Eeeewww

This is vile, and thanks be to God that they have not made it to Melbourne - or else I think I would have gone a little insane by now. Yuck, I shudder even thinking about it...


Bogong Moth Invasion


C

I'm a student again!

Well, I never thought it possible - I have become a student again!

I am probably the least academic person you are ever likely to meet, and for me to voluntarily enroll on a course is out of character!

So, what's this 'ere course I hear you ask???

Since we have bought a flashy (pardon the pun) camera, I thought it would be pretty cool to do a photography course....

Never thought I'd be a 'mature student'!

C

We're still alive and well!

Gosh, it's been 6 weeks since I last blogged, and that's in spite of the protestations of certain family members!

So what's new?

Well life is chugging along quite nicely, thanks for asking. We've had some important landmarks in the last month, all of which are worth a celebration of some sort.

August 25th saw the 2 year anniversary of our arrival in these scorched shores. It amazes me how fast the last 2 years have flown by, yet in some ways it seems a whole lifetime ago that we said farewell to everything we know and loved. We have had a fair amount of time to reflect on these years, and whilst there have been some pretty tough times, we both know we did the right thing to come here.


I recall our first Christmas here, and subsequent months, when we were both having a hellish time missing our family friends - we talk about those times as our 'dark days'. It seemed almost a daily event that one or both of us would be pining to be home, amongst familiarity and security.


Looking back know, I feel that both of us have grown - emotionally, physically and spiritually. It's only when you are off your map that you begin to realise you need help.

So, looking forward now, we are into our third year in Oz and we still see a number of challenges ahead, but we both feel that we have been (and indeed are curerntly being) equipped to rise to those challenges as we meet them. The year ahead will mould us even more, and to that I say "Bring it on!"

we also both celebrated out birthdays in early september, just 2 days apart which makes for a double celebration! As both our days fell on a weekday, we still managed to make each other brekkie in bed, even if it was rushed. I was woken with two hot english muffins, with a solitary candle, and a steaming mug of fresh coffee. it's a real treat to have this as we have a fairly strict policy of 'no bread for brekkie' on weekdays!

We asked or families to send us cold hard cash for gifts this year as we had set our hearts on a fancy camera. We were blown away with all the gifts - THANKS EVERYONE! And we were able to get a very lovely Canon SLR.

So watch this space for some fancy pants pictures in the coming months!

we are looking forward now to our next trip - the school end-of-term holidays start this friday, so Helen has 2 weeks off. So, we are heading off back to tasmania. We had such a lovely time there for our birthdays last year, that we decided to go again. This time we are heading to Launceston and plan to head over to Cradle Mountain and the (wild wild) west coast. I have heard that is is the last real wilderness, truly unspoilt, so we are really lookign forward to that...

I guess that's about all, so look out for more updates soon - I promise!

Secret night out...

Things have been mental of late. We both seem to have gone exponential with the busy-ness of life, and we seem to have little downtime recently.

So in order to redress this, I taking the day off on friday, I have booked a special deal at a city hotel and am taking my sweetheart out for the night... I can't give any more away as it is a surprise, so watch this space for an update over the weekend...

Suffice to say it involves fine dining (of course) and a few shenanigans along the way!

Cacth you later!

C

2 of us

Hello everyone, it's been a while again, sorry!

We're slowly but surely getting back into the swing of things after our fab holiday to Noosa at the start of the month, and winter is really biting here - Melbourne has really lived up to it's reputation of 'four seasons in one day' today. It started of a clear crisp morning, and by lunchtime we had had thunder and lightning, hail, sleet, glorious sunshine and then more rain! It's currently hovering around 6c, and will be dropping to zero overnight. We saw the funniest thing today on the news - kangeroos hopping through snow, in Ballarat, just north of the city.

Anyhow, as you may or may not know, helen has taken up a new hobby - scrap-booking! It seems to be taking up a fair amount of her spare time (what she has of it) and it's actually a very creative process, and is great to see all our memories on paper.

The book is slowly being filled with all the exciting things we have done here in Australia. However, her most recent project is especially good.

Let me explain. We have started a bit of a tradition in the last year or so, of me heading out early on saturday mornings, getting the paper and settling in for a long lie and with fresh croissants. One of the magazines that comes with the Melbourne Age on the weekend is called 'Good Weekend' and it has a regular weekly section called "2 of Us". The basic theme is that it is a story of two people's life, linked in someway, either by marriage, work colleagues, best friends or such like. The two people featured each week speak of their relationship, how they intertwine. It's always ery interesting to see a little snapshot of people's lives.

So, Helen has set about to create our own 2 of Us article, and I have to say it is very good, and I want to send it to the Melbourne Age to get published! I'm going to try and get it on blogger....

See the article here!

Catch you laters...

Chris

Noosa

can't be bothered to blog on first day back but if you're interested check out our Noosa photos on Flickr- link at bottom of page!

Love helen

'Biggest Loser' update

Hi everyone, I thought it might be a good time to update on my fitness plans.

I have to say it has actually been a very good experience so far, with a lot of hard work in the gym, as well as plenty of discipline in the food department (most of the time).

So, the gym side of things has seen the most obvious improvements. When I started, I am ashamed to say that my fitness was akin to a three-toed sloth, only moving if absolutely necessary. I was advised by a fitness freak at work that the very best way to improve fitness was to run, as it was the most effective at improving cardiovascular fitness. When I started at the gym, the best I could muster was around 45seconds of running at 10kph (more of a jog really) before my legs would decide to go on strike. I have always HATED running, just ask my old PhysEd teacher at school - it was more of a dreadmill rather than a treadmill. Sure, I was strong - I can bench press over 200lbs, but my fitness and stamina was shocking.

As I have alluded to in a past posting, my blood pressure was a worry. When I joined the gym, they did a routine check, and machine kept malfunctioning. they tried it 10 times, and only once did it actually read my BP. It was 167/135, and my A:B index was 1.62. (the AB index is an arbitrary measure of peripheral vascular disease, the ideal result being 1.0)

This was a wake up call. I could continue to bury my head in the sand and ignore this and suffer the consequences, or I can do something about it.

Thankfully I am still young and my body is fairly malleable, and over the past 7 weeks I have seen a real transformation in myself. Granted, there isn't too much on the surface - my weight loss has been very gradual, around 9lbs (4Kg) so far. But for me the most astounding changes have been below the surface.

As of last night, my BP is 135/85, resting HR of 58 and the AB index is down to 1.28. In the space of 14 visits to the gym in the last 42 days, I have surprised myself in what I can do. I can now run in 3-4 minute segments, with brisk walking in between, and am achieving 5km in each session. My current aim on the treadmill is to keep to the 5km distance, but to improve the timing. Yesterday I did it in 40mins flat.

