A WEEK TO FORGET

 Last week was probably a week that both Maree and I would prefer to forget. Maree started the week with the flu which had her in bed most days and sleeping it off and by the end of the week I had also got a dose which has knocked me off my perch.

We both had to get anti-biotics, Maree a second dose and looking like I will need a second dose as well. Anyhow we are on the recovery trail and looking forward to next week.

The weekend was fairly good as the rain has stopped and it was a good opportunity to get some things done around the van and start looking at some paperwork that has to be completed. Maree spent most of the weekend in bed  and I pottered around.

There is an enormous amount of paperwork associated with the bus run which includes about 50 different reporting forms that need to be filled in on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and or yearly basis.

This industry leaves the financial industry for dead believe me. Anyhow here is Maree going strong on the paperwork.

Lazy day in the office

We have been requested to quote on charter work for one of the schools this week and we quoted on three jobs and won two of them.
We will be taking a group of school kids out to the old Dolomite mine at Bundaleer about twenty kms out of Barraba and return a couple of hours later on Tuesday next.

On the 9th of December we have a charter into Tamworth taking 12 school kids into the movies and then returning later in the day.

This is additional work that we had not budgeted for so it is nice income for the business.

Because of the charter work we needed to go to an RTA office to get some recording sheets for our bus and we decided to go to Tamworth in between the morning and afternoon runs.

We spent half an hour at the RTA only to be told that they did not have the discs and that we would have to purchase them from the manufacturers of the equipment so in disgust we did the only thing possible to cheer us up -  we went to the shops.

Funnily enough there is an old adage about going shopping to save money but when you take the costs of the local IGA supermarket vs large town supermarkets there is no comparison - you do save money. We saved about $80 on our shopping which more than pays for any fuel that you use getting into town.

Justification for making the decision on going shopping Maree tells me. Returned home for the afternoon run and then to the local watering hole and the raffles and took home another meat tray.

The Friday night sojourn at the local is a good way to get to know the locals as people come up to us and out of the blue ask us how the bus run is going and how are we settling in.

Its a nice feeling becoming part of the community and it also helps with getting to know the people who are the power brokers in a small town like this as well.

We struggled through the week and now it is the weekend again and Maree is just about over her flu and mine is barely hanging on but should be fully fit by next week.

There is not much to report this posting due to not being out and about too much however we still managed to put some things together.

The council is currently grading the dirt road up the mountain and will continue over the next couple of weeks.

They have graded about 10 kms so far and the difference it has made to the run has been enormous. So far it has taken about 5 minutes off the trip and by the time it is finished I will save about 10 minutes each way until it starts to erode again.

My niece has been putting up the christmas lights around her home this week, or I should say her father has been climbing all over the roof and doing it and I have included a couple of photos of the initial stage.

Lisa's place is on a double block and goes a long way back and my camera could not pick up all the lights that she has going to the back fence.

However you can visualise how it looks and I will post more pictures as she keeps putting more lights up over time.

Everyone seems to be in the Christmas lights spirit as my sister Mary decided to get the old fella to put her lights up around the house.

Her Post Office

Her Home

Her Reindeer

Reindeer on the Roof

We then thought that we needed to cheer ourselves up also so we decided to put the lights up around our van as well.

Not much but we like them

A funny thing happened last night when Maree and I were talking about nothing in general, we both looked at each other momentarily and as we looked at each other a penny dropped at the exact same moment.

We both realised at the same instant that tomorrow Sunday was our 28th anniversary and we had nearly forgotten it. It was an eerie moment and we both had a good laugh.

Anyway its now Sunday and we have both survived the week and ready to go next week. Thank goodness it's only three weeks to school holidays and we are going away for four weeks.

I will post the itinerary in the next posting as we will be calling in on a number of you and you will be able to see the dates. We will make contact over the next few weeks to make arrangements.

Bus is all clean again and ready for tomorrow's run and by tomorrow afternoon it will look like we had never cleaned it.

For now it is all I have to report so we will see ya all soon.


Bill and Maree

STAGE 2 OF OUR SO CALLED RETIREMENT

 Last week was very eventful to say the least. It all started with our normal routine on Monday and by Sunday it turned out to be a very busy and different week.

Monday saw us doing the bus run together as we have had very heavy rain over the last few weeks and the road on the mountain gets very slippery. Maree drove the bus to get experience in the wet and slippery conditions and did a good job in the process.

My sister had an opening for a person to do a mail run up towards the Upper Horton as their business was building up at the Post Office and the run became available so we decided that we could fit ii in with our bus run as it was only about 4 hours a day three days per week and it was extra income.

On the way into town Maree dropped me off at the park as I was scheduled to do a training day learning the Plumthorpe/Upper Horton mail run which we will take over during the coming weeks.

Tuesday also took us out of routine as Maree did the bus run solo and I walked up to the post office to do the mail run sorting for Wednesday - more training.

MAIL SORTING ROOM AT THE POST OFFICE

Wednesday I did the bus run solo and Maree had a break which is turning into what our routine will be over the next few weeks running up to Christmas.

