Rouse Hill, Xmas 2012

December 18^th, Up early to finish packing up to leave. Terri and Patrick came around to see us off, on our way to The OK Corral Caravan Park at Rouse Hill in Sydney. This was our first stay at this Park and so an unknown, as our usual Park was Sydney Gateway at Parklea which has been converted to a Lifestyle Village for the over 50’s. We turned off at Medowie and went to our Storage Shed at Salamander Bay, to pick up 2 boxes that belonged to Steven, then continued on to Sydney. This detour added a lot of time to our journey, so with breaks it took us 7 hours to get from Wallamba River to Rouse Hill, in Sydney.  After booking in and setting up Greg, Dianne, Jessica and Annaliese came over bringing a much appreciated Pizza Meal for all of us. We were very happy with our site, nice and shady, nicely grassed, a large concrete slab and clean amenities. One difference to other Caravan Parks, checking in was done at a “cone of silence” booth at the entrance, where I was given directions to our site and help to guide me in, but the Office was at the other end of the Park and a long uphill walk. I was given a friendly welcome, paid the fees and then driven back to our site in a “golf cart”, how flash is that.

December 19^th, Did the last of our Xmas Shopping this morning (Secret Santa Presents only). We went over to Greg and Dianne’s and as they are still working, Val made a delicious Chicken Stroganoff for Dinner.

December 20^th, We packed up our equipment and headed off to Steven and Ed’s new apartment at Elizabeth Bay, to help them with a few odd jobs. They had just picked up the keys, so the place was empty. My main job was to re-paint the freshly painted front door, from a dull red to a gloss red. Sound too easy, doesn’t it. Val main task was to take up the curtains, as they were all different lengths and dragging on the floor, another easy job. We started with a tour of the apartment, which was a very impressive 3 br, fully refurbished, new kitchen and bathrooms and freshly painted and carpeted right through. I masked, lightly sanded the front door and gave it a first coat of new paint. As it started to dry it was obvious that it would need a 2^nd coat, in 2 hrs. Val set up her sewing machine on our table and proceeded with the task of pinning up and hemming the bottoms of the 20 curtains in the apartment. Her instructions were to make the curtains just resting on the floor and her efforts were frustrating her as she was never satisfied with the finished results. I discovered that the curtain brackets were slotted, so adjustable, which calmed her nerves when I was able to adjust the height to her satisfaction. We took care of some minor tasks, like removing unwanted shelving and adjusting cupboard doors to close with even gaps. The boys were planning to remove the 2^nd bathroom shower screens to install the new clothes dryer, which we thought was not a great idea and created other problems. Val came up with the great idea of removing the existing cupboard under the breakfast bar in the kitchen and fitting the dryer under there. Steven was excited at the prospect and had to contact the dryer manufacturers to find out if that closed in area would be OK. A task for tomorrow. It was a long day as we left home at 10.30am and arrived back home at midnight, but we were happy with the help we were able to give the boys.

 

 

December 21^st, It was both Greg and Dianne’s last day at work, so we had the girls for the day. They had a great time feeding the goats and ducks, playing on the swings and merry go round and swimming in the pool.

December 23^rd, Greg picked me up at 9.15am and we went to Steven and Ed’s apartment at Elizabeth Bay to modify the breakfast bar to take the Clothes Dryer and I had to put a 3^rd and final coat of red gloss paint on the front door. Greg also hung some very heavy mirrors in the lounge room and I fixed a leak at the main bathroom shower head. Ed had packed up 7 boxes of things he didn’t want and gave them to me for our garage sale in February, next year. We got back home around 6.30pm, satisfied with our days efforts to help Steven and Ed settle in.

Mind you, it might take me a week to recover as I haven’t done that much work in the last 10 years.

December 24^th, Val started preparing her salad and trifle for tomorrows Christmas Day Lunch at Greg and Dianne’s. I dropped off everything to be put in Greg’s fridge and was finding that I was getting a cold today, so Dianne gave me some cough and cold mixture they had in the cupboard. I was feeling so bad after dinner that I went to bed early, very unusual for me.

December 25^th, We went to Greg and Dianne’s around 11am and gave Jessica and Annaliese their Christmas presents, which they loved. Greg had laid out a great table setting and I had left my camera back at the Van, bugger! Greg Dianne and Val were busy preparing the food for lunch while I sat around feeling miserable with my cold (only to be expected). Steven and Ed followed by Sue and Mark (Dianne’s parents) arrived and our party was complete. We did our Secret Santa presents for the Adults, we all got what we wanted, and we were now ready to eat the delicious food, prepared for lunch.

