On the Road Again

After 8 weeks in Darwin we have finally pulled up stumps and started to head South (in preparation for heading West). We've really enjoyed our time here, and feel almost like locals at the golf club. Wendy had the best score in the NT Senior Ladies Championships, but because she was a temporary member they wouldn't give her the championship trophy, however half a dozen golf balls was a reasonable consolation. John had a slow start to his Darwin golf, but came home firing, managing to collect 12 balls in the last couple of weeks. Of course, playing 4 times a week for a couple of months does tend to hone your skills somewhat! We'll be back to tourist golf now, an occasional game at whatever course we happen to be near, with good courses and grass greens few and far between.

Unfortunately, our TV won't be making the journey with us. Last Monday it suddenly decided not to show a picture any more, in the middle of the first session of the last day's play of the second cricket test. Poor John was beside himself, although maybe it wasn't such a bad thing not being able to see the Aussies make complete dills of themselves and go one down in the series. We hunted through our papers and found the tv warranty, which extends for 3 years, so after 2 days of increasingly frantic phone calls to the manufacturer we finally got the name of a repair firm we could take it to in Darwin. This turned out to be a one man show, run by a laconic Yank. 'Hmm' he said 'Hopefully it will be the thingamjig (or somethingorother) which will be easy to replace'. Of course it wasn't the thingamajig, or even the doodaddy, but 'nope, can't fix that, you'll need a new screen'. More frantic phone calls to Melbourne, with the result that we left the dud set in Darwin at the repair joint, and there will supposedly be a new one waiting for us when we get to Broome in 3 weeks time. Meanwhile we will have to amuse ourselves at nighttime, and John will have to huddle over the old crystal set (well, the radio anyway) when the Aussies try to redeem themselves in Edgbaston.