Toowoomba, Wk 1, 2011

August 22^nd, We packed up and drove to Toowoomba, planning to stay at the Big 4 Caravan Park. Because the Flower Festival was only a few weeks away, they couldn’t give us a site, for a long period, but they rang another Park for us and found out that The Jolly Swagman could accommodate us. We booked in on a weekly basis, with the first 2 nights on their drive through site then onto a permanent site for as long as we needed, which is an unknown. This worked out well, as I was given a glowing recommendation for a local Caravan Repairer who would quote on our Van repair to-morrow and being on a drive through site I didn’t have to unhook the car from the Van. After hooking up the power and water I tried to tune in the TV, but to no avail. No signal was being received. I unpacked our 2^nd TV, which I had bought from Coles when we saw them on “Special”, back at Bateau Bay. It is a digital ready model, so doesn’t need the separate set top box. I connected it up, tuned it in and we had perfect reception, so after checking all my cables it was obvious that the old HD Set Top Box had “karked it”.

August 23^rd, I dropped Val off at Spotlight and took the Van out to “Trail-a-Van” to get things started on a quote to repair our Caravan damage. After a look and a few quick photos, they will prepare a quote and send it to the NRMA Insurance for approval. It’s now just a matter of waiting till we hear from them. The young fellow at Trail-a-van recommended Superior Springworks, in the next street, to fix my rear suspension problem on the Territory, as they did all that sort of work on their vehicles. The quote for the car was $340, to replace both rear suspension coil springs with HD long and it’s booked in at 8am on the 31^st August. I picked up Val from Spotlight and on the way home we checked out the local, Federal Hotel, and decided to have dinner there to-night. We walked across the road to “Big Dads Pies” and had takeaway pies and chips for lunch, back at the Van. They were really good pies. It was only a 2 minute walk from our Caravan Park to the Pub, the $11 meals where great but the Pokies weren’t good to Val.

August 24^th, I dropped Val at The Grand Central Shopping Centre, in the CBD, while I went to Centrelink to put in my paperwork. Parking is impossible, every street, laneway and back alley has Parking Meters and I had absolutely no money on me. At Centrelink I found a 10minute parking space and was in Centrelink for at least 30 minutes, so I was a little stressed, worrying about getting fined. When I got back to pick up Val, I had the same parking problem. I couldn’t drive into their car park as the boat was on top of the car, so I rang Val’s mobile, numerous times, without an answer, while driving around the streets looking for a place to park without meters and you can understand the level of frustration I was feeling by now! Finally Val answered her phone and I picked her up and went home for a couple of Chardies. When I checked Val’s phone, somehow the ring setting had been accidently changed to buzz only, so I soon fixed that.

August 25^th, I took the boat off the car and unloaded most of the gear from the back. Two reasons for this, I wanted to be able to drive into underground car parks and Scott, at Superior Springworks, wanted to check the unloaded height of the back of the car, so that he could make sure he selected the correct springs for the rear suspension. After I got back from Superior Springworks, we walked down to the Information Centre just down the road from the Caravan Park. We browsed around and picked up some brochures on local sites and events, had a free coffee and walked back home.

August 27^th, The weather has been good since we arrived in Toowoomba, with the temperature being kept down by a cool breeze, until last night. The rain caught up with us and this morning it was quite a sight to look out a see the air was white with, what I can only describe as “sleet”. Something I had never seen before and very cold.

August 30^th, The weather has been controlling our activities. We have had a good day , then a wet day, sunny day etc, so in between we have filled in time with a few repairs around the Van. I cleaned up my boxes in the back of the car and put a lot of stuff in the bin. The painted base of the table was an eyesore, the chipped and worn areas had Val complaining for a long time now. So I dismantled it all, cleaned up and painted the base, then to stop the base being damaged by our feet I cut a circular piece of carpet and glued it in place. I am very happy with the finished job and it met with Val’s approval.

August 31^st, I took the car into Superior Springworks at 8.30am and waited while they fitted the new heavy duty coil springs, into the rear suspension of the Territory. I’m very satisfied with the finished job, the back is well clear of the tyres now.  Scott pointed out that one rear tyre was badly worn on the inside edge and needed replacing. When I got back home I thought that I would replace the worn tyre with the spare and put that problem aside till later. Not a chance, the spare was as bad as the worn tyre, so now I’m up for 2 new tyres. We did a bit of shopping after lunch and stopped off at the Federal Hotel for a flutter, on the way home, and came home $120 in front.

