Blog 17 - Swan Hill - Sat 25th & Sun 26th July 2015

Saturday 25th July 2015
I faintly hear some banging around. It becomes louder as I wake up. Then the raah, raah of the water pump. Teeth being brushed. Yes Moose is up early again - I class early on holidays as any time before 8.30 am which quite frankly I feel is generous.

Usually I have warning we are hitting the road early but all I had last night was "if we get to town in time maybe we can put the generator in to be fixed".  I must have been in relaxed holiday mood as I did not pick that up to mean "we will make sure we are there in time" so after my usual broken night’s sleep, the banging of water pumps and splashing of water was not how I'd planned to start the day. What is it with moose Saturday means GET OUT OF BED!!! Doesn't matter where we are home or away and yes I am writing this to stop me beating him to death with or I don't know ANYTHING!  Oh hang on he did say "you don't need to get up, I'm just packing up outside" which is a code I did understand to mean – “don't rush for 6 or 10 mins cos I don't want you angry but do think about getting up as I want to get moving”.

I am in the car at 8.33 am. As we drive along I cannot keep my eyelids open so alternate between napping and looking out of semi closed lids. Looks like Miss GPS stuffed up again, its 10.45 and we've still got 89 Km's to go. Considering most places close at midday there’s a good chance we won't make the Generator place in time. The early start could well have been a rude waste of time.

We are definitely in the Riverland, Mandarins for sale every where I look. Large sprinklers chug over the orchards as we drive past them. Then suddenly the orchards end and scrub land returns. Every so often we come across farms, even a couple of small townships but there's no stopping we have a generator to fix.

We manage to arrive in the industrial area of swan hill and park outside the Honda shop at 11.45 that's with a whole 3min stop thrown in for me to get out and stretch.

Goat Island - across the river from us

Lucky for Moose the caravan park saved the day. It is a beautiful site right next to the river and there's s cafe īwithin the park. Once set up we enjoy lunch there and Moose manages an apology for the rush. I took the opportunity to walk Bonnie while Moose put my studio up. 

The tooting of a whistle brought my attention to a Paddle steamer coming up the river.

The couple in the van next to us were sitting enjoying a glass of wine and happily chatted about what we all do to pass the time. The ladies eyes lit up when I said I bring my machine. Her hubby instantly said "no you’re not bringing your sewing machine "I did share how unreasonable that was.

After his generator emergency drive, plus putting my studio up Moose and a well walked Bonnie fell asleep. I took this opportunity to do some art journaling.

While we ate dinner, Moose put Bonnie out in annex to eat hers. When we went to take her out for a walk, there was no Bonnie. She had burrowed out of the annex and done a disappearing act. Lucky for her she heard us calling and came back. We headed out for a walk around the park next door. We returned to a warm van for the evening enjoying the last recorded “Peaky Blinders” while munching our cheese, fruit and biscuit platter

Sunday 26th July 2015
I woke up to moose chuckling to himself about one of his own jokes. A lazy lie in catching up with news on fb and looking at all the pages in the art journal challenge that I have missed seeing because of lack of signal started the day on a nice slow pace.

Moose headed up the "little Murray River " on his ski while I feeling inspired and excited with my studio up , got out of bed thinking “I'll pop down to the cafe for s good cup of coffee” then realized I was on a powered site so the nespresso machine could be hooked up. Happy days

Busy typing my blog. Moose comes in uttering between blue lips "cold, very cold. I need a hot shower. My feet are freezing". I said " nice paddle though?" He replied as he got into the shower "yeah until I ran out of water"

Moose is sitting staring into space. I asked what he was doing "warming up" was his answer. He's even got his brand new Grandpa slippers on.  Sssh don't tell him I told you that.

Couldn't have a better view

The paddle steamer has passed by our site twice this morning with a merry toot toot and the swishing of water through the big wheel. Moose is starving (again) so we went on a bakery hunt. This place is huge so the GPS was called into action. Sure enough we found bakeries but none of them were open. Victoria you have disappointed us. We eventually found an open café – honestly people go on about Perth being shut early evening and weekends, as far as I can see we are open far more than other states. We sit outside as Bonnie is with us but it is too much to handle, the icy fingers of wind dig through our jackets, jumpers, thermals into our bones. Even Bonnie isn’t impressed so Moose puts her in the car, she gratefully curls up on her mat while we go inside the shop to eat.

Oh Moose is funny, even when he doesn’t mean to be. We have found a supermarket so I’m going in for a quick shop while Moose heads off to pick up some electrical wiring down the road. I haven’t brought my purse so suggest Moose grabs some cash out of the ATM for me. He gets a few notes out and says I can “have a note any note”– the man has no idea how much food costs, I tell him if he’s lucky he’ll get some change. I do my shop then try not to laugh out loud as the checkout lady (about the same age as me) greets the lady in front of me. On being asked how she is, she answers “I’m recovering from tonsillitis”. The checkout lady goes on to tell her, she should try marihuana – much better than that crap the doctor gives you.

We return to the van where I set up my machine and cutting board and do a little sewing including the first sample for my upcoming workshop in February. Moose was busy reading up on his wiring problem and being a social butterfly on the phone. Bonnie kept me company in the studio. The cold air started seeping through the annex and the poor little heater didn't stand a chance so Bon and I stepped back into the van.

When it came time for Bonnie to go out to eat her, she ate fast then  wanted straight back into her warm mat sitting in front of the gas heater jets.

         Electrical Moose & Nespresso Moz signing off X