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Published: August 3rd 2008
Look at this!!!
Carli does some DIY!!The days are flying by and we had not realised how long it was since we last updated y'all on the what's where's and so on...
Been busy working and plastering, painting the house etc.
Theatre room now almost complete with projector and 92" screen, waiting on purchasing the reclining leather chairs to finish off.
Lights almost all replaced with down lighters throughout.
Games room done.
Bedrooms skimmed and painted...
Lounge plastered and skimmed...
Floors to purschase next and a new kitchen,,, then on to the outside.
All in all great progress over the past 3 months.
Oggy picks up the digger tomorrow to start some bits in readiness for the alpacas outside, to drill the fence posts holes and start the driveways.
The rain has been fairly often throughout the winter months but still reaches around 20 degrees with the sunshine on most days, others are a little lower and the nights are chilly!!
We may be the first 'hills dwellers' to install central heating for next winter!!
Work is full on at the moment, for both of us, between us we have around 6 projects including the build of new offices and the good old
CPS system... but no regrets so far!
Its a full house here in Gidgy, Carli arrived in late June followed by Tom, Poppie and her friend Charlotte in July... all in all we will have had family here for just over 7 weeks, it will seem a lot quieter in August when they have all gone back to UK!!
We have yet again visited the Caversham wildlife park (we must be season ticket holders by now) where the kids got to touch and feed the Roo's and Koala's - Pops also got to meet and touch one of the friendly Aussie snakes (a carpet python) and one not so friendly Llama who decided to follow her around the goat enclosure! Much to her terror!
We have had a couple of days in the city and a spot of shopping down in Midland Gate shopping centre (bit like the White Rose but smaller)
They have all decided that the Margaret river chocolate is the best... so we have visited there a couple of times too.
When Tom & Pops first got here, Carli had been here a few weeks already so had already 'bagged' the back
Sunbathing in the hills
Get out the blanket and factor 20.. the sun is out!! bedroom! they spent the first couple of days recovering from the flight and getting use to the time difference.
Poppie & Charlotte venture out on the bikes - A few hours of sunshine and Pops and Charlotte braved the bush. Bear in mind that we live in the middle of nowhere. So biking out and about around here can mean getting no where fast. And that's exactly waht happened to the girls. A quick trip out on the bikes thurned into and bit longer than expected tour of the bushlands and surrounds of the hills. 3 hours later they finally made it back by pure fluke, on the chance of seeing a road sign they recognised. Note to all newbies thinking of treking out anywhere in Oz - If in doubt turn back, as the the bush out here all looks the same, and if it weren't for the occasional sign it all looks the same, and turning left, left and left again does not get you back to where you started from. The Bikes are now safely locked away and probably wont see daylight for a while.
We had promised Tom a BMX bike for his birthday
Tom - Before
The birthday bike.. so straight away he was on the case looking on the net and in the bike shops.. there were already a couple of small jumps on the land, courtesy of the 2 boys who lived in our house previously and Tom has spent a little time out on the land creating a bigger BMX track and digging out the land to make the jumps bigger...
since getting his new 'birthday bike' and making said jumps bigger.. he has fallen off a couple of time so far - the 1st time banging his head and the 2nd - Breaking his leg and ankle in 3 places....
Poor Tom was screaming outside on the land with his foot pointing at a rather strange angle to the rest of his leg, until Poppie & Charlotte heard him shout and raced out to see him.
Luckily Ang had just left the tower and met with Carli and her friend Claire down in the city so we were more or less leaving work for the day and were at home within the hour.
The nearest hospital to us with an A&E department is down in Swan and after an inital inspection by the triag
Tom after
Thats what bike jumps do for you...! nurse, Tom was sent straight through and given some painkillers just before being put to sleep while Ang watched the nice 'Doctor Dave' push, tug and manipulate Tom's rather angled foot back into place.
However it was around 3 hours after arriving there that Tom was taken in the ambulance down to the Perth Royal Hospital.
