GDR

Went camping with the MRA to the Great Escape Rally held near Marrabel, South Australia. The weather was outstanding, great friends, good food and a bit of wine with conversation around the campfire. Christened the new tent which was a breeze to erect, on the perfectly sized drop sheet that left just the right amount of room to slip off the shoes and store supplies. Probably went to bed a little late, but fun was had by all. At 4am one of the local feral cats knocked over some gear at a neighbours tent which had me startled, but was able to get back to sleep pretty quickly. After packing up we went over to Clare for the annual food and wine festival. Tried Annies Lane but the loud music was a bit much for pre-midday. ... read more

Final Day, you guessed it, breakfast was amazing. I sat in the central area today, even walk to all types of food. There was no cooked salmon, nor smoked salmon today. Not happy Jan. I checked out of the hotel, with the bill added to my card in Australian dollars - nice. Big and small bag in tow, I head off to the training in the convention centre. Training went well, and we covered almost all areas I was interested in, however the last two items were just demo only rather than fully configured on our own laptops. Something to setup once I get home I guess. I repack my bags putting all cables into the luggage bag, leaving the two laptops and external drives in my shoulder bag. I get changed into travel clothes, and ... read more

Good evening all, well here I am, all rugged up in my monogrammed robe because the airconditioner wont go any hotter. last night I slept with the doona up round my ears as I left the aircon on all night. I must have rolled over a dozen times as the doona was a shambles this morning, with me cocooned in the middle somewhere. I nearly had to ring for someone to help me untangle me out of the twisted enwrapment of warm duck down. I had intentions of cracking out the ironing board to make myself really look the part for the first day of business. However, after realised that after having a shower there might not be enough time, what with dressing for breakfast, having breakfast, then changing into work gear and heading down to ... read more

The flight to Malaysia was good, easy check in, easy boarding and seating. Was delighted to find the flight was 2 hours less then expected, so arrived earlier than I thought. Watched two movies and some sitcoms after a short nana nap after takeoff. Must have been that before flight drink that kicked in. The three next to me were taking photos on the plane, many out the window but some inside. The flash would go off and it was interesting to see that every awake passenger looked up in unison and thought wtf. Not something one expects to see on a plane flight, rather unnerving for such a simple thing. It is nice though when one of these larger planes take off and land, without the massive roar of the engines and violent acceleration and ... read more

Flew to Port Lincoln for a 3 day weekend and went on a 'Swim with the Tuna' adventure. We boarded the twin decked catamaran for a liesurely 15 minute cruise out to the tuna pontoon. This is a 45m double collar ring floating just to the south of Boston Island, and is equiped with all you could want even a postbox, changerooms, deli and warm freshwater showers. Below in one of the sectioned off pools of the pontoon were around 30 tuna, weighing up to 70kg. We changed into the wetsuits, (wet)boots and (wet)gloves, donned some goggles with snorkel and entered the tuna pool. Exposed fingers look like fish, so are good to have covered and away from view. In the water you floated about looking into the depths, while small 20cm uninvited fish that have ... read more