We arrived back in Perth just in
time to see our youngest grandchild start school. Erin began Kindy and big sister, Talia went into
Year One. We also arrived back to feel
the direct onslaught of summer with searing temperatures and heatwaves as we
began scheduling services for our rig in readiness to hit the road for another
two years as from mid April. An enormous bill came in for Skiv but this loyal
workhorse has earned the TLC due her after clocking up 240 000km. New clutch; remedy the steering problem that first reared its head back in
Victoria 2011 and thought had been fixed in Tasmania; new ‘tackies’ on her feet –
altogether she is humming beautifully, even equipped with a new radio, and looks good after her roof was
resprayed to get rid of rust spots while we were overseas. George scraped down the roof rack and that
looks good as new too. Thinking ahead for our trip down Cape York, George and
Peter Ryan attached a railing down either side of the roof rack to enable us to slide
in a mini awning. Getaway has also been serviced and given a new
awning. Dean at Caravan Care gasped at
the sight of the thoroughly weather beaten awning and wondered what we had done. “Mate, that comes as a
result of weathering after seven years on the road”, George retorted. We are now looking to having a special cover
made for the new awning to lessen the damage.
Appointments to correct Lea’s
foot problem were made, only to find the first available for the Specialist was
19 April. After second thoughts, this was cancelled as pointless meeting that
cost and being unable to proceed further as we must be away as close to mid
April as possible. The scans and x-rays show a tear in the plantar plate, synovitus
in toe joints and a bursal complex. An impulse visit to a podiatrist days
before departing on the grandchildren round last March has unearthed this
dreadful sounding scenario when in reality Lea has learned to cope with the
discomfort. However, she will visit her
Doctor with the recent scan reports and x-rays and hear what he has to say when
we have our annual medical checkups next month. Do these problems date back to
the very hot walk taken in Carnarvon Gorge which Lea’s toes never seemed to
recover from; followed by a walk in Tasmania last year when acute pain shot
through her foot when barefoot or walking on uneven ground? A doctor in
Kingston didn’t pick up anything other than in her hip joints as a result of
counteracting pain which in turn was irritating and inflaming her joints.
In between being here at Sunset Ridge to enjoy time with the
grand-daughters; involve ourselves in their lives doing school runs and
pickups, we have been into the city and caught up with friends. As always Di
and Peter Ryan have ‘our’ room ready and waiting. Di and Lea went to lunch with Di Godson in her
‘humpy’ as her new home goes up immediately behind. The talking nonstop, that
we upped and fled once we realised the time. We continued over a cuppa at
Boucle in Subiaco the next day and shared the most delicious fig cake
imaginable. A missed photographic opportunity of Di Godson on her appropriately
named ‘Red Devil’ motor bike bothers Lea!
Lunch with Ros and Rodney Richards went down
well between caravan service and eye checks; while Ryan’s hosted a dinner for
us to catch up with Wendy Low, Sancia and Dennis Griffiths when we were back in
town for the Perth Writers Festival, so we slowly catch up on friends. Having
perused the Festival programme nothing grabbed George’s fancy and Friday, had
enough on offer to make a full day for Lea.
Fortunately, Di and Lea were interested in many of the same and the two
friends went off together while the men ‘played’ happily in the workshop. A
wonderful day of stimulation as authors discussed their work and how an idea,
fragments and news cuttings come together to form a story. Whether writers are knitters or quilters ( a term that
appealed to Lea) when it comes to putting together a book! We dashed from one
session to another and at evening time, we joined a large crowd to hear a very
topical subject that has drawn such hot debate and high emotion over the past
decade or more in Australia – REFUGEES: Where do they come from? Sadly, it was
another case of preaching to the converted, as we listened to moving tales from
this dreadful human crisis. Why is it people become so fearful and soulless on
hearing mere numbers that don’t equate much, in the bigger picture? Yet massive
amounts of money are thrown at off shore centres. This day, was definitely the month’s highlight
with Lea returning with a list of new authors and their books to look out
for.
Short month, short blog!