Another aspect that has surprised me is how I feel during and after the treadmill. I guess it is the endorphins that are released, but I have found myself smiling when I am reaching a goal, and here's the odd thing - there is small voice in the back of my mind that I haven't heard in a VERY long time saying 'go on, just a bit further, you can do it!'

Maybe it's the little voice of addiction, instead of craving cheezels and crisps, is now craving those endogenous opiates hehe ;o)

So that's it really, sorry for going on about me so much, I guess I'm just proud that I have turned a corner. As I was discussing with Helen last night about a completely different subject, but this is an 'epoch' event in my life!

Enjoy you week,
C

Scrap Booking

For our 2nd wedding anniversary Chris bought me a pile of scrap boooking resources. It's something I have been going on about for ages but just never got round to doing. But I reckon Chris thinks he needs more time to spend on Big Bertha (the monster truck) so he has given me somethjing to keep me busy!

For those of you not in the know, scrap booking is a way of displaying photos and journalling that is very personal to you. It is quite time consuming cause you have to make all the little bits for the page layout. However, I love it!! It is so much fun to see my photos turning into a piece of art and something I will look at for years.

I would put a picture on but I am rubbish at putting them on this web site so maybe Chris can do it for me later!

Gotta go to work now,
Love Helen***

Oh my, how time flies!

I can't believe it has been over two seeks since the last blog update! Life has been insane for us both.

Anyhow, what have we been up to, I hear you ask?

Well, a couple of weeks ago, at the turn of the month, the weather here in Melbourne took a decidedly chillier turn, and with it a fair amount of rain too. I recall in the midst of this gloominess, Helen said, why don't we get away for a night? So we settled on visiting Bright , a place many of our friends rave about.

I was fortunate enough to finish work early last Friday, and was home by 1pm. Helen had already packed her bag the night before, so there was little for me to do to get ready. At the stroke of 3.45, Helen rolled up and transferred to my car where there was even a traveller’s mug of hot tea waiting. The route was typed into TomTom and of we went. It was a good 4 hour drive, over 330km, and we finally arrived in the pitch black, so we couldn’t appreciate the surroundings immediately.

I had already booked a cheap room for the night - we didn't want to spend too much as we were after all only there to lay down our heads for the night. Oh boy, what a mistake that was. I should have done my homework first.

Granted, it was only $90 for the night, but oh boy, you cannot put a price on smile. The receptionist (I think the owner too) was a lady, probably in her late 50's, and gave me a look that made last summer's heat wave seem like a crisp winter's morning. I felt like I was intruding. So we were given our key to room two (bates motel style) and made our way over. Suffice to say it was a very cold night, it was touching on freezing by the time we arrived there, and not surprisingly the room was pretty cold.

So, I dutifully powered up the only form of heat in the room - a 70's style split system AC unit. It clattered to life and we stood together, teeth chattering waiting for the heat to filter through. After five minutes of trying to squeeze some life out of the heater, it died. So off I headed to see my favourite Ice Maiden receptionist to find her on the phone. She glanced at me and carried on her conversation. For a further 5 minutes I stood there, with a very strange feeling. A feeling that I have not felt since I was at high school - standing before the headmaster up to my neck in trouble – very odd indeed.

Sub-zero lady was very animated and friendly on the phone, and after she ended the call, it started getting decidedly chilly again. As we had been driving for over 4 hours, we were famished, so I told her of our problem. She didn't believe me, and actually argued with me that I hadn't powered it up correctly! I was having none of this, and stated simply 'we are going out for dinner, I want a warm room by the time we get back!
So we wandered up the main street in Bright and came across a place called 'The cosy kangaroo', and we dropped in and had a lovely warming meal. On our return to our palace, we could hear the Ac unit clattering away as we walked up to the door, signalling that it was working again. Some chance! it was warmer, but still barely 17c. We quickly jumped into bed, abandoning our plans to open a bottle wine (nothing worse than icy cold red wine) and game of cards. Then came the problem of trying to get to sleep with all that noise. I really wasn't in the mood to confront that woman again, so we switched it off, and threw on an extra (brown) blanket.

I will be submitting a scathing report to TripAdvisor.

Anyhow, whinge over, the rest of our stay was fabulous. The original plan was to just stay for the one night, but we soon decided to stay longer as there was much to do. On the Saturday morning, we headed out of the igloo as soon as possible, and found a little cafe that was open for breakfast. It was gorgeous! We got the newspapers, and settled in for an extended late breakfast of muffins, beans on toast and piping hot coffee. We soon found out why our mates love this place so much. Here are a few pics of the main street and river that runs alongside:
After brekky, we jumped into the car on what was a gloriously crisp winter morning, with not a cloud in the sky. We headed up to Mount Beauty, so called because it is really quite beautiful (DUH!). This was the first place in Australia we have been to that felt truly alpine. Below is Helen overlooking Mt Beauty
We soon dropped back down into the valley and were heading up towards Falls Creek, supposedly the premier ski resort of Victoria. Now this weekend was the official opening of the somewhat short Aussie ski season, so we weren't expecting too much.

By the time we got up the mountain, the sun had gone and we were enshrouded in cloud. We doubled up our clothing and wrapped up for the worst. Now, on the opening weekend, all lifts are open for free so we quickly headed up to the summit and the heavens opened. There was a moment on the lift when we hit a wall of icy cold wind that ripped through my bones. I can't remember when I last felt this cold! Once we shivered our way to the top, we bolted straight into the restaurant for some warmth, and happily paid extortionate amounts of money for some tucker - we had two hot drinks, a bowl of potato wedges and a bowl of soup - it came to $35!! Captive audience I guess.

Having warmed up, we ventured outside where the foul weather had abated, and we messed around in the snow, Helen making a slush, erm I mean snow man.

There was enough snow to ski on, and there were plenty of people giving it a go, but under the conditions, I wouldn't have gone out there for love nor money. I hope it improves this season, last year sucked.

Helen was still very excited so we headed down the hill again, and then up another lift to the village centre where we watched a group of guys who had made an impromptu ramp and were doing allsorts of fancy tricks. She took great pleasure too in building herself an igloo, all the while I was getting frostbite - my trusty old CAT boots finally giving up the ghost and were leaking like a sieve. Here's the view that greeted us on the way home: WOW

We headed back to bright and found another place to stay, primarily looking for somewhere warm! That we did, and however 70's style it was, it did the job.

