Back to School with Heatwaves and Power Outages !

Well I returned to the same station as last year. 

The original plan was for us to finish in June and spend the last six months of the year traveling 

.... but as usual life has other plans for us !

You may have noticed I said, " I returned ..." and no it was not a mistake.

I returned, leaving George in Sydney to recover from hip surgery after a fall at home. It was no light hearted decision as it would not normally be in my character to do something like this on my own, especially as George and I have rarely been separated in 33 years of marriage, and especially for 9 weeks. But knowing how difficult it is for families to find Home Tutors and having only two weeks before we were due to return, return I did.

Below are photos of the schoolroom this year ! Quite a different look to last years. The girls have enjoyed decorating their own space.

The weather has been particularly hot this year with the temperatures consistently in the very high 30's to 40's for all of February. We've even had a couple of days above 50, with my temperature gauge glazing over at 55 degrees celsius one day. Hottest I have ever seen, though we did drive home through Queensland on a day where friends were reporting 50 degrees last December.

On one of these days we also had a 24 hour power outage while we waited for Ergon energy to find the problem somewhere along the lines. Late in the afternoon on the second day we heard and saw the Ergon helicopter flying in circular patterns still looking for the problem and believed we were in for a second night with no power. Luckily that did not occur.

With no power for phone or internet service, the girls could not attend on air lessons, and with no airconditioning what else was there left to do but take our lessons outside ! It was a matter of devising  interesting lessons for the four girls on the spot. I really do like these odd days where we are able to learn at our own enjoyable pace in a group together.

                                 

By Lynne

Christmas Holidays at Home !

Each year we return home the first week in December to spend time with our family.

We are fortunate enough to arrive home in time to attend numerous end of year school assemblies, pre-school concerts, dance concerts, sports finals, end of year open days and other Christmas functions with our family.

 As you could imagine with two grown up daughters, a son (-in law), and six grandchildren it is very busy !!

One tradition we have begun over the last few years is a night in the CBD in Sydney traipsing all over town to see the Christmas lights and light shows. We head past the David Jones windows, listen to the bottle music man, view the Martin Place Christmas tree, the QVB diamonte tree, Pitt St Mall lights and street musicians and finish with the St Mary's Cathedral light show.

We also love to head into the Domain Carol's rehearsal night, a habit we began when our youngest daughter sang at the Carol's each year with the Australian Girl's Choir.

Below: the QVB building in George St.

Below are more photos taken in the CBD of Sydney. As you can see it is well worth the trip. 

We always drive in and park at the Domain carpark for $10 from 5pm, which is a short walk from Hyde Park and St  Mary's Cathedral

Soon after Christmas each year for the last 20 years we've been heading down to the  Corrimal Beach Tourist Park for our family holidays. We are lucky to enjoy activities run by a Beach Mission team each year.

 Our last couple of weeks at home are spent preparing for the coming years work and catching up with friends. 

As you can see we have a very busy time when we head home !

By Lynne

An Ambulance Ride for George !

Well hello all, I hope you've all had a good start to the Year ! 

We have been very quiet again, I'm sorry, but for a very good reason. 🙁 

We returned from our holidays with family in January and a day later George had a fall from a ladder while putting our Christmas decorations back into storage in the roof. 

A few days later he had hip surgery for a femoral neck fracture and remained in hospital for 3 weeks for rehab. He has now had 6 weeks with no weight bearing until it was clear that the surgery went well. He has just this Thursday been given the go ahead for weight bearing and physio. We are hoping that in another 4 to 6 weeks he will have the all clear to leave Sydney. 

In the meantime, I returned to the station in Central Qld four weeks ago for work. It has been a huge step for me to return on my own. George and I have never been separated for more than a week or two, and that no more than a few times in 33 years. I also rely on him so much for support. 

While the school weeks are busy the weekends are quiet and slow, and having returned by plane I have no transport. Hence updates to the blog will be less as there is less to do.
(Ps roads were cut by flooding the same week we were due to return so maybe it was meant to be.)

We are hoping to be back on the road in April !

In the meantime, you may like to catch up on our weekly/daily news on our FB page that we began to trial at the end of last year. Due to the fact we work on outback properties, internet, data speed, bandwith and phone service are not reliable so we have had a lot of difficulty with the upload of photos to the blog. I love my blog and will continue with it, but for more regular smaller updates during the week our FB page will be used.

By Lynne