QUEENSCLIFFE

FISH & CHIPS FOR LUNCH

Today we went to Queenscliffe with Mel & Ben for lunch, we had originally planned to go Boxing Day but as Phil had to work over Christmas we finally went on the Saturday after Christmas. We had a lovely day, the weather was good not to hot and we had our much looked forward too fish and chips. The shopping area is changing every time we go down and now has a couple of new shops to look through. Phil got his supply of green tomato pickles and I bought a couple of bits and pieces. After lunch we strolled along the waters edge and then walked back to the car and went to find where the fishing charter company was that Phil and Ben hope to use sometime this year.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TRISH

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Hope you are having a great birthday and that our dinner tonight is good.

PHILS CHRISTMAS DAY

CHRISTMAS MORNING
While we were all opening our presents and having fun Phil was fixing his truck in Toowoomba. His sister Gayle and her partner Steve came to collect him for the day but firstly they fixed his problem. After which they headed off for a late breakfast/early lunch with a friend of Gayle's and then on to Steve's parents for a slap up Christmas Dinner. So although he missed out being with us, he had a very nice day with Gayle and Steve. Later in the afternoon he headed into Brisbane.

CHRISTRMAS DAY 2008

When I found out that Phil would be away on Christmas Day I was not happy, but we both ended up having a good day. Phil spent the day with his sister Gayle and her partner Steve in Toowoomba where he had Christmas lunch with Steve's family and was made most welcome. Mel and Ben stayed on Christmas Eve and had their first christmas together at home. Ben is a present poker and it was very hard for him to leave the presents with tags on them for him alone, and had to laugh to myself when at 6.30 in the morning I could here the rustle of paper as he unwrapped Mel's present to him. Needless to say we were all up early and had a great time unwrapping presents. This year for the first time I didnt have much to do for lunch as Trish cooked the meat and vegies and made sweets, so it appears that the changing of the guard is happening. We had a lovely lunch and headed off home about 3.30pm, a quick call to Ian and then a sleep. We headed back for tea about 6 which Byron and Kylie did and it was nice to just sit back and relax although I was missing Phil it was good to be with all the kids and grandkids.

COCKTAILS AT 8

This year for our Kris Kringle we had a cocktail party. Mel and Ben were our wonderful cocktail makers and we had a choice of three - martini, cosmopolitain and japanese slipper. The martini wasn't very nice but the cosmos and slippers were yummy. Thank you Mel and Ben for doing such a great job. As you can see from the photos we all had a great night.

MADAGASCAR 2

As Trish was working and Kylie had shopping to do it was a good chance to take the girls to see this film. We all enjoyed it and must say the soundtrack was great it had us all dancing in our seats. What a nice way to start Christmas Eve off.

HAPPY 21ST CRAIG

Congratulations Craig on reaching 21. As your Father said on the night their are many who thought you would never make it to 21 but here you are still in one piece. Hope you had a great night we all certainly did and we wish you many happy kilometres in your car.

PRIMARY CARE LUNCH

CHRISTMAS LUNCH AT GALLI

Our work christmas lunch was at Galli and as always the food was very yummy, I had turkey and pork with vegies followed by fresh fruit salad and mango ice cream. The photo is of myself and Tammie a very special young women who works with me on reception. We are both pisces and have this incredible link which is very nice and something special. The day previous we had our admin christmas lunch at Flanagans in Bacchus Marsh and it was good fun too. Thankfully have two weeks off now and am back at work from the 5th January for two weeks, then some more time off.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BYRON

Congratulations Byron on your 34th birthday yesterday. We had a lovely night at the The Club in Caroline Springs where we had dinner with family and friends.

BIRTHDAYS, BIRTHDAYS

December is certainly the birthday month in this family. Two of my best friends Judi and Dearne have birthdays within days of each other. Hope you both had wonderful birthdays and that the year to come is filled with love and happiness.