Later, after I had got the feeling back in my toes, we wandered down into the town with our first stop the local microbrewery. Using local alpine water, they make some lovely tipples - Belgian beers, Irish stouts etc. very good stuff, and a wee dram of all their offerings was a nice aperitif before tea. The thing was, as it was the opening weekend of the season, the town was packed, and we struggled to get in anywhere for food, so we ended up at the pub, and had a hearty dinner - chicken parma and chips! Not exactly gourmet, but worth every dollar.

And so we trundled back tot he motel, and cracked open a bottle of wine we brought with us that had defrosted from the night before. Very noice!

We awoke the following morning to a thick frost, which got me very excited – the first proper frost I have seen in nearly 2 years! You can see below that Helen wasn’t too impressed!

After another lazy morning reading the Sunday papers in our new favourite purveyors of breakfast, we headed off home, the long way round, cruising through the 'Wine and Gourmet food trail', consisting of several well known wineries and centred on the town of Milawa. Our first stop was the Gapstead Winery, and when we parked the car found that the cellar door was closed! However a small sign on the door said 'head down to the big green shed'. It was bedlam - they were doing their annual clearance sale day - I was told that they normally sell 2,000 crates of wine on this open day every year, and we got ourselves a lovely deal - a crate (12 bottles) of 2004 vintage cabsav. And it is lurrrrvly!

So off we went and arrived in Milawa town and joined in the hordes visiting the Brown Brother's Winery. There was hundreds of people there and we had to fight to get served at the cellar door. However, because of their size they offer a wonderful range of wines to taste – to quote Ferris Beuller – ‘if you have the means to pick one up, I highly recommend it – it is so choice!’ Sadly I was driving, so only got to try a select few, but Helen was insistent on trying them all! I really liked the 7year old shiraz, mmmm.

That was pretty much it for our little trip, it was lovely to get away, in spite of the poor experience at the first place we stayed, but that’s ok. It was also a warm up for the following day – it was our anniversary – 2 years! we had a lovely day together – maybe Helen will blog about that soon???Ok, is bedtime so I better go…

C

Angela's Wedding!

Yesterday we went to my friend's 'kind of' wedding. She was actually married over a onth a go in a civil ceremony in Melbourne but no one except his parents, went to that. THen her and her fiance flew to England where they had a marriage ceremony which was really just a blessing (because English laws about being in the country for the reading of the Banns stopped her from having a real wedding) and then they went on honeymoon and now they are back in Oz and had a big party for all their friends and family here!! Maddness!! But the party was cool! See the photos on flicker!

Friday was our nephew Ronnie's 2nd birthday. We cannot believe that he is 2 already. Even though we were sad to not be with him it was cool because we saw him open his cards and presents on the webcam and he even blew out his candles infornt of us. If we had been in the UK a phone call would probably have sufficed! We bought him a tshirt and some cool Wiggles underpants and we could hear him on the webcam saying 'wiggles, wiggles'- very cute.

Chris is still doing his biggest loser thing and he is doing really well with out crash dieting! (which I suspect some of his mates are doing!) You can see a picture on flicker of one of his healthy meals- steamed fish, rice and vegetables!! Impressive!!

Final bit of news- I interviewed for, and got, my job this week. I really wasn't too worried because I was pretty sure that the school wanted to keep me, but it is still always a bit nerve racking to wait to be told you have a job. My contract now goes through to December 2008- how exciting!

Love Helen***

Cleveland Winery

Hi Everyone,

I thought I would update you with our lovely night away at a winery last weekend.

My sister in law bought us a voucher for 'lunch for two at a winery' for chirstmas, so after a bit of research, we decided to make a little getaway out of it. It turned out that the winery was a little further away than we (and Sarah) thought - it was in Lancefield, about 90 minutes north of melbourne.

So after we found out that they only honoured the voucher on sundays, and we wanted to enjoy the associated wine tasting, we booked to stay at the retreat, and take the monday off work.

Little did we know that it was actually mother's day here in oz on that day, and the place was teaming with large groups out to treat mum for the day. It was nice to see, and made for a more festive atmosphere. However, the problem was that the Grange was undergoing a large scale 'remodelling', which they failed to tell us on the phone when I booked. The cellar door was closed. Why else would you visit a winery???

We gritted our teeth, and politley made our disappointment know. Their compensation was a glass of wine each, and a glass of chamagne for helen. Plus we got to do our own tasting of the wines they had to offer, at my insistance.

We chose a nice bottle of Shiraz to have with our meal, and bought a nother couple of bottles too, one for later that night and one for keepsies.

The lunch was lovely, thanks Sarah, we both opted for the Scotch Fillet which was devine, and I had the sticky date pudding for dessert. Helen had the chocolate volcano pudding mmmmm

After lunch we headed over to reception to check in and we dutifully headed to our room.

Now, generally speaking, hotels in Australia are considerably cheaper than europe, and the standards can be much higher - I regulalry stay in 4/5 star accommodation for less that $160 a night. However, as we were paying $180 for this place, I had high expectations.....

Which were very quickly dashed....

The room was on the ground floor, dingy and had an intersting odour. The furniture consisted of a bed that was two singles hastily pushed together, a minibar (that was empty), dry biscuits that looked like they had been there for months, and 'tiny' television -similar to the portable ones you can take in your car, and a single chair, next to a single table. The bathroom facilities were appalling - basically a bog and a shower. No hairdryer, a tiny mirror, not even complimentary shampoo (not that I would ever use it).

It was no better than a seedy metropolitan motel.

Needless to say I went to complain. You see, the thing was this - although the place was teaming with families, we discovered that we were in fact one of only two couples staying in the complex that night, so it was not as if they were short of rooms, and I wondered if that really was the best they could offer.

That was not indeed the case, as they lead me up to another room, in another building. I was informed that this part of the complex had only been open for a week. You could smell the fresh paint.

Our new room was significantly better, although I have to say still a bit shy of $180 better! We were the only people in the whole new building.

After we delivered all our luggage, we headed back outside, where it was a balmy 21c with books in hand. We found a lovely swinging garden seat to camp at, and spent the best part of 2 hours just sitting, taking in the fresh air and chilling out. It was lovely.

Afterwards, we went for a walk around the vineyards. We both seemed to be in a mischievous mood because we found a whole heap of things to do - they had some kind of adventure course, which probably needed supervision, but we decided to give it a go, half expecting to get chided for our naughtiness. We had fun balancing on the high-wires, trying to get from A-B, but usually ending up at C with arms flailing.

Below is a pic of the vineyard, and the winery in the background - I was actually standing the lake bed - I would have been up to my knees if it wasn't in drought.

