Hi everyone. I don't get to tell you stories much as Scruffy is usually the only one who is allowed to. But he is still on holiday so I was duelly elected to be his representative at the Tarewa shoot.
Mum had arranged to have a short day at work and head off to Warwick to meet Uncle 2Bob, Aunty Carol and Uncle Nod so we didn't have to drive all the way on our own. The main reason that mum would have had to have driven all the way is that our legs are too short and we can't reach the pedals in the car so going out with the others meant none of us had to drive all the way.
Anyway she was really pi........ off when the boss, after doing nothing all morning decided to give her some work to do which he wanted done b4 she left. Much to say it was finished on the Monday.
After mums temper had settled down we had a really good trip out to Warwick to find the others were packed and ready to go. We all jumped into Uncle 2Bobs car and drove around to his place where we left our car for the weekend. When mum got into 2Bobs car she asked Aunty Carol why she always got to sit in the front while Uncle Nod always got to sit in the back. Her answer would have shocked a more sensitive duck, she said if she didn't sit in the front then she would probably throw up on me during the trip west. At that I thought it was a good idea she sat facing away from me. So I found Uncle Nods lap and curled up there to snooze our way out.
Uncle Nod is a really good person to sit with when traveling as we managed to have heaps of sleeps in the 3 & 1/2 hours drive west. My only complaint is that he does snore lots. We had an ice-cream stop on the way which was good, gave us time to practice harassing some dogs being taken for a walk and to eat Aunty Carols chips she had bought for lunch.
While we were having Aunty Carol's lunch we saw Uncle Thud drive past, we all waved and carried on but as normal he just ignored us and kept on driving. What suprised us was the trailer he was towing. What will they think of next? We found out when we saw him later at the range that the trailer was their new bed. I leave that to your imagination.
We helped the Warwick's get their bedroom set up in their corner of the hall. They always have pride of place. And while 2Bob & Uncle Nod were blowing up their air beds, no not by puff, we saw Julio setting up what looked like a big spotting scope. So of course Uncle 2Bob had to go over and give him a helping hand and all the advise that no-one wanted.
After a lovely dinner for a pittance of a price and a ale or 2, we went home with Aunty Pam only to find that they had used our bedroom (the lounge) as a storage room to store all or most of the new kitset kitchen parts in. I mean how could anyone do that to us? So to sort them out we made our bed beside the bar. That will teach them.
Saturday morning dawned very early and not very bright. We had to be at the range to get breaky organized so we left home just b4 6am and arrived to find most people up and about. Breakfast seemed to be a relaxed meal today with everyone slowly making their way to the kitchen then out the back to cook their saus and bacon. Aunty Pam this year would not allow anyone but herself to cook the eggs, so at least we had one thing on the plate that was cooked proper.
While we were sitting having our nice quiet breakfast we heard Aunty Jean coming. Now those that know Aunty Jean from Cunnumalla know that when she arrives the whole place seems to brighten up. I am being nice here. Anyway after she had been around and said hello to everyone, that is all 50 people there she then got her food and low and behold quiet rained supreme.
After breaky most people wandered up to the range by either foot or motor vehicle. Once the hour of 8am came the shooting did start. Mum had a pretty relaxed weekend as she had only entered 2 events but then when she went to pay she decided she could shoot another one on the Sunday morning. This still left her a relaxed weekend of shooting. Our day started with air pistol and mum had real trouble trying to keep up with Aunty Carol and Uncle Ken. Boy they sure shoot a rapid air pistol match. Still at the end of it mum put a score against her match and when she added it she thought she must have made a mistake as the score was better than the match had felt, so she decided to wait and see what score she was given by the official scorers. It was even better than she had written down. That made a good start to the day.
While we were sitting having the traditional cuppa after a match and b4 the next one we saw uncle 2Bob carry all his shooting gear up to the car then as he put it down on the ground his tin of ammo fell off his gun box and fall all over the ground. Being the good helpful supportive people we aren't we all gave him heaps. After that small bit of entertainment we took off to shot the first half of Sport pistol (not its proper name now, but I am a bit old fashioned). We shot pretty good here again so our day was complete. Happiness all round.
