flying

Came across this rather safe playground equipment in QLD Austrlia while visiting The Walkers (Daniel's Sister and her Family).
Basically you get on and pedal really fast and pick up speed faster and faster. It is designed on an angle so that there is a real acceleration as you travel downhill. I had a go and it goes pretty fast. I think I was pulling 3g's. Or was that becasue there was pressure in my head that was causing a growing feeling of nausea.
Great fun to be had by all.

I almost forgot to note that on the round about thing closest is Tom (helmet was becasue he was riding a bike not because of the inherit hazard of riding a fast moving playground equipment) and Delenn (furthest). In the corner is Ian.

Gordon's Birthday

Nice Family photo from Gramp's Birthday party. Twas a wonderful day and a great party. Too bad we had to fly home the next morning or we could have been out all night enjoying the company. But alas we had not packed and Fi needed to head to K mart to get some stuff (Vegemite) before we flew.

For those who don't know who is in the Photo.
Back row Jenelle (Fi's younger sister) and her Husband Mathew, Mark (Nicci's Beau), Nicci (Fi's older sis), Fiona and Daniel.
Second Row Carol (Nonna), Gordon (Gramps), Delenn (looking very disgusted with the proceedings).
Front row Mitchell (Jenelle and Matts little man), and Sheridan.

We all had smiling faces becasue it was a good day and we do get along well. 

Chinglish

This is an example of how to connect to the internet in a Hotel in China. I got this of a website (www.engrish.com) but did have one very similar when I was staying in DongGuan.

I have a suspicion that this was translated from the chinese using one of those translation web sites. They are actually kind of fun.

Try this - Type a sentence or a phrase and then tranlaste it into Chinese. Then back translate to English and see what you get. You will be surprised at some of the translations. One such site is www.worldlingo.com . Give it a go.. 

snow!

For the last few days it has been trying really hard to snow here. Little pellets of ice and some sleet. This morning we woke up to 2 inches of snow and its still coming down. Now it's going to be interesting to see how people handle this on the roads of Wuhan.

Sheridan Walking across the oval to school. When we got to her class the teachers were all there and she was the only student that had made it that far. The buses were late and all the other kids were out playing. So we went back down and played for a bit until Sheridans teacher came down and then I left for work.

Pretty poor driving conditions but generally the traffic looked no different.

I've Got Gas

Never know what to expect when things are different and the communication isn't quite there.

Last year for some inexplicable reason the heating in the house stopped working.

(I never was in a house where we use hot water to heat the house before so didn't know what to expect. Actually it was quite funny when we requested the heater be turned on as we tried and couldn't manage. We were told to wait and they would send the engineers to get the heater working. They came one saturday and got the hot water heater in the kitchen running and fidled in the roof for a few hours. The wallah hot water pumped through the house and the AC fans used to push air past these hot water pipes. I am not sure how efficient this is but its worth a try.)

So the hot water heater in the Kitchen stopped working. We talked to the lady at work who looks after us and she said we used all our Gas up. This is when I found out we pay for our gas before use. Any way a few days later we got the gas back on and all was fine. (apart from taking a day to heat the house back up) It's funny how we weren't told of this set up before but had to wait to run out before we got it.

The just before going to Australia the gas company switched us to natural gas so again I had a few days of cold house and cold showers. I left the Key with our driver and he assured me it would be fixed before we got back from Australia. And yes it was fixed for about two days. So during our time in Aus the heating was off so the marble floors were ice cold and the house never really got warmed up before the heating went off again.

I found out now that the last time the gas was switched we didn't have the card to do it right so they just did something to borrow some gas. This took two days to discover so the house was ice cold again.

But now I have gas again - hot showers and warm house. I am tracking the gas meter and trying to determine how I can tell when it will run out. The other problem is I would gladly give them money to pay for as much gas as I can use but they insist on doing it themselves.

I will some day work it all out I am sure.

As for now I will sit back and relax in a nice warm house with a nice warm shower.

Lazy Hair Day

The ultimate Lazy Hair Day was when I couldn't be bothered washing or brushing Sheridan's hair on Saturday or Sunday. In fact I think it wasn't brushed all week. Ok I am a bad father.

I discussed the options with Sheridan and we decided we would go to the hair dresser where she could get a hair wash and a nice blow dry and I could get a hair cut.

Going to the hair dresser is a great experience in China. You sit in the chair for 45min while one person gives you a hair wash. While washing your hair they give a nice soothing scalp massage. After that there is a nice warm water rinse followed by a blow dry, a hair cut, then another warm water rinse, a blow dry and a style. (No styling going on in my hair but the guys at the salon did have a good old laugh when they asked if I wanted styling gel and I nodded kind of nonchalantly. They then discussed in Chinese whether I had enough hair to warrant such an excersie but in their typical Chinese politeness obliged anyway).

Sheridan and I then walked next door to the Aloha diner for a bit of warmth and a nice cup of coffee and some dinner.

I think the 5RMB I spent on Sheridans hair was well worth the hour long wash and dry and blow dry she got. btw 5RMB is about 70cents US. Bargain..... My haircut and wash was 20RMB.

Dan

We're Back - Sort Of

Well we all made it back safely.
Really enjoyed our two weeks In Australia and were thoroughly Exhausted when we got back.

Fiona jetted off to India for ten days with Delenn. Sheridan and I are enjoying the freedom around the house. However I think it is a little too quite for Sheridan as she does not stop talking or making some kind of noise.

Will post some more pics of the Australia trip when I get the house sorted out again.

Dan

Beach

After being away from the beach the kids couldn't wait to get out and have a play. Even though it was quite cool outside they just couldn't stay away.

Cricket

We went to the boxing day test.
Here is Fiona enjoying a Pie and a Beer at the cricket. It was a great day but a little cold. Melbourne had their coldest Christmas Day on record and boxing day was not much better.

We did get to see Shane Warne get his world record 700th test wicket. Fiona even managed to snap a photo of the delivery in question.

The kids had a good day staying with Dan's parents and we got to ride the train to and from the city. 

Terracotta Warriors

We took a trip to Xi'an to take a look at Emporers Qins Tomb and the terracotta warriors. Here I am looking geeky. 

Football for WWGSK

Dan played a game of football for the plant against TS Tech (one of our customers). We were beaten 5-1 but had lots of fun playing. It only took me three days to recover as I am not quite as fit as I used to be. 

Fiona at Forbidden City

 

Great Wall

Here we are at The Great Wall near Beijing. Amazing place to visit. 

Sheridan's class

Sheridan's class SLIS Wuhan China