2013 SO FAR

We arrived in Canberra at Peter and Sandy's to a very warm welcome but after 3 weeks over Christmas and New Year they may have been pleased to see us depart and let Peter get his piece of dirt in the front yard back.

We had a wonderful time with Phil and Tara and Jasmine, Kai and Mica, Amanda and Ben and Izaac, and David and Holly and Ashley - and of course Peter and Sandy.

Also joining us over Christmas were Sandy's mother, Lesley, brother Wayne and his wife Lee and son Alex which made for a big Christmas Lunch.

Far too much food was consumed by all and even after Christmas the food fest continued.

Lee, Alex, Wayne, Lesley and Lesley

Me, Peter, Kai, Phil Jasmin

Grandma Trudgen and Kai

Back Kai and Jasmin nursing Mica (Phil and Tara's, Izaac (Ben and Amanda/s) and in the middle, Ashley (David and Holly's)

Lee, Lesley Trudgen and Alex

Is it a pixie?? Is it an elf??  No - it's Liberace re-incarnated

Neither Pixie or Elf, its Phil and David

 

We finally got enough time in one major place to finalise our holiday for June so we are very pleased with that.  We now just have to pack our bags and board the plane - the first of nearly 80 hours total flying time 30 days away, don't know how many different countries and through lots of different time zones.

The last few days in Canberra were really warm but on our way to Parkes we stopped in at a cafe at Cowra and the waitress there said that her temp gauge registered 54' in her back yard and this was early January.

We weren't looking forward to the Festival one little bit because of the weather which was expected to get up to 42'

Parkes offered us up the usual bad wigs, bad singing and smelly Elvis impersonators but although the weather kept a few people away, there were still thousands of people who poured into town with open wallets to boost the economy of Parkes along.

Following an extended stay in Mackay to touch base for the start of school and give Kathy a hand I drove back down to Rocky for long time friend Terry Moore's birthday.  Unfortunately, the rest of the gang couldn't be there except Tracy and it was great catching up with the rest of the Moores.  Then on to Ipswich where I caught up with Stuart who was coming from the other direction after I left him in Parkes, 6 weeks earlier.

During the course of the next week or so, we swapped vehicles, caught up with Andrew and Tom, Stuart had a kidney stone attack and had surgery to have one removed, we sold the Iveco and travelled back to Mackay for Joel's 18th birthday.......

 

 

Joel in a very flattering pose with his lovely girlfriend Stacy

 

 

Proud Parents Pete and Kylie

Joel's friend? Kathy, Troy, Stacy's sister Hayley, Kylie, Pete, Grandma, Joel, Stacy and Ricki Lee

Grandma

Ricki Lee and Kathy

Ricki Lee, Me, Kathy, Tracy

Tracy, Kylie and Kathy

Joe and I

Nicky, Joe, Me, Pete

Pete, Joel and Kylie with the cutting of Joel's cake.
He doesn't look real impressed as it was a replica of his first birthday cake (below

 

.......  where Kylie and Pete hosted a great party for their oldest son and we both agreed (Kylie and I) that he wasn’t getting another 18^th and for that matter Zachary wasn’t even getting one. We were both a bit the worst for wear next day – me especially. Tracy and Tony came up from Rocky and Joe and Nicky and the boys came up from Yeppoon. Unfortunately Brett couldn’t make it from Ipswich but it was great having most of my family together.

While there we were privileged to attend the 80th birthday of a great friend of ours, Alf PAGDEN and his lovely wife and my long time friend Sjaan.  We caught up with a lot of our old friends while there and even got in a few dances.

We then left for Rockhampton to visit Nan (my mother in Law) who had a nasty fall a few weeks ago and broke the head of her femur.

She is in the Mater in Rockhampton and can't wait to go home.

We travelled back to Ipswich where Stuart had another trip into hospital to have more of the quarry removed from his kidneys and then to Gympie on our way to Widgee for the Webb Brothers Country music festival.

The first morning we woke up on Thornside (Webb Bros Property) there was a heavy fog....

A Foggy Morning with ghostly figures making their early morning trip to the toilets

Many years ago The Three Webb Brothers were a very popular group on the Country Music Scene.



Berard and Fabian Webb



In recent years very little has been heard about The Webb boys but around the Gympie area where they still run their family property Thornside at Widgee outside of Gympie they are a very familiar family.  It was sad to only see 2 of the brothers singing on stage as the middle brother Marius, was unwell at the time and didn't feel up to attending.  However the other two brothers Fabian and Berard sang some of their old favourites including "Call of the Bellbird" and received a standing ovation following their performance.  If forced to be a little critical I would say that their voices have become a little shaky and have lost a little of the old strength, but the sound is still there.

The lineup included great names like Tanya Kernaghan

 

and Graeme Connors. 

 Amongst the big list of entertainers we were also  entertained by a man who to us was just Brett's next door neighbour Neil Dobby but who turned out to be one of the most talented country singers we have heard in a long time.

 

Neil is an all round entertainer who can tell a joke, sing a song, play his guitar and in his spare time runs pig races.  He is sought after for his entertainment skills from the Gold Coast to Toowoomba and as far west as he is prepared to travel

After we left Widgee, we made our way to Kingaroy for the show and then  it was back to Ipswich for Stuart's ongoing kidney stone treatment.

 

Where has this year gone.....

Corbin complained that he hadn’t read anything from me in a while (forgetting that I have been back in Mackay for most of the last 3 months.)
Well here you are Corbin - I know I have at least one fan of my ramblings, even if he is only 8 - sorry mate - nearly 9.

We then travelled out to Roma for a show there and then its back to Ipswich to have the stent removed from Stuart's body and then we head north to Clermont for our Last 2 shows, Clermont and Emerald before we go O.S.