As usual, we weren't ready to leave the camp until after all the others had gone. When we got to the St Arnaud and found the new camp site in the Lord Nelson Park, all the power points were occupied where the others were camped so we found a nice site by another power box and set up on levelling blocks with the awning and the mat out.
Later in the day some others turned up and happy hour was even bigger than yesterday.
We went to town to try and get a connection to the internet. The people who had helped us last time we were here have moved premises and haven't got their new connections in place yet. I tried a computer store but couldn't solve the problem of connecting to his router. I tried the mobile phone connection and that was on the blink so I'm pretty well stuffed at the moment. I'll have to do a bit more work to see if I can find out what's going on.
I had noticed that the electric steps in the Motley are a bit wobbly. The fixing bolts have come loose because the heads are working into the wood. I'll have to put some big washers under the heads. I'm really looking forward to working under the truck again but I guess I'll just have to bite the bullet. While I'm under there, perhaps I'll fix the steps alarm and intruder alarm connections which have needed attention for some time!
I did a temporary mend on the electric steps. The wood in the internal step had rotted out a bit and sometime soon I'll have to replace it. I secured it all so it is safe for now. I also replaced the tube on the fresh water tank level gauge. I was about to set to work on the alarm problem when smoko intervened. Before I could get back to work, lunch intervened and by time I had got over that, happy hour was on again.
We went into town to visit the computer store which has an internet service to send Rachel a birthday greeting. I had to raise a new account with Yahoo which took over 10 minutes and I spent another 10 minutes trying unsuccessfully to retrieve my email. MyMail is operated by Ozemail and I wasn't able to access any account other than my Ozemail account. All in all a time and money consuming experience.
We did pick up the snail mail sent on from Patricks Road though the other things we were expecting in the post hadn't arrived. We had coffee and returned to the showground. I asked in the office if I could borrow a spare telephone or fax line but the regulations governing the gambling machines, all of which are now networked, preclude anyone connecting anything to any line in the building. I guess I'll have to find another way.
In the evening, we went to Pip'n'Mell's concert in the club. The music was of the usual high standard and though the audience was a bit lacking in response, we raised over $700 for the hospital. I helped out with a few jokes and some poetry to cover the gaps between acts.
We had a quiet day after the exertions of last night.
In the evening we went to Pip'n'Mell's dinner dance. The food was surprisingly good and the bar was well patronised. The music was real old time and there was a fair bit of dancing though Mell had to invent some novel ways of giving away the spot prizes that had been donated. I had found a poem about Dry Red which Mell had said was just spot on for one of her musos who is into wine. At Mell's request, I had printed it up and put it in a frame. During the evening I recited the poem and presented him with the framed copy which went down well with the crowd.
We had a leisurely start to the day with a late rising and an indulgence breakfast. The water tank was getting pretty low so I drove off the blocks and visited the new dump point put in at the park specially for us and then moved to the stables to fill up with fresh water. By the time I had re-established everything in camping conditions, it was lunch time.
In the afternoon we spent some time in the hall with the musos who were playing all the old songs as enthusiastically as ever.