The Big Trip North

An Aboriginal sign on a salt lake

When you drive around Australia, you get an idea of how very large our country is. It's huge!

The interior is largely underdeveloped, lacks water and the nutrition to grow food crops. It's used extensively for cattle industries. 

In the north of South Australia is the Woomera Rocket Range prohibited area where nuclear bombs were tested in the 50s and rockets are still tested. Some of the range is still radioactive, thus, nobody is allowed to travel into the range.

The terrain changes from open expanses with gibber rock, few trees and no capacity to turn it into anything of value to similar country with red sand and short acacia trees that survive for years without water among the salt bush. Over the South Australian border in the Northern Territory, the landscape produces some small hills with rugged landscapes that have been there for millions of years since Australia was underwater.

Many fossils, including trilobite fossils, remind us of how long ago it was since we were underwater.

It's harsh country and over the couple of hundred years since European occupation, dozens of explorers have died there of heat exhaustion, dehydration or starvation. In some places it's hard to find anything living but a number of lizards seem to appear at frequent intervals. Flies seem to survive anywhere.

The trip from Adelaide to Alice Springs in Central Australia is 1500 km and although it can be done in one 15 hour day, we usually stay overnight at Coober Pedy going north and Woomera going south. That way we avoid driving at night when it's more dangerous because of the kangaroos, emus and cattle that wander about the roads.

Here's a video my wife Christina took while we were driving through the Woomera Rocket Range, it shows what the country is like.

If you ever come this way, bring plenty of water and invest in either a satellite phone or a personal locator beacon (PLB), because if something goes amuck, there is no mobile phone connection in many of the areas and PLB will attract a rescue helicopter much faster than word of mouth from a driver travelling to the nearest township.

It's a lovely trip if you haven't done it a hundred times.

Robin

2019 - A Big Year for Tory

Tory is presented with his certificate

So much can happen in a few hours. 

For Tory it was two significant events in anyone's life; the culmination of 12 years of schooling AND transition from child to adult.

On Thursday, 23 November 2019 Tory attended his high school formal looking impeccable in his suit with tie and received his Graduation Certificate.

Surrounded by his peer group and their parents and guests, teachers and others, he received his Graduation Certificate.

In a convenient stroke of luck, 23 November 2019 was the day before Tory turned 18, so at the stroke of midnight he gained the key to adulthood and all that goes with it. For a new 18 year old, the most important key is that they can now enter licensed premises without supervising adults and partake of the nectars of the gods.

It's that difficult period of one's life when some of your friends can join you at a bar and others can't. However, the good side is that when each friend turns 18, it's another reason to celebrate as the crowd at the pub expands.

Tory and Mum Meredith

Meredith attended the formal with Tory and his partner for the night, Lucy. They had arrived in a vintage vehicle that you can see in the photo below of Tory and Lucy.

From all reports, it was a pleasant night for all of them and after the formal, Meredith went home and Tory and mates went to the Alice Springs Casino shortly before midnight where they waited outside chatting until the clock struck 12 and then walked in, knowing they were all of legal age.

I understand Tory had his first beer in a licensed venue and then the group went to a friend's house to party with some of their not-yet-eligible mates. How very thoughtful.

At the time of writing, I haven't spoken to Tory, but my guess is that, like many of us, he probably overindulged and slept for most of the next day, his birthday.

Tory, Lucy and the Vintage Car

Now, with his formal schooling years behind him, the next thing is to find a job. We've all been there - our first job. Remember it?

Tory hopes to get an apprenticeship, preferably in electrical work and now that school has ended, at least until and if he begins an apprenticeship, it's knocking on doors seeing if he can find an employer.

If he gets an apprenticeship it will be back to school, but this time on-the-job training and trade school by block release. 

My experience in TAFE Queensland where we ran pre-vocational programs, suggests that students undertaking trades often do much better academically than they did at school. This appears to be because the topics being learned have a direct bearing on their "real world". As teachers, we were always pleased to see young people who had performed poorly at school come good and enjoying thier work.

As proud grandparents, of course we wish Tory every success in the future and as long as we can will help it happen. 

Robin

PS: Here's a shot of our young man on his first day of school. It's amazing what a difference 12 years makes.

Jan, 2007. Living Waters School, Alice Springs NT

RSL Tanunda Christmas Lunch and AGM

The Hut set up for Christmas Lunch

Both Christina and I were heavily involved in organising and running the Returned Services League (RSL) Christmas Lunch and Annual General meeting for 2019.

Christina is treasurer and I was acting in the secretary's position while she was on holidays overseas. 

Fortunately, we have a group of volunteers who all contributed to setting up tables, cutlery, glass wear, decorations etc and cleaning up afterwards so that we could hold our brief Annual General Meeting.

Meals were provided by local caterers 

Christina, as Treasurer, sat at the entrance to The Hut and collected meal fees and membership renewals. As usual, she does a top job of everything she handles and everything went off like a Swiss watch.

Each table had a bottle of red and white wine and judging by the number of bottles I took to the recycling bin afterwards, nobody held back.

Our bar has prices that are unmatched with local restaurants and bars so a quantity of beer, spirits and soft drinks was consumed too.

You can have a few drinks at the RSL Tanunda Hut without having to get a second mortgage on your house (assuming you have a mortgage).

Living in the middle of one of Australia's major wine producing regions has been an eye-opener in seeing how many people drink wine and how much of it is consumed. 

It's not unusual to see a gossip of attractive young ladies sitting at one of the alfresco wine bars having a midday tipple of Barossa wine. I guess having spent so many years living with the prohibition in the Northern Territory, I'm not accustomed to seeing people drinking at midday.

Apparently, until fairly recently, workers in vineyards were permitted to drink as much of the wonderful nectar they could. Then Occupational Health and Safety improved and the generous practice disappeared in the dustbin of history. Can you imagine how many inebriated workers must have driven home? Can you imagine how many damaged livers there must have been?

Shortly, our RSL Club stands down for the Christmas-New Year period and we;ll be back in action in mid-January.

Robin

Why are there no photos?

Unfortunately, the satellite internet on the Sapphire Princess doesn't have sufficient grunt to handle large density images. Since I don't have access to my usual range of image editing software, I'm unable to thin them out, so I will place appropriate images with posts when I have better internet access.