As the evening fast approached, we headed back to the room where we continued to chill for a few hours, watching our huge plasma TV, whilst eating home-made bacon butties and consuming modest quantities of wine. It got to around 9pm and we became bored and decided to go and explore in our pyjamas - we felt like we were on school camp or something.

We discovered that in the new wing, downstairs, was a very large lounge, with comfy sofas, a foozball table, and a brand new pool table, taht I don't think had even been used! But the piece de la resistance was the TV. It was without doubt the biggest plasma TV I have ever seen. It was wider than I am tall, considerably. The pic below shows it, the depth doesn't do it justice - it really was thiiiiiiiis big! We watched the Eurovison song contest, and really enjoyed Terry Wogan in his usual drunken tirade.

So, the following morning we rose at around 9am for our breakkie and made haste to get on the road where we decided to have a bit of a magical mystery tour, literally following our noses. We ended up at Mt Macedon, but as we were driving, we blinked and missed it! It's barely noticable as a 'Mount'!!

We headed back over to the main road again, and came across Hanging Rock, or Mt Diogenes. This place has a very mysterious air about the place. Some of you may recall an aussie movie called Picnic at Hanging Rock, where a group of teenage girls who go on a school picnic on Valentine's Day in 1900 disappear in very odd circumstances. Although this is a work of fiction, it really draws on the atmosphere of this place. When we arrived, we were the only visitors, and there was a peculiar smell to the place, possibly because they had been control-burning the bushland nearby recently, and it had been raining the night before. Anyhow, we climbed to the top, around 1,000ft up, and I was in awe of the rock formations. It really was a stunning place. And here's yours truly at the summit:So, we finished up here, and headed back towards melbourne by lunchtime. We found a gorgeous cafe in Richmond and had a nice lunch and had fun watching the world at work when we had the day off, very good.

That was our short but sweet adventure to central Victoria!

Catch you soon, the weekend is running away....

Chris

Current reading:

Chris Clive Cussler - White Death

Helen Jodie Picoult - Nineteen Minutes

Times, they are a changin'

Well, here I go.

I'm 33 years old, nearly 34 and I have been going to gyms on and off for most of my adult life. At the same time, I have watched as my weight has gradually stacked up, so insidiously, that as of yesterday, I am 108.5kg.

I take no pride in that, it's actually shocking to think that as a little 'whipper snapper' there was nothing to me, and I had the name Stringbean and Skinnymalinks! Maybe all the working out has had the opposite affect???

I think not. I have had to face a dawning realisation that ultimately, my health/weight is largely down to what crap I put in my mouth.

Wow, that's deep.

It's all to easy to go for the quick option, eat a macca's, or a KFC or such like. Even Subway, advertised at the healthy option, is really highly processed junk.

There really is no substitute for a good, home cooked meal. And last night, Helen and I experienced our first real home cooked Aussie roast. Our friends from church, who, incidentally had their first child 5 weeks ago, had the two of us round for dinner and did a beautiful roast pork dinner. The problem being that, along with this lovely pork was:

• Carrots mmmmm, Helen's absolute favourite
• Peas. Helen's #2 veg!
• Cauliflower
• Stringbeans (what a coincidence)
• Broccolli

Peter and Maureen - you will be pleased to read that Helen actually ate carrot! I kid you not...

And mum... I ate the lot! And I enjoyed it. I kid you not. (Well, maybe not the cauliflower, but give me time...). I am trying really hard with the whole veggie lark. It's all about tatse and consistancy. And I am getting there, I really am.

I guess linked into this frenzied vegetable eating and the graphic descriptions of my weight, is the news that Helen and I resigned our respective gyms at the end of last month, and joined a new place together. The idea being that we will encourage each other to go more regulalry. It seems like a good gym, much larger than my last place, with a huge pool and nice hot sauna too.

As well as this (sorry, I'm going to waffle here) my work has just this week lauched a 'Biggest Loser' competition. For those outside of Australia, The Biggest Loser is a competition that runs here on TV every year where fat people compete (rather funnily) to win huge amounts of money by losing the biggest amount of weight. Apparrently, the chap who won this year went from 142kg down to 73kg in 16 weeks. Surely this is not healthy. Insane in fact. I am no doctor, but I'm pretty sure there are a number of serious side effects to such rapid weight loss.

Anyhow, I digress. I have joined in the shenanigans at work for this competition. It actually seems like a great idea, beacuse it will be making me accountable to my work buddies, who see me everyday, but are not afriad to give me some stick about what I am eating. So yesterday was the launch day, with the group weigh in. I tipped the scales at 108.5kg. That is 17stone. That is the fattest I have ever been.

Someone has been eating all the pies.

Yes , it was me.

Anyhow, watch this space. My goals are as follows.

1. To improve my health. I have lower back problems, high blood pressure and chronic heartburn "get the rennie" ;o)
2. To improve my eating habits.
3. To lose weight. I am aiming for 10-15kg loss before next summer.

Ok, it's late, and I have to be up at 5am for my 10km run in the morning

hehe just kidding!!!

Chris

Bon Voyage!

Today, after 8 years of waiting, the AFrica Mercy, the worlds newest and largest non-govermental hospital ship, set sail and has safely arrived in Rotterdam on route to Liberia, West Africa.

For me, as for some of my friends I feel proud to have been part of the ministry of Mercy Ships and to have supported this endevour in prayer right from early on. To actually watch videos of her sailing out of Newcastle, where she has been berthed for such a long time was a spectacular moment and a fulfilment of so many of God's promises.

ON the other hand this new beginning also marks the beginning of the end of the Anastasis, my much loved home for a year, before I met Chris. When the Africa Mercy arrives in Liberia the Anastasis will be stripped of all her worldly possessions and then decommissioned and quite possibly sunk out there in an African graveyard! I know it's only a hunk of metal but it is sad that such a beautiful ship that has seen so many amazing things has to end her life in such a way.

Whilst I'm sure that the Africa Mercy will be just as good, if not better, at providing care and help for communities in Africa, she will never hold the same majestic glory of the ex-cruise ship, the Anastasis but, I hope, that the same attitude of love, fellowship and community will be fostered on this bigger and newer ship so that the Mercy SHip family and mission can continue to grow and develop in Africa and maybe, possibly, (who knows when) across the world. Here's a great set of pictures on the BBC

Miss Saigon

Hi Everyone, I have a few minutes spare, so I thouhgt I would podt this pic of us at Miss Saigon last friday...



We had a fab night out, and stayed over at a very funky penthouse apartment in town. Very nice indeed!

Not much going on this week, I've already been to Sydney and back, and am in the process of planning a trip to the US for some new product training, probably in July/August time.

