Tocumwal Sunday October 18 2009
Hello from the ” all seasons Motel ” in Tocumwal ,this time from the laptop from George.Nice to know is , that this motel was called in the past ” Sportsmen’s Lodges” and owned by….us as Sportavia. It has new owners, a few since we sold it and still looks nice. Brutus lived in one of the apartments here as well for a few years. Inge and I are very happy in the unit from friend Gina and living in that unit means that we are neighbours.
Till now time has flown. Parties, lunches and dinners have been on , full time .And ….it was till the last day before departure NOT sure if I could go!!! I felt SO miserable!!!!! But Inge took me to her doctor in Amsterdam and I have no clue what he did, but a “miracle” happened and I felt well.[it looks I got the flu from the flu injection the Thursday before!]
The trip turned out to be easy and on my 23d visit to Australia , I could tell the pilots who waited for their suitcases, that this one was the most beautiful landing from all the flights.
A great flight all over Melbourne with its beautiful skyline in full light and the softest landing.
After a good night sleep at the airport where I was welcomed by George [ I expected to see a “wreck”] and Michael [” it is as in old times ” ], we left early on Thursday morning to Tocumwal with a still very good looking Inge after her long and good flight. Yes the age- difference was clearly visible!
Tocumwal still feels SO good. Some people say “it is as if you have not been away!” We passed the airfield, “our” hangar, the tree planted for Dennis and Kees 22 years ago [we cannot go on as all gates are locked] and though it looks sad because there is no activity on that part of the field anymore, it felt good; peaceful, I was not too sad…., those good times where EVERYBODY starts talking about straight away are OVER for ever and of course you can’t forget the buzzing activities from the past! We visited one of Bill’s old hangars [ to our , but even more to his big surprise he showed up and nearly fell over when he saw George, one minute later Inge and then me] to clean our “stuff” which still was there, had a look at the boxes with personal belongings as we sold the caravan and the new owner did not want us , to enter his new toy. He checked for us, a bit weird , but…..
A visit to Kelly’s Pub was of course a must on Thursday , so off we went and caught up with Peter {Reid} and Peter {Corckery} with Dieter Dundee and just before we went there also with a very enthusiastic Ken Ueyma from Japan. [” you are the mother of Sportavia “]Lot’s of local “drinkers” were happy to see us as well.
Today on Sunday, a plane is doing at big height some real nice aerobatics and with the Maule flying out yesterday with a glider [the new IS 28 from Sportaviation] on tow, it felt like being home again. Have n’t had time yet to see how the new caravan park looks , but that will be next on the agenda. No time either to do research how glider pilots are performing on the OLC list, but that will be on when I hear “things” here or when I have time to look at it.
Town got more houses , all people still seem to be content , though some shops are empty and when I told friends that they maybe NOT realize how lucky they are, to live in a community like this here in Toc. they straight away said that they knew !!!!!
That’s it for now. More news somewhere during the week. First impressions are GOOD!!!! Though……. the weather is really spring weather. We had rain , cold wind, hail, sun , nice looking clouds and angry looking very dark ones, with more rain. But…..they say that Melbourne will have 27 dgr. next Tuesday and here we will have 33!!!!!! That’s better , as the suitcase is full of summer clothes!
Ritz