January 2014

15^th January 2014

We have our caravan back from the builder at long last so now I have a list of jobs to attend to, the least of which is to re-stow all of our gear. At least it gives us a chance to sort out what we really need to keep in the van and what we haven’t used for a while can remain at home.

Looking under the van it is obvious the complete running gear has been replaced that includes the four suspension units, torsion arms and shock absorbers, stub axles, brake drums and bearings and according to the builder all new brakes, I’ll have to take his word for the brakes. The important thing is he guarantees we won’t have any more problems with the running gear. Happy caravanning!!!

In the meantime we are having overhauls ourselves. I have new glasses and have had a couple of visits to the dentist, well into the four-figure mark.

Nancy will be having cataracts removed in February one eye to be done in early Feb and the other towards the end, whether she will need new glasses is anyone’s guess at this stage and then of course she needs a visit to the dentist also.

Now a growth on her leg has decided to triple in size over the past two weeks and doesn’t look very nice at all. She has managed to get into a specialist Friday morning at 9.00 am in the city, hopefully it isn’t anything really serious.

We had a good Christmas day, having a hot meal in the evening to avoid the heat. A total of fifteen sat down to enough food to feed an army and included North Atlantic Salmon, pork roasted in the Weber, Baked and glazed ham (we had prawns at lunchtime), and a variety of deserts to whack the kilos on. It all went down very nicely with a few cold beers and some nicely chilled wines in moderation.

I spent most of Boxing Day at the Redlands hospital. Several days before Xmas I was out in the bay crabbing and during a lapse in concentration a crab latched onto my right hand causing quite a laceration. Although I treated the wound carefully, by Boxing Day my right hand was the size of a boxing glove and I obviously needed some treatment. So after several hours waiting at the hospital and having to repeat the embarrassing story of getting nipped by a crab, large doses of anti-biotics were intravenously pumped into my system and I was eventually sent on my way with a fist full of tablets to take. It took a couple of weeks but eventually went down and no ill effects, unless I’m now allergic to crabs that would be dreadful. 

Like everywhere in Australia it has been quite hot lately but luckily we get a beautiful cooling breeze across the bay and fortunately we haven’t had many severe storms yet but it’s early days I guess. I certainly feel sorry for those people in areas that are experiencing temperatures well up into the forties. Even if it is a dry heat as opposed to our humidity, 40+ is getting hot.

We have had very little rain since being home, this is our wet season. Is it going to suddenly let loose on us and then rain for months?

Some things are just out of our control.

I will keep you posted as to our activities and the results of Nancy’s specialist visit.

     

cheers for now