Killarney, Warrick 2011

August 18^th, We left Evans Head this morning after Val bought herself $20 worth of prawns with her Co-Op voucher. We stopped off in Ballina to do some shopping before heading for Killarney, famous for its great waterfalls. It was featured on one of the Travel Shows on TV and looked well worth a visit. We stopped in Kyogle and had a very nice lunch at Dave’s Bakehouse. The “so called” highways from Kyogle to Killarney were atrocious, narrow, windy and so broken up in places that, at one stage, Val thought her head was going to leave her shoulders. We drove into Killarney to the Pub to pick up some wine and I pulled into a street parking spot only to find that I was too long and blocking the driveway to their carpark. There was plenty of room in the Pub’s carpark so I turned in and the Van mounted the gutter and, unseen by me, collected a cast iron street garbage bin that was concreted into the ground, which gouged a split in the aluminium wall of the Van, from about 1/3 from the front down to nearly the door, ripped of the wheel arch dress pieces. We discovered later that the wall had been broken right through in some places, that was when Val looked into her shoe cupboard and could see outside. You can imagine how upset we both were. We bought our wine and put $20 through their Pokies, without any joy, then drove out to the Queen Mary Falls Caravan Park and booked in for 2 nights. I had a bit of trouble getting the Van unhitched and noticed that the body of the car was sitting down on the rear RH side. I had to jack the car up to get it free from the Van. Looks like I’ve got a suspension problem to deal with to-morrow. When Val went into the Van she found a lot of things stored on the bunks had been bounced onto the floor and her “Turbo Oven” bowl was smashed into pieces. To top our day off, when I tried to get TV I found no signal for digital and unwatchable picture on analogue. Luckily we had some DVDs to watch. We won’t forget our trip to Killarney, in a hurry. We hung our thermometer outside and last time we checked, it was 3 deg.C, BRRR!

August 19^th, Val woke up at 8am, gasping for breath and realized that her breathing machine was not running. We had a widespread power “blackout” in the area that lasted till 1pm. I rang in a claim on our NRMA Insurance, for the damage to the Van and replacement of the Turbo Oven, so now we need to obtain a quote, with photos, to complete the process. We drove into Killarney Township to do some shopping and I took the car to a local mechanic to get an assessment on the rear suspension. He couldn’t find anything broken and told me the coil springs had collapsed and need to be replaced with long “heavy duty” springs. We are leaving in the morning so that will have to be fixed at our next long stay. We stopped on our way back to look at Dagg’s Falls, which were very good. We sighted a couple of small Kangaroos on our trip back to the Park and this area is full of all types of birds. I walked down to see the Queen Mary Falls while Val put away the shopping and started preparing dinner. It was starting to get very chilly out but the view at the Falls was spectacular. The nights were very cold here so we had to get out our fan heater to warm up the Van. We had been told by the Manager, that there was a Caravan Repair place at Warwick, only 43klms away.

August 20^th, We packed up and drove to Warwick and our 1^st stop was the Information Centre, only to find that there wasn’t a Caravan Repair place in this Town. As it was Saturday and nothing could be done till Monday, as far as repairs to our vehicles, so we decided to stay in Warwick and have a look around. We looked over 2 Caravan Parks and decided to stay at the Kahler’s Oasis (Big 4).

August 21^st, It was raining steadily all morning and Val’s head cold had freshened up again. While waiting for the rain to stop, I picked out a few sightseeing places that looked interesting. There wasn’t a lot of things open on a Sunday. The 1^st was Australiana Park and when I got there it was only a Playground Park with a football Oval. I went on to Rosenthal Lookout, which was a 2 story tower with a viewing platform a fair way from the Town Centre. When I went to climb the Tower steps I found the gate was welded closed, so I assumed that they didn’t want anybody to have access. I was now getting a little dejected, but carried on to have a look at the Queens Park Rose Gardens. When I got to Queens Park I actually drove past the Rose Gardens without seeing them. It was a large Park, with another Football Oval and picnic/BBQ areas bordered by the Condamine River. On the way back around the Park I came across the Rose Garden. Have a look at the photo below and you can see how I missed seeing little stalks sticking out of the garden beds. On that note I headed home and the rain started up again. We leave for Toowoomba in the morning.

Evans Head, August 2011

August 4^th, Arrived in Evans Head, mid afternoon and booked into The Silver Sands Holiday Park. We have an ensuite site for 2 weeks. This used to be run by the Council and was the cheapest Caravan Park in NSW that we had come across. It is now owned by The Lands Department and the prices are up! Up! Up! $38/night, without a discount. Val rushed next door to the Bowling Club, while I was setting up, to get the weeks activities and naturally, have a flutter.

August 5^th, After doing our washing in the morning, we walked into Town to find out what had changed. A few shops had closed, including “Farmer Charlie’s” but they have a good sized IGA Supermarket and a very large Soul Patt’s Chemist. We checked out the local Hotel and the RSL before walking back home. This is such a small place that you very rarely have to use the car.

August 6^th, We decided that this was a good place to start doing a daily walk, for exercise. We set off after lunch and walked around the Park and along the Riverfront, which took 45 minutes, so not a bad start. We did see another camper who had been out fishing in his tinnie and his clamp on wheels, were fitted with wheelbarrow wheels. What a great idea, so now my project is to do the same. The small wheels on my clamp on set bury themselves in the sand and make it very difficult to get the boat out of the water on a sandy beach.

