Normanville 18th to 20th November 2010
18th Nov.
We got away from home around 1pm and after a very smooth drive arrived in Normanville at 2:25pm. By 3:30 we had checked in and were all set up, and beer o’clock was called. Ella, Ethan and Aiko all investigated the “new” surroundings and had lots of fun exploring. Around 5pm Vonnie and Tom arrived, and we had them all setup in no time and settled back for a great weekend.
The day has been fairy windy, but still warm. I can feel a touch of hay fever coming on.
We had an early tea and got the kids off to bed by 7pm, it was still light but they were asleep in no time. As soon as the sun started to set it became fairly cool, and everyone was reaching for warm clothes. It wasn’t long before the port was out and we settled in for a very relaxing evening.
19th Nov.
Ethan woke at 2, 3 and 6am, asking each time if it was morning yet. We guessed he was a bit excited and just wanted to get things going. Luckily for us, that on each occasion, before 6am, we told him that it wasn’t morning yet and he went almost straight back to sleep. At 6am it was time, and he was up in our bed and opening windows in no time. Next Ella, woke and was straight up into bed with us. When they opened one window we saw a Magpie trying to get at Vonnie and Tom’s oranges. Well Aiko, who had spent the night on our bed, saw it too, and almost launched herself off our bed to get the bird. Deb was quick enough to grab her and save her from a 4 ft high leap. After a bit of time listening to the birds we all got up and we were soon feasting on a big camping breakfast of bacon and eggs, with mushrooms and tomato. Delicious!
Once everyone had finished breakfast we sat around and played Frisbee with the kids and Vonnie got out a homemade “Balloon Tennis” game. The children had lots of fun, even though there were quite a few balloon casualties.
After breakfast we put up Carly and Kieran’s tent so it was all ready for then we they arrived around lunchtime.
Tom and Vonnie walked into Normanville village, and we followed by car a short time later. It didn’t take long for us to find them sitting in an Organic/Ethical Food shop having coffee. Deb quickly organised some cakes for us and the kids and we sat outside enjoying the sunshine and watching the world go by. Normanville village is starting to change a little, with new shops going in and a more “Arty” feel to it. After “snack time”, we walked down the street and Deb and the kids had a look through a craft/book shop while I stayed outside with Aiko. They came out empty handed and then we went back to the car and drove back to camp.
Kieran and Carly arrived at around 1pm. We made lunch and sat back and enjoyed it in the sunshine. After lunch we headed down to the beach. The kids played in and around the creek outlet and Tom and Von put out their bait-trap to try and get some whitebait. All the fish were a bit slow and couldn’t figure out how to get into the bait-trap and get to the bread. I fooled around for a little while with my fishing rod and a very small hook, and caught a reasonable size poddy mullet. I cut it up and used it for bait down off the beach. I put as large piece on and cast out with my beach rod and had smaller bits on my lighter rod and fished close to the beach. Seems there were either no fish around or they just didn’t like the bait I had to offer. On the beach rod it looked like there were a few crabs out further, but no fish.
We eventually gave up and by 4pm we were all back in camp and partaking of a wonderfully delicious platter of Dukah , Lobster Oil, fresh crusty bread and Pickled Octopus. YUM!! And it just happened to be “beer o’clock”.
Ban, Sarah, Dante and Tessa arrived at around 6pm and we all pitched in and helped them put up their “new “tent, “The Resort”! They got the tent about 18months ago and this was the first time they had used it. It all went up really well, then we found that they were missing a couple of poles and one of the secondary tent poles was an interesting mix of two different poles. With a little improvisation we got it together and the “McDonald Resort” was open for business. Next came their airbeds. Can you believe that a camping shop would sell someone an airbed and pump at the same time where the pump didn’t fit the airbed!! After some concerns that Ben and 7 ¾ month pregnant Sarah would be sleeping on the ground, we eventually made a couple of modifications to the pump and had the bed inflated in good time.
It didn’t take long for Dante and Tessa to get into the swing of camping again. Dante was up a tree in his cubby house and Tessa was taking control of Ella and Ethan and there were so many laughs coming from them all. Having all the children together in a relaxed atmosphere is so much fun.
The day has been a bit warmer than yesterday and my hay fever is getting worse
For dinner Vonnie and Deb prepared a couple of delicious salads and we all took turns cooking on the BBQ, it didn’t take long and all the meat was cooked, from snags to lamb chops and Ben’s New York cut steaks(seriously thick steaks!). Various bottles of wine were opened and the afternoon soon melded into night and the wine progressed to Port. As the sun went down the temperature dropped again and the night became colder, blankets again came out and the Port began to flow a little quicker. The end of another great day at Normanville.
Saturday 20 November 2010
The day started for us with a morning visit from Ella at around 6:30. After a bit of a chat and a few cuddles we got up and there was soon a great bacon, mushrooms, tomato and “toad-in-the-hole” feast being cooked up to feed the masses at the BBQ. A delicious way to start the day.
We all relaxed around the campsite for the best part of the morning. A few went for walks into the village and got newspapers and some more supplies, and cakes and buns for morning tea.
