The weekend

 I have sort of lost my enthusiasm for this but I will try and put some words to paper for those of you who are looking out for it everyday. hehe

 Last Thursday we were invited to the local pub for a drink with one of Bruno's collegues. I was a bit apprehensive about this, as the pub is really and hasn't really been my scene, especially when sitting in the bar area with a whole bunch of men. Anyway, off we went and the bonus about going out to the pub is we can walk, don't have to think about drink driving or having too many drinks though most of you would know that is not really me either. But, anyway at least I could have one or two which I did. We actually had a good time and I met Brut's partner who was working behind the bar.

The next morning we went for a walk to the post Office as we were expecting a parcel from KJ and had some documents to post. Low and behold there was Kylie (whom I met the night before at the pub) now working in the Post Office. Many people here work a couple of jobs. I guess less names for you to remember. So, I am meeting many of the locals and am trying really hard to remember all their names and who is related to whom.

Saturday afternoon we hosted our first BBQ for another of Bruno's work collegues. Brett and his wife, Amay and 2 little kids came over and it was a lovely afternoon/evening. Nice to chat with someone  closer to my age and who hasn't lived here all their lives. The common remark from all the women local or otherwise is - you have to get off the Island every 3 months or so and Winter can be very lonely and boring....  mmm note to self really need to get back into stamping.

I am going to visit the Day Care Centre later today as, apparently there is a position available at the moment. So, will go and check it out. Bruno has already dropped in my resume etc but they said if I was here that I should come down and meet them for a chat. So, will find out all about that one today.

We have done some other smaller driving trips around. The weather has been excellent though yesterday we didn't see any blue cloud or Mt. Strezlecki so Bruno and I stayed in and watched LOST, all day would you believe. Well, I am on holidays afterall. I haven't had to use my jacket/scarf/gloves on this visit at all.

We went to the south of the Island the other day and we went to Vinegar Hill and looked at the surrounding Islands - Cape Barron being the most prominent.

In the fore ground of this photo is the docks where our furniture came in and Bruno's car.

The photos were taken upon this rock, high on Vinegar Hill.

On Wednesday we are hosting a "Soup Night" at our place for another couple of couples. It will be nice to meet the people and their partners that Bruno talks about often. Bruno is back at work this week. He was fortunate to have all of last week off which was nice for us to take a good look around the place. So, this week will be rather quiet - will have to get into rearranging the cupboards -  maybe.

I fly home on Saturday ready for Mother's Day on Sunday. I will catch up with most of them then.

Its raining Its pouring!

Bruno is off at the moment so yesterday he escorted me on my run/walk. On his suggestion we headed up Thule Road where the school is, oh and of course the Power Station. It took us half an hour to get to just beyond the school from our home. We followed the gravel path made on the side of the road for the children to get safely to school. The path edged the paddocks that were filled with cows and the new born calves. Really lovely to see and to take my mind of my breathlessness exacerbated by the wind that was blowing.

We headed back towards the Power Station and Bruno showed me where he works and actually what he does in that little red brick building. He showed me the 4 diesel generators and how they feed electricity to the 3 main areas of Flinders Island -  north to Killicrankie, south to Lady Barron and west to Whitemark where we live. It is pretty amazing how it all works.

As we headed out of the station the sky was filled by a enormous rainbow. Drat didn't have the camera yet again. But it was bright, full and reached one tip of Whitemark to the other. But behind the rainbow was dark clouds. Oh no please don't rain yet. We'll be right were Bruno's last, famous words. No longer than 5 mins down the road it let loose and we were walking home in the pouring rain.

It was driving into our faces along with the 25 knott winds. Now this was really fun!! My track pants were getting wetter by the minute and I couldn't even open my eyes to see where I was going. The cows stared at us and the one car that passed us must have thought, "bloody tourists!" But hey where was that country hospitality that had been displayed to me earlier in the week - my thoughts were, "ok aren't you going to offer us a lift?" No such luck.