Robin

Piraeus, Greece

We'd never visited Greece, so we were looking forward to docking at Piraeus, the port of Athlens which we did around 0700 hrs.

With so much to see and so little time (I call these visits sheep dip tours) we signed up for a hop-on-hop-off bus and did a visual of some parts of the city with a long stop at the Acropolis.

As there were three ships visiting, there were far too many tourists. We were bumping  into each other on stairways and trying to take a photo without someone walking in front of you was a challenge. I'm a bit of an impatient old bugger who hates queues and doesn't do crowds well, so it wasn't my best day.

The architecture and engineering is amazing given the era. Huge heavy plinths have been raised and installed above stanchions with great precision. And what magic enabled the craftsmen to create hard marble stanchions that are perfectly cylindrical with series of evenly spaced symmetrical gougings throughout their length?

I'm sure there is much more to the human story than historians know or have revealed to us.

It always bothered me in Egypt that of all the hieroglyphs, there is not one schematic diagram with measurements and mathematical calculations although both would have been critical. I wonder whether the artefacts were built by a much earlier race of extraterrestrials or advanced human beings and later peoples added the hieroglyphs. We'll probably never know.

What we do know is that they must have been stunning before time and the elements degraded them.

Robin
Off to Valletta, Malta

The Amazing Suez Canal

Transiting the Suez Canal

I recall hearing about the Suez Canal when at primary school, although like many topics it was a passing reference soon tucked away into the depths of memory.

Now, 60 years later, I have a signed certificate attesting to the fact that I have transited the Suez. And what an interesting experience it was.

The ship upon which I am a captive for 37 days, the Sapphire Princess, dropped anchor in a 'waiting bay' at the south-eastern entry to the canal at about 5 pm. Twenty or thirty other vessels were at both the northern and southern extremity leaving a clear pathway through the middle for those ships exiting the canal.

Within an hour or so we saw several vessels leave the canal, a couple of ships carrying enormous numbers of containers packed about six or seven high, and a fully enclosed vessel indicating it was an autocarrier - probably full of nice new BMWs and other European cars heading to someone's market.

The Captain of the Sapphire Princess told us we were queued until about 4 am the next day when we would head into the canal.

By very early morning, the televised ship cam in our stateroom indicated dozens of people had gotten up at an indecent time to watch the canal entry. They were crowding the front decks of the ship.

It was a tad early for us, but after an half hour or so, we succumbed as we couldn't sleep anyway. There are 2,500 people on board and I swear they were all on deck.

The Suez Canal is of course, an ingenious invention intended to cut thousands of kilometres off travel. It surprised me to hear from the Captain that it costs $625,000 USD for the Sapphire Princess to pass through the Suez. However, compare that with the cost of salaries, fuel and time taken to come around the Horn of Africa and it's probably a lot cheaper. Egypt is making a fortune from the canal that was designed and created by British engineers working from an idea initially suggested by Napolean Bonaparte.

Egypt earns about 3 billion USD per annum from the canal.

The tidal influence in the canal isn't great, so fitting in with tides doesn't seem to be a problem. The width and depth are sufficient for the largest vessels and the walls of the canal are lined with rock works intended to prevent erosion. On each side for most of the 197 miles, there are piles of sand - like sand dunes that run parallel with the canal and indicate that it is regularly dredged to ensure its depth.

Also along both sides of the canal are regularly spaced Egyptian Army pill boxes, each containing an armed soldier. Many of the soldiers simply stand on top of the sand hills and each side has soldiers perhaps at one kilometre intervals, protecting Egypt from an invasion from who knows whom, because both sides of the canal is Egyptian territory. Maybe they think someone will attack from a ship in the canal, which is why the whole canal has a fence perhaps 100 metres from the canal edge behind the mounds of dredged sand.

When we reached the city of Suez which we were told has 750,000 people there were dozens of apartment style buildings running for many kilometres parallel with the canal. I saw a huge power station, probably with diesel electric generators pumping out very high voltage electricity judging from the huge insulators and power lines.

Along some parts of the canal there are installations in the water that appear to be for unloading oil as they consist of large pipes and swing arms that look like they are used for connecting to a ships outlet ports. Storage tanks appear on shore.

Towards the northern end of the Suez, there is a large lake through which the Suez has been installed, reducing the amount of work cutting out the terrain.

We exited the canal early afternoon and set course to Athens.

This is another experience I can add to my Bucket List.

Robin

Dimensions: The canal is 193 km long, 24 m deep and 205 m wide.

Aqaba, Jordan

Aqaba is a pleasant enough city in Jordan several hundred kilometres from Amman, the capital. Jordan is a very small country known officially as the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and just happens to have within it's bounds a remarkable place called Petra, an area inhabited thousands of years ago by Nabateans who cut buildings into the local sandstone creating some stunning, symmetrical designs, the one called the "Treasury" being most often shown on travel brochures.

There is much more of course than the travel brochures show. Also, Wadi (Arabic for river) Rum is within a stone's thrown of Aqaba and Amman and a popular tourist spot because of its natural beauty.

As we had visited both Wadi Rum and Aqaba some years ago, we didn't see much sense in paying to visit them again, so we did a a one hour taxi tour of Aqaba driven by a very nice man called Ibrahim.

Ibrahim took us to some ancient ruins that we wouldn't have seen if we had eg, taken the open top bus tour of the town, which was twice as expensive. We also visited a Thursday market where locals buy their fruit and vegetables each week. It was nothing flash, just a lot of people in an area selling foodstuffs from the back of trailers, utility vehicles, boxes and so on. The produce all looked fresh and enticing, especially the huge apples and smallish bananas, a couple of which we tasted.

Our first stop a was Mc Donald's outlet (yes, even at Aqaba) where we bought a cup of coffee so we could use their internet which was much better than that provided on the ship. We paid some bills, updated some apps and wrote emails to the family and a few others. Thank goodness for Maccas!

After our tour with Ibrahim, we walked about the township for an hour or so and decided to return to the ship. Christina had bought a couple of pairs of cheap tights and a black shailer to put over her shoulders.

