A LOT CAN HAPPEN IN A WEEK

And it did last week. The previous weekend we stayed in Melbourne to attend a Tour de France function on the Saturday Night with my city cycling buddies. While there we thought we might take an impromptu test drive in a new car that might possibly be a future consideration. Sue's 15 year old  Peugeot 307 was looking close to being replaced. It had served her well with just over 100,000 kms on the clock. We've had a good run with Peugeots in the past, this being our third. It was only natural that we looked at updating with a new Peugeot. Being "country folk" now, we though a small SUV might just suit our needs.

The new Peugeot 2008 SUV was our choice so we went for the test drive and impulsively put down the deposit and picked up Sue's new car on the Wednesday.

Sue loves her new Pug. It's bigger than her old Peugeot 307.

It might be the pretty dash lights, the sat nav or just that it is our very first new "out of the showroom" car.

On Thursdays I play Petanque with several other retirees in Trentham and my friend Geoff had recently purchased a 1954 Slough (English) built Citroen 2CV and it had arrived from Western Australia to Melbourne. I offered to drive him down so he could drive it home. Nothing ever runs to plan as on arrival, the transporters had left the ignition on and the battery was dead flat. We finally jump started the little 2CV (several times) and eventually we were on our way. I may have mentioned before that Trentham is in the Victorian central highlands - that's around 600+ metres above sea level.

Basically the drive was all up hill for this tiny 375cc two cylinder motor. As we came to an incline the 2CV would struggle up hills at below 60 kph with me behind with the hazard lights flashing. We finally made the 120 km journey home safely.

Geoff ponders over his new acquisition and how to get it started for the 120 km journey back home.

Friday galloped along so we organised the spare bedroom for the arrival of friends who were coming to a dinner and entertainment at a local favourite place of ours in the village of Malmsbury, just around 10 kms down the road. Small Holdings is owned by the congenial David who always makes us welcome. He calls Sue his Malmsbury Mum. He calls me "Man Bag Leon due to the cycling Musette that I tend to carry often. Anyway I digress once again. The night featured Miss Bee Townshend who with a pianist and bass player gave us a marvellous selection of songs from a past era that included torch smoke songs to stage and film songs. All this with a 3 course meal and drinks made for a delightful evening plus we met more of the locals as well.

We saw this flyer at Small Holdings Cafe and thought it could be a good night.

It was in fact a GREAT night's entertainment.

Come Saturday we were meeting with a group of Melbourne cyclists from our old Bayside area. Several of our crew went to Italy in 2014 for the L'Eroica cycling event in Chianti. This event is conducted on both bitumen and gravel roads on bikes from a past era and must be pre-1987. That means steel and toe clips and straps - no modern carbon fibre here.
We can't go this year due to the house being built and no one to look after our blue burmese who is in her 20th year. We did however host this practice ride in our district. We rode 90 kms with about a third of it on gravel. The weather was not so kind with a high of 12 degrees. We started in mist, then rain and very little sunshine. Despite the conditions, the group had such a great time enjoying the sites of the district that it will now become an annual event to be known as the "Kyneton Klassic".

The gravel, although wet was in surprisingly good condition and a perfect practice before the guys go to Chianti in October.

Most probably the conditions in Chianti will be more pleasant than our practice run.

The worst part is the clean-up afterwards.

So that was our week - at this stage we are expecting a quieter week but one never knows. The house is now at the stage where the roof goes on this week and the bricks are due for delivery this Tuesday so we may have lots to report next week.