August 8^th, We went into Ballina today, I had to visit Centrelink and then we wandered around all the shops at Ballina Fair. I also left Val at the Shopping Centre and went to Bunnings, looking for wheelbarrow wheels. It was a very small Bunnings and I was told it was cheaper to buy a new wheelbarrow than to buy a replacement wheel, at around $60ea. I tried 2 other places for wheels and no luck, so gave up. I priced a piece of toughened black glass, for the stove lid and found the glass was only $40 but $110 for the painting. It’s a minimum charge for the painting process. Looks like I may have to think of something else for the stove lid.

August 9^th, Val’s head cold flared up again, so while she kept out of the cold breeze I put a fishing rod together and went for a fish, up river near the bridge. It was low tide, but I was happy when I hooked a 33cm Bream, which Val enjoyed for dinner.

August 10^th, We walked to the Bowling Club for their meat raffle, dinner at the Chinese restaurant and a flutter. We had an enjoyable meal, but came home empty handed.

August 11^th, I got up early and went fishing, to same spot near the bridge, but couldn’t get a decent bite. I decided to try the sandy side of the river, just opposite, as it looked like an ideal spot for flathead and the tide was running out. I couldn’t find a flathead but was happy to take home a 28cm Bream.

August 13^th, Went fishing again this morning but no luck. I drove down to the Co-Op to check out the wharf area, as a possible fishing spot. It’s alongside their Trawler Boat Harbour and looked promising. I chatted to a local that was in the area and he gave me some tips on fishing the river, but pointed out the best time to fish from the Co-Op wharf was when the fishing boats are working, which isn’t now. I might give it a go anyway one morning, once again I was told not to use a sinker to fish there.

August 15^th, It was high tide at 9am, so off I went, rod in hand to try fishing at the Co-Op wharf. After an hour and no bites, I decided that this was a waste of time, so I packed up and went to the old boat ramp and threw in a line. This was better, I caught a couple of 24cm Bream to throw back. Still not overjoyed, I moved down to the new boat ramp, which has a small floating wharf. Not a lot happening here either, until 12 o’clock and a string of Cruiser sized boats came in and each revved their motors getting up onto their trailers and in the process churned up the water along with the fish waste off the bottom. Fish came from everywhere and the bites were on. Lots of small fish but I caught a 30cm Luderick (on cooked prawn) and a 37cm Bream that gave me an exciting fight and I was feeling WOW when I landed it. I hadn’t heard back from Concept Caravans, I sent them a help email a week ago asking for advice with 2 problems. I haven’t been able to properly fill the water tank in the Van as it just kept blowing back, no matter how slow I ran the hose. 2^nd problem was the flow of mains water through the sink tap was down to less than half. So, after a late lunch I decided to look at the pressure reducing valve at the water connection. It was the easiest thing to get to, so I pulled it apart, flushed it out and re-assembled it. Success, the flow was now back to normal. When I checked the emails to-night there was a reply from Concept, with a suggestion that possibly water had collected in the vent tube and that their Plumber would follow up with suggestions for my 2^nd problem, which I have already fixed.

August 16^th, I received the Concept Plumber’s email and he gave me a list of potential problem areas. I got stuck into the blocked vent tube problem, crawled under the Van, dropped the tank and disconnected the vent tube from the tank. No water in the tube, so I blew through the tube with my 12v tyre pump and something shot out of the vent outlet, like a bullet, and went onto the grass. No chance of finding the foreign object, so re-assembled everything and filled the water tank without any problem, hooray! I should have fixed these problems ages ago, instead of letting it annoy me for the last 6 months.

August 17^th, Packed up, ready to leave in the morning. We walked to the Bowling Club for raffles and a flutter. Val won a meat tray, a $20 voucher for the Fish Co-Op and another $20 voucher for the Club, but because we were leaving in the morning, the Barman simply gave Val $20 cash for her voucher. A great result for the raffles but no luck on the pokies. We will spend the Co-Op voucher as we leave in the morning.

Brisbane, July 2011

July 29^th, Arrived in Brisbane and booked into Brisbane Gateway Holiday Resort for the week-end. After setting up, we headed over to Brian (Val’s Brother), Julies, Nigel and Rebecca’s for Pizza and to see their new house at Mount Cotton. We were very impressed, a very modern, spacious 4 bedroom brick home with a large outdoor entertaining area and a double garage, that is set up to be the man’s place, with TV, 2 comfortable reclining lounge chairs and a bar. Every man’s dream. Sophie was a little shy of us to start but soon warmed to having us help her with her drawings. We had a belated joint exchange of Birthday Presents for Val and Brian. We gave Brian a Jacket and a T-shirt and Brian’s family gave Val an Electric Wok. She was very excited and promised us a Stir Fry on Sunday night to christen the new Wok.

