The Entrance, March 2013

March 2^nd, Last night I packed up the things that were to travel inside the Van. It rained all night but luckily we had light showers this morning and I finished packing up, so we were able to leave the Park at 11am. We were concerned that a warning light had lit up on the car dash, so we went to Jax’s Tyre centre, with Caravan in tow, to get it checked out. The mechanic hooked up his test box to our Territory’s computer and it told him that we needed to replace the coil pack on #1 cylinder. His suggestion was that we simply buy a coil pack and get any mechanic to fit it for us. He also thought that the coil pack would be $150. So he cleared our computer and said it would be OK to keep driving. We drove down to The Entrance, with a stop for lunch at Macca’s at Williamtown, and booked into Dunleith Tourist Park. With help from the Park Manager and Rob, we were put on site 152 with their Tractor and got everything set ready for our stay. Carole had prepared an evening meal for us, which was very thoughtful, and we finished off our night with a game of Tiles.

March 5^th, The weather has been great since we arrived and we have been quietly settling in, a bit of shopping etc. I took the boat off the top of the car this morning and after setting it up, put it in the lake and chained it up to the retaining wall, along the waterfront. After all the recent rain the water level in the Lake was very high and there was only an out-going current, as the excess water tried to get out to sea. Val wanted to go crabbing, so armed with a flathead head (donated by a lucky friendly fisherman) we took the boat up the channel and Val dangled her hand line, with the head for bait, over the side of the boat, while I fished with my cooked prawns bait. We didn’t catch any crabs but I caught a flathead and a whiting, unfortunately both undersize. We came back in and went to Happy Hour at Carole and Rob’s Van, with a group of Caravanning friends.

March 6^th, I took Rob out with me for a fish this morning but we caught nothing. The water is still very brown and running out. I rang Dianne this afternoon to see if she could get the “coil pack” at Trade Price through Heartland Holden, where she works. She got all the details from me and said she will let me know.

March 7^th, We went to the RSL (Diggers) Club for dinner and raffles, with a group from the Park. Dinner was enjoyable and we did well with the raffle prizes won by our table. Val picked up a meat tray, so easily covered her $10 outlay for tickets.

March 8^th, The fish were still not biting today, so our only highlight for the day, was a game of Tiles after tea, at Carole and Rob’s. Dianne sent me an SMS to say she had the “coil pack” for our Terrritory, at a cost of $44. Wow! A lot cheaper than the estimate of $150 from Jax Tyres at Salamander Bay.

March 9^th, The Park was full today, for the Country and Western Week-end. The music was good, wafting across the Lake, so we went across Town and soaked up a bit of the atmosphere. It was a very enjoyable day.

March 11^th, Rob had given me 2 Mud Crab Pots, so Rob and I went out to put them down and had a fish. We went out the left channel and headed down towards Long Jetty and put our traps down. We fished in the adjacent area and checked the crab pots every 30 minutes. No crabs and no fish, so pulled up the pots and headed back to the Bridge where we fished for a while, before going in to shore. I caught a 44cm Flathead, so the drought has been broken, my first keeper since we arrived here.

March 12^th, I decided to take one crab pot out this afternoon and leave it overnight. The risk of someone taking it was slight and I would bring it in on Friday, before the week-end crowd arrived.

March 13^th, Rob was at a loose end this morning, so he came out with me to check the overnight pot and to put down the 2^nd pot. No overnight crabs, damn! We fished for a couple of hours in that area and finally decided to check the pots, leave them both out overnight and head back into the Bridge for a fish, before going in to shore. Rob caught a 40cm Flathead on live poddy mullet, so a good sign that the flathead are settling back into the Lake. The water level has dropped and is starting to clear.