One of the most interesting things about our visit was Ibrahim showing us an area of many hectares that had been purchased by the UAE royal family in which it intended to build a modern accommodation suburb complete with hotels and shops.

It's a huge area and will probably use tens of billions of the UAE's oil money. From what Ibrahim said, I'm not sure that all the locals are impressed with the idea, but in reality there is nought they can do to combat money.

Robin

Salalah, Oman

Unfortunately, the Sapphire Princess only berthed at Salalah for five hours so we didn't bother getting off.  By the time we would have disembarked, we wouldn't have seen much of the area and it would have been time to head back to the ship.

We visited Oman frequently while living at Al Ain and have been to Muscat, the capital, but not to Salalah, which is said to have some lovely countryside. Maybe another day we'll get to spend more time there to explore the sights.

Robin
Heading for Aqqaba, Jordan

Dubai - Still Interesting

Dubai is a 'world hub' as Sheik Mohamed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the zillionaire Ruler of Dubai, puts it.

Realising that oil isn't forever, the Sheik set out to make Dubai a hub for everything so that when the oil runs out in the Abu Dhabi Emirate, from which Dubai inherits much of its wealth, it won't revert to the Bedouin past.

You see, Dubai doesn't have oil. It has a large airport, world class medical centres, world class conference facilities, numerous five star hotels, and is a relatively cheap tourist Mecca. Add to that the tallest building on earth, a huge mall that includes a fully functional ski slope and you'll see that Dubai is exciting and different.

When we lived at nearby Al Ain from 2005 to 2008, Dubai was a mess of cranes and construction machinery - and dust from the nearby sand dunes. Now, the highway overpasses, many of the buildings and a modern sky rail are all up and running. The dust is still ever present.

The concrete stanchions and walls of the highways are nicely decorated with a variety of inexpensive designs. None of the bland 'just concrete' we see in Australian cities.

There is a new port building near which our cruise liner, the Sapphire Princess moored.

We took a tour to the Burj Khalifa building which had not then been completed when we returned to Australia. From the top we got a very nice 360 degrees view of Dubai.

In the Emirates Mall, we saw the expat workers from the Philippines and elsewhere, the expensive Gucci, Victoria's Secret and other outlets and smelled the scent of oud as we passed by the traditional perfume shops.

We saw the Emirati women clothed in black from head to toe, the men in their dish-dashas. The brown skinned children with bright brown eyes and black hair doing what kids everywhere do.

The trip brought back many happy memories of those numerous times we visited Dubai when 'home' was just 130 km down the road. The comfort of our unimaginably big mansion; the man who looked after our garden and washed our cars for a pittance. The heat emanating from the concrete. The easy life of an expat.

I expect that in time most of the people in the world will visit Dubai as it's centrally located and now a waypoint for many aviation and shipping companies. If you haven't been there yet, add it to your must see travel plan.

Robin

Cochin, India

Our first view of Cochin from the ship revealed a region with old buildings in a state of decay typical of very old countries. Remnants of the British and Portugese appear everywhere as does a vast quantity of untamed rubbish, mainly plastics.

Seems like there is no recycling or rubbish pickup in Cochin.

We visited a lovely church and some fishing nets that work on a cunning fulcrum system; lower the nets into the water, lift them up and voila! Full of fish. The only problem seemed to be that these days the fish had moved somewhere else as though they knew this was a danger zone.

It was very humid during our visit, but we did a tour on an airconditioned coach which meant intermittent relief followed by soaking humidity. It's not all that bad being soaking hot when you know eventually you'll find a cool shower and airconditioned ship at the end of the day. The poor people who live there just have to cope - as they do. It's remarkable what we humans can adapt to.

We bypassed all the shop sellers selling essentially the same stuff everyone else seems to be selling - clothing, nick-knacks, wooden boxes, magnets and so on. You can only have so much of that stuff in one lifetime.

Back on the ship and we were heading to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, a bit like returning home.

Many people on the ship complained about their visit. Everyone, whether you got off the ship had to have a visa worth $80 USD. Even the ship's crew had to pay. My guess is that Cochin will get scrubbed from the visited ports as will other places in India. That's unfortunate because many small traders will lose a lot of business.

I checked on the Australian Govt visa site and found that transit visitors from India don't have to pay anything to pass through Australia. I'm going to take up the issue when I gets home.

Robin

Colombo, Sri Lanka

Wherever I go, in or out of Australia, I always ask myself, "would I live here?" There are many beautiful places on this wonderful planet that Carl Sagan referred to as, 'the little blue dot' as he viewed it from cameras on one of the numerous exploratory space vehicles, possibly Voyager.

Colombo doesn't appeal to me as a place I'd like to live. There was rubbish everywhere as though there are no rubbish collection services, the buildings are in disrepair - possibly because they are very old, and it's a tad crowded for a simple outback boy.

However, in its favour, the people we met were friendly and pleasant. Perhaps if one actually spent some time there, it would become more appealing and one would focus on the positives instead of comparing it with other countries.

Obviously, the millions who live there are happy to call it home and have dozens of cruise ships with thousands of tourists visit, trample all over their temples and contribute probably millions to the economy.

Although it was nice to see how the others live and explore the ancient ruins and British era buildings, one visit is probably enough.

Robin
Off to Cochin, India.

PS: It was saddening and disappointing to hear about the violence caused by Islamists over the holiest of Christian holidays. How one can justify a belief in a loving, omniscient God with violence against your fellow humans is anyone's guess. The Koran instructs Moslems to subdue or kill what amounts to two thirds of the world's population - non-Moslems; now of course they are also killing off their fellow Moslems whom they believe are not orthodox enough.

If I was god, I'd be heartbroken to think anyone would carry out these acts in my name.

Beautiful Singapore - Jewel of Asia

I first visited Singapore in 1955 with my parents enroute to my father's new job with a tin mining company working out of Kuala Lumpur.

The only recollection I have from those days is the Raffles Hotel with ceiling fans that got my attention as I had never seen ceiling fans  before, and monkeys that hung about in the nearby trees.

I recall a story about the monkeys getting into someone's room and pulling their clothes out into the trees. If it's true, I can imagine how delighted the owners must have been.

