SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 4     MARONG

Got up at 7am to go to the bathroom and there was mist all round. Quite pretty, and a little eerie.

Although the park is by the Calder Highway, we were pleased to find that the traffic noise was not really evident from the park. There was a bit of a swampy area next door, and what we were hearing was the sound of frogs – just beautiful.

When I got up properly at 9am, the earlier mist had totally cleared away.

Pottered about through the morning. John didn’t get up until after 11am! He had stayed up late last night, after watching TV, involved with a computer game.

Tried to check email on my laptop. The download proceeded at snail’s pace. John had used up our entire 8GB data allowance, last night, on his World of Warcraft update. Unbelievable! Especially since he said he’d done all the upgrades possible the night before we left home, using our much larger home data allowance. I was furious. Clearly, I am not a WOW devotee (addict?).

I was able to link to the park’s free Wifi, but it was not much faster. After sending friend M, currently travelling in Qld, a brief email that took forever to transmit, I gave up.

Morning relax at our site

As we were having lunch, was a text from daughter to say that grandson’s dad was dropping him at the park, in about twenty minutes. I waited out the front, and we chatted for a few minutes, before he headed off back to Melbourne. Daughter arrived not long after. We took the two boys to the very good park playground and jumping pillow. Daughter had received the OK to do so from park managers. It was the first time the four-year-old had been on one of those, and he had fun.

I was not impressed with the two boys, maybe 8-10 years old, who had two Cavalier spaniel type dogs in the playground, and were carrying them up, then pushing them down, the slide. The poor dogs were obviously uncomfortable. The boys’ grandparents were setting up an annexe on a van that I thought they’d brought from the storage area at the back of the park. I wondered if they actually lived in the retirement homes section behind the tourist part of the park. Seemed the kids and dogs had been sent off to play.

The boys may have decided that the look on my face boded ill for them, because they quickly left the play area. By the time we walked back past the van, there was no-one there. I mentioned the episode later to the park manager, who also seemed pretty annoyed by it. She clearly knew who was involved.

It was very chilly this afternoon. John suggested we might be more comfortable with our nibbles and planned pizza dinner, at daughter’s place. So we all adjourned there, complete with the food I’d bought yesterday.

As we drove through the streets of the more newly developed part of Golden Square, I was really taken with the white blossom on the ornamental trees that had been planted all down both sides of some of the newer streets. A really pretty display and, for once, clever landscaping on the part of some urban planners.

Street trees in blossom

Sat round the table with our nibbles and some wine, then ordered pizzas to be delivered. Made it easy! After tea, S arrived home. The sporting victory celebrations had been going on since yesterday and would continue into “Mad Monday”. In view of this, daughter had a rostered day off work tomorrow to mind the four-year-old, so we would be able to meet up again.

Watched Australian Survivor on their TV. We are finding that program at least as good as the American version. Then, back to Bus, keeping a careful eye out for roadside wildlife through the treed areas between Golden Square and Marong.