Sunday - avoiding the great exodus

We had been warned that with Camp finishing on Saturday night, there was a huge exodus on Sunday and the roads are clogged with all the caravans heading out from the Convention Centre.  Our friends were all staying on until Monday before leaving and we decided that it sounded a wise decision.  600 people at Camp means a lot of caravans, mobile homes, buses converted into mobile homes, camper vans, and even camper trailers that fold out into tents.  We had no desire to sit in a traffic jam - we can 'enjoy' that event any time in the city!  I'm sure the residents of this lovely country area could not fail to notice and were probably unimpressed with the 'Great Adventist Movement' as the camp was vacated either!


By Sunday afternoon I had done and hung out 3 loads of washing, Peter and Richard had packed up our annexe ready for the next morning and along with Bob and Laraine we decided to have a quick lunch and go out to Trial Bay to visit the old gaol there.  

Front of Trial Bay gaol

At least there was a nice view!

The bay was named Trial Bay after a ship that had sunk there and this gaol was built between 1877-1886 to house prisoners brought there specifically to build a breakwater in the bay to provide protection for ships.  But the stone was so hard it took 1 man 9 days to cut one stone, and progress on the breakwater was very slow.  This wasn't helped by huge seas washing parts of it away and with the advent of stronger ships the breakwater became unnecessary so the gaol was closed in 1903 and the breakwater was abandoned.

Dining Hall

But along came WWI and with that the hysteria about Germans living in Australia.  One of the places they were interned was at this place.  Coming from Australia and German colonies in Asia, the 500 men were an elite group of academics, professionals and craftsmen.


In 1918 the gaol was decomissioned, stripped and lay in ruin for many years until in 1946 the site was made a public Reserve and since then efforts continue to restore the gaol.

The dining room (above) was originally a spectacular interior space.  Three grand arches in the rear wall gave access to the two cell wings and to the kitchen by a central door.  In the Internment period, internees used the dining room  for dining hall, meeting place for classes, lectures, committees and communal gatherings.


They made furniture and decorated their cells with stencil friezes. 

They also built huts for businesses and recreation, and sports facilities such and tennis courts in the disused quarry.  Many recreation huts were constructed outside the walls of the gaol to achieve some level of privacy.


Some internees were allowed walks outside the Camp boundaries on the undertaking that they would not attempt to escape.  Cell doors were left unlocked and the gates were as well until 6pm each night.


The men grew vegetables, fished, set up shops: a cobblers, a carpentry shop, a watchmaker, a yoghurt factory, fruit shop, barber and plumber.  People from the surrounding area brought their flour to be made into bread at the bakery because of the quality of the baking.  They formed a camp orchestra, brass band, 2 folk choirs, and the German Theatre, which boasted a new production each weekend, making their own sets and costumes. 56 plays, mostly German 'classics', were performed in 1917.


There was an in-house newspaper too, Welt am  Montag, which reported on the war efforts of Germany, and downplayed those of the Allies; Internees had turned inward in their isolation and at best showed disinterest in Australian matters and cultural ways.


A newspaper dated 11th August 1888 says 'the bath house is large and roomy, and are supplied with water from a reservoir in the hills; in fact plenty of water is obtainable everywhere about the prison and outside buildings from the same source.  This from a sanitary point of view is everything that can be desired.'  I don't see anything about comfort in the cold weather or heating of that water!  As you can see below, bathing in cold water in these baths would not be an attractive proposition in the cold.

I hope the internees found it easier to get out of these baths than I did!

Mind you during the drought of 1915 each internee was allowed only 4 cups of water daily for washing, bathing and drinking per day, so I don't think it was an issue then. 


We had a great day with our friends, and all of us found the history of Trial Bay Gaol truly fascinating.  Just thinking of the lives, heartaches and daily routines of the people who pass through places like this is very intriguing.


I know I'm behind in posts, I'll try to catch up a bit tomorrow.  Until then,
Blessings,
Sandie 

The dog that says 'Amen'

Dolly is a spoodle - a cross between a miniature poodle and a schnauzer.  She is also an extremely friendly little dog so it is difficult to get a good photo of her, especially at night.  She has faithfully attended each and every meeting, and at the most appropriate times gives a bark - just a single bark, not quite a yap, but it is often as though she is saying 'Amen!'.  Her timing is impeccable, and it brings a smile or laugh to everyone in the tent, including the speaker at the time.  

