A dying fridge-freezer, Australia and kangaroos

The 10th of July and I would be on the first leg of my journey to Melbourne, Australia. The flight from Gatwick was to leave at 10:15 with a 5 hour stop over at Singapore. To ensure that I didn't miss the flight I'd booked into a hotel in the Northern Terminal the night before. The train that early evening from St Pancras International to Gatwick gave up the ghost at East Croydon - I thought is this a foretaste of my travel arrangements.

Airport hotels are not my favourite places (see my misadventures in 2022 trying to find my Radisson Blu hotel in Oslo). I had previous auto checked in with Singapore Airways and getting through customs and security was straightforward, allowing me to settle into my 12A Business Class pod in plenty of time. The long, long journey was uncontentious - except despite have a fold down bed I couldn't sleep and the food (gluten free) was unexciting. I refused the offered glass of champagne and during the flight had only two glasses of white wine. At Gatwick I'd forgot that I was entitled to a place in the Business Class lounge with food, coffee and booze. Luckily I looked at my boarding pass and headed belatedly for a breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon and tomatoes.

Singapore Airport is huge, I had to take the shuttle from Terminal1 to Terminal 3 and walk miles to get to boarding gate A3. I bought a litre bottle of single malt whiskey for my hosts in Melbourne and managed to brush my teeth and wash my face before I again realised belatedly I could use the Business Class lounge where beside Asian food, cucumber and mint flavoured iced water.

The trouble was the week before our ancient fridge freezer lost the plot. The fridge section turned into a hot house while the freezer section out froze Antarctica. I phoned up AEG - our make and asked what replacement they had. Ours is a built in model so dimensions are important - there was only one so instead I phoned up John Lewis and asked what replacement had they. One of them was a Bosch. Since every other electrical good in our house is a Bosch, I ordered one. I pay to have it installed, but forgot to ask for the old one to be taken away - which was fortunate. I would be in Australia when the new fridge freezer would be installed. John Lewis had my mobile no which they'd use to contact us when they were to arrive to install the item. Luckily I had to contact them to pay for the old fridge freezer to be removed and I remembered to give them my wife's mobile no.

I arrive at Melbourne after another epic flight. I was picked up by Rod - I was staying with him and Gretel his wife at their home in Melbourne before going to their home in Airey's Inlet 100 or km from Melbourne.

On Saturday morning I went with Rod to fabulous local market where he bought local scallops and a whole truffle! After breakfast we went into down town Melbourne, visited the local art gallery and Aboriginal art and then the central library. Visited a local wine store and travelled on the trolley buses. In the evening we went to a local Italian restaurant. 

The next day, Sunday, we drove to Airey's Inlet where a local market was being held, bought some more wine from the local general store and had scallops, with grated truffle, a salad and wine. 

On Monday, went for a walk in the morning along the coastal path to the lighthouse, met up with a gathering of kangaroos and fortified by a substantial home made soup went for a walk in the local gorge full of huge iron trees and Eucalyptus. On the way back stopped to say hello to another bunch of roos.

Yesterday,  Tuesday, Rod and I set off for a walking trip - which will involve sampling the many offering of the local wineries. This will take us up to Friday when Rod will drop me of at Ararat train station for my train to Adelaide, and a brief 2 days there before I take the Ghan to Darwin ...

....meanwhile back in the UK, Lesley, my wife, was waiting for the installers from John Lewis to arrive with the new fridge/freezer. She was also waiting for Choo Choo our cat to return. In the night he'd been involved in a fight with a local bully and having been bested run away. No sign of the cat after many hours Lesley prints off lost cat flyers and starts distributing them to the neighbours. No doubt Choo Choo had picked up one of the flyers 'cause he was there at the window after she returned. 

I WhatsApp Lesley to be told Choo Choo was home and the new appliance was installed, so I could resume my holiday without any worries.

Choo Choo, however, is still causing trouble

Last night at around 11 pm I had a call from home. The cat trying to help out had landed on the TV's sound bar and Lesley was cut off in the middle of "Frazier". The blue tooth light was flashing but no sound. I tried visualising the sound bar's remote control. I guessed which button she should push - and it worked. I promptly went off to sleep at the end of that call. 

Today we head for the Grampians and our luxurious chalet at Halls Gap.