So I told you I was going to do a skydive…

It’s not often that I get excited when I hit a goal. Usually, I’m already focusing on the next one. Stupid, I know. But this one was a little different. It was a long time coming.

I first heard about skydiving when I was a kid. Instantly, I knew that one day, I’d do it. Heights don’t particularly bother me, and I’ve always had a bit of a thirst for the unknown. Jumping out of a plane was a big tick off my list of Things To Do.

Then, of course, life happened. I had to put my individual goals to the side to focus on bringing up my children and giving them the best start in life I could. Being a single parent to 4 kids is a busy life.

(To be fair, I sneaked in a little bit of travel, with the whole family going to Bali and Thailand, and David15 and I having a quickk junket to Singapore the first Christmas he didn’t stay with the kids’ father. I sent the music kids to the US when they were in secondary school, as well as the trips the school made to The Red Centre and Tassie. I wanted the travel bug to get them.)

Now – it’s finally MY TIME.

I achieved Financial Independence three years ago and retired. I have no ties other than the dogs, as my kids are all independent. I’m so lucky that Georgia29 still lives at home and is likely to stay here for the next 3 years while she finishes her course.

I have 3 years to travel. Georgia29 looks after the dogs and the garden when I’m gone, which saves me thousands of dollars. I’m free to explore.

But not every goal is travel, unless you count jumping from a plane and plummeting to Earth as travel. I asked the kids to club together for my birthday and get me something I really want. Something that wouldn’t clutter up the place and just be forgotten.

I wanted to skydive for my 60th.

Here I am with all the gear on. We’d just finished watching a safety video and I had to race to take my rings off and put them in the locker with my bag. These rings are precious to me… I bought the emerald in Phuket and the sapphires were a 21st present from my parents. Imagine if they whipped off and fell away during the dive? I’d be crying, “Nooooooo!”

People were asking if I was nervous. I can honestly say that there wasn’t an ounce of nervousness in me. I was calm. I was going to do this and I knew I’d enjoy it. I wasn’t excited or jumping around. I was still and certain. I didn’t start to get a bubble of excitement in my stomach until we were driving into the airport.

We drove from Elwood to Moorabbin airport. I’ve driven past here probably thousands of times and never been inside before. We all got into an impossibly small plane and the instructors strapped themselves to us. There were 7 of us doing the jump.

Then up we flew. Up, up, past the clouds and over the top. We were high. Melbourne and the bay were stretched out below us. Then, the instructor closest to the door swung it open, nodded to his passenger and then they almost rolled out the door.

The other couples closest to the door shuffled along and Out! Out! Out!

It was so quick. They definitely don’t give people time to chicken out.

The plane swung around to regain its position. Then it was our turn. I smiled and shuffled toward the open door. I grabbed hold of the loops in front of the harness, as we were told to do.

Then we were out.

And flying.

I couldn’t keep the goofy grin from my face while we were freefalling.

We had around a minute of freefall.

That minute lasted a long time. It was beautiful up there.

The was a peace and serenity that I can’t describe. The wind was whipping past us, but along with the sound of the wind was a high note, just at the edge of my hearing.

The city and the bay were below and there we were, arms outstretched and flying so free. It was only a minute but I feel that it changed something inside me. There’s a pocket of peace and happiness in me that wasn’t there before.

Then there was a tap on my shoulder to tell me to grasp the loops at the front again. Then with a whoosh, we went upwards as the parachute was opened.

The instructor operated the parachute so we whirled and swooped, allowing us to see everything as we slowly descended.

Down there, my friend Alice from work was in her backyard filming one of us coming down. Of course, we’re convinced it was me that she caught!

I was so happy up there. It’s the best feeling.

Then, sadly, we were heading into land on Elwood foreshore. Look at my expression. I wanted it to last for longer, even though it lasted far longer than I expected.

I’ll carry this experience in a small part of me forever.

Look at me with my feet held firmly out. We’re told to land on our bum, and not to lower our ankles or they could be broken. I’m going to Canada and Alaska in 6 weeks. No way I was going to risk ruining that trip!

Deana from England gave me some pink socks and I told her they’d be jumping out of a plane today. Here they are, gracefully making their way back to earth.

The landing.

Hair bedraggled from the wind but so happy – there I was. I’m not sure I have a Bucket List, but if I do, this was one important item ticked off.

