100th Post - Keith Moves On (but only round the corner!)

April 20, 2015


Well, it took two years to decide...but after looking at the head vs heart pros and cons, Danny and I have sold Keith to a wonderful man named Bill.

Bill and his Foxie, Molly live only a couple of streets away in South Grafton and he owns the Engraving Emporium.  Bill makes cool signs mostly out of wood, perspex and lights.

He's real good with motors...but we'll let him tell you all about his plans for Keith's restoration and future adventures when I hand over this blog...which was part of the deal so the Adventures of Keith keeps on goin'.

So although we feel we made the right decision for Keith and us, now there is space in our back yard (and our hearts) where Keith used to be.  We loved restoring Keith, driving around Australia and sharing our adventures with your all...now we look forward to hearing about the New Adventures of Keith... take it away, Bill and Molly !!

New Fence & Keith gets a Turn Around

Keith and Harry:  The Car Park 

late Jan / early Feb 2015

Rastas & The Fencing Gang

Steve and Jade turn up from Tweed Heads to do some Location Scouting with Danny for a film.  They head off to Uralla and meet up with Rastas, one of our Pearl Street neighbours from Redcliffe.
Then they all come back and the Palmers come for a quick visit, also neighbours from Pearl Street.
Rastas, who has been travelling in his caravan for the past 6 months, then pops in for a couple of weeks  (camps down the back of the sheds) before heading up to Qld.

He says:  Let's build that fence...and so it begins.  12 posts and 150 palings later it is almost done.  Then it is Keith's turn to...turn around and face the new BBQ area that has taken over where the old dog pen was.

 Rastas is off tomorrow and we thank him for his expertise and hard work.  And also to Steve, Jade, Glenn and of course Danny for making it all happen.

So the dogs have a lovely new front yard and Keith has a better position and everyone is happy.

Dog yard dismantled and Keith spins around to face the new BBQ area

Happy 39th Birthday Keith !

15th September, 2014

Today Keith celebrates his 39th birthday.  He intends to spend the day hanging out with his little bro, Harry Transit in the back yard. Here's a flashback to our Sunset Caravan Park days of early 2013.

I have a dream...next year I would love to have a special 40th birthday short film / music video event starring Keith as a small cinema in our front yard. Here is one in the UK:

Sol Cinema - World's Smallest Solar Cinema

Keith enjoyed the Palmer Bros visiting over the weekend for Paint the Pelican - a fundraiser at the little theatre across the road where we all have become part of the committee.

And our friend from Tafe, Maddie asked us to form a film production partnership Banksea'a
http://www.bankseaa.com/

and since July, we've been making music videos, doing a couple of promos, pitching for grants, forming local partnerships, planning short films and every day, having a great  time collaborating with each other's creativity.

There is a cultural change in the Spring breeze in South Grafton ..and we are definately gunna be around to catch it !
                               

Keith for Sale, Baz and Rego?

March 2014:
Keith has been sitting patiently in the back yard...awaiting his destiny.   To sell or not to sell?
"We don't plan on going on a big trip again anytime soon and it would be good to buy some more film equip for our business...but it's not all about money for us and Danny & Co put a lot of time, hard work and love into the restoration of Keith."  Hmm...

Eventually we decided and he was advertised on Gumtree & recently on Ebay with some of the pics from places we visited on our adventures in 2012/13: Buxton and Inskip Point, plus interior / exterior photos.

But nobody really appreciated his uniqueness -
1975 Ford Transit front with a custom made 2012 Winnebago-style back and so he didn't sell.
But we weren't really disappointed.  At all.

Then last month, our mates Baz and Maxwell came to stay for 3 weeks, 'in between houses' and we loved that. Gave Keith a purpose once again and our fur girls enjoyed hanging out with their new buddy, Maxwell.

Meanwhile, rego was due and so another decision to be made - keep up the registration or let it go. Finally, the day passed for renewal and we let it slip by.

So Keith remains in the back yard with a few options for the future:  re-register at a later date; rent out to someone permanently; sign up with Air B&B which allows travelers via their website to stay at interesting places all over the world; or turn him into the world's smallest record shop / cinema in the front yard!

It doesn't really matter what the future holds, because he is staying right where he is: 
at our place, down Through Lane in our 'hood', South Grafton.

Keith finally gets to go to Byron Bay

Oct 17-20
Keith had been waiting for this day for a long, long time.  Originally we were going to head south on our big trip last year...instead we made a b-line for Inskip Point and beyond.