March 14^th, I got up this morning to find a strong Southerly blowing across the Lake. I swithered whether to go out and check the crab pots, it looked a bit wild on the open water. Eventually I decided to just go out and bring the Pots in, as the weather forecast for the next couple of days wasn’t good. When I got out into the open water the surface of the water was like small bondi breakers and although I followed the line where I had put down the pots, I couldn’t site the pot floats so turned around and came back in. We went to the Diggers Club tonight with the Park Group, for dinner and raffles and Val won 2 meat trays.

March 15^th, It rained all morning and I was told that they were catching heaps of flathead out front but I don’t go fishing in the rain. Val tells me to buy wet weather gear and get her a Flathead, my reply “No Way”. My crab pots are still out, but they can stay there until the weather clears. Val says she doesn’t want to hear about me being rescued on the 6 o’clock news. We played Tiles with Carole and Rob tonight.

March 16^th, I went out after breakfast and “surprise, surprise”, my crab pots were still where I left them, but no crabs. The stench from the pots was beyond a joke, so I emptied out all the rotten fish carcasses and bought the pots in. I need to find a better spot to try for crabs. I went to Canton Beach with Carole and Rob to catch Poddie Mullet, for bait. I was told that the Flathead are biting on them now. Rita and Col (from the Park) joined us as well. I took the trap that Rob gave me last year and didn’t catch any. The trap that was working was the clear container with a flyscreen lid with a 40mm dia. Hole in the centre. Rob caught heaps and so did Col. We went to Joan and Robert’s place, at Cardiff, for a delicious Dinner and played Tiles. Always a good time and we collected our mail as well.

March 17^th, What a lousy day, we had a strong southerly blowing all day. Even the resident Corellas weren’t happy, they kept screeching and flying around in circles.

March 20^th, Thankfully, we are now on our 3^rd day of great weather. Monday I went out for a fish and caught two 29cm bream, Tuesday I caught a 41cm flathead and today I went out with Rob, in his boat with his bait, and I caught 4 flathead (36, 38, 39cm and a throwback) and Rob caught nothing. He claimed that he positioned his boat and drifted over the good spots, just for me.

March 21^st, Robert and Joan dropped in with our mail. Robert brought down a pair of wheels that he was planning to dump, to replace the small wheels I use to move the boat. I had been looking around for larger wheels for the last couple of years. I took Robert out for a fish and we caught a flathead each. We went to the Diggers Club tonight but didn’t win anything, but it’s always a great night to get out with a group of people from the Park.

March 22^nd, I decided to look at how I was going to fit my new wheels to the boat movers. The new wheel rims are very rusty, so I will clean them up, treat the rust and paint them. I knew that they were not a simple replacement and something would need to be modified to fit them. Robert had suggested that he still had the axles that the wheels had come from and we could cut them to length and weld them on. I agreed, so rang him to see when we could do the mods and he said, “come up now”. Val wasn’t feeling up to going so I put all my parts in the car and drove up to Robert’s Place. I arrived there around 3pm and by 6pm the job was finished, so after a coffee, I was on my way home. Sandra had rung, while I was away, so we made arrangements to go up to her house at Blue Haven tomorrow, for lunch and a catch up. Sandra is Val’s oldest and closest friend and they have known each other since our boys played Rugby together, when they were 11 years old.

March 23^rd, We arrived at Sandra’s house just after 11am and had a great time catching up, reminiscing, good food and a few wines. Sandra had a bag of “Westerns” for me, which I always appreciate, as when travelling I have trouble finding them. Sometimes, I have joined local Libraries to be able to get Westerns to read.

 March 24^th, We went down to Sydney today for a Family Lunch at Steven and Ed’s place at Elizabeth Bay. It was just our immediate family and Greg, Dianne, Jessica and Annaliese were already there when we arrived. We had a beautiful 4 course Lunch, good company and a very relaxing afternoon. Dianne gave me the “coil pack” that I needed for the Territory, so now I need to get a Mechanic to fit it for me. This will be the last time we are able to get together with the family, as we are planning to travel right around Australia for the 2^nd and last time before settling down somewhere on the NSW Central Coast.