Go forward six decades and Singapore is the model of a perfect city. With a mere four million local inhabitants, expat workers from all over the globe, and we tourists, it's no doubt changed significantly.

It's one of the neatest, cleanest cities I have seen only degraded by Little India that smelled and looked just like Big India. By comparison, Chinatown is much better kept.

We stayed at Robinson Quay and managed to do a Lot of walking with several inexpensive train rides and a tour. Near to us was the nightclubbing area filled with dozens of expensive restaurants, offers of high priced, but said to be discounted, buckets of beer. A 330ml bottle of local Tiger beer cost me $10 AUD. Later I bought a couple of tins of beer - 500ml for just over $5AUD each - Anchor, another local 500ml. A huge difference.

Wine is expensive in restaurants but cheaper bottles are available in specialist wine outlets and 7 Eleven stores. I bought two bottles to take on, the ship, a Jacobs Creek and a bottle from Chile.

So, the long and short of this is that it's expensive there for many things, but there are options to buy cheaper if one looks around.

It was more humid than we prefer and that goes with the territory so no use complaining about it. One just has to grin and bear it with frequent fluid intake, showers and change of clothes. Isn't that what the locals do?

If I was still young enough to work, spending a couple of years teaching something within my disciplines would be a high consideration because Singapore is so close and central to the rest of Asia. And such a nice place.

Needless to say, I took numerous photos of Singapore's iconic Marina Bay Sands Hotel, the three towers with a ship-like structure supported on top. It was also part of our tour.

Unfortunately, I've been unable to place them in the blog, but am working on a way to do so. See my related post.

Robin

Bangkok: No Power Shortage Here

A typical Asian capital, Bangkok is a critical tourist hub for Thailand that must rake in billions annually.

There are over 10 million citizens in Bangkok and an unknown number of tourists and unaccounted for locals.

We stayed at Ratchaprarop within the fashion area just out of Bangkok central. The supply of belts, bags, shoes, wallets, t-shirts and almost every other item of clothing is overwhelming. If you can't buy off the hook, there are tailor shops that will tailor you a suit in one day. As my days of wearing suits are over, I didn't investigate how good a one day suit is.

What occurred to me most often was the large amount of energy that is being provided to probably billions of air conditioners, lights and equipment throughout this city and elsewhere. One small building I saw had 20 split level air conditioners hanging from one wall. Presumably they weren't all working simultaneously, but presumably they could.

Where does all this energy come from? Obviously not from wind turbines and solar. I haven't seen a solar panel anywhere. Nor a wind turbine.

While Western Countries follow energy policies destined to turn them into Third World countries based on a well documented global warming Deception (See Dr Tim Ball's several books), Third World countries are steaming ahead towards the First World.

Any saving of C02 we make will have absolutely no benefit to anyone except the UN, to whom PM hopeful Bill Shorten has promised yet another $500 million if elected, and manufacturers of inefficient wind turbines and solar panels - China.

A gas that is essential for all life on earth that represents 0.04% of all gasses in the atmosphere has been demonised and is now accused of endangering all of us who inhabit the planet. What will people say about us in 100 years' time as they visit the remnants of our broken down wind farms - when they stop laughing?

Australia the lucky country is now the stupid country!

Robin

Barossa Valley - Blessing of the Vines

Barons at the rotunda address the crowd

According to the Barons of Barossa,

"Every year on the third Sunday of February, the Barons come together in Tanunda and declare the vintage. The first picked grapes are blessed in the historic Tabor Church, paraded along the main street and crushed and the juice sampled at Keil Garden. The Winemaker and Vigneron of the Year are also announced."

Christina and I attended Keil Garden to watch the proceedings and taste the grape juice.

Example plaque

On this day, new Barons are appointed by their peers. Two were selected for 2019 and awarded a ribbon with medallion. These are people chosen because of their inordinate contribution to the wine industry. When a Baron dies, a plaque is placed on the footpath lining the Keil Garden.

Needless to say, you need to do much more than just imbibe on wine to make the grade.



Strangely, the National Anthem wasn't played by the band, but the presentations took place, the two recipients of the awards then used an old wine press to press two baskets of grapes into a barrel - see photo.

Some lovely wine maidens from the local Faith Lutheran College then decanted the grape juice and presented anyone wanting to taste it with a sample.

It was very sweet and I commented that it was good enough as it was without the alcohol.

Everyone present seemed to enjoy themselves and it was just another example of the numerous festivals and other events that happen here. It really is a lovely part of Australia.

Robin

We're Off Again - Our 2019 Cruises

We're off again!

This time it's a long stint away from Australia and will take us to a number of places to which we have never been and a couple of revisits.

Determined not to leave too much of an inheritance for the kids when we take that journey from which nobody returns, we're getting in our last few trips abroad while our bodies still work sufficiently well to lug baggage about, drive hire cars, climb stairs, drink pina coladas, and do all the other things tourists usually do - aging tourists that is.

The first cruise aboard Princess Cruises Sapphire Princess leaves from Singapore and after 37 days, docks at Southampton, UK. The map above shows it's trek.

Sapphire Princess

It will be of particular interest to visit Dubai, UAE and Salalah, Oman again to see how they have changed since we lived nearby at Al Ain. But, would you believe it, it's over a decade since we left Al Ain?

Time seems to go faster as you get older (and hair grows where you don't need it)  - it's not fair.

Before we head off from Singapore, we're going to Bangkok, Thailand for a week to have a look around. Christina has been there before, but not Robin. 

Initially, we were contemplating getting some dental work done at Bangkok, but having spoken to a couple of dentists in Australia, we're thinking we'll get the work done locally when we return. Robin has had several visits to a periodontist and has been asked to wait three months before getting anything done so the periodontist can see whether his intervention has worked and what future work needs doing. So, it's probably pointless getting work done overseas beforehand after already investing so much.

After arriving at Southampton, we have about a month before we take cruise number two from Southampton around the British Isles. The map below shows the trek.

We'll tour the southern parts of England we never got to during our previous two visits before joining the cruise. This time it's on Princess Cruises Crown Princess for 12 days.

On return to Southampton we fly to Bangkok and will probably spend a few more days there before flying to Siem Reap in Cambodia.

