Blogs from Maryborough, Queensland, Australia, Oceania

Up early for a jog – making the most of the morning sun without the searing heat. We all sat round and had breakfast together before Rowena, Matt and I headed off to Hervey Bay, a local town and beach area. Once at Hervey Bay we dipped in a few shops so Matt could have a look in the sales for the Samsung tablet he wanted to get for Christmas. Once purchased we headed to the beach – it was rather quiet and looked like they had had a few extra high tides, as some of the beach had been washed away, with some fish and lots of jellyfish washed up. However the area and remaining beach was still nice so we walked along and found a nice spot to settle on. Like yesterday the water ... read more

Up at 6am for my traditional Christmas morning jog - just this year in considerably warmer temperatures. So once completed I jumped straight in the pool to cool off. We all sat and had a very yummy breakfast of fresh fruit salad together before Dell and Cheryl headed off to church and Matt, Rowena and I headed to the beach. We headed to a beautifully quiet beach, and the tied was going out so we splashed and walked out in the shallow water for ages. Eventually we got far enough out to be thigh deep and go for a swim. We realised however that there were lots of jellyfish in the slightly deeper water going out with the tide, we must have past around 30, and after successfully dodging them it got increasingly harder, so we ... read more

Up early to finish sorting my room and giving it a good clean before heading off on our Christmas holiday. Left the house at 11am and we expected the traffic out of Brisbane to be terrible, but it was flowing freely the whole way. We were spending Christmas with Matt’s nan (Dell) in Maryborough which was around a 3.5 hour drive, so pretty close in Australian terms! Dell is a fantastic lady, very sharp and intelligent and so very welcoming, which was lovely. After a cold and refreshing drink and an hour or so of chatting Rowena, Matt had a quick change and headed into the pool. It was heaven after the long drive and the heat and we stayed in for several hours, emerging slightly prune like! We all had a lovely chilled evening, with ... read more

Wow, what a ride! After a bus terminal fiasco in New York that led to us spending six extra hours at the JFK Etihad air terminal instead sharing a farewell drink with Deb & Damian at Times Square, plus 30 hours in the air (broken by just a two-hour stint in Abu Dhabi) and then hitting the ground running (with photography bookings) before we'd even arrived back in the 'Borough, I can now start thinking about updating this blog. But it'll have to wait until tonight though - I've still got two meetings to attend this afternoon. Talk soon.... read more

In just over 12 hours, Don and I will be jetting our way to England and the Titanic Memorial Cruise along with good friends Debbie and Damian. On Sunday, we'll board the Balmoral, one of the Fred Olsen Cruise Line and sail to Cobh, Ireland, where we spend a day exploring the area. Then we set sail again to trace the path of the ill-fated Titanic, except that we don't hit an iceberg and don't go down! Instead, at exactly 100 years to the day, we honour those who died in a memorial service over the site. From there it's on to Halifax, Canada, where the bodies were buried and then to New York. We'll spend a couple of days there before winging it back home. I'm really looking forward to sharing our photos and stories ... read more

Our first blogging experience. It will be interesting to see if we keep it going. The challenge will be to write something vaguely entertaining that doesn't read like a scientific paper. There's a pretty good chance that all writing will be done by Deb. We've started this blog early so that we can make sure that Deb's mother can access and read it. It's officially Day 1 of Deb's holidays and we are in Maryborough, Queensland. Perhaps not the most direct route to Turkey but it is where Deb's mother lives and where we are leaving the dog for the next 7 weeks. We arrived here two days ago but so far have done nothing. Deb came down with a bad cold on the day we left and so has spent the last 2 days moping ... read more

june 12 seems my last blog recorded as may. oops. june 13 walk with twitchers. noisy friarbird, little wattlebird, rainbow lorikeet, wagtail, magpie lark, turtle dove, little friarbird, magpie, brown honeyeater, blackfaced cookooshrike, bluefaced honeyeater, white ibis, masked lapwing, striated breast/yellow beak(unidentified), variegated fairywren m/f, redbacked wren, whitefaced heron, female roufous whistleer, crows, currawong, grey butcherbird(call). 10,000 stickers arrive!!!!! grey butcherbird as i packed car riverside lake wayba drive. everything fit snugly. 14,000 on board. june 14 terrific in tewantin. extraordinary spruik. massive response. beautiful clear sunny dry day which means nights are chill. repacked car. plastic bags for stickers so organic solvent doesn't fill car at night and choke me. june 15 morning one hour spruik noosaville market. to mooloolaba for race wit... read more