Mr Dempsey's Excellent Adventure!

The small coastal town of Norah Head got a bit of a shake up over the weekend as it hosted a small but dedicated gathering of friends to celebrate a mate's 40th Birthday. We booked cabins at the Norah Head Holiday Park. After I had unpacked, the kids came and found me and told me in excited squeals that Mr Dempsey was there. Mr Dempsey from school. A teacher. 

Turns out that Mr Dempsey and the birthday boy are surfing mates.

Now, I am an ex primary school teacher myself, and know the awkwardness that everyone feels when you are spotted by a student outside your natural environment. That being a classroom. 

I stuck my head out off the front verandah of our deluxe spa suite and yelled "Hi Mr Dempsey! You are in for a great weekend." He was already throwing the footy with Harry as Harry rabbited on about school and teachers and school and stuff. He already had the look of a man defeated. The party shutting down before the first top was knocked off a frothy beer.

The nearby suburb of Toukley proved to be an abundance of resources for fitting us out in fancy dress. The main event of the weekend was a 1970's inspired lawn bowling competition.

Mr Woog rocking his new pineapple shirt.

 The Divine Ms M and I decided to form a team with Mrs Finlayson. Because wearing all white is tres flattering. We wanted to kick it back old school style, and this is where Bob came in handy.

Bob is the man in the know when it comes to bowling attire. He runs the club in Toukley. We went to the club and asked the barmaid Vicky whether we could cheaply purchase some bowling attire. She had to wait until Barb came back from her break before she took us to the office and showed us an assortment of options. It was there that we discovered an interesting fact about lawn bowls. You can either wear the "sporting" uniform, which is coloured and casual, or you can dress in the "formal" uniform which is reserved for special occasion bowling. Like competitions. Or if the Queen comes to the club for a middy of shandy. She went and found Bob who lead us through a labyrinth of corridors to a room packed with formal bowling whites and told us to borrow whatever we needed!

We were delighted! Until he told us that all the stuff was donated from relatives of deceased elderly bowlers and then we were sad.

But then, we got delighted again at the thought of honouring the dead bowlers by taking their uniforms out for one last spin on the green.

Mr Dempsey having an excellent time 

Me and my "smell the fart" face. Hermoine came to the party, the attention whore that she is. And I also worked out that  lawn bowlers have really small heads......

The party was excellent and lasted well into the night. There were so many kids! I suspect for Mr Dempsey it was a bit like being on playground duty.

This morning we made an early getaway. Mr Woog packed the car in his usual shove it all in manner. The bowling stuff had to go on top because we needed to return it to Bob.

Mr Woog packed a pair of shoes of mine. A pair that did not match so I had to go and meet Bob looking like this because I could not find either fucking shoe in Sonia's expansive boot. I might have dropped the f*wit word a few times..........

Bob was interested to know about how the party went. He asked where it was held and I told him. It was a bit awkward. We were wearing Bob's Clubs uniforms at a rival establishment. Then Mr Woog told Bob that the green at his club was far superior. Bob beamed in agreement. I said "Have a great day Bob!" and he said very chirpily "Oh I will!" 

I knew he would. He was the sort of bloke who has a great day everyday, I suspect.

Heading out of town I saw a sign that made me grin. It was in a fruit and veg shop and told me that, if I wanted to, I could purchase  fancy lettuce for 68 cents. It made me smile because they said FANCY and it made me happy knowing that Bob could take advantage of such fantastic prices.

The end.