Last night after Poo Poo Head had had his dinner and was in bed, Ross and Barb, equally excited, were eagerly awaiting 7.30pm and the start to Anne of Green Gables 2, the exciting and apparently must see sequel to Anne of Green Gables (the original).
Nothing was going to interrupt the movie … except the bloody storm that blew in, and what a storm it was. Lightning, thunder and torrential rain, along with a howling wind.
The giant gum trees over the camper were swaying in circles with slabs of bark flying off the trees and bouncing of the camper ( … and Ross’s bestest car in the world)
The camper was shaking and Ross was expecting the new annex to fly off at any second. Not to be, the annex was not moving much at all, if anything the annex had made the entire camper a little more stable. Even the ensuite behind the camper, which Ross expected to be in the sea this morning, was perched up exactly where it was meant to be.
At great risk of missing some of the most exciting parts of Anne of Green Gables 2, the sequel, and at further risk of throwing his knowledge of the story line into chaos, Ross decided to go and have a shower. Barb wasn’t so sure that Ross should leave the camper … she was frightened that when Ross returned to the camper the storm would have put the camper, less than gently, somewhere completely different, like upside down and down the road.
The wind and rain were so loud that Barb had the TV volume up full and was sitting about two feet from the screen just to hear it. To add even more intrigue to an already edge of your seat movie, the wind was buffering the satellite signal about and the picture would drop out every so often.
Barb never stays up past 9.30/10.00pm, but with Anne of Green Gables 2, the sequel, she didn’t make it to bed until tomorrow … after midnight … what the !!!!
Whilst our worst was not being able to hear the Foxtel movie on our LCD in the warm camper, we did cast a thought and feel a little sorry for the two separate couples that were camped in little K-Mart tents. One couple in particular were in their late fifties and aside from the tent, the only other camp gear were two fold up chairs. With the on and off drizzle yesterday afternoon, they migrated back and forward from the chairs to the car.
Poo Poo Head enjoying the space in the annex to play with his cars on the floor mat over the lumpy ground.
Ross went down the scrub track to check out the beach this morning. The caravan park is on the beach, but the foreshore scrub both hides the view and protects the park from the weather.
After breakfast this morning we headed to the Vietnam Veterans Museum in Woolamai to pay our respects and check out what was on offer to see. Ross is fascinated by anything about war. Although he obsesses over WWII, anything war related will do. The Vietnam Veterans Museum is a fantastic, fascinating and informative insight into our diggers and the Vietnam conflict and is clearly established by passionate participants.
Much to the Poo Poo Heads delight, the Vietnam Veterans Museum car park was full of old classic muscle cars.
The museum was exceptionally well stocked with thousands of quality exhibits, and more importantly the exhibits were very well labeled and explained. Too often we end up in some well meaning but pathetic grab for cash “so called museums” which are stocked with irrelevant and poorly labeled rubbish. The Vietnam Veterans Museum is bursting at the seams with fantastic topical exhibits, all explained in great detail.
There is a genuine Centurion tank and Cobra Attack Helicopter on offer along with a fantastic holographic presentation housed in an authentic Army HQ tent. Lucky for us humble visitors, they have employed quality research and firsthand knowledge.
Ross feels the Vietnam diggers got a really raw deal with their service for Australia and lack of subsequent recognition; very similar on many levels to the disconnected and nonchalant way most of Australia feels about our servicemen presently serving overseas in the “less than popular” wars.
Well, with that sermon over, we headed off to San Remo for lunch (another bakery) and a look out over the San Remo back beach where it was blowing a gale.
After lunch we headed to the Panny’s Chocolate Factory in Newhaven just over the bridge on Philip Island. Ross recalls the old cheese factory that used to occupy the building with the big wooden bull out the front.
Inside we were greeted with a Panny’s Oompa Loompa handing out a Chocolate Truffle each to all who ventured in. Nice touch we thought … but don’t ever look a gift Truffle in the mouth, regardless of how yummy it might be.
The factory access was $12 each …. That’s $12 each in case you missed that, and the basic chocolate selection on offer started at about $60 per kilo … that’s $60 per kilo in case you missed that as well, and the $60 per kilo was only for the basic stuff; items such as $15 for 200g of chocolate buds … plain chocolate buds. And the prices went up for the more exotic stuff.
They had a big sign out the front that read “Free access to shop and Café” …. Ross couldn’t believe his luck, free entry to the shop and café, yipee. You couldn’t appreciate just how lucky we felt?? Ross double checked just to be sure we got free access to the shop and Café.
After a shit coffee and an average hot chocolate in the ‘free access café”, we walked out not a hell of a lot poorer for missing out on the factory access for only $36. We took a vote $36 for nothing, or keep our $36 and buy enough chocolate from Safeway to make ourselves perpetually sick every day for a week.
Off to Safeway we went.
After Panny’s we headed up to the Islantis Surf shop which is a Philip Island icon with a concrete wave out front for the Poo Poo Head to “ride” a tube.
Ross checked out the very extremely windy completely blown out freezing cold beaches at Woolamai and Forrest Caves on the way back to town. The wind was so strong at Woolamai, the stinging sand whipped up by the wind was almost drawing blood as Ross ran down to the beach.
Back in town on the way back to the camper, Ross found the real Santa waiting to have his hair cut at the Cowes alleyway Barber … who would have known Santa has his hair cut in Cowes.
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