March 25^th, We drove to Toronto this morning for Val to see her Hand Specialist, and he is doing her Carpel Tunnel operation on Tuesday the 2^nd April. We went to Toronto Private Hospital and booked in for that day.  Val wasn’t happy about filling in all the documentation, but we got through that and then had a light lunch at the Red Cross Café, at the Hospital. Val wanted to go to BigW so we went across to Mt. Hutton Shopping Centre on our way home, then down the Pacific Highway back to The Entrance.

March 26^th, I took Rob out for a fish this morning but we had no luck at all. We caught a few throw backs but at one stage we were positioned near Rita and Col (another couple from the Park), who were pulling in Flatties one after the other on Poddies. We didn’t have any Poddies and couldn’t interest the fish with our cooked prawns. We thought we might catch some poddies this afternoon or tomorrow morning and have a last fish tomorrow, before I pull the boat out of the water.

March 27^th, Rob and myself were both packing up today, so we decided that we wouldn’t have time to go fishing. Rob helped me get the boat out of the water and up on the Car. And it took me the rest of the afternoon to pack up the boat gear and most of the things that went inside the Van and the car. Carole and Rob came down for Pizza’s for dinner and we played tiles till midnight. We both leave tomorrow morning, Carole and Rob for Charlestown and us for Wallamba River, just north of Tuncurry.

Anna Bay, February 2013

January 29^th, I had set an alarm for 6.15am but woke up early, so I’m lying in bed fully awake waiting, patiently, for that alarm to go off. I became aware that it wasn’t raining outside and thought to myself, “Why don’t you get up and get started packing up now!”. I lay there a little longer then decided to get up and check the time. It was 5.50am, so I got dressed, put the lights on in the Annexe and went outside. I was surprised to find it was bright, cloudy but not raining. My first task was to get the boat unpacked and back up on the car. I took off the boat cover and sure enough, the boat was full of rainwater. I took out a bung from the back of the boat and it started to drain. I had the clamp-on wheels fixed to the side of the boat, so needed to get the front of the boat up off the ground, so it would drain completely. I grabbed an empty plastic crate and then attempted to lift the front of the boat, to put the crate under. No Way Hozay, I couldn’t budge it. (What was I thinking, with the boat full of water, Eh!). I grabbed a bucket and for the next 15minutes, bailed the boat out until I could lift it and get the crate in place. I left it to continue draining out of the bunghole, while I went in for a quick breakfast. I replaced the drain hole bung and loaded the boat up on the roof rack, with the help of my next door neighbor (obviously an early riser). The back of the Territory was already full with the last boxes of garage sale stuff that, Steven and Ed had brought up, so everything in the annexe and the annexe walls all had to go into the Van, for this move. To cut a long story short, we were packed up, hooked up and pulling out of the Park at 10.30am, 4 hours 40 minutes after I got up out of bed. The trip to Bays Holiday Park at Anna Bay was uneventful; we did pass through some light showers of rain on the way but arrived to dry weather and was basically set up by 5pm, in time for a wine. The floor of the Van was a muddy wet mess, so a quick clean up was in order before it was livable again.

February 1^st, After 2 days of very hot weather, the storms (with heavy rain and strong winds) came back today. I went down to the Examiner Office and placed our advertisement for the shed sale in next week’s local paper. We are going to run it on Saturday and Sunday and see how it goes before deciding what to do with the leftover items. Joan and Robert are coming up on Friday for the week-end to help us with the Garage Sale.

February 5^th, We have spent the last 3 days pricing all our stuff in our storage shed. That’s been quite a job, as you can imagine, pulling out each box and sorting as well as pricing. Today I decided to clean out the Caravan boot while Val went through our under bed storage, to see what we might add to the Shed/Garage Sale. Val went into the freezer looking to get something out for a quick meal tonight and found the freezer had defrosted. I checked the setting knobs, which are along the bottom of our unit, and there wasn’t a problem. It would appear that the Fridge is not working on the 240V setting. I changed the setting to Gas and Val discarded the defrosted goods that couldn’t be refrozen and cleaned up freezer.

