My thoughts are with Ammie Scott's family today, after hearing the news that she passed away on the weekend. Ammie had a long battle with cancer, and was the local ambassador for the Relay for Life. At this year's relay, Ammie stood up and told us her story. It was very emotional, but you could be nothing but inspired by how strong she was. She will be greatly missed.
Last Friday night, we had a Kroll-family meeting at Wests, to discuss the plans for Christmas. All plans were sorted while Jason occupied Ben & Toby (& himself) by building houses of cards. Ben really enjoyed it, and had no problem at all going around to all the surrounding tables stealing coasters. When they had finished a particularly large house, one of the waitresses walked past and complemented them on it. Jason suggested it might be worthy of a free drink. Instead, Ben and Jason had their photo taken for the West's "party wall".
Linda tells me that the next day, Ben and Toby were trying to make these at home but with little success. While Toby gave up, Ben asked if he could ring Uncle Jas to find out what he was doing wrong....
On the weekend, during our quick trip to Townsville, we caught up with Ben and his girlfriend Mandy (who we met for the first time). We also got the chance to meet Ben's new addition, Roxy; a playmate for Rogue. She's gorgeous. About the same size as Sam but a third of the weight. Rogue seems to tolerate her, and seemed more interested in the whereabouts of her ball the whole we were there.
Ben bought Roxy a full-sized dinner bowl, and because its a little too big for her, Roxy puts her front two feet in the bowl while she eats. This is ok, but she also does it when she has a drink. Then realising how cool the water is (to play in, and temperature wise), she creates all sorts of mess. Given the current size of her paws, Roxy will undoutedly be a hell of a lot bigger next time we see her.
We also were very suprised to see a roadworthy, registered, newly painted, and most importantly, functioning vehicle in Ben's driveway.....
In a last minute decision we decided to go watch the Australia vs Papua New Guinea World Cup game in Townsville. Free tickets were the catalyst to the quick 24 hour round trip. The tickets were for great seats (Thanks Mick). We were in the second row, just off the 20m line. While the game wasn't at all close (Australia won 34-6), the atmosphere was great.
I bought an Australian supporters shirt before leaving Mackay, and on entering the grounds, I started to wonder if the game could be considered an Australian home game. There were so many supporters for the New Guinean team. I must admit, by the end of the game, we too, were baracking for them. Don't ask me what exactly the New Guinea mascot is in the picture below. We were really close, and still couldn't tell what it was. The only downers were the long queues for drinks, the oppressive heat, and that I nearly had my camera confiscated. Apparently you can't have 'that' sort of camera at the grounds. The lady who checked my camera bag on the way in obviously wasn't aware of this rule. On the plus side, there was a Dreamy Donuts stand. Finally a reason to go to the footy!
On the way up to Townsville, I was a little bored and started practicing some photography. Quite pleased with how the rear view mirror shots turned out. Jason was a little sick of the camera after a while, being the only human subject in the car besides myself.
The mother ship was calling Jason, when we walked into Flinders St mall and found 'The Brewery'. It was a great pub, and the nachos were excellent.
We stayed at the Quest apartments, which were nice, but we were only there for an extremely short while, and had to head back to Mackay early Monday morning, to start work around lunch time.
Sometimes I forget about the moonlight cactus that sits out by the back tap. Every now and then, though, I get to see it flower. It flowers only briefly (at full moon, hence the name), and today the flower was particularly stunning, even in the full heat of the morning sun.