Around 9:30am Brian and Eileen arrived for a visit. We sat and chatted to them and then Ella, Ethan Dante and Tessa first began digging up soil and it soon developed into a major mud making game. It didn’t take long before Ella and Ethan “nuded” up and the big blue bucket Carly and Kieran brought along was full of mud!!Ella, Ethan and Tessa had great fun making mud cakes and caking each other and themselves in mud!!
After a quick rinse it was lunchtime and we all had delicious rolls and sandwiches followed by a birthday mud cake (courtesy of the little ones) then a bun for Brian, complete with a candle and everything.
After lunch we all went down to the beach again and the kids played in the creek again and Vonnie set up the bate trap. After about 20 mins we checked the trap and it was full of small poddy mullet. Vonnie showed all the kids the fish, and encouraged them to touch them. That was met with a burst of shrieks and screams, but eventually they all a least ventured to touch a fish accompanied by more shrieks and screams. Tessa was given the duty to set the fish free, and did so from a height. I guess she should have been told to put the bucket into the water and then pour the fish out, and not to do it from waste height! While we were there we saw a few cars drive down onto the beach to launch their boats and canoes, and a girl exercised and couple of horses down on the beach and in the water. The kids were mildly distracted by this, but they were having much more fun playing with a log they had dragged into the creek. With their new “boat” they had many adventures, with Dante taking the younger ones out into the deeper areas while they sat on the “boat”. They played see-saws on the log and all sorts of other games. Their imaginations were running wild for a while.
Eventually, Brian and Eileen left and we all straggled back to camp to relax.
Deb put together a very delicious cheese platter.
We sat around a blow up pool Vonnie had brought along for the children. It was funny watching Deb and Vonnie sitting around the pool with their feet in the water chatting and having drinks. It’s such a hard life.
Vonnie (she is so wonderful with the things she thinks to buy and bring to keep the children amused) and Deb encouraged the children to play pool. Vonnie soon started blowing up balloons and putting them into the pool. Then she started putting a little water in the balloons as well. And games started up of throwing the balloons to (and at) each other. After a while I filled a couple of balloons with lot more water and put them into play. There were lots of laughs and shrieks as the balloons didn’t and then did burst.
As the afternoon went on Tessa decided she would read Ella and Ethan a few stories. So she got them to get her their books, the sat down in one of the “grown-ups” camping chair, and had each of them sit on her knees and then began to read them their books. She did it with the skill of a master story teller, getting into charatcter where appropriate and using the best dramatic voice she could. It was wonderful to watch.
Around 3:30 there was a siren down at the beach, from a Westpac Patrol helicopter we think. Sarah, Tom and myself got up and walked down to the beach and watched as the helicopter appeared to get very low off the water about 750m down the beach. We suspected that it was trying to chase a shark out to sea.
Everyone else were content to just relax a bit.
By mid afternoon everything was chillin’, then Vonnie decided to teach Tessa and Ella a few fancy dance moves. We were treated to an hilarious display of many crazy dance moves from the 60’s / 70’s. There was the “Hot Potato”, the “Swim” and so many others whose names escape me. Tom joined in and gave us his version of the “Pogo” and Dante gave us a dance that even he didn’t know the name of, but I am sure I probably tried in my late teens/early 20’s!! LOL Looked right up there with the “Turtle” ( for those who can remember!)
We had an earlyish dinner, around 5:45pm. It was everyone for themselves on the BBQ and then we shared a couple of very nice salads and then finished off with a delicious fresh fruit salad with jelly babies and marshmallows.
My eyes are starting to run as much as my nose and the sneezing is driving me nuts. Hay fever really sucks.
I am not sure if red wine and Port go with the antihistamine hay fever tablets, but hell, it can’t make me feel any worse, LOL
I think everyone is suffering a little hay fever, but Tom and I are winning. Tom looks like a “terrorist” in his sunnies, beanie and face scarf, replace the beanie with a tea-towel and there you go!!!
A big smile was brought to our faces when all the grandchildren started howling. It was a full moon. We have been teaching them all to howl at the moon for such a long time and it’s so good to see them take the lead and Howlllllllll with all there might and joy.
After a couple of medicinal Ports it was bed time, with all the drugs in me I should sleep like a log!
Sunday 21st November 2010
Well, I did sleep like a log, and according to Deb, the log was going through a saw mill buzz saw all night! (Do you think she means to say I was snoring??)
Anyway the day started again in the usual way, a bed full of grandchildren and a dog. We soon had the hotplate warmed up and everyone was queuing to get on it. Bacon and eggs for a change all round.
It was somewhere around this time I decided that if we didn’t go I was going to die of hay fever. Once we told everyone we were going to leave, they all agreed it was probably time, I think everyone except Sarah were suffering hay-fever to various degrees. I guess being surrounded by flowering bushes and grasses and the windy weather were just a bit much for us.
Any way we had another great time together.
So we all packed up and were on the road by about 10:30am. We called into Brian and Eileens to wish Brian a happy birthday for tomorrow ( Brian and Aiko are exactly the same age tomorrow, that is if you allow 8 human years for each dog year).
We got home around 1pm and were all unpacked and had lunch by 2pm.
I think Sarah wins the “Happy Camper” award for this weekend away. She is 7 ¾ months pregnant and came away camping anyway, and had a great time. I am just so glad we got their airbed up!!!
I think this might be our last springtime camping holiday, we will have to try down Normanville way in the Autumn.
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