30

and they said we would never make it

It seems like ten years ago not 30 that we met in the Corner Bar at the Surfers Paradise Hotel. Who would have thought we would have come full circle and be planning a return to that corner of the world, be it a couple of hunderd klms further north.

We are planning a quietish night with dinner at Mc B's where a couple of bottles of good wine will be consumed. My liver is very thankful for the flu, as my consumption is dramaticly down and I might even be driving tonight. That said I know someone who is hanging out to crack the bottle of Hill of Grace which he has been hanging onto and I might just have to have a glass of that LOL.

On the house front things are finally moving along and we have now had a couple of requests for contracts and we still have two weeks of show and tell to go. Come on May 8, we are both getting really sick of living in a display home LOL. Beds always made, dishes clean and put away, laundry done, folded and put away and heaven forbid we use the stove and dirty that.  Give me Miss G back LOL LOL LOL.

    Good morning from a balmy Melbourne

The weather is really strange at the moment. The last couple of days have been 27 with a clear blue sky - and this is April ! What happened to the showers, grey and miserable 15 degrees that we were expecting. Not that I wish to put a curse on things as the Lyns are arriving tomorrow for a couple of days and we need the weather to hold up so the garden looks great for the house open days.

On the house sale front we are off and stumbling LOL. Our first day was last Saturday and the numbers were a bit disappointing, but yesterday was even slower. We think that with the great weather, everyone has taken off to enjoy the last blast of sunshine before hibernation sets in LOL. Our first open night is on Wednesday and while we don't expect many people mid week it would be nice to have a few people through to see the lighting at night, the garden looks great under lights.

At Last things are starting to happen with the house sale. All the prep is basically done and now it's up to the market to do its thing. The house is now online at http://www.hockingstuart.com.au/ the suburb is abbotsford, so let us know what you think.

You can take the man out of the South but the food remains the same....

As you can see Blue invited us over to his place to celebrate Good Friday with a good ol' Southern Cook Up and he excelled in everything. A small dinner party of 8 enjoyed the tastes of the deep south complete with Mint Juleps made by Ron, just to make sure everyone got off to a flying start.

The Marquee was set up in the gardens, dining was by candle light and the wine and good times flowed freely.

Thankyou Blue for a great night.

Good Morning from downtown makeover

Sorry we haven't been online often but we seem to be plastering, painting, scrubing etc every day. Tomorrow is photo day so we are in frantic last minute touch ups for that. So far things have gone much slower than expected but we look like everything will come together in the end.

For tomorrow we have the dining room, bathroom, lounge, one bedroom and the gardens finish (well sort of) LOL. Over the next week we will finish off the weeee bits that we missed on the first time through.

Miss G went to hospital yesterday to get repaird from that vicious attack by the Germans in the Kea, and while she is there we are getting a few little comforts added as well. Must admit I feel like a turtle without my shell at the moment. This is the first time in 18 months that we have been without her LOL.

There's nothing like the good clean smell of country air...........

Well I think I can remember it LOL. This was sunset last night from the top of the Yarra Boulevard. Admittedly it is not just petrochemicals in the air. Since Black Saturday the State Government has been a weeee bit over the top when it comes to burning off and clearing the forests that surround Melbourne. As you can see they were burning on a day that had absolutely NO wind, so everything just settled over us. Made for a great sunset LOL. The painting and plastering continues and we have nearly finished the front half of the house, so that means all the furniture will now be moved from the lounge back to the bedrooms. Apparently there is already strong interest in the house and the "For Sale" sign hasn't gone up yet. There is an overflow from the sale of our neighbours and they have signed up for first up inspections when we finally get it all together. Pics are being taken on the 8th so it has to be fab by then.

Home Sweet Home

Well it used to be Home Sweet Home, now it's much more like a bare and featureless wreck LOL. The Art has all gone into hiding and the books are about to relaunched themselves down at Taralgon.

The bedrooms are in the lounge and the dining room is half in storage and half under the bedrooms LOL.

But the end is in sight. Now that everything is sort of out of the way the real work can begin.

We are finally seeing some results

The back garden is finally coming together with the addition of the bamboo water feature and the positioning of some of the rocks. We still have to move the small rocks from in front of the window up into the garden beds with the mondo grass and then we will fill a free form path just in front of the windows, should look great. The front is also coming along with the dry water course going in today.

Hello from packing central.

Not much news apart from the fact that we are being lethal with our sorting through things and trying desperately to get everything into a small storage shed. So far so good. Work has started on the house and we have revived the Japanese garden both in the front garden and the rear garden. We have worked out a new water feature using old bamboo pipes and it looks really good. Maybe at the end of all this we wont want to move LOL

We had a storm yesterday

Well Melbourne has been beaten and battered to within an inch of her life in the last 24 hours.  I have never seen such rain and hail. This was the pic I took of the weather bureau site before the official warnings cam out. Everything was grounded, no trains, no trams, no transport of any kind. Roofs collapsed at the new Southern Cross railway station, football grounds, casino, Jeffs Shed and lots and lots of smashed windows both in cars and houses. What a day. Still Miss Guided came through without a scratch and the house is ok as well. We just planted a vegie and herb garden and wondered how we were going to keep the water up to it and now we don't have to worry LOL.

Good to see both hans and bruce are at each others throat instead of mine for a change LOL. Hans the port barrel will be up on ebay this weekend, but it's pick up only so unless you are planning a weeeeee trip downunder you will have to do with a pic LOL.