December 27^th, I stayed in bed all day yesterday and until lunchtime today. Val had picked up some more cold tablets and cough mixture, in an attempt to make me feel better. My cold was starting to improve, so we went around to Greg and Dianne’s place to share a Chinese takeaway with them for dinner, which was very enjoyable. Dianne had  eaten something, while they were out  spending their Christmas Vouchers, that didn’t agree with her and  she was vomiting, so we didn’t see her till later in the night when she came through looking very pale.

December 28^th, I cleaned out the back of the car this morning, as Steven had phoned to let us know that we were to pick up more boxes of stuff that Ed was giving us for our Garage Sale. We left early to meet with Nikos at 2pm, at his work building in Sydney CBD. Steven joined us and we went for a coffee and chat about the state of our finances.  It was good to catch up with Nikos again and we had a very useful discussion from which we decided to look into Relocatable Homes on the Central Coast after another year on the road and then selling both the Caravan and Ford Territory and buying a smaller car. Steven and Nikos went back to their respective jobs and we wandered around Town until Steven finished work. We loaded up the boxes from Steven and Ed’s Apartment and they took us to dinner at Mickey’s Place in Oxford Street, Paddington. The food was delicious and the atmosphere nice and quiet, compared to their first choice of the local Pub on the corner. It was far too late to do any packing up tonight and Greg offered his help to get us off to Blacksmiths in the morning.

Darawank, December 2012

December 1^st, It was very hot today and the good weather had attracted a lot of ski boats and jet skis to the Park for the weekend. The day was especially great for a family group, that were just in front of our Van, when SANTA Skied in to deliver some presents.

December 3^rd, After a lovely hot weekend, it was raining this morning. The rain had petered out by lunch, so I took Patrick out for an afternoon fish but we didn’t have any luck, as what we did catch were all undersize.

December 4^th, went to see Dr. Islam again this morning. He was happy with the progress of my leg wound and the swelling had gone down. To give me value for money, he took my blood pressure which he said “was the blood pressure of a teenager” and to come see him again in 2 weeks for a final check up before we leave.

December 5^th, Stayed in today expecting to have TV guy call to see what could be done to about our TV digital reception, all part of the Government Program to make sure all us Pensioners were digital ready. When he hadn’t arrived by 4pm I rang their office to be told that he was called away to attend a Bushfire and another appointment would have to be made. I then went into Beaurepares at Tuncurry and had our car inspected for Rego. Gladly it passed without any problems.

December 7^th, Went out fishing with Patrick this morning, no luck again. It seems that all the larger fish have dropped their litter and left the area. After lunch I went around to Patrick’s place and helped him put together a colourbond locker that he had bought to store some of the excess that was in his shed. Val wasn’t hungry so Terri asked me to stay for dinner with them.

December 9^th, Terri and Val went to the local Sunday Markets in Forster while Patrick and I went out on another fruitless fishing trip. The girls arrived home around lunchtime, after a good morning out that included more than just Markets, as they did all the Opp. shops as well. During the afternoon while Val was going through her mornings purchases, she dropped her bottom partial plate (teeth) on the floor and they landed on the leg of a fold up chair and broke cleanly into two pieces. Fortunately we knew a Dental Mechanic in Forster that had done some work on Val’s teeth before, so we will go to see him tomorrow.

December 10^th, We called in to see Tim the Dental Mechanic and he said he could do the repair for $100 and to come back in 2 hours. We went to the Forster Shopping Centre and filled in the time then picked up Val’s teeth on the way home. We went around to Terri and Patrick’s place for a few drinks and a Roast lamb Dinner, which was delicious.

December 12^th, We rang Dianne to wish her a Happy Birthday for today and let her know that we would have her present when we came down to Sydney. Finally we had a visit from the Digital TV Guy today and He was completely thrown off with the “Winegard” aerial fitted to our Van and could not do anything to help us. He reported back to his office with our situation (never encountered before) as this was the first time he had come up against an aerial situation for a “mobile” Caravan. I had researched our problem and passed on my information. The best solution was to change our aerial to a satellite dish and that would give us the best reception anywhere we were in Australia, as we travel. We now have to wait for them to have their technical people assess our situation and get back to us.

