A mammoth post...

It's been a while since we have posted any news so I guess now is a good a time as any.

On the 14th of Dec Geoff, Tony and I went to the Robbie Williams concert. This man really rocked Suncorp Stadium. He was running around, jumping and singing his little heart out for the full show, and kept us amused with all his arrogant antics. My favourite (although extremely daggy) song he did was Take That's "Want you back for good". What a blast from the past... Bron I'm sure you remember singing that with Megan don't you?!! The only downside to the evening was the crowds causing bottlenecks as they exited the stadium.

The following night we had our work Christmas party at the Carlton Crest in the city. This was the best work party I have ever been to! The food was excellent, the drinks were flowing (sort of) and I had a ball dancing the night away with heaps of other slightly inebriated people. Afterwards, since we had booked a room there, we only had to go up the elevator to crash for the evening. Perfect.

The following Thursday evening we had Christmas at my Mum's. I helped put up the tree and the deccies (read: I did most of it - slack brothers) and we had a yummy roast dinner. It was a shame Bron and Ben were on the other side of the world (we miss you guys)!!

On Saturday night we had Christmas at my Dad's. It was hot enough for a swim in the arvo, then we had a yummy cold meat and salad dinner.

On Sunday we drove down to Casino to have Christmas with Geoff's family. Sunday night we went to his Nanna's place and caught up with all his family on his Mum's side. The following day we spent at Geoff's parents for lunch and present giving. I think we ended up with more presents that what we gave... Santa was very kind this year. :-) It really wasn't hot enough for it but we had a water pistol fight. Always good fun.

While we were down in Casino we also went to a river at Evan's Head for a day of fishing and paddling. Yep, you heard right. Paddling. We were a little naughty and bought a kayak. It seats two people, and also had a cargo pod and a spot for a bag (or an esky). It was absolutely brilliant trying it out for the first time. Geoff and I took it out first and discovered that we can stay upright in it! I also took it out with Trina and also had a go by myself. Just awesome (pardon the pun). I am looking forward to trying in out in other waterways next week.

The other exciting thing that happened that day was that Craig caught a beauty of a flathead. This was very unexpected but very much appreciated. Geoff's Dad cooked it up for the brekky on the Thursday and it was absolutely delicious. So much nicer than the crap you buy at the supermarket!

Geoff and I also went for a trip to the Border Ranges National Park. We went on a short walk that wove around a creek and waterfall, and we also drove up to the Pinnacle. The view was spectacular, looking out to a massive valley and also Mt Warning. Such a beautiful part of the world that I had never seen before. I was also quite taken with all the birds around the place. There was heaps of Eastern Rosellas, brown pigeons and these beautiful blue and white-breasted pigeons. We also heard heaps of whip birds and bell birds. Definitely going back to camp there sometime soon!

We said our goodbyes to Geoff's family this morning and headed back to Brissy. I have one more week of holidays which is absolutely brilliant. Geoff is on holidays til February then he is into second year.

We hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas and has a rocking New Year's celebrations. We are still debating about it but seem to be leaning towards a quiet New Year's. I think we need to back off a bit after too much Christmas cheer!

Oh, and by the way... do you like our moose on top of our tree? Makes a change from the usual angel or star hey? :-)

Blog Tiggy

Our friend Chris has tagged us for blog-tiggy. So here are 5 things you most likely do not know about the both of us (or perhaps you do?).

1. Geoff's favourite band is Queen (he has all the albums and that's a LOT).

2. As a child, Geoff was in the emergency department a lot and has more stitches than every year of his life.

3. Geoff has had leptospirosis (kissing too many cows) - Red Cross does not like him now.

4. Geoff does not drink any caffeine but goes a little crazy if he has any coke with his bourbon.

5. Geoff is a real history buff and knows seemingly insignificant details about WWI and II.


1. El is afraid of the dark and insists that the cupboard doors are closed before going to sleep at night (you never know what monsters lurk in there). I kid you not.

2. Some of El's T cells have been to France (but the rest of her hasn't). This was for doing a crystal structure of her T cell receptor and a picture of this is going to be published in Nature Immunology next year. (Sorry, that one was a bit nerdy.)