There are several small dogs on the ground. A Springer Spaniel sits up in the back row of the section where we sit, on her own little patchwork quilt.  She is beautiful, golden brown and white.  There is another little dog that is carried around in a large handbag, and a little white fluffball that attends the meetings but is perfectly quiet.  There is also a little brown curly-haired dog that attends and is totally silent as well, I think she is a poodle as well.  A little Maltese- Shih Tzu cross is left on a long lead in the shade under a tree outside, with a rug, food and water, and patiently waits for his owner after the meeting.  He is a sweetie and reminds me of my daughter's dog Fluffy except he is a little bit larger and more light tan than white.


Yesterday, Sabbath, was a day that had a tinge of sadness as well as being a wonderful day for it was the last day of Grey Nomads Camp.  There was a great address by the President of the Conference (organising body) of North New South Wales in the 9.30 meeting.  The church service was taken by Dr Roy Adams, who has been speaking in our evening meetings all week and is soooo inspiring it has been such a feast!  The afternoon meeting was just as good and then in the evening after Sabbath had closed there was a concert and I think my ribs still hurt from laughing!


I wish I could get a copy of the caravanner's poem that was read by one of the performers - it was about those people who start to pack up their vans early in the morning and disturb the sleep of the rest of the camp and it was hilarious.  Many items filled the evening, including a reversed Cinderella, called 'Dinercella', with all the words swapped in the same way.  One of our Pastor friends did a great presentation of 'My Old Man's a Dustman'

He has a great voice, is very tall and his performance was very humorous.  His wife grew up in Ryde Church, same as I did though she is a few years older, and she is the nicest, most caring person you'd ever find, as indeed is John.


Another pastor performed an oldie from the 60's, Jake the Peg with the extra leg - and did one of the best efforts of it that I've seen in a long time

You can tell I was a teenager in the 60's, can't you lol?  


To see 'Cinderella' the way it was last night was an experience I'll never forget, I think.  The ugly sisters,

'We are ugly'

Prince Charming - who kept telling us he was handsome

'I am handsome'

And of course Cinderella who kept telling us she was sad.  Until the slipper fitted her foot.

The slipper fits

At the end of Cinderella, the Fairy Godmother announced that she had some gifts to give and called Doctor Adams, the President of the North New South Wales Conference and another Pastor up to the stage.  All three are rather lacking in hair, so Prince Charming and the two Ugly Sisters lined up and the Fairy Godmother gave the three pastors the choice of wigs!  Dr Adams had first choice and he chose Prince Charming's multi-coloured wig - I wondered whether he would take it back to Washington DC with him but no, he gave it back at the end.  What a shame.


Here they are, with their wigs.  They were laughing so much and moving around so much it was difficult to get them all in frame, but this is the best I could do.

Which wig do you want?

The three pastors join in the fun with total good humour

There were more 'serious' items too, which turned out to be not so serious after all.  It finally came to an end with the 'Grey Nomads Farewell' which had been composed by one of the ladies, and was sung to the tune of the Maori's Farewell.  Then we sang the hymn to the same tune, had prayer and it was over.

Chairs were soon packed up by willing helpers, people were saying goodbye to those leaving last night or early this morning, and the two pianos and organ were being loaded onto a trailer, the sound equipment was being packed up.

And we were too tired for me to even upload my photos to the computer so that's why I'm doing it today. 

We are staying here until tomorrow to avoid the huge exodus. More on that later.

Blessings,

Sandie

I really find it so charming

One thing that I find really nice as I walk around the campground is the number of couples who still hold hands, especially the very elderly ones.  Peter and I are among the 'younger' age group here and there are many others in our age group as well, so the 'baby boomers' are well represented.  And so are older couples - there are people into their 90's staying on the camp ground, and attending all the meetings too!  The healthy Adventist diet and lifestyle shows its benefits in those who follow it faithfully.


We had lunch as a group of friends again today, after enjoying it so much on Wednesday.  As before, we all contributed a salad, savoury and sweet.  We enjoyed it so much that none of us attended the concert that started at 2pm.

This photo is of Rick and Marilyn, our dear friends of 39 years.  They are the ones we holiday with; our children are friends and grandchildren are as well.

This couple, Bob and Laraine,  have been friends about the same length of time, even though they were posted as missionaries to Fiji soon after our oldest daughter was born, then to different parts of Australia for years, returning to Sydney only when Nathan was a couple of years old, so that's around 16 years later.

Denise in this photo grew up in the same church with me.  She was married in the same church as I was, her brother was friends with Peter when Pete came to our church.  We have seen each other occasionally but not often.  It is really good to catch up with her and with John, her husband, again.

