Sorry!

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....

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

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

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

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

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....

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!