October 29th, Dianne, Jessica and Annaliese came to the Sydney Gateway Holiday Park this morning for a final good-bye, before we left at 10am. The girls took the opportunity to play on the jumping pillow while Val and Dianne checked out the Saturday Markets put on by the permanent Residents. We checked into Dunleith Tourist Park for a 4 week stay and, after setting up, caught up with Carole and Rob who also arrived today. After a quick walk around the Park, we found a lot of regulars that we know are also here. I unloaded the boat off the car and started setting it up.
October 30th, I finished setting up the boat, put it in the water and took it for a short run around the island, to make sure everything was in working order. No problems, so drove into shore and chained the tinnie up to the retaining wall. It is very windy and showery today so not my type of fishing weather.
October 31st, First job today was to put my paperwork into Centrelink, then place our bets for tomorrows Melbourne Cup, at the TAB. I re-acquainted myself with the local Library and borrowed 3 Westerns, did a bit of shopping and checked out the entrance to the Lake. Surprisingly the entrance channel was the widest I have never seen it, 3 or 4 times wider than usual and the locals tell me it was opened out by the bad weather that they had recently. I arrived back at the Park to find that Val had done the washing and I was just in time to help hang it out. What lousy timing! Only kidding. Our good friends, Gwen and Neal, arrived today and are here for 3 days in a Cabin. After dinner we went to Carole and Rob’s Van for a game of “sequence” and wound up an enjoyable night around 12.30am.
November 1st, Typical Melbourne Cup weather today, overcast, windy and threatening rain. The girls dressed up for the occasion and as you can expect and looked very lovely, the guys did very little. The owner of the Park put on a “Melbourne Cup” Lunch for all the residents, free of charge, and provided an 8ft Fishing Rod and Reel as a lucky door prize, with our site number as entry. David and Cheryl (Managers) organized $2 Sweeps, the Tables, seating and booked caterers to provide the food. David dressed up as a (very tall) Jockey and Emceed the whole proceedings. We put a table together with Carole & Rob, Gwen & Neal, Val & Ken and Val & myself, and all enjoyed a great lunch with desert. Beer, Sparkling Wine, Orange Juice and soft drink were also provided. David did a fabulous job as emcee and had us all in stitches. They took up a collection of donations for the Starlight Foundation and raised $630, which was a very poor effort for 95 attendees. If everybody had put in just $10 each, very cheap meal and entertainment and a free raffle for a very good fishing rod, that would have been $950 for The Starlight Foundation.November 2nd, Finally the clouds cleared away and the sun was out, so I’m off for my first fishing expedition since I launched the Tinnie. Its sounds like I’m travelling a long way out to sea and in a huge sleek launch but in fact I’m only motoring about 50 metres out to fish by the bridge. Success! I caught my one and only fish, a 29cm Bream. We had a BBQ dinner tonight in the camp kitchen with our Melbourne Cup group and Terri & Patrick (friends of Carole and Rob), which was great. After dinner we played “Sequence” with Carole and Rob until the early hours of the morning.
November 3rd, It rained all night and was wet and miserable, so we went to Bateau Bay to make enquiries at the Southern Cross Retirement Village, as we are now thinking to find an alternate option to The Fingal Bay Village, that is closer to the Family in Sydney. The area manager was away but is back at work next Monday, so we will ring for an appointment then. After putting away our shopping and having lunch, I went out fishing. This time I ventured to the other side of the bridge but the bites were few and far between, although I had caught a small bream and a flounder, which were throw backs. I moved back to the other side of the bridge and with the guidance of some people from the Caravan Park, who were walking across the Bridge, was able to cast a line into a large school of bream. The water was very clear and it was an amazing sight to watch these fish swimming along the shaded area under the bridge. Most of them were in too much of a hurry to stop to eat but I did manage to catch one beauty, who put up a great fight. It came in at 34cm and the fillets will do Val for 2 meals.
November 4th, Went out for a fish at 5pm and caught 3 throwbacks and a 40cm bream. Val raced all around the Park showing the fish to everybody. It was the biggest bream I have ever caught and people in the Park were telling Val it was the biggest they had seen, caught in the lake, for a long time. Very exciting, it weighed in at 1 Kg.
November 5th, Joan & Robert came down after lunch, with our mail. Nothing exciting, mostly Bills that I didn’t want. After catching up on all the news I had planned to take Robert out for a fish, but he didn’t have a current fishing licence and all our efforts to buy one failed, as it was late and all the shops were closed. We enjoyed a game of “sequence” after dinner.
November 7th, Went out fishing after lunch and came in with 2 bream, 29 & 31cm. After dinner we had another “sequence” night with Carole and Rob.
November 8th, Sandra came down from Blue Haven this morning, for lunch with a water view. Fortunately we still had a water view to see, as there wasn’t anyone on the site behind us. It was great to catch up and Val got her fill of family news and gossip.
November 9th, 10am we met with the Area Manager of the Southern Cross Retirement Village at Bateau Bay, to check out their accommodation and cost. We were thinking that this is an area we like and it is central to our group of friends and family. Both Val’s Mum and my Dad lived at the Southern Cross Head Office/Village, in Merrylands, Sydney. It was a good layout with all levels of Aged Care available on site, but the 2 bedroom Apartments were too small and the cost was more than we could afford. So it’s still Fingal Haven Retirement Village at Port Stephens, for now. We drove on to Erina Fair Shopping Centre for lunch and shopping.
November 11th, Only caught a 28cm bream today, they are getting smaller each day. We went to the Bateau Bay Sports Club with Carole and Rob for raffles and dinner. We won a leg of lamb, first number drawn, and Val had a bit of luck on the Pokies and came home with $95.
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