3. El much prefers winter to summer.

4. El does not have her ears (or any part of her) pierced and isn't too keen on getting it done.

5. El longs to be a better writer that what dribbles out on this blog.

As for who "is it" next, we wish to tag:
Bron and Ben,
Tash and Dunk and
Tony.

Knock yourselves out guys. :-)

Have you ever?

Have you ever seen an exploded bullrush? Neither had I - it looks pretty cool hey? I collected it a few weekends ago while kayaking in a waterhole with my Mum and my Uncle Richard.

We had gone up to visit Richard at his bush block near Imbil. It was a hot day, and after doing some strenuous tractor work (not really - actually all I did was drive it up the small hill and sat and waited while Richard did all the controls to pick up some sawn-off logs!!) we went for a drive to a nearby creek. There was plenty of water in it, thanks to a recent release from the nearby dam. The water was cool and refreshing and this beautiful shade of green. There was so many birds around, and they were not fazed by our quiet paddling through the water. It was such a awesome experience, and has made me really, REALLY want to buy my own kayak and get back into it.

Later on in the evening we enjoyed a yummy lamb roast cooked on Richard's wood stove, and sat outside by a campfire, enjoying the quiteness of the bush. The next morning we ate breakfast in the same spot, and had a great view of king parrots, finches and other wild birds feeding on a nearby setup.

Richard also had some two week old chickens (about 15) that Mum and I were quite partial to picking up one or two for a cuddle. They are just so soft and sooky.

I promise to post again sooner rather than later. :-) Take care everyone.

Family happy snaps

A couple of weekends ago we went up to Bribie Island for a picnic for my cousin Janine's little boy, Jordan, who was celebrating his first birthday.

It was a beautiful hot sunny day and just perfect for lazing by the water and catching up with some family that we had not seen in a long time.

I went on the playground with my cousin Rachel. Perhaps thinking I was 11 again, I went on the monkey bars and did some flip arounds. Seemed easy at the time - pity about the next day with me moaning and groaning about my sore shoulders and great coloured bruises behind my knees! Anyone would think I wasn't a kid anymore!!

Procrastination on a Monday

Thought I might do an update of what we have been up to lately.

Last Wednesday night Geoff and I went to our work's annual memorial lecture/awards evening. It was held at Customs House and it started right smack bang in the middle of peak hour. Traffic was an absolute nightmare with the closure of the riverside expressway, and it took us 45 mins to get there from work! Anyway, the evening was really good with lots of free wine, beer and nibblies (which is always a bonus). The guest speaker was the former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett. He spoke about the National Depression organisation "Beyond Blue" and his involvement in giving depression more public awareness. It was a very enjoyable and inspiring speech.

On Saturday we had the pleasure of meeting Sally and Andrew's new little boy, James. What a gorgeous kid, and so well behaved - he was quite happy to be cuddled. The three of them just looked so happy and relaxed - lovely to see. :-)

Yesterday (after missing yet another phone call from Bron - d'oh!) we went round to our friend Jen's place for her birthday bbq. She has recently moved into a house with - wait for it - a full sized tennis court in the backyard. How sweet is that?! I'm so jealous. So we had a bit of a hit around, me wearing jeans and Geoff wearing flip flop sandals which made it a bit interesting. I used to play tennis a lot but haven't in years. It was such good fun but today my right shoulder is killing me. Must be getting old. Anyway, it was great to catch up with Jen and enjoy a snag on her new bbq.

Anyway, I should stop procrastinating and go do some work now. Take care everyone. :-)

Some photos

Last Saturday I went to Janani's and Jeyanthan's wedding reception lunch. Once everyone was seated they made their entrance and looked absolutely stunning in their traditional gear. After watching a video of their wedding in Sri Lanka, we were given the opportunity to wish them well, then we sat down to a yummy vegetarian lunch. I felt decidedly ordinary wearing normal attire with all these women wearing beautiful sari's around me!


