Month: March 2022

Friday, 11th March 2022

Off to help Phillip and Ann in the Barossa, but first to Gawler town.

We are getting pies and pasties from the bakery for lunch.

While doing so we passed ‘James’, or statue of him. James Martin was born in 1821 in Cornwall and came to Gawler. He built railway locomotives, farm machinery and mining equipment.  He became an inaugural Alderman of Gawler and later  Mayor. He was known as ‘The  Father of Gawler.’

His statue is on the river but we think he was relocated.  That is because …..

… the photo on the amenities block adjacent the statue, showed his building next to the statue with the clock tower in the background.

However you have to turn 180 degrees to see the clock tower three hundred metres away.

Anyway, off to the farm. We have our high calorie, but very tasty lunch, followed by some elbow grease and clearing of rubbish. Quite rewarding results.

The back verandah has a fantastic view.

All done. Home to clean up and start packing. We have to move on tomorrow.

WOMADelaide, the Fringe and a long weekend means Adelaide city and surrounds are totally booked. We have squeezed into an emergency, last resort spot for the weekend.

Let’s see how we go. Crash time.

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Thursday, 9th March 2022.

Weigh in morning. Lost another .6 kilo. So that’s one kilo in two weeks. It’s heading in the right direction but slowed down.

What’s different?

A – haa! We haven’t walked for a while.

We’ll have to make a new local route up.

So we walk along the highway to the Smithfield Cemetery is 30 minutes.

Something new here. A new Mausoleum ‘Porta Del Paradiso’.

Dare I say people are dying to get in here.

If you can’t read this ….

…here is a closer look.

Yes! They have sold in advance so it seems.

They just couldn’t wait.

A new section. Asian.  It’s title mentions ‘Chin’ and one can think Chinese.

However, the exiting headstone mentions ‘Thai’ on it. So generally Asian.  Who knows.

Only one customer so far.

Lovely water park location for these  last resting places.

Another new section.  Aboriginal.

Another 30 minute walk back and it’s been a good day.

A bit of TV, and a lay down, showers, evening meal and …….

zzzzzzzzzzzzz             zzzzzzzzzzzzz                 zzzzzzzzzzzz

Tuesday, 8th & Wednesday 9th March 2022.

Off to Gawler town. All sorts to do.

Must go to SA Services (Government)   ……… because ………

…. For the first time in  54 years of vehicle registrations I have lodged, THEY, the GOVERNMENT typed my name incorrectly. They must have hundreds of records with my name CORRECTLY displayed.

I called them. Told them. Asked them to check to see how and where they stuffed it up etc etc etc. Did they apologise? Say, ‘looks like we slipped up.’ ‘Our fault?’

Nope. I had to take my bloody passport and drivers licence to their office to correct THEIR stuff up.

Why? They managed to stuff it up completely un-assisted, so why can’t they fix it un-assisted?

Anyway, I didn’t get a copy of the form I filled out so I recorded where I was and when via camera. (It shows up when you zoom in)

We have a furniture situation building so we must look.

True.

A poem about the tree.

The tree.

Did you know we can have a SANDWICE but if you put a steak in it, it becomes a SANDWICH.

Bought alcohol. That was fulfilling.

Home. Quiet night.

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Wednesday 9th March 2022.

The van park, I have found, has very ‘slow’ soap. See pic below. When  I push the lever above with hand under, I snatch my hand to wash both, only to find there is nothing in my hand. So by the time I get my hand back to collect it, the soap has already discharged to the paper dispenser underneath.

They should at least have a warning sign on the dispenser that says … ‘Warning! SLOW soap.’

More furniture.

This one is pretty ‘zappy’ but we like it.

The new stuff can wait.

First the old stuff we already have.  We took our two Cobra chairs to the upholsterer. These two corner or ‘Cobra’ chairs need, re- springing, re-covering and re-gluing. That’s all. I bought them back in about 1985 at a celebrities goods and chattels auction. I got them, a coffee table, a painting some odds and sods and ‘Joylene.’ Now THAT’S a long, long story. Not now. Ask me face to face if I haven’t already told it to you.

These are coming up next. Eight dining chairs including two ‘carvers’ needing the same work as the Cobra’s.

Decisions, decisions. We shall see.

They also sell phoney candles. How…. phoney of them.

Still in Gawler, historic old buildings. Just great.

On to the butcher for Chicken, Kiev’s (topical name) Chicken Cordon Bleu and Chicken Schnitzel. We like chicken.

Now, no photographic proof but I bought a rip off tank of diesel today.

