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Well, another year has come and gone, a year, it could
be stated that the various rally's held during the year were well attended;
keeping intact our one big family tradition. We gather this year at
Bridport, a wonderful seaside village located on the northern coast
of Tasmania, to celebrate and reminisce the old year and welcome in
the New Year. |
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Early Arrivals |
Settling
in for New Year's |
Host Mick
& Farmer Barry welcoming us |
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Many had arrived on the Wednesday settling
in. With the bulk of members arriving on the Friday, given the early arrivals
all the camp was set up for our enjoyment. The property owner Barry was
to visit us quite often to ensure that everything was in order and that
we were not experiencing any problems. It was a rather unique Rally venue
given that we were so close to the river and sea and surrounded by cattle
in adjoining paddocks who gathered by the fence gazing at us rather perplexed
about what was occurring. We were able to relax during the afternoon and watch the many small planes take off and land at the nearby airport, lucky we were to have just an afternoon breeze and sunny periods which bought us out gathering under our canopy "Bee Haven" and chewing the fat, so to speak and catching up with friends. |
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| Gathered under "Bee Haven" | Doug in Concert |
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Our happy hour was hilarious with our Deputy
Sheriff in control letting us know the misdemeanors that a lot of us had
committed already; to which he applied an appropriate fine (donation)
of twenty cents, which was placed in the collection tin for the "Walk
for Life" Cancer fund. He even fined us all for not knowing our parking lot number, now this was a bit strange given we had never had our parking spots numbered at any Chapter Rally in the past. However, it was all taken in good jest given the fact that we had adopted the "Walk for Life" cancer project as our main charity event for 2007. This effort by the Chapter is receiving excellent support from members, for there are few in the Chapter that has not had a friend or family member touched by this terrible disease. After our evening meal we all congregated under "Bee Haven" where Doug was to give an excellent concert over two hours which provided much music and laughter due to the many jokes he has in his repertoire. Whilst many elected to stay by the fire others elected to have reasonably early night at 10pm, given all the fires in the State over the christmas period we do not intend to have the usual huge fires piled with old stumps, more so a small fire contained in our firepot for safety reasons. This had not deterred anyone from gathering and telling the usual story's of past or future happenings which brings the usual challenges, guff's and laughter. |
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| Island Traders Brid River | Bridport fishing fleet |
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Saturday dawned overcast with a rather cool
south easterly wind, Mick, our Host, was off to collect the morning papers
and many of us elected to do our usual walk into the village proper to
explore the many touristy features on show and then back to camp for breakfast. Others elected to walk around the horse training track in an attempt to get fit for our marathon walk scheduled for Penguin in March, there were a few snide remarks and urging on by the many bystanders which usually extracted a quick retort from the walkers, then it was off to morning tea and welcome the new arrivals for the weekend. |
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Looking
east from River entrance |
Brid River
Channel, Bridport |
Returning
from fishing in Ringarooma Bay |
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There was a steady influx of Motorhomes and
there were quite a few from interstate that were visiting us for the first
time, as usual our members were only to happy to impart local knowledge
to assist them in their travels around Tasmania. With a lazy breeze the day was to warm up and people elected to go walkabout and check out the Brid River and the fishing and coastal trading vessels, the traders in the village made us most welcome and were happy to impart local knowledge of the village and its attractions which many of us followed up. |
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| Mainland Visitors relaxing | Opening of "Bee Haven" |
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During the afternoon most sat around relaxing
until happy hour where we were to have an official opening of our new
canopy now enjoying the name of "Bee Haven". Members are well
pleased with the name, though some comic's have suggested that before
it will be known as Miss "Bee Haven", who knows? Our Deputy Sheriff was at his eloquent best issuing fines for each perceived misdemeanor, imagined or otherwise which by a 20 cent donation is slowly swelling our fund raising for "Relay for Life". Happy hours are a wonderful time for hilarity and some of the laughs emanating create more laughter especially when Audrey lets loose, time for our evening meal with members encouraged to cook their meal on the barbecues supplied. This assists in creating the one big happy family atmosphere especially bringing together visitors from other Chapters and first timers plus interstate visitors. |
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Congregating
for Happy Hour
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After our evening meal many stayed on and
jokes were heard aplenty with a competition to see who created the most
laughter, what can you say when your sides are splitting, a few opted
to return to their motorhome for the evening was getting chilly. We certainly
miss our huge camp fires, though we understand the need for restraint
given the dry drought conditions so a small fire contained had to suffice. |
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| Jim Cooking the Eggs, poached or fried | Mick & Dick on Bacon, Doug on Toast |
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| Finishing off Brekky | Barry tucking into Brekky |
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Sunday morning arrived very overcast with a chilly breeze