Saturday night we caught up with Dunk, Tash and Isla. Isla is 6 months old now and does gorgeous really well. She was a little naughty though, by not going to sleep but it meant we got to spend some time with her and give her some cuddles. :-) She is absolutely smitten with Geoff - laughing and carrying on and really enjoyed gnawing on Geoff's index finger. We think she may be teething.


On Sunday afternoon I saw "The Full Monty" at Southbank with my mate Julia, and some friends from work - Itaru and Paweena. It was absolutely brilliant - it followed the movie really well (except for it being set in New York State instead of the UK) and we got our fair share of laughs out it. Thoroughly recommend it to anyone considering seeing it - I think it runs for another week yet.

TGI Friday

Not that it has been a particularly arduous week or anything. I did however set a new record for myself by doing 35 RNA extractions and cDNA syntheses(?) which wasn't a whole lot of fun. Mmm, repetetive pipetting, what more could you want?

Geoff also had a fairly busy week, with the handing in of 2 major assignments and also assisting with a root canal procedure this afternoon. He tells me it was interesting. I still can't believe he can watch stuff like that without the need to gag!!

Anyway, enough about work and uni. Tonight we are having a BBQ dinner which is something guaranteed to put me in a great mood. I don't know, but there is something very therapeutic about cooking a hunk of meat outside, having a few drinkies and listening to the radio, whilst slapping off mossies. Gotta love this time of year.

Our weekend is fairly busy. Geoff has a two day first aid course he has to do for uni. I have a friend's wedding lunch tomorrow and I'm going to see "Full Monty" at the Lyric theatre on Sunday. Will post more about these afterwards - hopefully with some photos.

Our thoughts are with Sally and Andrew as they rapidly approach "M-Day". M being of course, for Munchie. :-) How exciting. (Incidently Sally, the other night I dreamt you guys had a boy.). :-)

Anyway, time to open the wine. Hope everyone has a brilliant weekend. :-)

Sally's baby shower

Sally (my good mate from undergrad days) is having a bub next month and last Saturday I went to an afternoon tea in her honour. Unfortunately I don't have any photos to post (do you have any Sally)?

It was great to catch up with the Mum-to-be and see her glorious bump (and no Sally, you are definitely not fat)!! I really enjoyed catching up with lots of others, including Fliss and her new baby Isaac.

And finally, the afternoon tea was really yummy! Thanks to Sally and her Mum for organising everything. :-)

at work

We'll here I am waiting for a gel to dry: certainly is exciting stuff. I'm pretty tired because I got up at 5.30am to get to uni for an 8 O'clock lecture on the merits of the kidney. Damn glomerulus(for nerds out there). We have been busy but I have been a bit boring. El went to a friend's baby shower on saturday but I will let her fill you in on that. We hired a ute on sunday to take some rubbish to our local tip. Coming from the country where the local rubbish dump is a big hole in the ground, chandler refuse transfer station is like the hilton of garbage dumps. We made a couple of trips to get rid of some dead couches and a heap of crappy palm fronds that rip your hands to shreds when you try to pick them up. There was a bit of a bingle right outside the tip entrance on the second trip. Two cars had collided and a trailer had fallen off one of them. Noone seemed to badly hurt so they were just playing the blame game.
Uni is going OK, I am looking at all the gross pictures of teeth and various things that people do to them. Not for the faint hearted. All the young uns(most of the class) goes oohh and ahhh everytime a new slide comes up. I wonder how many are doing dentistry because they want to and how many are doing it because they got the OP or their parents pushed them into it.
Oh well, I have to go and check my gel dryer. This gel is the final accumulation of 3 years work so I hope it works. At least I have a good view of the city to make it seem a little less dreary here.
Bye for now
Geoff

1, 2 and 3 in August

Weddings are wonderful things.

Happy three years for Sally and Andrew on the 3rd, happy two years for Bron and Ben on the 21st and happy one year for Chris and Nigel on the 27th.

Congratulations from us both. :-)

Go the mighty bulls!

We had a great weekend down at Casino, catching up with Geoff's family and watching Craig play footy in the reserve grade for Casino against Wollongbar-Alstonville.


