton and discovered that the
rain we encountered the day before in Perth had also applied to Geraldton which
was the first rain in 50 odd days in Perth, and about a month longer in
Geraldton
4th February 2015
Now that Richards contract in Gove has expired he
has enrolled with the one of the local employment agencies in the hope of
scoring some work. It appears that this
agency deals more with shutdown work rather finding long term appointments so
he will probably doing the odd week long job in various local mines for the
time being, and that is after renewing various work related training
certificates, such as ‘Working at heights’ and ‘Police Clearance’ as many of
the mines in the Geraldton/Midwest region are gold mines. He is hoping eventually to score a permanent
maintenance type appointment in the Perth area though the other on-line and
Perth based agencies that he deals with.
5th February 2015
Dropped Richard off for his ‘Working at Heights’ training
in the morning and collected him in the afternoon.
6th February 2015
Barry made some more progress with the steps up to
the new raised garden.
8th February 2015
Barry woke up this morning with his right knee not
wanting to do anything other than stay straight making it difficult to walk,
and ache. This happens a few times a
year for no apparent reason other than sleeping with it in an unknown awkward
position.
9th February 2015
Richard departed for Perth by bus and will have a
few interviews and medicals whilst there and departs (flies) to the Gold Coast
on Wednesday for a seminar. He returns
in about a week subject to what happens with any jobs has applied for that may
require his attention on returning to Perth, before he comes back to Geraldton. Barry finished the steps to the raised garden
so that we can now level the soil and add any compost/manure etc in readiness
for planting whatever takes our fancy. Barry
also made an appointment with his doctor despite his knee now behaving itself
as this is the knee that had the cartilage removed when he was thirteen and
told he would need a plastic replacement knee cap when he reach the fifty year
old mark. They have invented Teflon
since then which is much better.
However, fifty came and went 22 years ago so he now having it checked to
see what it all looks like.
10th February 2015
Barry is now mixing mortar and ‘pointing’ some of
the brickwork on the front of the house where tenants have allowed sprinklers
to play on the wall and erode some of the mortar from between the bricks. He has used a diamond tipped disc on his
angle grinder to remove the remnants of old mortar to the depth of the disc,
and then refilling with the mortar mix.
As soon as one job is completed we manage to find another.
11th February 2015
Barry saw his Doctor and is now having X-rays and MRI
scans done soon to check out the state of the inside of the knee. He may then be required to see a specialist
to determine if a reconstruction is warranted.
17th February
The steps to the new section of raised garden are
now finished, along with the joining of the original walls from both sides of
where the brick BBQ used to be. This
area is full of soil so the new section of wall is only two rocks deep to give
the impression of a complete circular wall.
Richard arrived home at 2.30pm but will only be here for the rest of
today and tomorrow and will return to Perth for a conference and a training
course with a view to a shutdown job that is available to him. They contacted him about the training
course/job whilst he was on the bus half way to Geraldton, or he would have
stayed in Perth. Once the course is done
on Monday he will fly out to the job (where ever that is for however long),
prior to returning to Geraldton unless something else raises its head. The contract job he had in Gove has ended so he is now in the job hunting process at a not-so-good job-hunting-time.
20th February 2015
Merry planted some grape vines along the side fence
of the back garden and unfortunately managed to get her shoulders rather sun
burnt.
21st February 2015
Richard produced five appropriate sized holes along
the fence line at the side of the house and then erected five poles with cross
beams (with Barry’s assistance) in readiness for concreting tomorrow and wire
fencing to be attached the day after to grow a Mexican Rose on it. The shutdown job that Richard was interviewed for became a real pain as the agency wanted him to keep doing courses in a hurry, and sending in paperwork in a hurry, which he could have done whilst in Perth if they had got their act together, so that is one that he eventually rejected.
22nd February 2015
Barry mixed to barrow loads of cement and half
filled the holes, after bracing them into position, before anybody else
ventured out of their beds, and after taking Foxy for her morning walk. The top of the holes will be re-filled with
dirt and watered in tomorrow and the pavers replaced where possible with some
being cut with Barry’s angle grinder with diamond tipped blade to fit around
the poles.
23rd February 2015
Barry had his X-ray and MRI scan today. The X-ray took 10minutes and the MRI took
about 20 minutes but the whole adventure took about 2 hours. He now has to wait to see his doctor next
week for the verdict. The pavers have
been replaced where possible but some will need shaping.
24th February 2015
Richard and Barry fitted the wire fencing to the
pole framework and the Mexican Rose lifted and introduced to the fencing so
that it can start spreading. Barry
continued with some more of the re-pointing of the front house wall where
sprinklers have damaged the mortar.
26th February 2015
Barry took Richard to the bus station, yet again, for him to
return to Perth for a Seminar that is of interest to him. Barry then continued
with some of the pointing again when he got home. It is
slow back aching process as most of the problem area is down low.
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