Today, Miriam had to go back to work. Up at sparrow’s, off
to the train, off to Perth while we were still thinking about waking up. We
were full of sympathy for the poor girl. So Joke was going to cook her (and the
rest of us) a meal.
Adam had plenty of things to do in relation to upcoming
jobs, so we went off to visit Gerrit and Jeanette Groenewold. We had arranged
for 10 a.m., but successfully underestimated the distance to travel from
Singleton to Armadale. So it was closer to 11 a.m. when we rocked up in Wungong
Road.
Warm greetings ensued, including commiserations from our
side at Gerrit’s very recent retirement. The sympathy extended was, of course,
patently false and we did not hesitate to ask him the singlet from the hole*,
as the Dutch would say, regarding his experience of the retired condition to
date. As is always the case on our sporadic visits, much discussion was had.
Romola came home, Sebastian came and went and lunch happened.
At a certain hour much later than the one originally
planned, we suddenly remembered the chore component of our day’s plan. Adam and
Miriam’s house being on septic, we had to find an RV dump point to empty our
portapotty into. Our Camps 6 guide, and various aids on the I-phone pointed to the
(dodgy) Armadale Hillside Tourist Village, a hop-skip-and-jump from Gerrit and
Jeanette. With less than optimal unanimity of purpose we drove into the place,
looked here, looked there, looked everywhere, but the dump point was not to be
found. The park must be at least 85% permanents, not really a fit place for Grey
Nomads to be, and we decided to beat a retreat when the suspicious stares
became rather obvious. Next off to the Kelmscott Caravan Park. Same story, same
result.
I-phone came to the rescue with a public dump point app,
which nominated the nearest to be at an address in Melville. So there we went,
driver inviting navigator to find any plausible alternative en route. None were
found and neither was the dump point at the nominated location. What we found
were some very upmarket public toilets – soft mood music (how do they choose
the songs??) and a message which said that the door would remain locked for a
maximum of 10 minutes. No reading magazines, then, or afternoon naps! We considered
that these kind people would be honoured to receive our effluent, so we gave it
to them to the accompaniment of sweet music. Job done, feathers de-ruffled,
sunny temperaments restored.
We had a date to pick up Miriam at the train station, but
got slowed down on the Kwinana Freeway. Ultimately she did not have to wait too
long, not that she would ever complain!
* hemd van ‘t gat
* hemd van ‘t gat
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