Kiama
I imagined retirement would be a continuum of short holidays punctuated by the occasional Women’s Weekly World Discovery Tour (or something of that nature) but life often has other plans or absolutely none at all. We have appointments and therapies; chooks and an old cat; invalid lizards and turtles; elderly family; birds and a garden to attend to and that’s all fine. But occasionally those little holidays do happen and even something bigger from time to time.
I’m writing from our balcony at the Kiama Cove Boutique Motel (which would have lived up to its name in the 1960s) where I'm enjoying the surf as it rolls in from the Tasman Sea. There's also no small degree of delight to be had in people watching although people with dogs are much more entertaining, especially dogs who decide they've had enough and they're just not going one step further. We have a cat like that; he knows his own mind and the rest of you can all go to buggery!
This
is a well-worn path for us. First stop
Shellharbour where we visit Peter’s oldest mate John who found himself a
nursing home 20 years or more before his time.
Then we continue on to Kiama for the night and have dinner at Hanoi on
Manning which is always a special treat.
Simply imagining their green papaya salad can brighten my darkest day;
actually eating it is pure bliss, a culinary sensation that was echoed a few
days later.
From
here it's on to the McFoleys; Cate and Brian, at Batemans Bay but before we get
that far let me take you back to our decent down Mt Ousley at the back of
Wollongong. It was happily uneventful
until my mind started revising the things I'd packed with an emphasis on
medications. I remembered tossing the
blue case that contains both of my injectors into the bag but no fresh vials of
insulin. Bugger, Bum and poop with the
possibility of a diabetic coma on the side!
I
left Peter and John at a restaurant and set off to find a pharmacy that had
some Novomix 30 on hand, something that usually has to be ordered a day in
advance. Well the good luck gods were
smiling upon me as they uncharacteristically had been over the previous few
days. I called my pharmacy to have them
fax the prescription through and it was all sorted while we enjoyed lunch. Praise be to helpful pharmacists and our
wonderful Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme!
So
back to the present, here's me enjoying the glory of a brand new day but a pair
of elderly interrupters have just turned up with a goddamn drone. I don't want to share their wannabe pilot
fantasies - keep that to yourselves you rancid old coots! Whatever became of quiet, eco-friendly
kites?! Oh yes, silly me, flying them
actually requires some degree of skill and they're not electronic. Everything has to be electronic these days,
there must be buttons and batteries!
Batemans Bay
We
left Kiama right on 10.00am exactly as planned but I felt compelled to stop
just a kilometre down the road to take a photograph of the sign at Stan Crapp
Funeral Directors because when I shuffle off this mortal coil I want my body
shipped down to the Illawarra so I can have a Crapp funeral. Who wouldn't?
But
seriously, if you were born into a compromising surname wouldn't you get to a
point in your life when enough was enough?
When I taught at Artarmon the local Anglican minister was Mr Death which
he pronounced Deeth. Well go to
the Registrar-bloody-General’s office and have it changed to Deeth; stop
scaring children and old people!
Using
your mother’s maiden name seems like an extremely viable alternative to living
with an unfortunate surname and you still have continuity. I don't know what Stan’s mother’s name was
but let's just suppose it was something quite literally unremarkable like
Brown. Stan Brown works fine and still
retains the continuity I was speaking of in terms of both family connection and
hue.
The
drive south to Batemans Bay was a delight with our first stop in Milton for a
freshly made salad roll from the Milton-Ulladulla Bakery but no Depression glass
at the local bric-a-brac shop. Never mind, that stuff has to want to find
you and ultimately does which makes it all the more special like the bowl I
discovered at the Cawthorne Antique Centre in South Yorkshire and the one that
was waiting for me last time we stopped at Milton. So on down the road we
went to Ulladulla, not only because we love the name but because you have to
pass through there to get to Batemans Bay and they also have a Rivers store
where we picked up some new shoes for Peter.
I
swore and made rude gestures as when drove past the aptly named Mt Agony Road
where I stopped for a piddle in the bush several trips ago and took a small
colony of leeches back to the car with me, all of them firmly attached to my
ankles. I'd only driven a few km when the penny dropped. I flung
the old Pathfinder into the gravel, jumped out and began to dance about like a
crazed Native American doing a war dance in a 1950s cowboys and Indians
shoot-‘em-up, plucking the parasitic bastards from my bleeding skin and
grinding them into the dirt as I went.
This
time I made certain I drained every last drop of urine from my bladder at the
loo behind St Peter and St Paul Anglican Church in Milton because I'm never
gonna be caught short like that again!
Gaspar
and Lorena, the lovely Chilean/El Salvadorian couple who own the leatherwork
shop in Mogo were as welcoming as ever and caught us up with recent holidays
and family developments. Gaspar makes Peter's eye patches and also tightens the
bands when they loosen as they do over time. We left him with two to
service and an order for a new brown one. No deposit required, they'll
mail them to us and we can sort it later.
From
there it was over the hill to the McFoleys and, after a catch up, a lovely swim
with Cate in a large natural rock pool at nearby Surf Beach. They
actually live in the locality of Surf Beach but up on the hill behind the beach
with wonderful views out across the bay to the Tollgate Islands and Tasman Sea
beyond.
We
awoke to rain next morning which is, in itself, quite the treat these days but
it cleared to a brilliant day. We spent a few hours chatting on the
balcony then went to the cafe at the marina for some of their outstanding
beer-battered chips before hitting the beach again.
It
was low tide and there were too many Canberrans being, as it was, a long
weekend in the ACT so we headed back to our rock pool where I was attacked by a
flock of sharks - or so I insisted. In truth I found myself being nibbled
around the ankles by dozens of baby fish, all of them quite intent on bringing
me down and finishing the job, I'm certain!
That, however, was far preferable to the leeches that did the same on
that previous visit.
The
Eurobodalla always leaves up wanting more but Cate and Brian are generous hosts
so there'll more to be had at another time.
We waved goodbye at around noon on Sunday and turned DeDe the Subaru
northwards but not without one more stop at Milton which is a truly worthy
little town.
South
Coast Tucker Tip #1 - Pilgrims Vegetarian Cafe at Milton
You can't miss Pilgrims and you really
mustn't. It's right in the middle of
town directly opposite the pub. Cate
recommended their Bliss Burger and a chai latte with honey and she was absolutely
spot on. This is our new must-stop in
Milton.
