28 November 2012 - Wollongong Surf Leisure Resort, Fairy Meadow, NSW

The very heavy rain had reverted to drizzle by morning but we were unable to even detect the silhouette of the hills behind the city. Again it was not a day for outdoor touring and unlike the States’ capital cities which have so much to offer whatever the weather, Wollongong, for us, had promised wonderful touring along the coast and up onto the escarpment. Great shrouds of rain mist preclude such activities.

Emails arrived raising debate about the replacement of a kitchen appliance in our rented home, and so in the end we decided to go look in the appropriate shops and check out up-to-date models.  Such stores seem to exist here only down the coast at Warrawong, a suburb south of Port Kembla, so we decided to pop into Australia’s Industry World, the information centre for Bluescope Steel on the way. This small centre is really just the kick off spot for the bi-weekly tours around the steel works and does not display a wealth of information about the history and workings I had hoped for. The woman manning the centre was however very welcoming and offered to show us that part of the tour film explaining the points we were interested in. We left after the fifteen minute film a little wiser about Wollongong and steel.

One small point that did catch my attention was that the steelworks was started by the Hoskins brothers who had up to that time operated a successful iron foundry business. In 1907 they bought an ailing steelworks at Lithgow, complete with blast furnace and steelmaking facilities. In 1928 they established Australian Iron & Steel at Port Kembla, nearer the coal supply.

The name Hoskins rang a bell, and surely some relation to the Hoskins who gave the acreage to the city for the Botanic Gardens?

The network of highways and bi-ways about Wollongong is excellent, or at least between the hours of 9.30 am and 3 pm; commuters may say otherwise. We soon found our way to Warrawong and spent time at The Good Guys discussing the pros and cons of ceramic stove tops. Alas all brands have simplified their design and reduced the number of hot plates, much to my husband’s dismay. But our problem is more the size of the hole, the same problem we had when we replaced it ten years ago or so. If nothing else, Chris accepted that the plain stove tops suggested in the emails this morning are as worthy as any other we might consider.

Having satisfied ourselves of that fact, we made our way to the Westfield shopping centre and found that the very recently released Bond movie, Skyfall, was about to commence in ten minutes. And how we enjoyed it! For me it was the first Bond movie I had seen since the very late ‘60s and so very different from those. I had heard reviews suggesting there was less action that its predecessors.  All I can say to that is,”Really?!”

I was quite happy that the weather was unchanged when we emerged from the shopping centre. It would have been so frustrating if we had missed a window of good weather.