Oh yes, I have just booked out flights to the Sunshine Coast in the July school holidays. We're both looking forward to a whole week of downtime, reading books, and basically just chilling out... Happy days! I know that part of the world will not be particularly tropical in July, but it will definitely be better than melbourne, that's for sure.

Anyhow, see you soon...

C

Becuase you're worth it!

Ok, So it's been ages since I blogged, I know blah blah blah

But as Helen has said, there hasn't been much to say right now.

However, now that helen has been safely dispatched to school this morning, I can reveal a few things.

I have taken today off work as a lieu day from when I was in Taiwan last month, and I have a cunning plan.... I have managed to procure two superb tickets to go to the theatre tonight, nothing less than front row, dress circle centre seats.

I am just about to leave (around lunchtime) to head into the city, carrying with me an avernight bag, with various clothing options (you know what women are like ;o)) and a truck load of finest steak, champagne, wine, and other goodies and am heading here, where I will drop everything off, head back to school to pick helen up and whisk her away, straight into the city.

We will have a few hours to chill out, eat and sup the champers, the time to dress up, and head out to Her Majesty's Theatre, where we will see Miss Saigon.

Then, on our return to the SKY SUITE at the hotel, we will sit on the huge balcony overlooking the Yarra River, and anjoy a noice bottle of 2003 Green Point Pinot Noir mmmmm

Then, it just gets better for me on saturday, I am going to my first Aussie stags party - seems very similar to my stags party when I got married - we are heading out to the bushland in the Dandenong (Dingle dangles, mum!) for an afternoon of paintballing. The weather is promising to be heavy rain, happy days! Should be a blast, hopefully not too many bruises!!!

Anyhow, I better go pack the bags...

See you all soon

C

OH MY GOODNESSS!!

Guess what?? Guess what??

We just got back from the pub quiz- which we have been going to spasmodically forthe past 6 months or so but tonight Chris had a HUGE revelation. For ages we had thought that the hostess looked familiar but tonight it dawned on him who it was!!! The hostess of our quiz is none other than Toadie's ex-girlfriend from neighbours!! (For you Engliish people he might still be dating her, or maybe he hasn't started yet? She's the one who is an escort when he first meets her!)

I am SO excited!! A real live neighbours star hosting our quiz!! I've talked to her and everything. Chris even went up and asked her just to make sure it was her and she called it her 'little acting thing'!! She KISSED Toadie for goodness sake- that's quite a BIG acting thing in my books!!

Maybe she'll get dead famous like that Neighbours guy on House or Kylie Minogue or someone!! Very cool! But hopefully not too soon cause she's good at doing the quiz! (which by the way we lost- BUT we didn't come last!! WHohoo!!)

Gotta go to bed, (may not be able to sleep with all this excitment!)
Love Helen***

Sorry...

I know, I know.... we have not blogged for ages! I would like to say it is because we have been dead busy or going through emotional crises- or some other 'acceptable' excuse, but really, truely, its cause I have nothing to say!! A little over 18 months in Australia and I have to say that 'life is just life' really. We do fun stuff, we do boring stuff, we enjoy the hot weather, we shiver in 16 degrees, we sometimes eat kangeroo, we watch the parrots flying in the trees and get woken up by crows sqwaking but really Australia is pretty much like living in any other country at the mo! Now I probably either sound totally depressed or like we are happy and completley settled for the rest of our lives- neither of which is true!

And, that's not to say that I have done nothing with my Easter holidays- I have actually been quite busy. THese are the things I have done!

1. Entertained Chris' bro, Jon. he was out here visiting for a little over a week. He went off by himselves some days but we had fun having BBQs, going to the pub quiz, making tiramisu (well he made it whilst I made lasagne, but it was fun!), going to watch the footie and playing trivial Pursuit!

2. Visited a winery- we even stayed over night, courtesy of Jon. WE stayed in these very cool rooms with a spa bath and there was a leisure club with an 'experience pool' (which is like a pool that does lots of different things- like a jacuszzi bit and a bit where you swim against a current etc), and we had dinner in the winery restaurant (which was very fancy) and drank very nice wine!! It was a great night away!

3. Watched 13 episodes (in 2 days) of series 2 Greys Anatomy!! (My new favourite program!)

4. Cooked a Jamie Oliver sausage pasta recipe, which was exceptionally yummy!

5. Went to our church's Easter service which was a big party type thing a t the local primary school. I helped run the toddler egg hunt. One toddler hit another...it was fun!

6. Had my own egg hunt at home courtesy of chris. Only my treats were little Lindt bunnies and eggs- very yummy!!!

7. Had car serviced!!!

See- a very interesting life really!! But when I think about blogging I just can't bring myself to log on and tell you that I got my car serviced!! But I will try (really Jon we DO try!!)

Hope you are all enjoying whatever it is you are doing!
Love Helen***

Autumn

I am used to Autum being a month of gradual coldness creeping up, leaves dropping from trees and life and nature taking on a gradual browness as life goes into hibernation. Autumn in Melbourne this year has been strange! Because of the ongoing severe drought here, the earth already was brown, leaves on trees burnt by the scorching sun and grass shrivelled and dead from the lack of water. Even some of Melbourne's oldest trees have died this summer, unable to hang on in the overwhelming dryness.

Now that Autumn has arrived and the heavens are beginning to open a little, things are beginning to look a little green again. Today on our usual Monday morning walk, the children and I noticed how green the grass verges looked and how even some flowers were daring to peep out a little. Autumn is bringing with it, not a drab greyness but a new sense of life and hope.

Over the weekend, parts of Victoria that have not recieved rainfall in months celebrated as large downpours fell on their land and in their resevoirs. Water tanks are full again and my friends that enjoy gardening are celebrating a reprieve from having to bucket 'grey' water out of their showers! Despite the weather man's pessimistic warnings that the rainfall was barely noticed in the main resevoirs and the definate desision by Melbourne's government of stage 3a water restrictions coming in in April, people's spirits could not be dampened as we watched the rain fall this weekend. After tempratures of 35 plus on Friday we were all enjoying snuggling up in our big thick jumpers, under our umbrellas, in the chilly 16 degrees of yesterday. (My dad informs me that he was playing golf in shorts in 16 degrees the other week- but I think we must have been talking about different 16 degrees!)

I'm sure that eventually autumn will feel like autumn and will roll into a drab winter, but for now I am enjoying this cool change and the sense of new life that it brings.

ENjoy spring, those of you in the northern hemisphere and I will enjoy a peculiarly springish autumn in the south,

Love Helen***

This is very odd.

