Back in 1962 I met a young chap recently arrived from Liverpool and a member of the 1st Alberton Scout Troop. He and a bunch of his mates were camping at Scott's Bottom - I think at Gumeracha in SA. I had been invited to attend by one of their senior members Bob Evans, who was working in Woomera and had been participating in scout meetings of 1st Woomera. To cut a long story short Greg Keegan and I have been best mates ever since.
Last week, Ian Lawrence another of our scouting mates, Greg & I all turned 60. Due to a complete inability to get anything organised in time, I had a quiet and most enjoyable dinner at Mercers in Eltham, on the 25th with Ros Cait,Ben and Ema (Nicco was doing an exam) to celebrate the occasion. We decided we'd have a big celebration in 2010.
Ian's party was on Sat 27 and Greg's on July 4 so we decided to travel to Adelaide on the Friday and stay with my brother Strachan and his partner Karol at Morphett vale and go to Ian's party on Sat, stay with friends at Kapunda, catch up with another brother Digby and his wife Lynn at Ngapla, party on at Greg and Sylvia's and return home on Monday July 6.
We had a few things to bring back so decided to take the LR on a road trip and see how we all coped. Also decided to take Angus the dog as he had demonstrated that travelling in the rear section of the cab was much to his liking. It was an uneventful trip and despite my hip/back/muscles/numb foot etc., reasonably comfortable.
Got up on Saturday morning and after breakfast headed out to the LR to find the front rhs tyre as flat as a pancake. Ros who was already sitting in the cab was removed post haste as I called the RACV .
To my surprise the RACV operator said she couldn't help me but after a pause which was just long enough for me to have almost decided to give her an earful about Total Care and reciprocal arrangements..... she said, " ....but I can call someone who can!". I reckon she's been waiting to use that one for years. She put me through to the RAA operator who said that a service vehicle would be there within the hour. To my surprise he turned up in less than ten minutes and we quickly discovered a common interest in LRs. While he changed the tire we talked about varius marques and he asked if I'd "Chipped it up yet?".
Apparently when the motor was first built in England it didn't comply with EU pollution control standards so LR not wishing for reasons of cost to fit a catalytic converter, detuned it and were able to sell it in Europe. In Australia, all new cars are fitted with cataltytic converters so some bright spark realised that the engine managment system could be re-programmed to improve performance to the original specs. The RAA guy gave me the name and address of Triumph Rover Spares in Lonsdale and reckoned that they'd be able to tell whether or not my model could be upgraded and would also be able to do it.
The good news is that they were only 15 mins away. The better news is that they could do it on the following Monday. The best news is that while Ros was sitting in the cab, it occurred to her that as they are probably the biggest LR wreckers in Australia, it would be worth asking if they had any rear seats and as luck would have it they did. So on Monday morning while they were putting in the new chip in the engine management system, I wandered around the yard inspecting every Defender they had. I chose the best set and about $900, I had a complete set of seats, a vehicle that felt like it was supercharged and the promise that they would see if they could find and put together a set of rear seat belts before we had to return. True to their word we left Adelaide a week later with a complete set of belts and bolts. Very pleasing indeed!
Sat 27th
Began well as above and apart from a little navigational difficulty in finding how to get to the Leicester pub and discovering there was a singular lack of parking at the venue, Ian's 60th celebration was a very successul event. I took a roll or so's equivalent in digital pictures and a grand night was had by all.
On Monday we tracked up to Kapunda to stay with Norma & John. Back down to Westlakes for lunch with Greg, his wife Sylvia and sister Stephanie. Nearly forgot grandson "Jack" Jackson Keegan who of course stole the show. Should probably mention in passing that at this stage, I don't think we'd seen the sun since leaving Vic and some of the worst winds and temperatures in a long time. The company at least was very warming.
That's it for tonight ... more tomorrow - got to go and turn the genny off.
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