Thursday, June 22nd 2006
Geelong to Rosebud06/22/2006 08:38 AM Location : Rosebud Billet
Today we travelled around to the other side of the bay to Rosebud via Melbourne. There is a ferry that could have carried us here without going through Melbourne but we were given the opportunity to have a couple of free hours in Melbourne on our own after having been up to the top of the Rialto Tower to see the city from their observation deck. It was a beautiful and interesting view and we thank the MSB for arranging, allowing and paying for us to visit the Rialto.
While we were up the tower, our Bandmaster was providing ABC radio with interviews. Guess that's the price he has to pay. While we are having free time he still has to work!
When we finished up at the tower we were allowed time to do basically whatever we wanted to for a couple of hours. Some shopped. Some ate. Some ate again. Don't know what the rest of them did. It was nice to have a little time on our own though.
Mid afternoon we headed on down for the two hour journey to Rosebud to set up for our concert. From the early afternoon, right on to now it's been raining. Most of the time it's been a light misty rain. But, right now (11:30 pm on Thursday) it's raining pretty hard.
By now if you've been reading my blog you know the routine. We arrive and set up, we eat and then we play a concert. That's basically what happened today too. Captains Alison and Graeme Eastley and CSM Neil Elliott had things well under control and we were very well taken care of. Interestingly, some of us had already met the CSM when he was in Chicago as a member of the International audit team a few years ago. We also got to see a Chicago/Milwaukee friend - Howard Hunt - who showed up for the concert.
Speaking of the concert, when we arrived at the Army hall seating had been jammed in for 300 and they were hoping the crowd would be that big. About 15 minutes before the concert started it was completely full and they opened yet another overflow area and brought literally every kind of chair they could find including office chairs and others. Neil Elliott indicated they had never had that many people in the corps for a concert and the people were very receptive. They had to have squeezed nearly 400 people into a relatively small hall.
All in all, it's been another good day in Australia. A few of the folks are not feeling real well, but it's a dry throat, hacking cough and congestion. Hopefully they will get some relief soon.
Time for me to get some sleep. I'll write more after we visit Morwell tomorrow!
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