January, 2020 Mum & Dad’s place, Qld

Joined Kaylene, Rick, Steve and Sandra for dinner on New Year’s Eve in town. We walked down to the Esplanade in time to watch the 9pm fireworks which were spectacular though we were right under them so we got kinked necks and covered in the smoke. Made us think of all the poor people suffering in the bush fire down south – must be so horrible having to breath the smokey air all the time. We walked back to the new Aquarium and had coffee and cake in Dundee’s Restaurant beside it. They have a huge fish tank inside and the service was very friendly and even the owner came over for a chat. Home to wish Mum and Dad a happy new year at 11pm as they headed off to bed. Steve and I had a glass of Mickey & Chris’ port while we played our last games of Skipbo for 2019 – one game each. The Sydney fireworks were on TV as they are an hour ahead of us then we counted down the seconds to the new year and new decade. The TV played Auld Lang Syne so we had a little dance in the van to celebrate seeing in another year.

Found our new vehicle in a car yard in Williamstown, Melbourne and after many phone calls and lots of photos decided we were happy to buy it unseen. They will freight it up to us on a truck so no stress having to fly down and drive it back – especially with all the terrible fires around down south. It has already had some of the modifications Steve wanted and lots of other extras as well as being low mileage and it is a Nissan Patrol at a good price.

We have forgotten about how humid Cairns can get – it has been raining on and off making it quite sticky but a nice cool shower fixes that problem.

Chopped off my long hair – back to shoulder length to make it easier to put up in a pony-tail.

Rang Dale for his 60^th birthday – he is the last to turn 60 out of the ‘boys’. He got an albino barramundi for a present.

Lots of great tennis to watch on TV with Mum and Dad.

The rain continues with some very heavy showers. Sad to think we can’t build a big dam to catch the rain then pipe it around Australia to support the drought and fire ravaged areas. I am sure we could use all the people in prison and those on the dole to make it happen but with the politics nowadays it is all to ‘difficult’.

Greg gave me a memory stick full of music for me to copy and a hard drive of movies.

Visited Judy and Wayne and then Kathy and Brodie came home. So great to see them all again. Kathy had a hard drive of movies too so I will be set for a few more years.

Having a nice time visiting people and pottering around the house. Steve has had jobs to do fixing things around Mum and Dad’s place – like them the house it getting a bit weary. I am loving being able to do so much for Mum and Dad to make their lives easier.

Our new truck arrived. As it is silver I decided we would call it Smokey. Now to get the roadworthy and register it in Queensland then Steve can start the work of adding the lazy axle etc and then building our new camper on the back.

My cousin Pete and family are staying at Fitzroy Island for a few days to celebrate his wife, Marion’s 60^th birthday. Unfortunately he felt faint when walking to one of the beaches and thinking he was just dehydrated, as it is quite hot and they are from Sydney, they went back to the resort. They checked with Flying Doctors and determined that he should come into Cairns for a check-up. When the Ambulance picked him at from the boat they were shocked to see how back his heart was. He didn’t have any chest pain to show his heart was failing. Marion came and stayed with us and after investigations he had a procedure to insert a pacemaker. His father (Mum’s brother) had one for the past 30 years and only passed away 3 months ago aged 92 so Pete was happy to have it all sorted now. He and Marion were very impressed with the care in the Cardiac Care Ward, so much so that he said he would be back if he needed anything else done. The family came back over when Pete came out of hospital and we all celebrated with lunch here at Mum and Dad’s. They had two days booked in at Palm Cove which was good as Pete couldn’t fly for 48 hours after the procedure. We picked up Daniel, Jon & Jess and joined them all for dinner which was wonderful. So glad everything worked out ok though he will need to take Marion on another holiday now!!

Celebrated Jess’ 25^th birthday a couple of days early with Jon and Jess’ family at a Mexican Bistro which was great.

Very hot (35 to 38 degrees) and humid days with storms building – sometimes giving us some rain and other times just making us feel hot and sticky.

On the 18^th Sent Ed and Heather a message wishing them all the best for their wedding in Carnarvon. They sent some photos – horse and carriage up to the Space Museum for the wedding and reception in the garden. It was the first wedding held there. They looked very happy.

On the 20^th I went to Work!! Back to Tuckshop with the ladies though this week is just for uniform sales. Not complaining as it is all air conditioned.

Still very humid with lots of storm cells coming over crashing and bashing with lightning and thunder but no rain.

Dave bought a wrecked Nissan Patrol to get a fuel tank for his Nissan so we bought the wreck off him for the chassis and axle so Steve can start converting ‘Smokey’ into a 6 wheeler. That kept Steve busy during the week pulling it apart at the back of Daniel’s place. Hopefully we can sell of some bits too.

He also took off the big mud tyres that came with Smokey and put on some new ones. Will put the mud tyres up for sale too.

I survived the week at work though my legs knew I had been standing on them for a long time!! Also the eyes are not as young either and it is a pain to be taking the reading glasses on and off all the time but oh well.

Started the Australia Day long weekend with a huge clap of thunder, right over us, in the early hours of the 25^th and then lots of rain. We got 75ml which was lovely.

The first day of school for the students saw them soaked through with very heavy rainfalls in Cairns due to the Monsoon Trough sitting over us. Sold lots of jumpers as they were wet then cold in the air conditioning. In our day we just dried off under the ceiling fans.

When Greg joins us for dinner we have a few games of Skipbo – we have converted Mum and Greg to the new format.

Had a good week working in the Uniform Shop. Steve sold bits and pieces off the ‘other’ Nissan so we have nearly covered the cost of paying for it – hence the axle and chassis is very cheap compared to the cost it would have been from the wreckers.

Mum and Dad have been enjoying watching the Australian Open Tennis Competition – we have even gotten into it too. They are both doing ok and Mum is loving having the extra help they we are giving them. Steve has been amazing too with all the repairs and lunch making etc he has been doing while I have been working.