Great Ocean Road – Edgar's Page

Drive to Melbourne Part 2

March 8, 2016 by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

From the crowds at the 12 Apostles Tourist Complex we headed back inland through rain forests with an occasional glimpse of the coastline until we reached

Marengo ( no battle here – different Marengo) then Appollo Bay. We stayed in Apollo Bay for a little while to have a bit of a break – food and fuel – then all the way along the coast to Lorne. Lorne is where my trip to the Great Ocean Road stopped so many years ago. When I visited Drysdale (Victoria) during my sister’s last

illness and then her funeral, my Brother-in-Law took me touring through the Ballarine Peninsula and then on the Great Ocean Road as far as Lorne, so, in essence, this was me actually completing the journey. From Lorne we drove to the Memorial Arch and then wandered on to the beach. There were quite a few people on the beach and

Me at the Memorial Arch and Digger Memorial area

we had only been there a few minutes when we realised that we were the only males. I managed to get some photographs of the area once I had moved away from where the females were. We had been driving all day and by the time we reached the Arch the sun was against us, which made it difficult for photographs. Sorry about that but I thought I

had better include one photograph of me to show that I was really there. However, once you get over that shock, be assured it is the only one – promise :o)

Most people don’t realise that the Great Ocean Road, from Torquay to Allansford (243 klms) is the Largest World War One Memorial in the world. It was started in 1919 by returned soldiers as a memorial to those who fell in the Great War. It was completed in 1932 and over 3000 returned soldiers worked on its construction using little more than picks, hammers, shovels, explosives and horse and cart. Quite an achievement, but it did cost several lives

From the Memorial we drove to Aireys Inlet and then to Bells Beach. I have to confess that like the first time I was there, I was very underwhelmed with the area. There’s not a lot of beach at Bells Beach but I understand from About Easter onwards the surf and

waves get quite big and powerful. Sometime I would like to come back and see it like with the big waves pounding the

Bells Beach where the Australian Surf Championships are held

surf. I also understand that the place gets quite crowded. I would also like to be able to do this journey over a longer period of time. By the time we reached Torquay were starting to get pushed for time and we still had a fair way to go to Melbourne. In fact the hotel called Andrew to ensure that we were still coming. We picked up the freeway and headed on into Melbourne arriving at our hotel in Dandenong Road fairly late but still in time to get freshened up and get down for dinner – an opportunity to relax and unwind.

The Big Adventure.

February 12, 2016 by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Ok, that’s the second run to Adelaide over now we just have the five day trip to Melbourne and back. I am so looking forward to the Tattoo. In nearly 65 years the Edinburgh Military Tattoo has only moved out of Edinburgh four times and three of these time have been to Australia. I have never been to the Australian event – this will be a first time. We are, as I said earlier, going via the

Great Ocean road. Our first run on Friday will be from here to Mount Gambier. The boys will do in one run what I generally take two to do – overall about 1000klms. But then as Herself suggests, there is nearly 30 years of a difference :o)

At the moment Windows 10 is still causing me heartache. I spent some time with a Microsoft Guru who was very helpful and finally got Word, Outlook, Excel, Power Point and Publisher all working – fantastic. Still have problems in that the start/menu button is still not working on windows 10 and I cannot access the apps – which means that although these programs are working I can’t quite get to them because I can’t get into the applications folder – grrrr… Not only that, my computer refuses to recognise my printer – they wont talk to each other. I am not altogether sure why but I seem to spend a lot of time these days humming Trini Lopez (If I had a hammer, I’d hammer in the morning) It is definitely a true saying “To err is human – but to really stuff up you need a computer”

Benji got a severe talking to the other day as I tried very nicely to impress on him that wakening up and pouncing on a sleeping form at 04:20 does not a happy daddy make. :o) Must have worked

because the last two mornings I have slept until 6am – thank you BJ. This five days away to Melbourne is going to be fun. The poor dog went gaga when I came home from Adelaide and that was only overnight — how is he going to be after five days? This will be the longest time I have been away from him since he was rescued and brought home. The longest I have been away from him was two days and Herself tells me he just sulked in his bed only coming out to go out and to eat. Yes, of course I will miss him.

