The adventures of Clinton and Sonja

Slack

2011-03-29T20:16:00.004+10:00

One word. Slack. I suppose not a lot has been happening since the last post. Well, not in our immediate world. There has been the Queensland floods, the Brisbane floods, Cyclone Yasi, Japan's earthquake & tsunami's....

Sonja got a job as a "Foster Care Case Worker" with TRACC Logan (Spiritus). She now supports Foster Carers and communicates/advocates for them with Child Safety. So, anyone interested in being a Foster Carer? ;o) Jokes aside, TRACC Logan is only agency in the Brisbane Region, and up to 20 children a day can be referred for placements. Sadly, Foster Carers are few-and-far-between. Many only want to take on babies, as they seem to think that they will have no 'behaviours' or no 'trauma'. Foster Carers are amazing people, they are not raising 'normal' children. These kids are in care for a reason, and have suffered varying degrees of trauma. Yes, they are only human, and will make mistakes, but what a job those Foster Carers do!

Noah has been a member of this household for a year now! He is really well behaved now - we never thought it would happen! He comes out the front with us, and as long as there are no distractions (dogs, cats, birds, invisible foes) we'll stay in the yard with us or come back if he is called. He loves walks and will leap into the air, nearly doing somersaults in excitement. He is also quite vocal when we arrive home. He will 'squawk' and bark and tell us all sorts of stories about his ad

ventures of protecting the yard for the day. He is still extremely independent and will claim he doesn't like to be fussed over, yet will lean into you if an ear rub is on offer. We find ourselves daily shaking our heads and laughing at his antics.

We managed to get our 4wd off the road for around 3 months around Christmas time. It had an unfortunate encounter with a cement barrier on the motorway. Recently, we decided to go exploring. After finding the National Park that we were going to had been closed, we headed up to Beerburrum State Forest near the Glasshouse Mountains. Everything was going great, until we encountered this.

The tree on the left was blocking the road, and when Clinton stepped in the water, he sank up to his knees. After several failed attempt of moving the tree, or breaking the branches off, Clinton decided he would just go for it. Needless to say, we ended up very much stuck, on an angle, with the car taking in water. After quite a while of madly collecting branches, sticks and anything else we could see it got dark. Only the back left wheel was spinning, and it was only digging itself in deeper. About then panic set in. 1. Who would we call?? 2. How on earth would they find us?? 3. AARGH! We called every person we could think of that lived, or had lived, on the Northside of Brisbane. Fortunately, we were able to contact someone (eventually!) who had a 4wd and was willing to come and tow us out. Clinton arranged to walk out to meet them, to (try) to guide them back to the car. Sonja stayed in the car, clinging on the the door (the angle was very awkward) staring out into the dark. Thankfully we had taken our new Navman, so Clinton was able to work out approximately where we were in relation to roads and was able to follow his 'exit track' back in with our rescuers! After a little while, the car was free! After many thanks, we set off home. While putting along the freeway, Sonja menti ons to Clinton that she can hear a hissing sounds. Clinton looks down at the temperature gauge and suddenly pulls over the side of the motorway. The car had overheated! After a call to RACQ, we were picked up by a tow-truck and driven home. The drama of the bogged car started around 5pm, and we finally arrived home at 10:30pm! What a day!

Two Weddings

2010-11-07T20:52:00.008+10:00

This month we've been to two weddings.

First was Carla and Justin. It was a lovely day (despite the rain).

Next was Susan & Kent's wedding. A lovely afternoon at Maleny.

Discovery time!

2010-09-17T21:20:00.002+10:00

Our latest 'addition' to the family is a 1994 Landrover Discovery.

Clinton decided that he wanted one, so we finally found one. It's a diesel and manual. Noah isn't too sure of the noise yet, but likes being able to see out the windows easily (Sonja likes this too, as it means he doesn't try to climb up her to see out!).

In the next week we'll be taking it down to our property to give it a good test. We'll see how we go across 2 creek crossings. As it is Big Camp this weekend, and we're not staying we've decided that for Sabbath we'll go for a nice drive. Clinton has been pouring over the 4wd tracks around, which has got Sonja rather worried as to what he is up to... He did suggest at one time going up the O'Reilly's 4wd track, but seeing Sonja can barely handle the 'normal' road that was very quickly ruled out!

Pictures will come of our Sabbath adventure.

It Is Written Medisonship

2010-09-11T21:09:00.001+10:00

It Is Written Medisonship from It Is Written Oceania on Vimeo.

