Sunset over the Aegean Sea and the island of Chios

Swimming in The Bosphorous

Ship? What ship?

Esra's kitchen

Here's part of the reason we're now trying to lose a few kilos...

Finally....

Our summer of teaching turned into an autumn of marking and online work, which hasn't left time for much else.  We used a few days off to drive to Victoria to visit family after a health scare with one uncle earlier in the year, and spent a few weeks working while we camped on the Murray.

We're now heading back north, and have finally managed to fit in a day of bushwalking at the Warrambungle NP. It was a cold start (the washing was frozen!) but it was a beautiful sunny day.The muscles are now protesting loudly, though, since it has been a long, long time since the last day hike... 

Night Photography

Cotton Tree

We've had great weather, and had lots of fun kayaking, boogie boarding, collecting shells and taking photos with our weekend visitors...

Vietnam

If we haven't posted for a while it's usually a sign of being busy with work, and not doing anything interesting... in the last few weeks this has only been half true. Dazz has been EXTREMELY busy with work, but also doing very interesting things. I, on the other hand, have not been terribly busy, or doing anything particularly exciting.

There had been talk of Dazz doing a teaching intensive with the Masters program in Vietnam earlier in the year, but we weren't sure that it was actually going to happen. All of a sudden it was on, and he was rushing to get visas and travel organised. After much discussion we decided that I wouldn't go. He ended up working 10hour+ days for the two weeks, with the middle weekend to catch up on sleep, class preparation and do a few hours of sight-seeing. Although it was exhausting it was a great teaching experience.

We spent a lot of hours on skype, often while he was eating at restaurants. Seafood figured prominently. He tried a couple of different tropical fruits, including the famously stinky durian. Although he had told the other teacher they would definitely not be hiring motorbikes, he ended up on the back of the bike of one of his students when they took him sight seeing and shopping! And where do they park all their scooters - in the scooter park, of course...









Now we're up at Cotton Tree having a 'holiday'... oh, and doing some marking, and beginning to prepare for on-campus teaching that begins in December. Of course, doing all that is hardly a chore when the air conditioning is going in the heat of the day and there are views of the beach. Being able to kayak, walk and swim in the early morning and late afternoon is when we are really on holidays.

What!?!?!?

We had a quick trip over to the coast to get a few things done to the van at the factory. Since we had to be there early (7am) we thought we'd put up with a noisy night at the Landsborough turnoff. What we didn't bank on was a seeming 'park and ride' that started about 4am. By the time we decided we'd leave at 5am we were almost parked in...

A special weekend with Ellie

Since her brother came to the gem fields for the July school holidays, we had promised Ellie a special three-day weekend away. A pupil free day provided the perfect opportunity. Our first stop was the rest area at Ravensbourne. This giant worm was found in a bit of an explore after breakfast.

The main destination for the weekend was Somerset Dam. It turned out to be great weather for kayaking, and after being a passenger for a while Ellie decided it was her turn to paddle. We called her Captain Zig Zag, but she did a great job!

We saw a pheasant coucal, invented a new dessert - The Taj Special, had perfect morning tea marshmallows and spent Sunday afternoon at the mountain cousins where we learnt about bee keeping.

Reserved

The perfect campsite is hard to find, and everyone wishes they could reserve their spot for next time... so we did. Our favourite Brisbane bush block, with power, water and meals (including morning & afternoon tea!!) is officially reserved.