And here we are - oh dear! I never do like photos of myself.  But then not many people do,, do they?

The meetings today were as inspiring as ever, with a touch of wistfulness because they are the last of each series for the week.  The Vespers meeting, for opening Sabbath at sunset was extra special.  We had more singing than usual, with favourite hymns and special items from various people including some more from Margo Roberts - we are fortunate that she was able to be here for us before she goes overseas for her tour. 

The group playing instruments has done a wonderful job too.  There is an organ, two pianos, violins, trumpets and other brass instruments.  This is a very poor photo - apologies, I must try to get a better one - they are sitting on the other side of the platform to where we sit.

And now we are really ready for bed again.  It's actually quite full on here vbg!  Tomorrow there is the usual 7.30 morning devotional, then 9.30 Bible Study; 11am the Church service; 3-4.30pm an afternoon program; 5pm closing Sabbath; and at 6,30pm there is a 'Grey Nomads Got Talent' concert!  For a camp that is for ''older'' people, they sure keep everyone busy lol!
So off to bed now
Blessings,
Sandie

Grey Nomads - Making music .......

.....with a saw!

I've seen people playing the spoons, even making music blowing through a hole in a gumleaf.  But I've never seen anyone playing your common or garden variety wood saw before.  It was quite amazing.  He played it with a bow like a violin bow, and it was beautiful music.  The saw was long a flexible and the photo shows the vibration of the hand and the movement of the bow.

It was one of the musical items before the session tonight, and his wife accompanied him on the piano as he played a medley of old, classic hymns.  Quite a remarkable performance and only one of the lovely musical treats we've feasted on all week.

The program tonight was the second last to be given by Dr Roy Adams, who was born and raised in the Carribean.  It is his 10th visit to Australia and he is learning our ways - he's even found he likes Marmite lol!  Most of us who were raised Adventists grew up eating Marmite, which is put out by Sanitarium Health Food, rather than Vegemite, which was a copy of the original Marmite.  I really enjoy his humour and passion; his message is always so inspirational.

The 2pm workshop today was computing.  We had been encouraged to put in questions beforehand so that Ron would know what sort of thing we wanted him to address.  I asked 2 questions about blogs, to answer questions that a friend has asked me and he emailed me a quick reply earlier in the day then came to visit me at the caravan.  I had been following up on his suggestions when he came, and was surprised to see him.

He introduced himself, and we discussed briefly the meeting later on in the afternoon.  He said that the reason he had come to see me was that he had had a look at this blog and was really impressed with it and could he show everyone at the beginning of the meeting to inspire them to do something similar as they travelled around?

And so he showed this blog up on the two large screens at the front of the tent to the attendees (not all 600 were there, but about 400 were) and discussed it!  And most people knew exactly whose it was even though they didn't know me personally because they have all noticed Nathan of course, and there was a photo of him in yesterday's post. 

As a result, I will be showing someone how to set up a blog tomorrow for her overseas trip, and people have been asking me questions about computers today.  

It was very nice of him to say such flattering things about Snippets on the Move, but I know there's a lot that could be done to develop it further yet.

Tomorrow is Friday - the week has flown!

Blessings all,

Sandie

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Hello, 'Pretty Made' - you found me too

I'm sooooo in love!
Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary 2008

Welcome to this brand new blog; it is lovely to see you here.  I hope you enjoy the glimpses of our country, and following us in our short holiday.  There will be lots more trips, I promise vbg!  Besides telling you a bit of what we are doing, I hope we are able to take some photos that will show you a little bit about life in Australia and the variety of experiences it offers.  So sit back, read, and (I hope) enjoy!  I love feedback as you know so please feel free to comment, add information or share anything you feel like sharing.
Hugs and blessings
Sandie

Wednesday, Day 5 Grey Nomads: A kookaburra sat in an old gum tree....

....merry, merry king of the bush is he.
Laugh, kookaburra, laugh kookaburra
Gay your life must be."
Every time I see a kookaburra I think of the first few lines of this Aussie folk song, which is frequently sung as a round.  It is almost obligatory for every primary aged (5-12) school child to learn it as part of their music lessons, and every adult Aussie who grew up in the country knows it.  Of course it was written in the days when 'gay' meant happy, as it did when we were children.  Sometimes another word is substituted for that now. 


Peter did manage to capture a photo of the very large kookaburra yesterday, even though he was using my camera and he isn't very comfortable using it.  He used a zoom lens, whereas I find it better to take a photo and then crop later but I like this one.

