Golden moments

For those family members who couldn’t make it to Russell’s 50th party weekend in Emerald, below the fold there’s a picture of the clan taken in the Emerald botanical garden last weekend by a bemused Chezk backpacker..

Do I still call them “children”?

Disneyland For Adults - ska band

It’s official. I now have two adult children. The Boy turned 18 last week. In Australia, that means he can vote, drink and generally raise mayhem whilst being entirely responsible for his own actions.

To celebrate, we hosted about 30 of his friends to a party in my back yard. The highlight of the evening was a performance by a ska band “Disneyland For Adults*” on the rear porch.

We’d warned the neighbours that there would be noise by leafleting the previous week. There were no objections, and I even got a couple of phone calls thanking me for the warning and wishing us well.

Because at this time of year it can get cold and wet, I’d erected a large awning and there was a patio heater. We only got a spot of rain, and mostly the heater wasn’t much in demand.

The Boy and His Girl

The guests were well behaved – no unpleasantness, no overt drunken behaviour, some dancing (that left my lawn a bit the worse for wear, but it will recover!)

I did supply nibbles, but thanks to my clumsiness, only one oven load of hot food made it to the kids, as I broke the door catches of the oven, and it refuses to work without them. (The subsequent repair is a story of its own, since the manufacturer doesn’t make the parts any more.)

A good night!

*alternate name: “Daisy Duck Does Dallas”

Heartbreaking yet inspiring

I’ve linked before to the excellent blog fatcyclist.com. Elden writes with humour about his experiences as a MTB rider – you don’t have to be one to enjoy it. But lately, Elden’s life has taken a sad turn, with his wife Susan diagnosed with what is most likely a terminal cancer that has spread to her brain.

Elden is documenting Susan’s progress on the blog and it’s heartwrenching stuff. Susan is brave to let him do it. But it’s not all bad. Elden is using his blog to help support and fund Susan’s fight to live. He’s selling cycling gear and even having a raffle and sausage BBQ.

Elden and Susan are strangers to me, but their story deserves some extra publicity.

Read the blog, send Susan a message of support… buy a shirt.

Seven things

1. I find it somehow depressing that the top 4 WordPress weblogs always seem to include LOLcats and lately LOLdogs. Call me curmudgeonly, but they just annoy me.
2. I am currently recovering from some bedbug bites. It’s a travel experience that just keeps on giving. Bedbugs are apparently very hard to get rid of and something your host will not want to talk about.
3. I just found out that Australia’s best selling motorcycle is the Honda CT110. Australia Post buys (and sells) thousands of them every year.
4. Did you know that ferrets must be kept cool when temperatures get above about 27 degrees C? I made a special “Ice Cave” which is a sleeping box with a compartment for an ice container above it. It seems to work.
5. Alister Coleman a.k.a Scaryduck and Robber Rabbit has started videoblogging. He’s even quacking scarier in person.
6. OK, Doug is videoblogging too. I am watching with interest the progress of his forehead scar, and await the actual appearance of Karen on, as opposed to off-camera.
7. My brothers live in Emerald, which has just been flooded. Fortunately, while one of them got water in his shed, his home wasn’t inundated. The other brother, (who’s the local Reverend) has been on national radio today talking about the flood.

Line up the usual suspects

These are the people who share my gene mix … and me..

I’ve just got back from Tasmania where for the second time, the entire clan has gathered to celebrate a 50th birthday. No prizes for guessing whose was the first.

A couple more pictures reward (or punish) those who

Draw, Pardner!

My old hang gliding friend Pete (who now runs a cycling store and sells Aeros hang gliders) turned 50 last week, and it was his party last night. Here’s the cover of the card I made for him. OK, not much of a joke, but give me an “A” for effort!

It may help if I tell you that modern hang gliders have hollow sails and we sometimes stash stuff inside that we might need after we land…

Paternal pride

Here’s the boy (in black on lead guitar) performing at his school at lunchtime with others from his music class. The piece is a series of variations on Kasey Chambers “Not Pretty Enough”.  They deliberately chose the “worst” song on the list of options available to them, and it ended up a hoot.  Here they are playing it for laughs – and getting audience participation.

The (improvised) guitar solo at the end was overlong due to some confusion – it was supposed to keep going until the drummer gave the wrapup…

Not a bad effort, I think, both arranging and performing this piece after only 2 years since starting to learn the guitar.

Family matters

Some pictures from my kids (mothers side) grandma’s 80th birthday party yesterday

I’m looking doubtful while my 17 year old son is looking cool playing dueling Bluetooth mobile phones with the other under-20’s males in the room.

The Writer-In-Training is photogenic….