Harvey George Matthews

Here he is now six months old and a right boy. He is so good. Bless him.

London

Hayley and Des in Waggas.
Alexander and Allison in Waggas.

London- Waggamammas

Jack, Ebba, Gabriella and Emily at Waggamammas
Gaby and Ebba on our sofa in our room
Allisona and Brian drinking champagne
Us!

London - Fia's 40th at Nova Hotel City and Indian Restaurant

Fia, John, Brian and Lynda seated. Eating birthday cake in hotel.

Fia and Alexander

Tabitha's first visit to Nanny and Grandad at Kay's

Look at Brian showing off with his hat. But what about Tabitha, isn't she like Damien? Yes?

They came round to see us about six hours after we landed and had a siesta. Allison followed and we had a nice time. I want to squeeze Tabitha right now and haven't seen her for a month. Ugh.

Chinatown - Singapore

In China town where we ate ice-cream and went for a ride. We thought it all very clean and loved our time in there but wished we could have stayed longer.

Freemantle

Angie and Brian finishing off fish and chips by the water. Best in the world.

Anchored down by the port. Angie showed us the port door she came through when they all came to Oz. Very strange to think my Aunts were there all those years ago. We had a lovely day and wanted to stay even longer but we went back to Sam's for our last night in Australia.

Back to Perth

Peter and Georgia in Perth, Brian behind tree. For those who don't know these lovely kids, they used to be looked after by Hayley and we have known them since Peter was born, almost anyway. They have all moved to Oz now and we caught up with them.
Samantha and Brian on the way to the water. Click on the picture to get a closer look at them, if you want to...
Us by the water, bit windy, but such a lovely place.

Sydney

This was the view from our hotel bedroom and it was just out of this world. Brian had to pinch himself to make sure he was there. ha ha.

The other pictures were taken on a boat trip and after eating scallops.
Must come again and stay longer, in Sydney, I mean...

WHOOPS forgot to put these in the blog

We left Val's in good time to stay a night with Geoff and Pauline on the outskirts of Brisbane and this is a spot where we ate icecream and looked around the area. It was nice to see the sea again.

We spent a lovely day and night with them and off to the airport to Sydney on our way back.

In Damien and Becky's garden

Brian cleaning the pool and Emily hiding under the palm tree. It does need cutting back perhaps Brian can do this with Damien's permission.

It does feel strange without Paco jumping in the pool and Isabella plodding around.

Hayley and Emily in Balears restaurant

We had fish and duck, Emily had chicken. The food was lovely and after we went on to Cala Blanca and Calan Bosch.

AND NOW BACK IN MENORCA

We are in the port meeting Adrienne and Pedro before going to Balears restaurant for lunch on Sunday 9th December.

It is very warm but a north wind is blowing, taking the warmth away.

Whoops here is the tree

It is a trick of the camera, didn't see it until I put this up - looks weird eh? Like the car is pushing the tree over.

Car washed and polished and ready to go to the bus for Val. She flew in from Vietnam this morning and is resting at a friend's until the bus at 4.15pm it takes three hours.

We will have a supper together and she will go out and hug the dogs and cat (her words on the phone this morning).

We can't tell you how much we have enjoyed it here, you only have to look through this blog and it's not over til the fat lady sings. Brisbane, Sydney, Perth, Singapore, London - be prepared!

A last look around and a memory to take

You can't see the lovely bush with white flowers on the corner of the kitchen, I ought to know what it is but I don't.

The orange flowers just fading are the same as we had in Cala'n Bosch and we loved them - fading fast as summer starts here.

Waiting for Mum

I made up Val's bed ready for her return and later, only five minutes, found Mr Max waiting for his mum to come home. He normally goes on our bed, but he found Val's door open and ready for her. Sweet!

Possum in Bob's den

This little fellow was up in the rafters of Bob's den where he has his siestas. Another possum was on the other side of the den - fast asleep.

We had our last afternoon tea with Bob and Vida - home made cakes and tea. Lovely.

Thanks

We are reaching the end of our stay. It has just gone too fast and we are really sorry to be leaving Queensland and esp Kingaroy and Burtons Road.

We have made many friends here, neighbours and otherwise. Namely Dave who was the first to make friends and take us out and about the area. Pauline and Geoff for their hospitality and friendship most weekends while they were here in Burtons Road. Damien O'Sullivan for helping us with a couple of bad days of confusement over water and electric fences and of course his family - invited us for dinner and lunch with his mum and dad too. Lovely people and I haven't finished yet.

For Bob and Vida who offered to get us logs for the winter, can't imagine it right now as it is in the 30s now. For our afternoon teas at theirs. Wanda and Steve for making us laugh.

Peter Wynn MD who saw us '2 for 1' when I found a spot on my face (nothing at all) and Brian's back pain.

