Feb 9: Danny visited old Bazza in Scarborough and then drove back to Grafton. Meanwhile, I learnt my comedy routine. It had been a quiet couple of days without Danny and Fuggles, but I had missed them.Feb 10: We took Harry Transit for a drive up the highway to Maclean and had lunch at the pub. Then we met up with a guy at a Dirt Bike Meet who has a property that we were looking at staying on. (but on later inspection, we went decided it wasn't suitable as there were free range chickens and lots of ticks).
Feb 11-21: Our Tafe course: Diploma of Screen & Media began and we had a great first week. Tutors very experienced and tailor the course to your individual goals. At the end of the week, we did a couple of trips: Dorrigo and Cascade where Danny's Dad is from which is beautiful rain forest country. Also to Glenreah to look at another possible care taking property. There were lots of animals - miniature donkeys, guinea fowl, geese, chooks, 5 cats and a dog. We declined on this one too and decided to start looking for a rental in town. Back to Tafe and then the rain came back. We were tossing up about whether to go up to Redcliffe for the weekend. If it wasn't heavy rain in the morning...we were off.
Feb 22-28: Only light rain, so we dropped off Gandi the cattle dog to Tim's friends in Grafton and headed up to Qld. It had been almost a year since I was in my state of origin. That night, we caught up with Todd, Jill and Christie in Clontarf at their new place - Wow, what a house! Next morning we went back to Pearl Street and got some stuff out of our storage in the old Jam Room. So much stuff crammed in their, but we packed up some stuff and I got a haircut from our lovely renter, Gabby. Then it was time to grab the family and make our way into The Valley for Jean's 70th birthday at The Vietnamese. We had a good chat with our favourite waiter, Tyson who is training to be a pilot. Jean even got a photo and kiss from him!
It was a great night...we were supposed to go back to Grafton the next day. But after speaking to our neighbour Ray, that wasn't going to happen. Over the next few days, the creek bridge went under and the river on the property came up higher than last time (to the guest house steps) and Ray towed Keith up the hill. So we stayed in Redcliffe and we dropped into our old workplace, Cascade. It was wonderful to see everyone again after a year away. Then I had an idea: do my Raw Comedy competition gig that night, Tuesday while we were already there. So I did! Danny's family and Mick, our old neighbour came and we had a fun night. I was nervous - I had wanted to get over my fear of Stand Up for about 15 years. I was on last as Bev the Bus Driver (pic above), but it went well and people laughed. I didn't get through to the next round, but I had done it. Mission accomplished. On Thursday, we drove back to Grafton once we got the word from Ray that the creek was down. We picked up Gandi from town and drove into Chambigne. The dirt track wasn't in great shape when we left, but now it was much worse for wear after two floods and continuing rain. The grass was long and the sandflies abundant and their was a dead rat at the house gate: we were home.