If I hadn’t achieved Financial Independence, I would’ve been in a classroom, looking out of the window when the kids were working and dreaming of where else I could be. Most days of my retirement are mundane and contented, just ambling along doing the day-to-day tasks that I need or want to get done. Just days of simple little things.

And then there are days like this.

Dad joke of the day:

Skinflint Sunday: Guess what I’m doing tomorrow?

Yep, I’m going skydiving, babyyyyy!

Before my birthday last September, I knew I didn’t want the kids to waste their money on a gift I didn’t want. You know, something that would just end up as clutter.

So why not ask for a gift that could possibly see them get their hands on their inheritance WAY earlier than I planned, ammirite?

Haha. I don’t think I’m going to die. But I’ve left it too late to bungee jump, but I can certainly still step out of a plane and see what skydiving is like!

I kept forgetting to redeem the voucher, but with winter getting closer, it was time to scan the weather forecasts for a nice clear day and get onto it.

If you think of this post at around 10:30 or so on Monday morning, give me a thought. I’ll probably be plummeting towards Earth about then.

It looks like this is the year for ADVENTURES!

Dad joke of the day:

So I’m going on another trip… and another…

It’s all too easy to book travel these days, isn’t it? Now that I’ve decided that the next two years or so are going to be all about TRAVEL, I’ve been lining up the holidays.

1. This was Kangaroo Island in January. Added onto Adelaide, it was a very pleasant week.
2. Canada/Alaska in May/June. This one will be a little over 4 weeks.
3. The Ghan, The Red Centre and The Top End in September for my birthday. 15 days for this one. Do I like the heat? Do I love having flies all over me? NO. But I feel that, as an Australian, I should go and have a look at these places ONCE.
4. A week in the Snowy Mountains in December. Nothing planned; I’ll just chill. I booked this through my timeshare, same as Kangaroo Island.
5. Vietnam for 2 weeks in February.
6. Japan in March. I fly out a week after I get back from Vietnam.

I was going to book Japan for April, but soon realised that if I did that, I was going to pay $1,000 more because April is high season. Yikes! That’s money I could put towards another trip!

Georgia is going to be living at home for another 2 – 3 years while she does her coding course, so the dogs will be able to be left with her and I won’t have to pay for boarding them out. This is a big financial consideration.

The parents are getting more frail, but are still happily living at home. I want to gallop all over the world while they’re still ok and they don’t need me to run around after them.

I don’t have any grandchildren. This means that my time’s my own. I have a small window of time where I can be totally selfish and do anything I want. At the moment – that means travel.

It’s so easy to see a great deal and click on it. Hello Japan!

But what I need to do now is slow down and really give some thought as to what are the things I want to see. You know… the things I REALLY want to see.

I also have to rank them in terms of physical ability. I’m working on getting fitter, but I’m never going to be able to climb Mt Everest, for example. I need to be conscious that as I age, my fitness will go down. So which things on my ‘REALLY want to see’ list need to be done sooner, rather than later?

Mum and Dad took a trip to South Africa in their late seventies and it took months for Mum to get over the exhaustion. I don’t want to experience that.

My reasons for choosing Vietnam and Japan is that lots of people have said that I’d love Vietnam, and as for Japan – I haven’t met a single person who hasn’t loved it. And lots of Aussies go to Japan. So there you go.

Our Antarctica group on Whatsapp was sent a video of Corinna on a tour in Iraq that Morgan was leading. She was blowing out a candle on a birthday “cake”.

There are so many weird and wonderful places to see!

Dad joke of the day:

Skinflint Sunday: 3 stinking hot days in a row.

And here we are, right in the middle of them. Yes, one really hot day yesterday, then now (at 9 AM) it’s almost 30C. The house is all shut up and the shutters are closed on the bottom two sections to lessen the amount of sunlight getting in to keep the house as cool as we can.

Soon I’ll put on the aircon, and then the shutters will also help to reduce the amount of cool air that’ll seep through the glass. I’ve already watered the front yard when I let the dogs out for their morning run on the grass, and soon I’ll venture outside and give the backyard plants a drink.

Then it’ll be inside for the rest of the day.

I chose this photo to be at the top of this week’s Skinflint post because a few days ago, I took myself to Ripponlea for a retirement Little Adventure. I had a lovely time and I blogged about it here. I’m so glad I decided to do the Little Adventures. It makes me leave the house and see and do things I otherwise wouldn’t.

