A much simpler fix.

While I was in the local hardware store today I spied a whole wheel and tyre setup that matches our little wagon, it also wasn't cruelly priced so I decided to do a quick simple fix.
When the new tube arrives I'll fit it and use it for a spare.

Time for a clean.

I looked at my motherboard today and saw the CPU fan was filthy, so tonight when the internet is strained by busy people with limited hours I shut down and pulled it off for a clean.

It didn't take long, wash the metal bit and rag the plastic fan bit and things look sweeter again.
A fresh dab of heatsink paste and it was done.
Since I pay the power bill I don't overclock which cranks up the power consumption, so the standard heatsink is fine.

Day 12, finish.

Last day and apart from this little detour to this magical little beach at Bowen we just drove home.

Olivia quickly felt the magic of it too, it didn't even have much of a splashing of noisy waves either.

Olivia has her eyes on a bird.

This one, and that's about it for our little 5,000 km journey to let Olivia have a bit of an experience of Sydney. No incidents this time, but I'm still waiting for a speeding ticket in the mail from inadvertently allowing Daisy's speedo to go above 50 on the very steep beginning of Conrod straight at Bathurst.

Day 11, to Mackay.

This was the high point since we left NSW, just north of Monto.
I had used the WiFi from yesterday to book accommodation at Mackay but hadn't spent enough time thinking of how long it'd take to drive there, I had advised arrival between 14:00 and 15:00 but soon I'd realise that I'll have to keep moving in order not to appear as a liar.

 Unless they're magicians I'd say the tree might have grown a bit since the tyre was placed there.

We made it to the Motel with a few minutes to spare and my ego intact. The motel was quite good but as we found fairly typically the TV was only good for the free channels in standard definition, but at least it had free WiFi. The main road is off to the left behind the building behind Daisy, they were doing roadworks that night which were fairly noisy, as too was the folk next door who insisted on talking forever outside our window, very likely trying to see how many cigarettes they could consume.

Ka-boom! and now the mystery is solved.

A few days ago Olivia and I heard something at the back of our house explode and despite having a good look neither of us could work out what it was, until today.
I noticed a wheel on our cart looked awry, on inspection the tube had exploded, I guess I must have over inflated it a little bit so be warned, the construction of the wheel isn't up to it.
I've ordered a new tube as I don't think I can repair this one, but doubtless there'll be plenty of folk in Philippines vulcanising shops who would leap at fixing this for a few Pesos.

Day 10, the long way home, via Monto.

A sky shot before leaving Walgett, the constellation Sporpio is on the left.

Millmerran is a nice looking town, I had left in the morning without any real plans on where to go but decided I wanted to see Cecil Plains sometime, it has such a lovely name, but we didn't stop.

The Lions Lagoon at Dalby, nice.

A nice spot at Mundubbera.

We stopped for the night at Monto Caravan Park in this cabin. We both like Monto and the park is good, the cabin seems overpriced but in hindsight we may well stop here again, there's a nice feel about it, and the did have free WiFi.

Birds feeding as the light was fading.

Disaster struck when a caster wheel broke off the bed, I left this note, I surprised myself by being neat enough to be able to read much of it, usually my writing is much worse.

Day 9, Walgett again.

I think the foreground track came from that red machine.

It must be a Walgett thing as after reviewing this shot I noticed the dust cap on the tyre valve was missing, on my last visit here some time ago two of Daisy's were "borrowed", this trip I changed my nice ones for some cheap blue ones before leaving home, something I later found out was a mistake and caused me to look snooty when it came time for a tyre change, blue caps are meant to indicate a nitrogen fill. The tyres on this van will be an expensive exercise when replacing them, that load rating will add to the cost.

The council should either modify this sign or remove it, they've had nearly two years to do it so I have to wonder about how it's being run.

An interesting bit of wildlife, some bugs are grouping to what I imagine appears to the world like a flower.

A drink with my dad, my sole drink on the trip, or for a few months.
I did a couple more jobs for my parents after grabbing some bits from Sydney, something to let me feel useful, but no photos.

Day 8, back to Walgett.

An early start had us back to Lithgow in the pre-dawn, I had hoped for a good frost to give Olivia an experience but it was just on the border of being cold enough, just a trace of ice on an information sign.

Cherry Tree Hill was cold but not frosty. That sign is optimistic, it's more than 20 metres lower than the 1100 m they claim.

A pretty shot in Mudgee.

We stopped in Gulgong but the old $10 notes are gone now so the meaning is lost to Olivia.

Back to Gilgandra and that lovely art deco store, it's quite a good one too.

A highly technical yet thoroughly smelly lavatory 53 km south of Walgett.

A charming marker for what seems to be a new property called Fairlands only about 4 km south of Walgett.

Day 7, an easy day.

A late start to the day saw Daisy getting new tyres fitted.

Olivia loves a bargain so we stopped at a Salvo's store we saw at St Marys, this hat gave me an oriental feel so I sang a line from "A more humane Mikado" but we didn't buy it.

I popped up to North Richmond to check on Grace's family's graves, this is of her Mother and Sister, both of whom were really nice to me.

Then on to Richmond to take a photo at a corner which those who have ever seen the film "Hacksaw Ridge" might recognise.

To help you a little look at the building in the background.

The RAAF base at Richmond was doing a bit of training and Olivia got a great surprise when we almost drove under this plane landing.

Day 6, an end to a perfect day.

Cousin Andrew had contacted us that day and we'd arranged to have dinner at his place, so now we had a bit of time to kill and we had to do a bit of train shuffling. Here we wait at Parramatta station, it came to my attention that day that Olivia blended into the crowd better than I did, things have changed over the years.

Surprisingly I'm still looking fresh at Strathfield but the day has been a top adventure.

A church at Burwood, where I looked unsuccessfully for a watch battery.

Another train and we'd arrived at Andrew's place where much to our surprise he put on a real cordon bleu feed, I'd told Olivia that Andrew was a proper chef and he cooked pretty well but this was stunning.

Then the desert was even more stunning, everything was hand made including the ice-cream, Andrew doesn't work as a chef these days but I think he may do a bit of judging sometimes, based on this I believe it.

Here Andrew takes a photo of Olivia, it seems he even took the effort to clean his ear.

Here we all pose, pity my face doesn't match how I felt.

Olivia loved his bear.

Our day was long and the time came to return to Vineyard, this is a now pretty empty Strathfield station while we wait a few minutes for the train.

Day 6, by ferry to Parramatta.

More sightseeing as we took a ferry to Parramatta, quite appropriate that we should get the Marjorie Jackson named after the same who was known as the Lithgow Flash and even won two Olympic gold medals at running back in 1952, Grace and I even lived in the "Jackson Flats" housing commission units named after her for a time when we lived in Lithgow.

A ship at the Maritime museum opposite the Darling Harbour stop.

Going under the Gladesville bridge which still looks modern more than 50 years since it was built.

I noticed that plenty of these pylons were marked as unsafe, with those not marked nearly as bad, a big replacement job would be coming that'll be both expensive and irritating to ferry users.

The weir here marks the end of the trip at Parramatta.

I saw Terminator 2 at this picture theatre when it was released, it's now under repair and I had to hoist the camera up to get a view over the boards.

Nice church at Parramatta.

Queensland Arcade, that sign caught my eye, we weren't the only ones taking pictures either, but our cameras are sneaky little things.