As the Swan do not have an obstertrician (bone doctor) we were subjected to another 6 hours at the pleasure of the 'Royal'
We spent the first hour and a half parked just inside the emergency entrance next to the store cupboards, lined racks and oxygen cylinders until they could book us in and a doctor could see us - regardless of the fact we had just spent hours at Swan and THEY had requested an ambulance to take Tom to Perth a couple of hours ago and had sent his X-rays down via E-mail.. and for those of you who know Tom, he had not had anything to eat since around midday, so since 5pm not only was his leg hurting but he now had pains in his stomach through hunger. By 11pm he was starving! (He is the type of boy
who eats every 2 hours)
After some chasing we eventually got the hospital to make a decision as to whether or not they were going to operate on him that night or the folowing day, and just before midnight (food cut off point for next day op's) he was given some sandwiches and biscuits, and packed off to bed in Ward 5G.
He was then admitted onto a ward so we left around 1.30am.. for a McDonalds coffee and quick burger on the way home.
Back to the hospital the following morning and another long wait to see a doctor and find out what time he was going to theatre.. Tom was extremly brave during his 'time' served at the Royal, he made some new friends, some of whom will spend a lot longer in there than he will, he learnt to walk on crutches before leaving late Friday afternoon after enduring a hour of surgery and with the addition of 3 pins - or more like 3" nails - holding his little leg together..
BMX going cheap to a good home then???!!!
Kat is our new addition. She is a Doberman Pup of 8 weeks with
The big pup
Kat gets her own bed, toys, bones and blanket a pedigree that beats the royal family. Liver and tan in colour and feet the size of saucepans. Her Father is enormous and probably the biggest doberman we have ever seen, with awards for agility, obedience and probably killing crocodiles or some creature of similar proportion. Unfortunately, she is big boned but not the strength to match just yet, as she lolops around and bangs into things continiously. Seriously she is a bruiser and although only 8 weeks old, can knock our Miniture Pinscher for 6. She's not sussed the glass table yet, as we here a large "Clunk" every time she hits it full on..... More like a lion cub than a dog as she bounds about the house and takes out the furniture and kids in her path.
She's a real doll, and will be slightly more fluid in motion once she gains the strength and agility of her parents, but just for now the insurance is going to have to be upgraded to cover the risk of her ploughing through the wall or something.
She has become great friends with our other dog, but the play fighting is akin to a hurracaine moving through the house and
Mini me..
Kat meet Lulu ! nothing is safe in its path.
Overall the 2 pooch's are getting on quite well, Lulu is over protecctive with all 'her' toys but loves to jump and play around with Kat. The only thing is that Kat copies her.. quite funny really but when Kat thuds her giant paw down on Lulu, its like a foot squashing an ant..
Its like having 2 young children in the house, fighting over toys, sharing food and beds and one always wants what the other one has!
So imagine the picture...
3 teenage girls (+ Carli's friend Claire for a few days) -good job we have 2 bathrooms,
1 teengage boy on crutches and making the most of the girls running around for him,
2 dogs, one 5 month old, one at 8 weeks old,
Trips out in the yute are interesting and when it comes to dinner time, its like a soup kitchen!!!
But all good fun all the same - we will feel very strange when its just us again.
Carli's friend Claire came and spent a few days with us last week after she had been travelling around South Africa and prior to flying up
to Sydney and then onto Melbourne and eventually to Brisbaine for Christmas. We introduced her to Travelblog as an easier way, rather than numerous e-mails, of keeping in touch with all her family and friends. She left us today and booked into a backpacker place down in Cottesloe.
This Sunday we all set off to Sandleford Wines down on the Swan Valley Tourist Drive to watch the latter stages of the Avon Descent, a well know yearly event which has canoe's kyack's and power boats racing down the Avon and into the Swan river.. luckily it was a really warm and sunny day, so we all piled into the car (Lulu as well) and spent an hour down by the river, with about 400 other people..mostly small children on scooters and bikes with painted faces and squashed hot dogs in hand.
An hour was enough so off to the 'dog' beach before heading home, to give Lulu a run around and tire her out for the evening, hoping that Kat had not destroyed everything in her path while we had been out..
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Piggy gets an ice cream--thanks guys!