Off the Beaten Track

We had to be at the school early on Wednesday to see the Distance Ed person and the principal and while I had to really bite my tongue a couple of times (we need to "play the game" now), it went well and I believe we'll be accepted.  What if we aren't?  Not our fault that she isn't safe at school is it, and the law is that she has to stay at school, or get a job, till she is 17.  Came home armed with a booklet that has subject choices in it.  I went and showed it Emily who was sitting on the recliner in the lounge room and she made some rude remark to me, and told me if I didn't turn off the radio she'd smash it.  Nice.  Then I got told to go forth and multiply (with myself) and that was it.  I told her she could sort out her mess of a life herself and I wasn't lifting a finger to help her any more.  She gets away with so much, but I won't stand for her abuse.  It went on back and forth for a while and I stayed calm while she escalated but stood my ground.  Next thing I see her flouncing off down the driveway with her backpack on.  Then Phill comes in in a panic and says she's running away.  About time I say, and he gets all paternal and concerned and goes off after her.  I've seen it all before, whenever things don't go her way she either smashes up her room, swallows chemicals and stuff or "runs away".  I am not going to dance to her histrionic tune.  He found her sitting in the park (in the rain) and she wouldn't come home so he grabbed her bags.  He came back and told me she wanted me to go down there and beg her to come home.  Wasn't going to happen.  He yelled.  I stayed put.  He yelled louder and swore at me.  I told him he mustn't do that.  Eventually, of course, she came back.  By this time I was indignant with both of them and told them I will not stand for this type of behaviour.  I told Phill I wasn't going to put two years of my life on hold to supervise her education if I had to put up with her shit all the time.  He said he'd do it.  Yeah right, good luck with that one.  After a while everyone calmed down and the next morning he was saying he wanted to go to Junee for Christmas drinks with the work fellows and was taking the kids, booking into a motel (leaving them there while he went off drinking) so they could swim in the pool or something.  I said I wouldn't be going and that it was money ill spent so close to Christmas and that the boat he'd wanted all our married life and finally got was sitting in the shed unused in spite of the warmer weather.  In the end we packed up on a whim and drove up to Wyangala, to the state park at Grabine where they have cabins and good fishing.  It was the best thing we could have done, getting those kids out into the open and away from the computers.  They both adore fishing.  The park is really out in the middle of nowhere with a seemingly endless dirt road, narrow, windy and potholed.  We'd been here once before and I have no idea why we did it again.  We (luckily) took some meat from the freezer and some other supplies, but expecting there was a kiosk at the park like there is at other state parks.  Nope, and they didn't bother to tell us that the kiosk wasn't open during weekdays.  We got there late afternoon Thursday and they'd left a key for us and we went to our little cabin which although dusty and a bit grimy, was quite comfortable and had amazing views of the lake.  I had to wash up all the cutlery and crockery before we could use them.  But there was a tv there at least this time, there wasn't last time and we could get most digital channels.  We bbqed some sausages and when the bbq proved to be dodgy, cooked the steaks on the stove inside and just had that with bread.  The next morning when we went to pay and ask about the kiosk and were told it wasn't open I had visions of us having to drive that long dirt road and over an hour to find supplies, she said the lady would open the shop us for us which she did, but when we got there she had very little anyway.  We just got some long life milk, fly spray and some chips for the kids.  Fortunately we had not cooked all the sausages and steak and had some beef bourginon leftovers to microwave.  We went out on the boat, I only went once, they went twice and fished from the bank both nights but caught nothing but a couple of carp and a yellowbelly that was small and had to be thrown back.
In spite of everything it was a really nice break away and just what we needed.  The kids spent almost all the time either in the boat, swimming in the dam with their blow up boat, or fishing.  They slept well both nights and didn't complain about not having computers etc.  I have vowed that we will do this as often as time and money permits over the Summer.  I, on the other hand, had a real problem with no internet, but mostly no mobile phone coverage at all, which we hadn't been prepared for.  Nobody knew where we were, and with elderly parents and a pregnant daughter this made me very nervous and for that reason alone I would never go there again.  I was very glad to get back to civilisation and know that no disasters had happened while we were away.  Emily got a very bad case of sunburn on her face on the second boat trip, I had put sunscreen on Josh and told Em repeatedly to put it on her but she didn't and is paying the price now.  We stopped at Booroowa on the way home and got some  cortisone cream and some soothing pain relief cream and some advice from the nice lady chemist.  She didn't have anything for my guilt however, I should have insisted and even held her down about the sunscreen.  She is blistering and I hope it doesn't scar, poor thing.  I put some boiled water in a bowl with a few drops of lavender and wrung out a face washer for her to press on her face, with all that and painkillers when needed I think she will be alright.
On the winding dirt road home this morning we came upon a very young P plate driver who had put his handsome bright blue ute into a dirt mound off the road.  We stopped to make sure he was okay and gave him a bottle of water while he waited for someone to come and help him.
I think we will stick to Boathaven, the cabins are still comfortable and right on the water, but it has a lovely pool and other facilities and is close enough to town for shopping, and also close to Phill's family so he and the kids can visit if they want to.  I don't.  We can also get phone coverage and internet access with my Telstra stick.

That's our cabins on the very right.

We bought our Christmas ham this afternoon, so it finally tastes like Christmas even if it doesn't look and feel like it.  We can't put the tree up till the kittens go.  We made a poster this afternoon and put it up in IGA so hopefully they will go within the week and we can get the house looking festive.
Oh and the roos!  There are kangaroos everywhere at the park.  Just hopping around, grazing, with their joeys in the pouches, the big old man roos who you wouldn't want to tangle with.  We even saw an albino kangaroo but he was too quick for us to get a photo of.  This morning while we were in bed having our cup of tea, a mother and her joey grazed right outside our balcony door.
So glad to be back in my own bed, we ordered pizza tonight. 

View from our verandah.

Getting the rods ready.  With beer.

Roos.  Without beer.

Red bellied black snake on the road to Booroowa.  Phill actually turned the car around, with boat and trailer to drive past the snake again to scare him off the road so nobody would run over him.  The photo doesn't do him justice, he was beautiful.  Deadly though.

No they haven't had too much coffee.