4th Feb 2011

Following my last post of the 26th Jan we had planned on relocating from Victor Harbor on Sunday 30th a day after my first water colour art class, so Thursday and Friday we just pottered around preparing both caravan and car for travel keeping in mind we had been in the one location since late December so it was almost like preparing for a first trip. Diligently we also did our stroll to town and back for a bit of exercise.
Saturday morning art class 0930, being reasonably early parking near the venue was no problem Nancy had come with me as she wanted to go to the Saturday morning farmers market for fruit and veges, which was walking distance from where we had parked (I would have driven). The premises of Terry and Louise Lewitskas art gallery are the old telegraph station building, probably built circa 1850’s and still a grand old building, as it also constructed like a house inside I assume the telegraph operator or operators, lived on site in those halcyon days of horse and buggy when Victor Harbor was a whaling centre. At the front of the building are two entrances, one being the entrance to Lewitskas gallery, studio and art class rooms, the other doorway opens into a room partitioned off from the remainder of the building and used by a local barber.
So here we were Nancy and I standing talking ouside Lewitskas doorway 0915 nice and early full of anticipation, (excited like a kid going to the circus). A few metres away an old dero beard and battered hat was standing at the barbers doorway talking to the barber and another chap sitting inside, it was a nice friendly scene something reminiscent of country Italy or France where the old fellows gather for a chat. I wandered up to the barber’s door to check on the price of a hair cut and the conversation sort of went like this.
“Morning fellas, scuse me interrupting but what time do you close today”, “Oh about quarter to 12.00” came the answer, “Dam I’m tied up until after lunch”, “do you want a haircut now we are only chatting,” say’s the barber, “no thanks I’ll get one next week, I’m about to go to art classes”. “You going to Lewitskas say’s the old dero with the beard and battered hat”. “Yes mate”, I reply. “You’ll be right for a haircut then, he’s not open on Saturdays”, say’s the old man with a smile. “Yes he is this Saturday he has an art class starting at 0930”, I say. “Are you the person from Brisbane, staying at the caravan park”. I answered in the affirmative which resulted in. “Oh blow (or something to that effect), I’m Terry Lewitska the art teacher, I think I’ve made a stuff up” !!!!
Then I noticed his old battered hat was covered in paint and he didn’t look so old after all.
Terry, who it turns out is a really nice bloke went on to explain the comedy of errors.
The previous Monday Terry had phoned to see if I was interested in a basic portrait sketching class he was holding the next day and at the same time remind me that the first of our 4 classes were starting on Saturday. This suited us fine because the last class would be finished a week before the Wooden Boat Festival being held on the last weekend in February at Goolwa, where we had booked in at one of the Caravan Parks for a week. Following Terry’s call I had contacted Goolwa and brought our booking forward a week giving us plenty of time to get established and enjoy the build up to the actual festival.
However Terry’s wife Louise in the mean time had put together the official programme and posted it on their website plus notices in the Gallery window all depicting the start date at a week later. Now it turns out Terry had notified 3 new people myself included of the incorrect starting date and the remaining 4 or 5 were regulars that normally get their information from Lewitskas website notices so he hadn’t phoned them. At this stage it was about 9:30am and I was the only one there so I told Terry I was going in for a haircut, he decided to hang around for a spell in case anyone else turned up and before my cut was finished he came into the barbers to tell me two others had turned up so he would hold an introductory class as soon as I was ready. What a shamozzle.
This was good us three beginners getting an introductory lesson even though it was a short one by now and of course he reduced the price, this meant we would at least have some idea what to do when we joined the regulars for the next lesson.

Adelaide was forecast to be 40C and Renmark where we were going to relocate to was forecast to be 42C on Sunday and Monday so we changed our travel plans and booked in for a couple more days at Victor Harbor where it is always a few degrees cooler than Adelaide, just as well Renmark was 44C on both days and even VH was hot.
Tuesday being cooler we felt we just had to make a move somewhere so we travelled to a small town called Meningie just off the Princess Highway on the eastern shore of Lake Albert one of the large waterway systems forming the delta area of the mighty Murray and about 120 kls from Victor Harbor. We didn’t want to travel too far afield while waiting to get our caravan repaired so the following day we started heading in a northerly direction instead of continuing south and following a few phone calls during the morning while travelling we were finally requested to bring the van in to the repair people in Adelaide at 0830 the following morning (Thursday).
So we dropped the van off at 0830 Thursday morning with the understanding they would have it completed in one day, that is replace and repair the roll out awning under insurance and repair or replace the toilet under warrantee and I should note here that this had all been established and agreed to weeks prior. Now there were some doubts as to whether they could finish it in time because some goose had arrived before me even though he wasn’t booked in until 1100am. For a change I did my block, but didn’t feel any better even though they were making noises like we will do our very best to have it finished.

We decided to drive up to Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills and visit the Cedars, Sir Hans Heysen’s old home and studio. We no sooner had started a conducted tour when the caravan repairer phoned to say our awning was 16 foot and unfortunately he had ordered a 15 foot one and needed to re-order a 16 foot but it had to come from Melbourne, so we have to go through the same bloody process all over again next Wednesday and in the mean time we don’t have any awning at all. Geeze what W*****’s, I just hope their tradesmen are better organised.
On a good note they replaced the toilet under warrantee and that’s working well now, so that’s something.

The Cedars, just sensational, Nancy and I were the only people to arrive by 11.00am so for $10 each we had a conducted tour by a very nice and knowledgeable lady all to ourselves, it was extremely interesting and certainly worth a revisit for me in the future.