After a huge weekend on the Gold Coast, you would think Erin would have slept in a bit before going to school on her birthday but NO!.....She was up as soon as she heard movement in the van. I had kept hidden all the parcels that had been sent to her from family so that she could enjoy opening everything on the day. One parcel had been travelling around under our bed since Adelaide and I had become so used to seeing it every time I lifted the bed that I was worried I might forget it. Amazingly, Erin never even queried me as to what the shopping bag under the bed contained which is unusual for her.
Her eyes lit up when I revealed all the postpak envelopes as well as a couple of little things which I had organised for her to open. She had revealed to me several weeks ago her desire for a pink pony that she had seen in the Mapleton post office. Erin and one of her little classmates, whose family runs the post office, had been eyeing off the pony and she was bugging me about it every time we walked home that way. I did some reconnaissance one day after dropping her off at school. I walked into the PO and noticed straight away a beautiful white china pony with artistic painting all over it's neck. Mmmm.......the fact that it was breakable didn't excite me to start with and then I saw the price....$46!!! I immediately started searching around for another possible pony and discovered a cute little plush pink pony down in the corner. When we next walked home that way and Erin, again, bugged me about the pony, I asked her to show me and yes......the plush pony was her choice.
I went and bought it as soon as I could and took it home to stash somewhere. There was my next dilemna. Hiding spots in a caravan are challenging especially when every square inch is packed with something and cupboard doors are within reach and sight of small persons. I had managed to hide all her postpak parcels up high in a small cupboard in the ensuite. Her other parcels were stashed behind boxes wrapped up but still in brown paper bags to hinder nosey daughters.
She unwrapped all her parcels and looked at her cards (which she loved). She looked dreamily at the bride Barbie and Ken dolls and put aside her new sundress to wear that afternoon after school. Her gifts of spending money were collected up and put into her piggy bank which she brought with her. I helped her to count it out and she had a nice amount when we included Uncle Jeffs secret contributions which he added when he visited. At least now I can remind her of the piggy bank when she sees something she likes. Then came the challenge of getting her ready for school when she wanted to play with her presents. She was looking forward to going because the birthday person gets special stickers of their choice to wear and there is birthday cake either for morning tea or just before pick up in the afternoon. I had already given her teachers the 'heads up' that I wouldn't be organised by morning tea and that I would bring cupcakes in the afternoon. I had made both Erin's birthday cake and the cupcakes on the Friday before because that gave me less margin for disaster on the day if all I had to do was decorate them. I was a bit concerned because I had to store the cakes in the camp kitchen freezer as the caravan freezer was nowhere near big enough to store them. I had to disguise the containers with plastic bags and put them right at the bottom where people were less likely to look because the kitchen is a public area for campers etc. When I returned on Monday, they were all still there which was a great relief to me.
Erin had requested 'pink icing with the fairy sprinkles that grandma had given me'. That was fairly easy but the birthday cake had to be a princess cake with pink and white marshmallows all around the dress. I had made her something similar last year and when I queried her about that she said "oh mum, that was a barbie cake"........well excuse me for being so ignorant! Considering I had limited baking items to come up with these miracles, I think I did ok.
That afternoon, all her class sang 'happy birthday' and shared the cupcakes around. I had made extras just in case and they went pretty fast to many of the siblings of her classmates that were around at pickup time. In the evening, we had a barbeque with our visitors from Adelaide and Erin got to blow out candles on the princess birthday cake. Blake and Morgan also had a turn of blowing out candles. It had been a huge couple of days but I think and hope that Erin had a sixth birthday to remember especially with some familiar faces around. She received more gifts in the mail after her birthday which extended the event out over nearly a week when you include the Gold Coast trip. It was a bit like an Erin festival but in a way it was good because she got to enjoy everyones' presents spread out over time instead of all at once.
One of the big challenges we face while travelling in our caravan is accumulation of stuff. We left Adelaide with everything we thought we needed for our trip and the van was packed to capacity. Now that we have stopped and settled for a little while, the dilemna of not accumulating stuff again is ongoing. Besides, where would we store more stuff as every little space in the van is accounted for. As a result, the idea of giving Erin an experience rather than 'stuff' for her birthday was appealing and so the dolphin swim at Seaworld came about. She still got a couple of little presents to open and some lovely things from family but the main present was an experience.