AUSTRALIA THE MOVIE

Tonight I went to see the movie Australia with Trish and Di. I enjoyed the movie, the scenery was fantastic and was good to see so many Australian actors in one film. Can understand that for some it dragged in places and possibly should have been a bit shorter but he had a story to tell and he told it his way. Nicole and Hugh were great together and as I said I enjoyed the whole experience.

GUESS WHO'S 6

HAPPY 6TH BIRTHDAY
Hard to believe Jordja is growing up so quickly. After work today went to her birthday party at McDonalds and will be going bowling with her on Sunday which will be great fun.

ROCKHAMPTON

We have just had a wonderful 5 days in Rockhampton. It is amazing just how much you can cram into the days. We have travelled approx 800 kilometers in that time and seen some wonderful sights.

These are some of the photos I took at the Heritage Park which was fantastic. We thoroughtly enjoyed our visit there and had a good few chuckles over the school house which reminded us both of our days at school.

They have a wonderfull collection of vintage cars and bikes as well.

CHRISTMAS TREE

PUTTING UP THE CHRISTMAS TREE

Jordja helped me to put up our christmas tree this year. She was a wonderful helper, firstly getting the branches out of the box, then putting them in colour piles and finally putting them on the trunk of the tree. We then got out all the decorations and selected the gold and red ones, which was the colour theme for the tree this year. As you can see from the photo she did a very good job and our tree looked lovely. Thank you Jordja for all your help.

DAY TRIPPING

SHEPPARTON

Yesterday we went to Shepparton to SPC Ardmona to stock up on goodies. We had a great trip, the weather was overcast but warm and we just meandered up the back way through Romsey to outside Heathcote where we turned off and headed for Nagambie where we had lunch, once again the bakery didnt live up to expectations and Phil's sausage rolls left him feeling queasy for the rest of the day. From there we headed into Shepparton and over to Mooroopna to the SPC outlet where we stacked the trolley with tins of fruit, fruit juice, baked beans, spagetti, nuts, chocies, and all sorts of pickles, olives etc. and other sundry items before heading to the checkout. If you belong to the RACV you get an extra 5% discount so that was good as we had managed to spend a considerable amount but luckily about half of the goodies where for Trish.

After a quick coffee we headed out of town via Tatura, Rushworth and worked our way back to the Calder Highway and home. We also found the address for their Ballarat outlet so the next time we won't have to travel all that way to stock up.

ANDRE RIEU

CONCERT

Tonight Phil and I went to see Andre Rieu at Telstra Dome. We parked at Crown and had dinner there before walking up to the Dome. It was an amazing evening, the transformation of a football field into an indoor concert arena was magnificent, the stage itself was huge and covered about a third of the arena. Having seen Andre's concerts on Foxtel many times it was just wonderful to sit there and be enthralled by the music, the singers and dancers. The three male singers where unbelieveable and stole the show from the three female singers.

The show had everything, Andre and his violin, his interaction with the audience, as I said the singers, dancers, skaters, a beautiful horse drawn coach, and several hundred Pipers as part of the finale. The show went from 8.00pm with a 20 minute interval and finished at about 11.15pm. It certainly was value for money. After the show we made our way back to Crown and had a drink at the bar and then made our way home, a very late night but a good one.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEPHANIE

14 TODAY


Our eldest granddaughter Stephanie turned 14 today. Happy Birthday Steph hope you had a great day and enjoyed all your presents.

DAY OUT

SANDOWN 60TH ANNIVERSARY HOLDEN WEEKEND

While I was out having lunch with Mel and going to the movies Phil was at Sandown spending the day with Ian and his friends enjoying seeing all the old racing cars of a bygone era and taking in all the sights. Phil thoroughly enjoyed himself, he took the EH out there and it ran like a charm and he just had a wonderful day.



