18th july 2014 - 21 July

18th July we Drove up to Bowral and went to the Don Bradman Museum.
What a great place to go.......  We spent about two hours just looking through the museum itself and it was a VERY interesting place.  Cost $20 per adult or $15 per senior to visit.  But I really think it was worth it.  Sir Don moved to Bowral from Cootamundra when he was 3 years old and did all his schooling there and started his cricket career there as well.  It was a bitterly cold day and the wind was very lazy but the sun was shining and hardly a cloud in the sky.  There was reports of snow at Robertson - 24 km towards the coast.

 Bowral Oval

 Darryl with 'Sir Don'.

 At the information Board

 and a great 'backyard Pitch' wall in the museum

After leaving the museum, we headed out to Robertson to see if we could find snow.......  :( none to be found but we enjoyed a lovely lunch at the Robertson Inn before heading back to the van.
Saturday 19th
Today we are going to drive DOWN to Kangaroo Valley and then on to Berry.
The drive down the mountain was lovely.  Good road and some hair-pin Bends BUT not a bad drive at all.

 

  Can you 'see' anything in the rock formation???

 Looking down to the Valley

  Shaved walls of the roadway down to the valley

We stopped at the HAMPDEN BRIDGE and got some lovely photos of the old bridge

 The Hampden Bridge

 History of the Bridge

 Crossing the bridge in the car

and then travelled over it to the township of Kangaroo Valley where we stopped and had a lovely look around.

 

 The England and Scotland Australian Bank Limited

 An old bike on display out the front of the pub

We then travelled UP Cambewarra Mountain

 

 going up the Mountain.  sometimes we were in second gear

 Nowra in the distance from the top of the Mountain

and DOWN the other side toward Nowra and then up the Princes Highway to Berry. 

 

We are going to base ourselves at Berry to do the research into Darryl's Ancestors. John and Rhoda Walker and their baby Emily arrived in Shoalhaven Heads in 1855 and spent a few years in Broughton Creek (now known as BERRY) and then bought land in Kangaroo Ground (now known as KANGAROO VALLEY). One of their sons - John - bought land in FOXGROUND and lived there until he sold the land in 1913.

Sunday 20th
Today is the day that the Shoalhaven Family History Society Inc is open in the Old Pyree School on Greenwell Point Road - so we are going out there to do some research.
We had a lovely day and had lots of help from Merienne. We went to lunch at the Greenwell Point Pub on her advice and returned an hour later and continued our search. :)
We returned to the van at ablout 4pm and it took me until about 8 pm to enter the information that we had managed to gather.

 When we returned to the showgrounds after our research we found these lovely vehicles.

Monday 21st
Off to find a pathology collection centre so that we could have our bloods done. - Google told us there was a centre in Berry - but that was false - so we headed up to Kiama and had them done there. 

 

 View of the ocean on our way to Kiama

 

We then had to find some place to have breakfast and then headed to the Library and the Family History Society and do more research. Here we were able to get copies of some of the birth registrations for the next four of John and Rhoda's children. And the baptismal registrations for three of the children.
My cousin - Sharon Menz - drove down from Lake Illawarra and spent a few hours with us. This was great and we had a lovely lunch together.

 After our research we went to the 'Blowhole' and caught a couple of 'blows' occuring

  The lighthouse at Kiama

On our way back to the van at Berry we turned off the highway and went to Foxground. 

 Entrance to Foxground

 Part of the valley

 a Stone 'dry wall' at one side of the valley

 

Some local people told us that the valley was 4 Miles wide and 7 Miles long. We drove to one side and then followed the road up the valley and mountain on a single lane road. Beautiful country and a very thick rainforest cover.

