Rally round Busselton

Friday 4th April 2008
We took the kids to school and listened to children reading to us in Kristian’s class, the differing standards of reading is quite alarming and the teacher has got her work cut out to try and get all of these children to anywhere near close to the same level as each other. Ian has never helped in a school before so it is quite an eye opener for him, in the short time we have been doing this we have noticed that some of the children that were reluctant to read to us are now a lot more confident in coming forward to read. Unfortunately when we get the house and then the business Ian will not be able to help out anymore because he will be busy, Carolyn will carry on (as she does) as often as possible because she enjoys it, and if the other children benefit from it then hopefully Kristian will also benefit from it.
While we were at the school we ordered the kid’s Faction shirts, they are in Blue Faction and at the moment they are top of the table. For some reason our kids, who as a rule are not particularly competitive, have decided that despite the fact that the majority of the other kids at school do not wear faction shirts for PE they want too, presumably because they will get faction points if they wear one and achieve faction superstar status in the process, also it doesn’t involve too much hard work.
Afterwards we went to the Café to check our emails, we couldn’t settle on the house today because the vendor’s legal department couldn’t get the paperwork back in time. This afternoon we got a call from our settlement agent asking us to pop in and see him, when we got there he informed us that the vendors settlement agents had put forward another offer relating to how much money we hold back for Gas and Electric problems sorted. We are not happy with it but the thought of taking on a team of Lawyers employed by a bank and the costs involved are not too appealing either so reluctantly we accept, it would appear that it’s the same the world over, one rule for the legal profession and one rule for the rest of us mere mortals. If it’s any consolation, should we ever need a lawyer we are not going to use that firm out of principle, hopefully it will be the week when they need a few bob, end up going bust, lose their fancy homes and cars in the process and get debarred for going bankrupt, but we’re not bitter.
We went to Dunsborough for a walk round the shops and bought a Thai take away for lunch which we ate outside in the shade, taking in the fresh air and ambience as we did. On the way back to Busselton we stopped off at an art gallery and had a look round, it is run by 3 artists who have got together and use the place as their studio as well as a gallery to show off the finished works. The works that they were showing were not really to Ian’s liking, but Carolyn liked a couple including the one being painted as we wandered around. We got chatting to 2 of the artists and spent a pleasant 20 minutes there before going to pick the kids up from school.
After picking the kids up we went to the local Dive shop to buy some Snorkels and Flippers for us all, we have been meaning to do it for years but never got round to it but with the sea on our doorstep and the water so clear we felt obliged to really.
In the evening we walked down to the foreshore to watch the Busselton stage of the Forest Rally, the rally is shared between Busselton and Nannup. During the day they drive the Forest section down in Nannup and in the evening they hold the time trials on Busselton Foreshore, it was good fun and it was free which was a bonus, the country’s top drivers were there apparently. The rally is part of the Australian Rally Championship so the cars are quite well sponsored; the numbers that went to watch the Busselton section were not that great although we think that as a spectator sport the Forest section in Nannup is probably more appealing.
At the rally there was not much else to do, they don’t bring in a funfair or anything for the event but there were, 2 Coffee stalls, 2 Ice Cream stalls, 2 Hot Dog stalls and a stall that appeared to have something to do with Car Parts or Oil but was making a killing out of selling Plastic Blow Up Aliens. There were also Porta- loos, I mention this purely because it is the first time in my life that I have ever been to an event where they were using porta-loos and they were clean, not only were these loos clean but they smelt clean too, ok they weren’t massively overused but there were still a fair number of people there and they stayed clean, we are being truly spoilt down here.
At about 8.30 pm we went to a nearby pub that had some kids play equipment, so while the kids played we sat down and had a drink on the patio and listened to a load of drunken yobs threatening to kill each other. All this was happening at 8.30 and the pub was open until 1am so it must have been great fun later, unfortunately we couldn’t wait to find out because just before 9pm they blocked off all the entrances to the patio bar one, separating us from the kids by a big set of iron railings. When we asked about how the children were supposed to get to us if they needed to, we were told that they couldn’t so we drank up and went home, the licensed trade over here has got a lot to learn if it ever wants to start attracting families.