A trip to the big smoke

The work vehicle from across the river was due for a 70,000 km service and we had recommended to the boss that it be done by a father and son team who operate a small business in Newcastle and who have always done a reliable job. They are very thorough unlike some other mechanics we have experienced.

It was an early start as Jean likes to drop off any vehicle by 8am to give the boys plenty of time. Being an hours drive away she left by 7 am. I'd been out and about feeding our cattle and then across the river to move and feed the herds over there and needed to shower before picking her up from the mechanics in our car and we proceeded to tick of our list of jobs.

Drop off books at the library and collect some ordered items, Thai grocery store in Hamilton for some special items, browsed through a couple of book shops in the same street, ditto the Himalayan grocery store. Around the corner to Islington to up some bushes for the trailer which would allow me to complete its repairs.

The last items needed to fix the trailer

Off to Mayfield Woolworths to collect quite a few Van Houten Cocoa powder packets (actually quite a few). This brand seems to us to be the best tasting for chocolate making but is hard to come by.



15 packets might be considered hoarding but you never know when they will be available again

From there we visited what was the old Steggles produce store in Adamstown to look at various chicken feeds and prices.

I grew up in the Adamstown area and spent many years walking and riding around these streets. Passing through the suburb always brings back memories especially seeing the block on which our old house once stood and has since been demolished with a set of modern flats erected in its place. The storm water drain next to it where we played building dams and wandered for miles into neighbouring suburbs along its concrete path. The memories of the old shoe maker long gone who I would visit regularly to watch the intricate repair work underway. The absent electrical goods store outside of which the neighbourhood kids would sit on trestles to watch those first TV programs broadcast from a set in the window. I remember the saw mill where my father would collect timber  for renovations carrying it home on a little four wheel trolley built from an old pram. I remember the walking stick he made for me after one of the timbers fell off the trolley onto my foot. The hours spent playing in my mothers vegetable garden while she weeded, planted and watered. The ice being delivered for our refrigerator and the hawkers selling produce from carts. The bread being delivered by horse drawn carts. The milkman leaving the milk on the doorstep. The stables in the back lane behind our house. The dirt road being torn up and replaced by bitumen. And so much more.

Although we only lived in this house from when I was 4 until I started high school there seem to be an inexhaustible number of memories. Maybe nothing much happens after you become a teenager?

 We picked up the fully serviced ute at midday and then finished off our work list at Raymond Terrace and to our own surprise arrived home at a reasonable time.

The Havarti went into a brine solution and the shopping was put away. Finally a quick trip across the river to out some more feed and time to relax.

We are finding these small rounds are not only easy to make but a useful way storing and eating. No need to cut up a large round and reseal