Dandenong Show

Not much to report on with our house. Everything has slowed down well before the Christmas break and the builders officially finish work on 16th December and start again on 18th January.  The exterior panelling on the upper floor has nearly been completed, and the hot water solar panels are on the roof.  The evaporative cooling and heating along with ducts have been installed.  The gas, water and electricals including telephone wiring have been completed.  Two bathtubs have gone in, and we even have a front door.  The builder has told us the house will be at lock-up stage by Christmas.  My understanding of lock-up is everything exterior will need to be finished.  This will mean the panelling on the upper floor and two small sections of roofing on the lower level will need to be completed by the 16th.  Lets see how far they get.


Jos and I went to the Dandenong show this year, which features all the usual livestock such as sheep, cattle, poultry and plenty of rides and sideshows.  The Dandenong Show was founded in 1871, this annual event was an important outlet for the predominantly rural community to make business contacts and showcase their stock. The Melbourne Show is much larger but we think the Dandenong Show offers better value for money and remains true to the tradition of a show.
 
Here is a magnificent bull being led into the grand parade.  I don't know what the breed is, but I sure wouldn't want to get in his way on a bad day:

The rear of a Belted Galloway :

Another fine looking bull:

A jersey with a few ribbons:

Part of the grand parade:

A cadillac:

Old fire truck:

The next two shots are a couple of utes.  Do any of our followers know where the Ute was invented?  Read on to find out.....

(Jos owns one and will pick up his Dutch family from Melbourne airport in one of these....)

The 'Ute' is a vehicle with the cabin of a sedan car (unlike the larger 'pickup truck' which was to develop in the USA) and the rear of a small truck was designed by Lewis Brandt at the Ford Motor Company in Geelong, Victoria.1934 and called a 'Utility Vehicle'. The 'ute' has long been a favourite vehicle for farmers and tradesmen and is part of the Australian landscape and in particular becomes the centre of attention at 'ute musters'.  Intelligent and informed readers should visit the White Hat website to read more about Australian inventions:  http://www.whitehat.com.au/Australia/Inventions/InventionsA.html

November Nuances

Sorry for the long wait between posts folks, the month is almost over and I realised it has been a while, so here we go!

Jos and I enjoyed a short holiday to Merimbula for 6 days, a beautiful seaside town on the south eastern coast of NSW.   Here are a few shots:

A lovely Australian scene, somewhere between Merimbula and Bega:

Jos about to embark on his first Australian fishing trip from the lake in Merimbula:

and the first Australian fish he caught, a bream! (plus 3 more....)

some of the catch from the other fishermen:

A few pelicans following our boat, waiting for fish scraps after scaling and gutting :

We visited Central Tilba, a perfectly restored and maintained period village, protected by a National Heritage listing.  The township is set against the magnificent backdrop of Gulaga / Mt. Dromedary:

An old red phone box, you don't see many of these anymore:

Near Central Tilba:

Native flora, on the coast near Narooma:

The clouds rolling in on Bermagui:

Jos looking surprised after I tried to push him down the cliff:

Jo:

View from our balcony:

Near Ben Boyd lighthouse, on the way home:

And finally, a picture of our house - the bricklaying is almost completed.  Only the cladding needs to go up on the second level:

Interior colours - tiles for the front entrance with pebbles; blanco city for kitchen benchtops with woodgrain cupboards and a red splashback.  The olive is for a feature wall.

Carpet, ensuite and bathroom tiles with feature tile for ensuite shower, blanco maple for the bathroom benchtops and colonial skirtings.

And to end my post, I thought I should introduce a member of the family, Maddy's bear 'Ted', who I have forgotten to include.  He is well travelled and has already been to England, Scotland, Austria, Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland, Thailand, New Zealand and a host of other towns throughout Australia:

Completion Date

Its official; our builder Hasteen have advised us that the completion date for our house will be 25th March 2010, but this may change due to "legitimate delays and unforeseen circumstances".  We have already had a delay of 2 weeks with rain, and the builders will take 2 weeks off for Christmas, so the bet is now on as to when our house will be ready.  My guess is mid to late April, Jos thinks May.

Here is another photo, slowly the bricks are going up:

Did any of you notice the missing brick near the front middle window?  Cees was very observant to find this.  It still hasn't been replaced though - wonder why?

Jo

Something Missing....

Can you find it? (Hint:  its not the rest of the brickwork, roof or the scaffolding).

All of this rain has made the house sink to one side!

A Walk Around the House

Progress with the roof.....

and as we walk around the north side, we come across the laundry with an alcove

and then the living room from the outside...

and from the inside.

Jos inspecting the house as we walk around, passing the alfresco

and from the alfresco, looking inside to the living room (have you noticed all the windows - Jos promised he will regularly clean all the windows in our house - seems to be a favourite Dutch **pastime??!!)

Movie room

then looking down the south side, towards the garage.

Kitchen with butlers pantry

Two days later, the windows were in and most of roof was on

and then it rained.... and rained... for a week!

**According to Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/ the meaning of pastime is:

pas⋅time /ˈpæsˌtaɪm, ˈpɑs-/ [pas-tahym, pahs-]

noun - Something that serves to make time pass agreeably; a pleasant means of amusement, recreation, or sport.

Common Brushtail Possum

In my AUGUST NEWS post I told you about an animal which we could not identify when we visited Wilsons Promontory:

I had to satisfy my curiosity, so I asked a Ranger from "Parks Victoria" (the Victorian Government body that manage our National Parks) to identify this animal.  This is their official response:

"It looks very much to me like a typical Wilsons Prom Common Brushtail Possum (Trichosurus vulpecula).

Common Brushtail possums are 'very common' and elsewhere in the state have silver to grey / dark fur on the back and white to pale grey or copper on the belly.

There is a distinctively black / chocolate brown furred form on the Prom, perhaps descended from dark-furred individuals introduced to the park back in 1913-14.

These black possums are sometimes confused with 'Mountain Brushtail Possums (Trichosurus caninus) which do not exist within the park."

The possum is a marsupial.  Most of the 140 species of marsupials in Australia are found nowhere else in the world; some of them are also found in New Guinea which was connected to Australia in more recent geological times.  The possum is usually nocturnal, so it was unusual for us to see this possum during the day.  Interestingly, some websites state that the brushtail possum is no longer "common".  Here is another common brushtail, this one is dark grey with a copper belly:

For our overseas followers, here are a few links on Wilsons Promontory, affectionately known as "The Prom":

Parks Victoria official website: http://www.parkweb.vic.gov.au/1park_display.cfm?park=217

This is another link where you can find out more about the recent fires at the Prom and view photos showing how the park looks now and how the Australian bush recovers after a bushfire:
http://www.parkweb.vic.gov.au/3promfire.cfm

Jos has promised to do a post soon - maybe in Dutch - so stay tuned!

Jo