2010-08-23T18:38:00.006+10:00

Many things have happened since our last post (again!).

Firstly, we took another BAC/DDCS group to the Solomon Islands. Once again, we did kids clubs during the morning and painted the Girls dorm in the evenings.

We had a team of 13 students and 7 adults.

This is Nusatupe airstrip at Gizo. Yes, it is just long enough for a (small!) plane to land on. Seeing the kids expressions as it came into view was quite worth it.

This is the girls 'bathroom' at Kukudu Adventist College.

After what can only be described as a miracle, the paint gun finally worked and we were able to paint the walls of the Girls dorm.

It took us around 3 days to clean the dorms, even before we could start cutting in the edges.

Next, we have bought a lovely little (460 acres) property between Armidale and Kempsey. We've got to buy a 4WD to get onto the property, we've also got to 'make' roads. Very exciting.

Out little Noah is going well. We've discovered the dog friendly beach at The Spit-Gold Coast. It's Noah's favourite! He's not too sure of the water though.

He's also been enjoying coming in at night for a while during these colder months.

What is important for Sonja and Clinton?

2010-05-11T20:29:00.002+10:00

A cool new tool on the web is Wordle. It creates images of words. More frequently occurring words are bigger. We ran our blog through this tool and found that our friends must have been getting married a lot, we work at a school and we have a puppy! I guess that will just increase the count of those words....

Fast Forward

2010-04-21T10:18:00.002+10:00

Much has happened since our last post.
1. We got a dog
2. We went to a wedding
3. We had our first wedding anniversary

Let's start with the most important thing first - puppy! I had been bugging Clinton for ages about getting a puppy. I had my heart set on a Miniature Pinscher. They are gorgeous and have some wonderful qualities, and would suit our medium-sized backyard. Unfortunatley, there aren't many up in QLD... and the few that are around were around $700-800! After many weeks of searching the internet, I found a little red male for $400 in Tamworth.

Enter Noah.

This is the little face that was posted on the internet, how could I resist??

After much growing, here are some recent photos:

Noah is quite a happy puppy (now 4.5 months old). His favourite things to do are tear apart any toys, particularly if they squeak, chase the ball, be chased, go on skink-patrol, go on moth-patrol, and eat! He particularly loves going down to the dog park to play with the other dogs, but likes to keep near Sonja or Clinton incase any of them scare him!

The day before our wedding anniversary, two of our great friends, Braden & Mandi got married! It was a lovely wedding. It was held at the Toowoomba church, with the reception in the hall. Here are some photos.

It was a lovely wedding, even more special because it was our first wedding anniversary the day after. Unfortunately, school started for Clinton and I came down with a cold, so our anniversary was a bit of a low key event. Clinton did get me some beautiful flowers though!

The Big Wet

2010-02-16T20:27:00.003+10:00

Well, after a few days of really high humidity and little sleep at night, today the land turned to water! When the rain fell, it really fell! The joy of my room at school is that there is no covering to reach the main school buildings, so the kids didn't want to go out. For that matter, neither did I! So I didn't! I stayed hiding in my room, doing all my paperwork.

Well, I did that for as long as that lasted. Suddenly, the power went out. Lights, computers, all of it. I discovered that water had been pouring into the art room next door. As our building is lower than most of the school the water flowed down the pipes and out into the teacher's room! There was a good 5cms of water lying on the floor! As if that wasn't enough, the water started flowing out of the power box! It was this that brought the maintenance guys and the Principal running, which resulted in the power being turned off ASAP!

Then I turned around and caught a glimpse of the creek! I did a double take! It was flowing like a river! The Principal told me that it was flowing over the road-bridge! Insane! The new foot-bridge was still standing tall.

Brisbane city was underwater. Cars were stacked on top of each other, with water up to the windows! Apparently it was the heaviest rainfall in 9 years!

Norman Hotel car park

Eating out....

2010-02-04T19:06:00.003+10:00

There is a restaurant called the Loving Hut in Mount Gravatt. I have been wanting to try it for some time. Sonja had visited this place with work a year ago and didn't really appreciate the soy iced chocolate. As such it had been on the back-burner for awhile. Needing to get out, we decided to give a go tonight.

It is a vegetarian restaurant complete with Eastern save-the-animals ideology. There was this brochure about vegetarianism which included an interview with some grand master. On the brochure was a list of famous vegetarians which included Jesus Christ. I might be mistaken, but I thought Christ ate fish.

