Leave Days End

Barb marked the end of her three weeks of leave by having her sister fly in from Tazzi for a visit. It was lovely having Madonna come and stay for the four final days. She and Barb did heaps together and went out numerous times for coffee and shopping. Sometimes other people would join them, like Peter, Dan and Kelli. We were also invited out. We fitted in a lot, even watching the DVD series Wives and Daughters. Ah yes, and a highlight was the drive to Gembrook to spend time with the Funks. It was a perfect day and a perfect way for Barb to conclude her leave. God's grace.

Leave Day Sixteen at the Zoo

This was Barb's birthday plus an outing to the Melbourne Zoo with all three grandchildren as part of their second day of a three day sleep over. Hey, you might think we are doing it tough. These kids were so good that we stayed at the zoo for just on five hours. Unheard of!!! There were a number of zoo highlights, such as the two elephant babies and the new 'cutting edge' seal enclosure. We walked a long winding way and still we did not see all there was to see. That makes for a good outing. For Barb time like this was the best gift she could hope for any birthday.

Leave Day Fifteen plus

We had our three grandchildren stay overnight for two nights. Bec and Gord had a few days to themselves. What is more, the 'middle day' was Barb's birthday. This very brave plan of hers turned out to be a super birthday period for Barb. The kids were really good and no trouble (except for the normal squabbles). Barb felt blessed to have this series of days. We hope to blog about our trip to the zoo with them later on. For the moment this will have to be enough. This was also a time when Jethro did a little more real walking. He is such a cautious little chap. We will have to let the pictures tell most of the story.

Another part of Barb's birthday was getting gifts. A lot of little gifts came from families who dropped in. Even Peter received a few gifts: Collingwood posters and stickers. How about that. They must have known! It was a very memorable birthday that must match with the very memorable AFL premiership.

Leave Day Thirteen

A lot has been happening and that makes it difficult to get to the blogs. We had a fabulous day at the Gembrook Retreat Waratah Day. There were not as many people because rain showers were still threatening. But the day was generally fine and we all enjoyed the visit. We took Joy and Abigail with us. Already there were Piper, Jasper and Jethro. Gord was there and Bec came later on with soup to add to all the other food for the shared lunch. We caught up with lots of people we knew from other events there and met new people as well.

An unexpected guest also came. There had been rumours of a koala come to the neighbourhood and he/she chose this day to make a dramatic appearance. We all came up to watch the stranger's movements, down one tree, across the drive and up another. Then it bellowed a most amazing koala call, a mixture of Puffling Billy and somebody gagging.

Along with plenty of waratah's to admire and/or pick, the proteas were also beginning to bloom. The Retreat has a very large grove of a great number of protea varieties. This time we learned a bit more about the names of some of the most basic of them. They have royal names for marketing reasons: (top two) King and Queen, (bottom three) Prince, Princess and Duchess.

Leave Day Eleven

We're back again. On the eleventh day we drove to Seymour to visit our old friend Denise and the three of us then went on to Nagambie the next town north of Seymour. After all the rain we have been having everywhere was green. We sat for a time beside Lake Nagambie and watched the gulls hovering about expecting a feed. We are well inland over the divide and there are still gulls.

Afterward we drove back to Seymour and walked along one of the heritage trails beside the Goulburn River. Weeks earlier, this river was close to breaking its banks at Seymour but after three days the level subsided. It was flowing rapidly the day we saw it. This water flows into the Murray. We hope all these good rains will help to save the Murray at its mouth in South Australia. No water has flowed into the sea from the Murray for about eleven years.

We are pictured beside the old Hume Highway bridge that took all that traffic until late October 1967. The history of this crossing is interesting. Travelers crossed by boat until 1863. The first punt to cross was around mid 1834. A low level bridge was constructed 1862-63 by Patrick Hanna. It was low so that debris could pass above it during a flood. The bridge pictured above replaced it and was build between May 1892 and April 1893 by contractor J.B. Farquharson. It was strengthened with steel girders in 1940 to handle the war traffic. In 1987 the Seymour Shire Council preserved it and incorporated it into the local heritage walk. Unfortunately, due to a series of mishaps the bridge is now in a terrible state and has been fenced off from the public. We wonder whether the Seymour Shire Council has the will to fix it up.

Leave Day Eight

We are sorry that we became too busy to blog this until now. There were too many things to juggle this week. Anyway, on day eight we got up before dawn and drove to Philip Island missing a lot of the traffic. We arrived at Cowes at 8.30am and found a nice cafe for a coffee. We then strolled along the foreshore and enjoyed the serenity.

When 10 am was reached we drove to an island off Philip Island that is also reached by bridge. This place was called Churchill Island now owned by the government as a tourist attraction. Situated at the centre of the small island are original farm buildings complete with a blacksmith shop. This is a very nice place to bring the kids if you don't live too far away. It was over two hours driving each way for us. The interior of the main homestead was very well arranged with all manner of antiques.

