Friends of Parks Forum 2005

Well I can't believe the weekend has been and gone already and I'm now back at work. Bummer!

So I got into Victor Harbor at about 3:30pm on Friday, a little earlier than I thought I might as the drive went really smoothly. I was staying at a place called Villa Victor with two elderly ladies, Betty and Shirley (so cute, the even have 'old people' names) but I was the first to arrive, so I went for a bit of a tour around Victor while I waited for them. After the arrived we went and had dinner at Albert's Place then headed to the Forum venuw for the opening night's events.

On Saturday morning, despite the idea that Villa Victor was meant to be a B&B, we had to get our own dinner, but thankfully Betty and Shirley came prepared for such an event. After the morning forum we hopped on buses for a tour of the Waitpinga cliff line. The weather was gorgeous and we took roughly a 3 hour walk along the Heysen Trail, and the views were spectacular. On Saturday night was the Forum Dinner, which was held at Hotel Victor. The Environment Minister was there as a special guest which was pretty cool, because I like John Hill, not that I personally got to meet him. The food was yummy and I got to meet some people from other Friends groups and it was a great night :)

On Sunday morning I was up bright and early, packed up my car and made it in time to the cooked breakfast that was being supplied for us. After that, it was back to the forum topics and discussions and some more guest speakers (including the CEO of the place I work for) and then the weekend was over and it was time to drive home. I really enjoyed it, considering it was my first forum, and I gor to meet some cool people. Next years is up at Echunga so no need to be away from home as that's not that far away, bit of a bummer really.

I hadn't been to Victor Harbor for about 8 years. The place hasn't changed in some ways, but in other ways it's changed heaps. For example, there are so many new houses along the shoreline than there used to be (and apparently they're a hell of a lot more expensive).

I had yesterday off work just to catch up on washing and stuff, and I'm glad I booked an extra days leave because over the course of the weekend I lost my voice due to this cold I picked up. It's back now, just has moments of squeekiness. Last night we had the Le Cornu footy tipping awards dinner which we went to as the whole family's in the footy tips there, but alas, no luck for any of us (although, not surprising).

Anyway, the workday is almost over so I'd better wrap things up here. Until next time.