The Gutzy Granny Update

For those of you who followed my journey around Australia, you might recall my faithful blue Suzuki Grand Vitara which I named Bluebird.

Bluebird proved to be an amazing vehicle to travel in. Most of my overnight stays were in cabins or roadhouses, but I did have a tent, even though I had never used it until I reached Coral Bay in WA. A popular tourist spot, there were no cabins available, so my only option was to put up my tent in the campground (with some help from the young couple next to me!) As you can see, my little Suzuki was full to its brim with my worldly goods which I was taking up to Broome, where I lived for almost two years.

I loved living in Broome, especially spending time with my little grandson, who was born in Melbourne. I had missed him so much when the family moved to Broome in 2017, however in 2022 I re-visited Broome and was able to re-connect. He is a gorgeous lad, now 8 years old and has a little brother Jacob, my second grandson, who is now two years old. Both are very happy little boys which is great to know. Being so far away, I love to get photos and look forward to the time I can return to Broome and see them again.

Whilst in Broome, highlights included working after school on the Follow the Dream program for Indigenous students – cooking food and helping students with their homework. I was also fortunate enough to obtain several paid writing projects within the Broome business community, as well as some English tutoring, helping a lovely young French couple with their English and some students from Broome Senior School.

The Broome Women Writers’ Group, with its highly creative, dedicated and well organised members, offered the opportunity to make new friends and develop my creative writing skills. It proved to be a much valued part of my time in Broome. Today I am proud to be participating in an Anthology of writing from the group’s past and present members, which is currently being compiled.

We never know what lies ahead for us in this life, and I was sad to leave Broome and the good friends I had made at the end of 2019, but keen to move ‘over East’ to be closer to my brother and family.

I am now living permanently in Brisbane with my partner Peter, who has a slide on camper on a Nissan Patrol. We have enjoyed several adventures together, including a trip to the Mundi Mundi Bash in April 2022. You can see some videos of Mundi Mundi at https://www.facebook.com/mundimundibash/videos.

It was a fairly long drive to Broken Hill and then out to the festival past Silverton, but apart from the rain, which had caused some flooding in the New South Wales outback, it was well worth the effort. There were over 10,000 people at the festival and I have never seen so many caravans and campers in one place. There was a fantastic line-up of artists and Peter and I relished the experience.

_{Stalls were selling special “doggy shoes” – hilarious to see but the dogs loved them}

Recently, we travelled down to NSW and spent a lovely Christmas Day with my brother, niece and family in Clothiers Creek. We left the day after Boxing Day and headed for Kyogle and Nimbin before meandering our way back to Brisbane via Rathdowney and Boonah.

We camped in a beautiful camping area on the Lions Road – see https://www.visitscenicrim.com.au on a recent trip to Rathdowney in NSW. The truck is fully self-contained which means we can free camp whenever possible and there are plenty of towns which offer free camp sites for up to two nights in NSW and Queensland.

Going forward, I’d really like this blog to be much more inter-active, to encourage those interested, both young and old, to have discussions about travel, writing, or health. You see, I’m particularly interested now in maintaining great health and living a healthy lifestyle, as that was the real reason initially that I left my job and my life in Melbourne back in 2018 to have an adventure.

In 2016 I was pretty devastated to find myself in hospital, after I’d had an abnormal stress test. I had three stents inserted into my left coronary artery and, although I was aware of my family history of heart disease, I had no idea that my arteries were so blocked.

It was crunch time and led to my decision to have an adventure – and to make the most of the rest of my life.

Although I have enjoyed good health since that time, I was again reminded that I have heart disease, when I experienced another abnormal stress test in 2022 and ended up having a stent in my right coronary artery. This has been incredibly hard to recover from emotionally, especially as I had no idea that I was at risk of a heart attack.

Apart from quite a few episodes of gastric reflux and heartburn, I had no other symptoms. I have since learnt that women often suffer from these two symptoms which can actually be heart pain.

I feel incredibly lucky to have survived this as I apparently had an 80-90% blockage.

I have just finished attending Cardiac Rehab sessions at St Vincent’s Hospital in Brisbane, which have proved to be very worthwhile. Apparently only 30% of people who undergo heart procedures actually go on to attend cardiac rehab which is quite surprising. Each week we attended for two mornings and listened to a short educational lecture to do with the heart, then progressed to the gym, where we were monitored for the next hour whilst exercising on each machine for 10 minutes.

We were also encouraged to do weight bearing exercises.

Why have I decided to document my health situation now? Well, if anything, it’s to remind those who might read this blog to get regular check-ups as you age. It’s also to encourage others to make each day count, to stay healthy and enjoy every day. There are still so many things I’d like to do and I still want to travel, and to talk and write about people and places.

I hope I’ve inspired or motivated you to look after yourselves and start your own journey! And I would love to hear what’s going on in your life, so please leave a comment!