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Published: April 14th 2009
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Turkey Gobbler
Well, better than being a turkey slapper. Pre-xmas Coles in Margs had giant chicken legs for sale, Jeff just couldn't resist. Wow - It’s been quite some time since our last blog!
The main reason for this slackness is basically due to there not being a lot of news (until now). Life has been, well, kinda “normal”. But in all honesty the “normalness” is starting to wear thin and we are both certainly looking forward to hitting the road again sometime in early 2010. Until then, Margs continues to keep us well fed & watered, and with winter fast approaching we will be on the road again before we know it.
First things first - Jeff’s health. From the upcoming CT scan we mentioned in the last blog, he was then sent to have an MRI in Perth. The results of this showed a sacral fracture (the bone system joining the spine & pelvis) and also disc protrusion in the lower back. So another 2 scans later the bones have all healed except the slipped disc which unfortunately won’t change for the main part.
Once he got back to work at normal hours he kept getting recurring pain the right hip (remember, all the impact from the crash was on the left) hence he had another MRI done about
a month ago. This scan has shown labral tear & cyst - a small tear & cyst in the lining of the hip socket. We went to see a hip specialist in Perth a couple of weeks ago and he is booked in for surgery (athrosopy & repair of the tear/removal of cyst) on the 29th May.
But overall he’s much better than our last blog! It’s a shame to keep finding things out so long after the accident (it was 9 months ago now) but at least he’s being well looked after. We both look forward to a full recovery in the next 6 months or so.
In sad news, Boris II (the bike) has gone to heaven. After getting the bike back 3 times from the insurers repairer and being “less than satisfied” (I don’t want to print the words we actually said!) they offered to buy the bike off us for $1000 more than we could have sold it for privately. We were better off doing that than getting a bike back that was sub-standard. We reckon they actually did it to get us off their hands, things certainly got less than polite by the
Jeff & The Fam
Jeff, Colleen, John, Jenny & Andy strike a family pose in the sunshine. time we got the bike back a third time still damaged. On the bright side Jeff is now looking for a new bike! Those who know Jeff well know that this very exciting news and we’re both looking forward to getting back on the beast again once we find a goodie.
In other exciting news we have had 2 trips to Melbourne since we last blogged. Firstly we went back for a week at Christmas and caught up with Tab’s family on the 25th & Jeff’s family on the 26th. Both days were brilliant and made us realise how much we love catching up with everyone. In between we also managed to catch up with our buddies briefly too. We spent new years back in Margs and had a fairly quiet night - just a nice dinner out & a few grogs and before we knew it it was 2009. Once again most of our friends & family celebrated midnight before us, all the texts started rolling in at 10pm our time!
The second trip back was early March for he marriage of Mick Gibbs to gorgeous Bek. CONGRATULATIONS GUYS! Was fantastic catching (and playing!) up with all
Xmas pool party
Eoin, Carmena, Jeff, Rory & Carlo cool off with some pool volleyball xmas day our mates and we all scrubbed up pretty well too. The wedding was at Dixons Creek in the Yarra Valley and the venue had been quite damaged by the fires. The staff, with the help of Gibbsy & Bek (oh, sorry, I mean Mrs Gibbsy!) did a fantastic job clearing & pruning & cleaning so that the day could still go ahead. It was such a beautiful wedding, you wouldn’t have known the place was so devastated a short time before.
Jeff, Tab, Suzz, Jase, Madge & Mick all stayed in a farmhouse stumbling distance from the wedding venue. And stumble along the highway we did! I think Madge is the first person in history to actually trip over a white line! It didn’t help that she was wearing Jeff’s shoes coz her heels were killing her - I hear you girl after all that boogying my feet were mashed too! Once back at the farm Jeff & Mick decided the goat pen would be a great place to hangout. Please believe that no goats were harmed in the making of these photos…they were simply used as modes of entertainment for a little while! The baby goat even ended
Lounge lizard
Oscar shows his true relaxation technique! up in the house at one point, luckily he didn’t crap anywhere! A fun night had by all - thanks for the memories guys and thanks for the ride Suzz & Jase, the KFC drive-thru was a great idea the next day! And Mr & Mrs Gibbsy we wish you a brilliant future and hope you enjoyed your honeymoon immensely.
On the Sunday night the Smith family celebrated Scott’s 55th birthday with a bbq and typically too many reds & Jack’s. Again, had a brilliant night and wished we could have stayed longer. Our trip was fleeting (arrived 6am Sat and left 1pm Mon) but we managed to cram in as much fun & sleep deprivation as possible. The old 3-4 hour drive back to Margs after we landed was a yawning affair!
We recently farewelled our good mate Alan from Margs, we lived with Al briefly in a share-house when we first arrived. He embarked on a cross-the-Nullarbour trip all the way up to Sydney, then NZ, then South America. All the best mate, we hope to catch up with you again on the road somewhere. We went to Al’s going away party in Cowaraup (about 10
The oldies
Tab's parents out for dinner the night before we flew back home after xmas mins north of Margs) dressed up as “movie characters”. We went as the Ex-presidents from Point Break and even drove all the way there (in Boris) in our gear. Lots of weird looks along the way - was a pisser!
We are slowly making our rounds of all the wineries in & around Margs. Have made it a mission to go to every single cellar door before we leave here - there’s about 100 of them and so far we’ve been to about 40! Better get our skates on if we’ve only got about another year to go!
It's also the season of "Leeuwin concerts". Basically every month or so while the weather is good we get free tickets to major concerts at his workplace. Most recently we went to see the Waifs (not huge fans ourselves but never fail to take an opportunity to sit in the grass and drink coldies!). We missed the Chris Isaac concert as it was on the weekend of the wedding (hell and damnation! NOT) and think there are a few more coming up before winter arrives. So, there are some perks to behad for working at Leeuwin that's for sure. Next
Gracetown
Normally quite a good surf beach but caught on a magic calm day...if fact we were on a winery tour when this was taken and it was about 39 degrees - perfect wine weather! up is the Margs Wine Festival which is this year bing held at Jeff's work (remember we went to last years one in a previous blog and ended up rather shitfaced). So we are hoping to score some tickets this week!
Now that Jeff is more mobile we’ve also started doing what’s called the Cape to Cape track. It’s a beachside walk track that goes from the northern tip of the SW (Dunsborough/Yallingup) right down to Augusta. As this is a fairly new venture we haven’t done much yet but hope to get stuck into it before winter arrives. Apparently we were spoilt with last winter being so beautiful so we suspect we’re gonna cop it this time!
That’s about all our news - see told you there wasn’t too much to tell! Thank god the Gibby’s got married or there’d be even less goss! So, until we blog again…
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