We went to the main counter at Seaworld an hour before our swim. We had to sign the usual waver of responsibility etc etc and pick up our fashion 'Seaworld' togs (Queensland speak for rashie and boardies). We were told to meet our guide at a predetermined point near the dolphin pools and use the changerooms to get into our gear. Josie was our guide and fitted us into our life-vests and gave us goggles and face masks. The speel about how to behave around the dolphins followed and then we were all escorted to the dolphin pool which had a nice beach with sand.
From there we were handed over to a dolphin trainer named Lauren who introduced us to 'Nudge'. This dolphin was rescued at 6 months old after being entangled in fishing line and netting. He still had notches in his tail as a reminder of his ordeal 5 years before. We all had the opportunity to touch Nudge on the back, tail and belly and even looked at his belly button. How would I describe what a dolphin feels like? It felt like patting a wet inner tube from a tyre but harder. There were so many muscle and fat layers that his body was as hard as a rock.
The whole experience was educational and fun at the same time because Nudge loved to play games. He poked out his tongue, blew bubbles from his blowhole, tail walked, talked underwater, sang to us, waved at us, splashed us and retrieved a football that we threw out into the pool. Everyone had a chance to feed him a fish although Erin didn't want to hold a slimy fish at first. Thankfully when she watched us feed him she decided to join in. Unfortunately when Nudge approached Erin to grab the fish she dropped it and Nudge didn't reverse up like he was supposed to. Poor Nudge got into trouble and had to do it again. I think Lauren said to Nudge that his behaviour was 'inappropriate'. He looked like a kid that had been told off. The whole experience was fantastic and before we knew it, our time was up. Erin talked about Nudge for days afterwards and she took the photos to show and tell at school. Everyone in her class was suitably impressed so she said. I'm just hoping she remembers her 6th birthday experience for a long time to come
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On the Sunday of our intrepid adventure to the Gold Coast, we visited Seaworld. It had been months in the organising because Erin and Blake (whose birthdays were being celebrated on this day and the next) were going to swim with the dolphins. We arrived an hour before opening because we all had an early start and couldn't wait to get out of the caravan park. After parting with a small fortune, we entered the theme park and walked to the far end so we could work our way back towards the entrance.
It was nothing like any of the other aquariums we had been to in recent months. I could definitely now understand how Seaworld fitted into the theme park mould of the other Gold Coast attractions. There was little in the way of display tanks with reef fish etc but lots of theme park rides for all ages which was a good thing. There was also a mix of entertainment shows involving both seals, sealions and dolphins. Seaworld seems to have reinvented itself over the years because there were areas where new attractions and rides were being developed for future visitors. That is how they keep people coming back.
However, an old favourite was still there from when my family visited Seaworld in the late 70's early 80's. The viking boat ride was still operating and still gave the same reaction as it did all those years ago except this time I was riding on it with my own children. Many of the rides had height restrictions so the kids were somewhat limited but they were happy with whatever they got to ride on. There were pirate ships with water guns and huge climbing rope walkways. Becca had her first ever ride on a carousel which she loved and wasn't happy about getting off. All the rides were included in the admission cost so we didn't have to pay extra and the kids could ride as much as they liked.
The polar bears were great and we arrived at the exhibit just in time to see them swimming and lazing around on their cold rocks. Erin had never seen a polar bear in real life before so she loved it, as did Becca. Shark Bay, which was a large reef exhibit, was very impressive and the visibility of the sharks was amazing because there was lots of natural light. We also saw penguins and stingrays (not in the same tank of course). There was a touch tank with baby stingrays in it which you could touch. Some were rough and others were soft and almost slimy. You could also hand feed them if you wanted.
Steve, however spent most of his time with his head in the air because the Seaworld helicopter was flying in and out during the day on scenic flights. The pilot was landing on a floating pontoon and by the end of the day, Steve was disheartened by his lack of skill compared to what this pilot was doing. Of course this pilot probably had 100's of hours up his sleeve when Steve had 10 hours, at that stage. Sometimes he needs a good slapping but then he always was someone who wanted to 'fast-track' and become expert as soon as possible.
Finding something for lunch was hard because it was fairly busy but we eventually decided on the tavern. Initially it seemed expensive but turned out to be good value for our big group. Steve and I ordered a meal to share and Erin and Becca shared a kid's meal. With drinks included and an airconditioned place to sit out of the sun, it was a good choice. Normally we would bring lunch but because we were camping, we didn't have a lot of fridge space to bring extra food apart from milk for breakfast, water and a couple of yoghurts for the girls. It was a 'full-on' day and I can understand why people buy the two day passes because there is a lot to see and do over a day but we all enjoyed it.
