Saturday 10th December - Work xmas party

Gaz and i were awoken today by the pitter patter of rain on the tin roof which soon turned into torrential rain. We had 3.8cm of rain in an hour which resulted in our road being flooded. I managed to get some pictures of it this time! Luckily once the rain stopped, it drained away pretty quickly.

This afternoon Gaz and i went looking at air conditioning units for the spare bedroom. Unfortunately they arent going to be practical as they require a window to stick a funnel out of. We asked the woman in the store if there was an alternative to sticking the tube out of the window because all we have are double doors....she suggested we stick the funnel out of the doors and celotape cardboard to the gap between the door and the wall?!!! I dont know if she thought we lived in a sh*t hole of what but there is no way in hell we are celotaping any cardboard anywhere in our house! We decided that as mum and dad will only be spending 3 or 4 nights in the bedroom, it may be worth saving $1000 and buying a few fans instead and keeping the air con on throughout the house all day. 

3pm this evening was my works christmas party. It was held in the surf club on the beach and it was a really good turnout with almost every member of staff there with partners and kids. There was a spit roast and lots of food...the weather had cleared up so it was warm (but not too hot) and dry...although it was a little windy. In the distance we enjoyed a spectacular lightning storm over the sea. Gaz was introduced to all my work colleagues and we enjoyed everyones company. At 8pm, people were tailing off from the party so we offered to give Mark, his wife Lisa and their daughter a life home (as they were both over the limit for driving and we had spent most of the evening talking to them). As Gaz got out of the car, Mark invited him out on his boat which is great! Gaz will definitely take him up on the offer!  

Thursday 8th December - Sunshine

The rain has gone and the sun has got his hat on! Its boiling again today which im a bit gutted about as i was going to take pics of the river but unfortunately it had gone right down! Hervey Bay didnt even look as though it had had 24 hours of rain by 8am this morning. Work went well and its my friday so that made the day even better!

Gaz has done exceedingly well on the computer, very proud of him! We treated ourselves to a meal out this evening at the Italian restaurant we went to with Ian and Chris. We feel a bit guilty for the meal now as we have been eating very well until now! Not much to report other than we are going to watch another xmas film...perhaps home alone 1? Gaz is getting in to the christmas spirit and is playing slade on the laptop and whistling along very out of tune ( LOL).

Wednesday 7th November - Storms

So its all kicked off today!

The weather has taken a turn for the worse and has rained non-stop for the last 24hours. Infact it has rained so much, the little stream that runs by the side of our work building has almost burst its banks (which are very high) and is starting to flood the car park. My little path i take around the back of the building has almost been blocked off from the water! We have been warned of flooding and thunderstorms so i sent Gaz out to buy some food for the freezer just incase!

John tried to get me back today for stealing his chocolates (after he blamed the reception staff) and he filled my umbrella with hole punch clippings so that when i opened it at lunch time, all the paper flew out of it. I think he was hoping i would open it at the end of the day  but i went home for lunch when no one else was there to see it. Better luck next time John!

Gaz has done really well on poker today...and even rang Billy! But got through to someone else who works in the shop and so Billy will ring him back another day. For those who have forgotten, Billy is the guy who owns the boat hire company and has offered to take Gaz out fishing...it may not be for a while though as this rain is due for at least 2 weeks! ...Perhaps a repeat of last years floods....?

ps...since 9am this morning, we have had 62mm of rain! (6.2cm)

Tuesday 6th December - Fun day at work

The rain continued all through the night and Gaz lay snug as a bug in bed whilst i traipsed around trying to piece together my work uniform this morning. Work was fun today...
Yesterday one of the lab technician, John, who is forever playing practical jokes on people, had left an unopened box of chocolates on his desk. I stole the chocolates and hid them in my room. By the end of the day i returned them back to his desk. Today i turned to Faye, one of the other technicians, "i guess john knew it was me that stole the chocolates?" she said that John didnt have a clue who had taken them and he had even opened them today and left them on the bench! I then proceeded to stealing the open box of chocolates and hid them again in my room. It turns out the reception staff had a load of the wrappers to the same type of chocolates (ones which they had eaten a few days ago). I took these wrappers and pretending it was from Johns box, i left empty wrappers throughout the day on Johns work bench. He didnt have a clue who was doing this...towards the end of the day i tipped the chocolates out of the box and left the empty box on his desk with a little notes saying 'NOM NOM NOM! (smiley face)". He still didnt know who the culprit was. In the end i put the chocolates in a cardboard box and taped it up with Johns name on...i kicked the box next to his chair and he eventually found it..still none the wiser.

