Yesterday we finally managed a meeting with bloggers Robin and Jenny of Romany Rambler. They flew into Perth from NZ to participate in the ‘longest card game in Australia’. This is actually their second attempt having been thwarted during an earlier attempt. The longest card game in Australia is the rail journey on the Indian Pacific train crossing the continent between Perth and Sydney.
During their visit I tried desperately to give them food poisoning (I’m an expert on the practical aspects of the subject) in an effort to prevent them from undergoing the journey. Unfortunately I appear to have been unsuccessful. However you will be pleased to read we managed to put most of the world’s ills to right. Regrettably we were unable to resolve BREXIT.
I had planned to show them the sun setting into the Indian Ocean but we ran out of time.
The one thing I’m not prepared to forgive is them bringing their rotten Manawatu weather with them!
So what else has been happening? The front room has been emptied of stored furniture and other “stuff” which has enabled me to fill in all the holes ready for sanding and painting. All the old carpet edging strip was then removed. Removal of the tack strip isn’t difficult. It’s the rusted concrete that were the greatest problem.
Now for the sanding
I haven’t forgotten we need to remove the old evaporative air conditioner from the roof and make good the hole. We’re going to need a few matching concrete roof tiles and as the house was built in 1983 I’d started looking online in salvage yard websites. Prices varied up to $10 per tile. In the end we drove to the nearest salvage yard where we discovered they didn’t have any. However the yard owner suggested we try the original manufacturer (Monier) as they were still making the tile (news to us) but had renamed them from ‘Elabana’ to ‘Hosienda’. The local manufacturer was only 2km away so we went the additional distance discovering they indeed had a compatible tile. The newer Hosienda model is about 20mm longer, but that won’t bother us as we can’t see the air conditioner on the roof.
Original on top
The good news was the price of the tiles ($3.20ea). Much cheaper than the salvage yard! Hopefully 10 will be sufficient for the task.
1 comment :
So nice to meet you both. Thanks for the very enjoyable day. I don't know about the longest card game but this train travel is mainly eating and broken sleep.
Robin & Jenny
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