Wangi Point, July 2012

July 1^st, Joan and Robert came to the Park to join us for a sausage sandwich lunch and to watch the “weigh-in” for the Bream Fishing Competition, being run from Wangi Point Holiday Park. The sandwiches were great (run by the Lions Club) and the 57 entrants brought in heaps of big bream. It was a catch your best 5, then release back into the Lake, after being weighed in. It was a very interesting afternoon with lots of prizes being won by the entrants and plenty of free giveaway items tossed out for the crowd.

July 3^rd, The first NRL “State of Origin” game was played tonight, in Melbourne, but we (NSW) lost to Queensland in a very close game, 21 – 20.

July 7^th, Dianne drove up from Sydney with Jessica and Annaliese this morning, to drop the Girls off for a 6 day holiday with us. We always look forward to having the girls during school Holidays, whenever we are near Sydney. After lunch and catching up on the Sydney news, Dianne left for Home and we got the girls settled in.

July 9^th, Carole and Rob came today and brought their granddaughter, Sophie, to play with the Girls. We all had a lovely BBQ lunch and the girls were kept busy feeding the lorikeets and exploring the Park.

July 10^th, WE went to Glendale Shopping Centre this afternoon and while Val did some shopping, I took the girls to see “Ice Age 4” at the movies. We all loved the movie and Val also enjoyed her Retail Therapy. We went to the Workers Club for dinner.

July 11^th, Jess and Annie did their usual things today, exploring, hiking and feeding the birds. I took them for a fish off the jetty opposite the Park and they were catching the small fish that hang around under the Jetty. I saw an Octopus slowly making it’s way towards the Jetty and pointed it out to the Girls. It was a fair size, the body being approx. 6” diameter and with the tentacles extended about 20” across, tip to tip. Jessica decided to try and catch it with her fishing line and eventually succeeded, even though I told her we didn’t want it. I wasn’t unhappy when the line broke off as I tried to lift it out of the water, but it did give us something exciting for Jessica to talk about.

July 12^th, The girls haven’t had great weather for their stay with us and today was no better. We went to The Newcastle Museum for the afternoon. The Museum is broken up into 4 sections. We started with the mining and steel work section and were impressed with the demonstration and laser light show on the Newcastle Steel Works. The next section was dedicated to interactive/hands on, displays related to Physics. The Girls were delighted, running from one display to the next display to try them out. The most impressive item was a long overhead counter levered hinged bar, with the short end attached to a sling around a small car. Along the long end of the bar were 4 ropes, hanging down from different points along the bar. This is a demonstration of the power of mechanical advantage and surprised the Girls when they could lift the car off the ground when they pulled on the rope at the longest distance from the pivot point. The last 2 sections were on Newcastle’s history and services. Although this is not a big Museum, it was very interesting and well worth the visit.

July 13^th, We packed up all the Girls gear this morning and left for Glenwood (Sydney) in the afternoon. Aside from the poor weather the girls had an enjoyable holiday with us and there favourite activity was feeding the Lorikeets and at only 8 loaves of bread it was very cheap entertainment. It reminded us of our visit to Curumban Bird Sanctuary many years ago, where the Lorikeets would land on your head and arms to be hand fed. After dropping the Girls home and having a cuppa and catch up with Greg and Dianne, we headed back home to Wangi, with a stop at “The Bluegum Hotel” at Waitara for dinner with Steven and Ed. We had never been to this Hotel before but were very impressed with the Bistro and the quality of their food, Excellent.

July 14^th, We went to Carole and Rob’s house, this afternoon, for dinner and Tiles. They took us on a drive around the Newcastle foreshore, to see the sights. That was something we had never done, even though  we lived in the Port Stephens area for 9 years and had come to Newcastle many times to shop.

July 15^th, Finally, a day when the weather was suitable for fishing. Out I went and caught a flathead and 3 bream, all undersize. Bugger! Luckily I enjoy sitting out on the water, bobbing about in my tinnie.

July 17^th, We had a visit from Robert (Ravlin) this afternoon, when he called in to give us a roll of carpet to cover the concrete slab in our annexe. When Joan and Robert were here last, Joan had commented that we needed to have carpet, to make it warmer in the annexe. It looks great and is appreciated, it does make it much warmer.

July 18^th, Carole and Rob came for lunch and tiles. We had an enjoyable afternoon and they were impressed with our new carpet.

July 22^nd, Joan and Robert came for lunch and tiles. We had an enjoyable afternoon, even though it was raining.

July 25^th, We went to Carole and Robs, at Charlestown, for dinner and tiles.

July 26^th, Hooray! Went out fishing this morning and was happy to come in with a 43cm flathead.

July 29^th, Carole and Rob met us at The Wangi Workers Club, for dinner and a huge Toy Raffle. Joan and Robert were coming as well but had to cancel, as Robert was in Hospital with Kidney Stones.

July 31^st, We went to The Workers Club for raffles and dinner. Val won a tray of meat in the raffles and I won $100 cash in the Member’s Bi-Monthly draw.