Thursday and Maree did the run solo whilst I did the sorting for the Friday run. The run is done three days per week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and currently it is covered by two drivers between them.

After our training in December we will then be allocated the run on a permanent basis for the Wednesday and Friday drops and when we return from the school holidays in February we should be allocated the complete run.

Friday 12th November we headed back to Sydney as we had a dentist appointment on the Saturday and one of my friends from my previous employer was going on Maternity leave and we were going to send her off with a bang.

We woke up at 5:30am and was on the road by 6:00am to arrive by 2:30pm at Homebush, the company had moved from town to Homebush, for the lunch send off. We actually arrived at 2:10pm and had a great time catching up with my friends again.

With so many people to catch up with the time flew by quickly and by about 5:00pm after adjourning to the pub to finish off it was all over again amongst a lot of cuddles and hoorays. We had a great day.

After the extended lunch we headed back to the old stamping ground at Campbelltown and stayed at my Sons place for the night. When we left Campbelltown we gave our queen size bed to the kids to put downstairs in a flatette they have so that when we were in town we could have a place to stay.

We ordered Pizza in, which was their preference for the night, and enjoyed a nice night watching a video and eating Pizza, one of our favourite pastimes. Saturday morning and we took my Grandson shopping for his birthday, which was the previous week and he bought some nice clothes for himself and had a lovely time picking out what he wanted most.

After shopping he had to go to work and we went to the dentist for our appointment which we thought would be the final, only to find out that we had to return in two weeks for additional work.

The prices of living in a small town is enormous so whenever we hit a large town we stock up on the essential non perishables. So after the dentist we went shopping and stocked up, picked up some lunch for the grandkids and us returned home to their place, knocked off lunch and headed back at around 2:00pm.

We stopped overnight at Musswellbrook as it was getting late and we were tired so we thought it better to stop over. Had dinner at the RSL club and headed to the motel for a nice sleep. Sunday saw us up fairly early and we hit the road around 7:00am. Although we only had a short run home, about 3 hours, we needed to stop at a couple of places on the way.

At Wallabadah (prounced waller-bar-dar) the town has started a first fleet memorial park which has lists of the names of the first fleeters. As my eldest sister (more my mum than my sister I must say) had traced our ancestry back to the very first ship that landed in the first fleet I was anxious to stop and get photos of the plaque with their names on it.

We stopped at the park at around 8:45am and loaded up the camera gear only to find that it does not open until 10:00am so we were very disappointed and decided that we would get close ups in a fortnight when we returned to Sydney for our dental appointments.

However I did take some long shots of what it looked like and I will post others as I get them.

The photos are taken on my phone and from a distance but it gives a bit of an idea of what it looks like. More in a couple of weeks. We arrived home about 12:30pm amd time to wash the bus  again. It was a mess due to all the rain and mud on the mountain. I wash the outside and Maree cleans the inside as seen below.



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Boy a mans work is never done - taking all these photos

Anyhow that brings us to this week and Monday sees me heading up the mountain to do the morning pick up and Maree heading to the Post Office to do her training on the mail run. The roads are really hacked up both on the mountain and on the mail run which are both in opposite directions.

A couple of years ago Barraba council was taken over by Tamworth Council and they just see the town as a small village and a cash cow and take their time repairing roads. The mail run takes about 4 hours but because of the conditions it took Maree nearly 5 hours to complete the journey today.

Our routine mentioned above has kicked in now and Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday I do the school runs and Maree stays home and does the washing and domestic stuff which I hate doing.

Thursday morning I sort the mail and Maree does the run and on Thursday afternoon and Friday I do the run and Maree washes and irons and stuff. Since we have been up here in Barraba it has rained constantly for about 70% of the time and we have had very little fine weather during that time so it has been difficult getting things washed and dried.

It is difficult to keep the floor of the caravan clean and it can become very frustrating at times. But just when you think it will never stop it does, at least temporarily and on Thursday night we watched a beautiful sunset which just had us mesmerised. Check the photos below.

It looked like a bush fire off in the distance but of course it was too wet for fires. This was an awesome sight that we enjoyed very much in watching as it faded into the distance.

Friday morning after the beautiful sunset, which we thought would bring us a nice and warm day, and it was a thick pea souper fog that greeted us and as I climbed higher into the mountain it got thicker. But then about half way up the mountain we climbed above the fog and it was a glorious clear sky and the sun was shining beautifully.

By the time I had driven across the top of the mountain and heading down the other side the fog returned and the sky was overcast again which was a bit of a drag. In the next couple of weeks we will be complaining about how hot it is up here and all the dust that will be on the road and blowing everywhere. Such is life.

Saturday and it is time to do some maintenance around our site. We bought a sun shade to assist in keeping out the sun, when it re-appears, and fitted it to the awning which opened up the area for us and gave us more room to move around. 

The day turned out really nice and we pottered around the site and headed up to town to pick up some things and a "nana nap" and for dinner out comes the pot belly bar-b-q to cook one of the raffle prizes we had won over the past weeks.



Add a couple of veges and it was delicious - tough life up here.

