Wendy Clarke, Writer and Artist. Some fun things we've done in our lives

Some fun things we've done in our lives:

When we had our restaurant/coffee shop at Coal Point, we catered en-situ to a world-wide nudist convention at Cooranbong. Mind you, we wore clothes when we did the cooking. After all, who wants their bare bodies splashed with hot fat? When we took a break to go swimming, though, we entered into the spirit of things; it would have been bad manners to do anything else.

We also took twelve months off after selling the restaurant and our waterfront property at Coal Point, travelling right up the east coast of Australia in a sixteen-foot pop-top caravan, with a four-wheel drive to pull it and the mandatory tinny on top. With three primary-school age kids in tow, and correspondence lessons to supervise, it mightn't sound like everybody's idea of fun, so you'll just have to take my word for it - we had a wonderful time. We saw some beautiful places; met some fantastic people. Even the weather smiled on us.

We've also done a bit of sailing - even bought the hull and deck of a 26' Endeavour yacht and did a complete fit-out. She was white with dark green and lime green trim so we called her La Sauterelle, which is French for grasshopper, and I painted a giant grasshopper in top hat and tails on her side. Sadly though, when we moved to Lake Macquarie a couple of years later, running the restaurant left us with very little time to take her out so we ended up selling her before we came to live in Brisbane.

Speaking of fun, our son Rob was married in July 2000 to a lovely girl called Nicole (Nic). The knot was tied in their own unique style by Dean Vegas, who is both a marriage celebrant and world-champion Elvis impersonator, at their favourite cafe, The Three Monkeys at West End, and they even had a couple of drag queens among the guests. Not everyone's idea of a wedding, I guess, but it was what they wanted, and everyone, including us, had a great time.

In twelve months of travel we only had four rainy days, and after a morning spent on schoolwork five days a week, our children would band up with the other kids and go exploring. Bob and I took advantage of those times we found ourselves alone, though we had to become quite creative about our intimate moments together. You can't give way to unbridled passion in a caravan - not unless you want to advertise what you're doing to all and sundry!

A collage of Rob's wedding. Click on picture to view photos in detail. There is a link under the last
picture to bring you back to this page..