Holidays in Redcliffe & the Grafton Show

April 1-20:  
We finished off Term 1 at Tafe with some filming of my news story.  I was supposed to interview one of the owners of our caravan park, but he doesn't do internet stuff (which is fair enough) and so we got his brother to fill in.  Turned out well and also got some shots of real estates and a written interview with The Salvos.
We were having some issues with keeping the Fuggles in the annex, but when we got to Redcliffe, our renters were chucking out an opening baby gate.  Perfect. They are also keen for long lease which suits us. 


We popped into a newish collectables shop in Reddo and Danny said:  "There's a picture of you, Sammy".  When we packed up to leave on our adventures, I gave the crayon picture of my 8 year old self  (which I never liked!) to a local op shop.  The shop owner was very excited and my sister Melissa wanted it to go with the one she has.  So we went back a couple of days later, but was the picture still there?  Melissa will have to wait and see.



Danny's dad, Jimbo is quite adept at caricature.  They always have a pronounced nose and are not what you would call flattering.   We had a great stay in Reddo:  managed to catch up with many friends this time  and had lots of laughs with the family.  Danny had a Gypsy Jam with Sean, I had a birthday lunch with Barb, Shazza & Trish and learned a new hoop trick with Sam, Lisa and Ginger Ninja.


We drove back to NSW on a beautiful clear day and stopped off again at Broadwater for lunch at a dog friendly, old church cafe.  I did the middle leg of driving Harry Transit - full of roadworks and a wrong turn at Chinderah.  I had my serious driving face on most of the time I think!




When we got back to the Sunset Caravan Park, nothing was amiss.  The fridge was still on and the annex still up.  We were happy to be back in our cubby and put up the baby gate for the dogs.  After a bit of food shopping and relaxing, we went off to the Grafton Agricultural Show yesterday arvo.  I was impressed with the Champion Pumpkin, while Danny couldn't resist a Dagwood Dog.  (instant regret after one bite!)

There was a Salvo's cafe and a man with a sign that said:  Live Band 6pm.  So we went in and had a cuppa and listened to the young band.  Loud, heavy rock with a few original ballads thrown it.  Happened to be their album launch with mum and dad doing the sound mixing and selling CDs.  They were good and rocked the hell out of the cafe clients and passes by (one lady with fairy  floss hair did some great dancing).

Danny was instructed to win another soft toy for Indigo and shot the required 4 ducks.  So Carnie Dog 2 was gratefully welcomed home by indigo.  Oh, we also saw this Transit at the show which is the same model as Keith. 

Show observation:   Grafton Carnies were definately not as interesting as the Redcliffe Carnies.

Keith moves to South Grafton - Sunset Caravan Park

 March 1-19:   The rain finally stopped.  Then it was time for the final  preparation for Tim's return to Tim's Rest, Chambigne:  mowing, whipper-snipping, slashing, weeding, mopping, sweeping, window cleaning and so on.  But we got it all done and Ray and Danny did a great job on the tractors to grade and roll the dirt track. 
Keith rolled out of there with no troubles and went to get fitted for his annex (thanks again Ray for that one). 


March 20, 21:  Keith moved into the Sunset Caravan Park, but we stayed on at Tim's to await his return.  Tim was very happy with the state of the track and property and we had a few beers with him and Ray to celebrate his home-coming.


March 22:   On Friday arvo, I caught the train and then bus up to Brisbane, while Danny and fur girls stayed on at Tim's.  The trip was interesting with a young man and a woman my age to chat to the whole way.  A gentleman near the rear of the bus had a nasty accident in his pants and the aircon carried the smell into all our noses.  It was hard work to get from gagging, but we managed to keep ourselves in check. 
I arrived late, and my mate Nase picked me up from Roma St station and drove me a few kms to his home in Paddington.  He cooked me a lovely vege risotto and we chatted on till about 1am. 

March 23:  Me and Nase drove down the road to Latrobe Tce and had breakfast for Lewis and Tracey.  It was good to see them after a 

year of being away.  Meahwhile, Danny left Indigo and Fuggles at Tim's and drove to Byron Bay.  He did camera on a multi-cam gig for one of our tutors, Andy Bambach.  It was a private party at the old Byron Bay Brewery with Mi-Sex playing and other bands.
I hung on in Reddo that arvo with Danny sister Linda, caught up with my mother-in-law Jean, then got ready for Sam's 30th Birthday Party down the road in Clontarf.  Everyone had to wear a cape:  I made mine out of Harry's curtain material and Linda had a nurse one that Jean made.  It was a fun party with lots of catching up. 
Glad I went and so was Sam.


March 24:  Danny had a good gig with Andy, some red wine into the early morning and a swim at Byron. After a quick visit to the Redcliffe Markets and the shops, (a girl can never have too much Sussans sleep wear)  it was time for me to get the train to Roma St and then the bus and train back to Grafton.
Danny had had some dramas after picking up the girls from Tim's as a big, fast storm blew in and brought down branches and collapsed the annex back at the caravan park.  Unfortunately I wasn't too sympathetic when he informed me about the hatch above the bed being left open.  But when I got back, it wasn't that wet at all and I just put the hair dryer over it for a while.  All good. 


March 25-31:  We settled into life at the Sunset Caravan Park with Danny building some dog fencing and proofing to keep the girls in. It isn't totally fool (or chihuahua) proof, but we will get the baby gate from Danny's folks place when we go up in the holidays.  We went back to Tim's to meet up with the mower man who fixed Tim's ride-on and pick up the last of our stuff. 
Tafe continues to be challenging and fun with our New Story assessment looming and ideas for our major project being researched.    We've been watching free movies from the caravan park collection, the best being American Beauty with the audio commentary on.  We have also discovered ABC and SBS's programs available online to watch. 
Most of Easter was spent doing our character bio homework for Tafe and we took the girls down to the river at South Grafton for a walk.  You can still see lots of debri from the floods and we found an old training shed with a few exercise bikes near it.  Danny took some cool photos, inc a shot that I will use in my New Story. 
We have been living at the Sunset Caravan Park for a week:  
life here is simple and drama free so far.