Apologies

there's been a bit of a silence i know. i blame facebook personally speaking. but i will rise to blog again. after all, there's been the trip to ikea, the christmas in july party and yet another bloody birthday party. i lack many photos so not been inspired but am on the case to scavenge a few. caitlin's birthday approaches, we are having her party on the 11th August due to birthday party burn out but james and i will be celebrating with her as normal. just to say, think things are warming up a little now, not having to layer up in the mornings until the sun gets going (usually by 10am) and i felt the need to shelter from the midday sun for the first time in a few weeks. also there's been talk of getting fit now that i am contemplating returning to the beach amongst all the surfer chicos and chicas. maybe i should also think st tropez. or maybe i should just think mu-mu...all suggestions welcomed but bear in mind that staying friends with me guarantees a free holiday in sub-tropical New South Wales.

wash day

Well...all that burnt cane has to go somewhere and in order to allow les and zara to travel to brisvegas and ikea (sad innit?) in style caitlin and myself cleaned the car for the first time - this weeks fires had coated it in streaky black bits. As you can see my little helper really got into it...in fact i had to stop her washing the car after about 4 rinses. This also allows my dad to inspect the car for the first time after a few complaints that he hadn't seen it. Vintage model really....1990 and 220,000 kms Ford Telstar (no i'd never heard of it either) but this what an old car can look like without trying when there's no gritting on the roads and little traffic. shame about the radio which steadfastly refuses to pick up anything other than ABC local radio so every saturday we are treated to a diy show discussing the relative merits of cladding for sheds. priceless stuff.

and by popular demand....

Goanna Pulling!
the goanna is apparently a monitor lizard but i don't know where the leather straps around the necks come from...
so here we are at the annual goanna pulling world championships, held in Wooli. it was quite an event with brickholding race to get us all pepped up for the main event of the goanna pulling.
the goanna pulling itself is subdivided into women/ children/ lightweight/ heavyweight etc. i think the winners get to keep the straps. suffice to say, james the physio looked on in horror as the straps were placed round people's necks (some kids doing it were about 7) and they proceeded to try to yank each other, by their necks, across a line on the mat on which they are propped. everyone looks on with beer in one hand and a sausage sizzle sanger in the other.

we missed the parade through wooli so we have an excuse to go back next year.

Cane Fires

we had a treat last night...we spotted the smoke rising up and we could glimpse fire through the trees. luckily, we are canny enough to know that this is not a bush fire but the biennial cane burning round here. cane sugar takes 2 years to grow here as opposed to one year in Queensland and, as a result, the sugar cane is more snarled up with other vegetation etc. so, they burn it to get rid of the rubbish and then harvest the cane. when we realised that the cane field they were burning was one of the ones right next to the main road in, we took ourselves off for a closer look. it's pretty impressive, the fire burns fast and loud and if you stand downwind, you get the smell of burning sugar (unsurprising i know, but still pretty cool)
anyway, we may not get to see this again after this year as they are converting the mills to burn the vegetation as part of the process (which is then used as bio-fuel for the mill).

we were happy to get this close for our own little bit of personal history

Matilda's 3rd Birthday Party

this had a princess/fairy theme...spot the slightly older and more embarrassed boy who is quite clear that last year's tutu is a no-no. so we all went off to a play park in a place called Palmer's Island (mentioned earlier somewhere in this blog). it was right next to the river and we all had a great time, relaxing in the sun, with beautiful views across the river whilst the kids ran riot amongst the swings/slides etc before coming together for a few party games. Here pictured is musical chairs...i can't figure if Caitlin just didn't really get...or if she REALLY got it, because she would periodically pop herself onto a cushion whether the music had stopped or not! you decide. anyway, she didn't win, Spiderman won. he won a tiara and wand set. unsuprisingly, he decided to pass it on to a girl and, in true bloke fashion, ignored his frantically mugging younger sister and gave it to the older, pretty girl that was there. poor ole younger sister was much miffed by this but was eventually placated with a hair grip, plastic jewel encrusted it was too. a good time was had by all as they say. last pic is yours truly, janelle in the middle (mother to Spiderman and younger sister, and Caitlin's pre-school teacher) and Zara at the end.

Tartan tat and All that

well, the other weekend we treated ourself to a taste of the homeland, and i don't mean a crappy pint from Robbies. it was Tartan Day (to celebrate, allegedly, the lifting of prohibition on tartan wearing) in Maclean so off we went to see what was laid on....it was almost as good as the goanna pulling (that delight i am yet to blog) but lacked a certain je ne sais quoi. perhaps it was the stall selling the tartan licence plates, or the stall covered with doilies selling tea and shortbread. or maybe it was the sausage and steak sizzle stall that ran out of food by 1pm (James was foiled in his attempt to garner a second sausage sarnie). but overall, it was a lesser event that we had hoped for, notwithstanding the wheelbarrow race, the 'haggis' hurl and the bagpiper. however, Caitlin displayed impeccable taste as ever, just as she did in Edinburgh, by dancing frantically to the melodic strains of the bagpipes. we lasted about an hour and that was mostly so i could take all these photos and watch a bit of Hugh Barrington, a local celeb i can only presume. we left before Jocks and Kilts retook the Main Stage. i await the Highland Gathering next year with bated breath

i knew all these years spent on sim city weren't a waste

hours (well, half an hour) i spent on this only to spend the next half hour exhorting Caitlin not to knock everything over. now i know why my parents had a perpetual pained look on their face. and why they didn't drop everything to amuse me when i informed them i was bored. still, this is sadly my idea of fun....

when the stuff came, part 1

well, we got the call. or rather we called them and bugged them till they said they would deliver our wordly possessions on Friday 6th July, about 2.30pm. so here is a visual reminder of the house as it pre-delivery, the calm before the storm...

when the stuff came, part 2

so in preparation, we decided to empty the living space so that the guy could just drop the stuff off easily and go. it also gave us the chance to move out some of the bigger pieces of furniture so we were starting on a blank canvas and would know what we would need to invest in

when the stuff came, part 3

well, 2.30 came and went, 3.30 came and went...no removal lorry in sight, by this point, my paranoia is in full swing and i am cursing myself for ever believing that our things would actually be delivered to our house, rather than some shady charlatan conning us out of our money and flogging our stuff at a car boot. we contact the company who tell us the guy has been held up and will be with us, at the earliest 5pm. 5pm, the guy rings and reckons it will take him about 2 hours to get us. we say 'fine, see you when you get here' ignoring, i feel, the mute appeal to rearrange the delivery. anyway, he finally showed on his tod about 6.30 with a tale of woe - broken vans, sick drivers, bad backs and nightmare jobs. as James and Phil (his boss) had left just before he got there to forage for fish and chips, i smiled benevolently at the man, offered him a beer (light) and ticked things off a list as he humphed them in. Luckily, James and Phil returned halfway through and lent a hand. by the way, the bloke in the pic is Phil, not the removal guy getting comfy!!! Phil stayed over so he could share some beers (and i suspect, some of the malt whisky!!!) and he and James watched the rugby whilst i poked in all the boxes and generally pulled things out in a childish, disorganised and unhelpful fashion!

When the stuff came, part 4

and here we are after 2 frantic days of unpacking...it's good to have our things about us (and our bed). even though Caitlin has a nice big room, it still seems to be bursting at the seams with toys...I'll post that pic on its own later...

hot action in ilarwill

cruising for chicks on the electric boogie strip

reservoir ducks