Planes, Mesh and Cable Ties

Since we have been here at Anna Bay, we have been puzzled why there's so many military jets in the air. It's not uncommon to see a couple of F-111's or occasionally F/A 18's in formation zooming around, obviously doing some training manoeuvres. They are amazing aircraft - I am not really a war or weaponry nut (although I am partial to a documentary or three on the history channel whenever I can manage it), and I am certainly against war (woah what is it good for, etc) but both those planes are just amazing pieces of machinery.

I decided to check out what looked like a small Air Force museum just up the road (with a name like "Fighter World" you don't hold out a whole lot of hope, to be frank - it just sounds so amateur) - which turned out to be the main military aviation museum in Australia. It's located next door to Williamtown Air Base - one of the main Air Force bases on the Eastern Sea Board. It was amazing - they have something like 8 or 10 old military planes in there (including a couple of Mirage fighters, and a World War 2 Spitfire) plus all kinds of bits and pieces related to aviation - it was fantastic to spend a couple of hours looking over all the stuff on display. If you're ever in the area, I highly recommend it if it piques your interest - it's real "boy's own" stuff. If not, you (like Anna) will be more than happy to do pretty much anything else!

Today's big achievement was the making of a big playpen for Grace. Basically, we have got ourselves some plastic mesh, which I have zippy-cable-tied onto the poles of the beer garden (awning outside the annex). This basically gives Grace twice the play area - the annex area, plus the awning area, which is more "outdoors". She was EXTREMELY happy when I finished it this afternoon, and came and gave me a big hug when I was done - very cute. I figure we just cut the cable ties when we pack up, and put some new ones on when we arrive at the next place. This makes yet another thing to do when you set up at each new destination (the last thing we need, to be frank), but if it stops the girl from going crazy, it's well worth it. I am planning on a modification to the mesh setup, which will allow us to put it up without the annex being up - this will need some velcro and some nifty work, but will allow us to give grace a playpen under the caravan awning without spending hours setting the annex up, if we so desire. This is important if we, as planned, do a couple of overnight-only stops in the future, when it's not worth the effort setting the annex up - at least Grace can still have a wander around without getting too far...

We're looking forward to moving on next Tuesday - we're spending 6 days in Sydney next week. For 2 of those days, I am doing practical work for my studies, so I think the time will go quite quickly!

We also had a visit today from some old friends Penny & Pat - they live in Singleton, an hour and a bit drive up the road. They're great fun to be around, with their fantastic sense of humour and their army of kids.

We have been at Anna Bay for almost 2 weeks, which we both agree is too long for our liking, despite it being a nice place. This park is crazy - in the week, it's really peaceful and quiet - but come Friday night, it gets invaded by literally hundreds of people for the weekend - all of which seem to think making lots of noise and leaving mud and sand and crap all though the amenities block whenever possible is a fine idea. I guess we're half an hours drive from Newcastle, or about 2 hours from Sydney - so it makes for an easy getaway destination for those Monday-to-Friday workers in those places. Roll on Monday.