Trip to Andre Rieu Concert

It must be a year ago that Catherine rang and told me the exciting news she had tickets to take me to the Andre Rieu Concert on 16^th October 2013, so I had all the fun for a year looking forward to it, and mentioning it at any chance I got.....  As I have said before, the anticipation is a big deal, and surprises are wasted on me.

See Park Grafton

Going to the Blue Mountains, we had to prepare for hot and cool weather, it was 5C at Catherine's suburb the day before we left and hot in the daytimes.  And I had to pack a case, as I would be staying with them, rather than having everything in the lockers in the RV.

The main thing to organise was looking after our hens, they have automatic feed and water, but love their greens and needed the eggs collected daily.  Keith and Heather weren’t going away and kindly agreed to help out yet again, then Keith came down with a health issue, and I feel that Heather did most of the calling in.

We left on Monday morning and it was a hefty headwind all the way. Then we had an incident at a give –way sign, when we were stationary, with constant traffic whooshing past, and a car ran up the back of us, pushing our back bumper skew-whiff. As the heavy spare tyre looked likely to fall, we had to bring it inside to prevent possible harm should it fall, and work around it the rest of the trip, moving it from in front of the fridge etc.  I reported the matter to our insurer immediately and got a claim number and the request to submit a quote when we got home.  We found out today at a local smash repair that there was damage to the body of the unit and they advised us to go to a caravan repair business, as they could not help us.

 

We freecamped at The Rock, Tea Gardens, a popular spot with travellers, and my 3G phone did not have coverage, while Barry made a few calls on his NextG, both on the Telstra Network.  We drove into Lake Haven on Tuesday morning as a change from Tuggerah, but it was too far out of the way, and we are not likely to call in there again.

We had a late lunch parked near Glenbrook information centre and read the paper etc to fill in some time as Catherine was not due home until 4.30, and we arrived about two minutes ahead of them.  Barry, not thinking, felt the hot exhaust pipe as we had only recently replaced the exhaust system, as he had been concerned about it from the rear-ender, and burnt his hand.  However we had been able to continue to travel safely.

There was a holdup at Woodford and Gary was very late home, and Beth going the other way did not get home until about 8pm.  Catherine makes sure everyone carries water just in case of these holdups as mainly there is only one road and no detours.

Barry left for a visit to family at Bilpin on Wednesday morning and that day was the start of the terrible fires though it was late in the day when I became aware of them. It was also the day of the Andre Rieu Concert and we planned on leaving at 5.30.  After Catherine had locked up she realised she didn’t have the car keys, and next thing I saw her dashing out of the shed with a ladder to get up to a top story window.  I was concerned that the shed was not locked also, but then said don’t you have a spare key in there, and then Catherine remembered that she had hidden a key.

We had a good drive to the vicinity of the Allphones Arena at Homebush, didn’t seem to be any crowds even though 10,000 were attending the concert. We entered the parking station recommended by her daughters and had a lovely Thai dinner with fresh al dente veggies just perfect.

We walked about 200metres to the venue in beautiful balmy weather.

Most people were approaching from the extreme left of this pic, must have been the closest parking station.

We were to enter from Door 10.

 Waiting our turn outside Door 10

Looking for our seats

We were close to the stage. 

It said on our tickets no photos etc, but so many people were taking photos that it seemed like a free-for-all at the end, so I took a couple.

The side screens were great.

I got a bit excited when I saw us on the side screen... pic by Catherine

On Facebook this morning, from the Sydney Concert

Looking back into the concert hall as we were leaving.

Thursday was horrifically windy and the fires were getting a hold, and the homes were lost in the Winmalee area.

Here is a pic of Barry at Bilpin, standing on one of their watertanks, pic John.