One of the dental assistants was flicking through the paper today at tea break and to her shock, there was a cheesy looking pitcutre of gaz and i grinning away in our santa hats. Everyone is joking we are locals now that weve been in the paper!

Gaz has done really well on the computer today...but still hasnt phoned Billy!!! 

Monday 5th December

Yesterday Gaz played on the computer whilst i went horse riding. I turned up and Lisa had a beginner rider she had to teach so she let me take Buddy out into the outback with another woman (also called Lisa) who has 2 horses down by where Lisa keeps her horses. The other Lisa is an beginner/novice rider who has never galloped before...we found the spot i galloped on Buddy before and she was feeling confident so i told her to just lean forward out of the saddle and give the horse the rein...needless to say, Lisa absolutely LOVED the gallop and wanted to go again! we even spotted the kangaroo from last week with the broken leg...poor thing.

when i got back i had a little nap whilst gaz continued to play on the computer. I spent all afternoon wrapping Gaz's presents whilst listening to christmas music...it was fun! Gaz and i went for a meal at the boat club in the evening.

Work was OK today, gaz didnt play on the computer but he has ventured out to have a hair cut!We are still doing well on our eating plan and we feel really good for it. Not much else to write about today...only that we have had torrential rain all day which is great for the grass as it was starting to look a lil brown!

Saturday 3rd December - Carols by candle light

Gaz and I had a lye in today which was great but i find it very difficult to sleep past 8am over here...especially when the sun is up long before 5am. I left Gaz playing poker whilst i went and did my christmas shopping for Gaz's stocking. I found him surprisingly easy to buy for and i really enjoyed shopping around for him. When i got back to the house, Gaz was doing well on the computer so i left him to it and tidied the house.

This evening we have been to a 'carols by candle light' concert. It was actually good fun and although Gaz moaned about going and stuck his nose up at the santa hat, he actually got into the spirit of things and we ev been had our photo taken for the local newspaper, wearing our hats. Apparently we are going to be 'the couples' photograph for the event lol. The concert was held around the corner in the historical museum grounds where they use the old train platform as a stage and everyone was welcome to bring seats of a picnic blanket. We bought neither so sat near the front behind all the kids running around...they will definitely sleep well tonight! We bought some glow sticks and lit them when it got dark. It was really nice to see 200 odd people who had all turned up for the concert in support of a local charity. They had little kids singing on stage as well as the fraser coast choir...which when i looked hard, i spotted Liz, the woman who has given me the job at Aura! She is second from the left in the photograph below...small town! Gaz and i were a little freaked out by the robot dancing elf on stage with the little kids...he was either pissed or this was a dare. The host of the evening was this big fat dumpling woman whose ego was bigger than her arse...and thats saying something! She not only hosted the whole evening, she sang more songs than the kids did and by her 4th song, Gaz and i had both had enough so we left.

We watched a christmas film last night (Bad Santa) and tonight we are watching Elf. Its weird not having cold weather here this time of year but i guess we will get used to it. Im sad because there were no aunt bessies yorkshire puddings or roasties int he frozen isle section at woolworths :(


Bats flying overhead the old train station

Rapey looking elf robot dancing 

Fraser Coast Choir - Liz is the curly haired lady second from the left

Gaz and I looking cheesy!

friday 2nd december - gaz's bbq sauce

It was a great day in work yesterday, we had a works christmas lunch where everyone had to bring a dish in from their own country. Being welsh, i took in bara brith...i dont like fruitcake myself so i dont know if it was any good but a few people said it was nice. We also did a secret santa...i bought a singing, dancing reindeer for one of the girls which she loved...the girl who organised the whole thing messed it up for the second time running and one of the girls didnt get a present, poor thing! Also one was woman was offended by her present...a dog muzzle. No one really found the present funny and it didnt go down very well..we are still trying to work out who sent it to her...the culprit is keeping very quiet! I was given a nice baking tray with a lid and a carry case to take the cupcakes to work in...very practical!

We have had rain for the first time in over a month and it was greatly welcomed as it was getting very hot and humid around here. We are going to buy a proper air conditioning unit for the spare bedroom on sunday for when parents/guests come to stay and use the spare room...it gets a little bit too hot in there without it!

Gaz has had a rubbish few days on the computer so hopefully things will get better...he still hasnt gone to the gym yet as his toe is still sore from where he tore the nail off. This morning he made a bbq sauce and put it with some meat in the slow cooker...we had it for dinner in a bun and it was delicious. We are both still doing really well with the healthy eating/eating less.