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.