1st August 2019 Adelaide Australia

What’s been happening?

It’s been 21 months since I posted my last blog and people have been asking what has been happening. Well it,s been interesting, mostly good but some bad. I will concentrate on the good as the bad things have been resolved.

Upcoming Europe trip

Our son Luke asked if he could use our beloved motorhome “the Bunyip” to take his family from Holland to Rome and back again. I thought that was too much for the 4 weeks he had available. So Jenny and I will pick up the Bunyip from Holland and drive down to Rome, meet up with Luke Karen and the kids for a few days and head back to Australia from there. Luke and family will take it back to Holland. After that they are going to the UK to visit Karens family. This means that we will both do two halfs of the round trip. We will be taking 7 weeks to make the journey driving through Belgium, France, Germany, Austria and then into Italy. We are looking forward to the trip after not being in Europe for early two years.

Travels

We didn’t travel in Europe lasy year but we did do some traveling. Jenny went to Morocco with her sister for a few weeks mainly staying in Marrakesh. The story why they went is a bit complicated and too long for this blog.

L

Last year I spent 3 weeks in India traveling solo and backpacking. I set off with 7kg of luggage catching trains, a few internal fights and staying in backpacker hostels. A great experience and on the most part it all went well, I did have a infection at the start but some antiboitic bought from a chemist shop, no prescription, soon fixed me. I intend to return and take Jenny with me. The hostels were all clean and very cheap, the street food was great, the trains were all on time and I mostly had 2nd class airconditioned sleeper tickets and the plane trips were also cheap and reliable. I could write more about my trip but I will finish off the blog with some photos of my trip.

Homeless no more

Since 2010 we have been homeless. It sounds worse than it is but we had no base as we had been doing a lot of traveling. We house sat, stayed in a caravan, stayed at Helen and Johns house when they were using our motorhouse, stayed in Jenny’s fathers house as we were preparing it for sale, stayed with family and rented for short periods of time. Most of our worldly goods were stored at our sons house in over 40 boxes as well as furniture etc. In April 2018 Luke and Karen purchased a home at Seaford Rise and we are now their tennants. A win win situation for both of us. The home is well situated very close to the beach and the train station. We have settled in but still have some boxes to sort. It is good to feel settled in one place and not living out of boxes and suitcases.

New additions

Our house is a very, very fine house with 2 cats in the yard.

These are lyrics from a song by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.
Now we are settled in one place we have added to our family by getting a cat Sia, a siamese cat. Very timid at first but soon became part of the furniture. We built an outside cattery so she could have a play area other than inside the house, very spoilt cat. After 10 months we decided to get another cat to keep Sia company when we were both working. Loki was brought home and for the first 5 days there was a standoff between them. After that they clicked and are now the best of friends.

New baby

No definately not ours but a new grandson. Harley was born on the 15th of December 2018. It was a home birth and Jenny delivered the baby. I knew that Jade wanted a home birth but it wasn’t until after the birth that I realized that it was Jenny who did the delivery. Both mother and baby did well.

A new vehicle

My old work van was getting a bit old and tired so I started looking for something to replace it. I had been looking online for a Toyota Hi-Ace motorhome. They all seemed very old, had done a lot of kilomeres or were too expensive. I had given up until a few months ago and by chance came across one on an auction site. I went to inspect it and it was in great condition with only 57,000 kilometers and a 2013 model. The bidding at the time was very low and I was hoping that it wouldn’t go too high. To my surprize it only went up by $400 and we became the sucessful owners. I have been working on it changing the bedding part and putting a sliding drawer in to accomodate my work tools. I wanted it be a work van as well as be used to go traveling. We hope to do a trip in it next year. By the way we have named it “Scamp”.

Work

Work that ugly word.

Jenny has been busy working with disabled people at their homes. And I have been busy working at the Adelaide Oval doing security, painting with Jeff, working with Ryan [son] doing home maintenance and renovations and doing some locksmith work. It will be good to take a break from work for awhile.

Martins visit

A highlight of last year was a vist to Australia by my cousin Martin. For those who have read our previous blogs will know Martin and the keeper of our motorhome in Holland for which we are very greatful. Martin came over to Australia for a holiday and ended up staying 4 weeks longer to help me work on the cabins at Wallaroo. His help was much appreciated and it was good to have some company. We will catch up with Martin in less than a week.

Milestone

Jenny celebrated her 60th birthday last month. A Moroccan themed party was held. We were lucky to have a night where there was no wind or rain. A good time was had by all.

Wrap up

Sorry to bore you all with such a long blog but I assure you that the next ones will be a bit more interesting with some tales of our travels. As I said previously I will finish the blog with some photos of my trip to India.