LUNCH & THE MOVIES
Went in on the train to meet Mel for lunch and a bit of shopping at the DFO (Mel bought two pairs of shoes and I was good didn't buy anything always the way when you have money in purse to spend) and then to the movies at Crown to see Nights at Rodanthe. Cant say it was one of the best movies I've seen recently but it was okay. After that we wandered through the crowds at Crown and was making our way back to Spencer Street and the station when I got a message from Janet that she was at Docklands so arranged to meet up with her and she brought me back to Melton, where I collected my car from the station and went home. Janet stayed for tea and it was lovely to catch up with her and all her news.

BUSY TIMES

WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE

It has certainly been very busy these past couple of weeks, but have now finished my stint at work and hopefully will manage to have a couple of weeks break before we head off to Rockhampton. Phil has been working on getting the VK on the road and with some luck it will be ready for its roadworthy late next week. We took time out last Sunday 26 October to go and see the Rocky Horror Show which neither of us had seen and we had a great time, met Mel for a late afternoon tea before she headed off to a Crown funtion and we then meandered through the city checking out the shops until the show started at 6pm. We enjoyed the show and afterwards walked back down to Crown Casino where we had parked the car, had a little play on the pokies on the way through and even managed to go home with a little extra in our pockets.

Have some problems with my back, had physio with the hope that it would strengthen it up, but we seemed to have only aggrevated the nerve and I am now having some very painfull days while it is venting its displeasure at being made to do what it doesnt want to do. Hence the physio has stopped and we are now looking at the possibility of hydro to help it. Will see how it pans out, but at the moment doing nothing in the hope it will all settle down again.

Went to Jordja's concert the other night, it was good to see all the littlies singing and acting out the letters of the alphabet. Jordja is so tiny compared to the rest of them but she certainly enjoyed doing her letter. Its hard to believe that she has nearly completed her first year of school.

We spent our tax cheques last Saturday and finally replaced our table and chairs which we starting to show signs of ageing, we also bought a buffet to match so now have unwanted furniture to get rid of, which we will try to sell on ebay. Oops almost forget that we had to replace our dishwasher as well so you could say a new kitchen, just need to finish the painting and it will be done.

Other than that nothing much else happening, the Clark's are about half way through their holiday in Surfers and hopefully enjoying themselves. Christmas is looming fast, need to start getting organised for this year festivities, hopefully will get the cakes made this week.

MOVIES

Last night I went to the pictures with Trish and all the girls including Jordja to see Beverley Hills Chihuaha the new Disney movie. It was a good laugh and the dogs were great. Everybody enjoyed themselves. Have been working afternoons for the past week and a bit so time has been precious but am managing to get things done. Mel and Ben have been over twice, on Sunday,Mel and I took the opportunity to do some retail therapy while Ben and Phil worked on Craig's car and Ben also completed the paperwork so Phil could register his car the next day and then on Monday to collect the car and leave Mel's with us as she now doesnt have anywhere to park her car at the Penthouse as it only has one parking spot.

HAWTHORN V STKILDA

Tonight I went to see Robert Harvey play his last game of football. I was amazed that we actually made it this far to a preliminary final against Hawthorn. Have to say that I was disappointed with the Saints performance and that once again the so called big names in our team let us down. But it was great to see Harvey cheered from the ground and the crowds acknowledgement of him. It has been a pleasure to watch him play over all these years, he is a true champion in the real context of the word, a perfect example for all young players to model themselves on.

Well that's it for another year, hopefully next year will see the Saints perform better, it will be interesting to see who stays and who goes at the club but it is time for them to move on the ones that are not up to this level of football and blood some more of the younger players. But time will tell. Good luck to both Geelong and Hawthorn and I hope Geelong make it two in row.