though this did not deter the breakfast cooks arising early to prepare
for breakfast, 7:30 am breakfast was ready and steady stream of members
and visitors enjoyed their eggs, bacon and toast washed down with copious
amounts of tea or coffee. The funds raised again go to the "Relay
for Life" Chapter fundraiser. Poached, fried, sunny side up or
whatever was cooked to members and visitors preference. After breakfast
John and Colleen conducted the church service which was well attended,
members look forward to their sunday morning service, which we receive
good reports on how it is conducted. |
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| Relaxing doing craft work | Our lamb on the spit |
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Our spit roast cooks were hard at it getting
the lamb ready for the spit, others were pitching in helping to peel the
vegetables and other menial though important tasks. Given that we had
over one hundred mouths to feed the men and ladies involved did a wonderful
job with the cooking and the beautiful fruit salad was freshly made and
went down well covered with ice cream. Happy hour again was a festive occasion with the Deputy Sheriff handing out admonishment to members for misdemeanors perceived or actual, again it was all taken in good spirits. We all started getting our tables together for our evening meal that was wafting on the breeze and in no time at all our chefs were carving the meat and the production line of ladies serving up the vegetables ensured that we were all fed very quickly. |
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Jim into
a large bone |
Our evening
meal |
Host Mick
chief cook and bottle washer |
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What a meal! there were many that just could
not fit in the fruit salad and ice cream and a few brave souls were able
to go back for seconds, it was obvious that everyone was more than satisfied
with the quantity and quality of the meal. All washed down with tea or coffee with a few electing to have liqueur's or wines with their meal. |
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| Setting up for our evening meal | Glen entertaining us with fine music |
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After our meal we all
settled in to see the old year out and the New Year in, we were to be
entertained by Glen who had a large repertoire of music to suit all tastes,
and was well received judging by the acclamation. Of course Budgie suited
up for the occasion though we are not sure what he was representing with
his jesters hat and face painted like a pussy cat or is that a Lion or
Tiger? There were a few that could not stand the pace and went off to bed early though the majority of us were able to see in the New Year as it was piped in by our very own Chapter bagpipers. On the stroke of midnight there was much merriment and good wishes to each other for a happy and prosperous New Year then a slow exodus off to bed with the last revelers leaving around 1 am from around the fire. |
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| Finishing off Sweets | Budgie into the spirit or spirits? |
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We experienced a shower of rain during the
early hours of the morning, which the ground absorbed easily given the
dry conditions prevailing, the rest of the day was overcast with many
running generators to top up their batteries. The Monday breakfast crew was on deck at 7 am to cook for those game enough to leave their beds at such an early hour, the procession for breakfast was certainly slower than yesterday morning and it was obvious that some were sporting hangovers. After breakfast many strolled into the village proper whilst others walked around the horse training track and a few just relaxed under "Bee Haven". Our bagpipers tuned up and had a good session out on the paddock and then played whilst walking amongst the woman doing crafty things under "Bee Haven", they certainly added another dimension to the entertainment over the weekend. Unfortunately some had to leave the rally this morning due to work commitments tomorrow, it was with sad to say farewell to a few of our chapter members, though they were wished well and a safe journey until the next rally at Tunnack. |
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| Our excellent Pipers | Serenading the ladies |
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During the afternoon many just relaxed and
others visited others motorhomes and just took it easy, it didn't take
long for the woman to get their craft sessions going, the wide variety
of projects is quite prolific. |
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Ladies
with their craft work |
Doug
& Bob having a jam session for Monday evening's entertainment
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Happy hour
arrived and was somewhat reduced in numbers to previous days, it was decided
to bring out the Chapter song books and have a good old fashioned sing
along later this evening with Doug and Bob supplying the music accompaniment.
We had our evening meal then gathered under "Be Haven" for our
evenings entertainment at around 7 pm. |
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| Doug & Bob preparing for concert | Ladies using Chapter song books |
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Our two musicians accompanied each other well
and in no time at all had us singing as best we could to some old time
tunes and others that appear in our Chapter music book. We then had Graeme,
Colleen and Judy reciting poetry and Gabby one of our mainland visitors
telling us a few jokes that went down extremely well. There was no doubt at all that we all had a good evening and it was nearly 10 pm before most of us retired for the night all entertained out so to speak. |
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| Graeme and Colleen reciting poetry | |
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Tuesday dawned with the sun trying to shine through
and at 7:30 am we had our last cooked breakfast before the majority
of us departed for home. Our Rally ends officially today and the clean
up has begun to ensure that our Hosts Mick and Kaye are left with a
clean site. |
June |
July |
August |
December | ||||||||
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