As fate would have it, it stopped raining within a couple of hundred metres from the house. When
inside I jumped into the hot shower with face and ears numb and my hair plastered to my face. Bruno on the other hand cooked me breakfast - bacon, eggs, tomatoes and mushrooms. A lovely way to end the harrowing experience I had just had at the expense of Bruno's last words.

The Boat Comes In

Ok, so Wednesday is shopping day and you best get there earlier enough to grab the best choices, but don't go too early otherwise stock isn't on the shelves yet. I had to drive the cruiser down though it is within walking distance but I was doing a big shop in preparation for the extra long weekend. As I turned into the main street I couldn't believe it, both sides of the road were packed with cars and I had to park down the road a couple of hundred metres. This was certainly going to be an experience and  I had vision of Christmas shopping at Woolies on the Coast.

On instruction from Bruno I headed into the 3 aisle grocery shop with my boxes for packing the groceries on my completion. Ok, so with trolley already packed up with boxes I proceeded to do the shop becoming concerned that I was slowly running out of room in the trolley because of the offending boxes. I did a quick rearrangement of groceries and boxes and continued on. The actual shop itself wasn't as packed as I thought  from the amount of cars outside and wondered where everyone was hiding or congregating. As I reached the checkout, guess what, no waiting at all. Wow, this was certainly proving to be an relatively easy grocery experience.

At the check out the lady proceeded to tell me that I didn't need to bring my own boxes in because they always had enough there at the end of the counter. This was my chance to introduce myself, "Oh my husband Bruno advised me to take in the boxes from the back of his cruiser."
"Oh, so your here at last. I bet Bruno is happy that you are here," replied the lady whose name was Alison.
"Well not just yet but am here on holidays for a couple of weeks. And I am sure I will perfect the grocery shopping and packing by the end of my stay."

Well, shopping done I headed out to the car and wheeled the trolley up the street feeling a bit self-conscious about it all as back home only "dero" types wheeled trolleys around the streets. As I reached the cruiser, an elderly gentlemen came up to me, he owned the Petrol Station, next door to the grocery shop.
"Here I will help you unload those into the car and then I can take the trolley back to the shop for you."
"Thanks, that is lovely."
We had a little chat and reacquainted ourselves as I had met him on my last visit and he had recognised Bruno's cruiser and put two and two together as to who I was.
Well that was my shopping experience all finished.

Oh for country hospitality. I could grow to like this.

"

Day One

At 8 am I started to walk down to the beach. It wasn't windy at all and I was quite pleased that my LS Tee and lightweight track pants were going to be adequate.Walking through town, the bakery was open and the smell of freshly baked bread wafted out its door. There were a couple of utes on the street, getting brekky perhaps. The rest of the town was deserted. Walking past the mechanic shop the doors were open but no noise echoed out the door yet.


I reached the dunes and as today I was commencing the first day of my running program (have to keep the exercise up - no zumba here unfortunately) my ipod was in my ears, playing the  podcast but to my eyes the scenery ahead of me  looked so serene. The tide was out and the flats were exposed for about 800 metres. The beach was deserted, the only other sign of life was the solitary footprints of another human and a dog, that had been there before me but were now nowhere to be seen.

Going north along the beach

Going south with
Mt Strzlecki in the background

After my 30 mins of instruction and exercise, I was now able to truly take in where I was. I turned to return back and I switched the ipod off. My ears could now take in the peacefulness of it all. All I could hear was the crunching of my runners on the sand with each step that I took. There was the odd cry of a gull. The tide had come in somewhat and I could hear the gentle lap of the Bass Strait waters on the sand. The water was calm and ahead there was a black swan gliding over the flat waters. Ahead of me the peaks of Mt. Strzelecki emerged intermittently through the clouds.


As I reached the dunes, seaweed from the day before was scattered everywhere with bright, white cuttle fish, some up to 20 cm long, dispersed throughout. Walking through the dunes I could hear the twittering and fluttering of native birds throughout the vegetation.


Walking back through town, people were now emerging as the town begins to wake up for the new day.