Nightly Goodnight Everyone

[dream4red]

Dot, hope the new elephant is out and talking to peoples when you get to Monarto. Sounds like a great way to start off yet another busy week. xxxx

Thanks everyone for the van comments. It feels like the Taj Mahal at the moment. Shirley since he bought the patrol. I haven't felt safe driving it. It's just so big, but that won't stop me if I really have to. I did tow with the old prado, only a few times, but enough to keep my eye in. I am sure that will happen eventually with this van too, for the moment he can have all the learning experiences, then he can share his knowledge with me.

We made it home safely yesterday and with the heat and huge winds, we were too exhausted to do much. I did some serious measuring to make sure that the various containers for storage are going to fit. I did the bed measuring and found that the Jayco "queen sized bed" is still a very small double (all the better for cuddles). As the pics show, it is a very bland van, so the first thing that I want to get is a new quilt cover and make replacement curtains. The fabric in the curtains is so thin and flimsy, I am surprised that it has lasted 7 years. Quilt cover is the biggest addition of colour, so it had to be purchased before curtains can be started to be made. I mentioned to his lordship that a visit to spotlight was on the cards for today, but he is not in the mood for that. While he had the post driving nap, I went to a few shops online instead. Spotlight had nothing that I liked, so then onto Big W, Target, KMart and finally Myer. I must have looked at hundreds of quilt covers, but finally found one in Myer. It has a small floral print on a white background and on the reverse the same print, but on a black background. Once I decide which is the better look in the van, I will be able to buy the curtain fabric. I bought two quilts with the plan to use one on the bed and the other will be used to make trims on the curtains. That was several hours hunting, but better than driving all around Newcastle and the Central Coast to the various shops. Good thing it was black Friday sales or I would only have bought one quilt cover.

Winnies are not the only rv that are predictable in designs. Once Jayco find a floorplan that works they stick to it. Annually the stripes on the outside change colour and sometimes they get adventurous and change some of the internal colour schemes, but the floorplans never change.

Today, he had the predictable sinus /stress headache from the drive home and the huge winds blowing dust and chemicals all round us. I didn't plan on carrying a lot of stuff out to the van so I did a few trips with tape measure to get the dimensions for the curtain fabric and then the dimensions for all the weird little storage containers that will be needed to suit the different sizes of cupboards. After many hours wandering around Temu, I think that most of the things have been bought. Curtain fabric will be bought from a place that makes curtains for hospitals and nursing homes, they sell off the ends of rolls at very good prices and as I think it will be a fine light grey to silver colour, plain curtain, it should be easy to get. I hope they are ot famous last words.

Terry, if you bought from temu and used paypal, start up a resolution with them. Send them copies of the emails with the sender and usually paypal will refund in your favour pretty quickly especially if the vendor has refused to work with you. They then deal with the vendor to get their money back.

Sorry for two days worth of drivel in one,
nighty night vegemites xxx

[T1 Terry]

Thanks Deborah, pay everything we can via PayPal, both for the refund/action safety fall back, but it adds a level of transaction records to make it easier to trace back who we bought what from and when ....

T1 Terry

[Dot]

Monarto dec 2025.jpg

Monarto 2025.jpg

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Yes I was up and waiting for out friend to pick us up for my day out. Monarto 10am and straight onto a bus for our guided tour, we stayed on the bus to see what we wanted to get out and see up close and then we went around until we got to our stop, Got back to the info centre then back onto another bus to go the lions and dangerous animal paddocks then after all that we had a cuppa and something to eat Glad G took his usual food and drink stash. A serve of hot chips $ 24, a croissant $18 and a cold drink $12 Holy moly glad I wasn't paying for a family. Too many numb nut mothers taking their sprogs of all ages eg week old screamer and bit bigger ones stacking on tantrums and blocking the tour guide on her microphone (she was not pleased) The meer cats were a lot smaller than we thought but were so cute, and the baby giraffe was sooooo cute. Luckily we chose the warmth of the bus as it was blowing a gale and so cold. Got home at 5pm and now totally knackered so off to bed now. It was a great day. Goodnight everyone x Goodnight Robert n Bob x PS Me myself and I alerted the bus driver that they had 2 poofta lions putting on a show, he laughed so much he said that no one had ever mentioned or seen that before so he had something to tell the others at the pub tonight.