Although his team won, to make it into the finals they needed another team in the competition to win and they didn't. It was great game to watch - I am slowing learning about Rugby Union... it's such a a hard game to follow. All I know is there is lots of line-outs, and occasions where they all jump on each other to get the ball, and then another guy charges in to get the ball. I'm sure Geoff could explain it better! Anyway, it was all very exciting to cheer Craig on, and he even scored the first try. :-) The cool thing is Craig will get to play some more footy before the season is out because he is going to play a few first grade games.

Being the huge drinker that I am (not) I was democratically elected (hmm) to be the designated driver for the trip back from the footy. Imagine carting four slightly enebriated and very boistrous boys back from Wollongbar to Casino. We only had to make one pit stop. The boys thought they heard a funny sound coming from the esky so we had to pull over and investigate. Once home, we went out to a local pub for dinner and then Geoff decided it was time he'd had enough of the festivites. The rest of them carried on to the wee hours of the morning; Tony ended up singing karaoke at a another pub and waking up a little bleary eyed.

Sunday morning I drove back to Brisbane. This is something I rarely do and I can now understand why Geoff is normally so tired after the two and half hour drive. Luckily we had some excellent audio tracks to sing along to (who would have thought The Doors would keep me on the ball)?

As of last Thursday, it has been one year since we arrived back in Brisbane and scared the daylights out of my parents who weren't expecting us back until September. :-) It's amazing how fast the time goes. At times it doesn't even feel like we were away at all.

Here is a photo of where we were about a year ago, on the island of Lefkada off the coast of Greece.



Geoff had his first clinic on Friday. He was a little nervous about it, not knowing what to expect I suppose but he tells me it was really interesting. He did the suction for and got to watch a debridement (fancy word for clean and scale) assisting another student. There was a lot of blood but it didn't faze him. He has a few more clinics this year assisting but over the next couple of years he will get to be in the driver's seat more.

This and that

Hey dear readers, I know it's been a while so here goes my attempt at entertaining you for at least 30 seconds.. :-)

Last weekend we caught with some former work mates - Julissa, Yvonne and Angela. We all had a yummy lunch at the Bull and Cactus and found out that Yvonne is pregnant, she and hubby Charles are expecting in February next year! She is looking really good and even has a bump to show for it. :-)

Now onto something completely different. Work has been absolutely crappy lately. I can't really go into any detail because you all know where I work and that would be bad. I sometimes wish I had an anonymous blog and then I could rant and rave all I want. :-) The good thing is that I am taking this Friday off and we are heading down to Casino to visit Geoff's folks for a long weekend. Geoff's brother Craig is playing an all important "finals make or break" game of rugby on Saturday so we will be there to cheer him on. It's also so nice just to get away from the big smoke for a bit. Brisbane is just too crowded sometimes!!

To finish up, I want to share a work email that the building engineer sent to everyone a few weeks ago now. Sorry to whoever has already seen this (hi Tash and Kath!) but it was so funny. Take care everyone. :-)

It would appear that someone has taken a liking to our shower curtains in CBCRC to the extent that 3 have now been removed.

I was not aware that these were a sought after collectors item as they are readily available from all leading hardware stores!!!!

I have now ordered new ones and these will be installed upon receipt, so no more emails please. Please direct all your energies to catching THE CURTAIN BANDIT as he or she is the one causing you the inconvenience.

If THE CURTAIN BANDIT wishes to contact me I can direct them to the appropriate supplier and they can try paying for one!!!!!!!

Our book list

Christine and Nigel (www.blog.co.uk/main/index.php/viapaschale) have tagged us about 10 books.

I would just like to mention that Geoff's replies are shown after mine and I take no responsibility for them!!