The farm part was a delight and we went to each 'event' that was advertised on the map. Peter had his first attempt at milking a cow getting a few squirts into the bucket. There were plenty of animals to pat. We thought the sheep herding by a boarder-collie sheep dog was hilarious. There were cart rides for those interested. There was interesting yard art and old farm machinery about the place. The cost of entry was the only payment. It was certainly good value and we hope to return there again.

Leave Day Five

Today, amongst other things we minded Abigial after school for a time. The games vary a lot from playing school to drawing and colouring in. This time though, Abigail wanted to play with the Joseph Narrative cast of stick people (with a few from the Wizard of Oz). It was nice to see them come out of their boxes again. It is amazing how a crowd of stick people will make a game come alive and lead into a new story each time. On this occasion, the Wizard and the Queen of Egypt developed an uneasy relationship which ranged from enemy to marriage and back again. That was the subplot. At a higher narrative level, there was a grand food distribution to each of the queen's people and that took some time and there were many queues. Quite a story. When children play they are doing important work for life.

Leave Day Four and a Birthday

This was also Daniel's 26th birthday so we took him out to lunch at the Centre View Cafe in the Greensborough Plaza. We had a relaxed time coffeeing, eating and chatting, and afterward we went for a bit of a stroll across a cricket field to a suspension bridge and back. Dan has tried to erase his birthdate from people's minds but we have an uncanny memory of this one and he allowed us to take him out. Happy Birthday Dan!

Another thing that marked the day was that the speedo reading in our Toyota reached 300,000 Kms. We are blessed with a marvelous car that has not failed us whatever the conditions.

Leave Day Three

A blood splatted wall near the end of the movie... blood trying to engulf East Timor.

Today is remembered by the movie we watched at home: "Balibo Five", the story of how two TV journalist teams (totaling five men) were murdered by the invading Indonesian troops in 1975. Peter remembers the event of the invasion and could not understand why Gough Whitlam, as our prime minister, sat on his hands in response. Then in November 1991, two hundred and fifty young East Timorese people were slaughtered at a cemetery. At that time Peter was so upset that he vowed to send 250 crosses to that suck of a foreign minister Gareth Evans for sitting on his hands for that. Peter ended up not doing it because it was just one more thing to do in a swirling life. But the Australian government was embarrassed and so they should be. The world started to be aware of the foul smell coming out of Indonesia after that turning point.

After seeing the movie, Peter did a little historical research and found that freedom of information showed the USA actually supported Indonesia in the invasion and probably told Australia to go and sit on its hands the way it did. You see, America had just lost the Vietnam war and was against anything that looked "communist". Because one of the East Timorese parties sharing power (Fretilin) looked Marxist in their polarised view, they gave Indonesia the OK to do what it liked and to supplied most of the arms and aircraft.

Well, to cut a long bloody story short, after the Berlin Wall fell and the threat of communism evaporated and that excuse used by Indonesia fell away. America was forced to change its mind and allowed the UN to push for a referendum (1999) which went about 85% wanting to be independent. This brought more bloodshed, but eventually the UN had a force there to resolve things. In all Indonesia murdered 183,000 East Timorese out of a population of only 800,000. This story is a blight on Australia and the USA, and we are ashamed that our government could be such "crawlers" to let it happen the way it did.

Leave Day Two

Well, the second day was more intense than the first one. We had never done a complete "around the bay" in the whole time we have lived in Melbourne. Port Philip Bay has a narrow entry to Bass Strait and it is about four hours drive round it from point to point. This time we drove to Queenscliffe on the western side and crossed on the vehicle ferry to Sorrento on the eastern side. The ferry crossing was the most expensive part of our day but since we had never done it there was a worthy experience factor to calculate in. It was a very relaxed and calm crossing. At about half way, the 'twin' ferry passed us on the port side. As you can see from the photos the ferry is very large and only very large or tall trucks are too big for it and have to go the "long way" round.

Peter thought that the most beautiful spot was the foreshore at Sorrento (the bottom left and bottom centre in the picture). Hopefully we will be able to return to it one day in Summer.

We drove back around the east side of the bay (the Esplanade) and watched the sunset at Fishermans Beach at Mornington. After that, we joined the traffic on the Nepean Highway going north and made it home by 10 pm. That was some big day.

Leave Starts

Barb began her leave from work in fine style. She somehow convinced Peter to get up before the crack of dawn and to drive to a place where we could watch the sun rising from the sea. Peter figured the best option was at Altona on the western side of Port Philip Bay and we got there with about ten minutes to spare. It was a very memorable moment and that set the tone for the day and actually for the whole three weeks of leave. Barb has raised the bar from the very first day.

We then spent the whole of the morning at Williamstown walking about jetties and parks, browsing through the shops, and having a few coffees. Nice start.