"Pet Sematary"

It only hit me today, when working in the shop, that
the title of this book is WRONG!!!

My dictionary defines 'cemetery' as a public burial
ground.

A 'seminary' is a traing college for priests, but
nowhere in the dictionary is the word 'sematary', so
the question becomes did Stephen King make up this
word, or this this just some strange U.S. spelling?

Clean Out.

Did a 'small' clean out of the books on the 'spare'
bedside table and took 15 of them to the shop.

I was pretty pleased about this, but both Meg and
Cliff seem to think it is no big deal.

Of course there are about 50 still there. (The
pile is about a meter deep!)

I will start on the shelves this week. If I can
get rid of enough on the shelves then I will put
some of the bedside books on the shelves!

After all I have enough reading there for about
six months (two books a week.) so I will try not
to bring any more home. Till after Xmas at least!

Wedenesday At Last!

Well we were on the road by 10 a.m. and thankfully the
weather was a pleasant 25 degrees.

At Sea Lake I took over the driving as Cliff got a cramp
in his leg.

We were stuck behind a large truck all the way to the
main highway. As we all said there was a hay truck that
had passed by some time that morning as the truck was
kicking up all this hay onto the windscreen.

When we got to calder Cliff took over again and we filled
up. On the way back from the toilet I did a double take
the front of the grill was almost completely covered in
straw. Thankfully I had noticed it otherwise it might
have caused the engine to overheat.

A clear run through the city and we were at Kath's by just
after 6 p.m.

They had my car there and I transfered my things from
Cliff's car to it and drove home. I never thought about
it but I could have driven keith home and saved Cliff
all tired, and not up to thinking too much at that stage.

Melbourne Cup 2009

The day was barely 27 degrees. A relief from the last
three days, but Kirsten was wrapped in her big coat
and she even had goose bumps. She said she 'was cold!'

Terry and Grant were leaving and we all drove out to
Wentworth where we were going to take photoes of the
Darling and Murray merging.

Ciff was the lead car. Audrey was in the front. We
were just out of Wentworth when Cliff's mobile phone
rang. It was Terry to tell us that they had a flat.
Rather than go on we went back, which turned out to
be a good thing as when Grant was changing his tyre
he saw that his undercarriage holding the tyre was
badly cracked.

Turned out he hit a roo on the way down and he thinks
the damage was done then. He said the carriage would
not have lasted the 1,000 kms back home so it was a
good thing the tyre blew then as it prevented a more
serious accident further out.

They headed back to Audrey's VERY SLOWLY. While we
went on and showed Kirsten the Murray-Darling
Junction and took lots of Photos.

Then we went back to Audrey's.

I was tired and took Kirsten back to the unit as she
wanted to swim, but she was only in the pool for about
15 minutes when she came back and said no it was too
cold. So the both of us had an afternoon nap!

Kirsten Steers "The Melbourne"

Well between Kirsten and myself we talked Cliff into
staying till Wednesday.

Not too hard when it was still 40 degrees outside and
hotter in the car and to drive in that heat for nearly
nine hours with the air conditioner broken was not
something anyone was looking forward too.

Kirsten said that she loved the pool but hated the heat.
I pointed out it was not possible to have one without
the other.

Cliff drove us down the the Mildura wharf, which is where
Kirsten and I caught the steamer from.

It travelled at 4 kms per hour, which was its' max. speed
on the river. So we went as far as the Apex Park and back.

Which required being lowered and then raised on the river.

The Captain said it is a five minute drive from the wharf
to Apex park! At our rate of spped he said that if we
continued down the river we would reach Wentworth in 8
hours! (It is a 35 minute drive from Mildura!).

Kirsten was not the only child on the boat and the Captain
allowed the kids to take turns steering the boat. Kirsten
received a certificate for her effort.

We went shopping and had a quiet afternoon at Audrey's.

Cliff and I went to the Spainish Bar and Grill (we made
resevations, but it turned out athat on Monday night the
side of the restaurant that won the National Steak Award
is not opened on Monday nights!!! But we ate there anyway.

The steak I had was a Mallee steak which was quite tasty.
Cliff had the Porterhouse which we both thought was rather
bland.

A Quiet Sunday

On Sunday Audrey wanted us to go the market at Merbin,
but by the time we all had breakfest she said that
as it was now nearly 10:30 a.m. it was too late for
that. So we went to Lock 11 (that is eleven NOT two)
and it turns out it is nota hit and miss thing waiting
for boats to be loweredor raised in the lock. On the
hour boats going 'down'stream towards S.A. pass though
on the hour and boatsgoing up stream pass through on
the half hour.

"The Melbourne" is the last steam paddle boat on the
Murray. There are other paddle boats but they run on
diesel.

We caught it being lowered on the river at 11 a.m.
It runs every day at 10.50 a.m. and 1.50 p.m.

