Weekend getaways!

On the weekend of the 19th, Clinton and Sonja flew down to Sydney for a friend's wedding. Sharona and Michael's wedding was a lovely one, with Sharona looking truly stunning. We then had to brave Sydney airport with all the World Youth Day pilgrims who were flying out.

The weekend of the 26th, Clinton and Sonja woke up super-dooper early at 4am, and flew up to Rockhampton for the Rocky Church regional day. It was a great day, as Pastor Krause was ordained also. After a good night sleep, we flew out Sunday morning back to Brisbane.

As Clinton seems to enjoy punishing himself, he then left early Monday for a two day Duke of Edinburgh walk with students.

Le Tour De Toowoomba

Motivated by the exploits of more famous tour, we too took to the hills. Or at least Toowoomba. We went and stayed with Braden this last weekend. Toowoomba is a tad cooler than Brisbane at this time of the year and Sonja enjoyed the fireplace at Braden's house.

On Sabbath afternoon we played Boules with Mandi and Daniel. Boules was a suitably French activity for our tour! Although it was a bit cool in the wind, we played for over an hour. It was truly delightful although none of us are particularly masters!

The Sunday leg of the tour moved to a more suitable racing format with Braden and Clinton taking to the track. The small indoor track at Toowoomba is a lot of fun and this was not the first visit. On this occasion, there were very few people on the track which made for exciting jostling between Braden and Clinton. The photo shows Clinton clearly in the lead, a position he held for a few seconds at least!

Dogs and Conferences

One of the latest adventures has been looking after a Maltese puppy called Jack. Jack has provided much amusement. Once we had puppy fenced the yard, plugged up every gap two or three times, the yard was finally Jack proof! Jack provided to be somewhat of a Houdini and had amazing abilities to escape the yard!

Jack's two favourite things in life seem to be food and playing. His favourite game is when Clinton chases him around the back yard. Jack will run up behind Clinton, bark and then race away just out of Clinton's reach. Jack will then circle back, and start barking at Clinton again. Clinton will pretend to ignore Jack, but then suddenly turn around and run after him. Jack get a look of absolute terror on his face and runs as fast as his legs will carry him. Once is is safely out of reach, the whole game starts all over again.

We took Jack to a park where he suddenly discovered that a Wallaby had crept up close without his knowledge. Jack let out a mighty bark and sent the Wallaby scurrying off. Jack then stood guard in case any other things decided to try to sneak up on him. Jack was quite interested in those strange hopping creatures. When one crossed the track in front of us, Jack froze and watched it with wonder until it had disappeared out of sight. Only then did Jack decide to chase it, and he took off! Jack forgot that he was attached to the lead and managed to nearly strangle himself with excitement.

Clinton also recently attended CONASTA, which is the annual Conference of the Australian Science Teachers Association, with John. They presented a paper entitled "A stratified view of knowledge leads to a rich experiential learning sequence".

Nap time with Clinton

Treats from Clinton











Traveling in style