[dream4red]

So Dot, did you see the elephant? Glad that you had a good day out mate, makes the rest of the week not so hard to live through. xxxx

Today was just a pita day with me arguing with computers. Last night, I tried to change my payments to our mortgage to help pay for the new van and the main bank online, wouldn't have a bar of it. I tried all that I knew how to use the site, but it wouldn't let me change the amount that I pay. I had a very long phone call with the bank, trying to get a simple amount paid fortnightly, changed. The poor guy tried all the same things that I had done last night, with the same results. I must have typed in the same details over twenty times, before the guy suggested that he could do the change from his end and let the tech department know of the issue. I will need to change the amount eventually, but next time I will only try the one time and then ring and ask them to change it manually. That was a couple of hours that I won't get back.

Next hassle was ww. They sent an email saying that to get the "Christmas bonus" money available to be used, you have to use their stupid useless app, that I have no luck with. It took 45 minutes, just to find a phone number to ring and the response had my blood boiling. No need to do anything. All the money gets made available to shop with, on the 1st of December. That totally contradicts all the correspondence and cost me another 90 minutes of my life. I am over fancy tech things at the moment, got enough on my mind without things not really doing what they are meant to do.

Tomorrow, we are going to the motor registry to change over the rego. Yes I could maybe do it online, but I don't have all the details filled in by the Jayco mob. The computer demands the birthdate of the previous owner...it's a bloody company and they don't have a birthdate...another computer problem. Will probably do some hammer shop stuff, as we will be in their area.

nighty night xxx

[RobertNotBob]

Ah Deborah the great digital age designed to save us time so we can enjoy our life. Wait till there is no more cash and the internet and power goes out. Fun, fun, fun NOT. cheers Robert

[supersparky]

Those of us that are a bit cynical might tend to think that it's another way to monitor what everyone is doing and to perhaps control people's activities. It's becoming difficult to speak to a human these days. 'There is a form for that on the internet' is a common response.
The old days of cash being king have just about disappeared. Crypto currencies report to the ATO, so I'm told by friends that have Bitcoin.
We all probably spend too much time on social media, and we already know that there are algorithms for just about everything.
Big brother is watching. Dunno what they are trying to see though.

[jon_d]

Dave, probably just the overseas kids programming the software with no real life experiences to realise how things work or how people use SW.

Just take the BOM site as an example. Shadowed text on the rain radar designed to make things look blury? Or no simple way to navigate quickly...

[Dot]

I am buggered Got up and G had let me sleep in after a rough night of very sore feet. headed off at 2pm, dropped into green place for more garden stuff then hit the road to town. Got to Nth Adelaide and the lane we were in and the red arrow refused to turn green so everyone went on to there the lights were working. Turned with the green light then there was a road block going into 1 lane, everything stopped and we were just into part of the ped crossing when some junkie decided he would give me the bird and a mouthful BUT because G was with me I was told NOT to respond so I just returned the bird. No signs up about going to 1 lane then the not working arrow, what a trip. Got to the hosp, dropped the Gman at the hosp door and came home had a drink then headed into the garden to do some more stuff and to give the lawns a good watering as gunna be hot for the next few days. Brian has his check up of his eye tomorrow arvo. G rang to say he had a lovely chicken dinner and some apple pie and cream for pudding and his room was expected (very nice) and that he is #1 on the list and that will be 8am. I have just tried to get some more pics and yes we did see the new elephants on but I am having some probs, apparently they were all in separate yards for a bit longer yet and also the big boy is having naughty thoughts As they were waiting for their food all we could see was their bums. Off to bed for me now Goodnight everyone x Goodnight Deborah x

[supersparky]

Dot, please let George know that we are hoping all goes well for him tomorrow.

[dream4red]

Will certainly be thinking of George tomorrow Dot. Hope all goes as planned. Have fun chasing Brian to get to the vets. He is already awake up to your plans, smart kitty cat. xxxx You may have to visit the zoo in a few more weeks to get to see the elephants, in all their glory. xxxx

We had no problems getting van's rego sorted and into our name, well my name. They refuse to register vehicles in both names anymore, so when he speeds with the van, you all know who will get the fines???

Next stop was the hammer shop. We got our step counts going for the week I suspect. We finally found where the gas bottle regulators were kept. Our old van had them on each gas bottle, but this van does not have any. Bottles are stamped 2018 (when they built the van), but the regulations about newer gas bottles came in the following year. Hammer shop doesn't carry them for the old style bottles, but at least he suggested going to the local caravan dismantler place, who also have new things in their shop.

I found the power plug that I wanted with power surge protection for the computer, no problems there. Next was the silicone spray to ease up the almost seized window closures. After a couple of wrong turns (bad team member suggestions) we found it. That was enough for a day.

After lunch we went back to sorting boxes and finding new homes for things. I am happy with how much we have done so far. There are only a few boxes left. Hoping that they will be finished tomorrow and we can get back to doing "normal" things.

night night vegemites xxx