Jan 2009

Sorry have had problems with pics uploads...

Got a great sleep in this morning. Slept in the Church carpark and got a great nights’ sleep. Walked into town and we can see more and more people turning up in anticipation. We finally made it to Elvis Central, the main shop for the event. They had already started selling out of some items, and they even stocked Elvis Monopoly $90, Elvis Tshirts from America $58, Elvis wigs $35 and Elvis gold or silver glasses $12. Postcards were $2 and all selling like hotcakes. The local RSL is doing a Hunka Hunka Breakfast, and burgers seem to be the staple around town.

The next activity involved Steve and Wayne having a Dare by Dare (ice coffee company) to drink the ice coffee the fastest. Wayne positioned himself best, allowing for all to be spilt down his front, Steve was more interested in chugging it down fast and ended up wearing lots of it out of his nose (dont know how you do that?) and then dribbling it down his front...

sad what people will go through, to get a free drink! They did however entertain the closest 50 or so people hanging around the park.

By lunch time, most street corners had an Elvis or two performing live. There were even two cute kids doing their renditions of the classics – with a huge crowd (didn’t have the camera at the time).

Wayne & Sharon had to leave as Sharon was working on the weekend, so I got some chores done.

The road is now blocked off and we have scored a shady park under a tree in a now blocked off road. Not sure how long we’ll manage to keep that!

The Elvis train was due to arrive at 3:30pm, so Steve got some great shots of the hoards on the platforms to greet them...

Then the judging was commencing around 4pm behind closed doors but we caught them with some of the photographers waiting for their roll call.

Enjoyed a great night out listening and watching some great karaoke Elvis’ at the pub, we were disappointed to have it ruined by bad service with our food. We went home without dinner.

Got a nice bit of a sleep in at our carpark next to the playing fields. We both filled up with water and Sharon tried out our shower. Its amazing what luxuries you enjoy when your travelling this way!

Midget & Bindi havent been getting on too well. They are both girls and both about the same ages, so they keep fighting trying to work out who is the boss. In the mean time...

Wayne & Sharon's dog, Bindi and Midget mesmorised by a bit of food...

We decided to head out to the Parkes Observatory and see where The Dish was filmed. Its 27kms from town, so a bit of a hike but really worth the journey. The facility is really well setup with lots of things to read and some great videos to watch. They say its 10,000 more powerful today than the day it was built in 1961!

Had lunch at the Observatory and then headed back into town. They are starting to setup the central stage in the park in town and the stall holder tents are also starting to go up.

We had our first sighting of Elvis this afternoon.

Elvis the Brickie, back from work and off to the pub in his new hairdo.

Enjoyed an interesting night watching all the people arriving around the town, and the build up with the excitement of watching all these Elvis’ in action! Wayne & Sharon gave us an Elvis CD back in Bathurst and we’ve played it to death. I didn’t think I could handle it, but having listened to all 31 tracks 3 times over, we made a copy!

And the rest, well, they just speak for themselves...

the writing on the butcher's sign reads: Love Me Tender Loin Chops $14.99kg, save $4kg, Thank You Very Much

Had a late start to the morning after a quick breaky at the doggies café we were off making tracks back up to the Blue Mountains. Raced through to Bathurst and caught up with Wayne & Sharon who had stopped at leisurely intervals on their way up. We did a quick lap around Mount Panorama and said we should have raced Wayne & Sharon around the track. It would have looked a hoot seeing two large big buses racing around the track. I have to say, I can finally see where Mt Panorama gets its name from. What a stunning view.

Bathurst is a beautiful town. Full of lovely old heritage buildings and very wide streets. The central CBD is a reversing in 45o angle parking. Another classic NSW country tradition. We had a nice lunch with the guys and then moved on to Parkes. The countryside is just windy hills and the land is starting to dry out considerably since leaving the mountains.

Didn’t seem to find all the Elvis entertainment as yet, but we had a nice dinner at one of them millions of Parkes pubs and decided on an early night.

