Almost up to date

Well here we are, finally caught up with the world. I am sitting here, while Mel is making dinner and Karla is chewing Mums (Nans) ear off. Last bit of news. I finally bit the bullet and bought myself a boat. Funny I still haven't got a photo of me in it yet. But this is her, a 5.2mtr centre console, set up for fishing.

Lastly before I sign off. I just wanted to thank Dad for coming up and watching the kids while Mel and I were off on our trip to Thailand. He did such a great drop that I took him fishing several times and played the perfect host by allowing him to catch all the fish. This is him with a nice Mangrove Jack, that lived up to his name by snagging himself in the mangroves before we managed to get him on board.

Thailand here we come

In March Mel & I headed off to Thailand to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary, or more precisely Patong Beach, Phuket. Our first trip to Asia and all I can say is we had an absolute ball. Where do we start, we went on elephant rides, island tours, ate at a different restaurant every night and met some great people.

The first photo is with two of the cast from the Phantasea show, which is Thailand's No1 tourist attraction. It is a dinner and show. The dining hall feeds over 4000 people which is more people than what lives in Weipa. The show is a about the Thai heritage and goes for around 90mins. highly recommended if you go to Phuket.

This is a picture of Mel on an elephant, yes I went on one to, that's how I took the photo. We went up and down this goat track or should I say elephant track, that most people wouldn't be game to walk. A great experience as long as your not following the elephant that likes to let it rip every few minutes, and the kids reckon I'm bad.

Next pic, is from the day trip we did to the islands in the gulf of Thailand off phuket. Again another great day. We visited Loh Samah Bay (photo). Maya Bay, better known as the the beach used in the movie The Beach with Leonardo DiCaprio. Pileh cove, Viking cave ( where they get the nests to make Birds nest Soup). Monkey beach, yep full of monkeys, Phi Phi Don, which was devastated in the Tsunami (2000 people killed of which 1600 were tourist) and Khai Nui Island, where we went snorkeling.

Well a trip to Patong, would not be complete without spending some or should I say plenty of time on Bangla Rd. The tourist hotspot and the heart of Patong. Here you wil find some great and not so great bars, restaurants, nightclubs and other "shows". You also get to meet some of the ladies and the lady boys. can you guess which is which? Yes they are both Lady boys. Single men beware.

Back into 2009

I have skipped quite a few months but at least we are now back in the right year. Early January we had another cyclone off the coast of Weipa, which hung around for a few days. The days just happened to coincide with some good tides and the surge was incredible. This pic shows the water level about 2mts above standard high tide. As per usual the cyclone decided to batter somewhere else and life went back to normal.

In February, Karla turned 16 and decided she wanted to have a party. Now I know why parents leave town when their teenage kids say they are having a party. People everywhere more alcohol being drunk than at my 40th and the noise was incredible, and that was just the adults..... As for the kids they were well behaved and had a great night.

What else has been happening

Well in November I trekked down to Canberra, apparently someone was having a birthday and I was obliged to attend. Not that I'm complaining or anything but I did miss my golf club presentation night where I was to be the recipient of not one but three trophies. Anyway its not everyday someone turns 80 and I get a chance to catch up with long lost relatives and family. I had a great night even if the temperature was 25deg cooler than I'm used to. Hope you had a great night Nan, I know I did and by the looks of things, so did everyone else.

Off to Fiji we go

Jumping forward a couple of months, and the Young family packed there bags from Weipa and headed off on a Southern holiday to Fiji. 40hrs later we touched down in Fiji found our bus and headed off to the naviti resort for all the food and drink we could consume. Thankyou lord for all inclusive packages...

The island photo is part of the resort and I was experimenting with my new camera to see how well I could photograph at night.

I can tell you that 10 days of doing nothing but sitting by the pool and drinking the free drinks does nothing for your figure, though they tell me round is a figure. A great time was had by all and as you can see by the last photo the staff got to know me so well I even had access to the bar.

Early 2008

Ok, before I begin, yes I know it has been a long time, a very long time I hear you say. Well after visiting Nan down in Canberra last week and copping yet another ear full, I decided I better do something about it.

So where to begin. Lets go back a few months, about 14 of them should do and I had my 40th B'day party. Well I can't remember much what happened that night but I do remember Ratty coming up along with Mun & Owen. Now the stain on my shirt is not me having a bad night, one of my "friends" decided it would be funny to pour a bottle of coke over me, much to Mels Disgust.

The day after Paul and I decided to go fishing, welll we did amange to catch a fish, actually I think it just got tangled up in the line, but the big question is, can you tell which one is the fish...



Anyway we had a great week and sadly he was the only fish caught.



Moving along a couple of months and we packed our bags for a week on the sunshine coast. I was great to get all us Queenslanders, (god i can't believe I said that) together for a photo and lunch at Coolum resort. Now while we were there, Ratty decided to take us to his favourite fishing spot. Now while everyone there caught a fish, it was Michael who won the day with this giant Barra. Yes a Barra we travelled 2000kms form Barra heaven to the sunshine coast just to catch a bloody barramundi.