As you know we are in Bali at the moment and I realised that I forgot to tell you why we are here; on the 13th of December we had our 30st wedding anniversary, nowadays worth celebrating!! Isn't it??
But now something else; it's very weird from this location, in this Bali heat to introduce you to next issue but, picture this;
I found a movie back, which I made long time ago, on one of our DVD's. I've been struggling to get it on the computer and then to YouTube because I think it's worth sharing with you, especially for people who know Holland and also because of the winter time in Holland and festive season.
This was our last winter in the Netherlands, 7 years ago. We were going to emigrate to Australia and I wanted to remember how cold the winters could be in Holland because that was one of the reasons we wanted to emigrate. But actually the beauty came over me as a warm feeling and so I didn't feel any cold when I walked from Steenderen, were we lived then, to Brummen on the other side of the IJssel. Approximately 6 kilometre in this icy, snowy, cold weather, but I loved every inch of it!!
Welcome to the Winter Wonderland;
Well I hope you found it as much as pretty as I did and still do.
From Bali we wish you;
See ya next year with the first story of the year; Bali!
Sorry it took a while before I came back, the problem was and still is a bit, I wasn't too well (had a bad cold) and felt miserable for more then a week so had no mood to do anything. That also resulted in having no exciting new story, also because I didn't made much pictures.
BUT, you know me, I can always pull out something;
I told you we (actually Fred) were busy preparing for the big trip and before my cold I made a few pictures of that;
Here we brought our little house on wheels to the Simpsons boys (a good caravan repairer) in Dandenong....
and left it there.......
they put in a second battery under my seat so now we should have enough power to stay somewhere, f.i. in the bush or free camping, for a few days....
because of that second battery, we lost a lot space under my seat for storing so we have to find that elsewhere, most probably under the bed....
Not that this was all under that seat haha!
No, we had to unpack the caravan so Fred has enough space to fiddle around......
(sorry Lida about the mess, but no worries, it will be all gone before you come home!)
also in the caravan there is a mess......
BUT "we" will get there.......
In the mean time, when Fred is working hard, I'm still trying to get off the kilo's I gained during our holidays to Holland and I can tell you, it doesn't work, isn't it sad?
OK guys, you must be wondering why I called this story; "Never a dull moment"??
I tell you why;
Friday the 12th, WE WILL FLY TO BALI, YEEEEHH!!
So, plans has changed again, not the West YET, see ya in Bali!
As promised I'm now going to show you what the Aussies mean when they say "we are going bush". Going bush is very popular during weekends for families but also for mates together.
What you do is; choose a place you want to go, preferably as hard to reach as possible, you pick up your camping gear, a saw and an axe (sometimes you even see them running around with chainsaws) to cut wood for a fire at night or even during the day when its cold, some fishing gear if you a near water and don't forget the barbie stuff (barbie is Aussie's for Barbecue so certainly NOT a doll), when a woman is involved there most probably also will be some salad, and MOST important and NOT to leave behind is; The Booze!! A lot!!
Pack the car and off you go. In our case, Hans had just renovated his garden and had a lot of old railway sleepers taken out so he decides to burn the whole lot during our bush days.
barbie stuff and booze.....
On our way to Moondarra State Park
arrived on the camping ground and sorted out our spot....
Ah, a part of the Booze has been secured.....
Hans made his bed.....(our bed is always made haha)
After all the work we were allowed to rest a bit, waiting for things to come....
but you can't only hang around talking bullsh.... and drinking so we also went for a stroll....
the advantage of that is, that you see things, in this case a very strange mushroom/fungus...
I first thought is was a lamp.....
me and my shadow........
when we came back from the walk it was time to start a fire
wet our inner body again and relax a bit.....
and enjoy the peace and bird sounds......
(don't look at the empty cans)
Then its time for dinner and Spaghetti is being prepared....
Hans made a bit too much which we wouldn't admit.....
but here is the evidence, too much on the plate and it was spilled all over the place haha!
Its getting darker and colder....
so the chief of fire is very busy to maintain the fire, well, we have enough wood!!
after a nice sleep we had another day on which we didn't do much as it was too warm, except for the drinking and talking part....
and then its Barbie time!!
we had a lovely meal and a great time.
During the second night we were thinking of staying another day and we planned what to do to inform Val, Hans' wife who stayed at home, of our plans, because we didn't have telephone reception in the bush!
Well it wasn't necessary as when we woke up next morning, it was pouring rain, so we packed up and left.
Luckily as there came a lot of bad weather!!
Dear readers, if you want to enjoy this for real and also want to feel the atmosphere, drive together with us to the bush, hear the bullsh...... talking and the sound of the fire and birds, then its a MUST to watch the movie;
We are very excited as we are preparing to go on a big trip and we invite you to come with us. Just follow my blog and you will join our adventures.
But we are not that far jet so for now I give you a little idea of our daily routine;
Most of the time we are staying on the showground in Berwick, Akoonah park.......
where every Sunday a market is held.....
I'm fiddling around a bit with my new camera......
During my fiddling, Fred reads the paper
which I got for my birthday (the camera I mean).....
In the mean time we have been doing some little jobs for friends and family and of course I made pictures of that! Let's see, what have we done:
House sitting in Patterson lakes, watching over a lovely dog and a great house. Unfortunately we had very cold weather otherwise we could have swim and paddle a bit on the water in a kayak. But surprise, surprise, we will be doing that anyhow later in this story and that's quite interesting.
This is the dog Max, very old and he needs a daily massage....
and so now and then a big bone
a little bit of gardening.....
in the mean time I have created an office.....
and this is the view from the office.....(not bad hey)
In between we have been back to the Akoonah Park.
When the owner of the house, which is a friend of ours; Lida, was home again, we went back for a few little jobs what actually turned out to be a huge job because a lot of things went wrong. I won't bother you with that because Fred might get nightmares again when he reads it haha!
Fred has been replacing a toilet, removed old taps and a basin for new ones.
besides the few unforeseen things, he really liked doing it.....
Not only have "we" worked but there was also time for a bit of fun. We have been to a pub/restaurant in St. Kilda where a guy performed as Elvis:
In Lida's car we drove off to St. Kilda...
Next you will see on the movie how much fun we had; just a little warning!! The music is that loud my camera couldn't handle it very well so the sound it not perfect, just turn down your sound a bit.
still enjoy; Movie time;
After that we had a nice meal at an Malaysian Restaurant and the food was very good! Thanks Lida!
Fortunately the weather had improved and as I told you already, it was nice enough to paddle a bit on the Patterson Lakes;
Movie time; see how these kayak's work!!
need I say more.....(always better then nightmares)
We also have been painting a garage at family of ours; Hans and Val, you might remember them as they visited us in The Netherlands....
Don't you think I've only been busy with taking pictures!! I also have been painting, it's just that no one wants to take a proof of that, but on the other hand I wouldn't let them touch my new camera with paint on their hands ....
Our employers took us for a nice dinner to the local Chinees, which was very good considering the huge banana on Val's plate.
She handled it quite well though haha!!
Before the painting job we have been into the bush and that was hilarious. That will be the next story, I only tell you this now because during that trip we found out that the capacity of our battery wasn't enough so we will have to fix that before we go on our big trip.
Ok guys, I hope you enjoyed this again and I'm sure you will love our next adventure in the bush to!
Actually, when I read this story back, it's not a daily routine at all, is it!!
Gee, life can be fun.
(I'll tell you a little secret about our big trip: we are going to the West!!)
