Last
week, we took the bikes away for the first
time in the bike rack on the back of the
White  House.
The rack worked very well, but not so my
brain - after locking them on I lost the
key! We drove around with them before coming
home and getting out the bolt cutters so
that they could be removed. To add insult to
injury I found the keys the next day.
Later last week, I went on an "experimental"
bicycle ride; taking the train up to
Kangaroo Flat, and riding home via Sedgwick.
Typically, I took no food at all with me -
though I did have water and
coffee. (Alison, knowing better, always
packs some snacks for us when we go on a
longish  walk.)
The ride turned out to be hard, 45km and 3
hours; and at the 2-hour mark I was
starving. Luckily I was coming into
Harcourt, the apple centre of Victoria, in
apple season; so I was able to pick up a
couple of windfalls. They were the best
apples I've ever eaten!
This week, we got back home after a couple
of hours restoring furniture at the op shop
to find a small patch of water outside our
side door. Hmmm. We opened the door to find
the floor, through the whole back of the
house, under ~5cm water.
Quite a surprise!
After a quick splash around inside, finding
the water was pouring out from under the
bathroom  basin,
we turned the mains water off. Then....
buckets, dustpans, and squeegees; we removed
probably ~ 400 litres of water from the
floor. And thought about fixing the leak.
It was nearing 5pm; I got on my bike and
rode down to the plumbing suppliers. Here,
there were a couple of plumbers and no-one
behind the desk; they were busy. I chatted
to the plumbers, resulting in one of them
going out to his truck and giving me a
replacement for my ruptured water pipe. "I
can't use it, it's dirty."
So he got my small change as thanks!
 About
five hours later we had removed the water
and fixed the pipe. And feel very fortunate
that: 1. The pipe didn't rupture when we
were away for a couple of days - or longer;
and 2. We had replaced the old lino with
vinyl tiles on the concrete slab last year,
and the flooring appears unaffected (though
it is well washed now): and 3. While our
large carpet mat was soaked, the water
didn't get too much into the front of the
house.
We have cheered ourselves up after this
incident by booking a tour across Arnhem
Land, in the Northern Territory, in May -
the result of seeing it advertised with a
better than usual price.
But our lives are good despite these little
hiccups. We keep ourselves fit in body and
brain and have full lives, which are going
to be fuller in the next few months with the
Castlemaine State Festival, Wagner's Ring
Cycle in Bendigo, Arnhem Land, and a Mekong
cruise....... all before heading north
in the White House in July to escape some of
the colder winter weather.
And
Alison has just had her cardiology
review, 5½ years after her valve repair.
Everything remains fine, as it should
be.
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