Tag: Franklin Street

Out and about – again.

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
Part of the Wetlands

Well, that’s one task almost completed. I have finished writing the Church Newsletter and have now sent it off to my two proof readers, one of which is Annabell. Once they come back to me and I make the corrections, I will send out the Newsletter by email to those who have it and by snail mail to those who do not and a general after service distribution to the congregation. There is no charge for the newsletter and we pay for this  ourselves.   It takes a lot of work but I enjoy doing it ( mostly). Next task is an article for the State Newsletter, the minutes of the RFDS

Wetlands Bridge

Meeting and a letter of resignation from the West Terrace Consultative Committee. My  church are unhappy with my membership of this committee in that, due to increased costs in fuel and accommodation, it is no longer a cost that the church is willing to continue to meet. It’s costing about $800 a year and it’s high time someone from Adelaide started doing their share of the work and being part of Adelaide committees. At first it was acceptable and I could travel down by coach, go to the meeting, walk back to Franklin St.  and get the coach back on the same day. With the downturn in employment and a decline in population and thus coach use, the timetable was changed and no longer meets our needs,  ( last coach leaves Adelaide at 4pm. – Meeting starts at 3:30 ) so it requires a drive down and an overnight stay, and that’s bumping up the costs,  and hotel charges change with the season or what’s happening in Adelaide. I think it is a great pity but fully understandable and it is an amount  we could put to better use.

We have not been wandering this week – other than the wetlands – and I have spent much of the time trying to catch up on  cleaning up.  After the windy conditions over much of the week, the place is covered in leaves.  The morning we head to the wetlands and the afternoon I clean up around the place. Weather has been odd – to say the very least – and we have now experienced the warmest April on record with  10 consecutive days with temperatures over 30c. This week it is going to drop down to the mid 20c but then it’s going to build up again. According to what I read part of the problem is that the Ocean is warm and that’s helping to drive up temperatures and as far as I have been reading the warmth of the ocean is causing problems for the coral on the Great Barrier Reef.

RFDS over water

Tomorrow (Monday) and the RFDS will be flying into town for a meeting to discuss the arrangements for the function on 3rd May, to see what facilities there are, where things will be set up  and the catering arrangements for all the guests. I will also discover if it is the responsibility of the RFDS to notify the newspaper or if it is my responsibility to do so. I kind of suspect that will be my job.

We have an organization here called RICE – Remote and Isolated Children’s Exercise. Three ladies – a Nurse/Midwife ; A Health Care/ Social Worker:  A Child Care Professional. They go out from their base and visit outback and isolated properties. They announce their dates in advance so other families have the opportunity to join them at the designated property. The Land Rover is filled to the brim with toys and games.. The Nurse/Midwife Practitioner talks to the  moms and  discusses health and children related matters- the Health Care person talks to any Aboriginal women that may be there and feel more comfortable talking to an Aboriginal person and the child care person, sets up the games and toys and spends the day playing and looking after the children. Other than toys and medical equipment, there is also bottles of water and baskets of fruit. The base is at the Port and their “Clinic” covers  covers 620,000 square klms. The Nurse Practitioner  ( Marg. MacDonald-Ashe)  racks up some 50,000 klms a year in her Land Rover. I was going to put an outback photograph here, but they are all copyrighted

Rain,Wind and Lazy Days.

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Last Friday I drove down to Adelaide in lovely weather. It was an excellent day for a drive and I enjoyed the journey. Well I did until  I reached the crossroads of the State ( The Tin Man) and discovered that I had left my  laptop bag at home – so an exciting two days ahead – no laptop, no modem and – more importantly – no diary. That’s the first time I have ever done that.  I completed the task I had to do at Elizabeth, then continued on to Adelaide and met up with a young friend who is currently continuing her studies at Adelaide .  We spent a few hours drinking coffee and catching up with each other’s news. I walked her back to the railway station then caught the tram to the Central Market.  My son had asked me to look at some computer things for him  and the computer store was  halfway down Franklin Street. The  walk to this store was something I had done many times before, but on this occasion it was a nightmare and I was in pain not long after I got off the tram. When I finally got to the computer place it was to find that the  store was closed down and empty – which – to say the very least – was a tad annoying! Anyway, got back to Rundle Mall,  rescued the car from the  Car Park and drove to the hotel. Once I unloaded the car I was in no mood for anything other than getting  my feet up.  I did buy a small notebook  so I was able to keep a note of things for my diary. I spent most of the evening propped up on the hotel bed with a good book.

The Saturday meeting didn’t last long since there was only one item on the agenda – what used to be called an “in hunc effectum” meeting before the use of  outdated Latin phrases was discontinued about four years ago.  Anyway, by 11:30 I was on the road home and called Annabell to let her know I was in Port Wakefield. The drive home was something else. Given the poor state of the highway, depressions, potholes, poorly repaired sections and a high wind into the bargain, it was not the relaxing drive it was the previous day. The Port Wakefield Road is part of Inter-State National Highway 1 and I believe the responsibility of the Federal Government.   I arrived in Port Augusta tired. I did some shopping there, had coffee and fuel and headed  out to the last 80 klms.

Since coming home the weather has been wild and windy and to round off a bad weather week,  it  has been raining heavily all night. There was an interesting report on the news the other night about the consequences of all this rain – things  are growing like wildfire – I know that by the continual battle against the weeds that we are all having –  but already the pollen count has been very high and starting to foreshadow what  could be the worst hay fever season on record.  I spend a small fortune on weed killer and by and large the weeds laugh at it,  have a ball and invite their friends to the party.

It now be official!  I went to my diet people this morning and was weighed at 82.7 kilo.Not good but a lot better that I had expected and a loss since I was last weighed a few weeks ago. I not only want to get back to where I was before the operation but to push further to about 77 kilo. I shall be happy then.  Anyway this bad weather has not been “all bad”and not going out at night means that my Associate (Benji) and I  had a few lazy evenings plonked on the bed, propped up watching season 6 of Downton Abbey.  I had a look and season 10 of Lewis is not out on DVD yet. I have all the others.