3 River Rats Abroad

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.