At home with Adele and Dave

I’ve been testing an app that converts voice to text. It’s so I can take notes for the blog to eventually turn into a post and save me writing things down. I don’t think the testing is over. This is what was created today while I waited for Mirinda and Adele:

Well ambulances blaring while you were stuck in traffic maybe this is just good for taking notes rather than an entire blog post harrow

Today, as the title indicates, we went down to Wollongong to visit Adele and Dave (and Molly during dinner). Again, the weather was fantastic. (If we were tourists we’d believe that Australia always has perfect weather with nothing but blue skies and sun and always a delight at the beach. We know this is nonsense but it’s been remarkably beautiful since we arrived.)

Despite Bob’s warnings about the Easter holiday traffic, we didn’t see any. There was a brief moment on the way down when a set of traffic lights refused to let more than three cars through at a time but this caused more traffic problems than it solved and had little if anything to do with Easter. Without this hiccough, we’d have reached the Gong in an hour and a half but, instead, it took an hour and three quarters instead.

On the drive down I remembered what it used to be like when I was young and carefree. Trying to join up roads and highways, fighting the desire to buy a helicopter. It was never very pleasant and seemed to take hours. Probably it did because the non-air conditioned cars were slower and the roads narrower. Now it’s all very easy and (almost) direct. But enough reminiscing…

We arrived and demanded that Adele make us a cup of coffee after our long, rigorous journey. Adele then demanded that Dave make us a coffee in their new coffee maker. It was very involved and provided hours of entertainment. We then headed down to a wonderful cafe called The Point.

Adele must go there pretty regularly because she is on a first name basis with the proprietor. And knows her back story. The Point even allows dogs so Charlie often pops in as well.

Poor Charlie has only recently recovered from the snail bait eating incident that had her at deaths door and claiming on her insurance. You’d never know it from being with her now. In fact, she’s exactly the same as I remember her from my last visit…which was many years ago now.

After having a lovely lunch at The Point, Dave went back to the house to start dinner while we walked down to McCauley’s Beach, which I’m glad to say has an apostrophe. This is where Adele regularly brings Charlie for a walk. It’s one of four dog friendly beaches within cooee of her house and is very handy because this country isn’t as dog friendly as it used to be. I left Mirinda and Adele to go for a chatty walk together and sat on a bench, being welcomed by all manner of dogs and owners.

Back at the house we popped out the back to check out the results of the various plantings in the reserve behind the house. Which reminds me, they’ve had the house completely redecorated since we last visited. Both inside and outside have been repainted and look marvellous. Even the furniture has been updated though I agree with Dave about the lounges.

Back inside, we sat around talking while Dave pottered in the kitchen and then were entertained by a fair few Molly videos and one very impressive one of Dave playing drums at the Whiskey A Go-Go club in LA as part of a Deep Purple rock ‘n roll fantasy present from the family last Christmas. He told us all about it and it sounded fantastic…though the Japanese chap providing lead vocals was not exactly vocally ‘fantastic’ he was very enthusiastic and the bassist had his own ideas about how the solo went. Dave, never one for gilding the lily said it was the best present he’s EVER had.

Dinner was a delicious lamb casserole followed by cheese. The wine was perfect and the company exceptional as we were joined by Molly who almost joined in the conversations. She’s presently rehearsing Mary Poppins (she’s playing Mary and will fly) and thoroughly enjoying it…I think.

Eventually we took off for the return trip to Dural (again, no traffic and this time we made it in an hour and a half) arriving at just gone 10:30. Another lovely day; another visit with friends. And, of course, here’s another video…