December 14^th, Went out with Patrick fishing and came home with a 36cm flathead. Let’s hope the big ones are back again, as our time here is running out. Only 3 more days before we leave for Rouse Hill.

December 15^th, We went to The Tavern at Forster for Chinese Lunch with Terri and Patrick. We had a very enjoyable meal and a little flutter on the Pokies. We all pulled enough out of the Pokies to make it a very cheap outing.

December 16^th, Patrick was not well this morning as he had been up all night with the “runs”, so I went out for my last fishing trip on the Wallamba River by myself. I took some hand lines to see if I could catch a mud crab on a hand line, as we do at The Entrance. I didn’t have any luck with the crabs but I landed a 63cm Flathead. That was a PB for me and very exciting to catch. A few minutes later, I thought I had caught a snag on the bottom and started up the motor to try to get my line back. I realized that I had something on my line as I was chasing my line around the river and was able to reel it in a bit then it would run away pulling out the line off my reel. Finally it stopped and seemed to just be sitting on the bottom of the river. When I then pulled on my line to get it moving again, the line gave way at the hook. The popular belief of the locals was that I had hooked a Stingray.

December 17^th, I took the boat out of the River, loaded it up on the car, and packed up as much of our gear as I could. Terri and Patrick came around for a farewell dinner at our place and we had an early night, as we wanted an early start in the morning as we were calling into our storage shed at Salamander Bay, on the way, to pick up two boxes that belonged to Steven.

Darawank October 2012

October 1^st, When we arrived at Wallamba River Holiday Park, yesterday, the Van on the site behind us was parked too far back for me to properly position our Van on our slab, to set up the annexe walls. They left today so I hooked the Van up to the car and moved the Van into its correct position. To set up the annexe I had to complete the repair of the roller shaft, with the parts that the Mens Shed had made for me. Unfortunately, the spigot diameter was too large so I “Let my fingers do the walking” and found a couple of Engineers in the Local Directory. That is a job for tomorrow.

October 2^nd, Rob and I headed off to Forster to see if we could get my roller spigot turned down to the correct size. I now had a sample of the shaft it had to fit into. We drove to the one that looked like the smallest business and more likely to be able to help me on the spot. When we arrived at the address, it was a private home and we thought we must have the address wrong. There were no signs advertising that a business was being run from there. I could see the garage door up so decided to check and it  was the right place. I gave him the job to look at and went down to the car to let Rob know what was happening. When I went back to see if he could do the job for me and at what cost, he handed me my spigot, turned down to size, and said “no charge”. Just goes to show that there are some generous/helpful people around, when you need them. Back at the Park I fitted the spigot and re-tensioned the roll out awning and set up the Annexe. Rob and I bought Pizza’s from the local shop in the Park for dinner with Val and Carole in the Camp Kitchen, then finished off the night with a game of Tiles.

October 3^rd, I set the boat up today, ready to put in the River tomorrow. Rob had his boat ready to launch, so using my towing hitch, we towed it to the boat ramp, put it in the River and I drove the boat up to the Lagoon while Rob drove his car back to their site. The lagoon is a safe mooring away from the wash of the Ski Boats and has a walkway, to tie the boats to.

October 4^th, Rob helped me to put my boat into the River, so we gathered our gear and went out for our first fish. This was the first time that I have been able to use my new fish finder and although it was showing fish on the screen, we didn’t catch any.

October 5^th, Carole and Val went into Town to  do some shopping, so Rob and myself spent a few hours fixing water leaks on both our Vans. Carole threw a line into the River from the board walk and landed 2 bream.

October 6^th, We went out for a fish in Rob’s boat this morning and after changing spots a couple of times, ended up in the creek that runs up the northern side of the Park. When we decided to move again, the motor wouldn’t start. After a lot of rope pulling, a few times the motor did start then died again. My guess was that it wasn’t getting fuel and was cutting out after burning off what little made it into the carby. Rob thought that he had picked up some dirty fuel. We eventually gave up and paddled into shore and I walked across the Park, collected my boat from the Lagoon and Towed Rob and his boat back to the Lagoon.

