Stockton April 2011

April 26th, Arrived at Stockton Beach Tourist Park, not raining thankfully, after a wet pack up in Sydney. This is one of the Parks that we like, but like Dunleith it is very open to the weather.




April 29th, The weather has been wet and windy since we arrived so have done a lot of reading. The rain eased off this morning so I got out a couple of rods and went to find a fishing spot out of the wind. Lost a lot of bait but didn’t catch anything. Val was glued to the TV from 4pm till 11pm for Will & Kate’s wedding.



April 30th, Around 11am, there was a knock on the side of the Caravan, and Lo and behold, it was Carole and Rob (our friends from Charlestown) called in the say hello. What a pleasant surprise. We made arrangements to go to their place on Monday evening, for dinner and sequence. To-night we went to Joan and Roberts, for a baked Dinner and sequence, and had another enjoyable evening.



May 1st, Still getting those southerly winds but the rain has eased off. I went down to the Harbour at 11 am to watch the Powerboat Races. It was only one race lasting 1 hour. The course started opposite the Brewery in Newcastle and the circuit went out through the breakwall and along Stockton Beach and back. It was a very noisy contest, the bigger boats were constantly lapping the smaller boats, showers of spray were sent up when the boats were turning to roar back up the Harbour for the next lap. The going was pretty rough outside the Harbour, a lot of boats dropped out during the race and fortunately there weren’t any accidents. There was a good crowd lining both sides of the Harbour.



May 2nd, Val made her famous pastries to take to Carole and Robs tonight. After a tour of their house we enjoyed a lovely meal and played sequence till 1.30am. They are late nighters, like us.



May 3rd, We drove out to Salamander Bay, to deposit some unwanted items in our Storage Shed and have our annual Medical and Skin Cancer Checks. We did run into a few people we knew and caught up on the local happenings. We dropped into The Nelson Bay Bowling Club for a drink and Val made a profit from their poker machines.



May 5th, Yesterday I helped Val by putting on a load of washing. Always the helpful husband. When I pulled the clothes from the washing machine, to my surprise, my white socks and shirt were PINK. Val had put her new RED pants into the washing basket, and I threw it all in the machine. Thats what I thought you did with dirty clothes, if it can’t be washed by machine it shouldn’t be in the basket. That’s my last word on the subject. After lunch we took the Ferry across to Newcastle, I bought some replacement socks and Val had to go to the Millers Sale. After we cruised (on the Ferry) to Stockton we called into the Stockton RSL for a drink, and you wouldn’t want to know, we had to stay for the raffles. No meat tray but Val went home with a win on the Pokies.



May 6th, We met Joan and Robert at West’s Leagues Club at New Lambton, for dinner and a flutter. The meals were good, company was great and the pokies were kind, as Joan, Robert and Val all had good wins.



May 7th, As a result of my recent Cancer Scan, I had to go to the Medical Centre at Nelson Bay, this morning, and have a cancer cut out of my back. After about 8 stitches to hold me together, I drove home feeling like someone was permanently pinching my back. A very uncomfortable feeling. We met Carole and Rob at The Redhead Bowling Club for dinner tonight. The meals were very good and the servings were huge. We went back to their place for sequence and played from 8pm till 2am, incredible 6 hours.



May 8th, Mothers Day, both Steven and Greg called Val. They had both given Val her presents when we were in Sydney. I walked Val to the Stockton Bowling Club for raffles, dinner and a flutter, to celebrate MD. Val won a $12 voucher, we had a nice meal and Val won $150 on the pokies. To-morrow we pack up to leave on Tuesday morning for someplace north of here, yet to be decided.