Jazz time again......

Just two days at work for me this week and then it was time to prepare for my big weekend with Mum and Astrid at the Jazz Festival.  I spent Thursday doing mundane chores like housework and washing and then packed my bags ready for Friday.

Mum arrived around 10 and then I drove on from here for the first time.  I really enjoyed the trip and with one break for coffee and another for lunch at Beaufort it broke the long drive up and it really didn't seem like we'd travelled the distance we had.  We met Astrid at our first stop and travelled together from there on. 

Once settled in to our rooms we walked across to the Marquee and joined Lorraine and Len in the front row for a fabulous night of music.  It was good to see old friends again and as this is my sixth festival with Mum I don't feel quite the newcomer I did at the beginning.

Saturday was an extremely hot day and around the state firefighters were facing the worst day since Black Saturday in 2009. We remained safe in Halls Gap but how the bands kept playing in the 45 deg heat (much hotter in the marquees) is beyond me, but play they did and we all enjoyed the music.   

At 5 pm the whole town lost power and all the smaller venues closed down.  The bands in the main tent kept playing without amplifiers until 8 pm when the festival director said it was not safe for them to continue to do so any more.  Poor visibility on the stage and the old folks had to be able to see to get home.  So with the program closed 3 hours early, no power and as a result, no food for sale in the cafés and shops we walked back home and put together some cheese, crackers and salad for dinner. With the temp still in the high 30's and no air conditioning we joined John and Shirley outside in the gardens and had a great night hearing stories about previous festivals.  Not the night we had planned but we all had a great time anyway.  We all retired at 10 pm when the power did not return at the estimated time but Mum said it came back at 12.  The air con came back on and the lights we had left on did too.  Oops!

The temp had dropped on Sunday and it looked like a lovely day but once outside we found that the wind had picked up and it blew all day.  Sunday is our picnic day at the festival and we spend the day outside the marquee.  We still did this but the gusts of wind continually blowing made the day very interesting.  The music was great though and the bands certainly were enjoying the cooler weather.  We finished the night as usual with our bar-b-que in the shelter shed and another great night was had by all.

On Monday we said goodbye to Astrid after coffee on the boardwalk and then we had a wander through the shops before lunch.  A little rest in the afternoon and then off to the Halls Gap Hotel for dinner with friends and more music from John and some of the boys who were still in town.  Another great night to end a very different Jazz Festival.

We were up early the next morning and packed.  We had coffee on the boardwalk with Shirley and John and then back in the car for the drive home.  As the roadworks at Beaufort were still in full swing we decided on a different route home and drove out through Dunkeld, Lake Bolac and down the Glenelg Hwy to Skipton where we stopped for lunch at our favorite little Art Gallery/Cafe.  From Lake Bolac on the entire landscape was very smoky and continued all the way back to town.  This was from the fires still burning many Kms away in Wallan and Kilsyth.   It had been an awful weekend for the firefighters with the heat and then the wind and it took them over a week to get some of the fires under control.  In fact one fire in the Hazelwood Coal Mine near Morwell burnt for a month.

Once home I said goodbye to Mum who got back in the drivers seat and settled in at home for an hour or two before Bill came home.  The air conditioning was all fixed and to be able to flick the switch again was wonderful.  There was still some tidying up to do but at least we were cool again.

I returned to work the next day for another short week knowing that we were off again on Saturday to spend the weekend with Cheryl and Shane in St Leonards.  More on that later.

So until next time.......