Smythville

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old; Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them Lest We Forget [caption id="attachment_1025" align="aligncenter" width="468" caption="Aussie Flag"] [/caption] On the 25th of April 1915, Australian and New Zealand Army Corp troops landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey during what we call the First World War. More than 8,000 Australian soldiers were killed that morning while fighting for their country. From the bloodshed, pain and sorrow, the ANZAC legend was born that day . We call this day Anzac Day. It's a chance for both nations, Australia and New Zealand, to pause and remember all the soldiers that fought and died not only in WWI but in all wars. To learn more visit the Australian War Memorial

Fire Warden Volunteers Originally uploaded by EclipseAu Getting back from lunch, all the lifts came to the ground and people came piling out. The security guards started shifting everyone out of the building. JB & SC were roped into being volunteer fire wardens for the day. The fire drill today was particularly painful as HP were urgently couriering (is that a word) (no it's not, you fool, you fool) a motherboard and graphics card up from Sydney to fix the one the tech fried while replacing my display panel.

I will add photos to Flickr and the posts from our trip to Cairns when I have fixed my computer. Tattooine has decided to lose it's network adapter. Been troubleshooting, but nothing is working. Will need to try a BIOS update and a Rebuild to see if that will fix it. If not will need to contact Mobo supplier ASUS for warranty fix.

Our last day in Cairns, started off with breakfast at the Coffee Club at the Smithfield shopping centre. After breaky we cruised around the centre looking at the community markets being held inside the centre. The girls were very excited, as we finally found someone who sells the skate shoes that JP has been after for a while. Needless to say that CB needed a pair as well. After the markets we took a trip out to Crystal Cascades (out past Redlynch). It was a bit like Mossman Gorge but not as wide and far less tourists. We walked all the way to the end of the track to see the spot where it starts, at least we thought it would, but the track doesn't go that far. We saw a turtle sunning itself on a rock in the middle of the river and luckily for us we didn't come in contact with any stinging vines that were signposted everywhere. Also there were heaps of the bluest dragonflies I have ever seen. After leaving Crystal Cascades we went back to AB, UD & RDJ's place for lunch ...

We started off the day with a very yummy breakfast at a little cafe on Holloways Beach. After breaky UD took the girls for a walk along the beach. After we left the cafe we took the girls for a little play on the playground while AB & UD changed RDJ's nappy. With his nappy off he was able to per all over mum and dad. After this, AB & UD went over to a friends place to see their new baby (RDJ's new bestest buddy) whilewe headed off to Cairns Central for a look around. While we were there, NP was feeling a bit tired after being on the go for the last week, so we went to the movies to have a little chillax time. We saw "Race to Witch Mountain". It was a great movie. After the movie, we headed back to the unit. I knicked off to take some photos of the local kangaroo population while NP took the girls for a swim in the pool. We finished the day with a barbecue at the pool with AB, UD & RDJ.

We started off the day at AB and UD's taking some pictures of RDJ for his birth announcement. He is one photogenic kid. Then, at about 11am we headed up the mountain to Kuranda. On the way up the range there was one crazy woman driver, sitting so close up my arse, that I could have helped her put her makup on. Once up the top we went to Barron Falls. There is a track that winds it's way up and down through the rainforest for about 600 metres, past the Kuranda Railway station to the Barron Falls lookout. It wasn't flowing very much but we saw some photos of the falls in full flight and it would definately be a sight to behold. After the falls we headed back into town for some lunch. One thing to note up here is they (shops and touristy things) really take advantage of the tourists. Anything touristy will really set you back a lot of Dough. We had lunch at the Rainforest View Cafe. After lunch we walked along the street browsing the shops when SPLATTER rain again. We got to...

We have had a pretty full on four days so we decided that today would be our Chillax day. We started the day with a relaxing breaky at Apres Beach Bar & Grill on the beach at Palm Cove. On the way back to the car we stumbled across some staff from the Cairns Zoo showing a Black Headded Python and a 2 year old Saltwater Crocodile. The girls had fun patting the python and crocodile. We then headed to AB & UD's for the Arvo. We watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix before heading out to their block of land to celebrate their ownership of the land being finalised. After the little celebration was rained out we went down to Trinity Bay for Fish & Chips for tea before heading back to the unit for the night.