July 30^th, To-day got off to a very bad start. My WiFi modem stopped working so I decided to use the free WiFi connection available at the Resort. All was going well until I decided to look at my Telstra account and it was $692.86. I had changed my phone and wireless internet and this was my first full account with my new set-up. The mobile phone charges were as expected but the internet charge was $605. I was floored, can’t possibly be right, so I went searching through the online account only to find that the area in question had no data available. Only 28 calls at $590.34 and $49 for another mobile, which I assume is my old internet connection that was cut off, so I thought. I have to wait until Monday to sort this problem out with the Telstra Business Centre in Coffs Harbour, where this was all set up. We all went to the Redlands Sporting Club for dinner and a flutter, to celebrate the joint Birthdays. The meals were excellent, the entertainment was great but Val and Nigel were the only winners on the Pokies.

July 31^st, The family arrived around 4pm and we enjoyed a few games of Table Tennis in the Games Room while Sophie was amused at the Play Centre. Val whipped up a chicken, pork and prawn stir fry, which was enjoyed by all. After saying our “good byes” and seeing the family off, I packed up ready to leave for Brunswick Heads in the morning.

Coffs Harbour, June 2011

May 27^th, We booked into Park Beach Holiday Park, in Coffs Harbour, for 2 weeks, and set up.  I dropped Val off at Park Beach Plaza to do some shopping while I went to Centrelink and lodged our paperwork. 

May 28^th, Brian and Julie arrived from Brisbane and after settling into their Motel, at the Hoey Moey, Brian walked down to the Caravan Park to meet us. He had left Julie at the Motel having a granny nap. After a coffee and a chat we went to the Motel, had a guided tour of the Hotel/Motel complex and met Cameron (The Manager and Julie’s nephew). After a couple of drinks we went to The Coffs Harbour Ex-Services Club for dinner and a flutter.

May 29^th, We all went to the Markets this morning, one was in the Car Park under the Harbour Shopping Village and the other was at The Jetty Park. They both had some interesting Stalls, I ended up with some socks and a few westerns. We all met at The Coffs Harbour Bowling Club to watch the Sunday afternoon League game between Balmain and St. George. We hoped for a Balmain win but St. George was too good. Brian and the girls went off to play the Pokies and Brian won an $860 Jackpot, well Done! Val and I went home for dinner and Brian rang us later to say he had just landed another $400 Jackpot, his lucky day!

May 30^th, Val had an appointment at The Denture Clinic at 12 noon; we thought it was for a quick look to decide what he could do for her. The decision was to make her a new top plate, so he went the whole hog and took impressions (much to Val’s dis-pleasure) and her next appointment is the 8^th June. He quoted $1900 for the whole job, so we went to HCF to find out how much they would cover. The sad news there was that Val had already used up most of her allowance for Denture work and we would only get back $167. What a shock, had to go for a strong coffee and some lunch to settle down, then to the Coffs Ex. Club for another coffee for me and some pokie therapy for Val. We picked up a “What’s On” brochure from the Club and found out that they play Table Tennis. So a few enquiries and I found out they play just down the road at “The Museum”.

May 31^st, It rained and the wind blew fiercely, all night. When I got up this morning and walked outside I found the Park Workers cleaning up, at the front of our Van. A 1.2 metre square Perspex Canopy Cover had blown off the roof of the Amenities Block and smashed into pieces on the road in front of our Van. Luckily there wasn’t any damage to any Vans or Cars.

June 1^st, Went to “The Museum”, bat in hand, and found that from 1pm the Coffs Over 50s Table Tennis Group play and they have 7 tables. I was made very welcome and for a cost of $5, could play until they all got tired and decided to go home. I thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon and played almost continuously until 3.45pm. They play Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday afternoons. The RSL Group plays Wednesday, Thursday, Friday nights and Sunday. I found out that the Coffs Harbour Council had provided the venue for both groups to make use of.

June 3^rd, It rained all day yesterday but, finally, the rains gone and the sun is paying us a welcome visit. We picked Brian and Julie from their Motel and drove down to Urunga to visit Sandra. We enjoyed some afternoon tea on the verandah of her Apartment, overlooking the Bellinger River. We all walked down to the Urunga Bowling Club for raffles, dinner and a flutter. We had a great night, Val won a meat tray and $204 on the pokies and it was great to catch up with Sandra again. 

June 4^th, I went to Table Tennis with my new over 50s friends and had an enjoyable afternoon. Brian and Julie came down to the Caravan for afternoon tea, Dinner and Tiles. Val cooked a Pork Roast Dinner (compliments of the Urunga Bowling Club raffles) with baked veggies and gravy and it was delicious. 