A friend from Alice Springs has just recently established the Mango Villa Guest House at Siem Reap so it would be an opportune time to stay with him and visit the Angkor Wat temple complex which we have been keen to see. Then it will be back to Bangkok and head home direct to Adelaide via Singapore Airlines.

It's a hard life retirement, but Robin is always mindful of this verse from his favourite poet, Omar Khayyam (The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam):

Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend,

Before we too into the Dust descend,

Dust into Dust, and under Dust to lie,

Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer; sans End!

Christmas 2018 was Wonderful

We had a wonderful Christmas Day at the Henry family.

Unfortunately, son Dale had work commitments and couldn't be with us, although we did message each other on and off during the day. Because Dale's hearing has deteriorated, he can't communicate using audio means like Skype or mobile phone.

Next year we expect he will have a cochlear implant fitted and are hoping that will help him participate better. Sometimes he simply gives up trying to communicate because it becomes too difficult trying to understand what people are saying.

Meredith and Tory were with us and we managed to throw together a nice meal of pork, chicken and vegetables with a follow-up trifle. Meredith and I downed a sensibly small amount of alcoholic beverages and in the evening watched some Netflix programs.

Tory never drank a drop because we had given him his new (second-hand) Ford Laser car and he just wanted to drive around burning up a tank full of petrol, as you would when you get your first car and you're sweet 17.

Tory's first drive in his new car

We never took any photos this year with the exception of the following two which are largely self-explanatory.

But I'll tell you anyway, it's a piece of pork and a chicken with some vegetables being roasted in our new Weber barbecue.

It often seems ridiculous cooking roasts for Christmas when it's 38 C or more and I wonder why we don't celebrate Christmas in July in Australia.

Would it make any real difference?

Some years we have cooked a roast on Christmas Eve and then had cold meat and salad for Christmas lunch and dinner.

This year we had waffles for breakfast with fruit and Canadian maple syrup and I was the guardian of the barbecue who sat patiently drinking a can of German beer and doing "stuff" on my laptop.

In education we call it multi-skilling.

Cheers, here's to multi-skilling.

Hope your Christmas was enjoyable and that we share many more between us.

Robin

Setting up the Back Yard

The Garden Team

One of the benefits of being the first owner of a house is that you have an opportunity to create a garden that suits you. 

We're getting our backyard set up with grass and trees. Recently, the Barossa Village gardening team installed our grass. You can see the team celebrating the end of the installation at right.

Christina and I installed a number of trees and still have a few more to go. The ground was very hard - packed clay - so digging holes was a challenge helped with a little liquid clay-breaker.

The team at work

We are watering the trees daily and they seem to be responding well enough.

We have a number of additional trees to install under the patio, but beforehand, the gardening team is going to increase the amount of soil around the patio concrete slab and the fences. When that's been done, hopefully soon, we'll put some additional trees between the patio and the back fence seen in the photo below (the trees to be planted are in the planter box), and then 80cm around the patio periphery will consist of some coloured small stone, maybe white and the two planter boxes and some pot plants will sit on the rock and brighten up the place.

I'm making a couple of bird feeders and a birdhouse at the Tanunda Men's Shed and when finished, will hang them on the external fences. There are thousands of birds in trees across the street, so when I begin providing lunch for free, some of them will probably call in here occasionally.

Patio-a work in progress

By Christmas Day, the patio should be all set up and looking great. I'll put some LED light strips around the top of the patio and a Merry Christmas sign visible from the street and all will be wonderful.

We plan to buy a new Weber Premium barbecue and spend as much time outdoors as possible.

I'm currently looking for some metal signage to install, you know, the aged stuff that you see around museums etc advertising oil, petrol, foods or simply displaying a smart saying. I already have a couple of number plates and with Christina's permission, will install them on one small wall. Then, of course, there is the 1940s Coca-Cola wall-mounted bottle opener my late uncle gave me - that will have to go somewhere. Maybe we won't have it all done by Christmas.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Robin

Differences Between Tanunda and Alice Springs

We left Alice Springs because it is isolated and so expensive to get to the East, South or West Coasts where our denser populations live in leafy suburbs. Airfares are expensive and driving requires two or three days and a tanker full of diesel.

Recently, we drove from Tanunda to Alice Springs with an overnight stay at Coober Pedy and return and it cost us about $700. Flying would have been $700 each.

At Tanunda, we can drive to Adelaide and access many other places without having to do a two-day drive to get there. However, we've noticed some differences between life in the Barossa Valley and Alice Springs that we probably didn't expect.

Alice Springs is better catered for with shops and facilities than the Barossa Valley. None of the three towns that comprise Barossa Valley, Tanunda, Nuriootpa and Angaston has a cinema. Government services for such things as Centrelink, motor vehicle registration etc are at Gawler or Elizabeth.

Bunnings, my favourite hardware shop is at Gawler. Mitre 10 at Nuriootpa is six kilometres away and tends to be more expensive than Bunnings and not as well stocked.

Neither Woolworths nor Coles is available locally. We have several Foodland stores and Aldi, the latter of which is excellent.

However, Gawler is only about 27 kilometres away down an excellent road and the A20 Highway.

It's not too much of a drama to go there once a week and it's a pleasant drive through vineyards and lovely green fields.

There are very few indigenous Australians in the Barossa although Tanunda has an Aboriginal artifacts shop in the main street. The constant barrage of advertisements and politics related to Aboriginal affairs doesn't exist in the Barossa, which is a pleasant change after decades living in the Territory.

Religion maintains a strong hold on the local population, most of whom come from German or Scottish ancestry and many of whom have lived here for generations. Names of people and streets etc are largely Germanic and only a few of us have names that aren't Germanic.

People are friendly and seem content. As would be expected, wine production is high and consumption pretty high too. Of a weekend, the population explodes with tourists travelling from one wine tasting to another.

While the Barossa (along with the other four South Australian wine regions) contributes greatly to the Gross Domestic Product and other economic aggregates, I expect it also has a considerable impact on the livers of many inhabitants.

We loved life at Alice Springs and we believe we'll also love our lives here as our last destination after many moves during our married life together.

Robin

My Polo Shirt Logo

Anyone who knows me will know that I'm a pedant - a person who is excessively concerned with minor details and rules - when it comes to documentation and other communicative media.

