New Year and New Beginnings
New Year and New Beginnings. Thursday, 5 July 2007
Karen and I flew in to Hobart on New Years Eve, to a waiting Bernard.
The drive 'home' was Peaceful.
We made our ‘usual’ hurried shop in Kingston,
racing to catch the ‘next’
Ferry.
( Bernie is always in a hurry and never more so than
when there’s
a ferry to catch ).
I was anticipating a night full of festivities
and partying but to my
surprise there we
no public celebrations of the New Year on Bruny
(perhaps the locals had their own celebrations ).
So we spent a quiet
evening with each other,
just enjoying being there and being together.
I
am still baffled as to why there were no celebrations
as I remember a
wonderful evening in the
Beer Garden in winter with a singer and open
fire.
It was a great night if a little breezy and arctic!!
and I wonder
why the pub did not have a band.
The Beer Garden is a delightful area
and maybe
this year it will be used more in the summer months?
The
arrival of Mel, Royce and Clive the next day
set our holiday off to a
flying start.
Some sight seeing, good food and good times!.
We had a lot
of fun and felt pride in showing
off our Island Paradise.
We saw the
Lighthouse, the Penguins and
other wildlife.
We went for walks and
swims.
Clive enjoyed the beach with its shells and crabs.
frequently
calling for us to pick them up for him!?
‘Poor Boy’!!?? he had no idea
about my
complete aversion to all things not human!
and wasn’t impressed
with my response..
We got ‘Shucked’ with the local oysters,
fresh from the local supplier
and ate several gourmet meals in the Pub Restaurant.
We took a drive to Adventure Bay
one day and decided
to return via a route we had not previously taken.
BIG MISTAKE!!!!
Let me say at this point that the majority of roads on
Bruny Island are dirt but this was the mother of all dirt tracks....
Up
hill and down dales, the poor Landrover making
heavy weather of it and
the new Brakes
( which obviously had not worn in yet )
couldn’t take the
pressure!
About 1/2 way along the road we came
to an abrupt halt as we
noticed smoke
billowing from the wheels
and decided we should
investgate.
The thought that we might actually be on fire
occured to me
however I was reassured by all
those mechanically minded ( the males )
in the
car that it was just hot rubber!
Not being overconfident that
what
they were telling me wasn’t all ‘hot air’,
I was glad to vacate the
vehicle to see for myself.
We had to wait quite some time for the
brakes to cool
but were fortunately in a spot with a view.
We also had
young Clive to entertain us
which he did so well.
He was a bundle of
energy
and so excited about everything we did.
In keeping with the friendly nature
of the Islanders, several other vehicles
passed us and all stopped to offer assistance.
This is one method of meeting new people I don’t recommen