June 5^th, The Sunday Markets were on again to-day, at the Harbour Shopping village, so I took my collection of “read” Westerns down to swap with the Book Lady, only to be disappointed as she didn’t show up. I’ll come back next Sunday to try again.

June 6^th, Today is my 71^st Birthday, so I started off the day with a trip to the local Barber for a haircut. After an early lunch, I went to Table Tennis and met a lot more new friends to play with. Brian and Julie came down to the Caravan for afternoon tea and gave me a very nice T- shirt for my Birthday and Val took us all to the local Bowling Club for dinner, drinks and a flutter. The phone ran hot with Birthday wishes from Steven, Greg, Dianne, Jessica, Annaliese and Barbara (my Sister in Melbourne). I rang Sandra, in Urunga, to wish her a Happy Birthday, as we share the same birth date. The highlight of the night was to listen to my Granddaughters, Jessica and Annaliese, singing Happy Birthday to me on my mobile phone “voice message” bank.

June 8^th, I helped Brian and Julie move from the “Hoey Moey” down to the Tahitian Apartments, where they are staying for the next 4 days. Val had to visit the Denture Clinic for a look at her new teeth and to get the bite checked. Val prepared spaghetti bolognaise which we took it up to the Tahitian Apartments for dinner with Brian and Julie.

June 10^th, We got a call from the Dental Clinic, this morning, to come in for a fitting for Val’s new Denture. While she was there they removed the housings from her old denture, to re-use them in the new one. This meant she had to “Polygrip” her old teeth in place until her new plate was finished, on the 15^th. This method didn’t work, as we found out when she tried to eat tonight. I looks like Val is going to spend 4 days in bed without teeth, hiding from the world.

June 11^th, Rebecca, Nigel and Sophie arrived during the early hours of the morning and moved into the Tahitian apartment with Brian and Julie. It was good to catch up with them and we couldn’t believe how Sophie had grown since we had last seen her, very cute and full of beans, as most young kids are. The whole family came to the Caravan Park and Sophie had a great time playing on the jumping pillow and playground equipment. Val came out of hiding and glued her teeth in to go up to the Apartment for a farewell BBQ, as Brian, Julie, Rebecca, Nigel and Sophie are going home, to Brisbane, in the morning.

June 15^th, Finally, the big day has arrived, Val has come out of hiding and is off to the Dental Clinic at 10.30am, to get her new teeth fitted. Who’s that “happy” girl with the big smile and sparkling white teeth?? For an extra $200 Val bought a “Whitening Kit” to bring the colour of her own bottom teeth up to match the new top plate. To top off our day, we watched the Mighty Blues beat the Maroons in the 2^nd Rugby League State of Origin game, now making the series one game all, with the decider to be played in Brisbane in July.

June 16^th, Val developed a huge ulcer in the roof of her mouth, from her new denture, so off to the Dental Clinic we raced to have the offending section removed.

June 17^th, It’s Val’s Birthday today, so I went to Table Tennis from 1 to 4pm (as one does), then we drove to Urunga to pick up Sandra and go to the Urunga Bowling Club to celebrate Val’s Birthday. Val received all her family birthday phone calls during the day. We had a lovely meal, won a meat tray in their raffles, at the Club, and went back to Sandra’s Apartment where Val and Sandra reminisced, with a few Father O’Leary’s Butterscotch Cream, till 3 o’clock in the morning. 

June 19^th, We went to the Coffs Harbour Caravan and Camping Show today, to check out the latest design changes and to criticize where I felt it necessary. I went to the Telstra Stand to see if they had any suggestions for improvements to our roaming Mobile Phone and Internet use and left with a Telstra Elite Wi-Fi with a free months trial, plus the promise of a new phone, at the same cost, with twice the allowed calls.

June 21^st, I dropped Val off at the Belarama Nursing Home, in Bellingen, where Val met Sandra and visited Dulcie (Sandra’s Mum). I had a look around the Old Butter Factory, which is now housing Shops and a Café, before driving back to Sandra’s Apartment at Urunga. After a nice lunch, Sandra and Val walked up to the Bowling Club, for a flutter, while I relaxed, enjoyed the view and waited for them to return. We arrived back at Park Beach just on Dark.

June 22^nd, Val was back to the Denture Clinic this morning to get adjustments to her new top denture. We had found out that the Terry White Chemist at North Coffs had a “Sleep Apnea” Test Program that is done at home. They required a Doctors referral, so Val dropped into the local Medical Centre, and after a “not too happy” reception from the Doctor, left with a signed form. After signing up at Terry White’s and paying $130 (the balance of $680 is covered by Medicare, thankfully), we went home with a box of equipment and instructions to wire Val up for the night. I have been telling Val for years that she was a candidate for Sleep Apnea, she had all the symptoms and now the results from tonight’s test is finally going to tell the story. It took me 1 hour to hook Val up to this equipment, she was definitely very unhappy and distressed with all the wires and connections covering her from top to toe.

