Music

Often, when we go on long car trips, Andrew gets new music. Twice we have had new Mika albums while away from home. It took us seven hours of leisurely driving to get to Leura yesterday, and Andrew downloaded the latest Mika album, which we missed when it came out last year. It was very good, certainly better than my running playlist, I'm getting a bit sick of it!

Many members of the Davidson family are musical and today Teen gave Bethany a violin lesson. Bethany brought her school violin up because she had learnt to play Hot Cross Bun, and she had a great time playing a duet with Teen and even has a go of Teen's viola. Are you thankful this isn't a video?

Travelling

Last week it was Corowa and Ardlethan, this week it has been Lockhart and Coolamon. I really enjoy visiting the little towns around us. Today I went to Coolamon to teach some people about eReaders. The library in Coolamon is new and very nice, but it doesn't really have a good space for a projector, so we went next door to the Up-to-Date Store, a fabulous old building that used to be a large shop and is now a sort of museum.

They used to put money in containers and shoot it around the building using a cash railway, and it is still there (it's those lines and circles hanging from the ceiling.

I like the drive to Coolamon on long, straight roads. Tomorrow we are all hitting the road on our way to Leura. We're very excited as we couldn't imagine Easter without the Katoomba Convention and staying with the Davidsons.

We have had quite the Indian summer, 34 degrees today! I do hope that it is cool in the mountains.

House update

Feature tiles in the kids' bathroom 

The painting has been done. Yes, we have gone for all Antique White USA.

We have a completed driveway.

A garage door.

What will we put on all these big, white walls?

The paving out the back has been done too.

Bethany's dance

Catching up, again

Have I fallen off the blogging waggon? I suppose I have. I think it is fair to say that we have been a little too busy of late. We have really enjoyed the process of building a house, but there is a fair bit to organise and do, at this late stage, and we both work full time, the kids are all involved in activities and we have church and Bible study and our own hobbies.

Anyway, I don't mean to sound like I am moaning about it, just explaining the lack of blogging. I used to get up early, make lunches and then sit at the computer with my cup of tea. Now, I make lunches the night before and run or walk Milo in the mornings, saving my first cup of tea until I get to work at 8, so I waste spend less time in front of my home computer.

So, what have we been doing since I was here? Andrew went to Bathurst overnight and I did two day trips, one to Corowa and one to Ardlethan. Corowa has a whisky and chocolate factory, owned by the same people who own Junee's licorice and chocolate factory. We had lunch there after our meeting.

Toby had his presentation night for cycling's track season. He came second in his age group for the sprint derby and scratch race.

He also came second over all for the juniors (that's up to age 17) in points. They get points for placing in all their races over the season. Next week, road season starts! He will also be playing soccer, as will Bethany and Joss, netball. Where did these sporty children come from?

I have just finished my 7th week of Get Running and can run for 25 minutes. Next week it's 28 and then 30 - the end of the program! After that I will just keep running for 30 minutes, 3 times a week and hopefully go a bit faster, and therefore cover a bit more distance, over time.

Andrew, Toby and Joss have been for a twenty kilometre ride this morning and soon we are heading to school for their open day, where Bethany will dance and play the violin, not at the same time. I'll try and remember to take photos and post them!

Guess Who

If you are playing Guess Who with Bethany, I can tell you how to win immediately.

She always chooses to be Anita.

Love in a paddock

Matt proposed to Jeannie in the library last year and yesterday, after months of planning, they got married in a paddock.

We all got very dirty feet, and the women in heels lost their extra height, but it was a beautiful setting, in Ladysmith, just outside of Wagga.

Up on the hill, a cow and her baby watched the ceremony.

Those of us who work with Jeannie feel like we have lived and breathed this wedding for a long time, so it was a joyous celebration for us all to see the hard work come together.

I confess that I felt old quite often. The cake(s) were red velvet. In my day we had a mud cake of some description if we didn't want fruitcake. Andrew and I had the fruitcake at our wedding.

There was a lolly bar to make your own lolly bags, just like a child's birthday party! There was a dance floor and I love to dance, but the music was not my kind of music at all. What an old lady I am!

There was a photo booth set up, with lots of props, and we were encouraged to take as many photos as we liked. Each set of three photos printed two copies so one went in a guest book and we got to keep the other. This turned out to be so much fun and was kept busy for most of the night.

