Sunday 4 November 2012

Balaklava

So this weekend the club went to Balaklava.  It's a lovely little town north of Adelaide.  Very strange to drive though - I got lost on both occasions I went foraging.  Odd.  However, it has all the mod cons - Foodland grocery store, pub, Thrifty hardware store, Ford car sales yard.  And this take away/tobacconist/bakery/pizza shop.  Wonderful junk food.  Quite well priced too.  I didn't  cook this weekend...

So, I knew we only had about a ninety minute drive, and we are on daylight savings, so we didn't bother finishing work early.  We were all home by 5 and on the road by 5.25.  Would have been earlier but Fluffy was busy trying to get his CB to send.  He could hear me (I guide him out of the tricky driveway) but he couldn't answer.  Must get that looked at.

The drive up to Balaklava is long and boring.  There are miles and miles of nothing.  It's all farm country.  There was clouds (well, it was actually pretty much overcast) so the promise of a lovely sunset was there.  But nothing really grabbed me by the time we arrived.  The caravan park was tiny - probably only about 15 sites.  We held 9 of them, plus there were a few permanents.  The whole area seems to be a community centre.  There is a small building with a squash court and tiny kitchen/hall area.  Very tiny.  The toilets were in this building, accessed by a single door that opened into a hallway with the handicapped toilet at one end, and the Mens and Ladies branching off to the right.  Quite an odd set up but I liked it.  It wasn't open and in fact, one could walk between them all with no problem if one was so inclined.  There were only two showers and two toilets but that never seemed to be a problem.  They were very clean and serviceable.

Behind the toilet/kitchen/squash court is a playground, and beside on one side is the swimming pool (sadly only open Dec, Jan and Feb, cause we would have ALL been in there Saturday otherwise), and on the other side is the bowling green.

These pics were on the pool shed and the squash building.


We were not the last to arrive - The Palace arrived after us.  The Queen and her husband were not sure if they were going to make it.  Queen's dad is very, very ill and it's just a waiting game.  But at the last minute (literally) she decided that's it, we're going.  I'm so glad she made it, she has been under tremendous stress.  It was good to see them.

After we had set up Dobby and I went in search of sustenance, finding the above mentioned take-away.  Burger for Fluffy, chips for Dobby and a piece of fish for me and we're back.  We had dinner then went to join the other folk around the fire.  Not that we needed a fire.  I think it was more symbolic of the gathering herd.  Now that fire season is in, or will be soon, we will have to gather around something else.  Perhaps a full esky?

Dobby piked out quite early for her (not other big kids to hang with, she got bored).  I went at midnight.  Fluffy wasn't too far behind me.

Saturday we rose to a warmish day.  Rain threatened, though, and Fluffy and I decided to put a side on the awning.  But angle it out to give more room.  He wanted to use the solid canvas, but I suggested perhaps the mesh one.  We used the mesh one.  I'm glad we did, because the rain didn't last.

I wandered about and took some pics.








Queen's daughter drove up.  Apparently she has been having a very rough time lately and everyone was quite concerned for her welfare, but she seemed to enjoy her day with us.

The day warmed up.  We had club game after morning tea, and then spent the day sitting in the shade under trees.  That pretty much summed up the day.  Of course, we all got sunburned.  Typical.  We forgot what it was like to be hot, it's been so long.

Happy hour saw other friends join for a couple of hours.  They borrowed another camper's bbq and stayed for dinner.

I am hosting a Girls Night In to raise funds for breast cancer research next weekend.  I had been very worried because only 5 ladies are coming.  I have somewhere between 4 and 6 raffle prizes planned, depending on if the last two follow through.

So I took the suggestion of my Neutrametics lady (who donated a skin cream valued at $60 plus 10% of any sales on the night), and thought the rally would be a good chance to pre-sell tickets.  I took a couple of orders and sold heaps of tickets.  I have kickstarted my fundraising with $70 raised from the weekend.  Have to be happy with that!

It came over cloudy again Saturday evening and we thought we'd get rain (see photo below) but we only got a few drops.  Enough so that I put the camera away but not enough to shift positions.




Anyway, late in the evening on Saturday, we had a bit of an incident.  A young lad from the family camped behind us started to cry quite badly.  Investigation found he had been bitten by Ozzie.  Oh crap.  He's never done that before.  After seeing to the boy (luckily the skin was only grazed and lightly bruised) he was okay.  Turns out that he was running past our van and Ozzie ran to play with him, nipping at him as he does (well, probably at the ball the fellow was going for) and misjudging his nip.  Fluffy was very distressed and we were both terribly embarrassed.  It quite ruined the whole weekend.  The family were so good about it.

Sunday morning they came to see Fluffy expressing their concern because the lad who was bitten was worried Fluffy would get Ozzie put down (once they bite you can't trust them).  They wanted to stress that it was only an accident - he did not go for the boy in anger, or attack him.  They also wanted to reassure Fluffy that the boy was not frightened of dogs and held Ozzie no ill will.  In fact, he came over, sat down, and Ozzie quite happily curled up against his lap (as he does when anyone sits on the floor).  They were friends.  Whew.  We were very concerned.

Beside our caravan was a gum tree, and there was a flock of parrots in it.  They started quite early in the morning and frankly, I cant' think of a nicer way to wake up.



So, we were all heading off after a lovely breakfast cooked by the park.  The park was not actually manned as such, but the caretaker came by each day to clean and check we were all okay.  His wife and daughter cooked the breakfast - eggs, bacon, sausages, tomato and toast.  They provided everything from butter, sauce, food, to plates cups and cutlery.  It was lovely.


We were home by one, and had the first load of washing out half an hour later.  I have spent the day just putting through two loads of laundry (I left the 3rd in the machine) and doing not much else.  I had done pretty much everything early Friday morning before I went to work.  I should iron before I go to bed so Fluffy has work uniforms, but that's about it.  Sometime this week I need to vacuum, and that's about it.

After breakfast the ladies had some leftover cut up tomato and some eggs.  I scored six eggs, and a colander with about 8 tomatoes, halved.  So for dinner tonight I cooked chicken rissoles, poached eggs, toast, and I put the tomatoes into a shallow dish, drizzled oil and balsamic vinegar over them, added a little sprinkle of cheese, and cooked in the microwave for about 8 minutes.  Very nice.

So, now I am going to run a bath and then I think it will be early nights all right.  This week sees my boss from Sydney in the office.  He wants to take us to dinner Tuesday night so he can meet Fluffy and Dobby.  That will be nice.

 So, until I decide to blog again, TTFN.

5 comments:

SOL's view said...

Great photos! They look great.

Even the one with the bacon and eggs. Now I want bacon and eggs... :)

Anonymous said...

Yeh bacon and eggs! See I still read your blog! RAT

JoeinVegas said...

The park supplied and cooked the food, that is nice.

Anonymous said...

glad ozzie not in trouble.. looks a nice place. love wally

Anne said...

Colleen, It would be so nice to have something to share with a group of friends like you have with your campervan excursions!! You seem to have a great time, and I love the pics you take!! Thanks for sharing.
xx