I am looking forward to the Tattoo and some shopping afterwards. We set back to home on Monday – overnight in Adelaide and home sometime on Tuesday morning. Herself has also been having problems with her computer but rather than upgrade ( it is an old computer) so when we get to Adelaide we are going to have a look around and see what we can find.

Anyway we leave in two hours so I had better start getting showered and things ready. I am taking the camera (of course) and the laptop with me and we’ll see how we go.

An unexpected Adventure!

January 26, 2016 by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Sunday – apart from church – is family day and in the evening the family all come over to our house and share dinner together. Last night, however, was special for me. Although my birthday is not until April, the family – Annabell, John, Andrew, Patrica and the Girls – decided on an early Birthday Gift. In February my boys are taking me to Melbourne to the Edinburgh Military Tattoo. A reconstruction of the front facade of the Castle is being built in Ethiad Stadium in Melbourne and the permanent staff from Scotland will be coming over. I am so looking forward to this – the Pipes and Drums of the Royal Scot Dragoon Guards. They (the family) all know that I have a great fear of flying so we are driving there and the boys want to go via the Great Ocean Road, which means I will get back to the Memorial Arch but this time I have will my photograph taken with each of the boys. This is the area where there was a deadly fire a few months ago but it has now been cleared for travel. We should also make time to stop at Bell’s Beach. Isn’t it interesting that I am already creating photographs in my head and what I want to do.It would be really neat to make a detour to Drysdale and see what’s happened to my Sister’s property, but I don’t think we will

The WWI Memorial Arch - Great Ocean Road — The WWI Memorial Arch – Great Ocean Road

have the time for that. The Edinburgh Military Tattoo is just magic and I will have to contain myself until the week after I come back from Presbytery, which, fortunately, is in Adelaide this time.

Apart from the Tattoo, this will be the first time in years that the boys and I have been away someplace together – so I am quite looking forward to that. Of course it’s four days that I will miss Benji and I will miss our splashing around at the beach. He will miss his hotdog reward, but I’ll make it up to him. It wont take us long to get back on track. However, it is going to be an interesting start to the month – Adelaide this coming weekend – Adelaide the weekend after – Melbourne the week after that. Yes, Benji will think I’ve abandoned him.

Benji and I tried out a new walking route this morning. Interesting but turns out to be over 1000 steps shorter than our current route. Since today is a public holiday ( Australia Day) I might drive round the route and see where I could make a detour to make up the additional steps. If you’re interested it is calculated to be 1320 steps per kilometer and Benji and I cover about 12500 steps per day which is about 5.7 miles or 9.5 kilometres and we do this every day. I realise this to professional walkers, this is probably just a warm up, but it’s a lot for the dog and me – 50+ klms per week.

At this point I wrote some thoughts on Australia Day and deleted them. Better to let the so called elites of society have their say because at midnight I think they turn back into pumpkins. I just have to say though, I love the way some Australians get elected as “Australian of the Year”and use the opportunity not to celebrate their achievements but to tell the rest of us what a racist, guilty of religious discrimination lot we are. For me – well I often think of Sir Walter Scott “The Lay of the Last Minstrel”

O Caledonia! stern and, wild,
Meet nurse for a poetic child!
Land of brown heath and shaggy wood
Land of the mountain and the flood,
Land of my sires! what mortal hand
Can e’er untie the filial band,
That knits me to thy rugged strand!
Still, as I view each well-known scene,
Think what is now, and what hath been,
Seems as, to me of all bereft,
Sole friends thy woods and streams were left;
And thus I love them better still
Even in extremity of ill.
By Yarrow’s streams still let me stray,
Though none should guide my feeble way.,
Still feel the breeze down Ettrick break,
Although it chill my wither’d cheek;
Still lay my head by Teviot Stone,
Though there, forgotten and alone,
The Bard may draw his parting groan.

