Camping success...Reno on again

The overnight camp in the back yard was successful despite Lani trying to sabotage the evening at the last minute. Lani got all nervous about us being outside and thought someone might attack us or something because you could see the tent from the road. I thought the kids were going to get scared and pull out but they held their nerve and James, Jazz and I (Paul) slept in the tent. We played a few shadow games with a torch and told a few stories before going to sleep. But the highlight of the night was when Lani tried to step into the tent when the flyscreen door was zipped closed, and kind of clumsily fell in but was still on the outside.

We had some rain showers throughout the night but there were no dramas. The kids slept on an exercise mat in addition to the soft spongy Sir Walter grass underneath. I slept on a trundle bed mattress and woke up a little stiff and sore but OK. At around daybreak the birds didn’t sing, they shrieked! So much noisier in the tent than in the house.

The next step will be a camping trip where we can add some more traditional camping stuff like a campfire.

Now that our visitors have gone home we have restarted the bathroom renovation process. I plan to rip out the shower recess base and tiles during the week and hopefully next weekend we might be able to put a new shower base in and start preparing the floor and walls for tiling.

More beach fun...Camping

We spent Australia Day afternoon with Mark Tang’s family down at Broadbeach. The kids had a lot of fun playing together in the surf and on the sand. We were there for about 5 hours and Jasmine and Ben spent nearly all that time in the water. The water temperature at the moment is quite warm and even James can spend hours in the surf without getting too cold.

The kids have noticeably improved in the surf each time we go to the beach. They are much more confident and understand the waves better. A couple of months ago they only ever wanted to swim down at the Broadwater and not at the beach. Today Jasmine went to a birthday party at Paradise Point and wanted to take her surf mat. When Lani told her there were no waves there she was disappointed. She had a good time at the party anyway, playing lots of games and eating party food.

Tonight we are going camping…in the backyard. Jasmine requested it and I will be camping with her. James is a little undecided but after I put the tent up he seemed a little keener to do it. I’m not sure about the weather. The forecast is for possibly a shower or two in the morning. A shower up here can be torrential rain. Anyway, it should be a good trial run before we take them camping beyond the borders of our yard.

Cousins...Falls...Cutting...School

During the week the kids went to the beach twice with their Tang cousins. They went to Broadbeach where they went surfing on their surf mats and also played at an adventure park near the beach.

Today Jasmine helped me wash the two cars this morning and then this afternoon we all went to Purlingbrook Falls for a 4km rainforest walk and checked out some lookouts in the area. With the recent rainfall the Purlingbrook waterfall was pretty spectacular. From the Canyon Lookout we could see 5 different waterfalls in the valley. It was really quite nice. I’m thinking I might do the 17km hike through the valley sometime soon, but I will need to get myself a hiking buddy because I don’t think it is a straight-forward hike. We also checked out the Best of All Lookout and it had great panoramic views out to the Gold Coast, Byron Bay and south to Mount Warning and beyond. We were lucky to catch the view because it was getting later in the afternoon and within about 10 minutes the mist had rolled in and the view was gone.

I have had a bit of plant cutting success recently. I potted over 50 cuttings of what I can only describe as a maroon hedging shrub (can’t remember the name of it) and all but 2 of them rooted. I have also successfully replanted cuttings of Frangipani. Now I am trying my hand at some Murraya and Lilli Pilli cuttings. I think they may be a bit more difficult but I thought I would give them a go before going out and buying them.

Kali left for Canberra on Friday night. Bob and Kim will be leaving on Wednesday night. It has been nice to have them visit. The kids particular enjoy having family visit.

Tomorrow the kids are back at school. They are looking forward to returning, they both seem to enjoy school life. Lani will be glad to have some quiet time and finish off her teacher aide course.

I’ve added a few more photos to Flickr, click on photo links on the right to view.

Beach...Boat...Relatives

On Saturday we went to the beach and the kids had fun swimming and playing on the sand. They have gained a lot of confidence in the surf now and ride the waves quite well on their surf mats without any help. They now have a pretty good idea on wave selection and try to catch the more powerful waves. Several times Jasmine got herself caught in water a little too deep but was able to handle the situation on her own.

While on the beach James incorporated someone else’s left behind castles and created the planet ‘Mustapha’ (using a little imagination) over a reasonably large area several metres wide. While he was playing games around the area 2 little brothers about 6 and 10 years old decided to just walk over and destroy some of it. Their mother just watched and did nothing! James is like what is going on here but passively just let them destroy some of his work. Lani and I decided to stay out of it and let James learn to deal with it himself.

