David 17 today

Our little boy is 17 today... makes us feel old.   Mum made up some pretty awesome home made subway :)

Rosanna and Shannon engaged!

Well some of us sort of knew it was happening and a lot more of us suspected, but today they were "officially" engaged!  We had a little get together at Rob and Jessie's place and it was great that many of the family could get along and celebrate it with us.   After deliving the new Landrover Shannon had to fly back the next day for work but Rosanna was able to spend a few more days with us before heading back which was great.

The planned date of the big day is Saturday April 13th 2013 so they are not mucking around!

 

Bought another disco

The suzuki is a cool little 4wd but I miss my Land Rover too much.  So I've gone the whole hog and bought a new one!  

Daniel has bought the Suzuki of me.  Shannon and Rosanna drove the new car up for me as I bought it in Toowoomba.  I think it'll be good timing anyway as they might have something to announce when they get here!

Lots of mods are planned for the disco - including bullbar, winch, snorkel etc.

Sold the boat!

Well the big boat experiment is over - but as Gwenny says its probably good I tried as I'd still be wanting one.   It just ended up being too expensive to own - eg Marina Fees and maintenance, and we weren't using it enough to justify it.  This pictures are of Condamine out of water for the eventual buyer to inspect her.  The hull was actually in pretty good nick.  I hope she'll be a good ol boat for the buyer.  I'm a bit sad about it all but ah well.. its been a good lesson and good experience.  There'll be some good memories still - even if short.

 

 

Dooze and Michelle married

Our neice Michelle Ezzy married Stuart Duncanson today.  Was a beautiful day - I did the photos with help from Tania Ezzy and Melody Fleming (and my wife!).  Photos can be seen at http://wildfoto.smugmug.com/Weddings/Michelle-and-Dooze

It was great to have Shannon along also in Darwin at the time to attend with us.

Rosanna leaves home!

Rosanna has arrived safely in Ipswich with her boyfriend Shannon and cousin Rochelle.  Hew new little car did the job no problems except for a flat tyre somewhere near the Black Stump. :)

Fishing Trips

We've done a few fishing trips in the boat.   During the school holidays we planned a big trip of a few days over to the Tiwi Islands but we had a few technical issues just leaving Darwin so we just overnighted near Charles Point and came back the next day.   The autopilot wasn't working, the toilet broke down and then we had saltwater pumping into the bilge from a broken hose on the cooling system!

The first trip therefore wasn't a great success in getting my wife and son keen to do trips on the boat!   We did do a couple of overnight trips in Darwin Harbour (see photo) which were much more pleasant.  A trip to Sail City wasn't so great with Gwenny, Daniel and his friend Rowan.  We tried to go too far on limited time and spent all our time travelling!  Combined with the fact that I didn't seek out a sheltered anchorage and we were tossed about all night when trying to sleep.

 

 The best trip was with Peter and Nikki and the kids (Shania brought a school friend too) for a couple of nights into Bynoe Harbour.  Was really nice except I wish I turned on the airconditioner earlier!   Didn't sleep much because it was so hot and found out how well the aircon worked at around 5am on the last morning we were out!