Rollin', rollin' rollin' on a river, and a highway or two.

[lyndarra]

14 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

..... and working out where the housesitters have put things in the kitchen. 🙄

 

 

That must be one of the unwritten rules of house sitting.😟

[NSWP]

43 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Well, we made it home safely on Thursday and are now working through the unpacking, laundry, and working out where the housesitters have put things in the kitchen. 🙄

 

Les, thank you so much for hosting the get-together on Tuesday night. It was lovely to meet you, Neil and Tracey. We really enjoyed getting to know you. 

 

We had a great cruise up the river on Wednesday. The weather stayed dry for most of the trip except for a couple of brief showers on the way back. Luckily the heavier rain held of until we were safely back at the hotel.

 

Sandbar was excellent, some interesting and unusual flavour combinations. I'll post the menu when I figure out where I put it. We chose the wine/sake matches and they were excellent too.

 

The trip home was a bit tedious because of the rain. We stopped at the pie bakery in Kiama for lunch. Good pies but hard to eat as the pastry was a bit soft.

 

Our cat seemed pleased to see us, and is demanding lap-sits and cuddles three times a day instead of only in the evenings. Usually he ignores us for at least 24 hours when we've been away, apart from when he wants food, of course. 😁

Glad you both enjoyed your road trip Julie. You did a multitude of adventures, It seems all went off perfect apart from bad weather down this way. Good to see your Sandbar @ The Quays degustation dinner was excellent.  All the best to you and stay safe.

Edited March 20, 2021 by NSWP

[MMDown Under]

Looks like you arrived home just in time, Julie.  Sounds like you had a great road trip, as well as your cruise. 

[OzKiwiJJ]

1 hour ago, MMDown Under said:

Looks like you arrived home just in time, Julie.  Sounds like you had a great road trip, as well as your cruise. 

We did indeed. And it was lovely to catch up with family and friends in Melbourne. 

[MicCanberra]

It has been great following along on you trip.

[NSWP]

2 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

It has been great following along on you trip.

I agree, great blog.

[OzKiwiJJ]

I didn't end up posting much about some of the parts of our trip. Those two very early starts to catch the Kangaroo Island ferry really exhausted us so I didn't get time to write them up. 

 

I worked out we drove about 4,600kms during the 30 days we were away. 

[Blackduck59]

Quite the road trip Julie. We have never done a vacation of 30 days. The planned adventure 2022 will be about that long. Thank you for sharing your adventure, I'm hoping as you get comfortable after your adventure you will be able to share more things from your home country adventure.

[MMDown Under]

1 hour ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

I didn't end up posting much about some of the parts of our trip. Those two very early starts to catch the Kangaroo Island ferry really exhausted us so I didn't get time to write them up. 

 

I worked out we drove about 4,600kms during the 30 days we were away. 

Where did you go on Kangaroo Island?  Distances are long on KI.

[MMDown Under]

48 minutes ago, Blackduck59 said:

Quite the road trip Julie. We have never done a vacation of 30 days. The planned adventure 2022 will be about that long. Thank you for sharing your adventure, I'm hoping as you get comfortable after your adventure you will be able to share more things from your home country adventure.

Look what you have got to look forward to when you retire.  We pulled our children out of school for a year and travelled in Europe, UK and USA, staying everywhere for at least a week.  

[OzKiwiJJ]

45 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

Where did you go on Kangaroo Island?  Distances are long on KI.

Right out to the Cape Willoughby lighthouse on the Dudley Peninsula, then over to Kingscote with a detour to American River. Next day we went right around the main part of the island, stopping at Seal Bay, and the sights in the southwest corner of the Flinders Chase National Park. I think we covered at least 260km that day.

[OzKiwiJJ]

1 hour ago, Blackduck59 said:

Quite the road trip Julie. We have never done a vacation of 30 days. The planned adventure 2022 will be about that long. Thank you for sharing your adventure, I'm hoping as you get comfortable after your adventure you will be able to share more things from your home country adventure.

Our longest trip has been seven weeks - Ireland and the UK. Rolf was still working then but had plenty of long service leave. The US-based company he worked had trouble coping with Australian long service leave requests. 🤣

[MMDown Under]

1 hour ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Our longest trip has been seven weeks - Ireland and the UK. Rolf was still working then but had plenty of long service leave. The US-based company he worked had trouble coping with Australian long service leave requests. 🤣

When I retired I had plenty of sick leave left, but no recreation leave nor long service leave, as I took it all.  Our longest trip was a year, but most years we took six weeks leave (holidays, LSL and public holidays).  My American friends couldn't believe it!  I had to tell one friend's boss, if he wouldn't give her three weeks, it was too far to travel to Aust with two young boys!  

