Welcome to my travel blog
Hello. My name is Monica and I am a silver gypsy, which sounds classier and more interesting than being a grey nomad.This is an ongoing blog which I usually restart when I hit the road again. It is partly a record of my journeys and partly reflections on issues which arise as I travel.
In 2015 my grandson Cory spent a couple of months travelling with me. The link to his blog is in a sidebar. In 2016 Hudson was my travelling companion. Cooper travelled at the end of 2016. They would love feedback on their blogs. Also in the sidebar is a link to my poetry blog.
Please feel free to read all or any of the blogs. I have discovered that some readers have not been able to Follow or Comment. I would still love to hear from you. You can email feedback to silvergypsy1944@gmail.com.
Monday, 27 January 2025
I said that my last few months on the road formed a transition to life at home. The first transition was to Toastmasters. Over the years, I had visited a lot of clubs around Australia but Peninsula and Healthy Chatterers remained my home clubs. I was coming up to 40 years in Peninsula and 10 years in Healthy Chatterers. I've always considered Toastmasters my second family, and the Solos Network of motorhoming solas as my third family. I knew I was coming close to a divorce from my third family but Toastmasters was to become important again.
One of the things that I have linked over time was the travel and Toastmasters, not just in my blogs and speeches, but in the people I met along the way and the clubs I visited. I often had TM projects on the burner. While I was in Broome in about July, I began work on a project that I planned to deliver in November when I got home. I wanted to honour my friend Jan who was celebrating 40 years in Toastmasters. She joined Peninsula at about the time I transferred from Coolabah club in Mackay. My project was This is Your Life, Jan Bell. Over the following few month, I organised speakers from all parts of Jan's life based on the TV program from a few years back. Some of these were pre-recorded, like her grandson Mark who was, at the time, at a United Nations conference in Belguim. Others were to be on Zoom. Former work friends and retired Toastmasters were to be featured. As well, I knew there would be speakers at the meeting, such as her daughter, her granddaughter, and many Toastmasters friends. I had to rely on current members for some of the legwork involved in the preparation as I often lacked internet connections.
All was going to plan until the last minute - widespead rain along my route home. Australian roads are not noted for their accessibility. As I rushed across the Nullabor, then South Australia and turned north, everywhere the road quality had deteriorated. Some roads were more pothole than road. I rushed to get ahead of the rain but only got as far as Moree before the floods forced me to stop. I couldn't get through to either Goondiwindi or Stanthorpe. After a few days, a young fellow I had been travelling with suggested that we backtrack to Tamworth and try the coastal route. I got home 24 hours before my presentation of This is your Life.
The timing of the presentation was fortunate. Jan had recently been confined to a nursing home. She had said to Janine that she wanted to go to a meeting and say her farewells. Janine managed to bring her to this meeting where we honoured her 94th year of life and her 40th year of Toastmasters. It proved to be a rehearsal for her eulogy. Less than six months later, in her real eulogy, we repeated many of the stories she was privileged to hear before her death.
By then, I had sold my motorhome and settled back into a quieter lifestyle. Because I had been on the road for most of the previous 13 years, I had no community at home apart from family. Over the next six months, I deliberately built community. I continued with my two Toastmasters clubs of course. On top of that I built a spiritual community at St gerard Majella's at Aspley, including working in the op shop there once a week. I joined the Burnie Brae senior centre playing Scrabble on Tuesday and attending the Older Women's Network (OWN) on Thursdays. For a while I was part of a ukulele group until my lack of time and lack of talent led me to drop that. Once a month I attended a Murder and Crime book club - which I prefer to call merely a Murder and Crime club, to keep people guessing. A couple of times a month, I went to trivia. I played cards and boardgames with my sisters and some Toastmaster friends. I think I have a good balance of activities and have several communities where I feel comfortable.
This will be my last blog on this site.
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