For entrée we had soy chicken nuggets - kind of like the nuggets that Sanitarium used to make. They were quite good. For main, I ordered a Singapore noodle dish (for about $10) and Sonja a meat-and-veges dish (also for about $10). Sonja's vegetable's had a gravy type sauce of which pepper seemed to be the principle ingredient. It was way too much for either of us. Her meat type thing was okay. My Singapore noodles were good. They had a bit too much coriander and could have benefited from a greater variety of flavours.

We would go again. We would both get different dishes. One of the main attractions of the shop is a freezer full of different soy meats. Perhaps this will provide opportunity for many creations of our own!

School starts again....

2010-02-01T20:01:00.002+10:00

So we're back on the 'rollercoaster'. Second week of school. Kids are sounding out the teachers, teachers are trying to convince the students they're not to be messed with... Meanwhile we're getting some lovely rain. Hmmm....

Garden is growing well, would put up some photos if we had a camera... Yep, we've lost it. *insert sad face* It's either somewhere on the property, or in amongst luggage that hasn't been sorted through yet. Or lost in the depths of someone's car.

Property? Yes, we're planning on buying 460 acres of bush. We'll have to clear the road into the property, make the driveway which includes clearing a patch through the river, and slash waist high grass and growth. Yep, sounds fun. More to come soon.

Polar Bears, Weddings and Gardens!

2010-01-13T19:37:00.007+10:00

Last weekend turned out to be quite a fun-fulled weekend! Nat and Andre's wedding was on Sunday, and Clinton was a groomsman so we had to travel down for the practise on Friday.

Seeing we have a QLD pass to Seaworld we thought we'd drop by on the way. The Polar Bears are our favourite as is the Dolphin Show. It always amazes me just how willing the Dolphins are. Last time we went we watched the show twice. I love the Dolphins!!

Jumping High!

Swimming backwards!

Surfing on a Dolphin!

But the Polar Bears, well... they are just soo amazing! This guy had to be coaxed out, and also coaxed into the water but then he seemed to enjoy it. The underwater viewing was amazing.

Why should I wake up?Going for a dip!

Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming!

The other amazing part was being able to touch a stingray! They had a touch tank! I touched quite a few, and also a sovel-nose shark too! Clinton had to be talked into it, and freaked himself out! I loved the weird feel of it!

Shovel nose shark!

Trying to reach a stingray to pat.Clinton's friend.

Sunday was the grand-event! I forgot my camera, and ended up being in charge of the video camera! Was a truly beautiful wedding down at the Gold Coast. Here is a picture that I have "stolen" from Imogen!

After the huge weekend, we came back to work on our garden. We've been having lots of problems with crows eating everything, so we had to crow-proof the garden, as well as give it some shade. Here's the results of today:

We've got corn, silver beet and lettuce so far, as well as a few tomatoes that are coming up. Our herbs are doing really well too!

Here are my Carrots!

Gardens and Owls

2010-01-06T12:00:00.003+10:00

We've been working on our garden since returning from holidays. We needed to put more soil into our garden box, dose it up with nutrients and get some seedlings. Generally, the yard needed a really good clean up too. Why? Rain. It seems that while we were away it actually rained, and rained enough to make things green and grow. Unfortunately this also included the weeds.

While doing our stock up on soil at Bunnings, Clinton hurt his back. So he's been out of action, which has left me to do a good bit of the gardening. I mowed for the first time yesterday. Yep, just as I thought, I hate mowing. I hate mowers even more though. They throw things at you, like rocks! Not nice.

With all the soil in, we've so far planted lettuce, silverbeet, carrots, some more herbs (seems our potplant family of herbs is growing rapidly), and some tomato seedlings. We've also got some snowpeas which will go in soon too.

Today is a rather overcast day, and perhaps this is the reason for our visitor. We've had one of his kind before, it may even be the same one! An Owl has decided the edge of our window makes a very good perch! The only problem is, it's the window right beside the kitchen table, and he look at you if you sit there! He's a big Tawny Frogmouth, seemingly very well fed.

We're currently working on trying to Crow-proof the garden. Rotten crows keep pulling up things, eating things, or just generally destroying things for the sake of it! Any ideas on crow-proofing a garden box???

A New Year!

2010-01-03T15:07:00.002+10:00

Well, isn't it exciting, it's a new year. Welcome 2010 - i hope you'll be a good one!

