We had a crap day yesterday up in Bendigo. It was our final farewell trip to the property before settlement on Friday this week – one load of 4 mattresses, a TV and video, plus assorted kitchenware to bring home. Double mattresses don’t easily fit inside trailers, so I stacked them four high atop the rails – I’d one it with two before, and using three ropes, secured them pretty well I thought. I wasn’t half way up the wonky Bagshot driveway when the jellycake started some serious wobbling. Even after retying, it quickly became obvious that there was no way this load was going to make it 170k to Melbourne at anything above 60kph. Two beds were ditched in the fantastically free Goornong waste transfer station nearby shortly afterwards. They were all destined for charity anyway. I’m usually sentimental about goodbyes, especially to such a labour of love as this property, but this time I didn’t even bother to bring a camera. Once we’d decided to sell, it just felt like a huge millstone around my neck, and I was glad to see the end of it. 4 one-day visits in 6 weeks, taking stuff home again had taken their toll. We popped into mum and dad’s that evening and heard about their big world trip. Now I know what and where the Everglades are. Today was a whole new story. It was around 30 degrees, and early on, we chomped on untoasted muesli in soy milk and sat on couches reading the papers. The Age is doing a 4 day feature on the public transport crisis in Melbourne. I am intensely interested in this issue and am surprised that something I use with few problems every week is “at breaking point”. It astounds me how hard the newspaper tries to bring pressure on the State Government, when it has nothing like the amount of money needed to make a significant difference to people in areas currently unserviced. It’s a little bit hopeless really. The private rail and tram operators certainly don’t want to fork out money on something so old fashioned and long-term as “infrastructure”. I blame Kennett for this awful mess. Kim poached some eggs and cooked up some Kassler on crisp bread and we had a couple of instant coffees. No headache today – wonderful. Loads of washing were done, a batch of homebrewed Pale Ale was bottled, punnets of Dill, Chives and Coriander were potted. The dogs were walked, the car washed, the piano got a workout and we drove into Carlton for a couple of hours, where we picked up 5 secondhand books and discovered the wonderful King and Godfreys Wine Store. We got a bottle of O’Leary Walker Riesling 2005 which is wonderful, a massive flat ciabata loaf, some hummus, some washed rind cheese and a bottle of Chimay Blue trappist Belgian Beer. Talk about being set for an awesome antipasto evening! I checked the Weatherzone.com.au weather models and we debated the sanity of riding to work tommorrow in what looks like some torrential rain possibilities on the way home. We’re riding anyway. What a great Sunday.