We headed back to Brisbane stopping at Maclean for morning tea, We took the motorway to avoid the horrible stop-start city traffic. It is quite a bit longer that way but I would think that it uses less fuel because to truck never has to stop.
We thought to go back to Samford Showground to take advantage of the powered site. I had left the fridge on the inverter again and the batteries needed charging. We both needed to veg out a bit.
Just up the hill from where we were camped, there was a line of bushfire stretching right around the top of the mountain. It was perhaps a controlled burn off but it is school holidays and we believe that the incidence of fires of all sorts increases during school holidays. Thinking about this fire, it would have to be a burn off because it was quite extensive and very linear.
I had received a very unpleasant email from the CMCA and had trouble getting to sleep.
The fire on the hill had progresses down hill towards us overnight. We aren't at risk because the showground provides an extensive fire break. There is a house up in the trees in the path of the fire but there is no sign of panic, no sirens or evacuations. At lunchtime a helicopter came over and surveyed all the fires on the mountains.
In the morning I did some spring cleaning in the Motley. there was a whole lot to do and I took it one step at a time to avoid ill effects on the body. It took until late afternoon to get all that needed doing finished. Even so there were other chores still to be done which I had to leave for another time.
We needed to do the laundry so we went to Patricks Rd immediately after breakfast.
The laundry took a long time because Sarah's washing machine is very slow. The last load was put on the line at about three o'clock and we had to leave it overnight to dry.
I was so bushed that I went to bed very early. Despite several periods of wakefulness, I think I managed to catch up on some of my sleep deficit.
We went to Kmart to do a little shopping and to have coffee. We went to Patricks Rd to pick up the last of yesterday's laundry. The Marretts were out and we returned to the Motley to do a bit of work.
We went to the Coffee Club at Brookside to have coffee with Alain and the Marretts. After that. we did some shopping and went back to Patricks Rd for lunch.
After lunch I mended the taps in the shower in the downstairs bathroom which had been leaking at the handles. After that I did some work with Ross on his electronic kit. We found a fault in one of the components which I mended with the soldering iron which caused much interest in Ross.
We drove back to Samford Showground in time for afternoon tea, After tea, I cleaned the windows of the Little Motley which had got very dirty since it was last washed some time before the level five water restrictions were imposed.
We were needed to baby sit because both Sarah and Ian were on duty and the kids had a pupil free day. We got to Patricks Rd at about half past eight and went to Mitchelton to catch the train to South Brisbane to visit the Science Centre at the Museum. We all had a good time and we retired to the cafe in the museum for lunch.
We had planned to visit Next Byte but it was the wrong time of day so we decided to go back to Ferny Hills. We had to wait fifteen minutes for the train. It was then over ten minutes late. When we were travelling towards Roma Street Station we were told that the train would not go past Bowen Hills. We had to change trains at Central and had another half hour wait. We finally got home at about half past two.
We waited for Sarah to get home after a day doing her presentation at the AIF. She was pretty pumped up having s lots of people (including the Boss of the AIF).
I planned to go shopping after breakfast but started some scheduled maintenance tasks on the Motley and didn't get away till after twelve. I had to turn back to the showground when I remembered that I hadn't loaded the empty gas bottle. I started shopping and found that I had left my wallet in the Motley so I had to go back to the showground again. I finally got the shopping done and was back home at twenty to two.
We had agreed to baby sit the kids again so we went to Patricks Rd for three o'clock. I went to Mitchelton to do some business at the bank and went to school to pick up Kelly and her cello at twenty past four.
We called in to the Thai Takeaway in Samford to pick up some curry for supper.
When we came to go out to do the shopping, we found that a big St Andrew's Cross spider had decided to build her web between the Little Motley and the trailer.
I spent the afternoon working on Eco-Camping Australia documentation. I had bought a laminating machine and I made certificates of authority for Ross and myself as Inspector Trainer/Testers and as Inspectors. I also certified the Motley as the first EC certified vehicle.
I fitted the new Self-containment sticker to the Motley. This is, of course, the first ECA identified vehicle in Australia.
We went to town to visit Next Byte to buy a new transmitter for Radio Motley because the previous one did not charge the iPod even though it was connected to a charging supply. I guess I'll keep the old one as a backup.
We both had appointments with the optician at Brookside to do some outstanding tests. We had a late lunch and then went to Patricks Rd to pick up Jean's new credit card. It hadn't arrived so I rang the Credit Union to get the registered mail item number. We went to the Ferny Grove delivery centre but they hadn't received it.I was advised to ring the Post Office Headquarters. They revealed that the mail had been delivered to the Arana Hills Post Office and it was awaiting collection. Since 213 Patricks Road is not serviced by Arana Hills Post Office, no notification had been sent to the delivery address. But for my enquiry, the mail would have apparently remained in limbo. All is now well but it is disappointing that the Post Office could deliver a registered item to the wrong Post Office and that the receiving Post Office didn't react to the fact that the address was not in their area. In this case two wrongs made a wrong.