Solomon's Seal

 Hammond Innes was an adventure writer from last century.  This book was written based on a trip he took in Australia, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands in 1975.  We also took a boat ride to those places as well. One line that resonates with me is a cargo of road building materials was being taken to Guadalcanal.  They have roads there that were built by the Americans in 1945 and never touched since then. The book also has a philatelic theme with the title being the name of a stamp used for transporting letters around the islands.  After chasing old letters, stamp sheets and proofs amongst an uprising of  local indigenes, the collection was saved. Hooray.

Camping last Century

 I found a letter from way back last century but I should go back a month earlier. There was a group going to Tassie and after some cancelations there were only two of us left to go however Nana Beryl had an issue with that. In the end another couple, Maree & Wayne Furlong, were roped in to come with us for a weeks camping and walking.  This was 1979, for when you check the date stamp on the envelope it was a year to the day that we got married a year later.  They were not confident at all with carrying all that you need but after this trip they were encouraged to go back a few weeks later. The letter describes the sorry state of walkers coming towards them with dire tales of mud and crud. They had no issue with turning around. Not sure if they ever got back to Cradle Mtn.

we are ready to go

The Insurance Well

These guys are going to put us on a list if we keep going to the pot for insurance money. Each time we do this it seems to take a different path. This time we have left it largely to the travel agent (for a fee) to get the paperwork ready for an insurance claim.  It has taken six weeks but we should be able to send it off today. It seems that all the medical out of pocket costs are not claimable because they did not happen in a foreign country. There are always fine print clauses hiding there.  We have two medical reports, a travel agent report and a stack of bills and receipts.  I have scanned everything but I will add a tracking number to the envelope.  Insurance on insurance. 

Night Boat

 It is not often we see the Tassie boat going passed in Winter. The schedules change with the seasons and maybe we are just rugged up inside at night.  Although we are noticing slightly longer evenings as the Sun heads back towards us for the last five weeks. The acoustics were so good that the ding ding ding of an announcement came to us across the water. For a second there we thought that the new replacement boat was in action but those are not due to start service for another few months. 

PopUp

Debbie spied a notification saying last minute popup concert for Queenscliff.  Five minutes later we are registered on their website and are going to the Jessica "wowboy" Mauboy show.  We have no idea what this is but there are three stages being erected at different times on the day. She was sent an email on the morning of the popup with more info. We got to town for lunch at the Esplanade Hotel, featuring steak and pies. Now that is a hotel lunch, not to forget two bottles of champagne.  We missed two of the staged areas but did wander along to the ferry terminal in time to see the stage set up outside.  So here we are standing on a sand dune with music on one side and the Rip behind us.  Now that is something different.

dune tunes

Stanley's Books

 I opened a box that was delivered yesterday from the auction house.  The hammer man describes the lot in a few sentences but you never really know what you are going to get from an auction until you have looked inside. There was the usual old albums but also two books. One of them an ancient looking catalog from 1954. Now this has happened previously as well, as I was sent another edition from 1984. So with the catalog I bought in 2019, I have an historic record to compare stamp valuations over time.  There is a theory that stamps only ever go up in value and I can prove it. Let's take the first ever stamp, which I can see was worth £3 in 1954. In 1984 for it has gone up to £125 and in 2019 it was valued at £375. So maybe it is around £400 by now.  Who said diamonds never lose their value. In my lifetime that stamp has increased in value by 13,200 %

1954

1984

The Taxman

 I have been retired for 11 years but never seem to be free of the taxman. For various strategic reasons we have just put in two years of returns one after the other. There is an amount we owe the Guvna, followed by an amount the Guvna owes us and throw in some Pay as you Goes that I got foisted with and a long standing payment plan then what we are hoping is that it will all balance out in the washup and one day pigs will fly with butterfly wings.  While I was in the Guvna's website I found the health card section which said the claim had been processed and there was an outcome except I couldn't find what the outcome was.

and we live at the beach as well