Friday 17th May, 2019

We had some hope that we would be able to pick up the Winnie at the end of the day. Early information was that they didn’t know when the fuel tank would be returned, so ring after lunch. We went to the town centre and had a coffee whilst we helped our neighbour at home work out payment of our strata insurance.

At 12.30 we went to the library where some students and a teacher from the Young Regional Music School were performing on flutes. The music was OK, sometimes the flutes weren’t in tune, but with goodwill from the audience and participation invited (they played tunes from movies and musical and we had to guess what they were) the time passed pleasantly. Stephen won 3 chocolates.

We had lunch at the Chinese restaurant next door to the cinema, then Stephen rang up to see what was happening. Apparently, nothing. The company repairing the fuel tank had scheduled the work to be done on Tuesday. I expect they thought that the insurance company would take quite a long time to approve the work. We felt disappointed, and resolved to go to the Winnie and pick up some more stuff.

We spoke to a taxi driver who agreed to take us there and back and not run the meter whilst waiting. It was a chance to make sure that everything was OK. We’ve had good sun and I didn’t check the battery level. It wasn’t on my mind. We paid $20 for the whole trip, which we thought was pretty fair.

As we were finishing up Lisa, who works in the office, came up and told us that bosses of the two repair shops had spoken and it was decided that the fuel tank repairs should go ahead right away this afternoon. We are now hoping that all the repairs can be finished on Monday. Stephen has booked a further 3 nights here at the caravan park.

We have checked and the cinema is playing another ‘art house’ movie at 4.00 p.m. on Sunday. We want to watch the ABC tomorrow evening as election results come in. Therefore we feel we have enough to keep us entertained.

Stephen likes talking with people and we got into conversation with someone handing out how to vote cards yesterday. It started well, but we gradually found that we were being talked at, rather than having a conversation, with quotes from the Old Testament and the silly example of a grain of rice from a bag representing Australia’s contribution to emissions used as a rationale for Australia doing nothing.

All sorts of conspiracy theories from the far right were brought up and we found ourselves unable to match the man’s overwhelming verbal delivery. We tried to stay calm, but it was very difficult and in the end we walked away. It was like talking with a Jehova’s Witness.  He was not applying critical thinking, but simply regurgitating what he has heard from Alan Jones, the conservative radio broadcaster.

At this stage, we are hoping we can begin to head home on Tuesday next week. We have to say that the people we meet here in Young are overwhelmingly friendly.