 

 

  Road UP the valley

  kangaroos in the yard at the end of the road

 Part of the Foxground valley

Back to the van and  contacted a lady who had done quite a lot of research onto the '2nd batch' of children for John snr.  His wife Rhoda had died in 1867 and John remarried and had another 4 children.
And that is all for today

Gee I am sooooooo shite on keeping this blog up to date :) 15th April to 28th May

Hello all,
Well time sure is flying past these days…..
Soo what have we been up too…..
I was supposed to see the Hearing Aid people on about the 14^th April, but with the couple of short weeks over that time, my appointment was put back to the 1^st May.  L

Easter weekend we spent the time at home and were visited by Beckie and the Children for Good Friday.  Ben came and joined us and then we had Bradley her for two nights before we met up with his Mum and brothers and sister at Uncle Ben’s on Easter Sunday.  This was good because the children could go for a swim in the pool at the complex.  The only downside of that is that Max cut his chin open as he slipped getting out of the pool.  First aid administered by Nanna and the cut taped up with Elastoplast tape and then Mum and Nanna did a trip to the chemist for waterproof dressings and butterfly-strips also.  Got some childrens Panadol to help with the pain side of things too.  The Elastoplast managed to stay intact for 48 hours before being replaced with a modified Butterfly-strip and a waterproof dressing.  After a week the chin looked fantastic.  It had healed really well.

We had a great day with the grandchildren and they loved being at Uncle Ben’s place.

Easter Monday was our wedding anniversary and also my Sister Jenny and her husband peter celebrated theirs. What a beautiful fine day it was.  So Darryl and I did some family tree research for the BECKETT family tree. [I have decided to do the Beckett tree for the grandchildren so that they know about their ancestors].  Darryl and I had an interesting time visiting different cemeteries taking photos of headstones, trying to find some graves – still looking – and then we stopped at Margate [over near Redcliffe] and had a lovely lunch looking out at the ocean.

Tuesday we took the car into our friend Paul and had its service attended and then we headed to Loganholme shopping centre, where we had not been in a long time.  Wandered the mall for  quite a time and then went home.

Wednesday was spent doing all the household chores, and Barb spent a lot of time spring cleaning the caravan.  All curtains were washed and dried, window screens taken out and scrubbed and put back and then all the linen was washed too.

24^th April  we headed into the Wesley Hospital to see Darryl’s respirologist and got a great report from him.  We don’t have to see him until late in the year.  We then headed home and hitched up the van and headed off to Jimboomba.  We have got a lot of things on this weekend – so made our base at Beckie and Matt’s place. 

25^th April we all went to the Anzac Day March at Jimboomba [ granddad proudly marching in the ranks] and then stayed for the full service in the park.

Back to Beckie’s and we headed off to Canungra, where we spent the day with some of our campertrailer group friends.  What a great day.  Time flew way to  fast and it was time to head back.

26^th we headed to Beaudesert to celebrate the 60^th birthday of our good friend Gai.  We had a lovely meal at the Chinese restaurant and then headed back to her house for drinks and chat.  Left there and back to Jimboomba.

27^th we headed out to Wyaralong Dam for the day to celebrate the Naming Day for our friends, Simon and Emily’s, little boy – Flynte.  What a lovely day we had and then splatter of rain did not start until the day was well and truly over.

28^th – Darryl and I took the van back home and then headed off to my cousin Julies and we were doing some research into the family.  What a great day we had.  Again – time flew way to fast and before we knew it – it  was 7pm.  Thankfully Rhonda gave Buster some food and turned the light on for him.  By the time we got home it was nearly 9pm.  Poor little fellow had thought we had left him. 

29^th I did some research into two other families – Bruce’s and Donald’s – all part of the Menz/Bruce family tree.

1^st May I had an appointment with the Hearing centre and got my hearing aids.  They are so tiny BUT WOW, the things that I can hear now :D.  Volumes are being turned down and I can hear what the big fella is muttering about over in his chair :D :D

5^th May – I pieced together the final bits of Luke’s quilt and have started layering them and pinning them in preparation for quilting.

6^th May was not a good day.  Meniere’s has reared its head and my day had been very unbalanced and then the brain-fog kicked in with the residual headache.