Got a great night’s sleep in the new Pyrmont. I guess given its still filling up (lots of empty offices @ ground level) and a few empty apartments too, it was a lovely place to stop. The views over the city and the bridge are spectacular.

We decided we should have a lazy day and rest ready for the second big night, so headed back to our trusty spot in Rushcutters’ Bay. We took breakfast at our favourite doggie café and then headed back to the van for a bit of well earned R&R.

Steve took a few hours out for a paddle around the harbour and I caught up on computer stuff.

We then did the nice but long walk into the Sydney Theatre Co for the second big night of The War of the Roses – Part II. It was a great night. I think, better than the first. Full of blood and guts and interesting effects. The actors excelled themselves and it was a cool walk home to the van.

Had a lovely quiet night’s sleep and met some English people who were travelling around Australia for a year as well as NZ, Fiji and South America. They were two older couples staying in tents and had hired a car.

Carried on down off the mountain enjoying the tropical highlights of the magnificent bush. Passed through Richmond and surrounding towns. They were named by the NSW governor as towns in 1820. There are quiet a few nice heritage buildings located in these spots, but nothing really much worth staying.

We did however stop in at the Hawkesbury River Council’s Art Gallery in Croydon. They had the most fabulous Beanie Exhibition on. It was to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Beanie Fest from Alice Springs, that they decided to put together a fabulous exhibition of some of the winning hats over the years. They were made in a variety of ways using knitting, felt and other hand made techniques. It was the most fun exhibition I’d seen in a long time. We laughed our way through the whole room. They also had their own separate exhibition to run along side of it of their own knitting exhibition. They had a Knitters Journal; complete with a register of all who’ve made a stitch and a ball of wool and the needles to make a very long tube. Its quite interesting. They’ve filled several books of names and its about 1.5m long the knitted piece. There was also a fabulous commissioned piece by someone in Sydney of a Sunday dinner table. All the plates, knives, forks and spoons as well as all the food were knitted. It was so funny. I couldn’t believe it could be done. The artist didn’t have a pattern at all. She even made candles that were “lit” out of wool. Wish I could have taken a photo, but it wasn’t allowed.

Arrived back in Sydney around 3pm to start the unenviable position of trying to find a parking spot for our van for several hours, and one we could stay over night in. No mean feat! We drove around and around. Most of the spots we found were 3 hour parking or 2 hour parking with no parking after 7pm, or no parking from 11pm to 6am (to conspire against our good camper selves). Meanies! We eventually ended up in the very new Pyrmont development on the west side of the Cockle Bay Wharf area. Located about 800m from the National Maritime Museum, it was certainly a good spot. We paid for 2 hours till 6pm (as it was now after 4pm), and we could stay over night as long as we were gone by 7am. It was a 45 minute walk to the Sydney Theatre Co’s flash new building, and we discovered that there is 4 hour parking right over the road, so we would try there tomorrow night. Oh the joys of being 3.3m high!

We got a quick dinner and took our seats for the first night of The War of the Roses – Part I. They were a stellar cast, including “our Cate”, Blanchet that is. She played King Richard, which was quite interesting. The play is in 2 parts of 3.5hours each part. There was a short 20 minute intermission in the middle. I have to say it was long, but parts were very interesting. At the beginning of the third act, it was quite long and drawn out, and I guess some people were quite tired and quite a few got up and left. The girl next to me was fidgeting around in her seat and I could smell the cigarette breath on her so though she was busting for another fag and couldn’t sit still, and finally she left, leaving me room to stretch out my legs and have a bit of space. While it’s great to have a steep sloping seating arrangement, which gives the benefit of tall people not blocking out the view of the people behind, the down side is you cant put your feet under the seat of the person in front of you, and thereby stretch out a little bit more. The forth act bought the blood and guts and a very interesting scene we wont go into in public space, but it sure livened up the crowd. We enjoyed it immensely and were sorry that so many left early. Looking forward to tomorrow nights’ performance.