I'm sitting in my hotel room in Taipei, with the BBC world news service on my enormous plasma TV, and yet when I log into my blogger account, the entire blogger site is in mandarin! It's a good job I know what all the buttons mean...

OK, here's my take after 24 hours in Taiwan.

My flight was good, Singapore airlines were very very generous with the alcomahol, so I slept most of the way. On arrival in Singapore, I was famished (in spite of the 4 jaffa cakes my beautiful wife had secreted in my laptop bag) so I headed for the food court. There wasn't much open at 5am at Changi Airport, so I gritted my teeth and ordered a Whopper Meal. I took two bites and couldn't face any more.

Then off to Taipei, and landed at 12.30pm, through perhaps the thickest smog I have ever seen. I was told it was pretty good for this time of year. I was greeted by a chaufeur bearing my name, and was escorted to my limo - a stretch lexus!

Not sure what I was expecting in Taiwan, but hordes of luxury cars was not one of them. I got to my hotel an hour or so later, and I crashed. Big time. I hit the sack with the intention of getting up a couple of hours later, and going out to see the start of the 'Lantern Festival', celebrating the end of the Chinese Lunar New Year for the next couple of weeks. However, I next rose from my pit at 5am - some 14hours later!

I was met at the hotel at 8.30, after perhaps the most luxurious breakfast I have ever had, by the local service manager, and headed off to work. And here I am now, some 13hours later. These guys work long hours, I'll give them that. Our evening meal tonight was the oddest meal too. It was a 'japanese hot pot' whee they bring all the raw food, frozen solid, and embedded in the table at every seat is a heated pot with broth bubbling away. The idea being that you boil your food, then soak it in your own hand-made sauce (I made a stunning satay sauce, surprise surprise!)

Suffice to say that I steered very well clear of all the seafood (I don't want hepatitis, thanks), the chicken was tried just once (eeeew) and stuck exclusively to the beef.

So that's it for now, Taipei is interesting to say the least, bustling, highly industrial, and really quite grubby. There is lots of grey concrete (I suppose accentuated by the leaden skies) and possibly the majority of people wear face masks when out and about. That says a lot.

Anyhow, I'll catch you all soon. I miss home already.

10 things I don't like...

...about our new house.

1. Too many trees. (trees= spiders in Australia)
2. Ducted heating (holes in floor= possibility for spiders to enter building)
3. No air con!!!! (or AC for us Aussie's)
4. Too many low cupboards
5. Pathetic showers (no power showers here!)
6. Very small study
7. ....

....well, wouldn't you know, I ran out of things!! There are more things that I like than don't like. Hurrah tha's got to be good!
Pray for cold weather and lack of bugs and I may even see this place as home!

Love Helen***

10 THings I like...

...about our new house.

1. It has beautiful decking out the back.
2. The kitchen has lots of workspace (NOT for Chris to make more mess in please!)
3. Ensuite bathroom
4. Fly screen doors
5. Peace and quiet
6. Darkness at night
7. OUr furniture fits!!
8. Privacy
9. It's shiney and new
10. We're on a 12 month contract- no more moving for at least a year!

Love Helen***

Down-time

Hi everyone,

Just a short note to say we'll be offline for the best part of a week while we have the broadband moved over to our new home.

We are in the advanced stages of packing (panicing) all our stuff, and the removals firm is booked in 48hrs from now. All is left for me to do is dismantle the beds (no mean feat for our bed), the desk and the dining table.

helen has a couple of girlfriends coming round tonight to pack up the kitchen, and I have a friend coming tomorrow to start the process of moving....

Happy days!

We cant wait to be in the new house, and to get settled again - this last few weeks has been somewhat frenetic.

See you all soon,

Chris

ps, if you didn't get my mail re our new address, submit a comment and we'll respond soon!

Wow what a week...

So here we have it, we applied for the house last monday at 9am, and we received a call at 11am saying 'they would be honoured to take us on as tenants'.

Woohoo.

So then started the mild hysteria about moving, all the work we have to do etc etc.

We'll it's now saturday night, and we have done a little work so far in amongst out other responsibilities - I agreed weeks ago to help out a mate who was moving house this weekend - he had hired a 3 ton truck to move all the big stuff.

Today turned out to be the hottest February day in 40 years, topping 40c mid afternoon. Our house is like a sauna. The AC has worked a trwat downstairs, but up in the bedroom it is currently 34.3c at midnight. There is no way of cooling it down. I am seriously considering sleeping on the sofa tonight, and hope that helen doesn't think I have fallen out with her!

This has been a roller coastr of a week, what with all the house stuff, but also because I have been given a promotion of sorts. It has been mooted for quite some time that our organisiation needs to develop the careers of it's technical staff - after all, we are the ones keeping the comapny running as such. So, with this in mind, I am now officially the Australia and New Zealand Territory Qstar Specialist.

What this means is that I am officially recognised as a guru in this area, and a single point of contact for other engineers throughout the territory. Beyond that, my managers want to promote this further, as there is an opening for a 'Regional Specialist' - someone who is a Single Point of Contact (or SPOC) for the product management in the US. This is something I have wanted for some years, to be recognised for my abilities and to have the opportunities to travel throughout the region (the whole of Asia Pacific, Japan and China) to fight local issues with this particular instrument. Most of the time, this will involve remote troubleshooting, with asuperb tool called Webex. We use it all the time in our company, and allows the direct control of a customers's instrument to allow us to troubleshoot.

Anyhow, I am waffling, but the first step in this will be happening in 2 weeks time. I wil be travelling to Taiwan for 2 weeks to train and mentor 4 of their local engineers. Our business out there is pretty good, but there have been issues with how the engineers have been working, leaving the customers unhappy with the quality of their job, and showing their lack of skills.

They will be attending training courses in their respective specialities, but prior to this it was thought that some one-on-one mentoring would benefit. So that's where I come in, I hope, to inprove their confidence, and get them on track.

As you may know, today sees the start of the chinese new year celebrations, and helen and I have just returned from Box Hill, a nearby suburb, with a very high proportion of Chinese migrants. With this in mind, every year the place comes alive for the Lunar Year celebrations and we wanted to go and see the street party.

So, I now have a gift for my colleagues in Taiwan - we found a stall that was doing personalised calligraphy, so I asked them to do this for me - It says " Greetings from your friends in Australia"

It is the done thing in Taiwan to exchange gifts when you meet colleagues for the first time, so I will let you know what they give to me!

Ok, it is way ast my bedtime, I better go and try and sleep in this opressive heat!

Catch you all soon....

C

A week on....

Ok, so it's been 8 days, I know.

