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Here we are in Hervey Bay. That is the Boat Club in the back ground with the marina behind it. We get a lovely breeze flow through the bus and do not need to run the aircon at this stage. I think it will be turned on if the air is still. My little red shelter is now moved to the rear of the awning and a new green larger shelter is in it's place. Photos to come. We went on a boat cruise up the western side of Fraser Island all the way to the Light house. Derek climbed the sand dune to the light house while I stayed in the cool water catching lots of fish (darts). Too small to eat and I don't think you can eat dart. Anyway, more blogs to come.

Wow, what a difference a hair cut can make. This is SYD after me attacking him with my clippers. He sat there without any complaints through 15min of tidy up work on his long scruffy hair. I think he likes it too. His little doggy friends he plays with in the park also liked his new look.

New addition to our family

Derek is loving his new little companion "SYD".
He is a rescue dog and is around two years old.
He is not a yappy or naughty dog at all.
He is very obedient and polite and loves the bus.

The nights are still very cold and so I made SYD an emergency night coat which he wore without any fuss at all. He has since had a hair cut and wears a knitted roll neck jumper. Now the nights are a lot warmer in the past couple of nights so I think jumper will go away till next winter if we have to be south for that time of the year again. We think he is a Jack Russell x with a silky terrier, maybe.

Sydney visit

The best way to see Sydney and stay out of the stinch of the toxic streets.

Naughty Fridge

 This is the naughty WAECO fridge. It plays up every now and then and decides not to turn back on until the temperature is around 12c in the fridge compartment. Then turns off once it has reached 5c. This happens no matter what the temperature gauge is set at. Two weeks ago it was doing this constantly, instead of once in a while and then stopped alltogether. So we called in the experts.

 One week later, and having to use there little box fridge, they can't seam to be able to fix the problem. So they bought our fridge back to us!!! It was working mostly, but not constantly at the correct temp. Then it decided to turn off for the whole night. More food to throw out. This is so annoying. Do we buy a new fridge or are they going to be able to fix the problem. They seam to just want to moniter the fridge for days and then say they are puzzled, it works fine then doesn't work fine. I told them that right from the start. They did replace a switch the first day they had the fridge, but that only fixed the "not turn back on" problem.

The original pesky problem is still there. So two weeks on now and they still want to just monitor it. This is stupid. Out the door goes the overly expensive 24v WAECO motorhome fridge and in with a 240v SAMSUNG house fridge. We have 8 big solar panels, 8 house batteries and a large inverter so a two and a half star energy saving rating house fridge at $500 is a lot better than a dodgy $2,000 motorhome fridge that spoils our food and could make us very sick. Problem fixed. Boy, what an expensive weekend. Could have been worse.

Mold under bed

I thought this may happen but prayed it wouldn't. But it did, moisture trapped under the mattress. We lifted the top end of our very heavy pure latex mattress to put the fresh clean fitted bottom sheet on and there it was on the bottom of the mattress, MOLD. Yuck, how dare it. So now we can't ignore the fact that we have not bothered to put some sort of ventilation under our very expensive mattress. So off to Bunnings to find a good fix. This is what we came up with, a Bamboo Garden Screen and a pair of Secauters. The secauters was used to trim the screen to fit on the bed base. This should give the mattress some ventilation under the bed, plus leaving the covers off all day. The mattress cover had to be cut apart to remove all the moldy sections, which was directly under our bodies on the bottom of the mattress, and replaces with new material. We aired the latex out in the sun for the day. It didn't have any signs of mold on it at all. We were luck this time. The mold has developed only in the past 10 days. That is how long it has been since we looked at the bottom of the bed. Fingers crossed this works. The screen cost us $48, I know, cheap, but it was the best thing we could come up with and if it works, then perfect.

Getting Dizzy

We have moved sites but still at Paradise in Tamworth. That is us in the back ground. Main shot is of Getting Dizzy. We met these guys on Face Book. They mostly travel around all of NSW in this lovely little motorhome towing a trailer with their little car and a good size storage cupboard on it. This couple are wonderful Aussie people with lots of great stories to tell of there adventures. They will soon off load their trailer for a smaller one and not bother with a car in tow, so if you see them on the road, give them a toot and a big wave. There names are Lyn & Shane.

The Peel River is up

We seriously hope the banks of the Peel River don't give way and Green'n'Gold goes in. They say there is no chance of that happening. Anyway, I know how to start her up and put away the awning and drive her to higher ground, if Derek is stuck at work. No worries.

Wall finished

Lunch at Banalasta Lavender Farm

Misty morning

 This morning is very misty. So much so that I just had to step out into the chilly cold to take a few photos. The grass was not crunching under foot, which shows that it is not that cold yet. Thank goodness otherwise you will not be seeing these photos.

  As I am writing this, the sun is now shining and the sky is a perfect blue with not one cloud. So I will keep this short and get out of my PJ's and thick socks and heavy jacket and into my shorts and teashirt and go for a fast walk with spots of jogging along the way.

 Then continue tiling the kitchen wall for two hours and then more study on the computer. My day will then finish with a lovely shower and hopefully a deep sleep.

Wish me luck on the deep sleep part. I am trying my best with that one. Organic veges and no gluten or dairy, and fresh salmon every second day. So mostly vegetarian and organic and filtered water and herbal teas.
See I am trying by best. Just gotta stay away from scented people and smokers and smoke from home fire places. Well it is not a healthy world we live in, so I just have to do my best.
MCS is not fun, just challenging to stay healthy enough to look normal.

Renovations have started.

