We made an early start ...

Ignore the "M"; this is just to illustrate the town of Bomaderry
The red building next to "Local Shopping" is the local pub

 

We made an early start on Monday and arrived at the railhead in Bomaderry well before our friends at the WELCOME Chinese Restaurant had opened up. The new MG3 was a joy to drive, and call it "confirmation bias" but we seemed to see many more MGs than before.

 

Bomaderry Hotel

 

Since we had booked into the Bomaderry pub for the night, we spent all day exploring Bomaderry, having lunch with our friends at the WELCOME Chinese Restaurant, and an evening out at the Bomaderry Bowling Club.

 

WELCOME Chinese Restaurant opposite Bomaderry railway station

 

The train trip from Bomaderry to Sydney Central has nineteen stops and takes about three hours. Some commuters do it every day - there and back! Watching them curl up in a sleepy huddle, I reflected on how lucky I was that for most of my life I never lived more than half-an-hour away from work - and often less than half an hour's walking distance!

 

Bomaderry Railway Station

 

I spent more time waiting than actually seeing the surgeon who had operated on me more than five years ago. "Open your mouth! Say 'aaah'! Good!" Everything seemed fine but he did suggest I control my op-shop addiction. He's off on a weeklong holiday to Japan, so I bowed deeply, wished him "Sayonara!" and paid the obligatory $165 on the way out.

Back to Sydney Central and a quick snack at airport prices before we boarded the next train back to Bomaderry and another night in the pub.

Padma said a funny thing even before we had left "Riverbend": "I wished we were already back again!" Those were my thoughts exactly! The ties that bind us to "Riverbend" seem to have become unbreakable chains.

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Welcome to Riverbend Park

 

 

On foot, armed with axe and chainsaw, and from the comfort of my little KUBOTA, I have been busy taming the 7-acre wilderness that is Riverbend (or is it eight acres? anyway, it feels like a hundred!)

As my Canadian philosopher-friend once said, 'Keeping busy is the best way to keep the mind from wandering into places that it should not go.'

 

 

I quite like a bit of wilderness but prospective buyers think otherwise. They want their bit of English country garden inside a white picket-fence so who am I to argue? In fact, who am I? I let you enjoy these latest snaps while I ponder this question.

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Size no longer matters

 

Forget about all those sexual innuendos: at Vinnies in Nowra size no longer matters. After Vinnies' regional manager for retail Miranda Seaegg has forced book-hunters to remember that Stephen King's latest novel's spine colour is yellow - see here - her insanity has since been extended to all clothing.

 

 

It could come in handy if you're shopping for a dress for a funeral or for St Patrick's Day, but for all other times I should think size still matters.

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We left the room in an UNacceptable state to avoid the cleaning fee

I am happy to confirm that the room was in a RELATIVELY clean state

 

I love staying in old pubs, and few are as old as the Bomaderry Hotel which was built in 1902. High ceilings and huge staircase landings but you hope not to be seen because "anyone who is seen in the accommodation section of the venue will be removed".

 

 

The room was basic but adequate; anyway, the room rate is only slightly more than the fifty dollars they charge for failing to return the keys.

 

 

What really took me back sixty years to my boarding-house days in Barton House were those terrazzo-covered toilet and shower cubicles right up to the peeling ceiling paint. Lathering myself up with the 20 grams of "Green Tea & Aloe Vera Luxury Soap" included in the room rate of the equivalent of a failure-to-return-the-key fine, I half expected a rap on the door with a walking stick by the retired dotty surveyor, known as "The Colonel", who in Barton House would stand outside the communal shower cubicles to remind us when our shower time was up.

 

 

And, of course, like in Barton House, they don't supply a plug for the bath because back in the day when this hotel was built, you supplied your own plug or you went without your weekly bath. Good memories!

We left the room in an UNacceptable state to avoid the cleaning fee.

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If it's mixed grill, it must be Wednesday

 

Mixed grill has left a lasting impression on me ever since my early days in Australia when it was served on a Wednesday at Barton House (Chicken Maryland on a Friday). I had never before experienced so many different types of cooked meat on one plate. It felt so decadent after the lean and meatless years in Germany.

I've always thought that offal was awful but I came to love lamb's fry slightly pink inside; as for those wonderful lamb chops, I would gnaw on them like King Henry VIII well beyond the point of accepted gluttony.

 

 

Imagine my surprise after my return in 1985 when mixed grill seemed to have slipped off the menu. Imagine my even greater surprise when I discovered it at the Bomaderry Bowling Club, but at what price: $44.10!

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