[Kirk Lazarus]You know that’s a true story? Lady lost a kid. You’re about to cross some lines [/Kirk Lazarus]
Do Australian hippies speak with a Californian accent?
And just to add insult to injury (so to speak), my ‘team’ in the AFL played the Grand Final today and it resulted in a fucken’ draw. Fuck you Collingwood, arseholes the lotta ya’s. :mad: GO SAINTS!! 
So THAT means that there is going to be a replay next week, when I am stuck in a tent with no access to modern telecommunications. I am SO PISSED OFF. St Kilda’s first chance of a premiership in 44 years and I’m listening to bongo drums and drinking chai?? 
Tell ya’ what…this girl OWES me big time.
Grumble…
If you followed the Lions you would have far more to grumble about.
Except for the loud music, hippies, baby, sleeping on the ground and a long road trip with family it sounds like a blast. 
If it is the one at Nimbin, you might want to check if it is still on. Cancelled due to noise problems I hear.
(The irony - it, like, burns, man :))
This sounds like my idea of hell.
How are you supposed to change the baby in a tent that presumably has no running water?
I think babies were invented before running water 
Diaper wipes, which then go into the ziptop plastic bag.
And then you discover just how bloody useful diaper wipes are at a campsite, and you keep on bringing them when your child is out of diapers!
Also, those 2.5 gallon water jugs they sell at the grocery store or a 5 gallon collapsible water jug sold at camping supply stores make passable “running water” at a campsite. For that matter, a solar camp shower bag gives you running *hot *water with a spray nozzle! (Yeah, I camp cushy.)
I don’t do things that require operating like things were in the dark ages! This includes life without make up, showers, toilets, hair dryers, and access to clean underwear. Shudder
Eh, I’m gonna drive about 1800 miles round trip, alone, to go to Jon Stewart’s and Stephen Colbert’s rallies in DC next month. No biggie. I like long drives.
You live in NSW now I see. That means that by law you must now support the Swans. Whether doing so or killing yourself or moving back to Victoria is a better option is an issue I leave to you. But the law is the law.
So, you’re letting your daughter live? I think either of my parents would kill me if I sprang a surprise trip ultimatium on them, and I don’t even have a baby.
that can’t be right…
googles.
I remember that one, because my boss was a mad keen Saints supporter, the company had just moved its office back to St Kilda, and the admin staff decked out the whole office in red, black and white. I don’t think anyone was game to speak to him on the monday!
So. Your hippy-fest still on then?
The weather in that part of the world has been somewhat inclement over the past days.
The Bureau of Meteorology is predicting more storms and even more rain in the days to come.
I gave my daughter this information this afternoon, and we are going to wait until tomorrow to make a final decision about The Trip…hanging out together, with a little guy in a tent when it’s pissing down rain doesn’t exactly bode well for a happy bonding thingy really.
I’m praying for more rain of course.
Big fan of lentils, are you?
Trips on. 
Bring on those muthafucking lentils, baby.
Yes folks, it was the Trip from Hell, no doubt about it. :eek:
We managed to get north of Sydney (700km from home) before the first traffic jam…1.5 hours to travel 9km, but hey, we (and the baby) survived it. This was Thursday.
We got to the Festival Site late the following afternoon, Friday (whereupon I find out I’ve left my drivers license at the previous nights’ motel :rolleyes: ), set up camp, poured a glass of wine, and then the rain started.
We toddled to the Opening Ceremony Thingy with a couple of big umbrellas, but by 8pm the umbrellas weren’t doing the job, so we toddled back to camp…to find that one of the airbeds was fucked. It was still raining, and getting heavier by the minute.
I left Pip and the baby with the good bed in the dry tent, and slept scrunched up in the car for the night…it was one of the longest nights of my life.
In the morning (it’s Saturday by now), it was still raining. The poor little fella can’t get outside to play, and is stuck cruising around the (increasingly damp) tent. Our dry-towel supply is diminishing to mop up the wet spots, and turning on the stove just turns the tent into a friggin sauna. Still, we survive it.