It is the first time I had seen it being lowered.
Last time it was a house boat and they waited for
two to be in and a couple of speed boats, but the
steamer was on its' own.

I took note of the details and said if we didn't
drive back on Monday I would take Kirsten on the
trip on Monday.

I kept mentioning about the steak at The Spanish
Bar and Grill and wanted to book a table but Brian
said there would be no problem getting in.

We had lunch back at the Club again and once more
Kirsten spent the day in the pool. I went in with
her fo awhile, but was tired and went for an
afternoon nap.

Audrey and terry said they would look afetr Kirsten
if Cliff and I wanted to go to the Grill. So we
did, BUT IT WAS BOOKED SOLID TILL 9 p.m. and I was
not going to wait till then to eat tea, so we went
back and had another Bar Be Que at the Club.

Get Real!

Why is there a preception that if a person is over 50, they
need help with how to use computers, mobile phones and
programming their VCR's.

I TAUGHT my grandchildren how to use a computer and a mobile
phone. I don't text a lot as I feel it is quicker to actually
talk to the person you are trying to communicate with!

On top of which I am ANTI anything that usues misspelling to
convey a message! And that is exactly what text messaging
does!

And as for programming a VCR I DO THAT EVERY NIGHT! and there
are a lot of younger people who CAN'T program their VCR's!!!

Saturday 31st October.

The day was hot! It ended up hitting 41. I had hoped
to go to the gym some time in the morning but Audrey
had arranged that we would go to the Mall in the morning
so I did not get to the gym. I had thought she had said
NOT to come till after 10 a.m., but it turns out she
said come BEFORE 10 a.m.

Kirsten and I had breakfest at the club, but I decided
we would not be doing that again as a bowl of cereal
with fruit juice cost $8.50 each!

My feet were hot and so were Kirsten's so we looked at
some of the shoe stores that had tables out and found
some sandles but it was going to cost me $60, but then
my card would not go through! I had to ring up. It seems
that they are claiming I put nearly $6,000 on the card
last month which I know is impossible it was about $4,000.

The young man said that the statements were send out
Friday, so I was expecting it to be at home when I got
back but it is still not here. (9th November)

We ended up having a bar-be-que lunch at the Golf Club
were we were staying. Then Kirsten and I spend the
afternoon in the pool.

We had the celebration for Audrey's birthday at her
friend's Kath's place. Of course Kirsten was the only
person under 50 there.

She watched Toy Story 1 and 2. I sat with her during
2 so she was not alone all night. Afetr all I don't
know these people and I have no memories to talk to
them about as most of the evening was:-
Do you remember when...?"

The Trip to Mildura.

Well it seemed easy except that late Thursday night Cliff
decided to leave at 10.a.m. to avoid the Melbourne traffic.
Kath told me he had been speaking about it in the shop but
he never mentioned it to me.

I made arrangemnets for the delivery of my books to be at
10 a.m. as we were leaving at 11 a.m. and I couln't change
it but I did turn up five minutes early and thank GOD they
were there. I was half way home when the phone rang, Cliff
wanted me to pick up Keith!

I ranted and raved about if he had rung me fifteen minutes
earlier then I could have picked him up when I was down at
McDonalds.

I continued on home grabbed my stuffed and went to Keiths.'
His father had NOT TOLD him about the change of plans and
he still thought we were leaving at 12 p.m.!!

By the time he was ready. He had not showered or packed!
and we got to the shop it was nearly 11 a.m. but Kirsten
was ready and eager to go and it did not take too much
time to say goodbye.

We left at exactly 11 a.m. The trip was not as bad as I
thought it would be. Instead of 12 hours with all the
freeways it is only 9 hours! but that was with three, 15
minute pit stops.

Of course the roadworks held us up going into the city
we were reduced to about 50 kms for half an hour and
then the sings were terribe! We were looking for the
airport sign and did not know we had to take the Todd
Rd exit, huge signs for the airport and little sign for
the Todd Rd exit and nothing about the airport on it,
so we missed it and ended up having to go across the
West Gate Bridge which was also slow!

Ended up on the Western Ring Rd which was pretty good
and got back on track that way. Cliff reckons it
addedd at least half an hour to the trip.

He drove till we reached Caldar and then we swapped over
I thought I was going to drive but Keith did. Cliff was
bad but not as terrible as when we went to Melton. He
keep telling Keith to shut up and repeated it so many
times that HE was more annoying that the rubbish Keith
was talking.

They swapped back at Sea Lake and Cliff drove the rest
of the way to Mildura. We went straight to Audrey's
place and arrived at 8 p.m. exactly.

Grant and terry were already there.

The carport had banners proclaiming Happy Birthday. It
seems that Audrey celebrated with some friends on her
actual birthday which was Thursday.