Normally I’d say that a day spent inside the house hiding from the heat is a great sewing day, but I can’t do any sewing because my sewing machine, Mr Darcy, is off at the sewing machine spa having a service. I somehow managed to screw up the bobbin, so I have 2 weeks to wait until he comes back again, hopefully with a not-too-expensive bill.

So it looks like today might be a reading day. Gee, that’s always hard to take!

One of the plants I bought for my Christmas spruce-up of the house is this gardenia. Here’s what greeted me this morning. Doesn’t it look wonderful? It smells divine, too. This is Mum’s favourite flower.

Yesterday I went to look at a house for sale with Tom31 and Sophie, then asked them back to my place for lunch. We ended up spending a very nice couple of hours as we chopped and grated ingredients for wraps, then sat around in the aircon and chatted.

Sophie’s starting to open up more now as we slowly get to know each other. She’s a very nice person and she’s revealing qualities in Tom31 that I haven’t seen since he was small. He’s head over heels in love and I couldn’t be happier. I’m crossing my fingers that Sophie is ‘the one.’ She fits in so well with the rest of the family.

It’s a little bit windy today. I’m thinking that I might keep the elastic band around the windchimes for the sake of neighbourly harmony.

Dad joke of the day:

Skinflint Sunday: Walking with Mum.

Mum and Dad have always owned dogs, but when the last one died a few years ago, they decided that it was too dangerous to get another one, due to Mum’s mobility and balance issues. Of course, this doesn’t mean that they suddenly hate dogs! It occurred to me that taking a dog with me when I go with Mum for a walk might be a good way to lift her spirits.

(Plus I get to kill 2 birds with the one stone – walking dogs and seeing my parents.)

For the first walk, I decided to bring Jeffrey. No reason other than he’s a good boy.

You should have heard Scout’s screams when I picked up Jeff and shut the front door behind us. She is so jealous of Jeffrey, so to see him getting a WALK without her being with us – OUTRAGEOUS.

When I was a child, this place wasn’t called ‘Basterfield Park.’ It was called ‘the paddock’ and it was full of pale yellow grasses that waved over our heads. The neighbourhood kids would go in there with no fear or thought of snakes (!) and trample down sections to make our own little cubby houses there. It was fun.

Just when I grew to consider myself too old for such childish games, the council started developing the place. A huge hole was dug to make a lake with an island in the middle. Vast plantings were put in and the paddock disappeared. Now, a few decades later, the trees are mature and the place looks lovely.

Every day, unless the weather’s too hot or too cold, Dad takes Mum’s walker outside, helps her down the front steps and off she goes on a walk. He was petrified that I’d let Jeffrey tangle himself under her feet, but Mum and I were determined, so off we went. This was actually the reason I only brought one dog. Far easier to watch where one goes, rather than three.

There’s a winding path that goes around the park. I liked this bird sitting on top of the Vietnam war memorial. The occasional house-husband pushing a stroller walked by us. Each one also had a small dog on a leash.

It was a pleasant visit. We walked slowly around the park, sitting a couple of times so she and Jeffrey could rest. On the way home, we walked down the street where I grew up, with Mum filling me in on what has happened to the people who live in just about every house. I suppose when you move into a brand-new neighbourhood in 1960 and live there for the rest of your life, you tend to get a feel for what goes on around you.

Mum loved having a cuddle with my boy.

“Do you miss having a dog?” I asked her.

“Yes.” There was a long pause while she stroked Jeff’s ears. “I miss it a lot.”

Dad joke of the day:

Lunch with Izzy.

Yesterday I jumped in the car, drove a whole 20 minutes and had lunch with Izzy in her break.

As you know, we saw David30 on Sunday. There’s no rule that says that we have to only socialise with both of the couple at ay one time, and I really want to have a strong relationship with my son’s wife. It’s a bit difficult to have one if David30 is hovering around all the time!

So we grabbed a couple of pies from a café, sat down and had a good old chinwag.

We talked so hard that she went over her allotted time and had to race back to work. I feel really fortunate that she’s willing to spend time one-on-one with me and I hope that, over time, we have a relationship that is strong on its own, not one that is purely dependent on our shared love for David30.

When she stood up to go, I said, “I hope we can do this again.”

She laughed and said, “Of course we can! I’m always here!”

Dad joke of the day:

Skinflint Sunday: David30 comes to visit.

And he brought all of these tools with him.