A couple of weekends ago, we took a short road trip down to the Gold Coast to meet up with friends from Adelaide and visit Seaworld. It is amazing how close we are to the land of theme parks and high-rise. The girls were in the car just long enough to be well behaved and not get fidgety. The caravan park in which we stayed was behind the multi-storey beachfront mecca but on the salt inlet that runs in from the sea. The kids all had fun in the water although it was a bit on the brown side because the area had a hint of tidal mangrove about it. Across from our abode was Seaworld and helicopters and seaplanes flew over all afternoon on their regular joyflights. Steve was in his element as far as that went and rubber-necked every time the familiar sound of a rotary went over.
The caravan park was packed because it was a weekend and seemed to be inhabited by a whole new level of family rabble. Large groups of tents and camper trailers were set up all around us, most of them with boats. There was little to no shade around the camping sites yet many of the caravan sites had shade. No chance of having a quick kip in the afternoon in ones' tent for fear of dehydration and cooking oneself.
The entrance to the park was policed by securitiy codes and boom gates and the toilet blocks also needed codes for entry. The swimming pools were too deep for little kids and were far too busy for little people anyway and the jumping pillow was out in the sun and a busy place as well. Are we having fun yet......!
We all decided to have fish and chips for tea as the barbecues were a waterbag trip across the park because the camp kitchen/bbq area near us was......you guessed it.....closed for renovations. We thought that it would be fairly easy to find fish and chips on the Gold Coast. After all beaches and fish and chips go together. The guys went in search of F&C with our order which was not excessive by any means. A long while later they returned, only to discover that some of the order had been forgotten but paid for. Steve was steaming by this stage as the whole F&C experience had not been fun. They had difficulty finding a shop to start with and the service was shitty. He stormed out of the caravan park and because the boom gate wouldn't go up fast enough, he squeezed the car past it to get out. Upon his return, the boom gate wouldn't go up again so he stormed into the office to be told that because he squeezed past the gate earlier, the computer has not registered his departure and so therefore would not let him in. Counting...one...two...three...four.....calm down Steve.
Anyway he eventually got back into the park and had his F&C. The fish was mushy(because it was frozen before cooking) and the serve of chips fitted into a small cereal bowl and would have put a small African country into debt. I miss Sotos at Semaphore!!!!! Why on earth would you have to freeze fish in Queensland for gods' sake. It's a fishing paradise and should be fresh.
Later that evening, I gave Rebecca a bath but not in the baby bathroom. I couldn't get into either of the bathrooms because they were locked and so washed her in one of the laundry troughs that were available. I dried and changed her on a washing machine lid. When I went and had a shower later, it was quiet at least, apart from the young lads wolf whistling on the other side of the wall outside the shower block. I also noticed that the signage in the toilets was none too subtle. It basically said that if you fouled up the toilets/showers or misbehaved you would be evicted. The signage at Lilyponds is far more friendly and encouraging to do the right thing.
Sleeping in a tent is fun except in Queensland with no daylight savings. It was light at 4.30am and after having a late night because the surrounding campers and their kids were roudy till god knows what hour, it was not fun waking up. Amazingly enough, when we wandered over to the toilet block for our morning relief, the toilets were closed for cleaning. What the...!! I suppose in a busy caravan park, there is no 'best time' to clean but during the morning rush hour is a bit much. There were plenty of crossed legs waiting. Ah the joys of camping. Well I must say....and we all agreed, that the Gold Coast was more like tainted brass from our perspective. It was a hot, old concrete jungle with poor service where-ever we went and the people were generally unhelpful and unfriendly. Luckily for us, we are not big theme-park people and so won't be returning any time soon.
When we moved onto our caravan site, the caravan park owners had only recently removed a derelict structure from the same site so they could start using it again. As a result, the site was barren of any greenery despite being neat and tidy. Most of the sites around us have nice green grass around them whereas we have red dirt and gravel. Rebecca has had plenty of grazed knees and I have had to regularly wash her food under the tap after it has hit the dirt. Therefore, Steve and I decided to buy some grass seed and try to cultivate some Queensland greenery of our own.