October 7^th, Rob came back from shopping with 2 “Witch Hat” style crab traps, so put them out in the river, to try our luck. We joined in with Carole, Rob, Terri and Patrick for a BBQ dinner next to Carole & Rob’s Van. We had a great meal with plenty of food, as always, and after Terri & Patrick went home we finished the night with a game of Tiles.

October 10^th, Rob and myself have been fishing everyday, in my boat, and have had some success with a couple of 37cm flathead and a 27cm whiting, but no crabs. I added a tin of cat food, with holes punched in it, to the crab pot.

October 11^th, Checked the crab trap this morning and found an unusual fish caught in the mesh of the trap. Nobody in the Park could identify it and it was not listed in our “Australian Fish” Book. I managed to set it free once I had dis-entangled it from the trap. Rob had to take his boat motor in for a service, in Forster, as he couldn’t find the cause for his motor problem. After he picked it up the problem was rust flakes from the top tank was fouling up the carby, so with that problem solved his boat is back in business and now ready for their upcoming stay at Dunleith Tourist Park, at the Entrance North. With Carole and Rob, we went to Terri and Patrick’s for Dinner and drinks, and had a great meal and enjoyable evening.

October 12^th, The 3 girls went on a Shopping Spree today, they call it “Retail Therapy”, while I went out for a fish with Rob and we caught 2 good flathead, 37 and 43cms. We all had a good day, in our own ways.

October 13^th, No fish or crabs today. We took Rob’s boat out of the water, loaded it up on his truck then Carole and Rob packed up ready to leave tomorrow.

October 14^th, Carole and Rob finished packing up and moved their Van off site and parked in the street, then with Terri and Patrick, we all met for a Fish & Chip / Hamburger lunch at the Shop in the Park. After an enjoyable lunch, overlooking the River, we saw Carole and Rob off for Home.

October 16^th, I took Patrick out fishing with me and Patrick caught a 46cm Flathead plus 3 other throw backs while I caught nothing.

October 17^th, I decided to clean the skylight in the Van and soon realized that it had to be completely removed from the roof to do it properly. Half way through that job and we were hit with Gale Force winds, but I had to carry on regardless and finish the job. I was glad I did get the job done as it now looks as good as new. The weather improved late in the afternoon, so I went down to the boardwalk to join the other fishermen and woman and landed a 56cm Flathead. What an unbelievable catch!

October 19^th, yesterday and today Patrick and myself caught a 50cm and 3 X 37cm flatheads. Patrick is still out fishing me but I’m sure my day will come. We are doing all our fishing “on the drift”, using cooked prawns. I did catch and try fishing with live “Poddy Mullet” and never got a taker. A large tent was being set up down on the Flat, northern end of the Park, and I found out later that we were getting a visit by a 50 strong Motorcycle Group called “Easyriders Australia”.

October 21^st, We caught our 1^st Muddie today, but it wrecked the crab trap. Val was overjoyed and cooked it up for her dinner tonight, which she thoroughly enjoyed. We read in our fishing book that the Witchhat type of trap were not suitable for Mud Crabs and we now know why.

October 22^nd, The “Gale Force Winds” were back again today, so no fishing. I put the witchhat traps in big bin and went into Tuncurry and bought a Proper “Mud Crab Pot”, best I could get from the local Fishing / Camping Shop, with 4 entries, so how could we miss.

October 25^th, Went out fishing with Patrick and we caught 3 just legal flatheads. While in Tuncurry this afternoon, I made an appointment to see a Doctor about my swollen left leg. I’ve had a bit of fluid in that ankle for the last 2 years but now it doesn’t go down overnight, so I thought that I should find out what the problem is.

October 26^th, I saw Dr. Islam at 10.15am and after examining my leg put me on a course of antibiotics, as a first thing to try. I did injure that leg when we first arrived at Wallamba, dug out a chunk of flesh, about the size of a dollar coin and it’s still healing. Val cooked up a heap of Crumbed Flathead Fillets and we had Terri and Patrick around to our Van for Dinner.

October 27^th, Val had a few bets today on the Cox Plate Day at Caulfield and apart from a few small wins got up the Trifecta which paid $267, WELL DONE.

October 28^th, Went fishing with Patrick and I caught a flathead and a Garfish and Patrick had a nice day out on the river. I knew my day would come. Had a fish off the boardwalk at sunset and caught my first bream.

