Sunday 18 December 2011

Craig and Lyn's wedding

We left for Perth on the 14th of December to celebrate Craig and Lyns wedding on the 18th.  We got back home on the 20th.

The wedding was beautiful and we had a great time.  The were married in an amazing old church near the city and the reception was up in the Perth Hills at a Winery.  Paul was one of the groomsmen and Monica and Toby were also able to make it with us (was great to meet Toby for the first time).  Peterboy also flew down from Darwin.

A lot of us stayed together in a caravan park near the airport which was a handy place.  Craig and Lyn, Troy, Graham and Denise, Monica, Toby and Peter, and Dave and Leisha also stayed there.

Mum and Dad, Nadine, Aunty Kris, Aunty Shirl and Adam also came and they stayed in a hi-rise with amazing views closer to the city but not too far from us.

The wedding day had a unique start in all the boys going to swim in the surf at sun up at the beach - the water was a bit cold - but the hot breakfast at the beach cafe warmed us up.

Wednesday 7 December 2011

Paul loses his Gallbladder

Paul went to Adelaide to get his Gallbladder removed this week (operation was on the 7th of December).  He stayed at Craigs the 1st night and at the hospital the next 3 nights.  Operation went well although he didn't enjoy going under very much...   and had a few issues afterwards that he hoped was just the medication!


Was just keyhole surgery so fairly minor although Paul was suprised how much it knocked him around..  took him a month or so to feel somewhat "normal"....

One bonus of the trip was that he met his brother Craig's fiance Lyn for the first time!

Tuesday 6 December 2011

Sold the Disco

Its with a very heavy heart that we report we have sold our Landrover Discovery 3...   a man in Adelaide bought the car fairly quickly after sending a friend around to view it in Darwin.  We are missing the car already but thought we'd get something a bit more basic and cheaper to own...

Paul has bought a 2003 Suzuki Grand Vitara in Brisbane that he'll get a few modifications to.

A stylised photo of the Disco on top of a Coomalie hill

The suzy - this is as bought - will update blog with new pictures after modifications

Saturday 26 November 2011

Rosanna goes to the Gold Coast

Rosanna was off on a holiday again!  Well not really.. it was work this time... she volunteered to help the Red Frog chaplaincy group with supporting the schoolies at the Gold Coast.

More info about Red Frogs here - http://www.redfrogs.com.au/

She left on the 18th and returned on the 26th of October.

Friday 25 November 2011

Daniel's graduation

Daniel has completed year 12 and we celebrated with him and the rest of the grade and parents and teachers at the waterfront tonight.

Daniel and Ree-Ann - the lovely couple made it into the NT News too where there
was a few shots taken from a journalist covering the night

Thursday 24 November 2011

Kindred 2 win the volleyball

We had a good final tonight where we ended up playing our nemesis team in Kindred 1 in the grand final!  We won the first set fairly easily but they took us right to the wire in the 2nd... we almost wished they won as it would've gone to a 3rd set then.

This is an older picture of Kindred 1 in action

Daniels QLD trip

Daniel went with Ree-ann to Harvey Bay for Ree-ann's sisters wedding.  They were there November 12-24 so it was a good trip.  As well as spending a lot of time with Ree-ann's family he got to see some of the Thomsens at Maryborough including Paul's cousins Michael and Leeanne, and Scott and Kim.

Friday 18 November 2011

Sold the boat

As part of our plan to get back to basics a bit and have less expenses so we can actually hopefully save a bit we've sold our 1 year old boat...  it was a good boat but with everything else it just cost too much...  was pleasantly surprised at the resale value of the quintrex (although I had heard this was the case) so did pretty well really...

Our best memories of the boat was when Rosanna caught a Sailfish off Cape Leveque about 18 months ago.. we'll put this trip up on the blog sometime for the record...


Friday 21 October 2011

Rosanna goes to Bali

Rosanna had a good trip to Bali with her Uncle Rob and Aunty Jessie and cousin Rachelle...  they saw some cheap deals for flights/acommodation a couple of months ago and booked it...

There were there for the week October 13-20.

Rosanna is the short one at the front

Saturday 8 October 2011

Orchard Creek

We attempted to drive to Orchard Creek today - which is via a 4wd track behind Robin Falls - south of Adelaide River township.  Rob flew his flying machine earlier on to do a bit of aerial reconnaissance and we all met at AR at 10am.

Unfortunately we tried to cross the creek that we did earlier in the year again and I broke an air fitting connected to my air suspension when trying to get unstuck.  Everyone else got stuck too except for Dorothy.

So we had a very difficult crawl out to the highway with only about 200mm clearance and lots of nasty rocks.  Even on the highway the ride was very rough...

The rest of the gang fortunately were able to continue on to Orchard Creek - which was only a few hundred metres than we we got last time.  There were about 5 other cars.



One of these kits (http://www.greenovalexperience.com/eas_inflation_kit.html) might be the go if I were going to take the Disco to remote places...

Tuesday 4 October 2011

Rosanna's new job

Rosanna has left the casual job she had at the Childcare Centre and is now working for Serco as a recreation attendant at various defence gyms and pools around Darwin.  She started last Monday and is enjoying the new job.

I did put a "normal" photo of her up but of course she hated it so she chose this funny photo instead!

Sunday 2 October 2011

Alas, Collingwood.

Well it wasn't to be for the Pies this year.  I thought Geelong should be favourites but Collingwood did give me a bit of heart when they came back late in the first quarter and into the 2nd quarter after a poor start.  But Geelong to its credit responded and were just too hard at the contest for us.  We looked rushed everytime we got the ball.

I had the unique experience watching the game in the cinema room of an oilrig with dozens of Collingwood hating rig workers screaming for Geelong even though they didn't support them!  I guess you either love or hate Collingwood - not sure why (although I can understand why Eddie McGuire would annoy them).

Ah well here's a bit of fun from last year - the first video is a timelapse of us watching the draw - and the 2nd is the victory lap!

Friday 16 September 2011

Monica back in Wyndham

Monica has moved back to Wyndham to work with Toby and family's business.  She left her job with the shire and is now in this new job.  They are also going to enable her to do some training (Certificate in Business) on the job.  She's currently living in town but plans to live on a block out of town a bit when she can.

Saturday 18 June 2011

Charlie and Joseph's wedding


Joey and Charlie celebrated their wedding today.  The ceremony was at Cullen Bay.

Sunday 15 May 2011

To the Little Finnis (and Big)

Graham showed us the Little Finnis today - was good to follow him in as the mouth can be a little tricksy - you need to follow the channel in. Tim Cowen also went with Graham.  I had my two boys.  We launched at Dundee Lodge.

Was a nice day - Danny caught a couple of barra.  We were surprised by how many crocs were in the Little Finnis - which is really just a big creek.  One particularly large one was pretty scary - especially when Daniel through his orange at it.

 We went to the big Finnis on the way back to the lodge but didn't have any luck.  Was good to explore the river though.

Another nice barra
Graham and Tim Cowen trawling
A decent croc with a bit of bacon