Short Breaks, Sprucing Up, and Something New

Just a week after our trip to Jindabyne (see previous post), we had another short break (our term for what was a weekend away, but can’t be called that anymore because they usually happen during the week).

This time it was the Bathurst. Why Bathurst? Well, it was a late entrant to the list of possible towns to which we will move when we leave Sydney. So of course we had to check it out in person – only so much can be done on the internet. We checked out the shopping centre, the cafes, what sort of housing you can get for your money, what the different parts of town are like, what facilities are available, etc, etc.

We are still undecided about exactly where we will end up, so if anyone has any knowledge of Bathurst or Mudgee, as places to live, we would love to hear it.

In between short breaks, we’ve been keeping ourselves busy, sprucing up the house. Les has done some serious painting! All the windows and the window frames, and the eaves, are now painted on the outside. The front door is now a sparkling white. The back doors will be next – varnishing the wood.

And Joy has been learning new skills – how to build things. She didn’t learn those sorts of things from her father (was that because she is a girl, and in those days, girls weren’t allowed in the shed?), so she is having to learn from a very patient Les. So far, she has made a couple of planter boxes, using old fence palings scavenged from a friend’s house when they were replacing their fence.

To make these, she learnt how to drill, saw, sand, nail, measure, file. Then she got to use power tools! But the OHS people (friend Corrie) heard about it, and soon she was fully kitted out.

Current project is frames for the many cross-stitches she has done.

Future project is a coffee table, and she has found out that she can get free wooden pallets from Flower Power. Les is wondering how she will get the pallets home – maybe carry them across Henley Park?

Les has even done some paid work lately. Before retirement, he was working for the Baptist Financial Services, after being made redundant from the Uniting Financial Services. He is now doing little bits of work for the Baptists, but is also doing some for the Anglican Church (The Glebe Group). Wonder when the Catholics or Lutherans will call? What this work has done, apart from giving him some extra money, is confirm that he is happy being retired.

Being retired, we can do things like go for bushwalks etc during the week, when the walks are quiet. Our latest walk was around Lake Parramatta.

It looks like it is right out in the middle of the bush, but for the whole walk, we could clearly hear the cars and trucks on the busy roads around. But the local wildlife obviously don’t care about the noise – probably quite used to it.

At the end of the walk, near the dam wall (or weir – what’s the difference?) is quite pretty.

There were some nice little picnic tables where we could sit to have lunch. And importantly, a café where Joy could get a cappuccino!