1. One book that changed your life:

Lonely Planet Guide for Canada
Bear Attacks, their Causes and Avoidance by Stephen Herrero

2. One book that you’ve read more than once:

Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
The complete guide to home brewing in Australia by Laurie Strachan

3. One book you’d want on a desert island:

Collins Pocket Guide to Stars and Planets
A Lonely Planet Guide to Desert Islands

4. One book that made you laugh:

Don't Stand Too Close to a Naked Man, by Tim Allen
Far Out Brussel Sprout by Paul Jennings

5. One book that made you cry:

April Fools Day by Bryce Courtenay
So thats what its like when doves cry by Amanda Huginkis

6. One book that you wish had been written:

How to travel around the world on minimum money
Get rich quick by Richard Rich

7. One book that you wish had never been written:

Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus by John Gray
Chemistry by Zumdahl

8. One book you’re currently reading:

Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
A Brief History of the World by Geoffrey Blainey

9. One book you’ve been meaning to read:

The Harry Potter series
Kokoda by Paul Ham

10. Tag others.

Umm, whoever considers themselves lucky enough... go for it!!

Jerusalem Creek

We recently took a trip down south to visit my parents and do a spot of fishing. After loading the subaru full of borrowed camping gear(Thanks Dad) we headed down to Bundjalung National Park to camp for a few nights. It is one of my regular spots that I like but this was El's first visit.The facilities are minimal with pit toilets and no showers or running water but we managed. It is quite invigorating having cold camp showers hiding behind the tent. We had all our warm gear from Canada so we weren't too cold but El managed to steal most of my stuff to wear over the top of her multiple layers. Nights were not too cold until the last night when the dew made its way onto the outside of the sleeping bags and everywhere else. Not quite as cold as when we camped in Nova Scotia though.
I did lots of fishing but had more luck in catching beers from the esky than fish from the sea or creek.
Jerusalem Creek runs out to the ocean eventually, we nearly died(not really-just got really tired) walking the 9 kms return trip (complete with fishing rods,esky and heavy camera). Even though the esky was getting lighter as I removed various shiny metal objects it seemed to get heavier as we went along. We walked along the creek as far as the mouth of the creek and decided to walk along the beach back to the campground to make the trip easier. The only problem with that idea was the south easterly swell making tides bigger than they should have been. We walked about 800 meters back toward the campground and then saw our path blocked around a headland by rather large incoming waves. We took the wussy way out and clambered up onto a rock shelf to escape the seas. Once we got to the top of the shelf we could see that the beach was a no go zone. The problem with this was that we were seperated from the path leading along the creek by various prickly plants, pandanus palms and assorted scratchy looking sticks. Reliving my childhood I managed to bush bash our way back to the track, trying not to pay too much attention to the look of terror on El's face.

This time of year the campground is virtually deserted, mainly due to the cold. Only die hard fishermen and silly people like us go camping at this time of year. It got down to close to zero degrees one night. I got up to look at the sun come up while El was too busy sleeping and steam was coming off the waves.
I also nearly managed to get the car bogged in some soft sand. It only went up to the door on the passenger side but with a little encouragement, some low range and a lot of revving I got out and moving again, much to El's delight. For some reason she did not want the car to get swept out to sea.

Above is a more gentle type of sand-the hard stuff. Its like driving on a highway so you don't have too many problems. At high tide when the sand is soft you have to be more careful as if you lose momentum you can easily get stuck.
I have caught heaps of fish at this place in the past but a combination of bad weather and apathy stopped the fish from biting.

After camping we went back to my parent's place and gave the car a good wash. Probably half the sand on the beach seemed to come out of the car and sand was in spots that you didn't think a car had. We got it fairly clean though, just clean enough to notice the fresh dirt put on it driving back to Brisbane.
El is back at work now, doing her science thing. I'm still doing a bit of work as well and enjoying the last days until I go back to uni. I'm starting dentistry subjects next semester so I'm really looking forward to not doing all the science stuff again. I've got credit for a couple of subjects next semester so the workload should be easier. Luckily Organic Chemistry was one of the subjects I got off-I hate that stuff.
Today I am working my way through El's list of jobs while she is at work -doing the house husband thingy.
I'm back to Uni on Monday and have to get dressed up for the dental school so my days of ultra casual are numbered.

Gotta love the serenity!

Hello! Thought we'd do a post with some pictures for once! We had a great weekend away at my aunties farm. It was really peaceful to get away from it all and I could have easily stayed a lot longer. Sorry Bron and Chris (and any other misplaced Aussies) - hope these photos don't make you too homesick!

