Words from the Road

Had a good run up to the Gold Coast on Thursday and Friday. The past few days have pretty well been like this...

Katy's Schedule for Thursday 17th February
6:43 Leave Ferntree Gully
7:05 Leave Heathmont
7:13 Stop at Kilsyth 7-11
7:20 "On the Road Again..."
Later that day Arrive Gilgandra



Our first day on the road begain around 6.00 for Katy, and 6.15 for me, in Ferntree Gully. After heading across to Heathmont to pick up Emma, we were off on our way to our first destination, of Gilgandra, with a quick stop in Nagambie, and about a 45 minute stop in Numurkah to visit Caz and Trent, who none of us had seen for a little while...

We got to Gilgandra a little late (around 8pm or so), as our day on the road (like the following 3) took us longer than expected. Thursday took us longer than expected, due to our first ordered lunch at Finley pub first being served uncooked (nothing worse than uncooked Chicken Kiev or Schnitzel).

As we drove through Jerilderie, we drove through clouds and clouds of locusts. Quite a bit of fun, watching them go SPLAT on the windscreen as we drove through them.

We had dinner at one of the truck stops at Gilgandra, and the steak sandwich I had was fantastic!

Katy's Schedule for Friday 18th February
Morning: Leave Gilgandra
Later that day Arrive Surfers Paradise



A pretty uneventful day on the road on Friday, a lot of mileage (we decided between us that there is no such term as kilometerage). We (well, me) were up lateish on Friday, I was woken as the 7.15 am train went through the town. We got some brekky at the milk bar and bakery in town, and then hit the road. We stopped for lunch in Goondiwindi, where we couldn't work out why the sports club was so quiet until about 2.30, when there was a huge influx of people wanting meals... About an hour down the road, we realised that we had changed timezones, and our "late pub lunch" of 1.30, was actually an early one of 12.30!

Not a lot happened between Goondiwindi and the Gold Coast, and the road is pretty unspectacular, aside from driving across through the hills through Warwick, and across the past Mount Tamborine. It's an excellent driving road through the mountains, and the Forester handled it very well!

Soon to be On The Road Again...

Thursday morning, and Katy, Emma and I will be off on another of Katy, Emma and Drew's Excellent Adventures, following the Melbourne Storm , this time to the Gold Coast, for their second trial game for the season. The boys are playing against the Brisbane Broncos, at Carrara, which is also known as the Gold Coast Stadium, where I saw my first ever game of League that was explained to me (by Katy)!!

The Offroadsubarus.com Marketing Campaign

Finally got around to putting one of the site stickers on the back of the car...

looks pretty good I think....

Diamonds are Forever

Met with Margaret Hocking's Nephew, David O'Brien, of http://www.augold.com.au today, to view the diamonds he had got in for me to look at for Katy's engagement ring.

The total point count for the ring will be a little higher than the one that we saw in the shop that Katy likes, but the stones themselves are the same size.

Amazing how "who you know" comes into play when making a purchase like this. The ring will have better diamonds than the one we saw in the shop, and cost considerably less.

It's being made in white gold, and should be ready in time for us to go to the Gold Coast with Emma.

I'm sure Katy will love it!

Bunyip State Park

Spent the day in the Bunyip State Park with the guys from http://www.offroadsubarus.com. Once again, the car performed admirably, chickened out on a couple of runs, as I wasn't sure the XT would be up to it.

This pic was taken on a slope the car would not go up any futher, lots of wheel spin... very deceptive how steep a hill can be, yet looks relatively flat...



Couldn't believe the dust that was coming out of the ventilation system as I head out of the forest, hot footing it back to Katy's for dinner. Hate to think what the air filter looks like, based on the crap coming through the ventilation...

Fiona and Wayne's Big Day

Today was Fiona and Wayne's Wedding. They were married at Red Hill Estate, in a relatively small reception, of only 50 or so people...

Katy and I took between us several hundred photo's, both before, as Fiona was getting ready



During the wedding,



Behind which the guests had a magnificent view of the Vineyards,



We also took a lot of photo's in the same context the professional Wayne and Fiona had hired was taking. Hopefully the photo's he was taking are better than ours, as we reckon our photo's are awfully good!!



Even the Vineyard ducks got in on the act during the photos



The meal at Max's Restaurant was superb, and most people had a bit of a dance before the night was over.

Ok, so I asked the big question, and the big answer was Yes!!!!

Midnight came and went, with Katy on the phone, for a support call. Lots of fireworks going on around us, out in the back garden at Ferntree Gully.

Given that last year, I thought we should buy a house, I suggested that this year we could get married, and she said yes!!!!

Robin and Heid gave their blessing at about 1am when they got home, so it's all good...

Mum and Dad are stoked also...

Did the rounds of Nana and Grandma, Nana was wrapt, and Grandma cried, so I think that was a good sign...

It's Ours, See? SOLD!!!

Trent and I went for a fish yesterday, and head down to Langwarrin after work, to meet Katy (and Cameron from Network 1) to put the SOLD sticker on the house.

After the application of the SOLD sticker, we met the current owners, Dave and Glenda, who seem pretty nice, had a drink, and then head back to the Gully to have dinner with Trently.

The fishing was pretty good also, once I remembered my drivers license and wallet that is. We got most of the way to the Cranbourne - Frankston Road, and then had to turn back to Malvern to get it.

We launched at Black Rock instead of Frankston, and spent a couple of very enjoyable hours chasing a school of salmon off Rickett's Point...

We Have A Home!!!

After a jabber discussion yesterday, we decided that we would in fact put in an offer on the house. After several comings and goings on the phone, I finally had the vendor accept an offer of $1000 less than the property had been offered on previously.

It was a little more than we wanted to pay, however it is a house that we both fell in love with, and a couple of thousand dollars isn't all that much in the grand scheme of things over the rest of our lives.

As of today, pending financial and Archicentre inspection approval, we will be in 90 days, the proud owners of Number 30, Cotoneaster Way, Langwarrin, 3910, Victoria, Australia

We Found A Home!!!

After a few weekends of suburb driving, we've found a house that we both walked into, and thought "This is Home!"

On the weekend, we had a look at a hell of a lot of houses in Langwarrin, which is the suburb we both feel very comfortable about the prospect of living there.

We went to another house on the weekend, that we both really liked, and after driving past about another 30 houses on Sunday, we drove past this house on the way out of the neighbourhood. Katy SMS'd the agent to get some details, which she received yesterday during the day.

I rang Buxton's, who are selling the house we liked around the corner from this house, to try and get to look through it tonight, however the agent was not available.

I rang Cameron, from Network 1 and arranged for us to take a look through the house tonight at 6.00 pm. We got from 484 to the house, which is at 30 Cotoneaster Way, Langwarrin, in 55 minutes, which is how long it can take sometimes from 484 to Bretonneux Square!!!

Anyway, we had quite a look through the house, and both pretty well fell in love with it.

We had dinner at Patterson lakes, where we talked about putting in an offer on the house. We drove back to the house, to see what the street is like at night, and it seems pretty quiet.

When we got back home, we sat in the car, and after we talked about it for a bit, we decided that we would make an offer...