On Sunday, I said, ‘I’m not paying $1.74 for a litre of diesel. I’ll wait for it to go down!’ Monday, it didn’t go down but UP to $1.85. Tuesday up to $1.89 or $1.91. This morning it was $1.94. Afternoon was $1.99 or $2.19 and I LUCKILY got $172 worth at $1.99.9  AND cash only. The card machine had died.

Now I don’t know our next destination, but it’s not going to be far.

Had the Cordon Bleu. Very good.

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We’re in Adelaide for a few days and normally I would not blog if not moving. Oh well,  let’s see what happens, but I will keep it brief.

Sunday, 6th and Monday 7th March 2022.

Nice day.

Off to town for Phillip’s Birthday lunch.

A cheese platter which is a meal in itself followed by the meal that will always be the ultimate. Yes. A ROAST!

Now the cheese platter was by Anne and the roast was by Ann. Yes. Two. My Anne is with an ‘e’ and Phillip’s Ann has not got one.

Good wines. First was Pepperjack Shiraz. Whats’s better than a 750ml bottle of wine? Answer is a double size 1.5 litre bottle of course.

Phillips Birthday today but the cake also includes Anne’s just five days earlier.

Each got a candle.

A great day but it had to end. Home.

zzzzzzzzzzz        zzzzzzzzzzz           zzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

Monday 7th March 2022.

Next day, overcast.  Clothes washing morning.

Afternoon we are off to unload the car of un-needed items into the containers.

A bit of shuffling around and re-packing.

A chance to see our baby blue Vespa. it’s gorgeous.

We brought it all the way from East Timor and that was not an easy trick.

 

Now to the Ford dealer to get the synch from phone to car fixed. Now all better. I can answer the phone from the steering wheel again.

That’s enough for the day.

We will extend. a few days. Other things to do.

Left overs tonight from yesterdays roast we were sent home with.

Just as good the second day.

Enough.. Bed.

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Saturday, 5th March 2022

Off early, 8.15am

We are at a Barossa farm goods and chattels auction. Starts 9am.

These are items in a drawer. The ‘thing’ at the top with the handle is unknown.

However. it sold for $380. (!!???!?!?!) Someone knew what it was and liked/wanted it.

Lots of people. Anne in foreground disguised  with mask.

Still lots of people.

The one that got away. Anne wanted this. REALLY wanted it. Not the right time or the place.

The long 16 foot table with no middle legs. Sold for $5,500!!!??!?!??

This old brass candelabra sold for $6,800 !!?!??!?!??!?!?!

A very old stripper (harvester) Wooden wheels.

The barn. It lost it’s roof in a storm some time ago.

All sorts. An axle with leaf springs and wood spoke wheels. Thought by the purchaser to be off an, I think 1926 car. He is hoping because it is a missing part of the old car he is restoring.

The day comes to an end. Lots and lots of ‘lots’ went under the hammer.

Good day. Very tiring, Home.  Meat and three, TV bed …

zzzzzzzzzzzzz     zzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzz

 

Friday, 4th March 2022

Mannum Golf club. A good overnighter. ($20. Power, water toilet.)

A sniff around.

We are in the middle, an Australian/German couple we chatted to and a third one further away, we never touched base with.

Let’s look at town.

There’s us parked in the main street. Notice the two car parks marked out. Note also the furthest one is across a driveway??!!

An abstract display in a front yard.

This ‘house on the hill’ has to have a story.

A curiosity shop looking through the door.

Wise words.

A nice and true sentiment of dogs. However they did forget the odd wee on the carpet and having to pick up their poo deposited in public.

Well, one of the answers. There is of course also red wine, Port and again of course beer and Guinness … and Whisky and Whiskey!

I hope they couldn’t hold wine any more.

Our view while coffee-ing.

The fabulous Pretoria Hotel….

The flood of I think 56? That’s the Pretoria.

Gratuitous self indulgence.

Bowls next to pub.

The  pub dressed up the old keg cellar as a wonderful wine display.

A fine sentiment.

Another chap and I inspected it and decided it was home made, although it did have an MG badge on it.

He’s got a pile of big sheep in the back. Wondered why he didn’t pass when it was clear.  We finally let him by.

Sandy Creek Hotel. We came out from the Mannum road here.

Gawler.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThrough Gawler to the van park. Been here before. Like coming home, sort of. Big day tomorrow,

Showers, meat and three, TV ….

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Tuesday, 28th February to March 3rd 2022.

We are off today, heading for Mannum.