So when the opportunity came up a few weeks ago to apply for a Quick Grant to do Screenworks 2 day screenwriting workshop with multi-platform guru Mike Jones
http://www.mikejones.tv/journal/2013/9/23/screenworks-immersive-writing-workshop.html, we jumped at it.

Once secured, we got Keith all read to go.  I didn't realise how much stuff was still unpacked inside, so the task was quite a big one.

Danny gave Keith a good old servicing and after a quick 'blow out of the cobwebs' down the highway, he was right to go.

We went the coast road to Ballina and Ketih stopped to pick up some supplies:  a big prawn and a couple of pillows (forgot to put them on my packing list).
It was a leisurely drive to our favourite caravan park, Clarkes Beach and Keith settled in.  The park certainly has got more 'shooshy' since we first camped there in the back of the ute.

It rained quite steadily one of the nights and the escape hatch above our bed acts as a drum-like resonator that kept up awake off and on through the night.
The workshop was great and our heads were full of new and mind expanding ideas for future projects.  I bought a cute Australian made skirt (thanks to a generous birthday voucher from Ms Fleming) and we found a new favourite place to eat:  Red Ginger yum cha and oriental groceries / homewares.

Keith enjoyed his visit to Byron Bay and now is back home in South Grafton.
But what the future holds for Keith and any of us...only time will tell.

Keith gets a new home in South Grafton

Wow, what a big 6 weeks...we can finally breathe deeply again.
We have waiting to buy a house in Sth Grafton, NSW after we put our house in beautiful Scarborough Qld on the market.  It sold in 4 days (thanks to Mat Freind, the best real estate agent in Redcliffe & a video effort by us and him) and even though we found another one...the contract was not signed!!!
Well, after much angst, the deal is done.
In between all that nonsense, we have been going to tafe and loving it.  Danny got a well deserved Distinction for his News Story and I got a Credit which I was very happy with.
We have been enjoying the wonderful South Grafton and making friends with locals listening to music and spinning some hula hoops. Now this is going to be our home.  Luckily it is only 4.5 hrs from our family and friends in Redcliffe and we have plenty of room for visitors...so come on down!
We came up to Redcliffe for nephew Guy's 18th and had a great night at the Hansons.  And a fun night, as always, at the Redcliffe Show.  I even went on the dodgem cars as co-pilot, for the first time in 25 years.  Show no mercy is Danny's motto I think!  Very amusing.

Then we did a quick trip down to Kempsey NSW this week (while Harry Transit got himself some work:  new head gasket, some wiring)  and did a multi-cam shocorporate shoot with our teacher Andy.  A great experience, with Danny doing some lovely work on the camera and me doing my best and excelling in lead coiling!

 Now we have one more day in Redcliffe...off to the handmade markets tomorrow in Woody Point and then home to South Grafton.  Can't wait to park Keith out the back of our place behind the 4 bay shed.
Danny won't know himself with all that space to hang out and play in.

House Sitting in South Grafton

May:  We have scored a great house sitting gig at Chester's place, right in the heart of Sth Grafton. 
The main street is 2 doors up and full of old shops and op shops with lots of very affordable stuff.  Today we got a feather doona, 2 mugs and a parka for $4.50. 
We were looking after Molly for a week, Chester's Shitzu/Jack Russell  then he came back from Balck Rocks and has taken her to Inskip Pt, Qld (one of the best camping spots ever) for some arty RnR for a month or so.  Before he left, he made up real pasta with a hand machine.  Yum.

We have been enjoying the local pubs:  the Walkers Marina has free pool on a Monday and Tuesday and at the moment, I am the reigning champion.  Until the next 3 game tournament with Danny that is. The Australian has cheap meals, around $12 most nights and the Post Office Hotel is open at 7am in the morning! 
We had a night at the South Grafton Bowls Club and a few wines later, I got up and sang a couple of Patsy Cline country tunes with the resident duo on stage. Tafe is good and challenging and we feel we are getting somewhere with it all.  We are making connections in the community to:  hula hoop workshop coming up and Danny took a pushy ride over the bridge today dropped his resume into a disability company for some part time work.

So we are pretty settled here...so much so that we have put our house in Scarborough, Qld on the market this week.  Yes, after much thought and discussion, we have decided to look at buying a place in Sth Grafton.  We have our eye on this one only a couple of streets from the main drag.  But there is lots to co-ordinate with buying and selling.  Luckily we have Matt, a good friend and real estate agent handling things up in Redcliffe.  Let's just wait and see what happens...