CRAIG'S VK COMMODORE

VK COMMODORE
Phil bought the car on ebay and picked it up today. This is the car he will do up for Craig for his 21st. It needs a bit of work and the gas has to be inspected, an oil leak located and fixed, some work on the floor of the boot, then its mostly cosmetic and hopefully will pass the roadworthy and be back on the road in the next few weeks.
Since its arrival it has been washed, vacuumed and given a general tidy up, the stero works quite well and once Craig puts the seat covers that will help to tidy up the inside.

GUESS WHO'S DRIVING NOW

Congratulations Craig on passing your driving test with a pass rate of 99% a very good result.

SHORT TRIP AWAY

HOW LONG IS IT TO HOWLONG

As we both had time off this week we decided to take the Patrol for a short trip to see how it goes and what it was like to travel in for a couple of days and for me to get used to driving such a big vehicle. We set off on Tuesday morning and made our way cross country to Euroa where we stopped for lunch, unfortunately the local bakery's pasties were not up to scratch and must say they were one of the worst pasties we have ever had, never mind the apple cake was good. From there we headed up to Rutherglen for a look around and we had coffee and bought several bottles of red at the local IGA supermarket at a very good price. From there we took a slight detour and went to have a look at Chiltern. Sadly not much to see at Chiltern these days so we then made our way to Howlong for the night. We stayed at the only motel in town at the Golf and Bowling Club. Our accommodation was very nice and the price even better. We played the pokies and at the end of the night broke even which was good. In the morning we went into Lavington to SPC outlet store and stocked up on goodies then on to Holbrook to see the submarine and have a coffee break before heading up to Tarcutta to see the memorial wall to truckies, found Phil's friend Rooster and his photo, then had lunch at the truck stop before starting our return trip home. We had a lovely time, the weather was great, it was fun driving the 4wd and it was good to get back home even if we did nearly run out of diesel on the way home.

PHIL'S NEW TOY

BUSY WEEK

This week has passed in a blur, worked on Monday, Tuesday had to take the Sebring to Werribee for its one year or 24,000k service, which was a laugh because have only done 15,000kms, but still needed to be done. Had organised for Trish to pick me up and to go shopping while the car was being serviced. To kill time while I was waiting went for a stroll around the used car section and what did I behold but a 2004 Nissan Patrol, auto, diesel with dual fuel tanks and in very good condition and the price was very good, so rang Phil and told him about it with the end result that they brought the car out home for him to have a look at and after some wheeling and dealing we are now the proud owners of a new vehicle. Phil traded the ute which he bought when we started the business so it was sad to see it go as it had been a very reliable car.

Trish and I had a great time shopping at Werribee and managed not to spend to much money but had a nice time. Thursday we had lunch in the city with Mel and Ben and on Friday I worked the morning at the Centre. Saturday night scrapped with Trish and thats about it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEL

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU

Phil and I went into the city today to help Mel celebrate her birthday. Mel finished work at lunch time and we met up with her and Ben for lunch. We walked back to Ben's apartment and left her pressie there and then headed down to Degreaves Street to a cafe where Mel and I had previously had lunch. After we had eaten we went for a stroll into the centre of Melbourne. A very pleasant way to spend an afternoon and it was lovely to catch up with them both. Hope you enjoyed your pressies and your day even though you have a rotten cold. Goodluck with your dinner party on Saturday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

HAPPY 12TH BIRTHDAY MONIQUE

Today Monique celebrated her birthday with a reptile party. As you can see from the photos everybody got to hold, stroke and play with a variety of lizards, snakes, frogs and a baby crocodile. I have a dislike for snakes etc. so I did'nt hold any but did manage a very small touch of a very large snake my son in law had wrapped around his neck. Yuck is all I can say.... I just could'nt touch them. Anyway it was Moniques day and she had a wonderful time.

