14th and 15th May, 2019

Yesterday morning we took advantage of being in Young for a few days to go to the Town Hall for early voting. It was a painless experience, though for our state we did not have the voting leaflets that would have set out our candidates and the next few numbers so that the preferences would go to our preferred candidate. So, we had to guess. I voted for the Pirate Party for my last number, hopefully that candidate doesn’t stand too much chance and doesn’t let preferences run to a far right party!

Stephen found it interesting to talk with the people handing out how to vote cards. Josh Frydenberg is the sitting member for this area.

He headed off to the library to read the papers and find out about local events and I went to Art of the the Expresso to check it out. I had noticed this cafe when we first came into town, especially the fact that they roast their own beans. I am running out of the beans bought in Perth before we left. What are the chances of being in a town where they roast their own coffee. I’ve bought 500g of beans, I think it will be enough to get us home.

We went home for lunch yesterday, then went out again in the evening at about 5.00 p.m. It was getting close to dark. Stephen had asked earlier about the cinema we had seen when walking around the town, but someone had told him that they only showed very popular movies that we probably would not want to see. At the library Stephen found that they do show more adult movies on Tuesday and Sunday nights. ‘The Chaperone’ is a movie I have wanted to see and it was showing last night. We had a meal at the same pub as before, this time sharing a cider and a meal, rather than ordering two separate ones. It was plenty.

The Cinema is run by volunteers. There was a small audience, two men and about 10 women. They ran some advertising before the movie, which must help with keeping things running. We had choc bombs, not the best, but given that it is a volunteer organisation we gave it extra points. We only paid $11 each for our tickets.

The movie finished at 9.00 and we were walking home on a high, having had a very good experience when something happened that we weren’t expecting at all, a woman seated in a sort of small park area in the main street asked us for money. We were a bit stunned and had no special ‘beggar’ money in a hip pocket, so refused. We were a bit shaken as it doesn’t seem like that sort of town. We know there are social services providing meals in a ‘food hall’, so we weren’t too worried about her having nothing to eat.

We didn’t let it spoil the experience.

I didn’t blog yesterday as I wanted to visit the cafe again this morning and have something to do besides read my book and enjoy drinking and smelling the beautiful coffee.

It will be good when the elections are over and we can get back to real news instead of constant analysis and conjecture. Nevertheless, we plan on being somewhere where we can watch the election count unfold, either here in Young or on the road.

I can check online re the state of our claim and just did so and found that it has moved from ‘being assessed’ to ‘repairs authorised’. That was quick, they said it would be three to five days for the assessment. They haven’t rung us yet, and not sure if they have advised our repairer, Stephen and I meet up soon and he can phone them.