It comes from my policing and business teaching backgrounds. In policing, the letter of law is important. Teaching document production in typing, word processing and accounting classes requires attention to a high degree of accuracy too, so there's the apparent source.

How does that relate to the heading, "My Polo Shirt Logo?" Read on.

When Christina and I were in England last year, we visited a huge outlet shopping centre near Chester. Every brand imaginable had an outlet there as well as brands we hadn't heard of before. Even Tag-Heuer, one of my favourite watch brands was there. There were literally dozens of them spread over quite a few hectares.

It was a Saturday and thousands of people filled the shops, corridors and open spaces, many carrying branded bags indicating multiple purchases.

Several of the outlets were obviously selling their current fashions, not outdated products. We visited a Polo store where I looked at several lovely polo shirts. They were displaying prices of 75 and 80 British Pounds (around $130-150 AUD) which I thought was outrageous. Locals were snapping them up! 

Without exception, all the polo shirts had been made in China. Thousands of shirts bearing Chinese brands and small logos. I'd seen equally nice shirts at K Mart and Target at home.

There was no way I was going to pay $130 for a K Mart shirt with someone's brand logo displayed. You can buy the same quality shirts at K Mart for $10 AUD. Thirteen shirts for one seemed like a good trade-off.

As we drove back to our hotel at Swindon, it occurred to me that I could buy $10 K Mart shirts and steal logos from the big name brands and have them embroidered on my shirts. After all, Christina has a sewing machine that embroiders. But using someone else's logo is dishonest, so I decided I'd use my own logo. Here it is.


I've got a number of unbranded K Mart polo shirts on which I'm going to get Christina to embroider my Henry logo.

Nobody will know who the hell Henry is, but who cares? It will keep them guessing. Maybe I could start producing my own brand line of shirts at half the price of Polo, Adidas, Nike, and the rest of them. Who knows where this could lead.

Robin

It's Now Henrys of Tanunda

Robin and Christina at Al Ain, UAE

When I started this blog I had moved to Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates for a three-year work contract, so I called it "Henrys of Al Ain". It was intended to help communicate with our friends without having to send multiple emails.

It wasn't a good name choice because I didn't think ahead, that we wouldn't always live at Al Ain. In hindsight, I should have called the site the "Henrys".

It's now 13 years since Christina and I moved to Al Ain. Since then, we've returned to Alice Springs (10 years) and now we are at our final house at Tanunda in South Australia. It's time to change the blog's heading yet again, this time to "Henrys of Tanunda".

I've also changed the URL from https://henrys-of-alain.blogspot.com to https://henry-tanunda.blogspot.com.

I hope you continue to visit occasionally and keep in touch.

Robin

Settling in to Our New House

Concrete block laid for pergola

We've been in our new house three weeks and are still unpacking.

There's no hurry as both of us have all the time in the world now that we are retired.

We've had to buy some metal shelving from Bunnings and other shelving from Ikea in which to store our seeming oversupply of "stuff". (Where the hell did we get it all?)

Each day we go through a few boxes and have a charity box into which we put things we no longer wish to keep. The rest go into our shelving or get moved from table to desk to floor or somewhere until we work out where to put it.

We are waiting for delivery of a wall unit into which some of our heritage crockery will go. At present, it takes up space on an old coffee table.

Two of four Bunnings metal shelves 

 We've had a concrete slab 5.5m by 3.0m laid adjacent to the back verandah which one day will have a pavillion roof, table and chairs and a barbecue in-situ.

Hedge trees are to be placed at our rear fence providing privacy from the main road towards the pergola, but we still hope to be able to sit outside drinking wine and watching the many parades that apparently travel along Murray Street to or from Nuriootpa.

Part of the garden will have lawn and at each side of the pergola we plan to put pot plants with daisies or other annuals to pretty the place up. But not today.

Ikea shelving

Today we continue unpacking and finding places to put stuff.

Christina's "Sewing Room", which I prefer to call OUR "Multifunction Room" will be adorned with two new Horn cabinets by end of the day if they are delivered as promised. One will support her sewing machine and have a gas lift so the machine can be lowered below desk level when not in use and the other is for an overlocker.

Every day we make a little progress. One day hopefully, we'll wake up in the morning and think, 'What will I do today?' and not have to entertain the idea of unpacking and storing.

Then there will be time to visit one of the 72 vineyards, or perhaps do some volunteer work helping others. There's plenty to see and do here and we are just beginning the journey.

Robin

Our Last House

New house - Garden will appear front left square

Two years ago we sold our house at Alice Springs. It was a lovely, comfortable house with four bedrooms, a spacious multi-purpose room and outdoor area, and a large garden. It needed painting and new carpets and some work done on the garden, but we were fortunate enough to sell it without having to do all that.

The new owners were happy to do the painting and lay carpets and also wanted a swimming pool, so we negotiated a price adjustment and placed our goods in storage while we waited for a new house to be built at Nuriootpa, South Australia.

It suited us well. We planned to do some travel overseas and in Australia while our new abode was being built. Unfortunately, the house we had in mind wasn't going to be completed until late 2018 after an earlier estimate of Christmas 2017. We were disappointed, so we decided to make alternative arrangements.

Now, we have paid a deposit on a newly completed house at Tanunda, South Australia, only six kilometres from Nuriootpa and also close to Angaston. The three towns form the centre of the Barossa Valley which many of you will know is one of Australia's largest wine producing regions.

Our new house is conjointly owned by the Barossa Village, a retirement village organisation that provides three levels of aged care; independent living, home care and residential care.

The house has three bedrooms, two bathrooms (both roomy), a one car garage, and a combined kitchen, lounge dining room. We would have liked a two car garage, but none was available. Such is life.

By Australia Day (26th January 2018) we hope to be settled in but will probably still be unpacking our personal effects as they will be delivered the day before.

We are getting excited as the days pass.

Robin

Visiting Baselworld 2017

With a keen interest in horology, for years I had read numerous articles about the annual Baselworld Watch and Jewellery shows.

As they are held in Basel, Switzerland, I never dreamed that I would get to attend one. However, my lovely wife Christina, while planning our overseas trip, included a visit to Basel as part of a treat for my 70th birthday.