February 6^th, I went for my annual check-up with our local Doctor. He did all the usual tests and then a Skin Cancer Scan. I had pointed out to him that I had this thing growing out of the back of my left knee. I had asked the Chemist at Blacksmiths what he thought it was. He said it looked like a wart but it was extended with a crusty top and I told him it was sore so he suggested that I should go see a Doctor. As we were leaving Blacksmiths, I made an appointment to see our local Doctor at Salamander Bay. So to get on with the story, Dr. Jim thought it was a small Cancer and set me up to cut it out. So, 7 stitches later and a cut 30mm long, I hobbled out of his Surgery and was told to come back in 2 weeks to have the stitches out.

February 8^th, Joan came up today at 1pm and we all went around to the Shed to finish setting up for tomorrows Garage/Shed Clear Out Sale. Rebecca, from Omeara Real Estate had given us permission to use a vacant shed, next to ours but on the outside, which was a blessing as it allowed us to set up, ready to open up quickly tomorrow. Robert arrived at the Shed around 3pm and helped me set up the furniture in our own Shed. We were set to Go! Val had prepared a Macaroni Cheese Pie for dinner, which we all enjoyed at Joan and Robert’s Cabin then finished off the evening with a game of Tiles.

February 9th, Our Advertisement in the local paper stated starting time at 9am, we arrived to set up at 8am and people started arriving, Typical! However It was a very busy and successful day. We sold a lot of stuff, mainly in the morning, and cleared over $800. We went to Soldiers Point Bowling Club for Dinner and we all had a win on the Pokies, to finish off a tiring but rewarding day.

February 10^th, We opened at a 9am to continue our Garage Sale, but it ended up being a total waste of time. Only 2 callers in 4 hours, who bought nothing, so we packed up and called it a day. Joan and Robert went straight home, as they had a family commitment, with our sincere thanks for all their help. We would have struggled to do it all ourselves.

February 12^th, Val went for her annual check-up with our Dr. and to get prescriptions for her medications. However, She did not mention her new Carpal Tunnel problem with her left wrist, Tut Tut! It is more than 12 months since she had the right wrist fixed and she will need another referral.

February 15^th, I got permission from O’Meara real Estate to use our storage shed for this week-end, so that we could run another Garage Sale on Saturday. Our rent ran out today but we still had a lot of goods left over. We spent the afternoon setting up the shed for tomorrow’s Sale.

February 16^th, Today’s Shed Clear Out Sale went fairly slowly, people trickled in and Val was ready to pack it all in, a few times, but we stuck it out till around mid-day then started packing up the leftovers. We ended up clearing another $256, so that wasn’t too bad. We were happy with that and shouted ourselves a nice Dinner at the Soldiers Point Bowling Club and Val topped it off with a win on the Pokies.

February 17^th, I had to open up the shed this morning, as our last customer, from yesterday, had bought our Hutch and couldn’t pick it up until today. I helped him load it into his Ute, and he decided to have a look at the leftover stuff. After telling me that his Sister did the Markets he offered to take it all off my hands for $20. I could see his point but didn’t commit myself until I ran it by Val. As it happens, I would have been in big trouble had I made that deal, as Val said “NO WAY”, “We have a lot of quality stuff  leftover and are not giving it to anyone, to make personal profit, It will be donated to a fund raising group”. I had to ring him and pass on the reply, without going into any in-depth detail. We rang Steven to wish him a Happy Birthday (46th.) and told him, we will see you next week-end.

February 18^th, I packed our leftover shed stuff into the car and gave it to an OP Shop near our shed, which support the handicapped people in our area. They were very happy to get such a large donation. Late afternoon we had a bit of excitement in the Park when a 5 foot Goanna took a stroll around.