June 23^rd, After a very restless night for both of us, I disconnected Val with her help!  That was a job in itself, as in Val’s panic to get it all off quickly, the wires were all tangled and wrapped through the armhole of her nightie, so it all had to come off in one tangled mess. It took me another 30 minutes to untangle the mess and get it all repacked into its transport case. I was hoping the test data was good as Val vowed never to go through that night again. We dropped the machine back with Erin, at Terry White and now have to wait for 10 days for the results from the Sleep Services Laboratory in Melbourne.

June 26^th, I took my collection of read Westerns down to the Sunday Markets and did a swap deal with the book Lady, plus a few extra. That will keep me in reading material for a while.

June 27^th, I joined the Coffs Harbour Library, as a temporary member, which allows me to take out 3 books at a time. We expect we will be here for some weeks yet, so I’ll be able to conserve my own book stash.

June 29^th, I took the Territory in to the Ford Dealer for its 105,000 klm service today, so $260 later, it had a clean bill of health.

June 30^th, Val had her final visit to the Dental Clinic this morning and she is very happy with her new teeth and is intending to come back here next year to get a new set of bottom dentures made. We picked up the results from Val’s Sleep Test and not surprisingly, she has “severe” Sleep Apnoea. She averaged 38.4 arousals per hour, loud continuous snoring was evident and the longest Apnea recorded was 55.8 seconds. To sum it up, Val had only 4.5 hrs sleep in a 6 hour sleep period, NOT GOOD.

July 1^st, Went to the Office and extended our stay for another month, to allow us to get Val organized with her Sleep Apnoea equipment before moving on. I joined the Over 50s Table Tennis Club today, as we are going to be here for a while, that will save on fees and I will be covered by their Insurance. We took Val’s results to Erin, at Terry Whites Chemist and hired the equipment to start trialing machines and masks. The results from the data collected will be analysed weekly. It’s been a long day, so on the way home, we went to the local Bowling Club for dinner and a flutter. We set up Val equipment ready for her 1^st night with the headgear that was fitted with a nasal cushion which sat gently into her nostrils, the machine had been programmed at the Shop, so was ready to go.

July 2^nd, Surprisingly, when I got up in the morning, Val was still wearing her headgear and although she took 2 hrs to get to sleep last night, was feeling refreshed and even had a piece of toast for breakfast. We had 2 hours of entertainment in the Park, from 3pm, with a Father/Son duo called Rino and Jade Morea, from Tasmania. They were “fantastic”, great renditions of songs from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. Reno’s Mum and Dad were with them and also sang for us. It was a thoroughly entertaining afternoon and easily the best we have heard in any Caravan Park.

July 5^th, I woke up at 7.30am, so decided to grab my fishing gear after breakfast and try to catch a flathead in the Coffs Creek, just in from the sea entry. It was sandy and , I thought, definitely a flathead area. After 1 1/2 hrs with only a few nibbles I gave it away and drove down to The Jetty Wharf. One of my Table Tennis friends, Grahame, had told me they were catching good bream down there and sure enough he was there with a bucket of bream. It was too late for me to have a fish, as they had gone off the bite. He gave me 3 of his bream for Val’s dinner, which she thoroughly enjoyed. Val had the start of a head cold to-night, which isn’t good when you are trialing breathing machines.

July 7^th, Went fishing at The Jetty Wharf this morning with Grahame, and we caught 7 Trevally between us. Val had some Trevally fillets for dinner and enjoyed them.

July 8^th, We took the SD card from Val’s breathing machine up to Terry White Chemist,  to get the results for the first week of testing. Erin was very pleased with the results, a massive improvement. 38 arousals/hour, from the initial test, was now 7 arousals/hour and we now know that people without Sleep Apnoea normally have between 1 to 5 arousals/hour. We celebrated with dinner and a flutter, at the Coffs Ex Club.

July 10^th, We went to the Jetty Markets this morning, just to get Val out for a bit, as she is still choked up with her head cold. We even called in to Spotlight on the way home but that didn’t even help to cheer her up.

July 15^th, Would you believe it, we have now been in Coffs Harbour for 7 weeks. I’m not complaining, as I have been fishing at The Jetty with Grahame (one of my new Table Tennis friends) and playing Table Tennis 4 times each week. Unfortunately Val has been miserable with a head cold and still trying to get sorted with her breathing machine and mask. We went to Terry White Chemist today, with the second weeks results from Val’s hired machine and the SD card was blank. No data collected for the whole week and the only explanation for that was that I didn’t insert the SD card properly. Very upsetting but there was nothing I could do about it. Val was given another type of mask to trial this week and I was instructed on how to fit the SD card properly. We rang Brian tonight to wish him a Happy Birthday for today.

July 21^st, We went to the Park Beach Surf Club for lunch, with a group of 15 people from the Over 50’s Table Tennis Club. We had a very enjoyable meal, with great company and a good view overlooking the Beach.