[ilikeanswers]

1 hour ago, MMDown Under said:

When I retired I had plenty of sick leave left, but no recreation leave nor long service leave, as I took it all.  Our longest trip was a year, but most years we took six weeks leave (holidays, LSL and public holidays).  My American friends couldn't believe it!  I had to tell one friend's boss, if he wouldn't give her three weeks, it was too far to travel to Aust with two young boys!  

 

A few years ago I read that Americans ranked somewhere lowest on the list of devoloped countries where people took recreation/holiday leave but apparently Australians were starting to follow Americans and every year they were taking less leave and ranked IRC somewhere top five for longest working hours. Don't know if this trend has continued, it would be interesting to see an update🤔.

Edited March 21, 2021 by ilikeanswers

[NSWP]

When we did our 3 month trips,  cruises and land travel, the Americans nor the Brits and Europeans could not believe we could stay away so long, most of the Americans were retirees but would only go away a couple of weeks. Longer the better I reckon, post retirement we had 4 or 5 three month trips.

 

Remember...Adventure Before Dementia !

Edited March 21, 2021 by NSWP

[MMDown Under]

18 minutes ago, ilikeanswers said:

 

A few years ago I read that Americans ranked somewhere lowest on the list of devoloped countries where people took recreation/holiday leave but apparently Australians were starting to follow Americans and every year they were taking less leave and ranked IRC somewhere top five for longest working hours. Don't know if this trend has continued, it would be interesting to see an update🤔.

Yes some people don't like taking leave.  When I worked in HR we used to write letters to staff advising them they had to take their accued leave.  

I don't think anyone gets LSL these days, as they either work on contract or change jobs regularly.  

[possum52]

4 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

Yes some people don't like taking leave.  When I worked in HR we used to write letters to staff advising them they had to take their accued leave.  

I don't think anyone gets LSL these days, as they either work on contract or change jobs regularly.  

I would think plenty of people still get LSL. Not everyone is on contract or change jobs regularly. 

 

Leigh

[NSWP]

21 minutes ago, possum52 said:

I would think plenty of people still get LSL. Not everyone is on contract or change jobs regularly. 

 

Leigh

I saved mine up, had 18 month lsl when I retired, never took any in  36 yrs as we had 7 weeks annual leave. Paid out lsl in cash 150k, minus 20% tax. It was our travel  fund for a few years.

[NSWP]

31 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

Yes some people don't like taking leave.  When I worked in HR we used to write letters to staff advising them they had to take their accued leave.  

I don't think anyone gets LSL these days, as they either work on contract or change jobs regularly.  

Nsw govt employees still get long service leave.

[Porky55]

26 minutes ago, possum52 said:

I would think plenty of people still get LSL. Not everyone is on contract or change jobs regularly. 

 

Leigh

👍 exactly.  Take the Public Servants for example - in all States - if you had one of those jobs - why would you ever leave? 🙄😂

Edited March 21, 2021 by Porky55

[NSWP]

Just now, Porky55 said:

👍 exactly.  Take the Public Servants for example - if you had one of those jobs - why would you ever leave? 🙄😂

Exactly. Job for life with a good pension.👮‍♂️

[MMDown Under]

26 minutes ago, Porky55 said:

👍 exactly.  Take the Public Servants for example - in all States - if you had one of those jobs - why would you ever leave? 🙄😂

I was a public servant and younger staff do leave prior to being entitled to LSL.  There is a different attitude now to when I started work where it is now considered a good thing if people move around rather than stay in the Public Service for life, as I did.  

[MMDown Under]

31 minutes ago, NSWP said:

Nsw govt employees still get long service leave.

I meant they don't stay long enough to be entitled to LSL.  There are a lot of reasons why, one being one partner in a marriage gets a promotion/transfer, so the other partner has to leave his/her job. 

[MMDown Under]

35 minutes ago, NSWP said:

I saved mine up, had 18 month lsl when I retired, never took any in  36 yrs as we had 7 weeks annual leave. Paid out lsl in cash 150k, minus 20% tax. It was our travel  fund for a few years.

Most people did that, using it as a kitty for their retirement travels.  

I'm glad I travelled all my working life.  Who would have dreamt we would be unable to travel now in our retirement.  

[NSWP]

9 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

Most people did that, using it as a kitty for their retirement travels.  

I'm glad I travelled all my working life.  Who would have dreamt we would be unable to travel now in our retirement.  

We rarely travelled in my working life, one wage most of the time! Paying mortgages, paying school and uni fees for my two kids. l was fortunate to retire @55 and have since done a lot of travel world wide and in Australia, like 22 cruises and plenty of land travel. Yes as you say anyone who has retired in the past year or two or who was putting off travel is stymied for some time yet.