We've had a lovely holiday so far. First of all, we went up to Agnes Waters for a few days. It was lovely. Poor Clinton was a little unsure when he first saw how small Agnes Waters/1770 is, but he soon warmed up to having a slower pace... We stayed at the Agnes Waters Beach Club which was amazing. We had a self-contained unit, which had an amazing little kitchen, as well as a huge balcony. To make things better, we were at the back, which meant we had a view of the bush and to our left the salt water pool. Mmm, that pool was lovely too, and it had a spa!!

We had a choice of either going on a LARC tour, or out to Lady Musgrave Island. Clinton choose Lady Musgrave, which was a lovely day out. The boat trip took a while to get there, and it was rather rough, but when we got there it was great. There was the pontoon where you could just sit and relax, a guided tour of the Island which included some local history, snorkeling (we saw a small ray, turtles, reef sharks and soo many fish!), lunch, semi-submersible, and coral viewing. It was really worth the sunburn! If you've ever up that way, it is really worthwhile going (http://www.lmcruises.com.au).

We then headed back down to Hervey Bay. Not as keen on this place. I thought we'd go all fancy and stay at the Mantra. Bad move. Our "King Size Bed" was two single beds pushed together... our "View of the Marina" consisted of a very smelly view of only half the marina and our balcony was the smallest possible size... our room was above the cafe downstairs which had live music until VERY late at night.... I wasn't impressed!! As for Hervey Bay itself, when it isn't whale watching season, there is actually very little to do!

We then drove down to Cooranbong to stay with Sonja's parents. Was a lovely Christmas. Got to see a couple of friends while we were down, which was really great! While down there we bought a really cool coffee table!

Our lovely "gift" waiting for us when we got home was a power outage... which resulted in a fridge full of off food that was putrid!!! Wasn't nice. We spend Friday evening cleaning it out, trying not to gag the entire time. Sadly we lost the top tier of our wedding cake, which made me rather sad. I know it's a rather silly little tradition, but still.... Second lovely gift was no hot water. The switch is broken. I do not like cold showers! Hopefully that will be fixed tomorrow!!!!

We're now working on the garden. Lots of rain while we were away, which has made everything green. Amazing! Going to have to put up a "crow barrier" of some description, because they're eating/pulling up everything we plant so far. We went to Bunnings to get some plants, and Clinton hurt his back trying to pick up some soil for our garden. So he's now flat on his back. Looks like it'll be up to me to get in and do some gardening!

Sorry!

2009-12-10T20:46:00.004+10:00

We've been quite slack! Wow, last update was quite a while ago. Hmm, what has happened? Well, a lot really. Let's see:

April 19 - We got married! Was a lovely weekend event spent with family and friends, with the ceremony finishing it all up on the Sunday.

Our honeymoon was spent at Uluru and Alice Springs. Amazing places! Warm? Yes, particularly when wandering around during the day. Sonja has always wanted to see Australia, so it was a wonderful surprise from Clinton.

June/July we took 15 kids to the Solomon Islands on a Sonship trip. Brisbane Adventist College and Darling Downs Christian School (Toowoomba) combined to take students across to do up the high school dormities during the afternoon, and kids clubs in the morning. We've already selected our 2010 team and will start up again once school resumes.

Kids Club

Painting begins

Finished product

Heat....

2009-02-11T13:28:00.002+10:00

February 2009... what a month it has been already!

Bush fires in Victoria, and floods up north! Some of the stories that are being told cannot help but touch your heart. I hope that there is never another bushfire like this one. What amazes me is the response of Australians, and the rest of the world.

Donations are streaming in, banks are pledging $1 million, Coles are putting all their proceeds this Friday towards the need, people are opening their homes to the now homeless.

May we always remember this day, and learn from it.

Christmas Break

2009-01-22T11:45:00.006+10:00

Christmas break this year was a busy one. We decided to drive to Melbourne... inland!

First major stop was Dubbo. By the time we arrived we were quite happy to eat tea and then crash. Next day was our adventure to Dubbo Zoo. It was good to see all the animals in large paddocks, even if it meant you always didn't see much of them. We learnt how to tell the difference between a White and Black Rhino, and that a White Rhino is a mis-translation of the original word "Wide" because of their wide lip. It was an exhausting day because of the size of the Zoo, but it is definitely a must-see!

When we arrived in Melbourne we spend time with Clinton's brothers and father, as well as their relatives. We traipsed around the City, went to Lygon Street, but no, we didn't see any gang wars play out. Clinton and Sonja discovered a second hand bookshop that they desperately wanted to relocate to Brisbane.

