Day 31 Hawker S.A.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010 at 01:34AM Been on the road for a few weeks now & I have come to a conclusion. You know in public toilets when they have those toilet roll dispensers that have those individual pieces of toilet paper!..... Well I bloody hate them! Whoever invented them should be shot! I end up pulling out 10 or 15 little bits of paper just to wipe! I am going to have to start carrying my own roll of toilet paper with me wherever I go.
We saw the funniest thing yesterday, we were just coming into Hawker SA when on the main highway just out of town there was a guy in his electric scooter on the way to town. This road has semi trailers and road trains driving on it, and this guy was cruising along at 20km/h on the main highway..... but it doesn’t end there, later that day after we had checked into the caravan park we went for a walk around town, we went past the local pub and parked outside the front door was the very same electric scooter! This guy was in the pub! Can you get done for drink driving in a scooter?
Today we had a full day of R&R, we kicked back under the awning, the sun was out & it was just a beautiful day.... not too hot or cold, Ness & I caught up on some work stuff. We also dropped the discovery in for an air conditioner re gas, it has been struggling to keep us cool in the really hot days, so for those of you interested in buying it (Egg.... or Pete?) it will keep you cool during summer. Funny thing happened just then, as I was typing about the car... Ness & I were sitting outside the van and we can see the main road from where we are. I looked up & saw our car driving past!.... I said to Ness “There goes our car” .... it’s a really weird feeling seeing your car drive past with someone else driving it.
The Paralympic games start this Saturday, for those of you who get the chance make sure you watch them on the ABC, I shouldn’t say this but I can probably get away with it, but I always laugh at the commentators during the Paralympics. They are always careful not to say the wrong thing and are always “Politically correct”..... Whenever I travelled away with a team of disabled athletes it was far from politically correct. The wheelies would give the blinkies a hard time & there were practical jokes galore. I can remember one time where a blind member of our team got up to go to the loo, the bar we were in had columns wrapped in hessian and this guy bumped one of the columns, he had been at the bar for a while (I was going to say he was blind drunk but that would be nasty) anyhow this column must have felt like a person as he stepped back and apologised to the column! One of my mates who was in a wheelchair quickly ducked behind the pole and for the next 5 minutes the blind guy had a conversation with a concrete pole!.... we were crying with laughter at a nearby table!
I sometimes struggle with some things that they call “Sport”. I personally think that figure skating is an “Art” rather than a sport, and how does ski jumping work, should it not be the guy who jumps the furthest? How do they judge it on style? I reckon I can lip read and most of the guys as soon as they left the end of the ramp were saying “Oh Shit!” but have a think about this, at the Paralympics can you imagine a one legged guy doing a ski jump, or a blind guy doing a downhill ski run, what they don’t show you is the wheelchair guys getting bogged in the snow in their wheelchairs. I know, I’m cruel but I’m allowed to be I’ve experienced it first hand!
We went up the main street today to buy some wine, it was 9am in the morning & we bought a cask of cheap red wine. Now before any of you jump to conclusions and think that we are becoming trailer park trash, it was for a recipe that Ness is making for tea tonight. We were walking back to the van & Ness asked me if she could put the cask under my wheelchair.... she did not want anyone to see her walking up the road with a cask of cheap red at 9am! I’ll let you know how dinner turns out, and if it is bad I’ll just drink the red wine & forget about it!
Newsflash..... our car just drove past again, it has been 30 minutes since it drove past before! How long do you have to test drive a car after you recharge the air con? I reckon this guy has enjoyed driving it so much he just kept going!
Anyway we better go pick the car up before he decides to take it for another drive, will write more tomorrow.
Rob, thanks for the message... we were worried that you were missing in action(I knew where you were..must have forgotten to tell my husband),, Brad make sure you use those chemicals safely, read the instructions! Meredith have not heard from you for a couple of days, Mel how is Tom going, Sandy W are you still reading? Hi Ilsa, are you getting us from Mauritius?
Special thanks to Marg & Norm, they are long term caravanners who give us advice & their opinions on many of the places we are going to, hopefully we will see you on the road somewhere.
Viso gero...to all in Lithuania
Did you know that a chicken can lay more than 200 eggs a year.... Ouch!!!
Reader Comments (3)
Hi Guys. Yep, still reading. Its greating hearing about your travels. Hopefully it will be me and Marc one day .
The township of Theodore was in todays courier mail. showing a house under water. So Ive heard the name twice in one week and had never heard of it before.
Not much news. ooh . I booked a cruise with a girlfiriend in August to the south pacific. Have also decided scuba diving is going to be my next venture.
I couldnt beleive the amount of mud on your van. Dont imagine you'll ever get it clean.
Brad, Heather, Marc and I are off to another wedding this weekend.
Pretty low key, at the registry and then a few too many drinks at the Plough inn at Southbank.
Hey remember when you guys and Bradley and Dan met us at that bar at southbank - on the pier where Bradley and Ben sat on the ground up in front of the band). They bloody ripped it down this week. all those little restaurants on the pier.
I dont think there was enough patronage as it was round the corner out of the way. - thats what we loved about it. Our hidden secret.
Better a part of Southbank than another friggin tree in my street - now thats another story for next time.
Take care you guys. Keep smilin and enjoying each others company. love sandy W
Hi James (Marg says "and Ness" but this is "Secret Men's Business"!!!),
We've been running on solar for most of the time we've been on the road (though we usually get a powered site when we're back in Melbourne). We are currently in Lincoln Nat Pk and have been running on 12v since we left Adelaide on 2nd Feb. That run's our compressor fridge, water pump, lights, TV/video (we don't watch much), radio, etc and we run the laptop and recharge AA batteries directly from 12v too.
Our system consists of 3 x 64 Watt panels feeding 2 x 130 AH batteries. All seems to work fine though we do have to be careful if we get few overcast days. Most sunny days the batteries are fully charged by early afternoon. You may or may not know that the panels loose efficiency as they get hotter so they are best on cool sunny days.
Sounds like you've spotted a possible problem so hope that fixes it for you. The only trouble we've had was when one panel stopped working. I noticed the reduced input and did a simple test by covering each panel, one at a time. It turned out to be a failed $2 diode but it cost $200 to have it diagnosed and fixed!!!
Good luck with your trouble shooting.
N&M
Hiya....I haven't dropped off the planet....Nathan's brother (Drew) came to visit then I was in Sydney Sunday - Tuesday - it's always great to be in Sydney...even though all I saw of it was the view from the conference room and my room at Sebel Pier One ...........am off to Fiji on Monday to add another dress to my clollection - yes "27 Dresses" feels really close to home for me..
Ness.....in preparation for my "duties" I had 3 hours of spa treatment last night at Chaun Spa - didn't want to leave my little cocoon of heaven....hair tonight and then a lady is bringing a little tent to my house on Saturday evening - am having a spray tan and cardonnay party (just hope I don't end up looking like a complete oompa loompa)
So...how was that cask of red wine for dinner? Ness you should have worn your curlers. dressing gown and slippers when you went ot get it for added special effects...
I agree completely with those useless bits of loo paper ..that's why I always have loo paper in the car and in my day pack I always have wipes, tissues, bandaids as the standard basics (sun block and mozzie spray depending on where I am heading) ....
Happy travels!