July 22^nd, We went back to Terry White Chemist today, with the machine in tow. Erin was happy to find we had data on the SD card this week. The results were slightly better than the first week, so Erin reset our test machine to a fixed pressure, determined by the average taken over the total results. Val still has a head cold which is making it difficult to gain the benefit of using the breathing machine.

July 25^th, I caught my best fish off The Jetty, this morning. A 45cm Golden Trevally and everybody on the Jetty said that it was a good eating fish. Grahame gave me a 29cm Bream to go with it. After lunch we walked around to Grahame and Odile’s place, just opposite the Caravan Park, for afternoon tea and a few games of Table Tennis in their garage. We had a very enjoyable afternoon and will keep in touch with them as we travel. Grahame and Odile (she has been Grahame’s partner for 9 years, she is French, very friendly and also plays Table Tennis) walked back with us to have a look at our Caravan. Grahame would like to get a Van sometime and they both liked ours. Val heated up some homemade chicken soup for tonight’s dinner, which was very enjoyable, and decided to heat up the little bit of left over soup for us to finish up. She poured the soup and put down the cooktop lid. We were eating our soup when there was a loud “glass cracking” sound and smoke rising from the cooktop. Val had forgotten to turn off the gas burner and the Black Glass on the stainless steel Lid was  completely crazed and the cork mat that we have under our Jug was smouldering. Not her finest hour. Val turned the gas jet off quickly but the damage was already done.

July 27^th, We returned the hired test equipment to Terry White Chemist, with this week’s results. The results from the fixed pressure machine were very good, so on Erin’s recommendation we bought Val’s own machine and mask. We can now leave Coffs Harbour tomorrow and head toward Brisbane. I had to completely remove the stove from the Van, to remove the cooktop lid so that I could remove the shattered glass from the lid and then re-install it. What a job! I’ll worry about a replacement lid later.

July 28^th, It was strange, towing the Van again, after 9 weeks in Coffs Harbour and we drove as far as Brunswick Heads, with a stop for lunch at Grafton McDonalds, and booked into the Ferry Reserve Holiday Park. Not a huge Park but very good and it’s on the waterfront, well worth a return visit. Tomorrow we will move on to Brisbane.

Crescent Head, May 2011

May 10^th, We left Stockton this morning, heading north, destination unknown. As we travelled, Val looked at our maps and, we decided to go to Crescent Head. We holidayed there 8 or 10 years ago, long before we started caravanning, and remembered it as a Town we liked, so decided to go check the place out again. We booked into the only Caravan Park there, Crescent Head Holiday Park. We booked in for 2 weeks and spent the rest of the day setting up and looking around. It didn’t look like anything had changed over the years.

May 11^th, I drove into Kempsey to visit Centrelink and put in our paperwork. In the afternoon we walked around the Crescent Head shops and dropped into The Country Club, to find out when raffles, bingo etc. were on. 

May 12^th, We drove into Woolworths, in Kempsey, to do a big shop. Crescent Head only has a Foodworks Supermarket and their stock is limited. Before leaving Crescent Head I picked up our mail from the Post office. I had been waiting for a package from Steven and it arrived. He bought himself a new Laptop and gave his old (only 12 months old) Laptop to me, as my old one was playing up. We went to the Country Club for the Meat Raffles and a flutter. Didn’t win any meat but Val had a good run on the Pokies.

May 16^th, I’ve spent most of the week-end downloading off the old laptop and setting up the new one. All of this went very well, which for me was close to a miracle. An electronic whizz I am not. I packed up the old laptop and posted it back to Steven.

May 17^th, Val went to 7pm Bingo at The Country Club and won 3 - $5 vouchers, and then followed that up with a $100 win on the pokies. I went up at 9.45 pm to walk her home.

May 20^th, We went to The Country Club for the meat raffle, to-night, and Val won a very nice meat tray.

May 22^nd, I decided to have a fish in the Creek this morning, the tide was coming in and the weather was great. Killock Creek is just tidal backwater that seems to peter out into an irrigation drain and isn’t suitable for boating. The Park hires canoes for people to explore the shallow Creek waters, if that is their thing. I caught 4 bream and one flathead, unfortunately all undersize, but was a lot of fun.

May 23^rd, We took a walk up to the Shops and called in to The Country club for an afternoon drink. Val was having a little flutter and I had a spare $1 coin, so I popped it into a machine 3 down from where Val was playing. I was only playing 25 cents at a time and on my 2^nd press got the feature, which gave me over $100. I took out the $100, a great return on my $1. Val’s machine wasn’t giving her any joy, so she moved onto the one I had just won on and ended up coming home with her own $100, from the same machine. That’s what I call a good afternoon at the Club.