CELEBRATING PHILS BIRTHDAY

PARTY TIME
We all got together at lunch today to celebrate Phil's birthday. Mel & Ben along with the Kellys and Clarks all came for lunch. After birthday cake we headed off to the bowling alley for a couple of games. The girls thoroughly enjoyed themselves especially young Ms Kelly whobowled well. The Clark girls did well both with good scores. As for the big boys unfortunately Phil cracked under the pressure in the second game, but everybody had a good time. I enjoyed myself but will suffer the consequents tomorrow when the poor old back will be complaining bitterly. The girls came back home and we had fish and chips for tea, followed by brandy snaps, cream and raspberries, mmm..... very yummy. As Phil said "A really nice way to spend the day".

HAIL, HAIL & MORE HAIL

BOY DID IT RAIN & HAIL
I was sitting at work about 4.00pm this afternoon when suddenly the heavens opened and down came the rain shortly followed by the hail. As you can see from these photos taken about 5.20pm when I got home from work it looked like snow. Phil who was home when the rain and hail hit said it was incredible the hail was about 2 inches thick on the ground and blocked all the downpipes. Winter at its best.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PHIL

BIRTHDAY BOY
Happy Birthday to my darling husband who turned 54 today. Although he had to work until lunch time he has had a really good day. Thanks to family and friends for his cards and gifts, a book from the Clarks "The Great Australian Shearing Stories" which he will enjoy, a couple of DVD's and a circular saw from yours truly. Simon called in for a birthday drink and chat as well. We have been out for tea tonight at Rubys and then to play the pokies which proved to be a windfull for Phil as he won the minor jackpot and came home with an extra $50 in his wallet. On SAturday all the gang will be here for lunch and then off to the bowling alley for a roll and giggle which will be fun the kids all love playing as do the adults so should be a good afternoon.

A GOOD READ

VODKA DOESN'T FREEZE by Leah Giarratano
I have just finished reading this book which Trish loaned me. I have enjoyed it although at the start was a bit iffy because of the topic but overcame that and thoroughly enjoyed it. Trish has the next book in the series so will borrow that shortly. As with all Australian authors I enjoy the fact that places they refer to are here in Australia and that I can identify with them, this always adds to the storyline as you are able to see with your minds eye where the action is taking place.
Am now back to reading the last of the Carla Neggers books that I borrowed from the library and have a new author to read Giles Blunt - I haven't read anything of his before but the blurb looks interesting so we will see what its like. Thats it people, happy reading to all those who enjoy the turning of the pages.

SCRAPBOOKING CLASS

THURSDAY NIGHT CLASS

For once I have completed a class ... this is a first for me I usually have to go back and finish off at a latter time. But this time I decided that I would get this album finished and so stayed up late last night and did just that. It is an album made using brown paper bags and is really very easy to make and looks great when finished. The paper bags create pockets to hold all the bits and pieces you collect on your holiday and also you can journal or not as you like (I don't journal very often) and has provision for your photos. Am very pleased with my album, which in turn motivated me to complete another class project from some months ago, so did very well. Sorry it hasn't photographed that well but you can get an idea of what its like.

HAPPY 80TH BIRTHDAY

LUNCH AT THE MELTON CLUB


Today we celebrated Lois's 80th birthday with lunch at the Melton Club. Lois is Mel and Craigs Nanna. It was a quiet affair as three of the guests were unable to attend so that just left Lois & Ken, Mel, Craig and myself and another family friend Jenny. We had a nice meal and spent two hours remembering the past.

WHAT I'M READING

I have just finished reading Janet Evanovich's latest book which was a very easy read but a little disappointing as there was not much happening really in this book. Have spent the last few weeks devowing the Karen Rose books which are fantastic and which I have thoroughly enjoyed to the point where I actually order the first two books in the series from the U.S.A. as I couldnt buy them here. Now all I have to do is wait for the next book to come out. Whilst searching the web for crime fiction I came across Carla Neggers who I am currently reading, I didn't buy these one's just borrowed them from the library. Trish bought two books by an Australian author Lean Giarratano and I have borrowed the first one from her which I will start as soon as I have finished the book I am currently reading. Had a sneak look at it the other night and looks promising so will keep you posted about it.