We see a sign, ‘Clayton Bay.’ Yes! Let’s.

Is this the worlds smallest house boat?

I now have a goal. Back in my early to mid teens, my mate D P M’s family had a shack down at Clayton.

It was stuck in the middle of vacant land bordered by farm land and sand hills with only a hand full of shacks around. Their shack was an old stone one room cottage that they has extended onto with a galv shed and another room on the other side.  Then Mr M had done a roof extension over the shed.

We used to go hunting and trapping rabbits  in the scrub and sand hills. It was great outdoor, rustic fun for young lads.

The local fisherman and wife lived about 200metres away and up a slight incline. They eventually built a single Besser brick room with a flat roof about 50 metres below their house, put a fridge, counter and shelves in it, stocked it with basics and called it a shop. The first shop in the town. We would go in and push the bell button on the counter. We would hear the bell ring in the house and 15 seconds later, the back door would open and the wife would walk down to the shop.

We went for a ‘look’ to find the subject dwelligs. It’s a small town  now. Streets, bitumen, not a sand hill in sight. If you pulled out a gun and walked down the street looking for a rabbit to shoot, you would be in trouble with the long arm quick smart.

I called ‘D’ and he said he was there for a look about 10 years ago.

I finally found the shack cleverly disguised but not well enough for a pseudo sleuth such as myself.

I also found a reserve named after Henry Jones, the fisherman and another reserve directly opposite named after Gloria Jones, his wife and the lady who came out the back door to serve us.

However, before we started our walk this hitch hiker was found and evicted.

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The original stone cottage pokes out the end of the much extended house.

Here is the original shop.

The Henry Jones Reserve. Real personal history.

On to Milang

History, history history …

….. and shacks, shacks, shacks.

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Then to Rusticana Winery. They also sell Horseradish.

Here’s some serious trivia.

N.B. 1

The name ‘Rusticana’ comes from the botanical name for Horseradish, ‘Amoracia Rusticana.’

In German, Horseradish is called ‘Meerrettich’ (sea-radish) because it grows by the sea.

A French man doing an English to German translation mispronounced the word ‘meer’ as ‘mare’ and it became Horse-radish. Mare as in horse and radish from the Latin ‘radix’ meaning ‘root.’

N.B. 2  I suspect it was German to English.

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Lots of flowers…. as per usual.

We didn’t make it to Mannum, but pulled into the Frank Potts Reserve free camp again.

We wanted to finish early because it was a big day.

ITS OUR WEDDING ANNIVERSARY AND ANNE’S BIRTHDAY!

A fabulous day.

Top that. Hard to.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz                 zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz               zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

Wednesday, 2nd March 2022

A lazy day but we have to do a walk. It’s part of the diet.

We depart from our now favourite free camp. ($5)

Look! A real public phone box. See! They do still exist.

They give the main street trees serious hair cuts to keep the power lines clear.

Tell me if this guy is keen to buy l He says ‘will pay double or triple the value and we don’t mind if it’s your worst piece of land and no titles needed’ !!!

The pub looks great but as yet have not visited it. Bloody diet.

I thought the council had let this park go a bit till I realised it was someones house.

The creel at our van.

A horse drawn cart parades past. Or maybe it was a ghost from the past.

Lazy day is over. Showers. Nice meal ….

zzzzzzzzzzzz           zzzzzzzzzzzzzz               zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

Thursday, 3rd of March 2022.

On the move again. We planned Greenock.

Made it to Mannum. Home made ham and cheese rolls in the river park.

Two ferrys!

A small paddle steamer, ‘The Mayflower’ comes in.

‘The Marion’, the biggy stays tied up.

A very flash house boat.

Seagull on post.

Seagull leaves. Riveting stuff eh?

So we’re not going on. The cheapest spot is the Mannum Golf Club.

Only three of us but $20 per site with power.

Chicken Kiev (topical) and three veg.

Nice night.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzz                zzzzzzzzzzzzz                 zzzzzzzzzz

N.B.

Today was Thursday the 3rd. I post this story every Thursday the 3rd.

‘I have told this story before and here it comes again. (well at least I shorten it each time). We lived in Darwin for five years and our favourite ‘watering hole’ was Shenannigans Irish Pub. Once I said to a young Irish backpacker working there, ‘I wish I could do a really good Irish accent.’ He replied, ‘Oy just wish oy could say tersdee da terd.’ Yes, ladies and gentlemen, today is Thursday the third, or should I say, tersdee da terd.  A special mention to Dave Blaine who also appreciates this unique calendar moment.’