First – I’m amazed that a boy who was raised by me even has an inkling of how to use tools. It’s a miracle.

Second – I asked him to pop over just to hang the windchimes that I bought on Kangaroo Island. But he walked in, saying, “Right! Whare are the little things in this place that need fixing?”

My windchimes are now operational.

They’re not exactly what you call ‘quiet’, so I’ve left a stool on the front verandah so I can put then away if it’s too windy. But today? It’s all very still with a little noise from them every now and then. They sound lovely.

When I was showing them to Tom31 a while ago, he said, “Do you want me to go to the next suburb to make sure they can hear them too?”

So yes. I may have been a bit carried away when I bought them.

We’ll see how long they stay up there.

We came inside and David30 got stuck into my cutlery drawer, insisting that I take most of the cutlery out, as the weight was starting to make the drawer fall apart. I took the chance to wipe it clean. He also helped me empty out a couple of wicking boxes into the green waste bin. I’m gradually going to refill the wicking boxes with new potting mix and rejuvenate that whole area.

While he was chatting with Georgia29, asking about what’s happening with the hormone treatments, I handed him a peg that came apart. It was from my travelling clothes hanger set. David30 fiddled with it and fixed it. It was really quite handy having him around.

“Make a list of things that need fixing, then every so often I’ll come around and fix them for you,” he said.

He’s a really nice guy, that one.

You can see that the house is getting to where I want it to be. (If you zero into the photo on the right side, you’ll see the windchimes.) I’m sitting on the couch inside, Jeff snoring beside me, and every now and then a beautiful sound emanates from them.

It’s a nice way to spend a lazy Sunday.

Dad joke of the day:

Big plans and happy gardening harvests.

Look at what I harvested the other day from the garden. Finally, after 3 years, tomatoes are growing again. I’m so happy!

Weirdly, zucchinis have done nothing for the second year in a row. I always thought zuccs were one of those ‘no-fail’ crops, but I guess nothing’s certain.

I have 3 full trays of tomatoes ripening in the kitchen. I’m picking them as soon as they show colour, because even though we seem to have got the rats under control, I still have no plans to feed any of them with my precious tomatoes.

I’m loving the Tommy Toe variety this year. For a cherry tomato, they’re HUGE. Considering I bag and freeze most of them to use throughout the year – in 400g bags to equal a can – I love a tomato that weighs a lot.

This is definitely the year of the cucumber.

We’re growing thousands of them. Fortunately, I bought myself a Zwilling vacuum sealer after reading about them from Rhonda at Down to Earth.

The link includes her rundown of her experience with the Zwilling products. I’m loving mine.

Here’s how the cucumbers look when they’ve been Zwillinged. I just have to make sure that they’re totally dry before they go in.

While I was away at Kangaroo Island, I asked Ryan29 to harvest the elephant garlic that his friend gave us. They saved some bulbs for planting and put the rest on the freezer.

I’m hoping that these will last ok in the ground, as they took off the protective papery covering. Ah well. Nothing ventured; nothing gained!

I’ve bought 3 more types of garlic to grow. I’m going to be away for quite a bit of time this year, so having such a long crop in the ground will be a good use of the garden.

A few days ago I took the little woofs on a walk by the river. We don’t often come down this way, but after posting a letter, we kept on going.

Here’s a ‘new’ mural that popped up as the pedestrian walkway joins the river path. I put the word ‘new’ in inverted commas because I have no idea how long it’s been here.

Going with the theme I started last year of being away for my birthday, this year I’ve decided to do it again.

I’ve booked a really comprehensive tour of the Red Centre and the Top End. Here’s the itinerary.

It ticks off everything I want to see and, as I said with Antarctica, it’s expensive but I only need to see it once.

I’ll be gazing at a massive solar light installation from a sand dune at Uluru on my birthday. It’s a slight contrast from being in the centre of London at the Sky Garden from last year!

So this year is shaping up to be one of travel. Kangaroo Island, Canada, Alaska, the Red Centre and the Top End.

Not too bad…

Dad joke of the day:

My Little Adventure in Kangaroo Island – Episode 7 – Gin, lavender and salt!

After seeing the Kangaroo silo painting, I stopped in at a little café for a coffee. Before I knew it, it was nearly time for my gin-tasting class at the distillery. Wouldn’t want to be late for that!

Originally, I was interested in doing the gin mixing class, but they wouldn’t run it for only one person. Participants end up taking home a bottle of the gin that they designed themselves. What a perfect souvenir! So the gin tasting class was the next-best thing for a single girl to do.

