Bullet Journal - July

I bought some lovely scrapbooking stickers yesterday. They're all about travelling. Perfect for while Mark and I are in Western Australia.

It's Second Half of the Year Day!

Today is the 182 day of the year! 

I can't believe that we are half way through the year already! 

Things need to seriously slow down a bit!

(http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk)

On a slightly more serious note. This year hasn't quite turned out like I wanted it to. At least not so far but I can work on that.  I had set some goals at the beginning of the year. .. to learning to sew (it's not happened yet), wanting to go to more knit and natter sessions, attending the Temple more regularly and a few other things. There is still time to do all of these and I have also added new things to my list. 

One of my new goals is travelling to Perth, Western Australia. Which my hubby and I will be doing soon. Our boys will be staying home, they're adults now and can do their own thing. Plus someone has to stay at home and look after our pets, right! I will be meeting my mother in law for the first time! Some people have said that was a blessing but that isn't how I see it. I know it seems hard to believe that I haven't met her yet considering the length of time Mark and I have known each other (almost 20 years) and as a couple for 12 of those years.

We've been to Perth together and I am jumping at this opportunity to go. It's exciting to be able to catch up with some of Mark's family that I already know and for the ones I will be meeting for the first time! I can't wait!

So regardless of the fact that the year is half over. I am still aiming to achieve my goals. Sure I will add new ones, even alter the ones I have already started but I will get there. The trick is to not give up and just keep plodding along. I will get there in the end! 

Bullet Journal - Travel Dreams

I decided to make a list of places I would like to visit.
You have no idea how hard it is to choose 5 places, especially when you are such a home body!
Anyway, I managed to choose 4.

Mark and I will be visiting the first one a lot sooner than we expected. In fact we are surprising his Mum by going over to Perth to see her. Mark hasn't been back to Perth for over 20 years. This will be my first visit EVER. I am looking forward to it! Not to mention I will finally get to meet my Mother in law for the very first time. 

The Overland Train

Brodie and I came home via The Overland.

That's 828 km (514.495 miles) of travel from Adelaide to Melbourne and around 11 hours of travel time. Which is equivalent to the length of time it takes to drive from where we were staying to our home.

It was nice to sit back and relax but Brodie kept questioning me about our choice of transport. He loved our flight over and wondered why we didn't fly back. To be honest I questioned my choice myself but price won out. It was so much cheaper via the train than the plane. Plus I got to sit, read and crochet.

Leaving Adelaide from Keswick

We left at 7:45 am ACST and arrived in Melbourne at 7:00 pm AEST
Then of course we had to travel from Melbourne to home and that was another 80 minutes or so on a vline train. It made for a very long day and sadly I wasn't feeling very well when we arrived in Melbourne.

I had forgotten how pretty the Adelaide hills were. It's a shame I didn't take the photo above a minute or so later because the next paddock was filled with kangaroos.

^^ Murray Bridge^^ was our first stop

Not that you can see it properly, but the photo above shows the River Murray. It's the longest river in Australia and spans three states. It's 2508 km (1558 miles).

The photo above is the train station at Bordertown. Our longest serving Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, was born here. The house named Hawke House is still standing and is currently being used as a Centrelink (Social security) office. 

Considering it is almost winter and we have had some rain, I just couldn't get over how brown everything still was. They could certainly use some rain in the Wimmera region.

 

I snoozed after we left Ararat.
The scenery was pretty much the same as in the above photos.

I really wanted to take photos of Geelong when we went through but it was dark outside by then and any photo that I would have taken from my phone would only reflect off the window. It did look very pretty with all of the lights but to be honest the train mostly went thorough the industrial area.

It certainly was a very long day. Brodie and I didn't get home until after 9:00 pm.
Even though we sat down for most of the journey I was exhausted and as I mentioned previously I was unwell. I was in bed early. Much earlier than I usually would be. I even managed to sleep for 9 hours so I guess I really needed. 

I know it sounds cliche but there really is no place like home!! 

Funeral Stuff - Feeling Blessed

Brodie and I have finalised our travel arrangements for our trip over to Adelaide for Dads funeral next week. We have been helped with accommodation, which is a big relief. My sister, Vicki, was unable to let us stay with her. She gave her only spare bed to our other sister who lived an hour or so drive away from her. A missionary couple in our ward are from Adelaide. They have asked on of their daughters to help us out. We will be able to stay with her for the three nights we will be in town.

Last night, was the first time in a week, I was finally able to sleep through the night without waking up and worrying about whether we would be able to find somewhere to stay or not.

We have been able to get great prices for our plane and train tickets. Prices that have enabled us to remain within our budget. Total cost for our fares was around $145 each. I know it wouldn't cost that much to drive over but at least now we don't have to worry about traffic and we can sit back and relax. Although it will be first time Brodie has been on a plane.. I don't know how much relaxing he will do.

A friend of ours from Church will be taking us to the airport on Tuesday. My sister should be picking us up but I am not 100% sure yet although when I spoke with her she wasn't feeling very confident about collecting us. She doesn't even want to park the car because she hates the idea of paying any parking fees. She said that we would need to meet her outside so that she can just drive through the pick up area. In some ways I can understand that but WOW, we are family after all and it has been years since we have seen each other. If the shoe was on the other foot I wouldn't hesitate to do this for her. I am guessing our priorities are very different from one another.

