Basketball

Sunday night after diving Pauline offered me a free ticket to see the Taipans play Sydney Knights. I couldn't resist the opportunity to sample the amazing atmosphere.

Pauline gives the camera a little love.

Pauline and I enjoy the atmosphere.

The scoreboard says it all: we lost, but boy did we have a lot of fun as losers!

This has been a week of catching up with old friends. I spoke to an old mate from junior squash, high school and uni days, Gavin, who is now a policeman in Cairns. He has a wife and 2 kids now! We are going to catch up with some other old scholars in the new year. And we are going to have a hit of squash.

Yesterday I caught up with an old friend from teenage days, Matt. He happens to be building in one of our precincts where I work. He too, is with a partner and has 2 kids. I hope to catch up with him for a proper chat in the near future.

Diving again!

I took off for my next available dive last weekend. Battling conditions, a chest infection and asthma; I only managed to dive nearly 2 months after my last dive. Still, I managed to get out there.


I had the best buddy for my dive. His name is Donald and he works for the Navy and is even more hard core than I am about diving. He also likes to dive like me: takes his time, uses the same amount of air as me and likes to gaze at all the macro for hours. We had three dives in near perfect conditons: sunny, low swell and 12-15 m visability. 1st dive was about 45 minutes, 2nd was about 50 minutes as was the 3rd. I hope to catch up with him again on the Tusa boat as a good buddy is hard to find.

Election night

On election day, my friend Kelly got me to hand out leaflets and be a scrutineer for the Labor camp. She was my booth captain.

After a long hard day handing out leaflets at the local polling booth, Kelly and I decide to hit the celebratory drinks!

Kelly gives a big high five to Howard.

Jim Tourner our local Labor member, was pegged as a close loss. He ended up with the highest percentage swing of all marginal seats in the country. He happily accepts victory at Brothers, where all the 'reds' go back to celebrate a change of leadership.

The crowd cheers as we watch Rudd make an appearance for his acceptance speech.

It was a great experience. Highlights for me were:

• Scrutineering ( a behind the scenes look at our democracy)
• celebrations at Brothers that night (like winning a grand final)
• a quote from a gentleman that I met at the bar, "He looks as lonely as a Tory on election night"

The Lakehouse

The Lakehouse is situated at Lake Tinaroo on the Tablelands, west of Cairns, see map below.


View Larger Map

I raced up from work Saturday and arrived at 6pm in time for tea. Princess was there with Cookie and also Choony had brought up some Swiss visitors, Denise and Roger. Cookie lived up to her name and prepared us a Steak and mushroom sauce delight with vegetables.

After tea, we watched a DVD and then I went to bed.

This was my view Sunday morning. Princess and Cookie had to leave early and were quickly replaced by little cook, Andrew.

This is a tick that crawled onto me within minutes of getting to the water at Lake Tinaroo.

We met the neighbours' dog and it soon became apparent to all and sundry that he had a problem...He really loved sticks! Choony and Roger demonstrate this, while Denise looks on in disbelief.
Throw, fetch, chase, return and ...you get the picture.

and on it went....
He would catch sticks mid air...

...and he would dance for sticks....

Eventually, we gave up on ever tiring him out and returned to the Lakehouse.

Then we started the waterfall circuit and tour.








This was eerie. This is Milla Milla falls which I have had several dreams about lately but i didn't realise it was Milla Milla. As soon as I got here I recognised it from my dreams. It was probably 30 years ago that I was here.



Another eerie moment at the same location was seeing this dragonfly, which I had also had dreams about.

Lunch was spent at a local historic pub called the Peremon Hotel. Here is a map of the circuit we followed.

View Larger Map
Lake Eacham was our last stop and we had a swim here. I was reluctant at first because it was not a warm day but soon I took to it like a duck to the proverbial.

We ended our perfect day with another frisbee throwing sesh in the Lake Eacham car park. I think I am becoming an addict!

I bought some chocolate covered coffee beans at a local teahouse this day, which I munched on during my trip home to keep me awake. Then I spent all night tossing and turning because I had too much caffeine!

My Birthday

My birthday started beautifully! For starters, Mum came up from Brisvegas for the weekend and I was stoked! We hung out, went to a Korean Restaurant Friday night. Saturday morning was lazy and then we went to Rusty's market together. Sunday morning I cooked us up a cooked breakfast and then we went to Coollums on the Beach at Holloways Beach for lunch.

We started with cocktails...actually I drank cocktails all afternoon. Guests of honour were: Andrew, Choony, Nathan, Danielle, Kelly, Pauline, Mum, Julie, Jan Hun, Stony and ofcourse me.

Pauline, Andrea and Kelly

After, Choony and I threw down the gauntlet at Andrew and Nathan in a duel to the death with a frisbee. Choony and I won ofcourse due to our athleticism, skill and superior strategy. Andrew still maintains that they let me win because I was the birthday girl....male pride! We all had a refreshing swim in the sea, very brave given the latest reports of crocodiles in the area!

To top off a glorious day, Pauline and I went into The Pier and had a fantastic time. Pauline told everyone that it was my birthday. When asked how old I was, my favourite line, which I had used all day was: " I am 28, I just look shit for my age!"

It was a fantastic night, which topped off a fantastic day. Thanks to everybody who made it so special and thanks to all the people near and far (Colorado to Adelaide to Mt Isa), who sent cards, rang in and wished me a happy birthday and sang to me and made me feel oh so special! You know who you are and you are loved!!!

Scorpio party

On 27 October, 2007 it was an auspicious occasion: 4 scorpios were celebrating their birthday: Choony, Alice, Scooter and Clint.






Some wore appropriate garb...



...and some wore not so appropriate garb...



...some dressed to kill or atleast a little avant garde in their approach to the costuming...



...some, like Clint and Scooter, went further in their quest to 'frock up' and got a more permanent reminder of the night (yeah..it is real)...



...my contribution to the evening's theme was to create henna designs, mostly scorp tatts...Choony was ecstatic as it tied in well with the Moroccan themed tent he had erected in his backyard, home of the night's adventures:


Here were low cushions, sheeshas and candles...the aroma of apple scented tobacco hung in the air...


...it was a visual spectacle as well. Well done Choony, host and event designer.


Clint shows us how it is done in the 'keg shed'.