Beez Neez now Chy Whella - Chores and Stamps

Chores and Stamps

Beez Neez now Chy Whella

Big Bear and Pepe Millard

Mon 21 Mar 2016 23:57

Chores and Stamps

The first chore this week was to see a doctor to get some prescriptions. We set aside a day, found ourselves in front of Dr Ivy who would not believe that Bear suffered from ‘White Coat Hypertension’, he didn’t let me down as the numbers were way too high for a man that had sat and read several magazines in the waiting room. After saying “thank you” and “farewell” we went off to the discount chemist. Well colour me happy, I could sat all day and watched the ‘first in New South Wales’ – a robotic, computerised prescription machine. Any other colour would not have done, but to watch the blue light flashing up and down did the trick. We both watched as a ‘filler’ stood on the far side, pressed some buttons and a box of tablets whizzed to their dock. Our prescriptions were typed in to the till on this side and the whizzing happened as it collected our boxes from their place in the machine. Sadly, not enough, so we just have to come back tomorrow and watch, impressed, again. Next stop was the best take away butter chicken – clearly my turn to cook supper tonight.

No breakfast so ‘happy lunch’.

Chores continued apace for the rest of the week. One job was to pull a cart each with four empty diesel cans half a mile to the nearest petrol station. Filling up at the marina would have cost an extra forty five dollars – well worth doing. Once full, Bear treated us to an ice lolly and back to Beez we went.

Along the way we passed a public school building of 1892, the doorway to the Samaritans – highly appropriate judging by my heart rate and another public school of 1904.

Along the way was this huge, quite stunning wall painting.

Out and about past a modern fountain, the Post Office offices and three points for a refusal as Bear was not allowed this particular ‘thing’ for Easter.

Trigger finger ever ready.

Apparently, the Indonesian authorities are impressed by formality and stamps. Last weeks order arrived, and we feel very proper with our new name badges, an oblong stamp and a round one that the captain can sign in the middle as he stamps and impresses.

Out on a date, well lunch at the Blue Door – this is called an all day Plank. Bear tucked in, I needed a little help to finish mine...............

...............not before I was caught using my shades as a Pelican Bib......

One of the towns water features, the far building is the museum, a visit on the morrow.... I have to admit to something. Overnight, for a couple of nights, the temperature dropped to eighteen degrees Centigrade – I had to put leggings and socks on, along with my tee shirt as it was so cold......However will I cope with a proper winter.......

A nice old bus went by, by the time I realised the roundabout sign was mid picture – I chopped its beak off.

Old buildings and brand new. An extension to the University.

One of the town stations is now the Honeysuckle Hotel.

A short cut home, over the railway bridge.

Along the quayside from the marina we see loads of fisherman. At the weekend they stand shoulder to shoulder. We asked what they were after “hairtail fish”, a great Asian delicacy. “Velly good, no much blood”. I take their word for it.

We sat for a while and watched one afternoon, just before dusk there was a frenzy of activity, every rod was bending. As they come out of the water they are really pretty, their sail undulates and twinkles pink. Once on the quayside a foot is unceremoniously put at the head end and a pair of pliers retrieves the hook, quite understandable when you look at the teeth – they are related to the barracuda. We are told that here in Australia hairtails only live on three rivers, the Hunter, Hawkesbury and in Mooloolaba. A delicacy amongst our friends here is hairtail stew. I won’t rush forward in that particular queue.

One afternoon we walked into town and all along the fencing at the back of the quay were signs reinforcing the bag limit. Strange as there are massive posters up, with every species of fish and shell fish – a passer-by saw us taking this picture and promptly told us that many of the fisherman we see come up from Sydney, one was caught last week taking more than ten and was issued the twenty two thousand dollar fine. Ouch. So how popular are these eel-like creatures.

Wiki says: Largehead hairtail is a major commercial species. With reported landings of more 1.3 million tonnes in 2009, it was the 6th most important capture fish species. By far the largest catches were reported by China (1.2 million tonnes), others from the NW Pacific, South Korea, Japan, and Pakistan.

In Korea, the largehead hairtail is called Kalchi - sword fish, (kal means sword and chi means fish), and is popular for frying or grilling. In Japan, they are fished for food and eaten grilled or raw, as sashimi. They are also called "sword-fish" in Portugal and Brazil (peixe-espada), where they are eaten grilled or fried. Its flesh is firm yet tender when cooked, with a moderate level of "fishiness" to the smell and a low level of oiliness. The largehead hairtail is also notable for being fairly easy to debone. Still not for me.......