Christmas at Alice Springs

 After a two-day drive from Tanunda with an overnight stop at Coober Pedy, we arrived at The Alice with the sole purpose of spending Christmas with our small family.

December is, as expected, hot. This year was no exception - it's still hot as I write and will be hot for a lot longer. Mornings are coolish and very pleasant but the heat creeps up during the day and eventually, an airconditioned spot is better than being outside.

When we lived here and were much younger, we could cope better with the heat and low humidity; we've always been hot, low-humidity people, but after six years of living in the Barossa, we're now acclimatised to cooler weather.

Many more people die from cold weather than hot weather as the UK and parts of Europe will attest to this winter, but the Barossa never gets cold enough to impact our health. Our beloved planet is entering a cooling phase, but when it's 42 C at Alice Springs, it seems that cooling is a figment of someone's imagination.

Then you read the reports: "90% of Mongolia is under snow, China breaks all-time cold records, and Guatemala has its lowest emperater in 39 years".

When we are hot, we wish for some cooler weather; when cold, warm weather.

Forget about the weather for now at least.

It was great to spend time with our kids and to catch up with a couple of long-term friends. Christina had several coffee catch-ups with her midwifery colleagues and we chatted with a few shopkeepers we know, one couple of whom we had as neighbours in 1992.

Alice Springs is a sad sight deteriorating monthly and the crime continues largely unabated as no one at government level seems capable of finding a solution although they can import 860 Palestinians from Gaza which no other country wants. It's perhaps easier than resolving local challenges. 

Dale's car had two windows smashed a week ago. Last trip, it was Tory's ute window that got smashed. Everywhere you go you see vehicles with plastic covering windows that have yet to be replaced.

Meredith, friend Rob and I replaced Meredith's patio decking the timber of which had become ugly, splintered and dangerous to walk on. Merbau decking from Bunnings has saved the day.

Christmas was very quiet at home with some roast lamb, ham, and a variety of roasted vegetables. We actually won the ham at an RSL raffle before we drove up which was convenient.

Now we need to see what 2024 will bring us. That's anyone's guess.

Our Grand Princess Cruise

The Grand Princess at Sydney Harbour

 After our Alaskan Passage cruise was cancelled in 2020 due to the so-called COVID 19 pandemic, we had a credit with Princess Cruises and decided to use some of it to cruise from Adelaide up the east coast of Australia to Willis Island.

You've never heard of Willis Island, have you? Neither had we after a lifetime in Australia and many years living in Queensland in which Willis Island is located. (See below)

Leaving from Adelaide is wonderful not having to fly to another capital city to embark. No hassles with baggage weight, lengthy queues, and the possibility of delays, cancellations etc. Unfortunately, most cruises go from Sydney, Melbourne, and less frequently, Brisbane.

All packed and ready to roll, our friendly neighbours and friends Maurie and Wendy drove us the 80-odd km to Port Adelaide via Semaphore where we ate a fish and chips lunch from one of the most popular shops in Semaphore.

Boarding was incredibly fast as there were almost no other people embarking, which was a surprise. We thought we had either arrived terribly early or terribly late. Neither was the case, it seemed numbers getting on in Adelaide were small. We learned later that most people had embarked at Melbourne and travelled to Adelaide and many were doing the short trip between the two cities and would disembark when we got to Melbourne, our first stop on the journey.

Before our trip, we had contacted our numerous friends and Christina's brother Gordon to meet us at each port except Sydney where we didn't know anyone we needed or wanted to meet. The only other place we didn't meet anyone was Cairns since our only friend there had jetted off to New Zealand the day we departed.

John and Robin

At Melbourne we had arranged to meet one of Robin's three half brothers (paternal) whom he never knew existed until a couple of years ago. One had deceased, one is in the Philippines, and the other, John Henry is retired and living with his wife Ann in Melbourne.

Robin had no idea why his parents had not told him about these three people with whom he would have liked to have had a long-term relationship. Maybe his mother didn't know, but his father certainly did. Very disappointing.

On disembarkation at Melbourne, we met John at a park and after some introductions, he drove us around Melbourne visiting the important tourist locations while we chatted about our father, our families and our lives. It was wonderful and we enjoyed each other's company. Unfortunately, his wife Ann had a prior commitment so we never met her. John dropped us off at Port Melbourne in time to embark for Sydney.

At the other ports we wandered around, since we didn't need to do any tours, we'd been there, done that at all of the ports of access. We met our various friends and had lunch and a good chat with several of them which was wonderful. We are so fortunate to have a lovely number of friends.

Willis Island

When we headed off we were curious about this island about which we had never heard. We eventually got to see the island established in 1921 when the Queensland Government wanted an early warning system for impending cyclones and storms from the east.

It's now a Bureau of Meteorology station and each morning lets loose a weather balloon at 9 am sharp to get upper atmosphere readings.

The island is about 450 m long and 150 wide without a jetty, so the ship simply did a couple of runs past it.

As we did so, a staff member from the Island contacted us by telephone and loud speaker telling us about the island and what staff do. It was very interesting and now we can claim to have at least seen Willis Island if not visited it.

As always, when we're away from home, it's good to return safely and after the shock of having to do one's own cooking, washing, bed-making etc wears off, get back to the usual routine.

Meredith Visits Tanunda

We were delighted to have our daughter Meredith visit us recently for a fortnight while she had some dental work and laser treatment for her eyes.

The laser treatment couldn't be done at Alice Springs, so it was an excellent opportunity for us to get together.

Dental work is much cheaper in the Barossa than at Alice Springs.

Meredith flew down this time instead of driving the 15-hour journey and her dog Max had to remain at home.

Although we were busy driving between Adelaide and Tanunda for several trips, we also had time to shop until I dropped and had a few decent meals at lovely restaurants including the nearby Chocolate Factory. (The meal contained no chocolate!) It's a bit like Monkey Mia Resort in Western Australia - there's not a monkey to be seen anywhere.

After we picked up Meredith at the Adelaide Airport, it was lunch time, so we visited one of her favourites, Fasta Pasta at Gawler enroute to Tanunda which is where I took this photo of two of the three most important women in my life.

We got to Fasta Pasta at 6 pm just after the doors opened and bought some food to take home with us.

Meredith also cooked a few meals using our Thermomix while staying with us and we swapped recipes.

Meredith's birthday is on 1 September and Father's Day on 3 September, so we had joint early celebrations for both which was nice. For many years I stated that Meredith was my Father's Day present.

Meredith bought me a fragrance called Paco Robanne for Father's Day as well as a swag of lollies I could well do without. We bought her a couple of pairs of jeans and a few other things.

Shops at Tanunda and Adelaide are beginning to bring out their Christmas products which I thought was a bit early since it's only Spring this coming weekend and Christmas Day is four months away. The next time we see Dale, Meredith, grandson Tory and Max will probably be around that time if we can get together.

Tory is due to have his "Capstone" tests in December and if he passes, will be a qualified electrician. Despite my many years as an educator, I had never heard of the term in relation to education or training. Whatever it's called, it will be wonderful to see him pick up his piece of paper and be able to register in the trade.

I could have done an electrical apprenticeship at Peko Mine when I left school, but my father, who was Chief Engineer of the mine said I wasn't smart enough; well, he didn't say it in so many words, but that was the nub of it. So, I spent three years of a boilermaking/welding apprenticeship and I must say, I enjoyed being able to fabricate metal products and repair underground equipment that had been damaged. Such is life. It tends to lead us where we need to go.

Stay well.

Robin