Queensland floods

Most of our readers will no doubt be aware that Queensland has been affected by severe flooding for the last few weeks (in fact, our stat tracker tells us that a third of our readers ARE from Queensland!), so this is just a short post to confirm that all of our friends and family are okay. A few have had - or will very shortly have - water inside their homes, and many are cut off from travelling to/from home, but the most important thing is that they are all safe.

People sometimes ask us about something they've heard in the news about Australia, and we've always said "no, that's 20 hours away from where we're from", or "that's on the opposite side of the country and we've never even been there", etc. Well, not this time... I've lived in Dalby, Toowoomba, Bundaberg, Gin Gin and Ipswich, all of which are now in the international news! It's quite surreal, but I'm sure it's much more surreal for those who are right there, watching the waters rise.

Please keep safe. We're thinking of you constantly.

Incredible photos from around the state

Incredible video of Toowoomba's flash flood

The Courier Mail (Brisbane newspaper)

The Australian (national newspaper)

Australia trip, Post 2: Woodgate days

Our three days and four nights at my parents' place in Woodgate were a blissful blur of:

Enjoying being in the same room as my Mum, Dad and sister Roxy for the first time in 2 years...

Sitting around the table (nothing beats Mum's cooking!)...


Long talks with Roxy (in fact, we didn't go to sleep until well after sunrise the first night!)...

Catching up with Shell and meeting Simon at last (thanks guys for driving to Woodgate to make this possible!)...




Walks on the beach, and even a quick dip in the ocean...

A picnic with some of the Bundy folk...




Lots of long-awaited singing (and a happy brief reunion with my first guitar)...



More delicious food (thank you Mother Dear for serving my favourite childhood meal!)...


Lunch at the restaurant where I used to work in Bundaberg (and a deep-fried ice cream I have yet to find the equal of anywhere else in the world)...




A quick catch-up with Lycie...


And a lot of sisterly posing!






Oh, and while I was doing all that, Ben somehow fit in stopping by another wedding (the bride was a student from his old school, and her mother was one of his teaching colleagues), seeing our accountant to sort out our taxes, and helping my parents buy a new laptop!!

It was a fabulous few days that flew by far too fast. There's nothing quite like home and family!

Tim and Chany's Wedding!

Well, the big day is all over and Tim and Chany are now wed!! For the benefit of our foreign friends and any others who don't know the newlyweds, I thought I'd include some photos of the event we came home for. :)

The bride and groom are good friends with us both; Tim was the best man at our wedding, and Chantelle, along with her younger sister, Andreana, was one of Roxy's and my "adopted little sisters" when we lived in Bundaberg. Dreana was Chany's bridesmaid and the best man was Tim's younger brother, Wes.

It was an absolutely beautiful day and SO special to be there with the ecstatic newlyweds and many of our nearest and dearest, in my old hometown! The rest of the weekend was wonderful too - staying up late with the girls the night before the wedding, relaxing at the beach at Bargara afterwards, spending time at Woodgate with my parents, a large group picnic in the park for Sunday lunch, and road tripping with friends. :D Enjoy!

Goodbye Bundaberg...

Well, it's offically over! We have now had our last weekend in Bundaberg for at least 2 1/2 years. Not to mention our last DAY in Bundaberg. We are now at David and Wendy's in Woodgate, en route to Brisbane before we fly out next Monday.

It ended up being a fairly busy last weekend, despite having very few fixed plans. One longstanding plan which finally eventuated was a visit to the Murphys out at Gin Gin (a family from which I taught most kids), to learn how to make the famed Murphy Chocolate Rum Balls (SOOOOOOOOO YUMMY). Recipe is as follows:


Ingredients:
- 1 chocolate cake worth of crumbs
- 2 cup of chocolate melts
- 1/3 cup of cream
- approximately 1 slurp of rum
- coating of choice (choc sprinkles, coconut, etc.)


Method:
1. Melt chocolate in double boiler (or equivalent) - DO NOT STIR UNTIL COMPLETELY MELTED.
2. Remove from heat and mix in cream.
3. Add rum.
4. Combine mixture with chocolate cake crumbs.
5. Form into balls.
6. Roll balls in desired coating.
7. Refrigerate.

Please note that the exact measurements above are not tested as yet and proportion of liquid mixture to crumbs may need some adjustment. Try it out and let us know how it goes! And thanks to Murphys for being so patient with me!

After extended cooking lessons at Murphys', we dropped by Staiers' to say hello/goodbye and pick up some mail (thanks Jodie :)), which pretty much filled in Saturday.

