Dad continued work on our "Great Wall of China" downstairs....
Price of materials: $2K+, Price of labour: $0 (and a few dinners), Watching Dad's dedication to building the strongest and most perfectly braced laundry/cyclone shelter known to man - Priceless!!!
Our beautifully handcrafted leadlight window was installed in the toilet (original design and work by Dad). Best seat in the house! Dad comes up every visit to admire his work ;-)
He is now trying to persuade us to think of a design for another window - our home will soon be a showcase to Dad's leadlighting passion! What have we started!!!!!
We celebrated New Year's with Anna, Adele and Adele's sister's family at Rainbow Beach. Blistering heat, fighting a flu but an otherwise great time away with lots of sand, surf and Israeli dead-sea mud madness. Adele's sisters' two children, Sam and Zoe were absolutely gorgeous and Sam took a particular shine to Andrew - jokingly referred to during our stay as his 'best bud'.
Three members from our afghani refugee family became AUSTRALIAN CITIZENS on Australia Day! The two sisters: Roya and Nasimeh and brother: Akbar. What better way to celebrate Australia day than seeing the two girls take their oaths, as we 'renewed' ours :-)
Just wonderful to see them so happy and feel a sense of belonging at last! They have and continue to have, an amazingly inspiring journey. A real lesson to us all in how they handle every hurdle with such courage and thankfullness! (yes that's Premier Anna Bligh with the two girls).
Andrew and I returned to work after a relaxing 2 week christmas break. A few weeks back at work and I was then off down to Melbourne for a week, to get to know all-things Phytoplasma related (they are bacterial like organisms which cause disease in plants - just look at the red leaves at the top of your pointsettia plants for an example or these grapevines).
A re-Juvenating January full of joyous laughter and new horizons...
