Nanga Music Festival – Friday 3rd to Monday 6th October, 2025

Curiously, although I wrote about the Star Party at Tammin in October I didn’t write a post about the Nanga Music Festival held from the 3rd to the 6th October. It was our first experience of the festival in it’s new location at Fairbridge Village. I would say it was well managed, with a good variety of artists and an excellent adaption of the school gym into an auditorium. Food was available in the Fairbridge Village dining room and we booked in for three evening meals. This made it easy to get to all of the music and is a good way to socialise with people.

In addition, our friends camped with us on the oval and we got to see their new truck camper setup, very comfortable looking indeed. Another friend camped with us in a tent. This meant it was a lovely social experience.

The camping area was on the village oval and we found out on Saturday that this was an excellent idea as we had a storm with heavy rain and the ground drained very well. In previous years at the Fairbridge Festival we have stayed in a field that would remain flooded after rain.

However, on the Sunday morning after the storm I noticed that our solar system wasn’t charging the batteries. We still don’t have solar charging, but the Sherwood is booked into an autoelectrician for the first week in January. I tried taking it to a caravan repairer, but they couldn’t work out what was wrong.

The autoelectrician diagnosed that it was the solar system that had failed, which makes sense as it stopped working after a storm, and will install a new set of panels to match the ones presently on the roof. In the process of draining the batteries there was a small electrical fire which he quickly stopped. He has replaced the wiring with much thicker cables to carry the load. According to the RAC, most caravan fires are due to the onboard gas cooker or faulty wiring. We are just glad it happened whilst it was at the workshop, rather than when we were using it.

We were able to stay Sunday night after the festival, returning via the Pinjarra Dome where we had breakfast, then a fast return to home up the freeway.

Folk in the Forest Weekend – Friday 14th to Monday 17th October, 2025

This was our favourite festival, it’s small, we know many of the other people, and it was a chance to catch up with our fellow campers last seen at the Nanga Festival. I wore a dress and sandals for the dancing on Friday night, it didn’t improve my skills, but feels much nicer than dancing in jeans.

On Sunday they had an concert until the middle of the afternoon, and we went into Dwellingup to empty the toilet and fill up with water before going out to a ‘free’ camp at the Marrinup Townsite Campground. Actually, there is a fee and we went to the Visitor Centre to pay before leaving on Monday.

The road into the camping area is a good gravel road at first, then there were lots of potholes. We went very slowly, avoiding what we could, and just rolling when we couldn’t. It was worth it to have another night in the Sherwood next to beautiful bushland.

In the morning we went for a walk to the old POW campsite. There is quite a lot to see, and it is possible to drive there, though we really enjoyed the walk and the weather was good, fairly cool, especially when we were in shade.

Choir News

We’ve been singing in three choirs for the last couple of months. Our Mackie Street Singers choir has split into two, one run by David Harries, our previous director, and one by a new choir director who is also very good, with a very different style to David. David has asked us to be very committed with his choir, to make as many rehearsals and performances at retirement villages and nursing homes as we possibly can. The second choir is for people who want a more casual, beginners choir.

Stephen was still singing with the WASO chorus when the new choir began and I went along, just to see what it was like. When the WASO rehearsals eneded and Stephen has also joined. When we had our little end of year concert Matthew came along and sang with the men in the choir, doing his best with the carols and sitting out the songs he didn’t know. Stephen and I lead some carols at Matt’s house Christmas party and Matt was really enjoying it, so I am very happy he was able to sing in the choir with us as well.

David’s choir meets on Monday nights, still at Connect Vic Park, which is easy for us to get to. But, one of our friends told me about another choir on Wednesays run by one of Stephen’s old friends. I felt a bit nervous about driving to rehearsals at St Patricks Church in Mt Lawley and when we started doing the Faure Requiem Stephen decided to join us, meaning we would travel there together. We also had a Christmas Concert, during a heatwave when we had a thunderstorm. It was uncomfortable without air conditioning and in 40C heat, but worth it. We enjoyed the socialising with the choir over afternoon tea.

We’ve been very busy with another two concerts this week. We have one more choir gig. Stephen has been organising a small group of WASO singers to sing at Bentley Hospital. They keep asking us back and also provide a lovely supper for us after we have done our rounds of the wards.

Health update

Ever since the Tammin Star Party I’ve noticed quite severe back pain. It’s normal for me to have pain after lifting heavy things, and sometimes from sitting curled up reading, as I’ve done all my life. But this pain is much worse, including down my left leg.

Finally I visited the GP who diagnosed a pinched nerve. I suggested I should have an x-ray before starting physio, and the result is that there is quite a lot of damage in the lowest two vertabrae, and it’s been recommened that I have an MRI. I’ve been able to get an appointment in early January, though I’m also on a waitlist for a cancellation, so it could happen earlier.

In the meantime I’m managing the pain as best I can with sitting so that my spine is straight, a fair bit of Panadol, and being as careful about lifting as I can be without entirely feeling useless around the house.

General

We’ve been to movies, had Matt to tea each week, I’ve gone to GP appointments with him, we’ve had a few meals out and gone for walks including the Gwelup monthly walk organised by Eversley. I’ve been set up with my laptop at the new Fluffy Fluffy Cafe at the shopping centre writing this catchup post. We’ve only had a couple of days of really hot weather so far, but there will be a heatwave over Christmas, unfortunately.