Good morning. The day dawned bright and beautiful again, just what us apprentice Aussie's have become accustomed to having lived here for the last couple of years. Dad did not have to work again today so we were able to hit the road early in the afternoon. We packed heaps into the car, ever hopeful of leaving it all behind with people in Lismore. More on that later, and off we drove heading to the great wonderish strange town of Bryon Bay to stay the night with the Captain of his own ship, as no-one else will have him, Stebbo (as seen below in his normal pose).
When we checked in they, being Captain and Mrs Stebbo were as expected not home to greet us. I thought that was not very good as I had made my mum and dad drive all this way so I could introduce them to our newest family member Mr Wrinkles.
I heard mum and dad talking a few days before we left and they were going to stay in Lismore at a flash house but decided to stay at the cheaper place called the Stebbo's camp. I can't understand why Captain Stebbo kept coming over and banging on the door when we started telling our neighbors what we thought of them making a noise in the middle of the night. He should have gone to the neighbours place and told them to be quiet instead.
Saturday morning came earlier than at home as they were on funny time across the boarder and it meant we had to get up earlier and start shooting at 7am instead of the normal time of 8am. What is wrong with this part of the world. We had a small breakie at home today and took off to the range, which took us not too long to find. We bounded out of the car, and while we were running around greeting all my friends,
I ran head on into the biggest car I have ever seen in my life. It was about twenty stories high and about a hundred feet long, and once I finally sneaked on board to have a look, I decided this is it, this is my new pad. So to do it right I decided to meet with the owners, only managed to find Lynn, to tell them of my plans to have the mobile palace as my head quarters for the Ranfurly/Naseby Pistol Club.
Mum and dad both had to shoot early today so as normal I thought dad needed my help the most, so I went with him while he shoot Standard. He actually did good during the match today. He at one stage actually shot five tens. I told him if he actually listened to me enough something would eventually sink in and he would do it right. Took a while but we did get there, once.
Dad spent all morning rushing from one range to another, I got really tied with all the rushing around but just didn't have time for a rest. We went off to shoot air pistol only to find that we were standing again by Uncle Rob, we had so far stood beside him in standard, had him as our partner in rapid, stood beside him in Centre fire. Centre was a bit rough as he used a big gun which made lots of noise. I wanted dad to growl but he wouldn't so I did and Uncle Rob took it the wrong way and thought I was going to bite him. As if, I could have caught something off him if I did that. When we got to air pistol and found that we had to stand and look at him again I said to dad what luck this was as he is really good to get going when you sneak over to help him count his targets, especially when he has just numbered them and you go skid onto the pile and send them all over the floor.
Uncle Rob and I have some fun, it all started when I took his photo out at Cunnamulla earlier in the year, OOPS I am not allowed to mention that.
Have you ever noticed that during and after a match when normal people go and get a drink or something to eat to either drown the sorrows or celebrate their match Uncle Rob gets our a little white stick from a box and sucks on it till it goes out. At the same time he must do a lot of thinking as you can see smoke coming out of his head. Lots of people mention it to him all the time.
After dad had finished his air pistol Uncle Phil decided to run a couple of details of dueling, sorry Centre fire rapid fire, so a heap of losers, OOPS I mean shooters decided to shot it today instead of tomorrow, this included mum, dad, uncle Rob, Aunty Wendy and of course Uncle Len, (he had to show off as he shot a 50)
the one who hobbles.
They all shot their first lot of shots and uncle Len did the best, as you can see I took his photo for the record, just so those non-believers would believe. They all had different stories as normal after they had finished. I think Uncle Phil had heard them all as he just went off and put all the targets away, and when dad and Uncle Rob worked out that he wasn't listening they went and helped him to put the gear away.
Any way there was not much more shooting done after that. People tended to sit around again and talk and suck on little brown bottles telling stories. The stories got better after the humans sucked on more and more little brown bottles. I went back to the car at that stage and had a rest after my big day.
Ages later mum and dad came to the car and we drove back to the cheap house where the Captain comes from, and tried to have a sleep.
After having noisy neighbors again we awoke to the sound of rain on the cabin roof. It was great to hear as we have not heard that noise for a very long time at home, all we hoped for was that it was also raining at home, no such luck as we found out.
We drove very carefully over to the range, as the rain kept falling, and when we got there we still had time for a cuppa. The weather was not as bad in Lismore, as it was at Bryon Bay, so we didn't need to put our coats on. Mum had no shooting to do today as she finished yesterday, and dad only had to do free and rapid, so it was an easy morning for all of us.
Dad had Uncle Rob standing beside him again this morning. Amazing what people have to put up with in this world, but they both coped, although Uncle Rob was a bit upset later on when he heard dad had gone off and shot his second half of rapid with someone else, and had not waited to shoot it with him as squaded. He put a brave face on the whole show but I knew, so I went off and had a talk to him and told him that he should not let it worry him, and to just get on with life. He seemed a lot happier after our little talk.
Mum had gone off to the air range with Aunty Wendy to watch her try and shoot some air, so I ran over and jumped up onto the bench to have a look at what they were doing. It looked like mum was having fun telling Aunty Wendy what to do, but it must have worked as at the end she had shot a really good group. See I had told you all that before Aunty Wendy, but did you believe me?
I went and checked out my new pad again before we all packed up and headed off , this time I decided to have my photo taken inside in case no one believed me when I told them about the new Ranfurly/Naseby Pistol Club transportable club rooms.
Mum made a cuppa and left it with me while she went off to hunt for dad, while she was away the horribles from the Murrumba club who shell remain nameless at this time got hold of me and made me hang around for a while. They tied me up to the trigger weights and tried to give me away as a prize. That didn't work as I growled at everyone who came near me.
Anyway the gifts were given out to those that had won them, then everyone packed up and started to leave. I went around and said goodbye to all my friends and said to the Murrumbians (only got a picture of 2 of them this time) to look out as the next full shoot is going to be at their club and there may be a chance that they will be got back. So as the saying goes,"Watch behind you forever".