ROAD TRIPPING TO......GYMPIE

Next stop was Dad's Aunty Joy's house in Gympie....

Here is the amazing sunset that greeted us...

Mum got banned from sleeping in the front room because last time she stayed there she got up in the middle of the night and banged into one of Aunty Joy’s precious cupboards !! She was on her best behaviour until she accidentally knocked a photo frame off a table – I’m not sure she’ll be allowed back again....

Joy's son Graham & his wife Lynn came over for dinner and it was good to see them all. Here's Graham doing his monkey impersonation with the folks...The thing I always remember about Aunty Joy is her tarts, and she certainly didn't fail to impress this time. About a second after we had finished our mains, 3 tarts appeared on the table and were soon scooped into our plates...

Amazingly - there were some leftovers the next morning....well, there's a first for everything...

TO BE CONTINUED...

ROAD TRIPPING TO......GIN GIN

We made a quick stop at Gin Gin on the way to Gympie to visit my Mum's cousin - Bev. We had a nice lunch and it was so lovely to see her as it has been far too many years since my last visit. She's done a lot of the decorating and work on her house herself and it's a really amazing location, right in the middle of the bush. Very peaceful.

TO BE CONTINUED...

ROAD TRIPPING TO......MT MORGAN Part 2

Never fear - we didn't just hang out at the Mt Morgan hospital. We also did a few "touristy" things whilst we were there. This mainly consisted of visiting the museum. Mum was surprised to find a photograph of her father in one of the old albums....(bottom row - far right)
Here is a replica of Australia's famous "Pub With No Beer" - Rankin had a look in too....now if only i could remember the story attached to that one...

Here are some old style mobile phones....

And here's mum demonstrating some old style calculators which she actually used to use in her everyday work back in her good old bank days !!

Speaking of her bank days - we also came across this fine collection of the old Aussie money (pounds & pence etc etc) - Mum used to travel all over Queensland introducing the new decimal currency....
The old railway station had on this amazing 3D show which demonstrated how the trains used to get up the mountain range to move the gold back and forth. The most entertaining part of the film was more on this side of the camera, my parents in 3D glasses...

We also had an interesting visit here to find some old relatives of Mum's....

We ended off our trip to Mt Morgan by eating out at Mt Morgan's second best restaurant (here they apparently made their very own breadcrumbs!! fancy that!) and then watching the good old State of Origin. It looked like the Blues were going to trample all over us Reds but we came back fighting hard in the second half.....only to loose when the Blues had a lucky field goal...it brought back painful memories of that stupid Jonny Wilkison with his stupid field goal in that stupid final - argharghargh....

TO BE CONTINUED...

ROAD TRIPPING TO.......MT MORGAN PART 1

My mothers family are originally from a little mining town in Northern Queensland called Mt Morgan. My grandfather (known affectionately as Poppa) was born here and we went to visit his sister Mary. I love Aunty Mary - she's great. Not only is she a card playing whizz, but she was the FIRST woman EVER to get a driving license in the whole of Mt Morgan. (she is also the oldest ever woman driver there now!).

This is a photo of their house...this was the actual house that Poppa and Mary and all their siblings grew up in. Mary's late husband Sam secretly moved the house to this location whilst he and Mary were on their honeymoon !!
They had one daughter Valerie, who is sadly also no longer with us.

Sam was not a tall man, hence the low ceiling under the house.... The think I remember most about visits to their place as a kid was the unusual amount of water tanks in the back yard.... They all lead to this one sink under the house...I could never work out why there were so many taps, actually I still don't know why really...
Unfortunately Aunty Mary had a fall a couple days before we arrived so most of our time was spent in the Mt Morgan Hospital !!! We were allowed to take her out for a couple of hours so we drove around Mt Morgan as she talked us through it's history....This is inside the house - Dad somehow managed to bang his head on these chimes every time he walked past them !!
We went to all of Mt Morgan's hotspots (aka the two restaurants in town!) One was recommended purely because the staff "tied their hair up" - now that is posh !!! Word mustn't have got around though, because we were the only ones there..... Dad took time out after dinner to show me his very unique photo taking style !! - it's essential to tuck those elbows in tight....

TO BE CONTINUED...

ROAD TRIPPING WITH THE FOLKS...

Mum, Dad and I decided to spend some family time together and head off on a bit of a road trip around Queensland so that I could catch up with some relatives, most of whom I hadn't seen in about 10 years...overall it was a fun journey with lots of driving and lots of story telling....

Our first stop was to fill up the car with petrol....here's my arty shot of Dad fillling the tank....

We drove as far as Childers the first day where we enjoyed a nice cuppa - can u find Rankin?Childers is the place where there was that backpacker fire a few years ago (featured in my film "Extreme Near Misses" for those of you with really good memories!!) where lots of young backpackers from all around the world tragically died.

They've rebuilt it now and a lecturer from QCA has designed this absolutely amazing memorial to them - it's all made up of layered glass and photos, hard to explain and a shame because they wouldn't allow any photos....here's dad's arty shot of mum and i outside - can you find mum?!

We drove for another 3 hours or so and then stopped in a lovely little town called Miriam Vale where we had a typical aussie lunch here consisting of........meat pies !! yummy....

TO BE CONTINUED....

Down the Coast with Daniela

I went to the coast with Daniela a couple of weeks ago for the weekend. She got a really good deal on a last minute type website and we were able to stay in a 5 star hotel at a very reasonable price !!

Firstly I would like to intriduce you to my new travel ducky - Rankin (cousin to yellow ducky G who is currently making her way around Europe with Naomi & Richard). Rankin, named after my grandfather, was given to me by sister Libby before I set off down under. Here he is showing off our view of the ocean...

This is our pool, complete with a swim thru cocktail bar!?! Australians like to drink, even when they are exercising....

My first task was to go to the beach and enjoy that feeling of the hot sand underneath your feet and the cold water rushing over your toes...
Daniela isn't too keen on anything involving water....Daniela and I went to high school together so for old times sake we decided to have a slurpee/snake combination.....there is nothing better on a hot winters day in Australia !!

We stuck to tradition and had a dinner consisting of fish & chips which we ate (of course) on the beach as the sun went down......ohhhhhh Rankin even took off his purple feather boa for the occassion....

AMAZING BREAKTHROUGH - ISLA READS !!!!

Feeding the Ducks PART 2

Sorry there were so many photos to upload that I ran out of time....oh & the fact that I have used up all of Mum & Dad's internet time at home means that I can only blog when I come to my brothers house so that's why it's a little inconsistant....so much to blog, so little time....anyway - back to the ducks day with Ang & the kids.....Thomas and I kicked the football around for a while and then we all had a bit of a play on the swings....Joseph tried his hardest to return the favour and give me a push, bless ...10 points for trying !One out of two happy kids ain't bad...we rounded the day off with some colouring.....I managed to get some of mine inbetween the lines....

And finally - my favourite photo of Joseph...