Day 25 - 19/02/12

Day three of the Festival and it was time for me to earn my free festival ticket with a shift on the bar.
I got there at about 11am and met the rest of the crew who were all really nice.
I was a bit nervous about doing this shift as the last time I poured a beer was at the South Wagga Bowling Club (RIP) more than 10 years ago.
It didn't help that one of my first customers had a go at my shakey hands - but I just lied and said I had a big night last night and that seemed to satisfy his curiosity.
But once things started to get busy and we got into the swing of things it was all good and actually quite fun. It felt strange (but good) to be working again after almost two months off.

Rare sight - Me in a white shirt, it felt so wrong.

I knocked off at about 3pm and had a feed, courtesy of the festival and settled in to watch Tex Perkins and his latest band.
His set was very laid back and countrified which suited me just fine. He had all the middle-aged women in the crowd swooning. I overheard the makings of a domestic when one woman said to her husband "He's just so sexy" and hubby wasn't real impressed.

"Oi Tex ya grandmother wears army boots!" I shouted. "Who said that?" said Tex. (Not really)

Tex Perkins and his biggest fan. Aww c'mon it HAD to be said.

Then it was time for the Festival's headliner and Men at Work frontman, Colin Hay.
I had never seen him live before and walked away very impressed with his musicianship, songwriting, storytelling and general stage presence.
He told some really good stories in between songs (especially one about having Paul McCartney over for dinner) and had the crowd hanging on every word. For the record he did play "Down Under" but I think he did so because the crowd were not expecting him to, they were quite happy with whatever he wanted to do.

Colin Hay - He comes from a Land Down Under.

On my way out I ran into Craig from the night before who appeared a little more normal and less distracted today. Apparently he runs historic walks around town and offered to show me around a few of the historical sights. I was really itching to get back to the caravan park and have a swim in the pool while the sun was still up but I figured I need to just keep saying "yes" to whatever opportunities come up so agreed to go on the walk.
It was pretty uneventful, I learned a bit about Echuca's past with the riverboats and what not and Craig did not once stop for breath. I must admit I wasn't paying all that much attention so was caught out when he asked me if I had any questions. The best I could do was "So which way does the river flow?" haha!
A couple of times he angled about the possibility of tagging along on my travels to Port Fairy but in the end I had to tell him I'd prefer to travel solo for the moment.
Had he been blonde, 20 years younger and had a name starting with "In" and ending with "ga" I may have reconsidered but as it stands it was just not gonna happen.
He seemed like a nice enough dude with his heart in the right place, and I don't think he was homosexual (not that there's anything wrong with that) there's just no place for it inside Freda (or me!).
I finally got back to the caravan park and had a glorious swim in the pool with the sun setting, the gumtrees swaying and the cockatoos gliding gently overhead. A great way to finish off a pretty good weekend.

I was gonna set up a shot of me in the pool but there was some pretty scary looking bikie dudes in close proximity so I didn't risk it. I hope you understand.