Letter 2

March 12
Friday, I can't remember what we did on Friday anymore. I went up to the mailboxes to put the $150 deposit into Morag's mailbox and I rang her from the VA to tell her it was there. Oh yes, I painted a cupboard at the VA. It is green. Oh dear, everything's blurring together again.

Went to dinner at the kitchen, ah, shovelled, woodpile. We had to look for the sand but the sand wasn't really sand and it was growing things in it. The sand/decomposed granite was at the mailboxes and that was where we saw a king parrot. 

It was in a tree, foraging in the mulch in the crotch of a tree that was overgrown with cow vine. King parrots are green and red. Green head, red wings and they eat the berries of the native tobacco, which is why Barry lets it grow around his house, to attract the parrot.

Sand was vetoed, but we'd already shovelled some into the trailer.

The trailer we got from the end of the road through the VA, where there is this dead caravan and a clear patch of grass and circle of trees, and it is clear and there is something peculiar about the bell mynas going off all around. They are quite loud as well, little olive gren bird with similar size, shape and markings to a noisy myna. That is the aggressive little birds in the botanical gardens.

Then it was off to the kitchen to pick up a load of pine bark instead. This was for the wood pile at the VA. Barry was doing his best to think of ways to not allow the weeds grow under the woodpile. Shadecloth and then pine bark got laid on the ground.

Then we moved the woodpile and stacked it properly, as it got dark, and it remains to be seen whether it keeps the weeds down.

This morning I saw two birds in the sky gliding. Barry and I thought that they would be some kind of raptor. They were quite large, but unidentifiable.

Thursday, March 18
I've got panniers! I've got panniers! I'm so excited! But oh the terrors. I got the train ticket to Sydney. Then I changed my mind about staying in Crystal Waters. I want to go to Nimbin and then Sydney. Now I can't catch the XPT at Murwillumbah, they take two. I have to catch it in Kyogle. In Kyogle, unlike Roma Street, I will have to supply my own bike box and I have to disassemble the bike myself and pack it.

I wonder if I can just take it down early, like two weeks early? I'll see tomorrow. And I am going to catch a bus to Murwillimbah. So it looks like Saturday I will finally go to Lillian Rock.

The Story of the Panniers. I went to Sonia's place for breakfast and to take her the video camera and then I talked to them all about making panniers for the bicycle. I want to take bicycle, tent and sleeping bag to Gippsland. Then after we talked for a while, I thought of netting, something like a drawstring bag that gets tied or wired or clipped to the pannier rack, and board to slide in and over he frame to keep the netting out of the wheels, and then whatever I have goes inside the drawstring net. Then just as I was about to leave, Fruitbat said I should go and see Boo because he had already thought of making panniers and he might have some ideas about what to do.

Anyway, when I had explained it all, he GAVE me two panniers! Pass them on to the next people who need them. Then Graham came over and configured the Quantum Fireball 6.4 gig drive.