Meeting on Sunday (our last with Bevan and Bernice), then lunch at Jankes with Tim, Chany and Chany's Grandma Margaret, a quick visit to Anna's first tutoring family the McCrackens, then off to the mission. Lots of goodbyes after the mission from people we probably won't see for quite some time (except those who have promised to come visit us - you know who you are!). Then we got an invitation to tea with Colin and Olive, which meant VERY yummy cheese and tasty tacos. A quick visit back to Jankes' to say a final goodbye and our last weekend in Bundy was over. Then just one day (of WORK!) left!

A Weekend To Remember

Hello all! Well, this is the start of my last full week at work - soon I will be jobless, homeless, and on the opposite side of the world from almost everyone I know... WHAT AN ADVENTURE!!! :P :D

We had an absolutely excellent weekend, which included, as absolutely excellent weekends often do, lots of our favourite people, lots of laughs, lots to talk about, great food, and blocks of planned activity interspersed with blocks of spontaneous inactivity. Ages ago, I'd bought 12 tickets to "A Knight To Remember", a medieval musical comedy theatre restaurant held on Saturday night at Bundaberg's Playhouse Theatre, and this proved to be an effective method of luring a number of our friends into coming up to visit us. :)

We had a wonderful time at Woodgate on Friday night and Saturday with Roxy, Delle, Shell, Lachy, Susie, Lycie, Dreana, Mum, Dad, Tim and Chany - and, in Bundaberg on Sunday, with all of the aforementioned plus Jim, Jenny, Bruce, Bronny and Curtis. Not to mention a number of fictional characters who hung around rather persistently all weekend!

Thanks everyone for a wonderful "goodbye weekend" - and please feel free to tin-kettle us again (properly) in about 3 years' time!!
Love Anna.

The life of the unemployed!

Well, today is my 2nd (continuous) day of unemployment. While my darling wife slaves away (he he) at her boring job, I am living the life of a free man! Well, kind of anyway.

As I no longer have consistent work responsibilities (hopefully I'll get some supply work), I'm now the one running all over town trying to sort out all the little things that need to be done now that we have less than 3 weeks to go!! (starting to get a little excited here). It also gives me a chance to get a hit of internet - we no longer have a connection while we are house-sitting - and means I have opportunity to work ahead a bit on my new studies. Though I must admit I haven't been as studious as I should have been (have done nothing today for instance), I haven't completely wasted the last two days - I now have my International Drivers License, I finally found a Mont Blanc refill in Bundaberg (at the new Officeworks), have made an appointment with the solicitor for Anna and I to make new wills, finally got our mail redirected from Gin Gin and visited a couple more schools to register for supply work.

Speaking of living in Bundaberg - can I refute my wife's claim that living with cats is great? It is NOT GREAT! An overwhelming number of my many black garments (other colours too, but particularly the black) are now covered with white cat hair. One cannot move more than two feet in our current abode without tripping over, kicking, standing on or otherwise becoming entangled in a cat! I am looking forward to England for more reasons than one... :)

570 hours to go! ...plus some cat tales...

I'm not really counting the hours yet; that was just for fun! :P

We've now moved from Gin Gin into North Bundaberg for our last few weeks here. Along with the responsibility of house sitting for a friend, we've also been entrusted with the physical and emotional care of her two fat felines - who have enough character for a whole street's worth of cats! Patch tries his best to follow us into the toilet, bathroom and bed, and even had to sit on the ironing board while I ironed the other day - he's rather needy as a result of not having had human company for a while before we moved in! But sooo cute - I'm loving living with cats!! Apparently these cats have also been known to "play" the organ in the middle of the night, by somehow turning it on and then waltzing up and down the keys!
The other night we awoke at 3am to a horrific yowling sound that I groggily realised was far too loud to be outside, like the previous rendition of cat wailing we were treated to. Turns out a stray black cat was in our HALLWAY (thanks to the back door which must be left open the width of a cat's whiskers to allow Patch and Billie passage in and out all night), and Patch was kicking up a mighty fuss about this unwelcome intruder. Anyway, Ben sorted out the children and we went back to sleep.

Not much more England-related news as yet! Goodbye parties are starting to be held, which makes it all seem very about-to-happen!! Last night we had a farewell dinner with the teachers from Ben's staffroom and their spouses, and on Sunday a large gathering had tea at Staiers' as a bit of a goodbye "do" for us. Both events were lovely - but a reminder of how many wonderful friends we're going to miss!

We'll both be doing more uni while we're away - Ben has got his books and started already, while I'm still waiting for my study materials to arrive. So we'll no doubt be very busy once we get to England!

That's all for now! Cheerio!