We needed to do stuff in Brisbane before Xmas so we headed back to Lawnton.
We set up in "our" spot and put the airconditioner on to provide relief from the heat and humidity.
We went to Brookside and Jean arranged to see the optician in the afternoon to get new spectacles before this years medical fund allowance expires.
Al came over for dinner. When he arrived, he found that the car was suffering from a disc brake which hadn't released properly and had caused a drag to the left. We rigged a work light and took it apart to see what was going on. I couldn't find any cause for the problem but didn't seem to clear the problem. I had Al drive home in the Terios so that I could take the Barina to a brake repairer in the morning.
Al had been offered an old power amp to add to his new car radio but we couldn't make it work so that was an hour os so wasted.
I took the Barina to a mechanical repairer round the back of the showground. He couldn't find anything wrong and, because he hadn't done any repair, didn't charge me for his time. I drove down to the airport trying to get the problem to reappear but I it seemed to have gone away.
In the afternoon, we went to Patricks Road to deliver the Xmas presents and to use the DSL connection. Sarah was meeting Ian and the kids after work for a shopping expedition so we returned to Lawnton without seeing her.
I got up early and did the laundry.
The airconditioner started playing up which made my heart sink. A bit of investigation revealed that the compressor was still working, which was a great relief, and the fault was a fan motor which refused to start but which would run once given a whirl. I need to get to the bottom of this problem but meanwhile the fan is left on all the time so we have a working airconditioner, a necessity with the weather being hot and humid .
We went to Patricks Road to do some Xmas preparations. I decided to buy Jean some talking books from the iTunes Store or from Audible.com. Audible.com had the better deal and a better selection so I set it up for Jean to pick out some books. She selected four and I tried to download them without any success. I had another try and found the secret to the process, which wasn't obvious despite perusing the so called "help" pages, and eventually got three of the four downloaded. I put them on the iPod and Jean enjoyed the start of one of the books before she went to bed. Her Xmas present is now all in place.
We went to Scarborough Beach to have a very pleasant Xmas lunch with the Marretts. We had bought a mass of seafood and Sarah provided salads and so forth. We had champagne and shiraz and the kids and I played with our new toys. The weather was cloudy and not too hot with a nice fresh breeze.
We met some people who were aspiring motorhomers and had a chat about life on the road.
We returned to the Motley for a post prandial nap in aircondtioned comfort and drove to Patricks Road for the evening meal with the family and with Penny, Andrew and their kids.
We crashed back in Lawnton just as the evening storm broke.
The weather was still overcast so we took a lay day. I did get up some enthusiasm in the afternoon and defrosted the freezer.
It rained heavily again in the night but the morning was bright and clear.
We went to Patricks Road to return some gear we had picked up on Saturday and to do some more downloads.
I had been suffering from Delhi belly since yesterday morning and, as I wasn't eating anything more sustaining than dry toast, I decided to take another lay day.
I finally managed to get the new backup software working properly. The only thing missing is the ability to boot off the external drive but there is enough redundancy now that the installation of the new disk drive can be effected without any dramas.
We had a real life drama in the evening when two police cars drove into the camping area to respond to a call by one of our neighbours who had seen a couple of yobos harassing Kevin, the assistant groundsman, who lives in a caravan nearby. We heard in the morning that the coppers had caught the miscreants while they were trying to get away. It's good to know that the system works sometimes.
We decided to stay at Lawnton for another day to make sure the Delhi belly had completely gone. I managed to eat without any ill effects and to do the laundry and a bit of shopping so all seems OK again.