We helped feed the one year old cows some grain and this fella was particularly curious about the camera.

We also went for a walk down to the river bed. It is unbelievable how dry it is. It was only at Christmas time that a few of my family members were swimming at this exact spot.

This is the view from up near the house. My auntie has alpacas and chooks in the pen to the left of the picture.We saw this fella on a walk we took around the back of her property. It was as close as we could get with Geoff's super duper mega zoom lens. We think the koala had a cub as well.Here's me getting in touch with nature. I wasn't drinking, I swear!Mum and Geoff feeding the hungry herd. Mum and I looking particularly spiffty in our floppy hats.
Another cow photo sorry. I think they're cute. :-)

It's a boy!

Congratulations to our friends, Eric and Sally, on the arrival of their second boy, Carlos Jorge, born last Wednesday morning. We are looking forward to catching up with the 4 of them soon!

Things I have learnt

We had a work trivia night on Friday... what a hoot. It was great fun getting to know some of my lab members (and significant others) a bit better. Although our team "The Tragically Hip" (no, I don't really get it either - someone else named us) didn't win, or come even second (but we weren't last either!) I learnt a lot of useless information.

1) John Howard's middle name is Winston (is that a bit presumptious to name your child after a former politician? Apparently George Dubuya's middle name is Washington as well).

2) The Rabbitohs have won the most Rugby League Premierships.

3) Archer was the name of the horse that won the first two Melbourne cups.

4) Kangaroo is the first Australian aboriginal word to be incorporated into the English language.

So there you go.

Our Saturday

Geoff had his first exam yesterday -Chem (yuck yuck yuck). It was in the early afternoon so I decided to drive him over and then go to the Indro shops until he was finished. I probably should have thought about this a bit more because it was a) Indro b) a Saturday c) lunchtime and d) raining! The carpark was a nightmare! I drove around for what felt like an eternity, cursing and swearing at incompetent drivers, people that park in the turning space, people that beat me to stalking a person walking back to their car and just people in general! I had admitted defeat and was on the way out when I decided to do a last minute check in this little parking area off the main craziness. Unbelievably I found a spot! I did a check for disabled signs, etc but thankfully there was none. Yay for me!

What I really wanted to buy was a denim jacket and a pair of jeans. I must have went into at least 20 different clothes stores and made an interesting observation. Everything is made in China now! It didn't matter whether it was Target, Myer, Jacqui E, Country Road or whatever, they all had the same tag. I think that is really sad. What's even more sad is that the clothes are probably all made in the same sweat shop but the price variations are huge! I did notice however, that a $40 pair of jeans from Target did not fit and feel as nice as a $160 pair from, say Country Road. They are both made in China though. How does that make sense?

Anyway, eventually I had success and bought a nice pair of jeans and a 30% off jacket. I haven't been clothes shopping by myself in a long time and found it was quite good, you don't have to worry about anyone else getting bored and cranky!

So I got a message from Geoff saying his exam was over so I picked him up and headed home. Geoff isn't sure how it went but is glad one is over. Now he is into the physics which is next Thursday. Fun fun. :-)

Ma

Totally forgot to mention in our last post. Happy belated Birthday for my Mum for last Tuesday! We played a bad version of "Happy Birthday to You" in our concert band rehearsal on Monday night. It's become a bit of a tradition where everyone just plays random notes because no one has ever worked out how to play it and what key to play it in!

Not much else to say since Sunday. I did however, finish a 6 week yoga stint this evening. Every Wednesday after work at work. It has been the best thing - it has been helping me with my flexbility and toning up. One cool thing I have learnt is to do "alternative nostril breathing". It sounds weird but is awfully relaxing. :-)

Bush Weekend

I just got back from a weekend away with my Mum. First up yesterday morning we went to the Eumundi markets. I couldn't believe how busy they were. We had to park a mile away and had to walk up several steep hills to get back to the car afterwards. Mum's knee is now not thanking her very much! There were some pretty funky items at the markets, including a silver spoon and fork wind chimes and lots of nice woodwork. I ended up just buying some yummy strawberries and a pineapple.