Clinton went to the Boxing Day cricket with his brothers and dad. While they were up really high, they all enjoyed it. Clinton loved watching Bay 13 and the antics that went on there.

Sonja went to Puffing Billy with her parents.
While up on the Puffing Billy adventure Sonja went and looked at the model train display. It was amazing! There were lists around the room and you had to try to find the objects in the different scenes. Every now and then the lights would be turned off, and all the house, street, shop and train lights would come on.

After Christmas Day, Clinton and Sonja went off with Sonja's parents to explore the Great Ocean Road. The scenery was beautiful, pity that it was windy, cold and rained on and off. It was interesting to read about how the landscape formed and continued to change. The towns were quaint and the things to see never ended. One thing that in particular amused Sonja, was these signs. She wondered how the tourists got to this point, if they were unaware that we drove on the left from the beginning of their journey....

It was then time for the journey back to begin. Stopping by Canberra gave us a change to catch up with Lachlan & Clansi and see a bit of Canberra. Clinton went with Lachlan to see his Lab. He took a whole heap of photos that I'm sure make sense to them, but perhaps not the rest of the world! We also visited Cocking Green Gardens, which was wonderful! All the small details amused us to no end!

Then we were off again, to Cooranbong this time. We left Clinton's car there and flew back to Brisbane to mow the lawn... well, to do some other stuff as well. Our poor little garden hadn't faired well while we were away. Brisbane had some very intense heat and not enough rain. We then flew back to Cooranbong to go to Clinton's housemates' wedding.

Peter & Karina's wedding was lovely. But, as all weddings are, it was a great excuse to catch up with friends. Our table at the reception had a wonderful time. It was certinally good fun! Apparently, Clinton is worse to hit than a Kangaroo, and Braden is seen to be an MC eater. Very educational! After the wedding we then flew back home.

Garden

2008-12-05T21:17:00.008+10:00

We are developing a veggie garden at Clinton's place.

Stewart, Clinton's father helped build the structure. We looked around around at the garden beds that were already made, but none of them seemed that good. After a few pieces of wood and some black plastic we had our own structure.

Next came the filling. First went in a layer of tea tree mulch that expanded as you put water on it. Next, a layer of straw and then bags of potting mix. A friend got us some manure which we mixed in.

The potting mix wasn't the best quality, so we took to pouring on some liquid fertilizer, which seems to have done the trick. We have a worm farm, so we're able to add the 'worm pee' to the garden as well.

At present we are growing corn, capsicum, broccoli, beetroot, silverbeat and trying to grow carrot. We bought small seedlings for all this, except carrot. We got some seeds, and while we could get them to sprout, the heat would zap them before they could get any strength up.

Air show at Amberley

2008-10-22T16:42:00.015+10:00

Clinton's father came to visit during camp. Big camp went well, apart from the fact that we all came down with food poisoning after camp.

As a treat and as a something fun to do while his dad was up, we all went to the the air show at Amberley. Amberley is a suburb south-west of Brisbane and is the location of an RAAF base. The show was officially titled Australian Defence Force 2008 Air Show. There were a range of defence force displays but of course the show really belonged to the planes.

The day was oppressively hot, about 32 degrees, and certainly much hotter under the sun. With limited shade opportunities (they seem to avoid planting shade trees on airstrips!) we all left a bit weary from the sun. A good day, however, was had by everybody, with memories of some amazing sights. These include:

1. The Roulettes. Sonja and Clinton have seen the Roulettes on display the last two years at RiverFire. As such it is very cool to actually see the planes parked on the runway. They performed a display later in the day, including a number of death defying stunts. In one display the fly at each other from opposite ends of the runway then turn and pass barely a wing span apart. In another display two planes fly the length of the runway, with one plane flying upside down directly above the other.

2. C17 Globemaster : This plane is gigantic. Clinton estimated that the height of the tail was over 10 metres above the ground. It is actually close to 17 metres tall. You can park two semi-trailers in it side by side. It makes the Hercules parked on the runway next to it look small and insignificant. During the course of the air show, a C17 did a fly by. It was amazing how quiet and manoeuvrable such a large plane could be.

3. The stunt planes. Several stunt pilots performed displays. Throughout the displays, a commentary was given by a number of ground based observers through a series of loudspeakers situated along the length of the runway. During one display, they patched through the radio being used by the pilot. In this way they were able to interview him while his was performing the stunts. The pilot, "Pip", continued to talk throughout his manoeuvres, providing a commentary of his own stunts. The thought of twisting around in one of those planes is mind numbing. Much less, being able to maintain a conversation with the ground based commentators. Another stunt pilot cut a ribbon that was being held up by long poles with his wing tips.

