True blue, fair dinkum Aussie

Well, we said we would give it two years, and believe it or not we have just completed that milestone - and the decision is...
we've decided to stay and tough it out in the sun, a full five minutes from golden beaches and the clear blue Indian Ocean (so clear in fact that you can see the sharks coming from metres away). I can hear your collective sigh of relief even from this distance - I should point out however that those of you living in the north of England may have breathed too soon. This is because I am embarking on a solo tour (entitled the 'No Sleep 'til The Brooklands Tour') of God's own country (Yorrrrksherrrr) in early July... I'm not going to give you the exact dates because if I do you'll all find you are busy that day rearranging your Corr's CD's into metronomical order. If you haven't heard from me already you may get lucky and not have me turn up on your doorstep in the depths of the night, because my itinerary is already pretty well established. So far I have arranged visits to three art galleries, an opera, two ballets, four museums (of the old fashioned 'glass case' variety) and an abattoir (old habits die hard). I will not be going to: York races, boozy birthday parties, golf courses, watch the World Cup semi-finals on an over sized TV, watch 15 back-to-back episodes of 'In the night garden' whilst drinking several gallons of Magners (with ice... naturally). And I most certainly won't be eating sports mixtures or kebabs. (Wendy reads this blog as well you know - that last bit may have been included for her benefit).
It is worth pointing out that the people who have said nice things about my 'blogs' (mainly my south western brethren) have been rewarded by me staying about 200 miles away from them for the entire visit. I'm expecting a deluge of positive feedback on this blog over the next seven days in a vain attempt to keep me away. The tour stops off at Huddersfield, Maltby, York, Howden, Gilberdyke, Goole and Ilfracombe. Actually scrap that last one I was thinking I was following the route of the old Radio One road show - they always went to Ilfracombe (although they probably spelt it properly), I've just realised that I have absolutely no idea where it is.
Wendy could well beat me over to dear old blighty some time in April, May or June. For once this isn't me being vague... it's actually her boss. This would be a work trip and may even take in South Africa en route. It's all to do with a new role she has been offered at work - which involves handling business migrants (I think I could probably have worded that a bit better - I think I made it sound a bit too hands on). She will also be required to do some more studying as well, which she is hoping to do in the winter. I will be helping her by flying 10,000 miles away.. how considerate.
Dusty and Sheilah have now left us and are now back in the UK. Before
they left we visited the pinnacles, which (despite just being bits of rock, albeit several thousand bits of rock, sticking out of the sand)is still quite magical at sunset, even seeing it for the 3rd time. Once again, I went mad and took lots and lots of photos... be warned.
We also had a weekend down in Margaret River where we managed to get up close (some times a little too close) and personal with possums, very persistent flies, sting rays and very, very persistent bottles of alcoholic ginger beer (they are the most dangerous ones, I was very persistent for most of the weekend).

The kids are back at school this week after the long holidays. George has started his final year of primary school. He has a school trip in May over to Rottnest Island, twelve miles off the WA coast over some very choppy water. George certainly hasn't got his sea legs, so we have started him on a course of 'Quells' 3 times a day for the next 20 weeks in a bid to help him and his breakfast get across together. Rottnest is so named because the early dutch settlers mistook the Quokkas that live there (and practically nowhere else) for large rats. They are in fact very small kangaroos (hope you took all that in, there will be a test later. You can rest assured that there won't be a question on the location of Ilfracombe-I've got a sneaking suspicion that it might be somewhere in my native west country. You see, if I'd spent more time listening to Mrs Aldridge in my Geography lessons and less time wondering if I should ask her out on a date and whether she'd say yes, I might not have these geographic shortcomings.
Now I think about it, I think you can all breath a bit easier because the chances of me successfully navigating my way across the globe single-handedly (well, actually I'll be travelling by Emirates)are fairly slim.
I'm going out now, I may be quite some time.
H

What people said about the last blog: 'Harry does make me laugh' (CF).
'I have just managed to stop giggling to myself' (someone whose initials are S & M - it clearly takes a certain amount of masochism to be able to read this bobbins).