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