She'd been escorted on the trip, and they wouldn't let me take her because I hadn't brought any photo ID...and apparently they don't let 'kids' go without it! The fact that she was being a coat hanger for Matilda and Phoebe, and that she was calling me Dad didn't seem to cut much swathe with them. Needless to say, we thought it was amusing, and it was probably that that made them decide that we were kosher.
Daile has been really ill with a chest infection, so she was unable to come to the airport and has been out of action completely for almost a week.
The next day was Molly's birthday and we had the cake of course....
It's unfortunate that whilst it's the Summer holidays for Molly, its business as usual here and I'm at work.
Last night she and I went up to Mount Coot-tha to look out over the city, and then went for a short walk in the city. Tomorrow, if the weather permits, I'd like to go out in the boat. Currently it's still resident at Carlene and Ian's house on the Gold Coast.
Last week I bought another boat! Its an 18ft one with a half cabin a 120 litre underfloor tank and a whopping 140hp Evinrude outboard. (4 times the power of the little fella). However, before you think that I'm being rash with the cash, I paid $3k for it, and when I've cleaned it up a bit, it could easily be worth $9k. I've seen them on the web for between 9k and 12k. It has a new twin axle braked trailer (all galvanised). The boat itself is a bit tatty right now...but its capable of getting us all out to places like Moreton Island, across the bay with the whales in it, to Tangalooma and the like. Its sea worthy in other words.
The boat used to belong to a friend of the family's that lost interest, so we know its OK, its just tatty, and not massively flash. One thing that's really good is that on a reasonably long trip (its an hour or so to Moreton Island) the kids can hang out or even sleep in the half cabin.
Now... perhaps I DO need a GPS after all.
The boat is resident at Uncle Bob's workshop. He says we can leave it there for the time being, and even stay there whilst its being sorted out if need be. (There's a little flat there). Bob and Bette normally live in NZ, but come over to OZ for a few months a year. Bette has a position at the local university, and Bob is a carpenter cabinet maker.
I'll put some pictures up tomorrow or Sunday.
Great blogging Chris - and fantastic pictures!
ReplyDeleteColin the whale breeched twice right by our film boats the week before last off Tweed Heads - he's awesome, especially with alll that white on him.