Glynn's 40th weekend and Gnomesville

GT decided to get away for his Big 40, so we headed down to Bunbury for our second camping weekend on the trot.

We squeezed Marc in with us and headed down to Friday after work, which meant that we didn't get down there until around 7, so had a few beers to celebrate the day.

Next day we headed out towards Wellington Dam and on the way we called into the world famous Gnomesville. A most bizarre piece of woodland at the side of a roundabout, definitely worth an hour or so to wander round and see some very interesting gnomes and friends :) And Glynn donated his frog.

Not a gnome, but good to photo





The new additions to Gnomesville

Then after that little interlude we headed onto the Dam, which was surprisingly venting a lot of water.

And as it was Glynn's weekend one of the major plans was to find some off-roading tracks, although the corrugated track to get to here was nearly as bad!

And to top off the day we found some water to play in, even if it was the river and VERY cold.

Do I really want to go in there, I just saw the shock on Ollie's face as he went in...

But it is water, so I have to...don't forget to let go!

More photos on picasa (of course).

Australia Day weekend in Augusta

After getting the Friday off after Australia Day, as unlike other public holidays it is always on the actual day, Thursday this year. We booked into a camp site in Augusta because it was an area we hadn't explored much, except for a day trip with Bob and Louise a few years ago.

It wasn't a bad drive, only about 4 hours and only had to stop once so we got down there early afternoon and got setup.

Janice relaxing in the shade

One of the main reasons of getting away, other than we hadn't been camping in ages, was to escape the crazy heatwave hitting Perth. 4 or 5 days of 37-40 degrees was not pleasant, especially when you're pregnant! So it was better, being around 10 degrees cooler down there it was still hot and humid (bizarrely), so we still went searching some shade whenever we could.

Are we done yet....

After attempting a walk along the cliffs (as we would normally do), ahem! One of us said "just get me to the water"..... so this

The cliff walker

Went to this....

Happy because I'm cool now!

And of course being a hyperactive loon I had to go off snorkeling and playing with new underwater camera and was pleased to get my first good "over-under water shot".

Being a bit further south than usual we decided to visit "Jewel Cave", which was definitely better than Lake Cave and about on par with the Ngili caves up near Yallingup. We got to explore through a few different caverns and apparently this cave has the worlds most weird Helictites (sideways and upwards growing stalactites).

And to prove I was actually there for the weekend :)

A whole lot more photos up on picasa

Gadget time

After thinking, and saying several times, what is the point of an iPad, I am now in the position to make a real call on that. Being a part of the Emergency Management Team in work puts us theoretically on call for approx one week in every six. It is unlikely we will get called as it is only if there is a REAL BIG disaster and as work is very focused on avoiding that, then the odds are low. Anyway, we don't get any extra pay for that BUT we were called into a meeting early on this week for a thank you lunch and a 'gift'. Which turned out to be a an iPad2 for everyone.... Soooo, here I am with my new gadget writing this post and trying various other tricks with it to see where it will be useful, over the laptop or smartphone!

Pick a gadget, any gadget...

And just to add some more geekness to it I had to test out tethering it to my phone, using my phone as a wireless hub, which is working very well. So instead of buying a data plan just for this I can use the wireless at home, but then my phone when on the go! Assuming I actually get a decent signal with Vodafone of course, although they are getting better.

So will see how it goes over the next few months...Although just found one limitation with the safari browser, as it won't let me upload an image to post, only link to a URL. So no images for this post as planned.

The bump expands

The beach has become a regular hangout over the last few weeks with the hot evenings. And last week while having some good fish and chips I got a good picture of Janice and the growing bump :) Seems to expand more every day now....

It's bigger in reality!

Hot and hotter

Yep, that is saying 40 degrees at 7.30pm!

The big heatwave is starting. Sooo glad we're getting away down to Augusta for a few days, where the forecast is about 10 degrees colder.

Who would have guessed it? 42 is the Universal answer

Looking at my blog, as one does when one has the memory of a goldfish sometimes (although I've since heard that the 3 second memory story is not actually true) I discovered a fact that I always did assume to be just a story, is in fact undeniably true!

What are you talking about I hear you cry, have you had too much Baileys again, being midnight and just after Christmas (the only official time for buying baileys in my humble opinion). Well No, I've actually just been watching the last episodes in the Terra Nova series which was surprisingly good for a sci-fi program. Hope they make another series.

Anyway, back to the real plot.

As I looked over my list of posts for the last 2 years, being surprised I had been rambling on for that long. I noticed that without any conscious attempt I had in fact written exactly 42 posts for each year....

So it seems that Douglas Adams was right in the famous Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy that the answer to the "the meaning of life, the universe, and everything" is irrefutably 42!

One more to finish off

After the dolphin swam past and not a shark as some people first thought. We are finishing off with a perfect west coast sunset.

Too hot to stay at home

So we decided to hit the beach, for a swim and sunset.

Nice and calm as its still an easterly wind...

Nudibranchs Rock

Very excited to get a slightly delayed Christmas present from Janice today.

For those non-divers out there (shame on you) Nudibranchs are crazy little colourful slug like critters that come in many shapes and sizes, hence a book full of them :)

Happy New Year, Happy New Camera

After driving Janice crazy for months researching a new underwater camera, I finally decided on what to buy and  am the proud new owner of a Canon G12 with the matching underwater housing. Don't believe me, well here's a photo or two of the unveiling....

The G12 and its bits

Black and funky looking

The piece of kit that allows it all to happen

First had the chance to take the new kit on a test in Glynns pool and we got some fun shots of us and the kids playing. You can see them on the Christmas 2011 album.

After that test I got out for my first dive to "Rotto" with the dive club and even though it was blowing and viz wasn't great I'm really happy with the first set of photos and have some good ideas of bits to improve.

And to get the feel of being on the dive at Roe Reef check out the video on my youtube channel.