 Tiling this wall is going to be fun I told Derek.
It will cover the big hole that the plumber had to make to terminate the gas and water pipes that connected the old internal gas hot water system. So first we got a sheet of ply and cut out the wall shape, now I sit for a couple of hours each day and hand fit every tile. This is going to take a while. If I had left the tiles on the lace, we would have had to order more tiles than we needed and the glueing would have been too smelly for me. This way we can spread the tiles out a bit more and a little spot of glue on the back of each tile then press it into place. Yep, it is going to take a little while. I have left the odd tile off so I can glue and screw the whole board to the wall, then replace those tiles then grout it, then all done.

Back in 2009

Derek driving the house boat we rented for a long weekend holiday back in 2009. I added this onto my Blog due to the fact that it was an excellent, relaxing way to unwind. Houseboating is very easy and you move slowly along a river and or lakes. I would highly recommend doing it.

Cairns

We are back from a quick visit to see family in Cairns. All are well and Derek's Dad is one year older now. Cairns is a nice place to thaw out during winter, but we have commitments, so this winter we must wear the winter clothes and turn on the heaters to keep as warm as possible until the cold weather is gone. I think we will need to see through three winters altogether, then we may head west via Adelaide. Stay posted

The cold has started

Well what a wake-up. One hour before the alarm is due to go off, I got up for my morning little walk to our smallest room in our bus and found the floor was as cold as ice. So on went the electric ceramic heater down the front end, and on my way back to bed, on went the diesel heater that is located under our bed and blows toasty warm air out down the hallway and into the bathroom if I leave that door open. This I do for 15 minutes to warm the room before shower time. The TV went on after an hour of back into our lovely warm bed to wait til the bus warmed up, and the news reported that we had a -2c morning. BBRRRR now I know what cold is after the past few years of mostly summer weather with the odd cool day. Cool day ha! They weren't cool, the last two weeks were cool. So, no photo to show you due to me whoosing out and not wanting to step out of the warm bus into the freezing cold air outside to take a shot of the beautiful mist on the river. If we didn't have the fixed fly screens on our windows, I would have took the shot from Derek's side of the bed through his window. The river is wider and more misty on his side of the bus. My side is narrow and has the little rapids and bridge. Lovely.

1st May back to Tamworth

The road back to Tamworth from Glen Innes was a mix of old and bumpy and new and smooth. The interesting part is the down hill section of Moonie Range. Slow going of course but then stuck in second gear at the bottom. Derek had to work hard to get back the gears, but all good after two minutes of WTF. hehehe 

This beautiful bus was camped at the park when we arrived back. It belongs to David and Marion from Mt Gambier.

Here we are, back at site 6. Now with our full set-up. Washing done and Derek kicked back ready for our new friends David and Marion to walk over for a well deserved sundowner.

There were lots of people dressed up in costumes at the Celtic Fest. Some costumes were simply amazing. There were too many to photograph along with too many pipe bands and lots of stalls selling all manor of Celtic wears. Food stalls were of a very good standard. Even food I can eat (veg/gluten free).

Derek was waiting for his turn at a food stall when his twin brother turned up behind him. Not really his twin, or even related. Just a much bigger version of him with his arms folded the same.

Here are the Australian Standing Stones during the Celtic Festival.

Scroll down to see Derek in front of the Stones without the crowd.

Celtic Festival 2011

We are happily set up at the Blue Sapphire Caravan Park here at Glen Innes. The annenity block is a bit rustic but I guess they are not going to fix them up due to the park turning into an over 50's cabin/home park. Each home/cabin will have their own toilet and shower. The whole area look stunning at the moment with the trees changing colours, red and gold leaves every where.

Australian Standing Stones.

Glen Innes is the place to be from thursday 28th April through to Sunday 1st May. The main events take place here at the stones and there are also Irish entertainers playing at the Glen Innes Bowls club and the Town Hall including the Lismore school Irish dancers plus lots more. The Pubs in town also have Entertainers of the Irish theme playing. Organised coach tours on offer plus bus transfers to the Stones and back for ease of parking. Fun, Fun and more Fun.

Ha ha, Derek touched Excalibur and made him grow very tall. Come back on Monday to see the Celtic Fest photos.

Derek and Excalibur. This is at the Australian Standing Stones. The quiet before the Festival. He did not pul the sword out but he is still my Prince.

 This bikie gang was the last of the local traffic before the parade came past in the center of Inverell.

The Inverell Anzac Day March. Young and old took part as well as vintage cars and all the services.

 This is the Garden of Remembrance for Those Who Served. It is at the Inverell RSM.

These are the Tributes placed today after the Anzac Day Parade through the streets of Inverell.

Another pretty little wallaby living in someones yard in the town of Bingara.

This is the Inverell Reserve spillway above and just to the left is this part of the lake. Pretty spot for the locals to canoe or kayak on the warm days. The park behind us was full of families relaxing on Easter Sunday.

Found a great hat for Karen to keep her head warm in winter. She didn't buy it though. I thought she looked like a Buffalo head. We found this is a tiny little winnery in Inverell, along with a bakers dozen of their finest.

These back yard Wallabies are just too cute. They followed me along the fence line while I was trying to get a clear shot of them with my camera of course. They live in a large suburban block in Bingara along with about a dozen other wallabies and kangaroos.

 The river running through Bingara is the Gwydir and today in their annual fishing tornament. The river is around 40cm deep in most places but apparently has a number of species of fish living in it. Good luck to the fishermen and ladies.

 There is a lot of red weed choking the river at present. Good for the fish to hide under from the sun and the fishing folk.