After our trip away I came home to pick up mum from the airport and we had a week at home. Got lots of jobs done and spent a good few hours washing dirt out of every crack and crevice in Kermit.

We all went to Kim's 50th birthday at Ashmore Steakhouse - which was a lovely surprise for her as I had convinced her we would be away for her birthday. Leo and the kids came up from Kiama, Alana was off in Europe, Tracey and Cesare (Chesay) came up from Sydney and Robyn and Alan came along too. It was a good nite and the meals are massive - great place to visit.

The day we arrived home I got a call from a friend at work to say my friend Max had come off his motorbike and was in hospital - a quick call to his partner Carol established he was in a pretty bad way but not life threatening. Carol and I were planning to go to Hervey Bay for a few days after mum went home.

Well mum and I ended up going to Hervey Bay and it was raining and miserable. Max was in hospital and wouldn't be out for a while. We met up with Cheryl and Ron, Garth was there from Mackay and Diane, Ron's sister and her husband Stan arrived. We had a nice couple of days, I went for a couple of bike rides and then we headed home. Mum flew back to Sydney and I had a week off work.

I went to Alan and Robyn's at the Gold Coast for a day to finalise their website www.aknightonthetiles.com.au and then Robyn and I met Kim at Robina for a morning's shopping. Then back to work.

Winter this year has been very cold - or we have become acclimatised - in the past years we have only pulled out a light doona for our bed and a cotton blanket - this year it was a polar fleece blanket and our old pure wool quilt from Shellharbour. I had relegated the gas heater to the shed last year in disgust as we rarely used it. How I rue that day as it refused to play this year and kept going out. Garth dropped in for a while and he took to wearing beanies and John's Freightcorp wool jumper he was so cold. He also took on the gas heater and was determined to make it heat the house - a frustrating effort.

As a present for Evan's birthday Evan and I went to a 4wd driver training course with the 4wd club - we have decided that we probably wont stay in Caboolture as there is one person who is so unpleasant that we don't want to waste our spare time in dealing with him - he is one of the club officials and is so rude and arrogant that we just do not want to have anything to do with him. It's a shame as we have had some good outings with the club and on the whole the people are really welcoming and pleasant. He turned up at the driver training and that made up our minds. However we have met some of the people from Kallangur club and it is much closer and more convenient for Evan to attend. For me it is 6 of one and half a dozen of the other - but with summer coming up Kermit will sit in the driveway for a few months as it will get too hot to be comfortable.

For my birthday I had hinted to John I wanted to see the Mikado but it had finished before I got it sorted. John told me I had to be ready at noon on Saturday to go out and we had a lovely day - he had organised to be at the art gallery for the Sydney Nolan exhibition and a tour of the art gallery with 2 volunteers. We went onto the museum and saw the VC exhibition and then over to the casino for a while, a casual tea of turkish bread, ham and cheese at QPAC and then onto My Fair Lady - it was a great day and I really appreciated his efforts.

On Fathers' Day (my birthday) Evan and Sarah came for lunch and I had a nana nap as I was beat from the day before - we had done a lot of walking and I was feeling it.

Then it was off to Newcastle to see Deb, who happened to be moving to a new house and then onto Sydney for lunch with the girls from school.

Deb has been living with her parents since her son Karl went to WA to live with his father and had located a small terrace house close to work in Newcastle. It was a bit off-putting as it was not in a very good state but once the landlord saw it and a couple of friends dropped in it was spruced up and ready for occupation.

I picked up a hire car and went to meet John at Joanne's. His uncle Reg had died and he had unexpectedly flown to Sydney for the funeral. On the way to pick up John I got to the M4 and the hire car started beeping at me - flashing a picture of a coffee cup on the dash - I got Jo to bring John to Macca's on Mamre Road and then we headed off to Campbelltown to meet Chris and Kerrie for tea. We stayed the night with them and then I had to pick up Sue Beashel from Sydney Airport to go to the class reunion.

Arriving at Birkenhead Sue and I struggled through scaffolding and stuff and got to the restaurant. What a great time we had!!!

44 of us met for lunch and it was wonderful to see everyone. The photographer Kaylene had organised was a bit of a pain and he was late and people wanted to leave but the photo got done and we all had a great time - some of us retired to Ann's house at Annandale and I finally folded into bed at midnite. John had gone onto his school reunion that he hadn't planned to go to and he turned up at 7.30 after having no sleep at all. We had breakfast with Ann and David and then John and I headed off to mum's.

I had asked Alan and Sue could we come for tea on Sunday nite as mum doesn't get out much at nite and so it was great to have John with me and we all went for tea.

I dropped John off at the airport and then back to mums - heading off to the airport again on Monday morning.

Back to work again!!!

Joanne came up for a few days and so her and I went to the movies on Thursday and then off to see The Carpenters from Kempsey on Friday. We stayed at the apartment on Friday and Jo headed home on Saturday - John and I went out with Max and Carol on Saturday to a Ulysses Club Trivia Nite where Max's team won silver medals for coming second.

Max has ended up with a broken leg in a metal frame and his hand suffered a bit of damage - he will be off work for a few months and is restricted to a wheelchair but otherwise he is ok.