May
On the 23rd May Melissa & Al came for a week, there was a Printing Expo being held in Melbourne, it was also supposed to be a surprise for me but due to my scheduled surgery they told me about their trip. So we picked them up from the airport at 7.15 pm. On Tuesday I went into Footscray for surgery to repair the abdominal fistula. My surgery was scheduled for 1.30 pm, Miss & Al returned from their day at the expo around 7 pm & I was still waiting, I finally went in to theatre at 9 pm. I woke around midnight feeling sore but good. When Mr Winnett came around in the morning I informed him I wished to go home due to Miss & Al being here & the fact that I could look after myself better. So I rang the kids & had them pick me up, getting home at 11.30 am. The following day I went with Melissa & Al to the Exhibition Centre in Melbourne to the Printing Expo, I walked around slowly, sitting whenever I felt tired. That evening the kids went to the function at the casino so they paid for 2 Gold Class movie tickets so I went & saw Night at the Museum 2 & Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. We got home around 1am & set to work on that weeks Pilbara Echo Newspaper edition, I sat up & helped edit all the articles & final pdf files, thereby starting a weekly ritual.
On the Sunday morning the 31st May, Melissa & Al returned home on the 6.15 am flight.
I went to lunch at the Great Western Hotel with the Geelong Lapband Support Group, it was an interesting luncheon, there were some lovely people there.
June
On the following weekend the 6th June Stewie, Dave & myself went up to Bendigo to look at a boat. The one we went up to look at was over priced but new looking, the boat that I found is older but a more sturdier boat, also the trailer is a tandem one. The price was $9995.00 so we offered them $8500 cash, they said no $8750.00, so I said ok, as we were getting onto the back of the car, the hydraulic ram on the motor let go spewing oil everywhere so I winked at Dave & said, really loud so the sales rep would hear, Im glad weve not paid for it, after seeing that happen I wonder what else is buggered, I think it best if we just forget the deal & get that other boat we looked at yesterday., The sales rep ran inside, was gone all of 1 minute & returned saying the manager says its yours for $8500, we said ok as it was only a $30 seal that needed replacing...score they also knocked $99 off a fish finder for us. So we left with a boat.
I eft for Perth on the 19th June arriving at Perth at 7.15 pm in the belting rain, Anthony picked me up, at it was surprise for Caron. We arrived at their new place in Waneroo, Caron was so shocked & surprised it was so worth all the secrecy.
I stayed with Caron, Anthony & the kids until the Wednesday, I went into the city & stayed the Criterion Hotel, the cheapest in Perth. I caught a taxi the following morning to the airport & flew up to Karratha to spend the weekend with Melissa & Al.
I arrived at 8.30 am, to a gorgeous sunny morning, stepping off the plane was like returning home. The colours of the soil, plants, sky was so vivid and bright. After spending months in winter like skies I was lapping up the sun. We drove into town to where the shop is located & met the staff & started work.
The following day was spent driving out to Python pool & Millstream. the scenery was just as breath taking & the improvements made to Millstream were impressive. Even though there was flood damage it was still a peaceful, tranquil place, an excellent way to recharge the soul.
We arrived back into Karratha at 6 pm showered, dressed & went out for dinner at The Icon, 'the' place to eat in Karratha. We sat out in the beer garden & when a table came free inside we went in, & ordered our meal, which even though was pricy was excellent.
Saturday morning was spent catching up on work then in the afternoon, newspaper breakdown was to be done, then deliveries. It was impressive to see almost 1 tonne of newspaper on a pallet, unloading it wasn't too bad. The papers were sorted into walker allotments along with the weekly brochures, the remaining papers were loaded into the van & distributed around town.
We drove out to Dampier & had a meal at the Yacht club, it was lovely sitting on the balcony overlooking the ocean watching the sun set.
Sunday morning was spent delivering papers to outlying towns, then we went to Port Samson & shared a fisherman's basket at the local hotel, in took 3 of us 2 hours to eat it all, it had prawns, in their shell, crumbed prawns, mussels, crumbed calamari, oysters kilpatrick, fish in batter, potato wedges and .
To burn off what we ate & drank we walked out to the exposed reef & investigated all the rock pools looking for octopus and crabs.
Monday was spent working until my flight back to Perth at 5.30 pm, I was going to miss the warmth & sun.