Black sapote pudding

2008-09-15T19:08:00.004+10:00

Sonja frequently fantasises about black sapotes or chocolate fruit. Her seemingly greatest lament in life is the chocolate fruit true that she never was able to sample in Rockhampton.

By chance we found someone selling black sapotes at the markets a couple of Sundays ago. We purchased five of them and allowed them to ripen. Knowing, from a previous experience, that they needed to eaten with something, Sonja found a recipe for black sapote recipe.

She made it tonight at my place, using a muffin tray instead of a cake tin. The resulting mini-puddings tasted like a delicate very mild chocolate pudding. Clinton decided that the best way to enjoy them would be with a cherry sauce, like in a black forest cake. As we didn't have cherry sauce, we substituted a Tasmanian raspberry sauce. The sauce was given to us by our friends Lachlan and Clansi at their wedding. It has sat in my cupboard waiting for the perfect opportunity. So for desert, we had black sapote pudding with Tasmanian raspberry sauce! Delicious!

Acceleration....

2008-09-14T19:49:00.004+10:00

This weekend achieved a blind acceleration. It started well. By the end, though, we were amazed at how many things we had done.

On Sabbath we elected to have a relaxing day out of the city. Clinton picked Sonja up and we headed up to Mount Tamborine. We enjoyed a relaxed lunch, lamented the fact that the hang gliders weren't flying, then started on a walk to a water fall. The walk ended up taking a bit longer than planned, through Clinton's fault. By the time we returned to the car we were quite foot sore. For tea we revisited a take away in the main street. We were impressed with the potato scallops in the past and ventured to relive this experience. We were sadly disappointed as the take away seems to have changed hands and the potato scallops were almost burnt.

Sunday started with our regular visit to the Mount Gravatt fruit markets. Today the flea markets were huge. We are not sure how the golf range is going to fare with people parking on it. We bought mangoes again today. It is surprising that they are available so early in the year. They are of a reasonable quality, especially given the price (6 for $5), so we aren't complaining.

After eating some of the spoils of our visit the markets, we were motivated to go and look at worm farms. This we did, at the Bunnings on Creek Road. We left with a worm farm, 1000 worms, a tomato plant, and a special pot for growing tomatoes. These were all successfully assembled and planted. We were enjoying the last of our lunch (including a fantastic guacamole, featuring garlic, lemon juice, and chilli flakes) when the phone rang. One of the teacher's from school had a few spare tickets for "My fair lady" and said that if we could get to QPAC by 3 we could have them. It was 2.

We enjoyed "My fair lady". It is less of a musical and more of a drama. The costuming and set was amazing. All this excitement has left as a little tired though!

Lots of things...

2008-09-13T09:29:00.003+10:00

Much is to be said. Slow are the fingers! The interval between the last post has seen much happen, so much that we haven't lurked here for a while.

A couple of weekends ago, our friends from Toowoomba joined us for RiverFire. We had an all afternoon picnic near the Captain Cook Bridge. When it came time for the fireworks we were joined by a few friends. The dump and burn from the F1-11 was amazing!

The weekend prior to that we travelled to Bundaberg for church. We wanted to deliver year 12 exam survival pack. Bundaberg church is the coolest Adventist church building in the world!!! It is in the old Presbyterian cathedral in the centre of town. It is even called St. Andrew's Seventh-day Adventist Church! We had a great day.

Sonja is now working at BAC as a teacher's aide. She is really enjoying the work.

Camp is coming up next weekend, so that means year 12 submissions for Clinton. It will be fun at camp this year as Clinton is doing a different job.

Weekend getaways!

2008-07-28T12:28:00.005+10:00

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

2008-07-15T19:59:00.005+10:00

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

2008-07-14T10:27:00.014+10:00

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

Welcome!

2008-06-08T14:28:00.005+10:00

Welcome to out blogspot!

Here we will post our random adventures for our family and friends to read about.

As most of you will be aware, became engaged while traveling overseas. The wedding is planned to happen in April 2009. We are looking at having a weekend together with family and friends at Somerset Lake. We will be booking out the Camp Somerset, which has cabins and wonderful facilities. Further details will appear closer to the date.

Please don't hesitate to leave us a comment, we'd love to hear from you!