My friends Helen and Rick, who I went to North Korea and China with, love trying new gins. This place is tailor-made for them. I can just see Helen mixing flavours together like a mad scientist.

Look at this… only ONE CHAIR. The gifts that retirement brings keep coming and coming. I had a private masterclass, just for me!

A Spanish girl called Mar was my teacher for this class and she had 9 different drinks for me to try.

I’ve trained all my life for this moment.

As I settled myself on the chair, I could see that there were a few different aromatics for me to try with the different varieties I was going to taste. Some of these were from the extensive herb garden that surrounded the public café. I walked around and had a sticky-beak before the class started.

I had such a good time. The gin-tasting was amazing. There are such delicate flavours between them.

Here are the six that were on the original tasting. I had my mind blown by the very first one, which I ended up buying – the O Gin. As I went further down the line the gins kept tasting better and better. By the time we got to the 3 extra-special drinks at the end, I was having a VERY good time.

So I would’ve bought most of them, but you know I am but one woman with only one liver. I walked away with three bottles and one of them was vodka. I’m definitely not a vodka drinker, but this one was flavoured with such beautiful aromatics that I had to take one with me. I can see it being used sparingly, just a little bit poured over an ice cube…

The other type I bought was the First Harvest Juniper Gin, which is made with juniper and herbs from their garden and it was absolutely delicious.

They’re also in the process of making whiskey. Due to our climate, 3-year-old Australian whiskey tastes like 9-year-old Scotch/Irish whiskey. Interesting – this is something to keep our eyes peeled for.

I would imagine their Mixing class would be excellent, so if you’re ever on Kangaroo Island then definitely do the gin mixing class if you’re a couple or are with a group of friends.

After the class finished, I headed back to the car. Where to go now?

I decided to head off to the lavender farm for lunch.

After driving 20 minutes over rocky, corrugated unmade roads, I arrived at a big shed, and a café surrounded by rows of lavender bushes. Every row was labelled with the name of the variety of lavender.

I went into the shop, where one of the first things I saw was Lavender Gin. I backed away… I’d definitely had enough gin purchases and tipples for one day. I bought some foot moisturiser and a tub of something called ‘sleep balm’ – you put a smidge on each temple and you drift off to sleep like a baby. I can’t report as to how effective it is because I keep forgetting to use it.

I decided to sit here for lunch. I bought a lavender scone with strawberry jam, lavender jelly and cream.

The scone was about as big as my head.

I sat there, people-watching and also enjoying the sparrows and blue wrens that were darting in and out, picking up crumbs. It was cool in the shade.

I was looking around at all the lavender and I thought, ‘This can’t be the lavender farm. It’s too small. They must have another lavender farm or they buy their lavender oil from somewhere else.’

Before I’d ordered lunch, I’d given my phone to them to plug in because I was running low on battery. When I went to collect it, I happened to strike the owner of the place, so I asked her, “Where’s your main farm?”

She said, “This is it!”

I looked at her and said, ” It doesn’t seem to be big enough.”

She laughed and said, “Have you been to Tasmania?” and when I said that I’d just seen pictures of the massive farms there, she went on, “We cut our lavender by hand not by machine like they do. When you upscale and start using machines then you need the massive great amounts of plants.

“We don’t sell anywhere else. Because KI is such a huge tourist place, we don’t need to expand. We harvest our lavender by hand and we make all our products here”, gesturing behind her, “in this kitchen.”

Well of course this is music to my ears! I went back into the shop and bought some more things. I’m happy to support a business like this.

After lunch, I decided to have a look at the Eucalyptus Oil distillery, but to be honest, this was a bit underwhelming. I think I was a bit distilleried out, after Ireland and now here. I bought a cake of dog soap for the little woofs, then decided to make my way home.

Come to think of it – I’d had a very early start to the day. Coupled with the day drinking – I needed a nap.

The next day was an early morning ferry ride back to the mainland and then a full day’s driving. I took the 8:30 ferry and I didn’t get home till 9 PM. Thank goodness for podcasts and audiobooks.

Along the way, I saw a couple of very pretty houses in the same town in South Australia.

I stopped to take these shots, just like when Scott and I were in England.

Hours later, I was driving through Nhill when I saw a sign outside a shop saying “PATCHWORK.” I needed a break anyway, so I stopped the car and went inside.