Afterwards we went out to my Uncle Richard's bush block near Imbil. He is living in a shed but has a few mod cons that run off solar panels and wind turbines. He doesn't have running water as such, just a tank and a dam. It was primitive but so peaceful out there. He has lots of chooks, geese, pheasants and various other birds. His partner Alison (who I have never met before) was also out there for the weekend.

After lunch we headed out to see our good friends John and Susan at Gympie. In the afternoon we helped feed their cows and collect firewood. After a yummy roast dinner we all sat around their fireplace for hours. Today we helped put mulch around some of their gardens since it is so dry. I always love going up to their place because it is so peaceful and they are great company. We were quite reluctant to go back this afternoon. I should have counted the number of "no dam" signs on the highway... there was just so many of them.

Geoff is on Swotvac as of tomorrow and spent the weekend studying chemistry. That exam is next Saturday. All his exams are nicely spaced out which is awesome. He finishes up on the 23rd of this month and then has something ridiculous like 4 weeks holiday! I am hoping to take some time off work so we can go camping. We are thinking about going to Jerusalem Creek which isn't far from Geoff's parent's place. I will have to drag out the Canada thermals for that trip! Brr.

Work has been really busy in the last little while, which is great. A month ago I got vaccinated for smallpox which was not a whole lot of fun. I won't go into the graphic details but will just say that my arm felt like it had been punched repeatedly. :-) Good thing is that the sore is nearly healed and I will be able to shower normally very soon! (And if anyone decides to release the virus as germ warfare I will be safe?!?)

I have some photos to post but they are of the old-fashioned film type and are yet to be developed. Will do that at a later date. I had some great photos taken on mother's day and we have proceeded to lose them. They are not on the computer, or the memory card, and not even retrievable when we use the special software. Very weird.

So that's enough for now. Hope everyone is well. :-)

Bron's getting old. :-)

To our dearest Bron

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

We hope you have an awesome day...
Love always, El and Geoff

Perhaps it's time...

... to update this thing.

What has happened in our lives since our last post? Well, lots of things actually.

Firstly, our good mates Tash and Dunk had a little girl, Isla Jane, on the 24th of March. She was born seven and a half weeks early, and after doing extremely well, was allowed to go home last Wednesday. We had the pleasure of meeting Isla quite a few weeks ago in hospital, but got to have a cuddle of her on Sunday afternoon. What a cutie. She is the most placid baby and was quite happy to be passed around to all her admirers. Tash and Dunk are both looking great and don't appear too sleep-derived at this stage. :-)

While we are on the subject of babies, we can't fail to mention Sally and Andrew's wonderful news. Their little bundle of joy, or munchkin, as it seems to be called, is due on the 12th of October. I caught up with those two this morning and Sally does not seem to be showing a bump yet. :-)

Now onto something completely different. We got our new car!! It is the only baby we'll be having in a while! It is over a month old now and purring quite nicely. There's something very cool about having a car that a) takes off at lights b) doesn't require you to turn off the aircon when you go up hills and c) still has a new car smell! We tried the car out on the beach at Evan's Head over Easter. It powered through the sand quite well and it was only scary coming on and off the tracks from the road onto the beach. Geoff assures me that the bumping and bouncing around is quite normal and you have to go reasonably fast to power through the sand. I am learning. :-)

Geoff did a spot of fishing while on the beach, and didn't catch anything except for rocks and seaweed. It was a pretty crappy day for the beach - overcast, rainy, windy and cold - so Trina and I chilled out in the car instead of lounging around on the beach.

Over Easter we also went for a drive out to Mummulgum, about an hour from Geoff's parent's place. It was coming on dark and there was lots of kangaroos out and about, trying to hit our car. It was a really scenic drive, lots of mountains and farms. It was our car's first semi-offroad experience, going through creek crossings and gravely roads.

Geoff is still surviving uni. He passed two mid semester exams and has got back into studying even though he says it is hard to adjust to being a student again.