February 19^th, After a lot of nagging by me, when Val was in agony with her left wrist, she finally went back to Dr. Jim to get a new referral for Dr. Hicks, the Wrist Specialist in Newcastle.

February 20^th, I went to the Dr’s today, to get my 7 stitches removed from the back of my knee, it’s now 2 weeks since my operation. After lunch I took the car to Jax’s Tyres for 2 new front tyres and a wheel alignment.

February 23^rd, We went down to Greg and Dianne’s place, at Glenwood, for Greg’s Birthday and to catch up with Jessica and Annaliese. Karina and her 2 children were there as well. We stopped off at Parklea Markets, on the way, so that I could buy a new watch and Val got herself a few long Tops to go with her black tights. Greg cooked a great BBQ and Dianne did the veggies and dessert, for his Birthday Dinner. Dianne decorated the Birthday Cake with re-lighting candles, so a few seconds after you blew the candles out, they sparked back to life again. Greg and all the kids had fun trying to blow out all the candles. We left Greg’s around 9.15pm and drove into the City to pick up Steven and Ed from Tattersall’s Club in Pitt Street and then back to their new Apartment in Elizabeth Bay. They had finished decorating and furnishing it and have organized a House Warming for to-morrow. They borrowed a blow up mattress, for us to stay the night and also help with tomorrow’s event.

February 24^th, Up early, we all headed off for breakfast at Kings Cross, in a very nice and expensive eatery, looking out onto the El Aleman Fountain. There were Markets around the Fountain but due to time restrictions, Val had to pass up paying them a visit. Back to the Apartment for Ed and Val to start preparing finger food for the Guests, who were to start arriving at 2pm for nibbles and drinks. Steven and myself drove around the Cross and picked up bags of ice and Sushi for the vegetarians. As the 80 guests arrived, they were given a drink, taken on a tour of the Apartment and then nibbled, grazed, drank and generally had a good time until they left. We got away around 8pm, we had a 2 ½ hr. drive to get back to Anna Bay, and there were about 6 guests still going strong. We stopped for a Macca’s half way home and were saying what a great day it had been, as it reminded us of our Catering Days when “Finger Food Parties” were popular.

February 27^th, Our Fridge Repair man came this morning, so after a few tests had proved that the 240V element wasn’t working. So I helped him pull the fridge out, after the Gas and electrical connections were disconnected. Not an easy job in a Caravan. He removed the old element and retested it to confirm that it didn’t work, then checked he had a replacement in his Truck. He did, so, armed with the knowledge that it was to cost me $170, I went to the Shopping Centre to get cash. When I arrived back at the Park, he was just leaving, as the new element would not fit and he thought he would have to drive to Newcastle to pick up another one. He said I’ll phone later and let you know what’s happening. When I got the call late afternoon, he told me a new element had to be ordered from Brisbane and hopefully will get here by Friday, but the supplier would not guarantee that. So I pushed the fridge back into place and reconnected it to the gas supply, so I could get it working again. I had emptied the fridge/freezer and taken it down to the fridge in the Camp kitchen. After our fridge had become cool enough, I went down to bring back our food, and it was time for a Chardy anyway. Shock! Horror! Some lowlife had taken our 2 bottles of wine from the Camp Kitchen fridge. Bugger! Val wanted to run around and check out all the other people in the Park, but there isn’t a lot you can do about it and we suspected whoever it was would have already left the Park anyway.

March 1^st, Boy, are we waterlogged. It has rained all last night and today. I was only able to pack up things that travel in the Van, as it was too wet to do any outside work. We leave in the morning for Dunleith Tourist Park, at The Entrance, so can only hope for a break in the weather. Mysteriously our 2 bottles of missing wine turned up, back in the very Camp Kitchen Fridge where I had put it. Nobody has owned up or explained what occurred, but the story of the missing wine did spread around the Park. I can only guess  that the guilty party heard the story and promptly put it back.