9^th May we made our way out to Jimboomba and spent some time with Beckie and Luke before heading to see our GP for our check-ups.  He wasn’t happy that I have had nearly two weeks of post-menopausal bleeding so is sending me for follow-up test and scans.  He also wants me to arrange an appointment with a gynae – so have done that also.

I have had my hearing aids for one week today and at Lunch time I heard the chimes in my ears to tell me to change the batteries.

10^th May we joined the family at Funky Mexican at Cleveland to celebrate Beckies Birthday and as a combined mothers day also.  I made a cake for her – which she wasn’t expecting.

12^th May we had dinner with some lovely friends and it was great catching up with them.  We had not seen them for about two years – so was great to see what each of us had been up to.

13^th May we travelled to Northlakes [north of Brisbane] and met up with our friend Chris from Campertrailers group and had a lovely 4 hours chatting and planning our next adventures.  Chris is currently house-sitting in Northlakes.

15^th May we were back at the Hearing centre and making some minor adjustments to my hearing aids.  I also had the tests and scans attended.

19^th May went to see the specialist Gynae and he wants to operate and remove a suspect ovary. When? Well I have a space free on Thursday morning!!!  Right.  So Darryl said – get it out the sooner the better.  We were due to travel on the 20^th to Goomeri,  to spend a week with our caravanning friends and witness the Pumpkin Festival.  So sent messages giving our apologies, completed the admission paperwork for the hospital and called Beckie and Ben to keep them in the loop.  Once home it was letting the siblings know what is happening.

22^nd we arrived at the hospital before 7am and told that going through to theatre at 9.30. Say goodbye now as hubby can’t go any further L.

All checks and preparations attended and then waited.  Went through to theatre at 10.20 am and woke in recovery at 12md.  Back to the ward by 12.45pm and then chatted on and off with Darryl and Beckie before they left at about 3pm.  Had a disturbed nights sleep – as one does when recovering from an anaesthetic and having all the necessary observations and checks attended.

23^rd – check by the specialist at 7.30am and all good.  He said he was glad he got it out – but is sure it is benign – and will get back to me next week with the histology results.  Discharged at 9.45am and then home to sleep for four hours J

I have noticed whilst incarcerated on REST that Buster has got quite a constant cough and he seems to be breathing with some difficulty.  This progressed quite severely over the weekend and on Sunday night he hardly had any sleep due to this constant cough. L  Monday we contacted the Vet and was able to get him in at 10.30am.  They think he may have Kennel cough – so have to keep him separate from other animals until seen. L

Well - he does not have kennel cough J but he does have Congestive Heart Failure and a huge heart Murmur  and they are not sure how much longer he will be with us. L  We have commenced him on fluid tablets and he will have a review next Tuesday.

Wednesday 28^th – Buster had NO coughing at all on Monday night and it was so good to know he had a good sleep BUT he is still breathing faster than he should.  He did have a couple of coughs this morning though L He is nowhere near as energetic as his usual self :C and this morning we had to force him to take his fluid tablet. L  Tonight I hid it in a piece of cake and he took it no worries :D

I had another follow-up with the hearing people and don’t have to go back until our return from our next trip – so that is good.

We then went to the Redlands RSL club to see our dear friends Julie and Ted Bartlett who are on a trip out from England.  Their son, Ted’s, partner Megan gave birth to a beautiful little girl last month in Darwin, so we were seeing some very happy grandparents.  They head back to Darwin tomorrow afternoon – so it was lovely being able to spend time with them and Elizabeth and Leanne.

As we were saying our farewells we received a call to join Julie and Ted, Elizabeth and Leanne for lunch.  What a lovely day we had.  Arriving home at 5pm.

We got the results of the histology back on the ovary.  It is BENIGN so all is good.  The other stuff that was done requires review and possible further action but not until we return from our trip – Doctors orders.

So that is all from us for now.  Sorry for the medical stuff BUT most of you will understand that this is how I tick.