MAMMA MIA

GIRLS NIGHT AT THE MOVIES
Thought it would be nice to take Trish out to the movies so went and got tickets for us to see Mamma Mia! Sadly she did not enjoy the movie very much where on the other hand I had a wonderful time and thoroughly enjoyed it. Must say I love ABBA and their music is timeless. Would have got up and danced in the isle except I think my daughter would have totally disowned me. Never mind next time we go to the movies I will let her choose the movie.

MOVIES WITH THE GIRLS

KUNG FU PANADA

Today I took Monique and Jordja to the movies. This is my usual thing over the school holidays i.e taking which ever grandkids are around to see the current school holiday favourite movie. We meet beforehand to have lunch at the local shopping centre and then headed off to see the movie. It was very busy at the cinema as the weather was not good, rain and a bit more rain so everyone was at the movies. We all enjoyed the movie and met up with Kylie after to have coffee and as Trish was back from work she also joined us and we also did a bit of retail therapy. A nice way to spend a cold rainy day.

SUNDAY LUNCH

LUNCH IN THE CITY
On Sunday I caught the train into the city and met Mel for lunch. She was waiting for me at Southern Cross station as her best friend had come down from Ballarat to celebrate her birthday and was catching the train back home. We caught the tram down to Swanston Street and then went window shopping. We decided that we would have lunch at little cafe called RedNine in Degreaves Street, which served a very nice BLT with salad and chips. Yummy. We then did some more retail therapy and I finally caught the train back home at 4.00pm. One of the reason I caught up with Mel was to give her the album I had made for her graduation photos. I am very pleased with it and Mel was happy with it. Have included photos of said album.

CRAIG

20 GOING ON 21

While looking for photos to scrap tonight I came across these photos Mel took of her brother on Mothers Day. Its hard to believe that he will be 21 in December. Had forgotten that she had taken sooooooooooo many photos that day. Ashgrove was a photographer's paradise and there are many more great photos of us all plus the lovely autumm leaves and gardens. Well off to have a lovely soak in the bath as I am home alone tonight. Phil is in the truck and Craig is away in Stawell at his mates place. Then will watch a bit of telly and do some more work on Monique's rug which I started during the week. Hopefully will get it finished for her birthday.

WINTER WEEKEND

TEN PIN BOWLING

Bridgette has spent the weekend with us. She original was only coming for the night on Friday but it ended up staying until Sunday afternoon. She had a great time playing games on the XBox, then on Craig's computer playing World of WarCraft. On Saturday morning Bridgette and I made pumpkin soup and vegetable muffins for lunch. Byron came around on Saturday to borrow the mower as his is not working. Anyway after he returned the mower asked if he wanted to come bowling as we had promised Brigette we would go, Trish joined us as well and we all had a fun time. Everybody but me played two games and as you can see from the photos some strange goings on happened. We then had coffee at the Jolly Miller were we all ate goodies and drank coffee. Saturday night watched the footy...Go Saints...what a good win. Sunday we just muddled around, read the paper in bed, got up late, had bacon and eggs and just spent a lazy day not doing a lot.

NOT MUCH HAPPENING

Have been working this past week or so, so not much to report. Had a shopping day on the Monday before Ian & Wen headed home on the 17th after having enjoyed themselves house sitting and visiting family and friends and a trip up to Echuca. My camera died when we got back from Darwin so have bought myself a new Kodak ZD710 which I am busy learning to use. It is very different from my Canon so will see how we go.

Managed in between working to do some scrapbooking which was good. On the days that I was working Phil and Simon managed to finish laying the pavers in the backyard, now will leave them sit for awhile before we do the next stage which is to put a timber pathway and seating area along the back fence. As our driver has resigned and finishes at the end of the month Phil won't have any spare time for awhile.