Elisa, Darian & Matthew & Joel picked me up from the airport that evening, I then spent the remainder of my time in Perth staying at their house.
Whilst in Perth Melissa & Al came down to attend the Telstra Small Business Awards that were being held at the Hyatt Regency Ballroom in Perth, they invited me along so I bought myself a new dress, shoes and all the needed accessories. It was the first ball I had ever attended & I really felt special getting all dressed up.
Whilst Melissa & Al were in Perth I organised a surprise party for Eloise & Matthew, Dad & Alison came up from Albany & Jacquie & the kids came as well. It was good to see everyone together enjoying themselves.
On the Friday before I left we (Elisa, Talia, Eloise, Matthew, Joel & Talia's friend) went to the Zoo, we met up with Jacqui, Ashley, Kathryn, Nathaniel and Ashley's two school friends. We spent the day looking around, having coffee & chatting away.
Saturday morning was spent packing for that evenings flight, then Elisa, Darian, Eloise, Megan, Joel & myself went to Sizzler for lunch. Afterwards i went over to Caron & Anthony's but there was no-one home so I went & hung out down at the Whitfords shopping centre for awhile then rang Ashley to see what she was doing, as she was home I went over there & had coffee with Jacquie, they invited me to the movies to go & see Ice Age 3 before my flight. So off to Joondalup Cinema & watched the movie, had a quick take away dinner before leaving to get to the airport in time for my flight.
My flight was delayed yet again, & when boarding finally was called I was held back due to the size of my cabin bag. My argument was that they allowed it on the flight from Melbourne to Perth so why not the other way...it held the plane up for a good 15 minutes while they argued amongst themselves & they even had the Federal Police come down in case I caused a scene. Finally i was allowed on the plane with my illegal sized bag...
Arriving home felt good, to be in my own bed, I had a quick cat nap before Dave dragged me down the street to Ray's Tent City looking at Swags & Engels, we came away with a swag & engel on layby.
The remainder of July was fairly uneventful.
August
Started with Paige's 2nd birthday which was held at Crazy Critters in Norlane, an indoor gym for kids with a cafe attached for the adults it also caters for kids parties.
Halfway through August Mum sent me a text saying they wereon their way as they were having car problems, they arrived on the Sunday 23rd August & did the touristy thing whilst they had their car repaired, they visited the Melbourne Zoo & Werribee Zoo & spent the day out at The Point Cook Airforce Museum which is great value as its free. Mum celebrated her birthday whilst she was here, leaving around lunch time.
Friday saw Dave in Weribee having a colonoscopy, I went shopping whilst he underwent the procedure, picking him up around 2 pm, dropping him home so he could head off to Nelson, fishing for the weekend with the boys.
I spent a quiet weekend at home, watching movies, playing on the computer.
The following week saw me start at my Aged care placement for nursing I completed 1 week in the high dependency unit, thoroughly enjoying myself, but the lifting took its toll on my body & I have re-injured my abdomen, so now I wait until I see the surgeon as to what my choices are going to be.
Friday came along with Bec's 23rd birthday, I picked her up & we went into Geelong & had dinner at the Thai restaurant then looked around the shops.
As Dave missed Bec's birthday due to work he babysat Paige whilst Bec & I went to the movies, we saw District 9, afterwards we had dinner at La Porchetta, and came home to a quiet, fed, happy little girl & a calm Pop.
Thursday saw us driving up to Deniliquin in NSW to attend Dave's aunties funeral, we got up at 4.45am & left the house at 5.45am arriving in Deni at 10am just as the service had started, there was standing room only in the church, it was a quick service lasting around 30 minutes. The rain started to fall out at the cemetery as they lowered the coffin.
We went back to the reception for tea & cake & a quick catch up with the relatives, we left Deni around 1pm, we caught up with quite a few friends in Bendigo before leaving for Gisborne to have dinner.
Friday night we went out in the bay fishing for snapper, it started out fairly rough but as the night drew out the calmer it became until the sea mist rolled in around 1 am. Saturday I stayed at home cleaning the house, & preparing for the bbq. I decided to splurge on the required spirits to make shooters. Dave's friend Redeye & his girlfriend Di came over for tea as well as Bec & Paige who stayed the night.
Im all caught up.....
