Hooper's Christening

When my "besty" - Lynn, asked me thirty years ago to be her third daughters God-Mother I was overwhelmed.  It was such a privilege and an honour and one that I took very seriously.  So much so that I still consider my god-daughter as my "adopted" daughter. I have loved her from the day she was born.  So I was so very  touched when I heard that Nikki had asked my son to be the god-father to her son Hooper.  I know that my son will be a great god-father and will also consider it a privilege and an honour.  Here are some photos taken at the christening.

Hooper James

Hooper James is the son of my god-daughter, Nikki and her husband Troy.  Hooper turned one this month so we went to Charters Towers for his first birthday party.  Nikki went with a "Caterpillar" theme for his birthday and what a great job she did both on the cooking and the decorations.  Nikki's grandmother is Myra Scott Beach who I wrote a vale to her in a previous blog.  Nikki is so much like Myra and has followed in her grandmothers footsteps when it comes to catering for a large number of people.  Well done Nik!  It was a spectacular feast!

The birthday boy

Mum, Dad and Hooper

Cousin Harry

Cupcakes 

The birthday cake with the grub hole!

Grape Grubs!

Presents for the birthday boy.

Tough Love

Our Queensland premier is Campbell Newman.  I liked him when he was Mayor of Brisbane and I like him even more now that he has joined the Liberal National Party, or LNP as it is also known.  We, in Queensland were governed by a Labour Party for more years than I care to remember and throughout those years we have seen Queensland go from having a credit rating of AAA to AA.  Most folks would not give that much thought, but to put it in simple terms it means that the interest rate on the money that the state has borrowed goes up dramatically i.e. an extra $100 million in debt repayments (click on this link to really scare the socks off you) 

Campbell Newman came into power with a BIG problem, namely a HUGE state debt.  He has tackled this with tough love and one of his most unfavourable moves has been to cut jobs.  Tonight on ABC news we saw a demonstration outside the Townsville Hospital.  The demonstrators were complaining about the job losses within the hospital.  I am going to give you my story on Townsville Hospital. 

In 2005 I was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer.  Quite scary.  It meant an operation to remove the cancer, another operation to remove infected lymph nodes followed by chemotherapy and radiation therapy.  An intense six month treatment.  My radiation therapy was to be a dose a day for five days a week over six weeks,  at the Townsville Hospital.  

My memories of the first trip to the Townsville Hospital go like this.  

• Park in a designated area  -  that was terrific as car parks were very scarce
• Present myself to the "check-in" counter.  Yes, my name, address, medicare # are all correct
• Present myself to another "check-in" counter (inside the radiation area).  Yes, my name, address medicare# are all correct
• Present myself to a nurse.  Yes, my name, address, medicare #, are all correct
• Go and wait for your name to be called
• Whooppee!  My name is called.  Again, check my name, address, medicare # and YES they are all correct.

Are you getting the picture?  Townsville Hospital was over administered, so good on you Campbell Newman for recognising that fact.    Look, I would be the first to defend the jobs of nurses.  They are vital to our hospital system and I would like to see MORE of them employed.   God knows we need them.  

I really want to emphasise that this is my experience at Townsville Hospital and no other.

PS

The second trip for radiation I decided to go straight to the nurse instead of "checking in" at two counters.  I was politely told to go  back and "check-in" correctly.  I did.   

Grandma rides the Quad

Philip's mum came to stay with us between Christmas and New Year.  We enjoy having her here as she is so "easy".  She loves to wander over to the cattle yards when we are working cattle - this time we were drafting off our sale cows, and then she wanders out to the weaners to have a "chat" to them. Then there are the dogs that she loves so much. Hudson, our Labrador, reminds her of Pluto - the labrador that she had for many years.  She sits on the steps for ages and just pats them.  They love the attention.  So I was surprised when MIL came up to me sheepishly and asked if I would mind taking a photo of her on the quad bike - or four-wheeler as we call them.  She was having a hard time explaining to her friends what a "four-wheeler" was so she said a photo would be great.  These are the photos we took.  Of course we had to include Lily our border collier who never lets the motorbike move without being on the back!

Happy (Belated) New Year!

I cannot believe we are already six days into 2013.  I was hoping that this year would not be as hectic as 2012 but so far it is not looking that way.  We already have marked on our calendar two weddings two birthday parties (one in New Zealand!), a christening, our 35th wedding anniversary reunion, a trip to Europe and that is all before the end of April!

Enjoying the pool!

We celebrated New Years eve at Palm Cove with our good friends Mike and Kate and their family.  We booked ourselves into the Novotel so that we could enjoy the night without the thought of driving home and the Novotel was only a stones through from where our friends were staying.  We made our way to their place as soon as we arrived and headed straight for the pool area.  This was a great idea because while the adults enjoyed a few nibblies and drinks, the kids splashed around.
When the sun went down we headed back upstairs where Mike and Christian cooked up a fabulous Laksa for dinner that went down a treat.  After dinner we made our way down to the esplanade to get a prime spot to watch the fireworks that were due to start at 9.00pm.  Palm Cove had a wonderful family feel about it and watching the kids faces as the fireworks exploded brought back wonderful memories of all the fireworks displays that I had enjoyed over the years with our boys.
So, Happy New Year to all our wonderful friends and family and may 2013 bring you all your heart desires.