Tuesday...8 June

Another perfect day in the mid west. Fine and sunny without being hot hot hot. Got the washing done and finished a beading project. Spent most of the day just sitting around. Small bit of walking late afternoon to accompany hostess to an appointment, for the sake of a walk for the day. Note to self, make time tomorrow for a proper walk to the seafront again. The men made remarkable progress on the project and are beginning to use words like nearly finished. Tomorrow they will need to move my little home to reach the last bits of the job, then I am assured my home will be replaced onto its original site for the rest of our stay.

By request..short heading

Another pleasant day, sun shining, cool breeze, was so excited I did the washing!! Well sorta. I did do our towels and have big plans to tackle the rest tomorrow if BOM lets me. Have just checked in with them and they are promising 25 tomorrow so it is looking good. Put in some effort and removed dirt and dust from the van before it took over and became a chore, go me!  While I was on a roll I took the turbo cooker out of its box tonite and cooked a roast beef to try it out. Worked well and those that ate the meat swear it was succulent, juicy and cooked just right.  Maybe along the way I will become a cook as well as a grey nomad. More bashing and banging from the direction of the shed roof today, so it seems the secret mens business is making progress and by the time we leave there will be something bigger and better to house the car and caravan at this address. Greatly pleased with themselves.Us girls just nod wisely and string a few more beads......

Quick update for yesterday. Local festival, good day out. Wandered around stalls and tripped over dogs whilst watching the never ending noisy antics of excited children. Am thinking a few people will have no voice or at least very sore throats today after their efforts, the childrens entertainment crew were pirates and spent the day yelling ah me heartys and much ho ho ho ing. Competition was all things nautical, like rod casting and canoe races and pirates kidnapping school teachers and making them walk the plank etc. This was called the Kalbarri Crayfish and Canoe Festival.....was expecting to see stalls selling lots and lots of crays either fresh or cooked, sadly, we saw no actual crayfish. Couple of food stalls were doing sausage sizzle and the fish and chip shop over the road from the festival area was doing a roaring lunchtime trade as were the local pubs and clubs. At one stage it took 15 minutes for us to locate the one and only stall selling bottled water, note to self, take some with me next time I go to such events and yes I know bottled water costs more per litre than petrol!!!! Still we wandered around all the stalls and looked at all the merchandise and only bought items one simply could not manage without (beads) and strolled home again to spend the rest of the day in quiet contemplation.

Ok so it was overcast and damp all day. We still went for our walk to the lookout at the mouth of the river, wind was blowing hard and quite chilly but the sea was a deep green color and quite calm. Odd really. However the rain held off until we were safely home again.  Met an older couple from Goulburn in NSW who were new arrivals and looking for the local RSL club. Also met an asian couple who we thought were probably honeymooners, they asked for their picture to be taken with the river mouth behind them. We said definately no when they offered to take our pics.....lol. Did not fancy my ugly old dial being shown as holiday pics somewhere in Asia as an example of what an aussie looks like!!!!  i could single handedly ruin the australian tourism industry with that shot. The boys continued with their secret mens business building program, today this involved much roof climbing so we went inside and shut our eyes. We beleive good progress is made but still not finished. Early night tonite, big day tomorrow for the crayfish festival, all those little beady eyes looking at me trying to make me feel  guilty which won't work as I do not eat the blessed things. Lets hope BOM is right with their forcast of showers clearing by lunchtime.

Rain, we need it right? But do we really need it all day, like constantly? When the weather man says rain wouldn't it be nicer if he also said it would rain from like two o'clock to four o'clock on friday morning, then fine up so that average folk could get on with their day???? No walking today, in fact not much of anything as it was raining when we got up and is still raining. We do have fingers crossed for fine weather on Sunday for the great Kalbarri Crayfish Festival. This is the big event each year so surely do not want to miss it. And we are hoping that one of the stalls is selling my favourite product (beads). Spent today showing Helen the basics of beading, a fun way to kill a rainy afternoon. She thinks it may be a new hobby for herself and her husband is being consoled by mine regards the forthcoming spending spree needed to obtain beginners supplies!!!! The menfolk are a little out of sorts as they still have work to do on their project but are unable to continue until it stops raining. My luck the rain will not shine again until Sunday and they will need to stay home working instead of coming to the festival.

Have been wondering if it is possible to make the daily happenings or non happenings of a couple of greying nomads interesting in some way to the general population. Do I waffle on about habour views, fishing trawlers, possible whale sightings, crashing waves and constant sunshine? Will my endless references to the shining sun win me friends or have people hating me for bragging? Does it really matter if I found myself reminded of a certain SAFV (sleepy assed fishing village) as is occasionally refered to by another member of my immediate family, whilst watching the fishing fleet return to harbour as I slapped at the ever present but thankfully limited supply of sand flies/mosquitos or other members of the biting fraternity??!! These and other soul searching questions will no doubt be answered as the great trek winds its way around our wonderfully magnificently country.
Am amazed at the ability of some of my fellow travellers to appear daily looking as neat and polished as they would back  home in the city. If my clothes are creased and I haven't had a hair appointment in weeks, do I park in the same little patch of nowhere as they do? OMG the ultimate disgrace to be run out of a wayside stop for not meeting grey nomad dress standards.....
How could my children ever hold up their heads again? Would the grandchild who had a birthday today ever speak to us again? Suggestions needed on how to become the trend setter of the trendy nomads set.

No serious activity today. Did the washing, strolled to the shops, carried our purchases all the way home (go me!). Took  a walk to the beach and watched a person in a kayak paddle to the mouth of the river, try to exit to the ocean, get washed back into the river and paddle around in circles then try again and again...definately wasn't a quitter. Was a much calmer day for the waves today but they were still pounding in. Looking forward to the weekend as there is a crayfish festival on in Kalbarri, might be interesting to look at.