BACK TO WORK

As 'The Lap' has effectively been officially suspended until further notice due to a requirement from the bank to repay the loan for the new house at New Farm.

Neil has gone back to Metallica Minerals in a similar role to what he was doing before leaving.

Georgina has secured new employment for a PR firm at Spring Hill in Brisbane.

We are now officially DINKs, double income no kids.

MOVING IN

On Monday, January 22nd, we settled on the new house at New Farm and took possession, and on Tuesday we moved in. As both our places are currently rented out fully self contained, we virtually started from scratch to furnish the place. The big negative with starting from scratch, was unpacking things and putting together furniture from flat packs using an Allen Key.

A NEW HOUSE

While back in Brisbane in November waiting for Jiminy to be fixed, we indulged in some house hunting to keep ourselves occupied. After a very intensive 2 weeks of research and looking, we ended signing a contract on the first house we looked at. The cynics within us immediately discounted this place as so we looked at another 20 to 30 places and came back.

The house is a near new contemporary house on a small lot. It has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and in conveniently located to the City and Fortitude Valley. It is quite secure and most importantly, is fully air-conditioned.

Photos attached

BACK TO QUEENSLAND

The hot weather in Melbourne was starting to wear us down, so we reloaded Jiminy and headed north to Queensland. We initially decided to do a scenic route east along the Princess Highway and follow the coastline home. After Day 1, we were lucky to make Eden on the very south coast of New South Wales and bush fires had closed the highway in places.

Day 2 we headed inland from Bega and ended up staying up at Katoomba in the Blue Mountains in search of cooler weather.

Day 3 we decided to head back to Brisbane up through Mudgee and onto the New England Highway at Tamworth. At the lovely little township of Coolah, Jiminy's new automatic gearbox decided that it would throw a wobbly and get stuck in 3rd gear. After a few tense moments, and some encouragement to Jiminy, things seemed to come good and we made it home to Brisbane.

NEW YEARS IN PORT FAIRY

New Years Eve was a pleasant evening downtown Port Fairy. After watching the street parade, enjoying a set course dinner, we saw in the new year with fire works on the main street.

PORT FAIRY

Following Boxing Day at the cricket, the Forbes family moved west from Melbourne to the delightful little sea port of Port Fairy at the end of the Great Ocean Road in Victorias Western Districts.

We all piled into a lovely house which overlooked the ocean and proceeded to enjoy several days of rest and relaxation. There was some swimming on the warm days, and us Queenslanders were not impressed with the water temperature, but we got over it.

BOXING DAY CRICKET

On Boxing Day, the male contingent of the Forbes Clan headed down to the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) to watch the first day of the fourth Ashes Test. It was a cold wet and miserable morning in Melbourne, and getting rained on the walk down from the city didn’t bode well for a good days cricket.

Luck was on our side and our seats were located undercover so we had a dry seat to see the day. One good thing about the cold weather was the queue for beer was nice and short.

The cricket eventually started after a rain delay and the England team were batting. It was opportunistic to see Shane Warne bowl and collect his 700th test wicket. It was a magical moment as all 85,000 people cheered and applauded as Shane ran around the field celebrating his achievement with a certain lack of humility, only to be enveloped by his team mates in what can only be described as man love in whites. Doug managed to photograph the 700th wicket ball just before it crashed into the stumps.

THE CHRISTMAS DAY FEAST!!

The traditional Christmas Day Forbes Feast was held in Melbourne this year, and what a feast it was!

Christmas in (freezing) Melbourne

We headed to Melbourne a few days before Christmas and the cool weather was a pleasant change to the heat we had experience driving down from Cairns.

Subsequently, Christmas day was freezing with Melbourne putting on an array of different weather types. Not only was it freezing, it also rained then hailed! Needless to say, we had the best Christmas day with lots of yummy food, plenty of laughs and great times had by all.

SYDNEY STOPOVER

After 3 and half days and 2,600 kilometres, we arrived in Sydney for a stopover.

Along the way we did a lap of Mt Panorama at Bathurst in Jiminy to see how a fully loaded diesel Pajero would do across the mountain. It was no track record, but it was

We stayed at Collaroy on Sydney's Northern Beaches at Uncle Rob and Aunty Helen.