We brought our grass selection home (carpet grass) and Steve spread it all over the site like chook food. Then we watered it in and waited. Unfortunately for our developing lawn, a rather large rainstorm came through a day later and washed most of the seed into little pockets on the site. We left it and continued to wait.....and wait.....and wait. Obviously because we are living in Queensland now, Steve expected the grass to pop up within several days due to the humidity and our regular watering. But no.....a week later and still no grass. Every morning Steve would go outside to inspect the dirt to see if it had developed a tinge of green overnight. I wouldn't have been surprised to see him outside with a pair of vernier calipers (a device for measuring minute things) to keep track of his pending harvest. I must say I have never seen him so enthusiastic about gardening in a long time.
He would come home from training and grab the hose and water the dirt with the hope that it would sprout.
Then, a couple of days ago, he started to see little shoots of green appear in those pockets where the majority of the seed had settled. He was excited about that and then he went outside this morning. There he was at 6.45 am calling me outside excitedly (that sounds like an unusual description for Steve) because most of the site was a tinge of green. Where we thought we had lost seed, it must have been there all along. Now all we have to do is keep it going. It has taken 2 and a half weeks to start growing. The unfortunate irony of this is that by the time this grass is ready to be cut and used, we will probably be moving on and not get an opportunity to enjoy it. Such is life but then we will hopefully be moving onto greener pastures so to speak.
It was inevitable that one day some gossip would revolve around to us which involved us and we would have to deal with it. Such was the case yesterday. It truly is like Days of our Lives. Becca and I had returned home from shopping in Nambour and while I was unpacking the car, Mr B came over and covertly informed me that "he had heard" (classic gossip starter line) that our cats were bothering the back neighbours (not in the caravan park but over the back fence) and they were going to ring the council to set up traps for them. He said he felt we should know because he liked us and he didn't want to see anything happen to our pets, even though he was 'not a cat person'!! When I enquired further as to the source, he wasn't willing to divulge that tidbit to me. Mmmm..... my trust meter was twitching slightly at this stage and I had already guessed where he got his information.
Ok, so my first move was to contain the cats in the annex which was possible because they had rushed in for their food top-up as soon as I arrived back from shopping. Unfortunately, they weren't happy about suddenly being locked in and Becca wasn't happy either because it meant she couldn't come and go as she pleased. Within ten minutes they had both escaped under the canvas so I just threw my hands in the air because they both went in different directions. In hindsight, if I hadn't locked them up they probably would have stayed around anyway which is what they normally do, either under a tree or on the gravel adjacent to our annex.
Almost immediately after I had been told about the cats, I had decided that I was going to approach the people who had supposedly made the complaint and apologise to them and try to make peace. It was a bold thought and move on my part as I am normally one to avoid confrontation but again, this change of lifestyle and environment has made me bolder and more up front than normal. When Steve came home, I told him the situation and he went straight over to Mr B for more details and he revealed what I had already assumed was the person responsible for this gossip.
It was quite stressful for the next couple of hours because we were thinking the worst case scenario was keeping the cats locked in the van constantly until Steve rigged up an outside enclosure which was not ideal. Later in the afternoon, we heard the neighbour come home on his motorbike so we (as a family) walked around to their house to apologise and learn more about them. I had looked up the district on google maps earlier in the day because many of the houses around the caravan park are not on standard shaped blocks and some have shared driveways and we didn't want to approach the wrong house.
As we walked up the driveway, we didn't know what we were going to encounter. I had prepared myself for being yelled at but then at least I would know where we and the neighbours stood. The house was actually a colourbond shed which the people were living in and we made ourselves known to the man who was home. We humbly apologised and then began to piece together the circumstances of the complaint and why. As it turned out, the people enjoyed the birds that visited their yard and a baby magpie was being stalked by a cat and they were concerned about the fledgling magpie. When the man (David, by the way) described the cats responsible, it turned out not to be our cats at all. He saw a 'red' cat meaning ginger and a black cat, neither of which were ours. He also said that this incident was over three weeks before and that he hadn't seen the cats since and that the baby magpie was flying now anyway so he and his wife weren't so worried. They had been talking to our nearby neighbour and mentioned the cats and she jumped on the bandwagon, blamed our cats and then the council trapping was discussed. So the upshot of all this is that our meddling neighbour blew it all out of proportion and made the whole situation into a drama. David said he didn't want us to lock up our cats as they like all animals but we asked him to talk to us directly in future if there were any further incidents. We offered our phone number but he took note of where we lived from over the fence and agreed to let us know if our cats did become a problem.