May 24^th, We were supposed to leave to-day but decided to stay for 3 more days and see some of the Malibu Surfboard Competition, before heading to Coffs Harbour to meet up with Val’s Brother and his wife (Brian and Julie) who  are coming down to spend  2 weeks with us in Coffs. I went fishing again, at the mouth of the creek, and caught a 27cm bream and a 38cm flathead.

May 25^th, Heavy rain and strong winds, this morning, was the worst weather we have had here. Val had to watch Masterchef, on TV, so sent me up to the Country Club for Dinner and to watch The “State of Origin” NRL Match between QLD and NSW. Unfortunately the Blues lost but it was a good close game. The Club was very busy tonight as the Malibu Surf Competition registrations were on as well.

May 26^th, We walked to the beach to watch the Malibu contestants ride the waves. They had approx. 200 entrants, of all age groups, who had travelled here from all over Australia. This was day 1 of the 3 day competition and I was wondering how the Judges would be able to identify the riders. I soon found out that each 5 called out were given a different coloured shirt to wear over their wetsuits, how easy. They were scored on the best of 3 runs. We were impressed with the skill of the surfers and couldn’t believe it when one contestant finished a perfect run in by doing a headstand on his board. We left the competition and went back to the Caravan, as it was time to pack up ready to leave for Coffs Harbour in the morning.

Stockton April 2011

April 26th, Arrived at Stockton Beach Tourist Park, not raining thankfully, after a wet pack up in Sydney. This is one of the Parks that we like, but like Dunleith it is very open to the weather.




April 29th, The weather has been wet and windy since we arrived so have done a lot of reading. The rain eased off this morning so I got out a couple of rods and went to find a fishing spot out of the wind. Lost a lot of bait but didn’t catch anything. Val was glued to the TV from 4pm till 11pm for Will & Kate’s wedding.



April 30th, Around 11am, there was a knock on the side of the Caravan, and Lo and behold, it was Carole and Rob (our friends from Charlestown) called in the say hello. What a pleasant surprise. We made arrangements to go to their place on Monday evening, for dinner and sequence. To-night we went to Joan and Roberts, for a baked Dinner and sequence, and had another enjoyable evening.



May 1st, Still getting those southerly winds but the rain has eased off. I went down to the Harbour at 11 am to watch the Powerboat Races. It was only one race lasting 1 hour. The course started opposite the Brewery in Newcastle and the circuit went out through the breakwall and along Stockton Beach and back. It was a very noisy contest, the bigger boats were constantly lapping the smaller boats, showers of spray were sent up when the boats were turning to roar back up the Harbour for the next lap. The going was pretty rough outside the Harbour, a lot of boats dropped out during the race and fortunately there weren’t any accidents. There was a good crowd lining both sides of the Harbour.



May 2nd, Val made her famous pastries to take to Carole and Robs tonight. After a tour of their house we enjoyed a lovely meal and played sequence till 1.30am. They are late nighters, like us.



May 3rd, We drove out to Salamander Bay, to deposit some unwanted items in our Storage Shed and have our annual Medical and Skin Cancer Checks. We did run into a few people we knew and caught up on the local happenings. We dropped into The Nelson Bay Bowling Club for a drink and Val made a profit from their poker machines.



May 5th, Yesterday I helped Val by putting on a load of washing. Always the helpful husband. When I pulled the clothes from the washing machine, to my surprise, my white socks and shirt were PINK. Val had put her new RED pants into the washing basket, and I threw it all in the machine. Thats what I thought you did with dirty clothes, if it can’t be washed by machine it shouldn’t be in the basket. That’s my last word on the subject. After lunch we took the Ferry across to Newcastle, I bought some replacement socks and Val had to go to the Millers Sale. After we cruised (on the Ferry) to Stockton we called into the Stockton RSL for a drink, and you wouldn’t want to know, we had to stay for the raffles. No meat tray but Val went home with a win on the Pokies.



May 6th, We met Joan and Robert at West’s Leagues Club at New Lambton, for dinner and a flutter. The meals were good, company was great and the pokies were kind, as Joan, Robert and Val all had good wins.



May 7th, As a result of my recent Cancer Scan, I had to go to the Medical Centre at Nelson Bay, this morning, and have a cancer cut out of my back. After about 8 stitches to hold me together, I drove home feeling like someone was permanently pinching my back. A very uncomfortable feeling. We met Carole and Rob at The Redhead Bowling Club for dinner tonight. The meals were very good and the servings were huge. We went back to their place for sequence and played from 8pm till 2am, incredible 6 hours.



May 8th, Mothers Day, both Steven and Greg called Val. They had both given Val her presents when we were in Sydney. I walked Val to the Stockton Bowling Club for raffles, dinner and a flutter, to celebrate MD. Val won a $12 voucher, we had a nice meal and Val won $150 on the pokies. To-morrow we pack up to leave on Tuesday morning for someplace north of here, yet to be decided.