Life is being cancelled

Monday 9th March was a public Holiday. Well, it was in South Australia – no where else, only South Australia.  What was the occasion you may well ask and I shall tell you it was such a holiday that no one outside of Adelaide really cares too much about – it was the Adelaide Cup Horse Race. It’s a Group 2 Horse Race, not in the same League as the Melbourne Cup, which is a Group 1 Race. Still, it was a long weekend and whatever the reason, quite acceptable.   Andrew and I decided on a  Road Trip to Port Lincoln, about 280 klms from here. We did ask John, but he was working. The drive down was uneventful with surprisingly little traffic. Yes I did take the camera with me but  there is not a lot to see and not much of any great interest since  this is mainly farming country – from the arid lands to the arable lands. However it was interesting to note that the street we were driving on in Port Lincoln were under water not so long ago.- in the flooding rain that followed the bushfires.

On arrival we went directly to Bunnings where we had a wander and a coffee. From there we went to the Tech Store where Andrew bought a new Mouse and I bought a second  64GB Extreme SD for the Camera. Well, yes, we could have bought these things at home, but we didn’t. We had a delayed lunch at Del Giorno’s Restaurant, which Andrew recommended. I had a  Vegetarian Pasta dish, which was very good and  Andrew had a Gourmet Hamburger, which he said was great. I chose a large glass of +Lemonade+  and Andrew a Diet Coke. Sad, I know, but it’s 280  kilms drive to home. One of the highlights for me was to come across an “Inspector Morse” Red Jaguar,  well looked after and in magnificent condition. Just after I took the photograph an

elderly man got into the car and drove off. The drive back was just as uneventful as the drive down. Yes there are little settlements, Tumby Bay, Arno Bay  Franklin Harbour and Port Neill. All of these are on the coast and the main highway is about 3 – 5 klms inland and thus a straight run from the top of the Eyre Peninsula down to Port Lincoln. A great day out – John would have enjoyed it. Port Lincoln is a busy, bustling town but has a lot of problems with youth crime and youth vandalism. However, I did relearn an important lesson -if you think you would like to do something- do it. Don’t leave it until later because later might be too late. On our way to the restaurant we came across the statue to the great  racehorse, Makybe Diva. I  thought I would like a photograph of that but decided to leave it until after lunch. After lunch, however, two families were having a picnic on the grass around the statue – some people were sitting on the  base and children were climbing over it. I never got my photograph. The name – Makybe Diva – comes from the first two letters of the names of the  five female employees of the owner –  Maureen, Kylie, Belinda, Diane, and Vanessa

I was supposed to be taking John to Adelaide next week. He was going to a concert in Melbourne but was unable to get flights at the times he needed to Adelaide and return, so he asked me to take him down. I would stay in Adelaide for a couple of days. pick him up at the airport and drive home. Yesterday I cancelled the hotel booking as word came through that the Melbourne concert is cancelled. John is not very happy. I will have to go down to Adelaide because I had arranged to do things on the Friday – like go to the RFDS Base to collect things for up here. I still need to do that so I will head down on my own.

Here in our country town the virus has arrived with one person being tested. The Laura Fair has been cancelled, the Peppercorn Markets have been cancelled but no word of the much larger Unearth Festival which is due here next week being cancelled. And we really should know because  the RFDS Simulator has been booked to come up from Adelaide for this. To date (one week out) the Festival is going ahead as planned. Ah…. 16:43 Saturday14th. At 5pm this afternoon there will be a Council announcement that the Unearth Festival in Ada Ryan Gardens on Saturday 21st and the Colour Run on  Sunday 22nd will both be cancelled. On Monday we will notify RFDS Central Operations that the Simulator will not be required. Perhaps later on in the year when things have settled down, but I don’t see that happening for a while yet. We are living in a very different reality. Annabell was not happy about me driving to Adelaide for no really good reason in the current climate, so to allay her fears I have decided that I really do not need to go to Adelaide at this time.