14-15th December, 2023

Stephen hasn’t finished with his music commitments for the year. He sang with The Real Sing in the city last Saturday night, with the WASO Chorus at the Children’s Hospital on Tuesday morning, and at Rockingham Shopping Centre Thursday night. His last gig is this coming Tuesday evening at Bentley Hospital with an small group of singers, mostly from the WASO chorus. And possibly me.

Last year when he sang in Rockingham in the evening, 6.30 – 8.30 p.m., we took the Sherwood and stayed overnight at an unofficial camping spot on the beach at Naval Base. When I was looking up places to stay another place came up as a possibility, Wells Park. It is closer to Rockingham and has a cafe within walking distance, which meant we wouldn’t have to take food for the morning.

As last time we thought it would be wise to check it out before going to the shopping centre. And it is lovely, but the large signboard on a truck said there was no overnight camping. It practically yelled at us. We were disappointed, but there was still Naval Base as a possibility.

We had dinner in the food hall at the shopping centre, then Stephen’s choir sang for two hours. They get paid for these gigs, so very worthwhile. I did some Christmas shopping and then went back to the Sherwood to do some planning. What if we didn’t go to the beach and could we find a camping area not too far away? Which is where Jarrahdale came in.

It is about a 30 minute drive, practically due east, and doable provided I felt up to it and didn’t mind driving through bush in the dark. I decided I was up for it. We followed Google’s instructions and got there safely. At that stage we didn’t have food for the morning and I hadn’t checked online for cafes. Turns out there are two lovely cafes within working distance of the camping area.

Jarrahdale provides a large area on the edge of the town. Much of it is sloping and in the dark we weren’t able to find a level spot. We put up with the slope.

There were quite a few other campers and we weren’t sure if they were there for the Geminid Meteor Shower. Stephen actually did get up in time for the ending but as the sky was slightly cloudy and we had a bright streetlight about 500m away it wasn’t really dark enough. I’m glad we didn’t set an alarm for it. I only noticed that Stephen went out when he was getting back in.

In the morning we had cups of tea, showers, then walked up into town to find a cafe. We stopped at the first one, It has a lovely outdoor area, but is nice inside if the weather is too hot or cold. The new owners have been there since September and are hoping to make a go of it. We shared a cooked breakfast and it was ideal for two people.

It had been quite cool overnight and the morning was fresh without being cold, really ideal weather for our overnight escape. Our only worry was that Stephen forgot his medication and missed doses for the evening and the morning. I put out some Panadol in case he had a headache. He seemed fine.

It was just over an hour to drive home. We felt satisfied that we had had a good experience.

Our January trip to the Albany region will be a bit shorter than usual this year as Matt has a specialist appointment on the 16th January. Our plan now is to leave Monday January 1st and return on the 14th or 15th so that I can go to the appointment with him. We still have a booking with a private specialist in March, but this one in the public system has come up first. I did a quick search on Google which explains why he is seeing a specialist.

“Leukoplakia is a condition that creates white patches on your tongue, gums or the inside of your cheeks. The patches don’t hurt but they don’t go away. Leukoplakia may look harmless, but the condition may become oral cancer. Talk to your dentist if you notice white patches in your mouth.”