Australia Day. 26th January 2012.

Australia day is a time when the Aussies celebrate being Australian... .. Not sure how that works exactly compared to anyother day but still it's their country. Also it is a very noticeable and special day for immigrants who have taken the plunge to naturalize. So all in all it seems a day which has nothing to do with me.
I went to work in the morning and got home about 3.00pm. Only then did we decide to join in the fun and that was by going round to a friend’s house to play pool. Great afternoon playing pool and having a few beers all topped off with a fantastic garlic prawns and rice dish. At the back of the house, set in a quiet neighbourhood was a small garden which had about 7 resident Kookaburras. Lovely birds who eat meat. ‘Blue’ the guy who owned the house feeds them every day. He gave us a quick demonstration of how friendly they are. Eating out of his hands.

Evening By The Sea

Decided to get out of the house the other evening and have a cold beer by the beach. Nothing special but it does make you realise that Gladstone has a lot of good things going for it. So easy to complain about the place but we rearly seem to take in the good sides. Well the other evening we did. Unfortunatley the rains have just arrived and we will not be going camping this weekend. Other things I'm sure will be available to us in Happy Rock during the coming weeks.

Lazy Weekend With Some Fishing

Lazy weekend. We did some fishing and relaxed. Beautiful local spot, a sea water discharge for the local power station. Does not sound like much but it is on the edge of a big river. Lots of hot water comes through it which attracts the fish. It is also a good wild life place with several different species of birds. And the area has been prepared for fisherman and even comes equiped with shades and tables so you can enjoy a full afternoon or evening there. But we were unlucky as we did not catch anything today. One got off last time, and it was a big one... Honest!

Later we downloaded a couple of films. ‘Drive’ has got to be one of the worst ‘B’ movie I have watched for ages. The other 'Killer Elite' started Jason Strathan, Robert De Nero and 'someone?'Owen and it was excellent viewing, that is if you like thrillers with people getting shot and lots of fighting. Ideal for a Sunday evening viewing. I had earler in the week watched the 'Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. One of the best films in the sense that it followed the book almost exactly and did not loose anything from it. And the book was good! But before settleing into movies we had of course first to get the Bar B Q going, steak and sausages and potatoes. No wonder I am putting on weight in Oz.

And to top it all off back to reality and work on Monday morning.

Sydney

We had a wonderful time in Thailand catching up with all old friends etc. Owen and On really looked after us and again long suffering Owen put up with big Brothers antics!! Enough said in that department.

We finally departed for Sydney. Not without a lot of effort. Having got to the airport with Owen and On driving us up at 05.00am we then qued for 2 hours at Thai International Terminal to get on a flight. Their computer was down so they could not issue any boarding passes. Due it seems to the fact that I had an electronic visa and they had no way of checking it existed. I was fortunately not the only one. So our 07.45am flight finally departed 09.45 am. No problem except we got into Sydney very late. About 11.30 pm. We had booked a centrally located hotel. Excellent choice. The area was heaving with Friday night revellers, great atmosphere. So we ended up walking around and finally getting to bed about 2.00am.

Saturday morning came round very quickly and it saw us catch up with Greg and V. Greg is an old friend and we had not see each other for about 10 year so lots to catch up on. Had a trip round Sydney from south at 'The Gap', Chinatown for lunch, over the bridge to Manley. They we separated and we took the Manley Ferry back to the quays near our hotel. We caught up later for a Bar B Q at Greg's place. Hadyn joined us and it was another excellent evening. It was also the best Kangaroo meat I had ever eaten. Got some tips on how to do it next time.

On the Manley ferry we both fell asleep. I left our Ipod on the seat and only when we got back to the hotel did I realise it was missing. My fault of course as you can imagine. That was that or so I thought. Monday morning sitting in the departure lounge in Brisbane and Wanna is checking her emails. A chap called Simon emailed us saying he had found our Ipod. What was the best way to get it back to us. I enjoyed Sydney but this was the icing on the cake. What are the chances of this happening? I doubt Simon will ever read this nor in all probability will we ever meet but a big thank you. What a fantastic memory of Sydney.

Seeing Out 2011 And Seeing in 2012

We decided to stay at home for New Years eve. Sensible idea given the number of road accidents on Thailand. Someone had told there were over 250,000 deaths on Thai roads in the last 10 years. And that's the recordable ones so I can only begin to guess the real number. But even if you use the published figures that's about 8 persons per day. And the figures about New year and Songkan are through the roof. So as I started out by saying we stayed home for the evening.

What to do? We decided to have a Bar B Q pig. First we had to buy a pig. No easy task, Yah, Wanna's brother was given the job of sourcing a pig then all the family got involved in its preparation. First it had to be slaughtered and cleaned. This was done in a quick and painless manner. Once cleaned the work began getting him onto the Bar B Q and cooked ready for the evening. He was about 17 kilos enough of us all. As you can see everyone enjoyed themselves. Wanna's Dad turned up and decided to sit and watch the activities. All in all a good night. I might add that Tiger must have thought something very special was going on. He kept being fed bone after bone after bone. And still he kept eating....Loved it.

Ban Muang Before 2012

Nearly The End Of The Year....

Between Christmas and New Year I had time to take several walks round our garden/farm. The place looked really good. Lots growing and it just felt good to be back and relaxing etc. Suffice to say it did not take me long to realise that I would soon be having to quite my farm walks and sitting around as in a few more days I’d return back to work!!! Before the dreaded day I know I have some good times ahead. New Years Eve, then Chang Mai, Pattaya to catch up with Owen and On, followed by a trip to Sydney and only then the flight into Gladstone (Happy Rock) as it is known locally. This followed by returning to the office, which I might add does not in any way resemble its TV’s namesake.

To give you some idea of our garden it is best to just upload a few photos. I’ve shown the main gate, the access road and some views across the rice fields.

Now I’ve done this upload I’m back to some more resting.

(Note:- Can't seem to upload my movie so sending through muy email account.)