Happy 21st Birthday Marc! Happy 50th Donna!

Today is a double special birthday for Jdubya's son Marc and his Mum Donna. Marc is 21 today! On her 29th birthday, Donna had nothing special to do, so she decided to have a baby! Which makes her 50 today. A very happy birthday from us. Hope the hangovers have gone by now.
Because..on Friday, was a big birthday celebration at one of the local bowls clubs. The invite said dress as hippies was optional, so we were going for the optional, then at the last minute, literally, cast around for some hippifying icons to add to the outfits. This is the result, three half hearted hippies!

Or was that pirates? Not sure.... Great Uncle Jdubya meets his great nephew for the first time. What a sweetie!

This was the designated driver..so much fun being the designated driver...

Three half hearted hippies/pirates/fashionably challenged..you choose. We might take a vote later!

Marc and his Mum during the speeches...

Marc, his Mum, Dad and Nana. Marc, Nana and Jdubya.

Jdubya and son. There were rumours of dancing that may or may not have happened. I mean there were photos of the Loch Ness Monster too, but they never proved it definitely, did they?

Stamped!

We had the concrete stamped last Thursday. That is where it is painted to look like tiles. It makes a huge difference and looks great.
The guy acid washed the concrete a couple of days before.
Then he and his son/helper arrived early to begin preparing the area.
It took them ages to wrap everything up in butchers paper.
Then they laid the sticky tape down. (It isn't really sticky tape some special stuff...) Then he spayed on the spray on tiles, which is some kind of textured paint. It looked kind of blue at this stage which was a bit alarming as we wanted a kind of green.

I think it was just the light as it looked greener in other places. When I said he wrapped up everything, I meant everything! The house and windows were wrapped up to eye level. I couldn't see out to see what they were doing. Very frustrating for a sticky beak like me!

Then he threw black speckly stuff around. This really makes it look good.

The son/helper parked his sunglasses here. Thought they suited her!

After the paint dried, the sticky tape was peeled off and a couple of coats of sealant was applied. That stuff really stinks!

We are very very happy with the result. It will take four days to cure properly, then we can put the furniture back in place. We will have a BBQ on Monday to celebrate. Yayy! No more tracking concrete dust into the house!

Phew!

Only four hours and no swearing later. Well, not much...

"Some" assembly required

It is a long weekend here. We are celebrating the Queen's Birthday. Even though it is not her birthday. And they don't do it in the UK. And she is Queen of Another Country. Meh! It's a day off.

So KISA thought of the most irrating, frustrating, stressful thing he could possibly do.

He went to Bunnings and bought the BBQ he has been eyeing off as it was on sale, and today he decided to put it together. Some Assembly Required. It came in 2 big boxes.

With 150 nuts and bolts. And other stuff. And lots of flat bits. And a book of instructions with pictures of "14 easy steps". With no words.

Should be a fun day! Keep you posted.

OOPS!!

KISA went to trim his beard yesterday. He accidentally put the trimmers on the lowest setting and realised his mistake after running a big stripe straight through the middle. Nothing for it but to shave the lot off.
BUT....
His razor was all blunt as he hadn't used it for over a year! So with blood dripping from his chin, we left the moustache on and went to the shops to buy a new one. Razor that is...not beard. He said he felt like everyone was looking at him because he looked like a 1980s wannabe!
So we got home and now the 'stache is gone and he looks 12 years old again.
In another month the lovely beard will be back.

We have had quite a social weekend. Jdubya arrived in town for a couple of weeks as his son is turning 21 next weekend. We had a "couple" of drinks and dinner followed by breakfast and a leisurely morning as he slept over Saturday night. It was so good to see him again and catch up in person, though we stay in fairly regular touch by phone and email etc.

Last night my dear long time friend Catriona from our early working days in the late 70s was in town visiting family and friends. We have caught up a few afternoons this week but last night she came for dinner and we all had a great time. Such a good time that I completely forgot to take a picture of either evening!

Camping at last!

Well it has been a while but we have been busy! A couple of weeks ago, on the day of the last full moon, we had to drive to Townsville to get the car serviced. So we got up very early and hit the road to arrive at the car dealership by 9am. On the way, about Bowen I think, we saw the moon setting. We spent a few hours hanging about waiting for the car to be done, we wandered around some shops and bought a unit to store KISA's computers in. Then we jumped in the car and drove home again. Yes, I know, complete nutters. On the way home, around Proserpine, we saw the moon rise..So it wasn't all bad was it!

The very next day, we packed up early and went camping for the very first time this year. It has finally cooled down enough and stopped raining so we went for just a night as a shakedown camp, to go through all our stuff, tidy it up, and reaquaint ourselves with The Windsor!

Our regular spot was taken, and there were lots of young guys with bikes in the area we usually camped so we went to the north side and found a lovely flat spot by the beach.

We got to see the moon rise again, this time over the mountains.

A rare shot, he usually ducks and hides when I try to get a photo of him.

"No I NEVER fall asleep in front of the fire!"

So nice to be cool enough to have one of these and to sit by it with a glass of red.

For the early riser, a beautiful dawn.

We packed up the camper in a better, more efficient way and culled some stuff, and wrote lists to get for next time. A lot of the food in the box needed to be disposed of. On the way home, we were shocked at the devastation to the tree line that Eungella suffered in the recent cyclone. Those of you who are familiar with this drive will notice that where the green almost touched over the centre of the road before, it is now quite bare in parts.

Last weekend, KISA took Friday off and late Thursday afternoon, we headed back up the range for a 3 day camp at the Dam again. We got it all set up just as dark fell and it began to rain. It was an early night as it was too wet to sit by the fire.

Next day was brighter and the canvas dried quickly. We settled into the business of camping. This man is truly happy making a fire.

We tried putting up one of the walls in case it rained again as the kitchen got all wet the night before. It keeps the sun off the food as well, we will probably do this each time from now on as it keeps the condensation away as well. At least on long camps. We are planning on refining our techniques for long stays and overnighters and self sufficiency in training for our planned long cross country trip next year.

As you can see it was nice and crowded! Next weekend is a long weekend, and I suspected not many would camp as they would wait till the long weekend. I was right! It was lovely having the beach to ourselves. Only downsides to this spot is no front row seats for the sunsets. We get some nice sky colour over here but we have our back to the sunsets.

We never had another drop of rain after our wet start. The skies were clear and the air crisp and cold.

There was a moment of panic when KISA discovered a bar of signal on his phone. But it disappeared after a while and we think it is still mobile free up there. Whew!!

We spent 3 lovely nights and after breakfast on Sunday, packed up and came home for lunch. Next camp is planned for Show week.