Short wet day today

Well last night’s rain continued all night and right through today. 

Proper shedding it down and the same is forecast for tomorrow. Funny how just two days ago we were sizzleing in 43 degrees of super dry super heat, but just 300 kms down the track, its as wet as it can be. Its that bad that even I haven’t even thought to venture out on my postie.

I always thought it was Brits who talked about the weather.....but these Aussies are even worse,their favourite topic, real moanathons, complete with yearly seasonal comparisons, laments about the need for rain, and general whinging about the heat. Yet here we are, two poms living out of our vehicle, with very little personal gear ( except for Gordon who has heaps of stuff) just getting on with it. People of Australia - you live in a hot place; deal with it or move to New Zealand.

We had a few jobs to do this morning, like re rego-ing the ute. Its a bit different here but essentially rego equates to MOT, and is done yearly. But annoyingly, it varies from state to state and you’re supposed to get it done in your home state. As our ute is from NSW and the rego expires in early March, and we’re heading towards South and Western Australia, we had to get it done today. But people are pretty helpful and we were pointed in the right direction, got it sorted, paid the $39.00 fee and we were on our way to Mildura.

Its only about 30 kms from Wentworth to Mildura, and the original plan was for me to show Gordon around the town where I used to live, and for us to camp nearby. But the weather stuffed that idea, so we booked into a motel that a truckie told us about in Broken Hill, and here we are.

We did have a bit of an explore around town but were soaked within minutes.

I also got the ute stuck in some claymud and had to push it out while Gordon steered ( and grumbled) but at least we now know how far we can venture  off road in it. My postie would have coped OK.

But you know what? I was chatting to this man this afternoon, and he told me he’d been in Australia since 1971. Yet his English was appalling; really really bad, and I had trouble understanding him.  Heavily accented and very limited vocabulary. Why is it that people who move countries think its OK not to learn at least some of the language and ways? Forty three years and all he could manage was poor and broken English. Not on at all. At least have the decency to learn the basics of communication; hello, goodbye, please thank you etc. It is so disrespectful to the host nation, and something that I’ve also come across many times in the UK. By all means retain your own culture but understand that the world does not revolve around just you.

Got to get a new map today. Big hole in this one.