big news from the capital

Hi all, by now most of you have heard that our beautiful, clever Lucy has been accepted on early offer into pharmacy at Charles Sturt Uni at Wagga. We are very proud and I even shed a few tears on learning the news! Kate I need to bring my seniors work and enter marks and work via the internet as they are due at the end of the week. I will find the time. I am trying to finish my juniors before Friday but have so much on I think I'm going to have to pull a late night!!

Bye for now, Annie

greetings not from the south coast

Hi all,
Yep that sounds like enough excitement for both of us!! Where were the crocs-cause you would have fed half a family Mart.
Im still hanging with the olds, learning new torture treatments for dad, everything we see the physio.
Dad,s tomatoes are looking good, next some lettuce and beetroot, and he will be a real garden farmer.
No time to write and rest, next lot of torture just minutes away.
Annie, dont bring too much work to do, because this carer gig is full time.
Off to dry his toes...
Love to you all, Zak

Swimming with the Gaiters

Well Zak if you want some excitment you could always come fishing with me. Chappie and I went out to the mouth of the Adelaide River yesterday (sunday) for a day of fishing. We weren't doing so well but some mates of ours in another boat had caught about eight barra and after keeping the first one had been throwing the others back. Anyway the next one they caught they gave to us. Whilst in the process of bleeding it over the side of the boat I managed to drop it and then in the process of trying to grab it before it sank I fell overboard. Lost my prescription sunglasses. Almost lost my $500 rod and reel. Then I had to ask Chappie to stop laughing so he could get me back in the boat. I think I need Claire back here to look after me.
Sorry Old Man...no photos

Cheers
Marty

greetings not from the south coast

Hi all,
Well Ive been up with the olds for the last week. A quiet Friday afternoon- scrabble to the back of me, and golf and races to the front. The Snake Gully cup is just about to start!!
Scrabble was invented by Alfred Mosher Butts in 1938.
There are 124 2 letter words in the english language.
The amazing facts that I never knew before.
A little bit of Banjo Patterson poetry at lunch.
Oh My god I think the favourite Morosi is going to win-yep No 7 has it!!
So can anyone beat that for an exciting Friday arvo?
Love to you all, Zak

Greetings from Wales

Hi All
Not much happening in beautiful South Wales really.
My friend, Louise, had her baby boy amonth ago. Samuel Jac is gorgeous!
Jules and I had 5 days in New Quay, Wales (not Cornwall) last week. It was lovely to be away for a few days and visit some different op shops.
Gail has left the Gwyn Arms and is greatly missed. The place really isn't the same without her but we are all happy for her to have a life back. She is very busy re-decorating her house and trying to fit the possessions she's collected whilst living in an enormous space into a 2 bedroom semi.
Cynthia is very excited about our impending visit to Australia (We arrive in 6 weeks in case anyone had forgotten). Any dates for Christmas dinner at Bulli yet?
There is loads of work around for me at the moment so I can pay the bills whilst we are away.
Darts knockouts at the moment -no league games for another four weeks. We won at our venue in the 4s knockouts on Tuesday. We have another team in 4s again next week. Let's hope we do as well. (I play next week).
Hope all's well with you all. Thinking of you.
Moo xxxxxx

Hi all,
Only saying one thing
Claire of the desert - go girl!!
Love zak

my Alice stay

Well the journey is more than one week in and much has happened so here is the story so far...

I was wide awake when the alarm went off. Being tired just didn't come into it; I was out the door insanely early with a kayak, a swag and an overdose of adrenaline.

Boy it didn't take long to dampen that enthusiasm. Long driving stints take practice and I was way out of touch despite the Batchelor commute from hell every morning. About five hundred kilometres into the one thousand four hundred and ninety eight kilometres I finally kicked in - and then I could have driven straight through.

Commonsense prevailed and I pulled up and camped on a concrete table. why a table you ask? Well, prickles mainly. With all the glorious rain the iconic bindi-eye was in full, spiky bloom and I have better things to do than pull nasty, pointy plants out of my rear end all night. As it turned out when you camp on a concrete table squished between a road inundated by thundering road trains and a railway inundated by kilometre long freight trains with a wind straight off the Antarctic tunnelling its way through the middle your sleep tends to be a little dodgy whether you have prickles or not.

But that adrenaline kicked in again and I was in Alice before lunch on Sunday. Yey.

A week of work happened next, routines to get into the habit of, jobs to do etc etc. Then the weekend came around and all that water minus the chompy, stingy things beckoned. The Western Macs seemed like a great place to start. I drove 300 ks Saturday renewing friendships with place and country. The kayak had a Central Australian christening in a long waterhole just off the main drag and all was good with the world.

Then it got better, Will and his flatmate cooked me a Sunday roast! How cool is that?

Can't wait for what happens next.

Hope you are all well

Claire (of the Desert)