Hello everyone ,
I hope you’re having a great week!
Spe...
Latest reply
Hello everyone ,
I hope you’re having a great week!
Speaking languages connects us with others and allows us to express ...
Latest reply
Over the years I have come to enjoy being a part of the Community Centre, contributors have come and gone but all of them have added to my life in some way.
A couple of weeks ago in response to a post of mine here another long time regular, Maggie @Maggie-and-Norm0 casually said she and Norm would be in our part of the world for a day stopover as part of a cruise they are taking part on.
I suggested it would be lovely if we could meet up for a few hours while they were here in Adelaide which both Maggie and Norm agreed to.
So, yesterday morning, under a particularly leaden sky (the worst we have had for the year) I cleaned most of the unnecessary clutter out of the car and headed down to the cruise terminal to pick them up for the day.......
It's always a bit of a leap into the unknown meeting someone new for the first time, and Maggie said Norm was the quieter of the two. You worry about uncomfortable silences, but I soon discovered she is just like me, and could talk the legs off a cast iron pot, and Norm was not left behind and was so interesting, oh the relief and we had a lovely day together.
The awful weather drastically changed my plans for them but I showed them a bit of our city and local area, Ade and Maggie got on wonderfully and Norm and I had to fight over who was going to pay the lunch bill. He would not hear of me doing it so in the end we agreed to split it.
A bit more sightseeing before heading back to their ship, hugs all round and both Ade and I had a wonderful day. It would have been lovely to have had them longer and the weather had been a bit more cooperative but I guess you can't have everything.
Thanks Community Centre for giving us a day we will take forward with us into the future, and we will keep in touch with our new found friends!
Cheers........Rob.
I have made a number of friends through the Community Centre Alex, fairly recently Laurelle and Alex from Huskisson in NSW @Laurelle3 who I can't wait to get together with again. They are a lovely welcoming couple. The last year has prevented us catching up but hopefully we will soon.
We have had Sandra and John from Arizona and Lee from South Dakota stay here who we still keep in contact with.
But not so much via the Community Centre but as part of Airbnb we have had Emeric, Carole and Eric from France, of course our now adopted Son and Daughter who first stayed here in 2017 as Airbnb guests, Chris and Laura from Helsinki in Finland who come here every year now .....
And we have made a number of Chinese friends.
In 2018 we had Yi and Zhu from Shanghai stay here for a week. One evening Yi was sitting in our garden and I went over and had a chat with him. He suddenly said to me, "I wish I could grow something!"
He lived on the 18th floor of an apartment block with no access to a garden so, I took him into the potting shed and for the next hour he was in 7th heaven preparing and potting plants we would eventually transfer into the garden. We went back to the outdoor setting and as twilight had set in his partner Zhu came up the path, joined with us and she said....."While we are here we want to see Koala"!
She had no sooner said it and this guttural growl came from one of the trees behind, and there on one of the tree limbs was.....a Koala! .........
To start with I am sure they thought it was a plastic set-up and I was bluetoothing it with my phone, but all of a sudden it jumped from one branch to another and they both squealed with delight.
So they both got their wish, he got to grow something, and she got to see a Koala.
4 months later I got a request from them, they wanted to return with some close friends and get married in our garden. Plans were put in place but, unfortunately Covid intervened and the trip had to be cancelled.
Each year on the anniversary of an overseas guest stay I send my guests a hand written newsy card wishing them well and telling them what is going on in our lives......
So I do have quite a circle I stay in touch with Alex.
Saturday was lovely though, Maggie and Norm are such warm friendly people they have thrown out the welcome mat for us but Ade's mobility issues means she is no longer capable of overseas travel. It's hard enough for her just getting interstate to see the kids.
But as I left them back at their ship I said, "Well let's just say.....Never say never"!
Cheers........Rob.
Hi Joëlle, I haven't disappeared off the face of the planet just yet!! All is amazingly well here, down under.
The kids place such importance on birthdays.....particularly when you get to my age, and my 81st on the 25th of August was indeed the impetus for a 3 week celebration.
Ade fly's and I drive because I feel trapped over on the East Coast without my vehicle.....and she hates my driving! She seems to think I am reading a book or watching a movie instead of keeping a lookout for roaming wildlife and the multitude of heavy transports that use our country's road network. So it's a good arrangement Joëlle, I don't hassle her and she doesn't hassle me......it leads to peace all round!
And there is something almost spiritual about driving the 270Km Hay Plains! It's something you can't do anywhere else on earth.......
The daughters and partners working working means I have to rely on public transport and when you are trying to rip out tree roots from washouts and renovate a driveway with 6 tons of road-base......you need some sort of transport.
But it wasn't all work. Kate my youngest daughter took me to one of the most sought after restaurants on the East Coast called 8 at Trinity on the shores of Lake Macquarie.....and my God was it amazing! Although it seats over 300 diners, you have to book weeks in advance to gain admission.......
We opened up, as you do, with a coffee daiquiri......
The food to come just beggared description, I had Wagu beef meatballs followed by roasted Barramundi!
A luncheon I will always remember......The exclusivity of the restaurant was bought out by the fact that, apart from the million dollar boats moored at the marina part way through our luncheon a helicopter landed on the grass close to us, and these two occupants got out for their booking having flown up from Sydney, a couple of hours down the coast!
Next day we took to kids and Niko (the hound) to an Orange farm where you pick your own Navel or Valencia oranges fresh from the tree for $1.00 per Kilo....
We came home with 37 Kgs!!!!
Next it was off to an Oyster farm to taste the local offerings and check out the pearl jewelry that was on offer to the public.
Madison, my eldest grandy was given the honour of holding a $44,600 natural pearl.......
the size of it was enormous!
Ade's lack of mobility was somewhat challenging for her but she loved taking care of the 2 junior family members......
And all in all we had a lovely few weeks.
Unfortunately all good things come to an end and I had a heap of bookings lined up for me starting today, the 29th August. I can't believe I have only 5 nights free now until the end of the year!
I had intended to take 2 days to drive home, the distance being 1,319 Kms but the impending forecast 'weather bomb' approaching from the west made me decide to drive it in a day.......
I left Pt Kembla at 7.30 am yesterday morning and just allowing 3 toilet stops along the way made my back here to Mt Barker at 8.00 pm last night, having gained half an hour in time crossing the border.
Let me tell you that's a bloody long drive to do in one day!!
Anyway Joëlle, that's where I have been. I don't want to get political but, God I feel so luck to have been born in this country that the problems of the world have bypassed and we truly get to live that object of Philip Van Storen's book.......'A wonderful Life'!
Cheers........Rob.
Joëlle here was Ade and I back in our dating days in 1969......
Those days are long gone but when we decided to give marriage a go I said to her....
"What do you expect from your life's partner"
She said....."I want a man who will treat me like my father has treated my mother"!
I thought, bloody hell, there big shoes to fill, Lyall (her father) was a wonderful husband and father!
It was almost flippant but I didn't want to give a patronising response so I said to her....
"I will make you a promise, I will never hold onto an argument longer than I can hold onto a fart"!
Many times over the years we have put that to the test, we would get to some impasse where it was clear our opinions differed, but one of us would say......"Well, is it fart time"? We would have a chuckle and get on with the important business of living. I won't say it saved a marriage Joëlle but it sure did save a few uncomfortable silences.
Although it was a flippant comment at the time can you imagine what a wonderful place this earth would be if we all adopted that strategy......Is it fart time!
Cheers.......Rob.