Ebaying to death

The selling has begun and I have spent the last two days madly loading up my ebay account with "Rare and Collectible", "Once in a lifetime" and "Vintage Antiques" all over the place LOL.

Truly there is alot of good stuff up and so far the reaction has been really good. The funniest thing up so far is a complete Library. I tried to sell off all our books to the second hand book shops but couldn't find anyone that was interested in buying 700 odd books. So up on ebay it went complete with the Book shelves, so someone is going to buy a complete library and the interest has been great so far.

This is such a crappy job...............

As you can see by the state of the dining room, the packing has begun. The place is a mess and we are trying to keep it livable as Steve is still living here. We come in each day and do a bit more but with 30 years of stuff it doesn't seem to make any difference. I have started ebaying so hopefully by next weekend some of it will have moved house LOL.

Bruce has set up house in Thailand and seems to be getting a grip on things, at least one of us at least has started the big new adventure LOL.

Di the first of the clarice will be up on ebay tonight, happy bidding, really good set.

Hello from Melbourne

We arrived back here yesterday (Sunday) and checked into the park at Templestowe before heading to the house and see Bailey. Today was the start of the packing and we have launched ourselves into it with much gusto. So far the pub rubbish (records) have left the building and I have started to list some things on ebay as well as sorting through 30 years of drawers.

The builder came around this afternoon for his final instructions on what is needed before the sale. So far everything is going great.

Almost home

It's going to be so strange to be home for months, not sure how we are going to handle that LOL.

We changed our plan yet again and decided not to stop over in Echuca and instead just called into Geoff and Jenny for morning tea and then headed on down the road to Bendigo.

I was looking at the Badgers caravan report site over breakfast yesterday and there was a park at Big Hill, just outside Bendigo that was getting rave reviews, so we thought we would check it out as it sounded too good to be true. But it is. An amazing park. Only 16 sites, all with ensuite and set in manicured gardens. Pool area is spotless and set up for adults not children, what a nice change LOL.

As this was our last stop before Melbourne we got right back into the Nomad swing and invited the young couple behind us and the elderly couple next to us over for 5 o'clock drinks which of course went on until 8.30. Lots of ideas and places to go were swapped. Just like being back out on the road with the nomads, must be an omen for May departure.

I did sneak a couple of pics at the Glass Gallery and it's no surprise that I would love this one. The lines are classic Deco and the colour is very moi. We headed off yesterday and stayed at Deniliquin where I got D'Luded into the Edward River. Today heading down the road to Echuca for an overnight stop and then onto Bendigo for two nights before hitting Melbourne to do the deed.

Bruce has finally left Melbourne and Oz for Thailand, our loss their gain but I am sure we will still get to see lots of him. Hope the trip was great and happy house hunting in phuket.

Hello from Wagga Wagga

Very hot (37 yesterday) with a threat of rain this afternoon. Yesterday we went to the local gallery and what a great surprise it was. Back in the 90's the major regional galleries agreed that they would specialize in only one area instead of everyone doing the same thing. Wagga went for Art Glass. The galley is amazing and the collection is breath taking. All the pieces are made in Oz but there are many internationals represented. Sorry no pics allowed.

If you ever are passing this way, put aside a couple of hours and have a good look.

It's so green it hurts but.............

as you travel around you can tell the the downpour from last week has really sparked everything into growing but the truth lies in the dams. We headed out to this massive dam about 30klms outside of Cowra with the idea of putting D'luded into the water and having a sail. The truth of the drought is here for everyone to see. the dams are almost empty.

Cowra Japanese Garden

How great is this place. Some of you know that I am a hopeless Japanophile, having been to the country 6 times, doing gardens and temple complexes from Hiroshima, Kyoto, Tokyo, Matsamoto, Sapporo and everything in between and the gardens here in Cowra are right up there with some of the best.

Nakajima San the designer also designed the Imperial Palace gardens in Tokyo and the Japanese Gardens in NYC and these gardens are every bit as good. Stunning views from all areas and the addition of Gums scattered through the garden is a fantastic touch. As you wander around the paths you stumble across lizards sunning themselves and kookaburra singing in the tress - Bliss.

Last look at the mountains.

The clouds nestled into the valleys was our goodbye to the Blue Mountains. The trip down the highway to Cowra via Bathurst was uneventful apart from a stop off at the Dan Murphys in Bathurst for some supplies LOL. Our arrival in Cowra had a slight hickup when I turned into a side street only to find it a dead end and that cars were parked in the turning circle just to make it that little bit more difficult. After further refining my reversing skills it was off to the park to set up home for a couple of days. Everything is VERY green, it looks like a slice of England out here. We wandered up main street to check out what was here and low and behold we found a fine dining restaurant, but it doesn't open until Thursday so we might extend a night so we can sample the local fare. Today is off to the Japanese Gardens so stand by for pics.

The view from Mt Tomah

It may be raining but that didn't stop us doing Gorge 74. We headed into the Blue Mountains yesterday to have a look at the "Cool Climate Botanical Gardens" which were very good. Unfortunately it rained the entire time we were there which made getting around a bit soggy LOL.

On the way home we came across a couple of dirt roads going off to picnic areas, so we went to investigate. The best was Mt Tomah (above) which was about a 2 klm climb and scrambled to the very edge of the gorge and a very spectacular view. Even the rain was heaven sent as waterfalls were cascading down hundreds of meters into the valley below, very very specky.