I selected some fabric to buy – I was running low on reds and purples – and I ended up having the most fantastic conversation with the woman behind the counter. She was like ME! We talked for almost 20 minutes about all the travelling that we’ve done. We swapped recommendations and travel tips. It was fantastic.

Then, on the outskirts of the next town, I came across this.

The Pink Lake.

My friend Helen, you know, the gin-tippler, (haha!) – talked about this place to me a couple of years ago, saying that we should go up there. The pink that you see is SALT. You can harvest the salt.

I didn’t realise that the Pink Lake was on the way to Adelaide because when I went there a couple of years ago, I went via the Great Ocean Road where I met Loretta. A blogmeet is always a good thing.

So if I’d known I was going to be driving straight past here, I would have brought something substantial to scoop the salt into.

But all I had was my faithful coffee mug.

I brought the salt home, spread it out on a dinner plate and let the water evaporate away. It’s now in an empty Vegemite jar in my pantry, as a little reminder of this Little Adventure.

Look at the salt glistening in the sun.

That’s it for this Little Adventure. I had an excellent time on Kangaroo Island and can highly recommend it. It has a lovely blend of beaches, nature, foodie experiences and pure beauty.

It’s nice to find great places so close to home.

Dad joke of the day:

My Little Adventure in Kangaroo Island – Episode 6: Stokes Bay.

This picture was taken at Stokes Bay at 8:01 in the morning. I woke up that morning at 5:30 and remembered what the guy in the Sculpture Walk told me about the beach. I needed to be at a gin distillery at 11 – no way I was going to miss that! – so I had plenty of time to spare for a drive.

Besides, I thought it might be nice to be on a beach soon after sunrise. I can’t do this at home. The little woofs bark so much as they’re getting ready for a walk that I’d wake the neighbours.

The drive was a little over an hour and I was a bit worried I’d skittle a wallaby, but that didn’t happen. Though I DID see one bounding beside the road as I was coming out of American River, so that was exciting.

The top photo is of the beach that the Sculpture Park guy said that people assume is the real beach. It’s pretty enough, but over to the right, just in front of the cliffs, I saw a yellow sign.

When I got out of the car I met a man coming back from that way. I asked if that was the way to the beach.

“Yeah, yeah,” he said, ” you gotta go over there through the tunnel. It’s a bit hard to know where to go at the moment because there’s no one here . Normally it’s swarming with tourists.”

“Ah, tourists. Hate those guys!” I said.

Then, like the tourist I am, I set off towards the tunnel.

I thought you might like to come through the tunnel with me, so I snapped shots as I went along.

Here was where I took off my sandals.

…

I’m short.

It was fun squeezing through and under the rocks.

This walk went on for a while…

… but could it be???

Yes!

This is what I saw as I emerged from the rocks. A secluded stretch of beach.

And not a soul in sight.

I began walking. Slowly, just drinking it all in.

Look at the colours!

I looked back at where I’d emerged from the rocks. Just as I did, the clouds parted and the sun shone.

All I could hear was the waves rolling in.

It suddenly occurred to me that I didn’t know what time it was, so I grabbed my phone and saw that it was 8:01.

If I was still at work, I would be driving along the freeway. I would have been aiming at that time to be at the end of the freeway, ready to turn right onto Warrigal Road. My car wouls be surrounded by hundreds of other cars, their drivers all intent on gettig to work as fast as possible.

Instead, I’m on this beach. By myself, in total peace and quiet.

It’s glorious.

I’m the only one on this beach. It’s crazy. People are driving to work right now, and then there are other people doing things like this.

To be fair, I suppose I couldn’t have been here if I didn’t drive all those years to work. But walking along the sand, watching the waves roll in and the clouds floating along the sky, it made all the frugal sacrifices I made in years gone by absolutely worth it.

I’m glad I played the long game of delayed gratification.

This is a real treat. It’s something really special. I’m really glad I stopped to talk to that guy in the sculpture park otherwise I wouldn’t have bothered coming here. As you know, I can go to the beach near me anytime I want.

I’m glad I came.

I created a memory.

As I was driving back to town towards the gin distillery, I saw a sign and turned off the main drag. Kangaroo Island as its own painted silo!

This angle shows the Glossy Black Cockatoo …

… while this fearsome-looking bloke is wholly appropriate to the island.

Next stop – GIN.

Dad joke of the day: