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!

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.