G'Day
This is the posting that I started on the 19th December prior to losing the internet so here it is finished with a bit more added.
It's Sunday night 12th December and we have just finished a busy week where the Catholic School finished on Wednesday and the other two schools finishing on Thursday. More about Thursday shortly.
Last Monday was a usual day with Maree finalising her training with the mail run and now running solo with it. I did the bus run am and pm on Monday and spent the rest of the day sorting and stamping mail. I have not seen so much mail pass through the one spot in all of my life it was flat out all day long.
Mary spent 3 hours solid at the front counter on her feet with customers doing all of their mail at once it appeared. I'm the back room boy who gets the mail moving once it hits out the back.
There was a brief moment for about 5 minutes where we made a cup of coffee and then it all started again and the coffee went cold. Tuesday and Maree has the day off except for sorting the mail for the Wednesday mail run, I do the bus run am and pm.
It was also a very busy in the Post Office for the rest of the week for that matter but it is a very satisfying type of busy as every time you touch something or do something you actually achieve and that makes you feel good.
Wednesday was normal day and Maree did the mail run and is starting to get back earlier each day as she gets more comfortable with it.
Thursday 16th December and boy what a day it turned out to be.
It started ok as I did the bus run and then I had an appointment in Tamworth to get a quote for a safety harness to be fitted to one of the seats for our disabled school kid so that we could make the journey safer for her in the bus.
That went all right and we had to finish our Christmas shopping which put us back slightly. We headed back to Barraba for the final school pick ups for the year and made it back with a few minutes to spare so I dropped Maree off and picked up the kids and headed up the mountain to start the drop offs.
It had been raining fairly heavily all day around Barraba and I was unsure whether the rivers that I cross on the run would be passable or not so I made a phone call to one of the people on a property which is near the second river crossing.
The person who I spoke to was an older lady and I think partially deaf so I asked her how the river height was at the Ironbark crossing and she told me that it was running swiftly but passable.
So off I head as I only had a few kids on board for the last day but one of them was a drop off between the two river crossings. I dropped the first school kid off, as the first crossing is only a slower running creek and not very wide, and headed towards the Ironbark river crossing which is about 200 metres down a narrow section of the road which is just wide enough for two cars or one bus.
Got to the crossing which is a concrete slab across the river, it is normally a creek except in the heavy rain when it becomes a river, the slab has a dip in it and is the deepest in the centre of it.
So the rule of thumb is that if you cant see the concrete on the other side you do not attempt the crossing as it runs very fast and the bus is not a four wheel drive and is close to the ground. We could not see the concrete on the other side.
Time to turn around. Easier said than done. I had to reverse up the winding road for about 200 metres using my mirrors and one of the older kids up the back window watching for traffic, which is limited but not worth the risk as some of them are tear arses.
I had to get to a spot wide enough to do a 6 point turn as I did not want to get bogged on the soft and muddy edges but I got around ok with the kids hanging out the windows guiding me.
Looking back on it it was hilarious but at the time I was not laughing. All ok but I lost about an hour in the process. Headed back the way I came as I had to go the long way around and as I driving past the abandoned mine sight I checked the fuel gauge and you guessed it it was under a quarter of a tank. It normally takes about slightly over a quarter of a tank to do the whole trip.
Checked the phone and guess what no signal. Great!!! Ok decided to nurse the bus around the circuit to conserve a bit of fuel. Added a further 15 minutes to the journey but I needed to get the kids home as parents would be now starting to worry although they have been through this sort of thing on previous occasions.
To cut a long story short I did manage to get a signal on the phone and made contact with Maree who then phoned the parents to advise of the lateness.
As all of the kids live on large properties the parents spend the bulk of their time outside working their properties and not near the phone so she could only leave messages for them.
Anyhow drove down one side of the mountain and up the other side dropped off our disabled child with her mother who was still waiting patiently at the drop off point.
Down to the last drop off and turned around. The fuel gauge was showing a whisker over empty and with 50 kms to go with a couple of good size hill climbs in between me and the watering hole off I go.
Back at the caravan park and the gauge showed dead empty so the only thing to do was change the undies and head off to the watering hole as my tank was out of gas and I had to settle the nerves.
Friday 17th December we both did the mail run and got home fairly early and headed off to the raffles. Won a breakfast tray and had a lovely time.
Saturday and my David and Tiffany and the grandkids arrive for the weekend and Christmas celebrations.
I decided that on the Saturday night I would load the kids into the bus and do a trip around the town to show them the Christmas lights.
So a beer for my son and a couple for me - Maree drove cold sober as our licences only allows .02 so we never take the risk.
Tin of lollies for the kids and off we go.
A great night just some of the photos above. There was a couple of other kids who were camera shy. Sunday 19th December and we had a family BBQ for Christmas in the camp kitchen and of course swapped presents and just had a relaxing day with the family and I started to write this posting.
Monday 20th December and we had to return to Sydney for what we thought would be our last dental appointment so we travelled back with the kids and stayed at their place for the night as we had a 5:00pm appointment.
Back on the road Tuesday at 5:30am so that we could get back in time to do the Wednesday mail sort and we arrived back at 12:30 for that.
Wednesday Maree did the run and I helped in the post office and came back home to try and get my internet service working again.
After two hours on the phone with Telstra it was still not working so I had to order a new Wifi gateway which also turned out to be a nightmare installing.
Thursday23rd December and I had to go to Inverell for an ultra sound on my knee as I injured it about four weeks earlier and it was getting progressively worse.
Friday the 24th and I was back to the doctors with the results of the scan and I have torn ligaments in my knee as well as arthritis in it.
Back to the caravan while Maree was doing the run and another two hours with Telstra I think this time with someone from the Philippines and being half deaf and not being able to understand a lot of the instructions probably cost me an extra hour on the phone only to get cut off and no result.
Saturday 25th and its Christmas day and we are officially on holidays - Oh Joy!!!
Packed up the van for a quick getaway on Boxing day loaded the bus with the excess junk that we still carry for who knows what reason and head down to my nieces place for a brilliant Christmas day lunch - it was superb.
Mary decided that we would need 3 x home made pavlovas and a extra large trifle for the meal - there was only 13 of us but we managed. Back to the van at 4:00pm and a nanny nap for the old fella and Maree played cards with herself and won and then back onto Telstra to get my bloody internet working.
This time I spoke to someone I could understand and she said to me I will transfer you to our Mac consultants - I did not know they had a Mac consultant, neither did half of Telstra or they would have referred me to them earlier.
3 minutes later my Mac consultant had me up and running and I nearly cried it was so frustrating. Anyhow it is now early on Boxing day and I am here doing this and just waiting for the woman to stop counting zzzz's and we will have a nice breakfast and we will start our holidays.
I will up date further as we get around our trip - as if this posting isn't long enough - huh!! Happy Christmas and New Year to everyone and we will see you soon.
Bill and Maree
