goofy goober

My comedian is slowly coming back.

Janaya has always been the comedian of the family, loves to make us laugh with her silly ways and ideas. The comedian in her disappeared for a while, as she dealt with the change of life and stuff.

She has definately taken it the hardest out of all of us, but is alot better now and it shows now as the entertainer chooses to entertain again.

The other day she got all dressed up and started singing the I'm a goofy goober song. I had to take a picture so I can shame her out one day. (mean mummy)

IM A GOOFY GOOBER YEAH!
(thats her lunch box on her head???)

A couple of weekends back we went to a woodside social do, a movie lying on blankets, bean bags or swags under the stars with dinner and drinks. Before the movie, janaya got up on the stage and danced for ages putting on a little show of her own for the crowd. Oh she will be a performer one day....

BIRTHDAY PARTIES

Yesterday was Maria, Jackie and Kates birthday, so of course a celebration was had. I had somehow been commissioned to make the cake, as Sean was bragging about my birthday cakes, I protested and said I only make kiddy cakes, but a kiddy cake was what they wanted.

I ended up making a flower but instead of making it colourful I just iced it with chocolate icing, to make it a little more grown up. (I should learn to make more sophisticated cakes someday)
THE CAKE

So we went round to Brent and Maria's, and had a very nice evening. Kate unfortunately couldn't make it as she was sick with the flu, so we sang happy birthday to her over the phone and Jackie took a piece of her cake round to her.

It was just a quiet gathering with just a few of us but was still a good one. Tayden played darts with the men (I think he thinks he one of the boys).

Funniest thing happened, Janet was asking if I could cut her hair some day Sean pipes up and said he'll do it (as he always does whenever someone asks for a haircut). Questions were asked and stories spun and now everyone thinks Sean and I met while working together in a salon and I was his apprentice and he was this award winning super hairdresser. The funniest thing was instead of the girls asking me what they should do with their hair, they were asking Sean. He pulled it off and now everyone believes it. Not sure how long we'll keep them in the dark about it as its pretty funny.

ME AND MARIA


THE GIRLS (JANET, ME, MARIA, RENAE AND JACKIE)

KAHAYLA

ZOE AND JANAYA

BIRTHDAY GIRLS AND KATE ON THE PHONE

TAYDEN PLAYING DARTS


BRENT MARIA AND ME

STAIRCASE TO THE MOON

On Saturday night we had nothing on (a first for a while) so we decided to go out to Heasons cove to watch the moon rise.

1 or 2 days of the month about 4 times a year you can go out at witness the staircase to the moon. We were 2 days to late but decided to go for a look anyways.

We got out there and set up a possy on the beach in the dark (the kids wondering why their crazy parents dragged them out there for) We sat there quietly in the dark watching and waiting for the moon to show itself.

Then it came, the biggest orange moon I have ever seen. We suddenly realised we were at the wrong end of the beach and told the kids to get up and run with us down the beach a bit. The tide was what seemed like a mile out and with all the bumps in the sand and the moon hitting it, it created what looked like stairs going up to the moon. it was amazing and I imagine when we go on the right night it will be even more of a spectacle illusion.

I took about 100 photos (slight exaggeration) and spent ages fiddling with the settings on the camera trying to capture it on film that I nearly missed the whole thing. Still didn't get a good shot of it but you can kinda see what I mean

Soccer Season has started

Well the kids started soccer last weekend, and already pretty exciting.

This year they have decided to combine 9th and 10th grade over all clubs, Tayden would have normally been in 9th grade so playing at this level is more of a challenge, which over the past two Saturdays he is proving himself. He seems alot fitter than when he usually starts the season at home, not sure if its the Taekwondo training or what, and he has speed I haven't seen before, all in all hes playing very well. This year is his first year playing in position and has played as a forward for the games. First game his team won 5 - 2 Tayden scoring 2 goals. This weekend he had his game out at Dampier, and what a nice place for a game of soccer, the soccer pitch runs off to the sand and onto the beach, kids weren't too pleased I hadn't bought their togs but Sean had to be back in town for a game of squash, next time. His team had another win 3 - 0.




TAYDEN WITH THE BALL ABOUT TO SCORE THE FIRST GOAL OF THE GAME

Kahayla is enjoying playing soccer again, she is in a pretty good team too with two wins, this weekend her team thrashed the other team 7 - 2, they too play in positions and play 6 aside as opposed to 5 aside at home.






The only real different between home and here is that its sooo hot being out there watching soccer, Its uncomfortable with sweat pouring down your face at 9am and that's just us spectators, I don't know how the kids do it!

Lizard in the garden

Just some photos of a Lizard that was in our garden. Its the biggest one we have seen in our garden, though hes quite small in comparison to some of the others we see while driving off the beaten track.

We all got quite close to it before he decided to leave through a hole in the back fence.

It was probably about a meter long.

Camping in the outback

Well not quite the outback but nearly...

We asked a few people if they wanted to try out camping in the wild. We had a few brave takers in Brent, Maria and Trevor, Jackie and their daughter Chloe and we also took along Taydens friend Josh...

Brent, Maria and us arrived out at 40 Mile beach at 9am and set about setting up camp, Brent and us were the only ones who have been camping before, Maria, Trevor and Jackie were camping virgins.

We found a pretty good place to camp and set up all the tents and most importantly the kitchen area. We had taken our fish fry and were doing a fish fry for dinner, Luckily I had taken some fish out as the hunters and gathers weren't much of hunters and gathers at all.

