Long time between drinks.....

G,day.

Well, since it has been a decade since i last blogged, this is going to be another one of those epics.....

I'll start from most recent and work my way back.

Today I cordonned off the section of my yard that Cookies and Custard seem to destroy the most. The weather is starting to get a little warmer up here, and I want to save what yard I have left and get some good growth into it in the summer. So at the moment the back yard looks like roadworks, as i 'borrowed' some materials, but hopefully it will get the job done.

Yesterday, Shelly and I took my nephew Aaron to the Gold Coast Show. Wow, thank god you can give kids back. Not that it was a chore, but we only had him for maybe 4.5 hours, and I was buggered, and broke.... he had a ball though, and we got to see Shelly's floral entry in the Show, which was really excellent, and a lot better than some of the entries that finished above her. She is keen for next year though :)

Last Wednesday my latest nephew, Tyler Keith, entered the world...so as I was indisposed when Aaron was born, this was my first opportunity to 'wet the baby's head'....which involved starting drinking at 12pm on the Wednesday, and walking home from Jupiters Casino to Labrador (10.7kms according to my car the next day) at 5 am the next day......

Couple of weeks ago I was up in Airlie Beach working, which had its good and bad points. Number 1 bad point: worst drive in history. The Bruce Highway has to be Australia's roughest road, rivalling the Lethal Weapon or the Corkscrew...and in a 5 tonne truck with suspension made out of concrete....not a pleasant experience at all... On the third last night i was there, we were on our way out of the pub to go to work (it's like that up there...) a bloke stopped me and said 'you look pretty big, do you wanna sail in a yacht race tomorrow?' I figured that he only wanted me for extra weight so i said 'yeah, no worries...people pay 150 bucks a day to sail around the Whitsundays, why shouldnt i do it for nothing'.......Wrong. When he said big (as i found out the next day), it was shoulders, not belly. So, i was on the pumps in the middle, hoisting the main sail, and trimming the sail/spinny every time we tacked. Now, in a 24 mile race, with about 7 check points, i reckon we tacked about 250 times......so it was the skipper calling 'Tack' which meant me and the other bloke on the pumps had to get up first (not easy on a yacht that always felt like it was about to tip), trim the sheet, then jump back up on the other side (see previous problem....). Funny thing was, we won the race by about 4 minutes, and the skipper asked me to stay up there for a week and sail in the Hahn Premium Race Week off Hamilton Island (the race we were in was part of the Hogs Breath Race Week). I said I couldnt get time off, so he suggested that I get a bit fitter and sail with them in the Sydney-Hobart....he said it was easy, exactly what i had been doing the last 3 hours, except for 2 days with no sleep. I told him i'd see him on tele.....Anyways, the yachts name was 'Vanguard', and the crew were excellent. Good luck to them in the Sydney-Hobart.

Various weekends: my injury ravaged rugby league team playing THE most ordinary football i can ever remember them playing.....perhaps next year.

And thats about it. I have a new work car (XR6 sedan this time), but am struggling a little bit in the new job, early days yet though.

See you in 8 weeks for the next blog :)