DRIVING THE BOAT

A DAY OUT ON THE HARBOUR

On Saturday afternoon we all went fishing on the Darwin harbour. It was a beautiful day with just a few whispy clouds in the sky. We spent about 3 hours out on the boat fishing but have to say that as usual I didn't manage to catch anything, but Phil using a hand line caught 3 fish, one stripey and two blue tuskers all of a fairly good size, so as you can imagine he was very pleased with himself.

On the way home I had a go at driving the boat, which I have to say was fun, if not a bit stressful when we got close to the wharf, but then handed over to Deb for her to take us back to the boat ramp. It was a nice way to spend our last day in Darwin and hopefully when we get back up there next time I will manage to finally catch a fish.

FISHING HOLIDAY

THE BIG FISH

Phil and I have just spent a week in Darwin staying with Deb & Steve. The reason for our holiday was simple. Phil was going fishing. The last time we were in Darwin he didnt manage to catch anything so we made this holiday one purely for him to go fishing and to catch a big one.

Well his first day out was not to good, he and Steve went crabbing and didnt get any, but somehow managed to get his right foot caught up in a fish hook resulting in him having the barb going through the top of his foot, through two veins, blood spurting everywhere and ending up in hospital after he collapsed and an ambulance was called.

Anyway he was ok and alls well that ends well. The next day the boys were out again and they managed to catch to very big jew fish. The one Phil is holding weighted 17 kilos and he was very pleased with himself. Have to say that it was wonderful eating and as a non fish eater I thoroughly enjoyed it.

TRAINING

Super Clinic

On Monday I started training to work in our new Super Clinic. I spent the morning at Bacchus Marsh learning the telephone system then on Tuesday began at the Super Clinic. It is very different from the community health centre all new with the latest technology and lovely working conditions. Must admit when I came home on Tuesday had a headache from trying to learn all the new systems and practices. Back again on Thursday for more and again today but by the end of today was feeling much for confident so will see how we go in the future.

Had the day off on Wednesday and did some retail therapy at Watergardens with Trish. Managed to get some scrapbook things I needed and then did a quickie of all the shops as well.

Ian & Wen arrive from Tassie tomorrow night and we fly out for Darwin on Monday. They are having a break over here while we are away and will have the use of my car so a good way to have a cheap holiday, even managed to get them cheap flights with Tiger Airlines.

GRADUATION DAY

Congratulations Melanie - Well done!!!!!

This morning we attended Mel's graduation ceremory from Victoria University which was held at Flemington Racecourse. It was an early start for Mel as she had to be there at 8.00am luckily Phil, Craig & I didnt have to get there till after 9. Melanie's grandparents came down from Ballarat for the ceremory and her boyfriend Ben was there too. Ben was running late so Craig got the job of waiting out the front for him as we had the tickets and they ended up with better seats than we did. The ceremory was very well run and the whole thing took a total of about one half hours. After they received their degrees, there was a keynote speaker who was followed by the validitory speaker then it was all over.

Finger food, tea and coffee was provided upstairs in the Viewing Room which overlooks the finishing post and has wonderful views of Melbourne. We left about 1.00pm for home and Mel and Ben headed back into the city for lunch then off to South Yarra to get together with her other uni mates for drinks. A few photo's from the day.

OLD BUILDINGS AND CHURCHES

One of the reasons for my trip to Launceston was to do some more research into my family and I am glad to say that I did manage to find out a few more interesting things about our original descendant James Peters. The most interesting being the confirmation that he was in fact a halfcaste Chinese gentleman. This gives some truth to the story told by my mother that he was the child of a Chinese princess as she put it and a merchant. He married his first wife Eliza Boon on 24 December 1847 at the Holy Trinity Church Cameron Street. The photos show the Holy Trinity Church as it is today whether this fine church was built back in 1847 I wasn't able to find out. I did find out that during his time as a merchant James Peters had businesses in Cameron Street, Patterson Street and George Street so took a few photos of building dating around that time in those locations.