He'll be disappointed if he is waiting for some meat scraps from the campers - most of whom are vegetarians lol!  


The meetings were their usual wonderful selves, and instead of buying lunch today a group of us - old friends, or rather long standing friends - that sounds much better, doesn't it lol? - got together and decided we would have a 'pot-luck lunch' together.  We all brought our own chairs, plates, glasses and cutlery.  Peter and I brought our table to add to Bob and Laraine's.  Each of the four families brought a salad, savoury and sweet and some drinks.  We didn't organise what we would bring, but it all complemented each other perfectly, it couldn't have been planned better.


We chose the caravan that was in the sunniest spot and sat and chatted and laughed for nearly three hours.  The men discussed photography a lot of the time, we ladies spoke about a whole range of things from photography to families to wills to how difficult it is to plan for the future when one has a child with special needs - I was the only one who didn't take part in that discussion vbg.


I have been working out the answers to a few questions about blogs for a friend, and doing the minimum of 'housework' - I wonder, is it called 'caravanwork'?  Of course the secret in a caravan is to keep things tidy.  My husband does not keep things tidy and it is a constant job to go around clearing up.  But he is wonderful, cooking and helping in other ways too so I shouldn't complain.


I have begged some photos from Richard (again) taken at lunch time.  We have one couple, Bob and Laraine, who have been members of our church on and off between postings to different places since we were young marrieds, and they are dear friends. Denise and John we've known for many years, in fact but Denise and I grew up together in the same church.  She is just a couple of years older than I am.  Richard and Marilyn are our dearest friends, and have been for 38 years now.  They've been with us through some pretty tough times.    We used to go on holidays together each year so their children and ours grew up together.  In fact our girls and their daughter Nicole are still really good friends too.  And now Nicole's son Daniel loves to get together with our grandchildren, so the friendship continues through three generations.  Their children and our two girls have left home long ago but we still holiday together and Nathan loves them and knows them better than some of his 'real' uncles and aunties.

This evening's meeting was preceded by some songs by Manuel Escorcio again, which was just so inspiring.  It will be an early night ready for another lovely day tomorrow - the week is just flying by far too fast.
See you tomorrow
Blessings,
Sandie

Tuesday, Day 4 Grey Nomads Camp: The birds have it.

With so many trees around the area, we see lots of birds.  Unfortunately the trees are quite tall, so most of them  are way up high or flying overhead.  However as Peter was walking up to the meeting tent yesterday there was a kookaburra laughing. Looking around, Peter spied it perfectly framed for a photo between two branches.  Shame he didn't have his camera!  So here I've included a photo of one we took on one of our holidays in Queensland; this one was in 2008.  Isn't that a 'knowing' look?

I was talking to a group of our friends when the characteristic parrot call made me look up to see the most brilliant red underbelly of a Crimson Rosella going overhead.  Again, I've had to rely on a photo from Google to show you but they are gorgeous birds.

Rick and Marilyn were watching some galahs busy in a tree near their van (they are next door to us).  Rick managed to take some photos of what they were doing.  It turns out that the birds were stripping off the bark from an area of tree trunk, around 10" (25cm) in diameter.  We're not sure why they were doing that.  Some magpies came close and the galahs hunted them off!  Richard kindly gave me a copy of some of the photos to put on here.  Today, again on the way to the 10.30 meeting, we saw them doing the same thing. I had wondered whether they were after grubs under the bark of the tree though they are normally seed-eaters, or whether they were starting to make a hollow in the tree.  But it can't be making a hollow because today they were in a different spot in the tree, and yesterday they were working on two areas.  

"You spying on us with that camera?"

"See the bit of wood flicking through the air?"

"You looking at me?"

"Boy, I've cleared a large area now!

It is fun to listen to the bird calls and work out what the bird is.  Some we hear often, others less frequently.  Magpies were calling when I typed the first part of this, before the 10.30 meeting - just calling, not their lovely melodious carolling.  Later in the day I heard some beautiful carolling on and off.
It has been another day full of blessings, with the most gorgeous weather.  We had thought we might go for a walk to the beach, which is about 20 minutes walk away.  We hear the waves, especially at night, and it is a sound that is particularly pleasant.  However I had a rest instead, to get rid of a headache that was rapidly building into quite a severe one, so hopefully we'll get there tomorrow.  
And now it's time for dinner then off to the 6.30 meeting and another early night.
Blessings, and thank you for visiting.
Sandie