Gaylene and Shane and their family, without them it would have been so different. We got to see how people lived day by day - how they survive with drought - how they make ends meet and how friendly these Aussies really are. They took us into their hearts and they will be missed dearly. I have adopted them as our kids so now we have 12 instead of ten. They are only 43 after all!


Gary and Kathy from Nanango we met on Brian's birthday and caught up with again a month later. Greg who took Brian up for his flight and the onlookers! My wine man who made it easy for a quick turnaround in the drive-in licquer store.

To Angie - because this wouldn't have happened, it was her that made us come, made me go on that plane for 12 hours. For Samantha for being just her, my new cousin and how many years we've missed.

To Elizabeth my helper and advisor on my novel in US - I don't know what I would have done without her guidence.

Last and the most important Valerie Sapin the woman who took us on to look after her beloved home, dogs, cat, goats and chooks. To her we give thanks to help us carry out Brian's dream of visiting Australia. He has done it and ticked it. But, I think he will be back in the 'out of flies' season.

Tara with Bubbles her brown calf plus her two new calves

Tara adopted Bubbles about three weeks ago. He is blind and is stumbling about, but Tara has also taken these two young ones on and they love Bubbles to bits. He will improve with age and will be good with eyesight in around six months hopefully.

Their horse is having a bit of a nose around I reckon. Taking a slight interest in the young calves.

Terry with his trophies for bull riding

Terry came second last weekend for his bull riding at a rodeo, we didn't go to see him but he is showing us his trophies at his house.

We are at Gaylene and Shane's ranch for a lovely roast lunch all done on a bbq with English roast spud esp for us. It is a hot days and the many flies made us go in to eat. There were nine of us in all. Lovely day.

Not sure about his hat, but look at the buckle on his belt. Wow!

My secretary Max

He isn't working hard enough in the office - here he is after a night in the paddocks, he falls asleep near to where I am, or on my bed.

I will miss him.

Three week old Alexander

No, not one of my grandchildren, my Alexander is 16 and lives in Sweden! This is a neighbour's grandchild and I believe it is his first evening party! He is gorgeous and was just over 7lb when born, think about it? That is over 2lb heavier than Tabitha was!

I can't wait to have Tabitha in my arms, only two weeks now - well a day or two more...

Pauline's 70th birthday surprise

Jeff held a surprise party for Pauline. We all turned up at Bob's to wait for them and it was a surprise. They thought they were going up for supper. We were about 14 and had a great time eating cold meat and salad and the lovely birthday cake.

Pauline blowing out candles.

Wanda and Steve (neighbours down the hill) looking merry.

Bob and Brian in conversation

Jeff and Pauline have now gone back to Brisbane but will meet us off the coach from Kingaroy on the 19th and take us to a seafood restaurant overlooking the sea. After a tour, on to their house and a cuppa - then we go to Brisbane Airport to take a Virgin Blue flight to Sydney where we stay in the Intercontinental Hotel for only one night - overlooking the harbour with a 'bridge view'. We don't arrive until 9pm so we will take a snack in our room and then next day just wander about and have lunch in the hotel before heading off to the airport for our flight to Perth.

OK one day in Sydney might not be enough but we will come back if we like it! We want to see Angie and Samantha in Perth again before leaving Oz so we changed our itinerary - otherwise we would have gone direct to Singapore from Brisbane. Life is hectic, specially after all this lovely time in the country methinks!

Dogs and horses

I just love this picture of Caz and Pol sitting while we look at the fence. They have walked with us around the big paddocks and are tired out by the heat of the sun. Every time we stop to look at the fence, they sit down. Don't blame them, I would too, but might sit on a snake or something else.

There are wild dogs the other side of the fence, with pups. We hear them howling at night and want to make sure the fence is working. As it happened it wasn't at this time so Damien came up and helped Brian find the short, think I mentioned that before. Once mended it went quite for a time - then they started howling again so we moved the goats down to just below our house. The grass is greener there too so they should enjoy a good old chomp on that.

The other picture is of Caz coming to the fence for a bone. The horses in the picture ' double click on the pic if you can't see them' belong to Alice and Wade our neighbours on the left of Val's property. An hour after this photo was taken we had a tremendous storm with lots of rain, good. We should have some healthy grass and our tank should be full. Brian will have to push it up to the main tank in the morning...

Damien and Neralie and their 'for sale' house and one of me!

It certainly looks very comfy and all mod cons inside including air con and stove in the sitting room. Main bedroom en-suite. Shame it is too far away for us but we could always rent it out I suppose?

The gardens are to die for and the views too. Quiet with only two other houses nearby, that is all I could see anyway. A seven minute drive into town without passing one other car! Well almost!