We had to go into Moe to pick up the mail and do the grocery shopping. The USB light I had bought at the cheap shop there didn't work so I had to take it back. I forgot to take it with me so I had to go back to town a second time.
We finally got away at twelve thirty. I needed a reliable internet connection so that I could download the latest comments on the Self-containment Scheme documents and upload the final versions so we headed back to Sale where the internet cafe had provided a simple and solid ADSL connection.
I begin to wonder what the other internet services do that makes it so difficult to connect. Clearly this guy has a standards-compliant ethernet LAN which has no trouble communicating with the Mac. I guess the others have some kind of Microsoft system which isn't standards-compliant. Another curse on the Gatesmeister and all who claim that Microsoft is good.
We reached Sale at about three o'clock and by time I had set up and chatted to all the other motorhomers camped in the showground it was after four thirty.
The internet cafe was open and I not only did the email and the doco but I also downloaded some software and a copy of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
The day started out overcast and wet. I had spoken to Ross and done all the revisions to the documents overnight so I went back to the internet where I was able to convert them to MS Word and send them to Phil at Headquarters.
He rang a little later asking why we hadn't adopted some of the suggested changes and explaining that he would add official stuff like logos and ABN and send them to us for approval before printing them.
We lunched in town and spent and did a bit of shopping before returning to the Motley.
I started to prepare an explanation of our decisions regarding the suggested changes.
We decided to stay on at the showground to sit out the bad weather and to take advantage of the $8 special at the bistro in the club.
We were invited to join the other three couples of motorhomers who are camped here and we had a very pleasant evening supping happy hour drinks and chatting over dinner.
I had arranged for the final versions of the documents with the logos and so on in place to be sent back to both Ross and I so I returned to the internet cafe to download them. I found that I couldn't read the MS Word files so I asked them to send me RTF versions of the text. When I downloaded these, I still had a problem reading them and it took me all afternoon to get the text ready for review. Happily, there were no major dramas in the text. I will have to wait on Ross to review the format as he is a user of MS Word.
I also had a conversation with the solicitor who is handling the purchase of the house. I had asked him to seek approval from the vendor to have a trapdoor made in the floor. The vendor gave his approval subject to the trapdoor being in an unobtrusive place and the work being done by a licensed tradesman. I asked the Real Estate Agent to organise that for me and I sent a 10% deposit to the solicitor as a token of our intent to purchase subject only to satisfactory completion of the building and pest inspections.
We decided to stay put over the holiday weekend on advice from the locals that Victorian roads were not motorhome friendly when packed with holiday traffic. Having made this decision, the TV news headlined some road deaths and showed some horror pictures of the traffic so we were probably wise to take the advice.
The day started out grey and cool but the sun came out eventually and we whiled away the day without doing much.
In the morning, we went into to town to shop and have a coffee. The shop I needed to visit to change some trousers I had bought earlier was closed but the shopping plaza was all open so we got most things we needed to do done.
We spent the afternoon chatting with the other motorhomers camped here and in the evening we all went "to the dogs".
The meeting was very professionally presented though the were less than a hundred people in the crowd. I wondered about that until I saw the meeting being broadcast by SkyTV who presumably pay a handsome fee for the broadcast rights.
The Motley needed a spring clean so I start with the floor and by the time I had done the ceiling over the bed I was thoroughly whacked. I recovered a bit after lunch and did a bit more, polishing all the woodwork, stainless steel and glass.
I went to town to buy the paper and a few groceries and found that I had left all my money in the Motley so I had to make a quick trip back to the showground and then back to town.
Several more motorhomes had turned up so happy hour was quite lively with conversations about all kinds of things.