Wednesday
Month: October 2019
Adelaide and Lobethal
For the last two days John and I have been in Adelaide and elsewhere. I needed to go down to Adelaide to get some work done on the car. I could have had the parts sent up here by freight and asked my mechanic to do the work, but in this instance even my mechanic advised me to go to Adelaide since the cost of transporting the parts up here was be more than the parts were worth. So to Adelaide I went. John wanted to come with me in the hope that if the alterations were done in time we could head out to Lobethal. He wanted to visit the Lobethal Bierhaus to get beer – yes you read right – it is a microbrewery and the boys, John and Andrew, really like the beer, so when they are in the vicinity ( or even just in Adelaide) they head to Lobethal and the brewery.
We didn’t get away from home until after 1pm. – Wednesday is Coffee Ladies morning and I take and collect Annabell. This meant that it was after 6pm before we got to the hotel
and booked in. The reason for the Wednesday departure is simply that the car was due at the workshop at 8am. With the temperature at 34c we drove with the A/C on for most of the way, stopping at the Tin Man and – briefly – at Port Wakefield. We arrived at the hotel at just after 6:16 pm and booked in. We also discovered that Bunnings (Mile End) was open until 9pm, so after getting the bags out of the car and into the room, we headed to Bunnings. I had a few things I needed to get as did John. We got what we wanted then headed back to the hotel for dinner. John had a beer with his dinner, which he suggested was only marginally better than water with food colouring. The food was very good and I enjoyed my Shiraz. My reason for staying here is simply that the garage where I am taking the car is just along the road.
Thursday morning and after a good sleep in a very comfortable bed I got washed and dressed and took the car to the workshop at 7:45. At 8am the mechanic came out and we had an inspection of the car exterior. That done I went back to the hotel for a coffee. The alterations didn’t take long at I had a call just after 9:40 to tell me the car was ready for collection. We collected and paid for the car and with John driving we set off. The temperature being 39c, we drove with the A/C on. I was very thankful John was driving because Lobethal is up in the Adelaide hills, narrow, climb hills, descend hills, twists and turns the whole way and from where we started to arrival in Lobethal it was a good hour of concentrated driving.
As it turned out the Brewery was closed, but we met a man and talked to him and told him where we had come from, so he went and spoke to the boss, who came out and invited us inside. They were closed and only open Friday, Saturday and Sunday, but he said that they always look after their faithful customers so he was quite happy to get
John what he wanted. I telephoned Andrew and asked is he wanted anything so we bought two bottles for him. The bottles, by the way, are 2 litres each. Before we left we were taken for a brief tour of the distillery, which was really interesting. Storing the big bottles in the car and packing them with towels and clothes to keep them safe, we had a wander around the town for a little while. I found an interesting church – Lobethal Uniting Church – with a foundation stone dated 1922, so with that date it means that it started out as something else as the Uniting Church did not exist then. My thought was for a Congregational Church but I decided to research when I came home.
Towards the Final Curtain E
Some more firefighters from South Australia headed off to New South Wales to assist the men and women who are battling against the fires in that state, Things are not good in NSW or Queensland and we understand that at least one of the fires in NSW, one that destroyed property, was deliberately lit. A friend in Scotland expressed surprise at the ages of some of the vandals here in South Australia and only a few days ago police arrested vandals, who smashed up a take-away window at McDonalds got inside smashed up chairs and threatened staff with knives – the oldest was 13, the youngest was 10 and two of the offenders were girls. And this happened in Port Lincoln. I mean it is reaching the stage where people break into your house – your fault for not having your property better protected. What’s the government doing??? not a lot, really. We have a government that is bent on achieving a balanced budget and creating a budget surplus and
they don’t really care how they do it; they will cut the funds to whoever, schools, hospitals, courts, police; sell off what they have to sell off in order to achieve that goal. And having managed to get themselves hated by just about everyone in the community, they will get kicked out at the next election and be in the wilderness for the next 20 years. The government announced today that it is closing off 60 beds at the Royal Adelaide Hospital and 10 Beds at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital at a time when Ambulance ramping is at an all time high. They maintain it is a operational decision and not a cost cutting exercise. Likewise, the selling off of the Transport System to a Private Operator – operational efficiency not a money grabbing exercise. South Australia is changing and I don’t feel it’s for the better. We have not reached the British stage where members are hurling abuse at each other across the floor of the House.