Just who are these signs for Anyway Originally uploaded by EclipseAu This sign is displayed on the side of a childrens playground in Palm Cove. In case you can't read the writing the bottom line reads "Never swim under the influence of Drugs or Alcohol". WTF

We let the girls sleep in this morning as they have been getting very irritable lately and we didn't want any fighting today. Especially after such a huge day yesterday. We started off the day with a late breaky at AB's then headed off on our trip to Mossman and Port Douglas. After a beautiful drive along the coast we headed inland a bit to Mossman. When we got to AB's school we turned left and headed out to Mossman Gorge. Mossman Gorge is beautiful. The water was freezing but very refreshing. As one of the tourists put it today, once you are in and go numb it's beautiful. Speaking of tourists, there were way too many at the gorge for my liking. On the way back to the car we stopped off at another lookout and saw a nice little spot for a swim, so I took the girls down through the bush and a little creek. CB put her hand in front of me and said "What's this Daddy ?". Looking at her hand I said to her "Oh, nothing darl, it's just a leech" as I ...

We had an entirely excellent day today. We went on a fast cat called the "Reef King" out to Green Island, where we spent 2 hours snorkelling around near the jetty. We then got back on board the cat for the next part of the journey to the outer reef (Nelson's Reef). On the way out JP got sea sick and had to lie down. Once we arrived, JP and I went straight into the ocean, snorkelling around the reef. CB was a little bit scared and didn't want to snorkel, so NP stayed with her on the pontoon and went into the underwater observatory to look at the fish. After lunch NP and JP went out snorkelling and I was able to persuade CB to come out as well. Both JP and CB were scared about the possibility of being stung by bluebottles/Irukanji's so we hired the a stinger suit (very funny pics to follow). CB didn't want to stay out very long so I had to take her back to the pontoon. When we got back to the pontoon, "Wally", the huuuge Maori Wrasse was hanging aroun...

Today we went into Cairns fo a bit of a look around. We started off the day by going to the lagoon.   It is a man made salt water pool / playground right near the wharf in Cairns. It  is a popular place as you can't really swim at the beaches due to Stingers / Irukandji / Crocodiles.  AB was telling me that it is a popular place for the dads to take the kids, to give mums some time to themselves, due to the unusual amount of tourist backpacker white pointers seen here. We then moved on to Cairns Central Shopping Centre where we had lunch and the girls played with the animals from a baby animal farm. The girls also got their faces painted like a bunny rabbit by Mother Bunny and also had their photo taken with the Disney Princess Belle. After leaving the shopping centre we were on our way back to AB and UD's when we turned off to have a look at Barron Gorge.  On the trip along the road to the gorge there were heaps of people doing white water rafting. The gorge is beautiful, and ...

Meeting RDJ Originally uploaded by EclipseAu We woke at 3am to get ready to go to the airport. A quick trip down the Logan motorway then the Gateway bridge saw us dropping the car off at the car storage place at Hendra. We were dropped off at the Virgin Blue terminal where we checked our bags the went in for Breaky. We boarded the plane at 6:30am and took off just after 7am on our flight which took just 2 hours 20 min. UD met us at the airport in Cairns. After a short drive to Clifton Beach we arrived at the unit to see AB and finally meet little RDJ. He is sooooooo beautiful. In the afternoon we went to a little beach shack on Kewarra Beach and sat under a little Bali Hut and listened to a bloke play acoustic guitar.

I was playing around experimenting with photoshop and trying to do some digital scrapbooking. What do you think ????

Leftovers from the Fairy Party Originally uploaded by EclipseAu No, this isn't a post about a new right wing political party. Most people don't know that when the Fairies (as in Tinkerbell) have a party in your garden the grow their own party furniture They have different magical powders that grow different things for their needs. The shrooms that you see in the photo above are grown as seats for the fairies. Sometimes you will see a big, round Flat topped shroom. These are grown for their Formal dinner parties. Most times the Fairies forget to use their disappearing dust on the shrooms and leave them for the children to find in the mornings. But Shhhhhh........ Don't tell anyone.

Farewell Originally uploaded by EclipseAu One of the Ladies at work, who has been on contract with us for a year, gained full time employment in the Federal government and is leaving us. Good Luck for the new job !!

Monday was the D Man's (DML) birthday. We went over to AA's place for tea and obligatory Ice Cream Cake. Why us Ice Cream Cake soooooo tempting. Happy Birthday DML.

Artistic_Collage Originally uploaded by EclipseAu Today, When I was at the shops I stopped off at Crazy Clark's and got 3 Canvasses, 4 bottles of paint, and some sticky hands. The Idea was to do some splat painting using the sticky hands. That idea went out the window pretty quickly and we got into hand and finger painting as well. This progressed into whole body painting of CB. We had a great time, as you can see from the pics.