That afternoon, my footy team loses the Grand Final (yeah, goodonya St Kilda, way to make my weekend even more miserabler) …I listen to it on the radio in the car, fogged up to the buggery while the rain pelts down outside. That evening I babysit, as my daughter is really keen to see Baba Maal in concert…even she gives up mid-performance because it’s so fucken wet.
I sleep in the car again. It too was a very long night. I survived it. :rolleyes:
Next morning (it’s Sunday now) I roll my pants up to my knees in order to waddle to the portaloos. Shoes are defunct, as are dry clothes of any sort…it’s still raining bucketloads, and the mega-umbrella is dripping rain down the handle. I suggest we go for a drive to the nearest major town to ‘hang out’ in the mall and use their rest-rooms to get cleaned up, and to get a decent cup of coffee…this is met with approval! Roll on Coffs Harbour…wheeeeeee. 
On arrival there, my daughter and I have a simul-epiphany. Looking at all the motels with ‘Vacancy’ signs, we decide to de-camp the Festival Site and head for the lap of luxury. So, after our coffee, a motel is found, she and the baby are dumped in the warmth and dryness, and I head back to Bellingen to dismantle the tent and pack the trailer and the car. By the way, just in case you’ve forgotten, it’s still raining. :rolleyes:
On arrival THERE, I’m informed that the Festival is cancelled and the campsite is under emergency evacuation because of the flooding and I’m not allowed to drive my car in. I’m allowed to park the car OUTSIDE the venue and walk everything out, but the closest park I can find is 900m from our campsite, and there is no fucken way I can lug everything (including a 6’ x 4’ trailer) that distance through the fucken mud. But sometimes we are given no choices in life, so I head to the tent to start the Big Packup.
But sometimes, life gives us Lemonade, and as I was toiling inside the now drenched tent I heard voices outside…sticking my head out, I saw an SES fella who, with a big grin on his face, told me that I was cool to bring my car in. I could’a kissed him right on that big sloppy grin with a big cheesy grin of my own…so I headed off to get my car (after arguing for another 20 minutes in the rain with a ‘GateKeeper’ who didn’t believe that I’d been given permission to enter the grounds), got the car in, and packed up camp. By the way, it was still raining.
I did a superb job of packing everything that was vaguely dry into the car, the more damp in the boot, and the rest got snuggled wetly into the trailer…it only took me two hours, alone, while the campsite next to me (with five frigging useless hippies) was still trying to reach a consensus about who got which chore ahead…by the time I left, they were still bitching.
So, I left the Bellingen Global Festival without having seen one single act. :rolleyes: I survived it.
Next morning was Monday…time to head home. The road across the mountains via Bellingen to Dorrigo was closed, 'cos funnily enough, it was still raining.
We headed down the Pacific Highway, hoping to cross the GDRange via Newcastle, but being the end of a long weekend, we’d not considered the traffic…especially still 200km out of Sydney. Twenty km before Buladelah, it came to a standstill…and it took us 3 hours to negotiate it. By the time we’d turned OFF the freeway to go east, it was getting late and of course all the motels we came across were booked-fucken-out. And by this time, my little grandson had had a gutful of being locked up in the car and turned on a mini-tantrum…which set my daughter off into tears of her own. We drove another 120km past Maitland and found a caravan park with a cabin just calling our names! Hey, it’s finally stopped raining!!!
Tuesday morning, we headed for home via Dubbo. What should have been a straight 6 hour (plus a couple of stops) drive took us 12.5 hours. We hit the rainstorm from hell about 60 km from home, and had to crawl along at 5kph just to stay safe. By then, we were nearly at each others’ throats, but hey, we survived it, and we DID arrive home, dry, hungry and ready to sleep.
And you know what? I’d do it all again. It was the BEST trip of my life…memorable (for all the wrong reasons ) and I love my daughter madly, and reckon my little grandson is the BEST kid in the world for putting up with all the confinement without too many grizzles. Today has been spent doing smelly washing, and cleaning out all the grungey stuff, but it was all worth it.
Yep, give me the Trip from Hell anytime.
Sorry/happy to hear about your trip!
I sympathize with you regarding Bulahdelah though. Does any civilized country have a major highway running through towns like that? Don’t start me on Raymond Terrace either!