Read ‘em and Weep

---

DAY 241

Oh, what a sleepless night, the possums continued to screech and crash through the undergrowth well into the wee hours, I did manage to get some sleep in between times, but then was not helped by someone driving past at 3.00am. Still at least I don’t have to rush out of bed in the morning.

Andy surfaced at 7.00 and I surfaced shortly after, there was a bit of devastation where the possums had been rooting through our kitchen box and managed to turf out a couple of pots, fortunately the box of Crunchy Nut Cornflakes was intact apart from a couple of muddy possum paw prints on the lid, they obviously did try.

Not a busy day, we popped out for a mooch around, but were not out for long, we popped into the cinema to speak to the Duty Manager about the disappointment that we felt at the end of the film that we saw on Friday night. She said that there was a technical problem with the film that she knew about and she needed to rectify, so she gave us a couple of complimentary tickets, which is great as we do want to visit the cinema again while we are here.

We generally lazed around for the rest of the day, sitting by the swimming pool and reading our books, I managed to finish mine, so I will leave that in the laundry for someone else to pick up and read.

The pool was quite busy this afternoon and there were a lot of children, a lady stretched out on a sunbed near us, enjoying her book was mumbling under her breath “stop screeching!” She was quietly addressing the abundance of children in the pool that were playing.

After a while she got up to leave and on her way out she stopped to speak to another woman on the other side of the pool, however we then heard her shout “Will you stop screeching!” This was addressed to one unfortunate child in the pool who had been playing with some other children, the boys father just sat on the edge of the pool looking at this woman, but he did not say a word, everyone else who was sitting by the pool looked up, some of them I am sure quietly congratulating this woman for speaking up!

Yes, children need to play, but people were also hoping to relax by the swimming pool, enjoying an afternoon of sun and nobody really minds the noise but high pitched screeching does get on your nerves after a while. After that things really calmed down, the father skulked off to a sunbed, still looking speechless and the children just swam around quietly.

We waited for the pool to get a little quieter before we went in, the water was much cooler today, I think because there was no humidity last night the air was cold so the water had cooled a fair bit, still it was nice to be in there and swim.

We decided on an early tea, pizza was much needed tonight so we invited Richard to join us. Andy and I went into Eagle Boys, Palmerston and ordered, the funny thing is we ordered one pizza without pineapple and one pizza with extra pineapple, but we were still charged $2.00 for the extra pineapple, it is funny how they don’t take money off for removing a topping but are more than happy to charge you for extra. I will just point out that it is not just Eagle Boys that do that, I think that most other pizza outlets are the same.

Back at camp we tuck into our pizza and chat to Richard, we find out that he has done his fair share of charity work, raising money for Stoke Mandeville (England) and indeed has worked educating and helping patients adapt to a new way of life as disabled people. We also find out that he has competed and represented Australia in 1988 Seoul Paralympic Games, winning a Silver Medal and a bronze medal for his efforts. Richard has also coached a young quadriplegic athlete in his time.

Mirjam and Dave join us for a while, we chat and watch the possums, we enjoy the cool evening and then everyone disperses. As it is still a little too early for bed Andy and I decide to have a game of cards, he beat me in the first round, but I only had a score of 6, however the second hand was over fairly quickly when I completed trounced him, poor Andy had not even laid a single card down so he ended up with a massive score of 52. The cards were dealt again and before long I had no option but to do the same again, I laid my hand down and said “Read em and weep”, Andy again had a full hand of cards which totalled over 50, the game is well and truly over in just 3 hands.

Andy was motionless for a while just looking at the cards on the table in disbelief, but lets not be complacent here, this just means that next time Andy will mean business, he will be out to get me.

We jump into bed and soon we can hear the possums shuffling around outside, although they are a little quieter tonight, so hope for a decent nights sleep.

It is not long before sleep takes over.

---