October 29^th, Saw Dr. Islam at 11.15am and he was happy with my progress and instructed me to complete the full course of antibiotics and come back on Friday. Patrick and I went out for a fish after lunch and we caught 2 flathead, 52cm and 37cm, of course Patrick caught the bigger one. I should point out that Patrick will not keep any of the flathead that he catches and gives them to Val.

October 30^th, Terri and Val went out Shopping, more Retail Therapy, while Patrick and myself had a fish, with Patrick pulling in a 36cm flathead.

October 31^st, Fishing again, Patrick a 42cm flathead and a 28cm Whiting and I caught a 37cm flathead. We are enjoying our fishing trips. Val has been making “place mat sets”, so family and friends, look forward to getting a present.

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.

Wangi, Post 2, 2012

April 30^th, it rained all day yesterday. Thankfully it was fine today and we had been warned that we would have to soon move from site 8 to 10, to allow the Plumbing Contractors to replace the sewer pipes throughout the Park. At 3.30pm we were told that the work would be starting at 7.30am tomorrow, in the area where we were. Boy, were we buggered at 8pm, when we had finished setting up on site 10. It’s a huge job to move such a short distance, now that we have a full Annexe as well as the Van.

May 4^th, I had no luck at fishing until yesterday, when I caught a 33cm bream late in the afternoon. Joan and Robert came down this afternoon, for a visit and to bring our mail. We went to the Wangi Workers Club for raffles and dinner. We came away with 2 meat trays and had a very enjoyable meal.

May 4^th, Sandra came down from Bluehaven this morning, for lunch and a chat. It wasn’t the best time for a visit as the Plumbers were working along the front of the Van and the dust was horrific. It didn’t stop the girls from talking, non- stop, until Sandra left for home around 6.30pm.

May 7^th, I had put my one crab pot in the Lake, just out front of the Caravan Park but had not caught any. Sandra and Roger (a friend staying in this Park) both told me that they saw pots down at Myuna Bay, about 35 minutes away by boat. So I moved my trap down to Wangi Bay, just back from Myuna Bay, as I saw some pots down along there. I fished for a while after putting the pot down and caught 3 bream. So I filleted them in the boat and put the carcasses into my trap before heading home.

May 10^th, Happily, on the last 2 days there was a crab in the pot, so now Val was happy to have 2 cooked crabs in the freezer. I was hoping for another one this morning but no luck. Val wants to make a “crab quiche” to take to Sydney, on Mothers Day, for the boys. We went to Charlestown Square after an early lunch to do some shopping.

May 11^th, One of the machine operators, working in the Park, had given me a fishing spot, closer to the Park, where I could also put down the crab pot. I went down to Wangi to pick up the pot and I had another crab, great! Val will definitely have enough crab for the quiche now. After putting the crab pot in its new spot, I fished for a while but nothing was biting and it was a bit windy and choppy, so I went in. Around 4pm I went back out, just to check the crab pot and “bugger me, some lowlife had stolen my trap. Val had some great solutions to prevent this happening again, like, “Electrify the pot”, mark the float as “Police Property”, just for starters.

May 12^th, We left Wangi to arrive at Stevens place, at Centennial Park, around 4.30pm. Val’s surprise “Mothers Day” night started with a Chardy at Stevens, then we went into the City for cocktails at the Marble Bar, then walked to the Tattersalls Club for Dinner. The Marble Bar is quite spectactular and the food in Tatts Restaurant was great. After the 3 course dinner and coffee, we headed down to the Casino and finished off a very enjoyable night, donating more of Stevens money to the Tatts Club. We slept over at Stevens place. Tomorrow we are going to have breakfast somewhere in Town with Steven and Ed, then head out to Glenwood for Mothers Day lunch with Greg and Dianne before going home.

May 13^th, Mothers Day! We left Stevens around 9.45am and followed Ed and Steven, destination unknown. We eventually arrived at the Elizabeth Bay Marina, where we were to have breakfast. Parking was a problem but eventually I found a space where I squeezed in beside a motor scooter. Val got the greatest Mothers Day Surprise when Greg, Dianne, Jessica and Annaliese were at the Marina, to join us all for breakfast. After a very enjoyable breakfast we went to a little Park, only a 5 minute walk away and enjoyed the Harbour Views and the Fish pond. We travelled back to Wangi, via the Harbour Bridge and past the very first flat that we lived in, at North Sydney, and all the way along the Pacific highway to the Newcastle Expressway.