After lunch we were talking to Aunty Jean as we wondered where she had disappeared to during the morning. Well we found out that she had been learning new methods of getting rid of the frogs that seem to like living in the toilets. The new techniques were being taught by Pa Maher. Of course this follows on from her trip to the range the night b4 when, as she says, while minding her own business and quietly driving along, a pig jumped out onto the road in front of her.
It was lucky she drives a 4WD as she could just whack it into low gear and drive on over the top. The fore mentioned did actually leave much of its belongings, skin etc. stuck to the front of the vehicle. So now her 4WD is called the "Killer Machine" as it carries many battle scars from fighting off pigs and roos.
Our entertainment was finished there so we wandered up to see what was happening at the hall only to find Aunty Chris busy scoring on her own, so being the lovely duck I am, I happily offered mums services to help get the scoring done and finished b4 tea time.
Not too soon after people started wandering up as the shooting drew to an end. When we had finished scoring we looked out the hall door only to find the "men" checking out a real mans ute, or so they say. That is such a personal thing. Apparently a ute is measured on how many spots and areials it has, or so Uncle Rob says
. What about this one then?
Evening finally came around and of course as the club is situated so far from anywhere just about everyone, except the actual locals, all camp/sleep at/by the hall. As the day had been really hot and I mean REALLY hot it was just the reason needed to break into the beers. Some took that to heart and tried to throw their empty bottle into the bin, or they decided to try playing tennis but instead of putting the bottle in a safe place the tennis ball decided to have a smashing time and then they had to go in search of a broom to clean the mess up. When will people learn?
The evening was drawing to an end and some people had already retired while others were still drinking, some were sitting quietly talking and others were getting ready to go and shoot some skeet. Young Becky, Aunty Jean's oldest, came wandering through to go outside to see what the others were doing, when she went to go past us quiet bunch that were talking, Uncle Thud asked her what she was drinking, she said with a grin only Coke, one would have believed her normally as she did have a Coke can, but by the way she was wobbling around while trying to stand still, left us to think otherwise.
Not long after that we all packed up and went home to bed. We asked Aunty Pam later that how come this was the only shoot we went to each year that we always went to bed really late and had to get up really early. That's one she could not answer there and then.
Sunday morning came around really quickly and we were up and off to the range once again b4 the sun was up. Mum was not feeling very well this morning after she had emptied her inside out during the night so she decided to only have a light breakfast, so to help the others she decided to put herself on toast duty. This filled in some time, but all too soon it was time to wander up to the range to start playing again.
The weather was not so kind to us today. Although it was fine there was a really good wind blowing, and I could hear those that had shot Free Pistol yesterday say they were pleased that they didn't have to shoot it today in the wind. Mum went off to shoot dueling and when her guns arrived at the range she went down to get ready. While everyone was putting their stuff up on the benches Uncle Thud decided to follow Uncle 2Bob's lead from yesterday and throw all his ammo on the ground. Don't they realize that by mistreating their ammo it won't shoot straight for them when they go to use it.
Sorry I digress again. At the end of dueling I had a talk to mum and explained to her if she had not let the brain worry about the wind blowing really strong she would have shot quite well. We went straight from this to shoot a very quick match of Standard (only 2 in the detail). Mum then went for a walk to the little girls room and then she found Aunty Chris scoring on her own again so she went and helped. Left me in the car she did. She spent all the rest of the time helping to get the scoring done, this went on till Uncle 2Bob went looking for her to say they were ready to leave, so after she found her mobile hand bag that kept traveling around without her we all jumped into the car to head east.
We had a nice drive back to Warwick. We had to do a compulsory stop on the side of the road when Mr Policeman waved us down and asked Uncle 2Bob to blow in his bag of chips. We all gave 2Bob heaps. The rest of the trip was pretty quiet. When we got back to Uncle 2Bobs place to get our car we found he had while we were away made one of our tyres go flat on the bottom. His conscious most have got too him as he changed it for us then we hit the road for the last part of our trip back home.
Talk to you next time I am allowed to go to a competition.
Signed
Daffy the Duck.