Kayaking

Some friends of ours came out to Cooby Dam with us for a bit of kayaking....
Here are the boys heading across the dam.

Good fun, but I will remember to put sunscreen on my shins next time!
Walking around the streets in shorts while having bright red lower legs.... not such a good look!.

Finished Primary School

Xan has finished primary school..

He is definitely growing up...

 Zak and Boppa looking on at the graduation...

Today's morning walk...

A few photos from my walk this morning... a couple of hours into places in Miluo I had not been before....

Life is not a movie

Izak wrote a play this year, that he performed with one of his class mates….

One of the more memorable parts of it

I:  Oh look…. a time portal!!

H:  How do you know it is a time portal?

I:  Well, cause it says so in the script!

But from what I have heard, life in not a movie…. Which unfortunately means we do not get scripts to work out what is going on.

As far as I can work out… if it were a movie, there would need to be more work on the sets!

 

If it was a movie… . I would hope it was something exciting!  Something like a spy movie where you get to paraglide over cities and stuff...

 

It isn't one... cause there are complicated bits, and parts with no scripts.
There are plot twists that make no sense - bits that are tragic or frustrating with no payoff.  There are things that seem important that are introduced to the story, but go no where..

Things that make good stories, are often terrible, confusing or painful to live through.
(but just cause something was terrible, confusing or painful does not necessarily make it a good story!)
People do not come in only 2 dimensions, they come in 3 (or many many more) and cannot be easily read.  (Luckily - this is my favourite type of person! - I must like being challenged or confused [of course being where I am right now, I have a lot of opportunity to be confused!])

But regardless of whether or not there is a director... I am happy to be here!

Wow - obviously feeling all thoughtful today!  I am in hyper-ramble....

Oh Look…. A  time portal!!  (it is not just mogwai and gremlins you find in Chinese shops!)

BBQ Time

Had out own little Thanksgiving BBQ again this week....
(Ok - really we just had a BBQ - which we do as often as we can!)
Imported beef (we tried we stuff we are able to buy here- and it really really did not work - it was like eating shoes)...

But this time, it was very good indeed.

Emergency Exit....

Exiting is something I am thinking about a lot at the moment....
So when the power went out at our hotel again... off down the only functioning stairs....
Down 6 floors... this is the junction between 4 and 3....

Pretty Site

The site looking pretty this morning....

Not what you want to wake up to in the morning!

Away...

Well the set subject for my photography club back home is "solitude"....
If the theme was "birds" or "blue skies" or "family fun" then I would have some trouble....
but solitude.... yeah.... there is plenty of that around if you want it...

Safety Tip.

Given what I am about to become when I get home... (which cannot come soon enough).... I feel compelled to give a safety tip today....

If you must be down a hole with just your head sticking out...
Try not to do it in the middle of a busy intersection.....

Making Pretties at Work

This morning's drive adventure

was breaking hard for a herd of migrating ducks

Interesting meeting.....

The Doctor

Near where we live there is (believe it or not) a Tardis!
The people who own it were kind enough to let us take a few photos with it this afternoon....

For a huge Doctor Who fan, this was a huge thing!

Photo Geeking:

Bright sunlight in the background.. still just before setting.  2 flashes, one held by my very own voice activated light stand, the other on the ground to the left of the shots.  Shutter speed high to darken the background.

The shot straight out of the camera is below... along with one showing a little more like what the scene looked like in real life... (along with the voice activated light stand!)

Remembering the day

We remember,
there are the solid bits to structure the memory around, then there are parts we think are solid and then the whispy cloudy bits at every single edge, and in all the spaces we did not fill up with details....