Harris sibling fun

Today Jess, Jon, Dan and I enjoyed a day of hanging out. We started with lunch in town, then headed over to the Botanic Gardens where we lazily sat and read books in the sun. The day was finished off with home made burgers and watching Mr Bean's Holiday. All in all a lovely day. Isn't family great?! Here are the photos...

Events you've missed if you're not on facebook...

My blogging has been severely compromised since joining facebook. Sorry guys. I have posted a couple of photo albums on facebook. One being for the amazing Fiona's 50th birthday, and the other for Cathy and Tiago's engagement party. As we know....a picture speaks a thousand words. And yes, I'm lazy, it's easier to post photos than long text!! There are also a few new Hannah pics...follow the old link in the sidebar :)

Doing the Queensland thing

Well, it's already been 4 days back at work after a wonderful 2 weeks holiday up in Queensland.

1st stop: Brisbane - 2 nights
We had a bit of a family reunion up in Brisbane for my cousin Stephen and his new wife Sarah's wedding. Lots of fun although I spent most of the weekend keeping an eye out for where people kept there tissues and feeling somewhat self conscious as I tried to cough quietly in the corner! My cold from 2 weeks ago had turned into a rather nastier infection - whilst at the airport in Adelaide before we flew up I was sitting having rigors followed by hot sweats....not a good start to the weekend!

2nd stop: Noosa - 2 nights
Dan picked up the same bug I had, but with fevers he starts to vomit....so as we headed our way up the coast he kept a vomit bag close at hand. Our first night of official "holiday" was spent at the Noosa hospital Emergency Department with Dan hooked up to a drip for a couple of hours to rehydrate him. The nurses felt so sorry for me sitting next to his bedside coughing they insisted I have a nebuliser :) We were a sorry pair!! Needless to say we don't actually remember all that much about Noosa although we did venture out for an hour or two to see the beach.

3rd stop: Rockhampton - 1 night
This was really just a stopover to break up the trip. We didn't really see any of it, but enjoyed Macca's hotcakes for breakfast. Dan later regretted it....

Does it sound like a good holiday so far? Despite feeling rather sorry for ourselves we actually were enjoying ourselves! There was kind of a sense of adventure to it...

4th stop: Airlie beach - 3 nights
So called gateway to the Whitsundays - this place is certainly a bit of a tourist magnet. We stayed nestled up against the hills, a bit away from the actual beach but with glorious views out to the ocean and a few islands. Both getting closer to feeling better we were able to start enjoying the holiday with appropriate things such as sunshine, strolls, and good books to read.

5th stop: final destination, Magnetic Island
Once we hit Magnetic Island we were thankfully just about 100% so really kicked back and relax. In keeping with the Queensland norm we enjoyed sunshine every day!! Magnetic Island is a beautiful place for walking and we did a lot of it :) Before heading off on our holiday Dan had been getting excited at the idea of geocaching (treasure hunts on a big scale using a GPS to find an exact coordinate where someone has hidden a geocache). He had found out there were several geocaches hidden on Magnetic Island so we thought we'd give this thing a go. And it was so much fun!! We were successful 2 out of our 3 attempts and felt very proud of ourselves (as you will see from our photos!). Having a whole week at this end of the holiday meant lots of time for reading and eating and generally relaxing. We were so thankful we had taken a full 2 weeks because it meant we really felt relaxed and refreshed by the end.

Over the last 3 days I attended the Christian Medical and Dental Fellowship of Australia's national student and recent graduates conference (called IMPACT).....what a mouthful. But also what a challenging, encouraging and blessing of a weekend it was. It was a wonderful way to start thinking about heading back to work, but in a positive way, remembering just why I chose this career in the first place - to glorify God by showing His love and mercy to others. I was also challenged to look and see what God is doing in the world and try to be involved in that, rather than looking at what I am doing, and trying to get God involved in my plans!

There's a quick rundown - I have to admit the thought of blogging 2 weeks full of happenings was rather daunting which is why I've kept it brief and to the point. See the photos for a better idea of it all :)

For photos of the 1st week go here
For photos of our 2nd week go here

Head colds aren't fun.

I am sick. I have spent the majority of yesterday and today either lying on the floor in front of the heater or curled up on the couch. Dosed up on paracetamol and sudafed, with a box of tissues at my elbow I have sniffed my way through the weekend, with a cough here or there. I have once again realised I am a pathetic patient. I don't cope well at all with feeling under the weather. It is so frustrating!! I feel like my head is full of mud, every turn feels like it is in slow motion... I began to feel unwell Thursday evening but trundled my way off to work on Friday. It was most annoying to be dishing out medical certificates to people less sick than I who had been wise enough to take the day off from work! I have never been good at taking sickies. I am considering it for tomorrow but know what a headache it will cause for everyone else if I don't come, particularly as after my usual consulting day I am rostered to work up at the Emergency Department in the evening. Maybe I'll be feeling a whole lot better in the morning, but it is often hard to make that decision in the time between waking up and leaving the house. Anyway, I am simply indulging myself by writing this post, allowing myself to wallow in further self pity!

S@S camp

A week late again but here are the photos.

Port Lincoln

A week late but here is some photographic evidence of Dan and my weekend away in Port Lincoln.

Update

Crisis averted. Big hole in the back yard where they dug up said cracked pipe but otherwise not too worse for wear. No new cracks developed. Door has been fixed. House structurally sound....for now. Looks like we won't be moving just yet.

Cracks. Pipes. Water.

I'm sitting in our back room listening to the sound of running water.... I first became aware of the sound some time yesterday. Initially I thought it was water running down a drain pipe outside because it has been raining a fair bit recently. But I looked outside and there was blue sky and sunshine. I then thought our neighbours must have left there kitchen tap slightly on. But it sounded like too much water. Then Dan came in and decided our neighbours must have installed a water feature in their garden. But when we went outside and peered over the fence there was no water feature, and no further sound of running water. When we came back inside we put our ears to the floor. The sound of running water was definitely coming from under the floor. Not only was there water trickling but it sounded like there was a significant pool of water it was running into. When we went back outside and listened to the side of the house where the air vents are we could hear the water too.

Oh oh, there's a burst water pipe somewhere.

Is this an emergency?

We decided not to call our land agent until this morning.

This afternoon the land agent, two plumbers, and Dan stood around wondering what to do.
Whilst wondering, Dan noticed a big crack in the wall in the lounge room that was not there this morning. We've got a few small cracks here and there but not big ones. He went round the other side of the wall in our bedroom....now you can see the light shining through from the lounge room! Sometime since this morning, and this afternoon, the walls have moved. Now there is another crack extending round to the front door. The front door barely closes....we're kind of worried we are either going to get locked in or out, or break the door in the process of trying to close and open it. Maybe we'll wake up in rubble tomorrow morning.

They say they will have to get to the pipe either through the floor in the back room, or bash a hole through the bricks from the outside.

This is the point at which we are grateful we are renting. I hate to think of the headache of insurance and costs. We have notified the agent. It is no longer our problem. So long as the house doesn't fall down around us and we have to find a new place to stay tomorrow.