Sunday and here I am writing the posting. Maree went to the doctors on Friday as she has a dose of the flu. The doctor prescribed ant-biotics which have since kicked in and she now feels terrible. So a day in bed should help her along and we will see how she progresses tomorrow.

Good start anyway - breakfast in bed

Although it normally takes a few days for her to get over these set backs but with a smiley face like mine looking after her she will probably be on her feet before we know it. Today we get the privilege of cleaning the bus again as it has to be cleaned at least weekly as part of the contract so it looks like I get to do the lot today, inside and outside.

We have our fingers crossed but so far it looks like two fine days in a row. We will see!!! So for now I will sign off and keep you updated again next week.

See ya all soon

Bill and Maree

THE START OF A NEW ERA FOR US

 A lot has happened this week in our lives. The bus run was officially handed over to us as owners and we completed our first week picking up and dropping off all of the kids allocated to us as part of the contract.

We actually started earning money again for the first time since leaving full time employment which feels good again.

Monday started off ok and we decided that I would drive for the first few days until we both became accustomed to the roads so this is what I looked like on Day 1.

 

Not bad huh!!

It was not a pleasant introduction to the run as it had rained over the weekend and although there is about 60km of tarred road there is still 25km of dirt road and it was muddy and slippery.

The rain was fairly heavy and the creeks and rivers were up and running as they had been for the previous couple of weeks and two of those creeks had to be crossed as part of the run.

We picked up the carer, Rose, who travels with us four days per week and looks after our disabled year six passenger and the previous owner who is with us for Monday and Tuesday to complete his part of the contract conditions. 

The run starts and finishes at the caravan park where we have the bus kept and below is a description of the run including distance and times.

• 7:00am we leave the caravan park and travel 41km  (this  includes 38km of tarred road and 3km of dirt road) to our first pick up of 1 child at Worrara property .
• This takes us to the top of the mountain range which is where all of the pickups are carried out, hence the name of the run "Mountain Home School Bus Run". (Nifty huh)
• 7:35am we back track, across the top of the mountain range for 1km, to our second pickup point at Iventure property for 4 kids and arrive at 7:40am.
• This is the first of our contract time windows which we are contracted for and we must leave this point by 7:45am on school days.
• 7:45am after picking up the kids we head back towards our next pickup point which is 5km East at Pryton property for 1 child
• 7:50am we leave Pryton and drive 14km East towards our fourth pickup point at Ironbark property where we pick up 3 more school kids.
• 8:05am we leave for our final pick up which is 6km further East at the Linton Rd turnoff where we pick up 6 school kids at 8.15am
• This is our second contract time window which means that we must leave this point at 8:15am.
• The road then swings South as we head back to Barraba, in a South Westerly direction for 2km we return to the tar road for the journey home.
• 19km later we arrive at our first drop off point at St. Josephs Catholic School where the first of our kids disembark.
• A further 2km into town and we arrive at the Barraba High school and drop our next set of kids at the bus station outside the school
• We then travel 1km further on and arrive at our last drop off point which is the Barraba Primary school for the last of our kids and where our incapacitated passenger is hand over to her school carers.
• This is our last contract time window at which we have to be prior to 8:50am each day.
• Back through town where we drop off our bus carer at her home and then we return to the caravan park until 3:00pm
• A total round trip of 85km for the trip point to point.
• 3:00pm we commence at St. Josephs and do the pick ups in the same order as we did the drop offs in the morning but then we do the afternoon drop offs in the reverse order to the morning pickups.

On Wednesday Maree decided that she was ready to tackle the mountain as the driver and took over driving the bus for the remainder of the week.

Maree has been driving for many years and has driven many hundreds of thousands of kilometres over her career but this was a step up for her driving a 5 tonne vehicle full of people, 18 including the driver.

In the weeks leading up to our move Maree did the one day drivers licence upgrade course to a light rigid truck licence which is the basic licence required to become an accredited bus driver.

The upgrade also involved driving a manual vehicle in lieu of an automatic so it was a huge change for her to take over the wheel of the bus.

Although apprehensive about getting behind the wheel it is to her credit that she bit the bullet and took over driving the bus.

After the nerves had settled and she started to get used to the roads on the mountain including, the climb up the mountain and navigating some of the steep descents both on and off the tar coming down the mountain, her confidenec built steadily and by Friday she was pretty confident.

Next week we will iron out some of hairy bits on the top of the mountain and by the end of next week Maree will be ready to go solo on the run. A great effort from her this week.

Friday evening sees us at the local watering hole with a couple of well earned drinks and of course the compulsory raffles.

Despite the locals' protests we had no problems in walking up to the table 3 times to collect 3 meat trays and ending a very successful week.

Saturday we stayed at home and washed and cleaned the bus ready for Monday, culled out some more of the stuff that we brought up with us and then in the evening I put together the evening meal.

Moroccan Chicken, new potato, sweet potato, Moroccan cabbage with bacon and onions and of course served with a glass of cold Sauvignon.

Take a look:-

A quiet ale while it is cooking of course

Yep looks good - it's done!!!

Excellent result - well done me!!!

Thats it for this week more next week

See ya all soon

Bill and Maree