3 River Rats Abroad: 2011

KATHERINE IN DECEMBER 2011

We have had a busy few weeks ,as is the norm for this time of the year. I hitched a ride to Darwin last Saturday and watched Riley play football with the Hawks, they beat St Marys,Riley's old team 128 to 38. The heat was incredible and it amazes me how these boys play in it at 2 in the afternoon.

I drove home with Riley because he had Bruce's car. We had a few discussions over who was going to drive, now that Riley has his P plates he doesn't want to sit in the passenger seat, an agreement was hashed out that he would drive to Hayes Creek then i would take the wheel. This allowed me to take photos because there was nothing else to do. We drove through some blinding rain and near Hayes creek i spotted the above rain clouds. It was a long day just over 3 hours up, watch footy for 2 hours, get in car drive back...never went near a shop.

Mia has had a very busy time this month with a class trip to Darwin, school concerts and graduation ceremonies. She has possibly the best teacher ever...or did have, and because of her Mia has taken with her some fantastic memories of her last year at Primary school. The photo above and the ones below show the little skits that Mia's and and Mr K's class did, spoofing each other. It was hilarious....the girls should have won.

it was also emotional for Mia and Christine, who will not be teaching a class next year at Katherine South she is leaving after completing her 10 year sentence.

i loved the end of the ceremony when the year 6 class were all given a helium balloons and lined up on the oval and released them, the tears flowed.

Christine was crying but Riley was there. He went through this 5 years ago when he graduated Christine's class.

he caught up with our darling Iain

and i got a photo of my 2 babies for the last time at Katherine South.

this is Mia at the school Xmas concert, she received the class citizenship award and the Somerville Mentor award...we are very proud.

Christine took the class to Darwin for two fun filled days of swimming at Leanyer and the Wave Pool, Lazar Zone, Museum, breakfasts at the Botanic Gardens and Lake Alexander, bowling and dinner at the sailing club and Fasta Pasta. They slept in the gym at Darwin High School and i drove up and joined them for the last night but i don't do gym floors anymore so i happily left them to it and booked into the Mirembeena hotel.

On the way home we stopped at Emerald Springs for lunch and a surprise birthday cake for one of the girls who turned 13. This is Christine demonstrating how you eat cake the Scottish way.


The year 6 class also had their grad dinner at the River Lodge and they all dressed up and looked beautiful. I have tried everything to turn this photo but it wont turn.

To end this busy month of December the long awaited arrival of Mr K's first child happened on Monday. Suzanne took the girls up to the hospital so they could give Simone a foot massage and meet Mr K's little boy, Yonaton, i hope i spelt that right...it's the Jewish form of Jonathon. Mia said he is gorgeous and has his dad's eyes and same shape head. She cant wait to babysit Yoni.


Two more sleeps till Christmas. Work tomorrow then one last assault on Woolies and that's it till next Thursday when i go back to work. If the cyclone stays away from Darwin i am going up on Tuesday with Suzanne and the girls for some retail therapy, therapy for them and change of scenery for me. Have a Merry Christmas.

November in Katherine 2011

It's warming up and Diva now has her own pool which she is in and out of all day.

We still go for an afternoon walk after work but the heat is a challenge.

This is Riley tinkering with the coffee table he made me at school, it's lovely and just needs to be varnished so it looks like the cabinet behind him.

A WEEKEND WITH THE BOY

Riley flew in to Darwin last Friday from Vietnam so i drove up to spend the weekend with him. It was great to spend that time just the 2 of us. We had fish and chips on the rocks at Nightcliff and watched the sun set, always a nice way to eat.

We spent time on the wharf , shopping and looking at our new car which i didnt end up getting until the Monday morning so we spent the weekend in the old one, which was nice.

We did the wave pool which Riley had never been to before and as you can see he is getting good at the surfing. The temp was hot but there was always a sea breeze blowing which kept the heat down a bit.

He was so happy to be home he did cartwheels on the beach at Rapid Creek.

i dont know why the photos are this way, i have tried everything to rotate them but it's not working, the originals are not like this, this happened when i uploaded them, very annoying.

Riley ran from Neils house in Nakara to Casuarina beach to keep his fitness up, he is very muscly now, has his mothers figure.....

Darwin always puts on a glorious sunset. On Monday he fly back to Melbourne for 7 more weeks of school, the year has flown, i drove back to Katherine in the new car and back to work. W e bought a Hyundai Getz sx, it has everything and zips along, 140km when overtaking a road train, more roomy than you think and it uses no fuel ! runs on the smell of an oily rag. When i picked it up it had 0 on the odometer, it now has 430klms and the tank is half full. Fuel economy is amazing. It Getz me from A to B in comfort and its cheap, i'm happy.

VIETNAM

The kids are in Vietnam with their father and having a great time. Mia sent these photos home. The one above was taken from their room in Hanoi, motorbikes with no road rules by the looks of it.

These were taken at a beach near Hoi An of Riley and Mia on a jet ski, Mia said is was " so fun "

To get to the jet ski's they rode pushbikes to the beach in Hoi An. I am jealous because Diva and i are at home and sweating it out. Official start of the wet season was on the 1st October and if the last week is anything to go by then we are in for a hellish build up. The sky is full of cloud which is making it very hot and humid but it wont rain for awhile yet, that's why we call it the build up...building up to when it rains. The temp in the house hovers around 30 to 35c all the time. Paradise !

AUGUST IN KATHERINE

We have had a glorious dry season this year with cool to cold days and nights. Mia and i took Diva for a swim in the river and i could have sat there for hours it was so lovely.

The backyard bottlebrush trees are in full bloom and our yard is full of birds.

Mia performed in the school concert recently. The whole school participated by reading books out loud and acting the story out on stage, it was a good evening under the stars on the school oval.

Diva just loves the river, any water really. She often climbs into a big pot filled with water that we have in the garden and it reminds me of those Anne Geddes photos of babies in flowerpots.

Mia is kneeling, the water is shallow at the spot we go to, i think this was the afternoon we spent at Blue Metal, a lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

July in Katherine 2011

My 3 lovelies

Mia with the breakfast tray she entered at the Katherine Show

more soon

June in Katherine 2011

We went camping near the Edith River on the Queens birthday long weekend, found a spot off the road near a lovely creek. Diva had a ball and so did we.

THE WET SEASON

I took this last Monday at the Low Level, it was raining at the time. The Low Level is always under water at this time of year.

The river has been up and down and when the water dropped it left behind this huge amount of sand, the road is under this.

This one i took yesterday, same spot but further up the road because all that sand is now under the water. The river was on 13m when i took this.

Diva loves going on these walks and exploring.

The weather has been like this for awhile now, 2 weeks ? I'm not sure, it feels like weeks but i love this kind of weather.

VIKINGS EVERYWHERE

Mia has been studying the Vikings in class and today they showed the rest of the school what they have been doing. The viking boat was built by Mr Eddie from wood and he did an amazing job.