Computers and Bushfires

December 26, 2015December 26, 2015 by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Hmm.. As I suspected my BSL was much higher than it should be. I got a lecture about health and chocolate so he upped my medication to give the insulin a better chance of controlling things.

That’s how it will be for the next six weeks then back again to ensure that I have behaved and the medication is doing its job. Provided both issues are in sync I can drop back to maintenance level. Finally, I have a full email system back in action. I bit the bullet and installed Office 365. Cost me the office 2016 that was already installed, but there you are, if I wanted Outlook and a mail system, it had to be done. Everything seems to be up and running up to a point – the point being the recreation of my address book, which I will do tonight.

You load 365 and what do you get

An Office Suite and deeper in debt

Oh St. Peter don’t you call me

I can’t log off

I owe my soul to Microsoft

Ok, being silly but all is done and everything is up and running again, so I no longer have any excuses. Hopefully this new system will stabilise everything and I wont have the problems I had in the past – like mail vanishing into cyberspace.

The Vet is closed down until Monday 4th January. If we do have any problems there is another Vet in town that we could go to, but I always think that is fraught with danger in that once you go

Never doubted it Mr. Vader - Sir..... — Never doubted it Mr. Vader – Sir…..

there you might not come back. Mustafa has been closed since 11th December. I went up to see the Grooms at Fussy Dogs and explained that Benji is a rescue dog and I have no idea how he would react around other dogs – I can only go by how he reacts around me and the family. She said she would accept him and see how he went. I took him up yesterday and, well, chuffed ( means really proud/happy) just about says it all and he related well to the other dogs. The girls were quite fond of him and said he was a lovely pup easy to work with.

We had Christmas Dinner at my younger son’s place and all the family were there. It was a great day and I allowed myself one small glass of wine – since I was driving. Don’t like Coke-Cola much so drank lots of iced water. It was a long, hot, day and by the time I got home I could barely keep my eyes open. West to the Watchnight Service, then home then up at 5:30 mainly because someone felt that since it was light it was time for walking – so we did. I am still having problems with the Victorian Registration people and I still have not received any paperwork from them with regard to Benji. However, I have been in to see our Council and I will fill in the forms for them and for the Victorian Registration people and they will deal with it. In the meantime I need a Statutory Declaration signed by a J.P. and they will register the Benji with a note of his registration re the address on his microchip. If no success, we may have to think about a second Microchip.

Just thought I would mention that it has always been our tradition that the Christmas Offering is a Retiring Offering, people decide to leave something or not. We did announce that the retiring offering this year would go to the Royal Flying Doctor Service and a respectable amount was handed over to the RFDS Treasurer.

A devastating fire along the Great Ocean Road has caused widespread damage with over 110 homes destroyed. A difficult area to get into and a major tourist attraction. I have only traveled a short distance along the GOR when I was in Drysdale and it is a beautiful area. This main fire and some other fires are still burning in Victoria but New South Wales and Victoria are working together on containing them. There are over 500 firefighters trying to control the major fire on the Great Ocean Road I think this is going to be a difficult fire season.

On the Road again!

September 10, 2015 by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Still working on the area at the side of the Crazy Paying. I have, as I said the other day, completed all I have to do for the moment, but once I get settled down a bit I’ll make the change I want. However that’s not likely to happen until the crazy paving area is underway. In the top planter I have Purple Lavender and in the lower planter I have White Jasmine. I will get some more plants when I am in Bunnings. With my black thumb I don’t expect them to last. However, I take comfort from the fact that you can’t kill river stone :o) Also, on the way home I’ll take Catherine for lunch at the Arid Lands Botanic Gardens and perhaps get a few things there. Well, depending on how she is and when we leave Adelaide, it may well be afternoon tea and scones.

