Engagements, banyan trees and central queensland

The last five days have been busy but very interesting. They started with a breakfast on the beach on Saturday at BrightonLeSands with my friend from Brisbane who had bought an almost new Landrover Freelander - wow, I have never seen so many electronic extras - and what a lovely ride!

Then followed an engagement party at the Ettamogah pub - if you cant see the words in the photo they say...

Beer mate....

It tickles the palate, it tickles the tongue, it cleans out the carby, it eradicates fruit fly...Pattersons curse...cattle tick...codlin moth... and tastes good too mate!

Renee has grown into a lovely young woman and got engaged to her high school sweetheart - Courtney is also growing up, and it is hard to believe it is over sixteen years since she was born.

An interesting evening, people (including me) sneaking a peak at the big screen with the NRL semi final decided by one point difference - and passionate supporters on both sides. Tigers versus Dragons.

Then, next day flew up to Rockhampton - beautiful flight, although I was surprised by the amount of water lying on the low land surrounding Rockhampton. Lots of "occasional water". My friend Liz's husband picked me up and we visited the Botanic gardens which were amazing, the banyan trees were the biggest I have ever seen and several other species most unusual. They also have a native animal zoo, with wombats, koalas, Monitor lizards ( goannas), snakes,wallabies, beautiful parrots and birds = quite a surprise!

The house was a beautifully restored old Queenslander, amazing - it is for sale - I would really love to live in a place like that - fabulous! Magnificant kitchen, theya re both engineers and I have never seen such an efficiently designed kitchen, it won awards, justifiably! Inside all beautiful varnished floors, and use of timber, lots of space and feeling of space and air and somehow a very loving feeling. Rockhampton is known as the Beef capital of Australia, and there are statues of Brahman bulls all over the place. I did my patriotic bit by taking my host to dinner and we had Wagyu beef steaks (the smallest on the menu at 200g) - really nice!. Rockhampton is much prettier than i thought it would be and the university campus is lovely.

Oh yes, I did do two days of flat out work and flew back to Sydney Tuesday night in a storm with plane delayed, missed a conection but got another. So I am tired but once again, grateful for lovely experiences.

Back in sydney and new photos of Callum!

I am back in Sydney after an overnight trip to run a focus group in Melbourne. Knee is getting better, but still way too sore if I move the wrong way - but i am being really careful.

Lovely surprise when I found lots of new photos of Callum on Facebook - isnt he a cutie! - I just love the one in the towel. At 5 months old he is so alert and perky! I am looking forward to seeing him much more often.

Knee healing I think

Well the good news is that the Xrays at Bathurst hospital suggest I havent got structural damage to the knee or major arthritis but I have overdone it over the last couple of months and possibly inflammation. Doctor not sure why it got so bad unless the Arcoxia was masking the messages my brain was getting saying "I need a rest". Anyway the doctor said he beleives it will heal most effectively if I just rest it and take Neurofen instead of the pills I was taking. So I am using the crutches, taking it easy - no walks in the bush and although not able to bend it much yet I did get a much better sleep last night and hopefully in a few days will feel it safe to return back down to Sydney to stairs and trains.

Been really pleasant up here - sun shining today and the rain has stopped. I will miss the kids badly when i go back to NZ.
Everybody is watching football tonight - Sydney has three big matches in cluding the All Blacks playing the Wallabies - at half time the Wallabies are winning ( hopefully a miracle will happen and the ABs will catch up else I will have the kids giving me heaps).

A pain in the knee

Had a busy few days preparing documents for our external evaluator and now churning through all the writing and paperwork of tidying up all the strands of theproject. HAving a major problem with left knee, seem to have done it an injury beyond just "arthritis" - after hurrying toa train on Monday night it has got much worse and this morning it was almsot impossible to walk on and got worse during the day. Consequently I took a taxi home from work and have driven upto Bathurst where I can sit in a one level house, with a few grandchildren to wait on me ( heres hoping) . I will go in to the Bathrust public hospital tomorrow ( as a "visitor" i am not entitled to private doctor so I need to go to a hospital) and hopefully can find out what I have done to it and whether I need crutches, rest, or just what I should do.

Have good internet connection here and can use the computer and carry on working - only hiccup is whether I can get the car across the creek in the morning to go to the hospital. Rainin again - Australia needs it - they might even have water in the Murray!

A wet weekend

Drove up through the clouds to Glanmire on Friday after ahectic week of interviews and writing a conference paper which got submitted Friday morning. Rained pretty steadily all day Saturday so three children indoors all day! I watched ac ouple of movies with them, and was Samanthas slave some of the time. We made Anzac biscuits again, and a fruit cake for Brett. Sunday had visitors and drove back in sunshine to Sydney.No photos this time, forgot the camera but starting on a bit of a countdown now until I return home.