We said our goodbyes after some general chitchat and walked back down his driveway feeling very relieved that we had decided to confront the situation instead of letting gossip take over. How different things could have been if we hadn't had the strength to tackle this head on and deal with the consequences whatever they had been.
I should have known that moving into a caravan park on a semi-permanent basis was like moving to a new suburb. All around us are people whose daily lives revolve around who they talk to and who they don't talk to for god knows whatever reason only known to them. When we first arrived everyone was friendly to us and they still are but as we chatted with people, they let slip the little tidbits about who communicates with whom. Mr B across from us doesn't talk to his closest neighbour Mr T (I will obscure the names to protect their identities). Mr B and Mrs J talk to everybody in general conversation but keep to themselves most of the time (wise move I say). The two Ms A's have an exclusive little click going. Some permanents from further afield in the park steer clear of everyone down our way which leads me to the conclusion that we have been placed with an 'interesting' lot. Gossip is rife if you're willing to get caught up in it and because there are no such boundaries as fences etc between sites, one must be careful about where one parks their car or puts their chairs so as not to upset the delicate balance (sounds like animal planet doesn't it). I did come to the conclusion the other day that a possible reason for this behaviour is because we all live so close to one another that it becomes tedious to have to say hi to someone every time you step out of your door. So therefore, it's perhaps better to have a dignified silence between neighbours rather than hourly acknowledgements. We were given subtle warning about our nearest neighbour in regards to our pets. She is unable to have pets because she lives in a caravan park owned cabin and so we were told she may cause trouble because we have pets. Initially she loved seeing the cats around although we never saw them on her turf. Recently though, our nearest neighbour has decided not to acknowledge us anymore (as I said before, god knows why) but if we can continue to carry on regardless and Ms A doesn't decide to find issue with the pets, we should survive our 6 or so months in the wilds of the Lilyponds permanents' suburb.
After a huge weekend on the Gold Coast, you would think Erin would have slept in a bit before going to school on her birthday but NO!.....She was up as soon as she heard movement in the van. I had kept hidden all the parcels that had been sent to her from family so that she could enjoy opening everything on the day. One parcel had been travelling around under our bed since Adelaide and I had become so used to seeing it every time I lifted the bed that I was worried I might forget it. Amazingly, Erin never even queried me as to what the shopping bag under the bed contained which is unusual for her.
Her eyes lit up when I revealed all the postpak envelopes as well as a couple of little things which I had organised for her to open. She had revealed to me several weeks ago her desire for a pink pony that she had seen in the Mapleton post office. Erin and one of her little classmates, whose family runs the post office, had been eyeing off the pony and she was bugging me about it every time we walked home that way. I did some reconnaissance one day after dropping her off at school. I walked into the PO and noticed straight away a beautiful white china pony with artistic painting all over it's neck. Mmmm.......the fact that it was breakable didn't excite me to start with and then I saw the price....$46!!! I immediately started searching around for another possible pony and discovered a cute little plush pink pony down in the corner. When we next walked home that way and Erin, again, bugged me about the pony, I asked her to show me and yes......the plush pony was her choice.
I went and bought it as soon as I could and took it home to stash somewhere. There was my next dilemna. Hiding spots in a caravan are challenging especially when every square inch is packed with something and cupboard doors are within reach and sight of small persons. I had managed to hide all her postpak parcels up high in a small cupboard in the ensuite. Her other parcels were stashed behind boxes wrapped up but still in brown paper bags to hinder nosey daughters.
That afternoon, all her class sang 'happy birthday' and shared the cupcakes around. I had made extras just in case and they went pretty fast to many of the siblings of her classmates that were around at pickup time. In the evening, we had a barbeque with our visitors from Adelaide and Erin got to blow out candles on the princess birthday cake. Blake and Morgan also had a turn of blowing out candles. It had been a huge couple of days but I think and hope that Erin had a sixth birthday to remember especially with some familiar faces around. She received more gifts in the mail after her birthday which extended the event out over nearly a week when you include the Gold Coast trip. It was a bit like an Erin festival but in a way it was good because she got to enjoy everyones' presents spread out over time instead of all at once.
