Golden Princess: 28th - 30th of October 2015

This short cruise was a birthday present for twins A & V and Master X.

Sun Princess - Voyage s511A - 18th - 20th of June 2015

 

What better way to celebrate your 6th and 13th birthdays but on board a cruise ship. Both C and E, before opening their presents, asked to go out for tea and be able to choose anything they wanted, have cake and then go to the movies. They looked a little surprised when I said "sure, we'll do all of those things on Friday afternoon."  

 

 

 

We boarded our plane to Brisbane Thursday morning, then sat on the tarmac for 30 minutes because we hadn't got clearance from Brisbane to leave. We finally got up in the air and 30 minutes out of Brisbane were told that the plane would be turning around to Sydney to land there, Gold Coast wasn't an option as it was already full of diverted planes. Plane turned around and everyone understandably was rather stressed.

We then were told that we'd do loops in the air and hope that it cleared before fuel became low. We did several loops between Toowoomba and Warwick, before hearing we had clearance to land, but we were #18 in the queue, so did a couple more smaller loops before landing.

 

 As we came in I saw the Sun Princess entering the Brisbane River. It was obviously late due to the fog also. We weren't allowed to board until after 3pm and didn't leave Brisbane until 8pm.

Australian Little Athletics Championships - Perth 2015

After winning the state little athletics championships for the 3rd year in a row, C was chosen as 1 of 11 under 13 girls to represent South Australia at the Australian Little Athletics Championships in the 1500m walk. The championships were held in Perth on the last weekend in April.

 

 

C not only took a big chuck off her PB, but took home a silver medal, walking in a time of 7.31.29.

 

 

 

The Australian Championships ended another successful year at the track, with 6 state medals won between the 4 of them.

 

 

K: 1100m walk - Gold - 6.05.21

K: 800m - Silver - 2.48.90

V: 1100m walk - Gold - 5.22.40 (NEW STATE RECORD)

V: 1500m - Bronze - 5.39.94

A: 1100m walk - Silver - 6.29.87

C: 1500m walk - Gold - 7.52.89

Pacific Jewel Voyage J513A. Melbourne, Port Lincoln & Adelaide.

For K's birthday I surprised her with a short cruise on the Pacific Jewel voyage J512A from Melbourne to Adelaide via Port Lincoln. As you can see, we had an absolute blast.

 

 

 

End of season rap



 

Last day of local competition was last week, once again the Dwarfs have had a great season. V, K and S broke and hold the centre record for their respective race walking events, all had last been set between 10-20 years ago. C competed in both Little and Senior Athletics as a dual registration and won gold at the Athletics SA state championships in the 3km walk.   

 

V: Under 11 Girls record set in 1996 6.04.9, now 5.49.1

 

K: Under 10 Girls record set in 1995 6.25.8, now 6.23.65

 

S: Under 8 Boys record set in 2003 2.39.4, now 2.19.39

 

 

Rydges Bell City, Preston, Victoria, Australia

When we entered the room my kids initial reaction was WOW. The room were clean and well presented with modern fittings a fixtures. We booked 2 family rooms as a family of 9 and the hotel accommodated our request to have them next to one another. Each had a kitchenettee so if we wanted to cook our own meals we could have. The beds were comfortablee and house keeping ensured the room was cleaned and well presented when we returned from being out. The location was perfect as we have a lot of family in the northern suburbs and it was close to the location of the funeral we were attending. The pool area was nice and big, the guy cleaning the pool was also very friendly. The kids loved the smell of the soap that was provided. The only thing that had been neglected was the blinds. When we pulled them down at night you could see dirty finger marks which looked like a toddler had eaten something sticky and used the blinds as a napkin. Also there was a dirty dinner tray in the corridor that probably had been left there a bit too long.

WOULD WE STAY AGAIN? Definitely, we are looking to go to Melbourne again next year and will definitely consider Rydges Bell City for that stay also.