Pete Johns - Blog entries of the highest uptodateness

Happy Pancake Day, dear reader. I must say that you are looking fabulous today.

The interval betwixt ‘tick’ and ‘tock’ is horrendously long at the moment. We saw an absolutely perfect flat / unit / apartment / whatever on Saturday lunchtime. We both decided that it was the business, so we abandoned the last scheduled viewing and bolted to the real estate agents to sign our lives away for the next four seasons. We filled out every last detail in their scrutinising application forms and handed them over, pleased that we had arrived at the office prior to the crowd of others at the flat. We were asked for a multitude of types of identification as well as past rental history. Sadly, neither of us is in the habit of carrying birth certificates, utility bills or suchlike with us and so we were told that our time would be better spent at home, gathering the required identity-confirming paraphernalia. In any case, applications would not be considered until Monday morning.

Phew! It is very warm outside and is likely to remain so for the weekend. This is, after all, what summers are all about. While the readership may be happily ensconced in the coldest season of the year, the writer is adjusting to February falling in between the Summer Solstice and the Vernal Equinox.

K deftly negotiated the final kilometres of The Great Ocean Road on Saturday morning. We stopped to look at the waterfall at Carrisbrook and while we were there we got to see some koalas in the wild.

Now… where was I? Adelaide? Really? It must have been a week since I last put this laptop to any reasonable use, then! Shocking behaviour! Honestly.

The YHA at Alice Springs comes highly recommended. Not only does it have super-quiet air-conditioning that keeps the bedrooms nice and cold all day (and night) long, it has a lovely swimming pool in the garden that is just right for a mid-afternoon dip to cool off when the fluid in the thermometer has passed the fifty degree line marking the end of its calibration!

Of all the places in the World for my camera to finally give up the ghost, The Red Centre of Australia would have to be about the worst: home to some of the most amazing landscapes that I shall ever see and absolutely no way of getting a replacement. I was not a happy camper on Thursday evening!

The car, you’ll be delighted to learn, is doing very well indeed. It has been driven a serious distance along Australia’s highways since I last updated this log.

We eventually left Mildura with an apparently fully-functioning car shortly after noon. The staff at the motel were all very good and understanding, which was very nice indeed.

It is not often that I write for this blog while I am sitting outside, but this morning is one such occasion. The sun is reflecting off the motel’s swimming pool, the bright blue sky is dotted with little fluffy clouds, K’s dozing in bed (this motel has great black-out curtains) and I’m sitting a table in my shorts and t-shirt tapping merrily on my laptop.