I went down to buy a set of car stands which were on special for Father’s Day ( today only 60% discount) Couldn’t find them so asked an assistant who went off to look for them. Little while later he came back – “Sorry Mate, that’s a typo error, we don’t actually have them” Was not very impressed. Didn’t think it was worth the effort to kick up a fuss since I’ll be down in Adelaide on Thursday and will hit Bunnings Thursday morning, so I’ll have a look then. I wanted a Ryobi Cordless Drill and these are only sold by Bunnings so the Boys gave me gift cards for Bunnings – I’m very easy to please!!!

Only two days left and I am off to Adelaide. The weather looks to be good – 20c Thursday / 24c Friday so it will be two good days for driving. Depending on the traffic and time, I would like to be able to stop somewhere along the way and take some photographs but the point here is that the road is much the same and I have just about taken

photographs down and back many times. Which is why I am looking forward to the meeting in November. This will be held in Mount Gambier and I have not been there before. My family lived in Drysdale, Victoria for a while and I was out there a few times. Last time I was there was for my sister’s funeral. I drove to Kaniva, stayed there for the night and drove to Drysdale in the morning. My Brother-in-Law decided to take me touring the Bellarine Peninsula and out as far as the Memorial Arch at the start of the Great Ocean Road. We also went to Bells Beach and Fort Queenscliff. Alan never got over my sister’s passing and six months later the children moved him to Adelaide. I was against this move but not my decision. He was comfortable and settled where he was and his friends were there. His health deteriorated and died 18 months later.

Going off to pack for the morning – and no, I do not travel light, one holdall for clothes and things, and another for cords, chargers, laptop, Modem. The camera batter is on the charger at the moment, but I’ll still take it – you never know…

Sunset, Meerkats and a Memorial Arch

January 24, 2015 by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

I began writing this some years ago and in essence I wrote it for myself. Actually, that’s not really true – I started off in My Space and I was writing it as a letter for one person. My Space changed and I no longer wrote there. I came on here but it was never the same. I never really expected to have any “followers” – I felt that that’s something interesting people have. Of course I am thankful for any comment, advice or concern, and for the lovely people I have met but I’m not exactly setting the world on fire now, am I? But as I said, I started this mainly for myself. These last 12 months have been something of a revelation, that this is not really going anywhere, discovering personal limits, discovering I am not invincible as well as doing everything possible to wreck my health by living out of a suitcase for

much of the last eighteen months. In looking back over the last 12 months I have to ask myself what, if anything, I have achieved. The answer is, regretfully, nothing. I only retain the West Terrace Committee and that mainly because it’s working with a wonderful group of people. A refreshing change, which is always welcome.

This next weekend – the weekend after Australia Day – I will be in Adelaide for three days. I have organized this to make it as stress free as possible. I drive down on the Thursday, perhaps a bit of shopping – a visit to Bunnings – Office Works – relaxed day; quite night at the hotel, good sleep. Friday, all day session – finish about 5:20, perhaps a bit of late night shopping and a meal in town, quite night at the hotel, good sleep. Saturday, breakfast, check out, drive home – simples!! (cue in cute Meerkat here) – On the way back I’ll try and get time to stop into the Arid Lands Gardens and if I leave early enough I might get there in time for lunch — they make very nice scones!!

When I visited Alan out at Drysdale we toured the Bellarine Peninsula. I am particularly pleased with this because it was among the last things he did before he before he became confined to a hospital room on oxygen. I only mentioned to Herself the other day that I did wonder if Alan might have still been alive if he had remained in Drysdale surrounded by his friends. Difficult to say. I was also thinking that I would like to take a trip back to Drysdale and have a quiet trip around the place and tour the Bellarine Peninsula with herself, but I don’t know if

The Big Koala: a refreshing break on a long journey

she would be well enough for such a long journey. If we did go, it would have to be in small, easy stages to give her a break. But the added concern is that this is Australia and not all than many places are Dog Welcome. I know there is one in Drysdale so we would probably stay there. However, that’s all speculation and quite unlikely. It’s impossible to get her to Adelaide let alone Geelong.

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