The lovely young family we are going to stay with will be taking us to the train station early Friday morning so that we can catch the train back. I was also told by their Mum, the missionary sister, that the son in law can pick us up from the airport. It would probably be best of he did. Less stress all around is the best thing, right?

All we need to do is sort out our meds, clothes and whatever else we need to take over there. Keeping in mind that we should travel light.

The main hurdles have been sorted which is great. Now to just get there and celebrate Dads life.

It's All About The Location

It looks like I have left the boys behind ...

Our little family all have smart phones. In fact we all have android smart phones. We also have the same free app installed on them. The app is called Live 360. It's a family locator. Basically it uses your phones GPS and it updates where you are. You or your family members who have the app can check on google maps where you are. You can also request updates through the phone so that you can get a more accurate picture of where everyone is. There is also a feature that allows you to send out a distress alert. Which I think is pretty good.

Mark & I got the boys to install in on their phones before we went on out 'aborted' holiday last week. Mark used it quite a bit on our return journey to make sure that we were safe. The boys and I all had the settings on our phone set up for different intervals. Mine was set to send details every 30 minutes. the boys had their settings on a much longer interval.

I had to laugh when Mark shared this picture of our locations on facebook. I had threatened to leave the boys on the side of the road if they argued in the car. The picture makes it look like I had actually done that. Surprisingly enough the boys behaved in the car but they made up for it the next day. It's no wonder I always feel stressed during the summer holidays!

Country Victoria

Here are some of the photos that Brodie took of our trip on Tuesday.

Sadly I can't remember all the names of the places we were when Brodie took his photos.

Long dry grass. Most of the countryside looks like this.

Some pretty gum trees.

Somewhere between Horsham and Ararat. 

This is the town of Beaufort. It looks very pretty in the main street

Still in Beaufort. On our return journey.

Heading towards the city from Bacchus Marsh

Heading east towards the Westgate Bridge.

Our (Mis)Adventure

Yesterday morning the boys and I left for our trip to Adelaide. The plan was to try and get into Adelaide and through the Adelaide hills before dark so that I didn't have to drive at night (something I really dislike doing).

All was going well and good. We stopped near Ballarat (approximately 2.5 hours from home) for a toilet break and to get some fuel. We also stopped for a quick toilet break in Ararat. The next stop was planned for Horsham (the half way point between our home and Adelaide) so that we could have lunch. 

Oh we stopped there alright. In fact Emmy began chugging about 15 kilometres (around 9 miles) out of Horsham and she scared the pants off me when she was doing that. We made it into town and I had just turned the corner at a set of traffic lights when she stalled. Uh oh, not good. I start her up again and think on lets find a petrol station. I was begging the car to not stall again so that we can make it 100 metres down the road. We pull into the service station and she stalls again. Crap. I start her again and make it a few more metres to a car park at the petrol station and turn her off. 

The next thing we do is phone Mark. HELP! Not that he can do much considering we just travelled 4.5 hours & we were 400 kms [248 miles] from home. We open the bonnet as directed and Brodie notices that the gas converter (LPG converter) has frozen. Mark tells us to wait a good 20 minutes or so for it to defrost. He suggests we go somewhere that's shaded (it was quite hot in the sun) so we can cool off. Plus the boys were hungry so we used that 'defrosting' time to have lunch. I can tell you I was no longer hungry after the stress of this but I forced myself to eat something any way. 

Rather than risk driving all the way to Adelaide with a car that was now misbehaving mark said turn around and come home. You have no idea how relieved I felt when he said that. So before we took off to find a park Brodie and I phoned Dad and Julie to let them know about our car troubles and that we were turning home. I did spend a little bit of time having a cry. Mainly because I was letting family down for not being able to come over and help out with Dad but also because I was stressing over how on earth will we get home safely AND how on earth will we make it through the city, especially through citylink and the domain tunnel, without stalling.

After lunch and after making sure the car has cooled, Mark instructed us over the phone how to safely open the radiator cap without getting splashed with boiling hot water. We had hardly used any water. That was a good thing. While we were still in Horsham we found a SupaCheap store (they sell stuff for cars) and purchased a very large 20 litre [5.28 gallons] water container just in case. The guy that served us was also kind enough to fill it with water for us. I was so grateful for that. 

Once we were on our way home we stopped every hour or so to check the gas converter to make sure that it hadn't frozen. We also checked the radiator again to make sure there was plenty of water in it.

It had taken is 4.5 hours to get to Horsham in the first place and it took us a little over 6.5 hours to get home. Boy was I so relieved to see Mark in the carport when we got home. 

Even though the trip back home was a long one it was pretty uneventful. Apart from that stretch on the Western Highway near Ballarat where we have to drive through some pretty thick smoke. That was kind of eerie. Taking it easy on the road returning home made all the difference. Well that's my thinking anyway.

I do have some photos of our travels that Brodie has taken. I'll share them with soon I promise.