More sport for Ben...

A few weeks ago Ben competed in the school athletics carnival. He competed in a number of events, but it turns out he is quite good at javelin. He won the event and went on to represent Springwood High in the inter-school competition. He did well at that too, so now he is off to represent the region in the Sydney West Championships. Well done Bippo!! We will let you know how he goes.

New Painting..

Hello all. Here is another painting I have put the finishing touches on. Let me know what you think...

Ben's Rugby...

Well another game today. The game was due to start at 11:50am, but due to an injury from the previous game and the ambulance being on the pitch the game was shortened to two 15 minute halves. The team went out hard and scored two tries and one conversion in rapid succession. We though that they had the other team from Rooty Hill cornered but they fought back and ended up beating Ben's team by two tries. It was still a valiant effort because the other team was, yet again, filled with huge islanders. Ben did really well catching all the kicks that came his way and throwing himself into some big tackles against some huge contenders. We thought he did well and it turns out the coaches thought the same thing as he was awarded player of the week. For his troubles he gets to hang onto the trophy for a week (a lump of wood with a plaque on it) and a ten dollar voucher for the canteen. Well done Ben! His last game before the break for school holidays is a night game next Friday that he is looking forward to very much, although it is against one of the top teams. I will let you know how he goes.

Winter Magic Festival...

Well, we finally made it to the winter magic festival in Katoomba after living here for these past few years. It was on the 21st, the solstice. It always seemed that one or both of us were working. Well this time I wasn't working, Ben's rugby match got postponed and although Karen was working the morning, she was working in thick of the festival. Ben and I went up at about 11am and dropped in at the gallery where my paintings are on show and had a quick look around and then we went to Karen's work. We hung around there for half an hour or so and then all three of us went for wander down the main street. It was closed to traffic and there were thousands of people. Lots of street performers and stalls and as you would expect quite a number of strange folk.
When we made to the bottom of the street there was a street performance of Brazilian drumming. It was very good and at the first (loud) strike of the drum the baby started doing somersaults in Karen's belly!!! Either he really approved or was not happy about being woken up. The lady next to us who was pregnant said her baby was doing the same thing! As it turned out half of the performers were faculty from Ben's school. I will try to load a video I took, but the file is huge so it may take some time. After that we wandered back up the street and we saw one of my paintings in the street exhibition. The owner of the gallery had put a number of works in the public exhibition and some of mine were in it. Cool. After that we had had our fill and went home. Next year we want to make a day of it and see the official parade and the fireworks at the end, but what we saw was still fun.

Another week that was..........

Wow, another week gone already........

Ben had his first crew day last Sunday. They were up and out the door early and came back about 1pm - with a big grin on his face.

He'd had fun, they had gone out to do some pump work and ended up drafting out of a creek. They let him play with the different hoses etc too. The only thing missing was the usual bacon and egg sandwich for brekkie, they didn't do it that Sunday. When he got home he went to jump in the shower only to come out fairly quickly with a leech stuck to his thigh! Yuck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He was very brave, Daniel dowsed it in vinegar and it quickly fell off. A trophy for his first crew day!

There was no footy this weekend as it is our Queen's Birthday public holiday weekend.

Saturday, Daniel joined other members of the Brigade who were taking part in a documentary about psychics and how they are used to find missing people, help with crimes etc. The incident they were covering was about a little girl who went missing about four years ago, she had gone for a walk with her dog and a massive search and rescue was involved looking for her - in the end they found her along the railway line not far from her house, apparently the dog was taking her home - it was hungry!!

The brigade was involved in the search, on Saturday they went up to the helipad (no where near where the little girl went missing) and were doing "bush setting" interviews with various members from State Emergency that were involved in the incident, when we rocked up they were interviewing a guy from Police Search and Rescue and National Parks were waiting their turn.

It was all quite funny to watch, they set Stewart our captain up with a truck in the foreground next to him.

Then in the background they had the PC with the guys from the Brigade pretending to read maps and take it in turns to walk backwards and forwards to look like they were being active.
Next the camera man did some shots of the crew driving up in the truck and jumping out - after the first take they were asked to do it again but with feeling!!

For those Aussies out there, the show will be airing on Channel 7 some time in early July and is going to be called "The One".