This was taken just before the speeches, and I like it because it looks like Jeannie and Matt are just checking their phones. They weren't!

Jeannie and her family and friends made all the table decorations and flowers, including the bouquets and button hole flowers, out of paper. What is Jeannie going to do with all her spare time now that it is all over?

Look what I made!

 
A Day in the Life of a Mobile Library Bloke from Riverina Regional Library on Vimeo.

I am extraordinarily proud of this video, even though I came onto the project after the interview was done and basically watched Sonya do three and a half hours of editing. I did do a fair bit of the filming and if you don't blink, you can see my black and white dress going up the stairs during one of the time lapse bits. I am the least of the contributors but I am very pleased with it none the less!

It is the product of the day I wrote about last week, the one where I got sunburnt. Cynthia and I not only had lots of fun with Sonya and Rob, but we learnt a lot too. This won't be our last video!

House update

The concreter has been and we have concrete around the house.

Our garage floor is not dirt anymore and we have a driveway.

He hasn't finished yet, but I think the tilers are about to do the front porch.

Until we realised that the back door wasn't locked, I took this photo through the laundry door to show you that the tilers have been hard at work inside. You can also see my polka dotted skirt.

This is the kids' bathroom. The dark tiles are a chocolate sort of colour, not black.

The drains are the sort where you see a small, square tile, not the drain.

In the last update, the photo of Bethany was in front of the dining room window. This one is Jossie's room.

This is our ensuite, the shower is around that corner.

This will be tiled soon, too.

I am in denial about the fact that we need to start packing. One problem is that we have nowhere in our rented house to put boxes!

Sport Fairy

Joss had her athletics carnival today. Her house colour is blue, so she and her friends dressed up in lieu of being really sporty. Joss's house didn't win, but Bethany received blue wings and antennae, so it was a good day.

NSW Track Championships

Toby and I hit the road on Friday afternoon embarking on our first sports away trip. The destination was the velodrome at Dubbo for the state track cycling championships, with Toby selected to compete in the U13 Boys time trials, scratch race and derby.

We stayed the night at a local motel, and as we didn't need to be at the track until midday, spent the morning exploring Dubbo - including a visit to the Old Dubbo Goal which Toby had enjoyed visiting on his Year 4 excursion. He showed me around the place like he owned it, and it was nice to see how easily he could recall the stories that went along with the various displays and areas.

We then went to the velodrome. Toby warmed up, rolled out (they have to do a technical check of the bikes plus check helmets before they are cleared to race), and then waited for his time trial. The time trial is a one lap "fang it" ride - and he finished about 10th out of 15 in his group. It was great that Mim turned up to see him do his time trial - lovely to see her and catch up amongst all the proceedings.

Mim and a nervous Toby

Starting blocks for the lonely time trial

After a long wait he competed in the scratch races and only narrowly missed out on the semifinals. At this point I should mention that of all 15 cyclists, he is the youngest in the age group and the final result in this race (after the repocharges) would have seen him in 8th place.

Toby leading the 4th of 6 laps

On the trainer in between races

Stretches with some of the other Wagga contingent

Toby's friend Millie - they both drank a full cup of beetroot juice both mornings! Hilarious!!

We then watched the seniors race, and just like the Golden Wheel in Wagga, it was amazing. This time though, we had multiple Australian track champions, and the sprint between the current #1 and #2 was just brilliant. At one point they completely stopped for around 30 secs (if you've ever watched track cycling on tv you will know what I mean), before belting around the track at over 70km/hr for a photo finish!!

We jumped into our beds at around 9:30pm and were back at the velodrome at 8am for day two. This time it was the derbys, which are pretty dangerous, and Toby once again only narrowly missed out on the semifinals - this time by about half a wheel. Despite being his own worst critic, he was pretty pleased with how he did overall, and once he was told that he is one of the top 10 track cyclists for U13 boys in NSW he became a little more pleased.

Toby in the Repocharge - beaten by half a wheel by the guy in blue
(he does have the better bike though)

On the trainer again

Toby just before he attacked from the back - a seriously exciting race.

We then sat through the finals and the presentations and headed home. I was surprised how emotionally draining it was, as the competition was really fierce and we were all willing the Wagga contingent to do well. Wagga walked away with a swag of medals - Toby would have liked one, but unfortunately he's in the younger year for the U13s which makes it very hard. Next year though the older U13s turn into U15s and are no longer in his group - so watch out!!