Now that her eyes have settled down I am taking Annabell for eyes tests this afternoon. She will be tested for reading glasses and she will be thankful to be able to read again. She misses not being able to sit and read at night – sometimes she even puts the light on o:) I am still having difficulty adjusting to seeing her without glasses. Next week there will be a Special Church Service to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the founding of the Women’s Association here. Annabell is the Secretary but not being able to see properly nor read, she has had to let other people do the work. However, she will have her new glasses by early next week so she should be ok for the Service.
Justice as she is spoken in Horstralya! _ He lost control of his Lamborghini, crashed it into a shop front, killed a young 15 year old girl and seriously injured her friend (girl) who was with her. Was arrested and charged with careless and dangerous driving. Has been charged in the past – has a record of bad driving, has 18 expiation notices against him. Had his driving license removed. Went to the judge and asked that his license be returned because his wife is 8months pregnant and he needs to drive her to medical appointments. Police objected but the kindly judge reissued his license, but told him he is only to drive to the hospital and back home – not to drive elsewhere. Yeah – right !!!!! Seems to me if he can afford to buy and run a Lamborghini, he can afford to pay for a Taxi. There have been protests in Post Lincoln against the rising youth violence and as one protester said, “the police arrest them and the court tells them they are “naughty” and puts them back on the street”
After the nice temperatures of 31c we have gone back to winter temps again with a cool to cold 17c – 14c and while in some places that might seem like a nice day, here it is cold. The wind is a cold wind keeping the temps down. Never mind the climate crisis, there are now a number of towns in New South Wales and Queensland that will run out of water if there is no rain anytime soon, and others who have less than a year supply of water left. Australia is not the “Lucky Country” that it once was. P.S. I know, I know – I am growling!! Sorry.
Wednesday
Towards the final curtain D
Whilst the good people of the Northern Hemisphere wax lyrical about Autumn – or Fall, here in this little corner of the Southern Hemisphere, Spring has Sprung and Dear Mother Nature has
given us a reminder of who is really in charge. The temperatures this week have steadily climbed to 41c, with a high North Wind. In this corner of the planet a North Wind is a hot wind coming off the desert. It was not the most pleasant of days to be running a fundraising Barbecue for the RFDS , but never the less, we did it anyway. Given that it was the middle of a long weekend and many people were away, if we made more than $150, I will be very surprised. Why did we do it- we were asked to – that simple. And, of course it was for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. However, we have a policy that if a trader asks for the RFDS to do a fundraising venture, I will do my upmost to get a team together and accept on the belief that if we refuse, they may ask someone else next time. LOL, I have even organised a fundraising event from one thousand kilometers away when I was in Mount Gambier – and yes, I have had my head examined – several times!! Most of the time it’s good fun – we work and chat with customers and when it comes to the RFDS, people are very generous, and they were this weekend too – even although there were not all that many – and I expressed the belief that there was more money put into the donations tin than there was to the cashbox. Anyway, it’s funds that we didn’t have at the start of the day and that’s what matters. Having been through an early 41c on Saturday, the temperature crashed overnight to be 24c on Sunday – Monday wasn’t too bad and today (Tuesday) I was feeling very cold when I took Benji out for a walk at 6am. I guess I was too pig-headed to go back for a heavier jacket, so I just continued with the walk, but it was a cold morning.
One of the drawbacks of living “in the sticks” is the fact that I miss city shopping. I don’t mean that the shops here are not good, they are, but there are things not available in the country that are commonplace in the
city. For example, I want shoe polish, not the common New Zealand (Kiwi) Shoe polish but a polish that is produced here in Australia and is not petroleum based. Decent size Australian Company but products not available here. We really only have one shoe shop here and that’s “Spendless” with small shoe departments in Harris Scarfe and Target. The shoe shops we did have have all gone. How can you survive in a place where 60% of the population wears flip-flops or no shoes, 35% wear sandals or sneakers and only 5% of us wear actual shoes.
Over many (Too many) years I have gone from paper organisers, to electronic organisers ( Palm Pilot ) and finally back to paper, Filofax, Van der Spek, Mulberry and my current Kikki.k. I have gone from Personal, to A6, back to personal and finally to A5 and Kikki.k. It was all so very easy once. I was in Adelaide fairly often so was able to buy what I needed in either David Jones or Borders, and in a few of the stationers. Not so now. David Jones no longer stock much in the way of Planners/Organisers and I think has only one Filofax in stock and Borders closed down. Now I have to order on line from China, Hong Kong, or, if it is from the UK or the USA, I practically have to donate an
arm or a leg to defray the postage costs. For other things I have a supplier in Perth, Western Australia, and she’s very good. For my inserts these days, I download a system that I like in the size I want, copy it to a USB and take it to the local printer who will print everything for me in an A5 size — I supply the paper, which is great because it means I get the paper quality that I really want.. And yet, it would appear that paper-based planners and still quite popular, but in South Australia it certainly doesn’t feel like that.