But as you all know, things have been pretty insane in the past 2 weeks since we got back from Perth. After another day of frenetic toing and froing from one house to another looking for our next home, we have finally found somewhere we like.

It's funny how things work out actually, purely because this particular house was viewed by us over a week ago. We liked it then, but we had reservations about the size - it was only 2 bedrooms, and the lounge seemed small.

For those who don't know, when we arrived in Australia, we bought en enormous sofa and two armchairs. As lovely as they are, they've become a bit of a pain because of their size. We have turned down at least half of the viewed properties because of lack of space.

Anyhow, early last week, this property was bugging me, so I managed to arrange another viewing, early on wednesday morning. Armed with my trusty measuring tape, I proceeded to measure up the lounge, dining room and master bedroom.

We have a lovely bit of software called Microsoft Visio, so having got to grips with how it works, I was able to draw up a plan :

And from this, we were able to say that yes we could move in to this house, but it would be a squeeze. I think we have been spoiled with this house we are in now.

So Just yesterday, having come away from several very disappointing viewings, we were both a bit disheartened. I suggested we drive up to the house that kept bugging me, and take one more look. AS it happened, the place was open for inspection again, and we took the opportunity for one last look.

Tomorrow morning I will be submitting an application to become the new tenants of this place. It is available immediately, so we could well be in by 25th feb. So, if you are of a religious or spiritual nature, please pray for us, that the agents will choose our application over anyone elses, and let's end this frustrating time!

Moving on to a much lighter note, we have just returned from the last four days of house sitting for a family in our church who have just got a new puppy. They had to go to Brisbane on business, so we had the priviledge of looking after their house (with a pool!) and their gorgeous little staffy-labrador cross called Rusty.

She was an absolute tyke, so full of energy, and had razor-sharp teeth to boot. Helen and I have come away with multiple injuries, but more importantly, in the few days we had with Rusty, taught her some life-long bad (or good) habits

• how to chew shoes and not fingers
• how to jump up onto the sofa
• how to not be afraid of the swimming pool
• that chewing holes in balls is good

I'm not sure we will ever be asked back! Anyhow, here she is....

And so it seems

...that real estate agents are not always truthful in their descriptions of properties...

What a day we have had. After an early start, we were both very eager to see this place over the road, in which we have been very excited about all week. We arrived and were met by the agent, who quickly realised she had been given the wrong keys for the house. After all I was expecting - the hordes of people to view the property, we were the only visitors.

Anyhow, she was very apologetic, and promised us we could come and see the house in the afternoon, after she had gotten the right keys. So, we progressed to the other places that were open for inspection.

The first place, here, was actually quite nice, I rated it a 7/10. there was a fair amount of interest, but we both felt it was let down by the following points:

• No Aircon, just evaporative cooling - making it quite ineffective in the very hot days
• Possibly too big for us, we'd possibly 'rattle around' the place.
• We were greeted by a lovely hunstman spider as we entered the proeprty, giving Helen the heebygeebies

Next on the list was here. When you look at the web brochure, it actually looks very nice, soemthing a little older, and reading the blurb sounds good too. We arrived to be greeted by the agent - a chap by the name of Simon Coombs. I have been trying to call this guy all week, leaving messages on his mobile, with his secretary too. And there he was about to show us this property. I kept calm, and wanted to give him the benefit if the doubt.

As he was unlocking the doors, he made no apology and said simply "It needs a really good clean". Rather dubious. He wasn't wrong, teh floors were filthy, and as I walked into the main lounge area, I was ensnared in spider's webs. I moved into the study area, again to be captured in webs. The smell was not too pleasant either. So we left. That place did not need cleaning, it needed cleansing with FIRE! I also made known to this chap my disappointment with him not returning my many calls. I don't think he will be getting any of our business in the future.

The final visit was to here . Helen's spidey senses were aroused by the wording 'cute' and 'sweet' in the description. Again we found that pictures can be decieving, and we spent only 2 minutes in the property, before exchanging a knowing glance, this was not the place for us.

The we got 'the call' from the dippy girl this morning who had the wrong keys, to say she was at our favourite house for us to inspect.

I was all excited, thinking yes, after all the disappointments so far, we would just walk in, fall in love and that would be it. I would swing my master plan into action, and we'd be all moved in before march.

Well, here it is - it was indeed a lovely house, as I walked in, it really had a sense of 'this could be a home, not just a house'. The downstairs was lovely, a gorgeous backyard / suntrap, lovely kitchen, the lounge would have been just about big enough for our furniture. An upstairs we went.

The bedroom was like a loft room, with a sloping roofline, leading through to the en suite and walk in wardrobes. It was tiny. I was deflated. There was nowhere to put our desk, and we reckoned that our bed would have dwarfed the main bedroom.

I'm still gutted now. I guess there's several important lessons here - first, make no opinion of a property until it has been seen. And second, take any kind of descriptions of properties as a randomly generated set of facts that very loosely fit the property in question.

Hey ho, the search goes on. Although I feel pretty crappy about this whole thing, and especially so after today's viewings, I do know that good will come out of this, and we will find somewhere thet we can be happy with.

I am decalring a total ban on all ineternet searching of properties in this house until at least monday.

Catch you later

C

More new beginnings

Ok, so now we have got over the initial shock of monday's shenanigans, and we have started in earnest loking for our new home. There are two major websites that deal with rental properties in australia, here and here, making it much easier than the old fashioned way of trauling all the local newspapers, calling up agents and generally doing a lot of leg-work.

So, anyhow, we have shortlisted a bunch of houses, of varying prices and modernity and are awaiting the mad rush this weekend. You see, in australia they do things a little differently - they open up the houses for public inspection, at which point there is a huge scrum of people to view. I heard one friend saying that they went to see a house recently, and there were over 150 people all vying for the same thing. Then there is the mad rush afterwards - the on-site agent performing the inspection carries with them a handful of application forms, so people can take them away and fill them in at their convenience.

The truth is, as we found last year when we moved into our current property, it is a case of first come first served - you are forced to make an on the spot decision, sit in your car and fill in the application form, and it seems that the first people to get the form into the agent's office is the winner. Call me sneaky, but I am looking for ways to get around this.

So, Helen and I are very interested in a particular property, the observant of you out there will see it is a stone's throw from our current house, so here's my plan. They are opening for inspection this coming saturday, time tbc. So, I am just about to head out to the agent's office, where I intend to use my wit and charm to obtain a couple of application forms, get them filled in ready, and when we see the place, if it is right, "We'll take this one please"!

No messing, and no competition.

Ok so thats the plan, will keep you posted of developments.....