CAMPSITE


ONE OF THE KITCHEN BENCHES

After the tents were all up we were all hot and sweaty so decided to go down to the beach for a swim. The water was littered with seaweed and was pretty dirty, we were a tad disappointed as last time we came out the water was beautiful and clear. The heat really getting to us we launched in amongst all the seaweed and cooled down. There was an old guy there fishing, he warned us to be careful of the stone fish and sharks, then a little while later he came down to show the kids a tiny shark he had just caught, they thought it looked cute and pretty harmless, then he went on to say he had just seen a 5 foot shark swimming our way. We decided to get out rather than become shark bait and went back to camp to have a few coldies.
SWIMMING WITH THE SHARKS


MARIA AND KAHAYLA


The hunters and gathers decided to go looking for fire wood and came back a short while later with our wagon laden with old railway sleepers that they had found. So a huge bonfire was made on the other side of the camp (a fair way from our tents and stuff). The boys went fishing while Maria and I started organising our feast.

JANAYA HELPING HUNTER AND GATHERER BRENT GET HIS TACKLE SORTED

THEN THE REAL FISHER GIRL KAHAYLA (OR SEAHAG AS SHE IS KNOWN AT HOME)HAD TO BE CALLED IN FOR MORE ADVICE

JANAYA SHOWING HOW ITS DONE



NO ROCK FISH IN HERE

dinner was yum with a fish fry, and salads and stuff, I think Jackie was blown away about our camping dinner (I think she thought we would be eating damper or something) We all went over to the fire and cooked marshmallows for the kids before trying to get them all into bed.

I had come very prepared for the huge mozzies and had a ring of fire round the campsite with all my citronella candles it looked really pretty, it worked a treat as no one saw a mozzie. (The mozzies here are something to be afraid of as they carry three nasty virus which can be fatal)

We spent the night drinking and stargazing, the stars were an awesome show.






Sometime at about 4am the heavens opened up and it started to pour, I had to laugh as Sean, Brent, and Trev got up grumbling and moaning about having to get up and shut the windows on the tents.

We all got home a new shade of red (from the dust not the sun) and tired, but it was a good camp.

Oh I saw my first huntsman spider, it shared our tent and it was huge...

lots to update

I am getting so slack about updating the ole blog, so will bring it all up to speed.

3 weekends ago we had a pretty multicultural weekend. On the Saturday, we decided to go out to Walcolt Bay for the morning, and decided to invite a Pakistani family along with us. They were supposed to arrive in November when we arrived, but they had troubles with visa and they didn't get here till January.

I had met Naheed at the airport while waiting for Sean to arrive home from Perth, during the cyclones. We had a good chat and she seemed really easy to talk to, thought I'm not sure what I expected, I guess I just thought there would be this cultural barrier there or something. Sean had got to know Fisal a bit better during the fire training and such.

Anyways we decided to ask them to come along with us, as we know what its like being the new comers and how lonely you can feel at times, even more so for them being Pakistani. They were keen so they followed us out to the beach.

We also took Taydens friend Josh. We get out there and Sean drops us off down at the beach and went back to pick them up from the car park as they didn't have a 4WD at the time (They now have the flashest brand new shiny black land cruiser) Fisal had mentioned to Sean that his family wouldn't be swimming as they don't really swim. Well of course my kids were already in the water when they got back and Sean didn't take long to follow. I stayed back to talk more to Naheed. Next thing you know the whole Khan family are in the water having a great time.

SEAN AND FISAL ENJOYING A COOL OFF IN THE WATER

NO THEY WEREN'T GOING TO SWIM

Fisal and his kids and Sean and our 4 (josh being the 4th) stayed in the water for a good hour, I had a quick 10 minute dip during that time just to cool off. Then it was a game of beach cricket, more swimming a bit of fishing and more swimming, you couldn't drag those kids out if you wanted.
PAKISTAN VS NZ IN A CRICKET MATCH

Sean had taken both our surf casters out and gave one to Fisal, never fished before he soon had the hang of it and seemed to be really enjoying himself. Josh ended up taking over from Sean for a while and ended up catching a stingray. The weird thing was that when he got the ray onto the beach there were about 8 other stingrays that came in with him, it was a bit freaky really, I guess it was his family and extended family seeing what was going on. They let the stingray go and he swam away but three other stayed and watched us for a while, odd...

THE HAPPY FISHERMEN AND THE NEWEST MEMBER OF THE WALSH FAMILY, JOSH

I LOVE THIS PHOTO

When it was time for lunch Naheed an I got the food out, She had gone to a lot of trouble and made the most delicious chicken biryani, if you haven't had it before do try it is my newest favourite food. I had made this big chicken salad sandwich on one of those long Turkish loaves and sliced it up into small slices. She was so apologetic as they couldn't eat it as they only eat halal meat. Halal meat is where the animals are slaughtered facing Allah and have had a special prayer said for them. They get all their meat shipped up from Perth from a Halal butcher.

After that we headed home as it was getting quite hot and their new landcruiser was arriving that afternoon.

When Sean saw Fisal at work the other day, he said his family couldn't stop talking about swimming at the beach and their new friends they had made, he also said he was off to buy himself a fishing rod. haha. It made us feel good as we know no one else on Seans shift would have gone to the trouble.

That night we went to a housewarming with all our Scottish friends. On Sunday we were invited to Brians house, he is an Indian who started with Sean but I wouldn't call them true Indians as they are not Hindu or Muslim and have lived in South Africa for a long time. There was also another South African family and an Aussie guy. It was an awesome evening, Brian is definitely the host with the most and is quite taken with Janaya, he couldn't do enough for her. He ended up carrying her around for ages and she fell asleep on him (so unusual for her but he did give her chocolate which could have put him in best friend status in her eyes)

THE LOVELY NAHEED shes such an easy person to get on with very witty and funny.