Wednesday
Towards the final curtain C
After the medical alert and the dust storms, we had two days of rain. Still, at least it washed the dust away. The pit at the end of the street is completely full. Benji and I took a walk down there a short while ago when it stopped raining for a bit. More rain is forecast for tomorrow. We were lucky in that our fundraising event was rain free but it 
started just as we were starting to pack up. In that respect we were pretty lucky. It rained today (Sunday) but the fundraising team that were out managed to avoid the showers and stayed a bit longer. It rained for much of the afternoon so we didn’t get out for our walk until later than usual.
One of the common problems I have is the buffering of this machine. I try to watch YouTube or a movie on Netflix and what I am watching stops and I get to watch the pretty blue circle going round and round until the program catches up and it all comes back again. As far as I understand this means that the computer does not have sufficient RAM to cope. Well, during the week I put the computer in for an upgrade and 4 more gigabits of RAM giving me a total of 8 gigabits. Surely that should be enough to stop the buffrering – or whatever it’s called. No. 2 son suggested that we should get a repeater which would boost the WiFi signal from the Modem. I am not the one who watches the television but there you are I got the repeater from Harvey Norman and set it up for her.
Today much of what I have seen are reminders that the clocks go forward next Sunday (6th Oct.) That’s ok and probably necessary, howeffer—- Christmas Decorations are not and I am seeing these in shops already – I mean by-pass Halloween, Thanksgiving and whatever else and go directly to Christmas. This is just money-grabbing silliness. It’s the same at the pump, the second after it was announced that the oil production facilities had been damaged in an attack – Australian fuel prices shot up. It is now announced that there has been major repairs and production is back to what it was before the attack, but the prices are not coming down.
I went down to the Wetlands with Benji about 10am this morning (Saturday) and I have to say that the kiosk was R.J.F. (Ram Jam Full) The new roof has gone up giving shelter from any rain and shade from the sun. There were also a lot of people walking around. The Wetlands is becoming very popular and it would be nice if the council spent as much time looking after the Wetlands and presenting it better, than is does with their $6 Million + Jetty that they rave about. I don’t like the jetty – or at least the plans for the new jetty, one little bit. I feel that close to seven million dollars could be much better spent. However it being Monday, the Kiosk is closed. They are open six days so they do need a bit of a break to catch up on upgrades and cleaning.
After the Wetlands we went for a quiet wander in the shade around the Ada Ryan Gardens – The gardens are looking fairly good but they tend to highlight a problem – why dog owners
get a bad reputation- dog poo. Well not enough to be a major concern but enough to be a noticeable concern. Difficult to miss on the brick walking paths. When we came here Ada Ryan Gardens was the main place for outings. We used to take all the Sunday School children – and parents – to a picnic in the gardens several times a year. We could have a barbecue or just a simple picnic with sandwiches, biscuits and cold drinks from several Eskies. We played games and fed the ducks in the duck pond. But then the vandals came and began throwing stones at the ducks, killing several. The council installed higher fencing, but that didn’t deter them and after two more ducks were killed, the council removed the ducks, drained the duck pond and filled it in. We also had an enclosure where several injured kangaroos were kept and looked after, but the vandals attacked them too and they were removed and the enclosure dismantled. In the 1980s we had a lot of trouble with vandals, which all the experts blamed on living in the country and isolated from the facilities and opportunities that are enjoyed by the good people of
Adelaide. Like all things, that passed but I wonder what the new reason is these days for all the vandalism and youth crime ( as young as 13/15) currently taking place in Adelaide. Hhmmm…
The weather is starting to warm up a bit – 33c today 30c tomorrow and 37 on Friday. Fires are still burning in New South Wales and Queensland but in some places there is an added concern in that several towns are running out of water. There are no water restrictions in South Australia since we have had enough rain to fill the reservoirs and they are fairly healthy. One town in NSW is spending 14 Million to run a pipeline from that town to another town to access their dam. Problem is that the dam is now reduced to 50% capacity so by the time the pipe is complete there might not be enough water to go around both towns . The long range weather forecast is not very encouraging..
Wednesday
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