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Published: January 30th 2012
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It's great to be together again
The first time for about 11 years Tuesday 24
th January was to be a busy day in many respects, not necessarily for us, but in terms of developments towards the wedding. This morning we went to the cake decorator to see how things were progressing and I was able to see the cake in its latest stage. There’s still quite a bit to be done with it but no doubt it will be ready for collection on Thursday morning. Whilst in Dandenong we took the opportunity to call in to the Waverley Gardens Shopping Centre and then we drove back to the caravan. But the main development involves the first of many “gatherings” of people from far and wide who have arrived to attend the wedding. Cathy and Chris from Wiltshire arrived yesterday and are staying in a hotel in Box Hill. Rod and Tania arrived today and are staying with Grant and Anna. We were all to meet up tonight with David, Mele and Daphne at Grant’s for about 4:30pm for a barbecue. In the meantime we relaxed at the caravan although it was very, very hot. Graham had a swim to cool off but I spent my time making a chocolate and orange low fat cheesecake.
We both had showers and made our way to Grant’s for about 4:15pm to find Rod and Tania recovering from a fairly hectic day which, for them, started at midnight at Christchurch airport New Zealand and involved a flight to Melbourne where they were collected by Grant and taken to his house. They were pretty tired but we were pleased to see them. Alas, they hadn’t seen David or Daphne all day and had only a brief meeting with Mele before she left Grant’s to meet up with David.
At about 5:00pm we heard that Cathy and Chris were walking the two kilometres or so from their hotel to Grant’s and with temperatures soaring into the 30s we went to pick them up. In the meantime, there were loads of people at the house that we didn’t know using the pool but they were slowly getting ready to leave. Meanwhile, no-one could make contact with Daphne who seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth!! Then David and Mele arrived – very late – together with Konai, Mele’s sister, and her husband Randy who live in Fiji. We all assumed that David would be bringing Daphne but
he hadn’t seen her since mid-morning. Eventually Daphne was tracked down although it appeared she had forgotten all about this evening’s event! Anna’s father, Bill, went to collect her so by about 8:30pm the guests were all there to enjoy Grant and Anna’s superb efforts which commenced with a delicious chowder and continued with a splendid barbecue meal. There was much chat and alcohol consumption and the socialising stretched well into the night. We were some of the first ones to leave but we didn’t get back to the caravan until nearly midnight - and to think it will all happen again tomorrow to celebrate Charlotte’s birthday!
Wednesday 25
th - Happy Birthday Charlotte – 11 years old today!
The day started a little cloudy but we didn’t mind. At least it kept the temperature down a bit and it would no doubt get very hot before the day was out. We had a bit of a disastrous start to the day when I realised the fridge wasn’t working. I checked the gas to the cooker and couldn’t light any of the rings so I knew then that the gas cylinder had run out. We hadn’t had it long
so came to the conclusion that the fridge must be pretty greedy. We had switched the fridge to gas because, whilst at Mansfield, the electric option failed to work. The fridge runs well on gas but we hadn’t expected it to use up a cylinder quite so quickly. It prompted Graham to take the outside grills off the back of the fridge to see if there was any obvious electrical fault. It was a bit of a challenge as the grills were sealed with a waterproof sealant and each grill had about 20 small screws securing it. Graham’s patience was tested whilst he removed the grills, especially when he couldn’t find anything untoward except a collection of cobwebs and dust. He cleaned the two sections out and tugged on the many electrical wires to make sure they were connected to something and then asked me to switch the fan on. Lo and behold, it worked!!! At the same time, I switched the fridge back to electric mode and that, too, began to work. Graham still doesn’t know what he did to put it all right but we’re just keeping our fingers crossed that it lasts for another month or so.
He resealed and re-screwed the grills (managing to get sealant everywhere!) and congratulated himself for being such a good handyman!
After cleaning himself up we were able to go and complete our “dry cleaning” mission but, on the way, we called into Bunnings DIY Store to replace our expired gas cylinder. They charged at least $10 less than the caravan park had charged so we were happy. The dry cleaning (Graham’s borrowed suit and my borrowed jacket) was ready for us and we returned to the caravan feeling pleased with a pretty successful morning. There had been a couple of things in the freezer (salmon and chicken) which, because I didn’t know how long it had been off overnight and I didn’t want to re-freeze anything, meant I had to do a bit of un-planned cooking. We had the salmon for lunch and we’ll keep the chicken for a picnic sometime. I then made another pudding to take to Daphne’s tomorrow evening and then just flopped for a couple of hours. I dozed through the first two sets of Andy Murray’s quarter-final match before having a shower and getting ready to go for about 6:00pm. Graham did all the
washing and wiping up and had already showered by the time I awoke, and we left in good time.
On arrival at Grant’s we could hear the pandemonium from a good way away. About 20 young kids, mainly girls, were having fun in the swimming pool while the few adults that were there were keeping well out of the way. There were many familiar faces as we had met most of the guests at the Christmas party. Parents began to arrive to gather their children and other party guests began to appear. Graham went to collect Cathy and Chris and by about 8:00pm, most of the younger visiting party-goers had drifted away while the outstanding adult party-goers arrived. A jolly evening of entertainment and enjoyment followed with another splendid barbecue contribution from Grant. Much of the entertainment revolved around the use of a Wii dance DVD which amused kiddies and adults alike – those watching and those dancing. Towards the end of the evening, when us old fogies from England began to wilt a bit, we made our departure, taking Cathy and Chris with us and dropping them off at their motel. We had a hectic day planned for
Behind the grills are the offending wires to the fridge and fan
With a bit of tweaking from Graham the connections were made again and the fridge and fan were working once more - phew, thank goodness for that! tomorrow so we couldn’t afford to push our powers of recovery too far so we went back to the caravan and straight to bed.
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