On Sunday morning I took Bob, Kim and Jasmine fishing for a couple of hours. We caught nothing but it was nice to be out there giving it a go. In the afternoon we went to Mark Tang’s house in Brisbane for a nice lamb roast dinner. Mark has 4 boys Nathaniel (10), Jacob (8), Ben (4) and James (2). Brett Tang was also there visiting with his son Caleb (8) and Lara (6). The kids had a great time playing together. At the end of the night Jasmine begged for Lara to have a sleep over. When we gave the OK, the boys also wanted to have a sleep over. In the end we had Lara come home with us for a sleep over and Brett and Chantelle bought the boys over around lunchtime today to play for the afternoon. Mark does most of his work on the Gold Coast so they are actually moving down to Ormeau soon to rent while their new house is build there.

I have uploaded onto Flickr a few more photos from the weekend.

Embarrassing moment...New roof...Visitors

I had an embarrassing moment at the gym the other morning. I had just finished a set of bench pressing and didn’t place the bar back on the rack properly. Somehow I missed the left hand side. It completely caught me off guard. Luckily I was only benching 60kg and we able to recover to some extent without hurting myself but the 20kg plate had already started sliding off one side. I didn’t realise this until the plate fell off with a bang, which then suddenly threw me to the other side causing the other 20kg plate to fall also. Terribly embarrassing. I bench press with my feet on the bench to prevent arching my back, so couldn’t stabilise fast enough. I haven’t done that since I was about 17 yrs old when I got stuck benching 100kg and Dad tried to help by pulling 20kg off one side. One of the gym trainers came over and asked if I was OK then suggested that I use collars next time for better safety.

We have now replaced the old hail damaged pergola roofing with new polycarbonate. It is white opal in colour with a Greca profile. It looks way better than the old roofing and lets in more light. I told the roofing guy that it might not be a good idea to walk on the pergola framing because I didn’t think it was constructed very well. He decided to test it out anyway and did the job without falling through to my surprise. It kind of gave me a bit more confidence in its strength but you still want catch me walking on it.

Bob, Kim and Kali are still here. They have generally just been lazing around for the past few days, watching some videos and swimming in the pool. Today they took James and Jazz to the beach while Lani stayed home and did some study. The kids each have a surf mat now after enjoying Dad’s surf mat so much. Apparently they had a good time catching waves.

Christmas/New Year catch up

We are all glad to be back home again. Lani and the kids were away for over a month and enjoyed returning to their own beds and the family home. We had a good holiday. The kids enjoyed meeting up with their cousins, uncles and aunts in Canberra and Sydney.

Things didn’t quite go according to plan at the beginning of my holiday. On the Friday before Christmas I planned to leave work at around 2pm and get to Mum and Dad’s place around midnight. Unfortunately I was delayed and didn’t leave work until 3:30pm. Then to make things worse, when I was around 60kms from Mum and Dad’s I missed a turn off and found myself driving through Maitland and heading towards Tamworth! Eventually I found my way and arrived around 2:30am.

On Saturday morning I woke up around 7:15am and drove to Canberra arriving in time for a family Christmas lunch with the Birks clan at the Connolly household. We had a nice lunch and it was good to catch up. With everyone gathered together we opened the Christmas presents, much to James and Jasmines delight.

On Christmas day we had lunch at Debbi’s house and played James’ Star Wars trivia game.

We spent a few more days at the Connolly home with James, Jasmine and MJ keeping each other entertained. Then we said our goodbyes and started our journey back home, staying at Mum and Dad’s place for several days.

The kids had a good time playing with their cousins Nicholas and Rebecca at the beach. Dad got a surf mat for Christmas and the kids had a lot of fun catching waves on it. I also took the kids out into deeper water to teach them how to float over waves and dive under breaking waves. They gained a lot more confidence in the surf and we ended up going to the beach 3 days in a row. The only reason we didn’t go a 4th straight day was because Jasmine’s face got a bit burnt.

On New Years eve Lani and I were going to go to bed early and not worry about ‘partying’ into the New Year but James wanted to stay up. So I convinced Lani to play Star Wars Trivial Pursuit with James and I until midnight. Then at midnight Mum got here big bell out and rang it out loud on the front veranda. There was already a lot of noise on the street so it wasn’t too bad. We let James enjoy the moment then we went to bed.

On New Years day (Sunday) at Mum and Dad’s the temperature was 43 degrees. So we spent the day inside which was pleasant with the air-conditioner on until the power dropped out for 3 hours in the afternoon. Jasmine spent the day with Rebecca and the Ayoub clan.

We travelled home on Monday because the temperature was much cooler. The kids were really good for the whole trip and didn’t mind the long drive. We asked them if they preferred to fly or drive to Sydney and they actually preferred to drive. Both thought it was more comfortable in the car and Jasmine thinks you have a better chance of surviving a car crash then a plane crash.

We now have Kali visiting and in a couple of days Bob and Kim will also visit until later this month.

What the heck is that?

An original Bionicle creation by James which he named the 'Scorpion of Doom'.

According to James, legend has it that the Scorpion of Doom was originally designed and created by Yavi to help the Matoran. Unfortunately, Yavi lost control of it and it fled to Mata-Nui creating havoc on the island.