C

In Shock

Well this has come out of the blue.

Helen and I received in the post today 'Court Summons' to appear before the local court to contest posession of our house. Basically we are being evicted.

After the initial panic, we found out that our lovely landlord has decided they no longer wish to rent their house to us, and want to move in themselves. And apparantly the way they have to do this is to give us 65 days notice, after which time, if we are still in the house, we are obliged to appear in court to give just reason why we are not vacating the property.

Why, oh why didn't they just give me a call, tell me that they wanted to move in to the house - even write me a letter for goodness sake. But oh, no, they have to scare the crap out of us with legal documents. Legal document that make no obvious sense. And after all, we've have been exemplorary tenants, never missed a payment, looked after the house very well.

I guess I'm angry with them for being so completely obtuse about the whole affair. I'm more accustomed to dealing with issues with openness and integrity, and these Lettings Agents are used to being treated badly, with bad tenants, and sometimes even worse landlords, so it must be par for the course to have to use these tactics. But still - come on!

It still doesnt get me over the shock of it, and we were both saying only last week how nice and settled we feel in our home. Well, here's to trauling the internet again for our next abode.....

Oh happy day....

C

Bert Newton rocks

Hello everyone,
Sorry it's been a while. Not much has been happening since Helen's Mum and dad went home last monday.

However, we have just returned from a great night out. I applied last month for some tickets to go and see Bert's Family Feud (aka Family Fortunes for us pommies) being filmed in Melbourne. I was surprised to get a mail telling me that had accepted our application and to expect a fun night.

Little did I know how much fun it would be. Watched the filming of three episodes, over around about 4.5hrs. During this time, we had a chap as the 'compere' who was supposed to keep us going at full speed and full voice for the four hours. we were primed as to when to shout up, and when to shut up, and at each 'CUT' there was a lot of banter between the audience and the man himself, Bert.

What made me chuckle was as ll the little lap-dogs who were 'servicing' bert - at every stop between filming, this very camp looking (quite old) bloke would come on stage, with a little box containing a diet coke and a bunch of make up - he re-touched him and checked his hair (or wig, should I say) 'Mr Teasy Weasy' style (jon - you'll get that joke!!) Was very funny.

We didn't get any of the prizes they were giving out, even if they were a bit on the paltry side - one person won an emergency poncho.

One good thing is this - in the up and coming season of family feud, they will be running a competition called Where's Bert, where people can download face mask of Bert and the idea is to take a picture whilst wearing the mask, email it in to Channel 9 and be entered in for a chance to win $500!

Well, as priviledged guests of the show, we were given a buch of these before they are available to the general public. I want your help - if you can think of somewhere interesting of comical where a picture can be taken of Bert, let me know, and I will send it to you to take that picture. If we win, I will share the winnings! It can be anywhere, like at the Great Piramids of Giza, Hoover Dam, the Statue of Liberty. Or get creative - on the dancefloor whilst dancing to 'Staying Alive'. You get the picture....

Anyhow, I better get off, We're off to Perth tomorrow, I'm working for the week and Helen is coming along for a little bit of a holiday.... more soon


C

Red Centre

Whilst mum and dad are still asleep, (lazy bums!), I thought that I might have time to write abit more about our trip to the centre of Australia. I really wasn't sure wht to expect from this trip, other than constant heat, but I knew that it woulod be busy busy busy- and that it was.

Our first stop was Ayers Rock, or Uluru, depending on who you speak to. WE drove out to seethe rock from the resort and were suitabley amazed. It is way bigger than it looks on TV and seems to follow you no matter where you drive in the area. We watched both sunset and sunrise overthe rock although unfortunatley the Sounds of Silence dinner, whihc is supposed to be amazing, was cancelled because of rain! Just after sunrise, and despite the notices from the aboriginals askig them not ot, we saw hundreds of people making their way to the top of thje rock. I found it very sad to watch them, not because I believe that the stone has any religious powers or significance but merely because it seemed to me that they wre dessicrating a thng of natural beauty. IT also looked very dangerous to climb the rock as it is pretty steep in places and people were haveing to use all 4s to get up!

Whilst Uluru was stunning I thik my favourite thing in the Ayers Rock national OPark was actually the OLgas, another set of big rocks that don't get talked about as much. This feature is made up of lot of huge, more rounded rocks that kind of join together to make one huge rock feature. We walked right out in to the middle of two of these rocks, despite the 45 degree temperatures. I found the shape of the rocks amazing and more interesting in a way than Uluru itself.

Having seen more than enough of the big rocks we set of to ALice Springs, going the back way so as to beable to have a slight detour at Kings Canyon. Unfortunatley, what we did not realise was that this detour meant that we spent near on 3 hours on a dirt track road. WE bumped and jostled all the way to Alie Springs, mum and I got mildly hysterical at a few points!! However, going this was did have its advantages, we saw loads of wild camels, horses, a few cattle and a yak! Very exciting.

Alice Springs itself was just a little town, and in places quite a rough one. I knew that there were problems with aboriginies here but I didn't realise quite how severe unitl I saw them all lying around at the sides of the road. Now don't get me worng, I am not a racist, but any collection of people just hanging around can start to look threatening, especially when there are empty booze bottles lying right next to them. The 4 of us spent a lot of time debating what could be done bout this problem, but to be honest, it seems a very tricky question to answer and many of our ideas have already tried and failed!

However, we did enjoy seeing the Flying Doctors base and the School of the Air. The School of the Air is where children in remote Australia are taught through broadcasts on the radio, or, more frequently now, on the internet. It is a very clever system and we all enjoyed the little museum.

We also enjoyed spending some time by the pool at the hotel!

Well- hats about all I have time to write about- but am sure Chris will want to blog some more about the storm we saw in Alice amonst other things!

Love Helen***

Hello from the Alice

Hey everybody, just managed to get online for a few minutes, so wanted to say Hi, and to let you all know we'll be back in a couple of days. We have had a superb time here in the 'red centre' Ayer's Rock was amazing, pretty much all we expected. Our trip across the interior was awesome, we certainly didn't expect to see dozens of wild camels, horses and huge lizards basking on the road.

To top the day off yesterday too, we came into Alice in the dark into the middle of the BIGGEST storm I have ever seen! There was apparently so much rain that the usually completely dry Todd River was in full flow this morning, closing the road across it!

Anyhow, I better go, there is a thai restarant in the hotel, and we are ready for some decent food!

See you soon

C

Puffing Billy Trip

Our day out ont he Puffing Billy train, Belgrave, Victoria 30th December 2006

The life cycle of a monster truck

here's big bertha - from birth to fully operational!