Next episode - not quite so dramatic!

Fri 8th we left Blacksmiths Beach, bought our new tent at Belmont and headed north, checking out the little bays and more stormy seas. Decided to stay at Pacific Palms, just south of Forster, and it was a really awful crappy tatty old cabin, $45/night, no hot water, with a half mile hike to the loos! But it had a bed, a heater and TV, so we coped - I couldn't work out why the Ladies had 8 showers and only 2 loos .... and one of those was blocked ... as I said, really crappy! We went for a walk between showers, read, watched the footy (Melb/St Kilda), and slept OK! I wasn't impressed next morning when Dad said we should stay another night, as he thought we'd have trouble finding somewhere else on a Sat night ..... he may have been right, but ...yuk! Sat he went for a run, I walked around the cara Park and had a chat with a bloke who told me he was staying in his brother's on-site van, and he wished he'd bought one himself when it was offered to him 10 years ago ... for $1m!! My goodness!! I'm sure some of the "permanents" are very nice (esp if they have en suite!) ... but $1m!! Position position position I guess! We had bacon eggs etc for lunch, Dad had a sleep, we watched the rain (!), and I wrote 8 postcards, stitched and read! Watched footy, drove car over to loos, and went to bed. Lots more wind rain thunder etc overnight, and we were glad we weren't in a tent!

When we checked out Sunday morning the lady in the office said they'd had 110mms in the previous 24 hours (that's 4 1/2"!) - I can beleive that! And it kept up all that day too! We headed north again, thro Forster to Pt McQuarie, where we had lunch - scotch fillets and vegies for $12!! Posted postcards and birthday cards, then on to Coffs Harbour, where Dad checked us in at Park Beach Holiday Park. $60 for cabin, or $71 for ensuite cabin .... gee I wonder ...?! We got the ensuite! Was very comfy cabin, compact - and dry! Still raining and blowing outside, and we could (just!) see the sea! Settled in, Dad slept, I stitched, we watched TV, played ONO99, and read. Dad stayed up and watched a Grand Prix!

More heavy rain Monday, and we went out of town a little way, to a very nice patchwork shop we'd visited 8 years ago on LSL! It's still a funny little shop with SO much stuff in it .. and the most amazing views way down to the coast ... I bought birthday presents for Agnes, and Lyn K ... and some other bits and pieces! At a big shopping centre back in CH we got thongy scuffy footwear for both of us, and a big golfing umbrella - figure we may well need it next year, too!! (Funny thing is, we didn't ever actually use it!) Had Subway lunch (just for Dad!) back to cabin and he went for a run (not actually raining just then!) I did the washing and drying (wet again by then!), stitched, we read, ate, watched TV and played ONO99.

Forecast still not too flash so we booked in for another night, 5 minutes after the folk who had it booked for that night, had rung and cancelled ... we would have been a bit grumpy if we'd had to move! Were lucky! Still raining, so we drove up to Grafton, just for a look! Found a good book shop with some cheap books (incl pwk books!), had nice counter lunch at a pub on the river, with 16 old ducks celebrating someone's birthday - it was quite a funny study of human nature!! But $8.50 for chicken parmi with chips and salad was worth waiting for! Back to cabin, read, slept/stitched, watched Tv, ate, and played cards .... and that'll do for this "episode"!

Will they actually get into their new tent?? Will it ever stop raining?? Who wins the card games?? .... will they run out of books?? Stay tuned for the next exciting (?) episode!
Love Mum