Because accommodation was all booked out at Basel, we stayed in a lovely German village called Bad Krozningen, about 40 km away from Basel and took the train to and from Basel.

One of the two train stations in Basel is only a five minute walk from the site where Baselworld is held. With no idea where Baselworld was located, we hopped off at the station and immediately saw signage directing people to Baselworld. Groups of people were walking in the direction of the signs, so we followed and on arrival it was obvious that this was a bigger event than Ben Hur, the movie.

Thousands of people milled about coming in and out of doorways, sitting sipping coffee or alcohol, plucking away at their smart phones, or chatting to others while they sucked in carcinogens. This was truly a huge event and it was day three. One can only guess what day one would have been like.

We bought our 60 Euros tickets and moved into the main pavillion. From then on, it was like trying to take a drink from a fire hydrant - watches and more watches, all the big name brands and some of the smaller brands. Wall to wall watch bling. Although I can't remember it, Christina said I was like a child in a toy shop. Hard to believe really.

We spent most of the day viewing all the bling and the displays that accompanied them. A couple of displays were minimal with entrances only available to invited guests and people within the watch industry. For example, BLVGARI who had produced one of the thinnest watches ever, had two well dressed doormen who took one look at Christina and I, assumed we were well beneath the station to purchase any of their overpriced stock and told us, in more polite terms, to piss off.

When we got to the CASIO stand, we went to enter a hallway leading into what we thought was a publicly accessible entry only to be told by a young lady that we couldn't enter. A tall German man dressed in a suit stepped in and after a brief discussion about where we were from, invited us in. He was the German manager for CASIO and spent about a half hour showing us the new watches on display. He and I got talking and he realised that I had a good working knowledge of CASIO and its products. At the end, he led us to a bar and offered us complimentary drinks and nibbles which we gratefully accepted as we sat back and felt like VIPs.

CASIO produces a very large range of watches under several brand names, one of which is Edifice. In that range, they have a few models that link to one's smart phone from which they get the correct time in whatever time zone one is in. There's an app that sits on your phone and is used to set a second time zone - World Time. Your local time zone is set automatically provided your smart phone is up to date. You can also set alarms and retain logs from timing events. Quite remarkable.

The Link watches also come with a button that will locate your phone ie, you press the button and it causes your phone to beep. Excellent technology.

Later, at Keil in Germany I took advantage of the tax benefits and bought a CASIO Edifice Link watch which I wore for the rest of our journey, It's solar powered, very tough and looks nice as you can see from the photograph.

By the time we had completed our day at Baselworld 2017, we had seen enough watches to last a life time and discovered a number of brands I had never heard of.

Some of the watches are very highly priced which left me wondering who buys all this stuff? An $8,000 Rolex won't keep time as well as my <$500 Edifice Link watch, doesn't have an alarm capacity and won't automatically change to different time zones.

Robin  

Our European Jaunt Completed!

Which of those great poets wrote, "Much have I travelled in the realms of gold ...?" I've forgotten, but we've travelled in the realms of history, all over many of the great cities and towns of Europe and it has seemed like gold.

In the last four months we've travelled thousands of kilometres, stayed in dozens of hotels, bed and breakfasts and one or two "youth" hostels. (Nobody ever questioned our youthfulness).

Because I have this need to write - or type as the case may be, I've inundated Trip Advisor with reviews of over 58 hotels, dozens of cafes, restaurants, and events eg, Stonehenge. Now I'm going to continue to write my blog, but you'll be pleased to know that I'm not going into all the minutia, I'll write in some specific categories that may make it more interesting. You can tell me if I fail horribly or write some informative stuff.

Four Months was Enough

You can only sleep in so many different places, eat at so many different cafes and wear the same clothes for so often. A week or two before our homecoming, I had had enough. Christina, on the other hand seemed like she could go on forever.

I was really pleased when the wheels of our QANTAS jet met the runway at Alice Springs Airport.

The Highlights

For both of us, the highlights were being able to spend a few days with our friends, to make new friends, to meet new people, see many of the historically important places, and bathe ourselves in the history of Europe that makes the European history of Australia look like a weekend tour.

We revisited Mutlu and Alison Ustun and their two boys, Kerem and Onat, with whom we shared three years at Al Ain, At Burnley in England we spent time with David and Barbara whom we had met previously on one of our ship tours. Then there was a group of wonderful people who shared their lives with us on a three week bus tour. Add to that the many other people with whom we dealt and it was a very sociable experience; the nicely dressed German man in Hamburg who spent 15 minutes helping us find a hotel at short notice. The CASIO executive at the Basel 2010 Watch and Jewellery show who gave us a personal tour of the "industry personnel only" display area ending with nibbles and drinks. There are probably plenty of others whom I will remember as I write.

First on my list is the Basel 2010 Watch and Jewellery Show.

Grab a cup of your best beverage and read on.

Robin

Off peak at Costa del Sol

Costa del Sol is Spanish for the Sunshine Coast and it is a region near Malaga. Similar to our Gold and Sunshine coasts in Queensland, Australia, it's a high density region consisting of thousands of apartment buildings and hotels to accommodate a massive influx of tourists.

It doesn't have the high rise buildings we do in Queensland which tends to retain the Mediterranean architecture uninterrupted.

As it's only three hours flight from Gatwick in the UK, there are obviously scores of Brits who make this their holiday destination. There are numerous Canadians, Americans and other Europeans here too, but so far I haven't found another Australian accent.

Unlike Christina and I who purposely have avoided wearing anything that stands out as Australian, a Canadian couple we met wear Canadian labelled clothing and small flag pins because they don't want anyone to think they are Americans. Aren't we people complicated?

The Sunset Beach Club where we stayed is huge, quite a few years old and showing its age, but is very comfortable, well equipped and all anyone needs. It has a large in-house supermarket, a medical centre, dentist, and the usual play grounds, pools, restaurants, and even a child minding centre.

While I expect the summer months would attract thousands and many with children, at present most people were Baby Boomers like us; greying, many a bit heavier than perfect, balding, probably cashed up, and determined to get out and about before they take that final journey from which none of us returns.

You see them en masse at the Happy Hour all getting their Scotch and sodas, sangrias and beer all on a two for one tab. At the end of the hour most stagger off to their rooms or dinner venues and the once noisy venue dulls a little. We visited a few times but only managed the one round of drinks.

There are hundreds of food outlets here and even a Burger King. Food and alcohol is significantly cheaper than in Australia which is good for us because we already lost on the exchange rate between AUD and €.

The area, Benalmadena, and other areas we have visited within the region are immaculate - not a toothpick of rubbish anywhere. How do they manage it? Either the locals are so proud of their towns that they dont spill a thing or, every night after we are all in bed, a thousand workers come out to keep things spotless. I think the former.

The locals are friendly, helpful people obviously accustomed to tourists who dont speak Spanish. When you enter a shop or bar, it's customary to say, "Hola!" to everyone already there.

From the Club where we stayed, you can book numerous tours and activities. We took a 4WD tour of the small villages, olive, cork and almond plantations in the region, had lunch included at a quaint restaurant and attended a flamenco dancers and combined Andalucia horse show. Both were very enjoyable.

Its a lovely part of Spain and time permitting we could have stayed longer.

Hong Kong Stay

Typical street

Our flight from Perth was late getting us in at 8:30 am and landing in a small fog with limited visability.

Cathay City, as the airport region is called, is huge as the air traffic coming in and out of Hong Kong makes it one of the busiest airports there is. It's a remarkably well organised arrival process with almost split second precision. Signage in English and Chinese is plentiful and a seemingly oversupply of helpful employees directyou this way and that.

There is a train that takes you from the outer extreme of the airport to the inner immigration, baggage collection and exit buildings. Very slick!

I was surprised that there was no visa charge. It's perhaps one of a small number of countries that don't have entry fees. It was simply a matter of presenting one's passport and having it stamped by a curt individual apparently impressed by his important office and unwilling to smile, say "welcome" or engage in chatter.

At least when one official noticed my wife using a walking stick to help with a bout of bursitis, he moved us to front of queue. I wondered whether I should get a walking stick too - feigned disability could be helpful.

There are numerous things I like about Asians. Apart from my penchant for shapely, lovely brown-skinned women, the industriousness and ability to create employment from nothing has always impressed. We Australians, who have become too reliant on government as a panacea could learn from their example.

We stayed in an inexpensive hotel with the appropriate title, Minimal Hotel Culture. The hotel is minimal indeed and in the middle of the city's traditional area, Sham Shui Po.

We got to our hotel by bus after a one hour trip that cost $14 HKD, a pittance by $AUD calculations. We initially had some trouble finding it but after consulting a map and two helpful locals arrived at the front door. It's the newest, flashest building in the street. When I first saw the other buildings I was concerned I had probably booked a hotel from hell just to save a few bucks. Once I walked into the minimal foyer, my spirits lifted.
The hotel is new, modern, clean and nicely outfitted with tiny rooms. Thank goodness it had a lift, we stayed on the 17th floor. Each floor has only two rooms.

After settling in we went for a walk through the local markets where you can buy literally anything. The markets are grouped by product eg, electronics, fashion, accessories like bags, belts, and a variety of interesting odds and ends. Most of the small kiosk shops are very well stocked with heaps of inventory.

We neaded to the food area and bought some lovely nasi goreng and what we thought were tofu squares that had been fried but, in fact were egg omlettes.

Our stay was only one night as we headed out to the airport to continue our journey and will stay longer on our return.

If you want exposure to the old Hong Kong and culture, I recommend a visit.

Robin

Our Europe and UK Jaunt

Rainbow Valley near Alice Springs

Next Saturday we jet out of Central Australia for a four-month stint in Europe and United Kingdom.

We'll spend a couple of days at Perth getting some new kit items and then head initially to Hong Kong. A day or two there (we've been there three times before) and we are off to London and then Spain.

We have two tours organised, one a cruise through European cities that commences at Copenhagen and the other a bus tour that begins at Brussels. We've been to Brussels, but it will be nice to revisit and see how much it has changed since 2010.

Late March we will be at Basel in Switzerland where I will attend the Baselworld 2017 Watch and Jewellery Show. As some of you may know, I have an interest in horology. This will be my first ever watch show so I'm really excited to have been able to fit it into our travels.

In the coming week I'll place an itinerary online somewhere and advise close friends of its location. I'll also find somewhere to place our photographs and plan to do some posting to Trip Advisor.

Happy days and lovely nights.

Robin

Merry Christmas from Our Caravan to Yours

Visiting Darwin, Capital of the Northern Territory

We’ve been to Darwin dozens of times and for 18 months from 1997 lived there in the dreadful humidity until we could no longer stand it.

At this time of year it was much less humid (the Dry Season) and pleasantly warmish. My main objective was to have a growing cyst that was becoming increasingly a pain in the neck attended to while Christina’s main objective was to have fish and chips at the Stokes Hill Wharf which we had loved to visit during our previous times at Darwin.

Other tasks included the purchase of a new awning for our caravan. The old one had deteriorated while sitting in the sun at The Alice and after being battered by hail-stones during July, had numerous holes in it. We also bought a new side step since Christina had fallen off the plastic one and cracked it, and we bought two shade cloth screens, both to complement the awning so we look like we are in an annex, but aren’t and still have some privacy.

In the best medical care I have ever experienced (not that I have had much), a doctor at Palmerston Doctors who just happens to be a GP and a surgeon, removed my cyst which was infected. No ifs, buts, or stuffing about. He assessed the situation, agreed it was a cyst and cut it out the same day.

We attended Stokes Hill Wharf and much to our surprise found a joint Darwin WWII Bombing museum and Royal Flying Doctor display centre had been added since our last visit. Before our fish and chips, we paid the small entrance fee and spent an hour or so within the centre.

It’s very well presented and if anything, needed more content, but it had only been open for a week, so it’s early days yet. Many people are unaware of the massive bombing raids the Japanese carried out on Darwin so it’s a worthwhile addition to Australia’s war and flying doctor histories.

Robin

PS: Since writing this I have been to Broome which also has a history of Japanese wartime bombing. Much to my embarrassment, I never knew that.