Ethan turns 3

They grow up so quickly, my little man (as I call him) has just turned 3. It feels like only yesterday that he was a newborn and in no time he’s now 3.

On Sunday 22nd June Ethan had a little party with his friends at ‘Hungry Jacks’. With some of his friends from preschool and a few family friends they all enjoyed a couple of hours of fun in the party room. As the kids enjoying a happy meal and a play on the maze, the parents took time to enjoy a coffee while watching the kids have fun.
Ethan received some very nice presents from his friends with the theme of most presents being ‘Bob the Builder’.
On the 24th June he celebrated his actual birthday with family. As with all our kids birthdays they can have their choice of dinner and without hesitation Ethan chose his standard nuggets and chips. Prior to dinner though, Ethan got some lovely presents from his family. A new bike being the highlight for him.

Another year bites the dust!

City Vs Country

For the first time, the annual City Vs Country NRL game was held in Wollongong. A few of us from work decided to brave the cold weather and head along to last Friday nights game.

The game started fairly slowly and didn’t seem to have the hype of usual rep games. The crowd attendance was poor and those of us who were there stayed very quiet. Possibly due to the standard of football we were watching. At half time it was 16-6 to Country.

The second half proved to be a little more exciting, City stormed back to the lead and looked like winning the game, but Country who for most of the game were the better team made a late run and tired up the score. Both teams traded late field goals but neither team could land the elusive point and the game finished at 22-22 and was declared a draw under international rules.

Whilst it was good to get out and watch a game of footy, it certainly didn’t live up to expectations.

Tuff Truck 08

Tuff Truck 08 as with previous years lived up to all expectations. I took my father and good friend Ryan once again. This is an event my father never stops raving about, for a man of 65+ he is like a big boy when it comes to this stuff. We made early start this year to ensure a good camping spot and by midday we were all setup and ready for the action.

Friday nights mud proved a little hard for some with only a handful of trucks completing the course, while others had plenty of work to get their trucks right again. Saturday had teams tackling 3 new stages plus a few of the old faithfuls, some teams were successfully, others were quick to learn the wrong way and few even laid their vehicles over or worse, onto their roof.
As the day progressed it was evident that the only winner, was the course. Countless trucks had to return to the pits for repairs with a few trucks having to retire from the event.

Saturday nights mud was less impressive than the previous nights and it wasn’t long before the crowd turned to making its own fun. Thank you to those ladies who had the male crowd going wild. Sunday started slowly, weary heads, more retirements, but amongst the dust would come an outstanding drive. The devils marbles brought out the best in some while the rock garden proved to be the place to loose a bit of paintwork. A runaway tyre and a rollover nearly proved fatal for spectators. Eventually as the dust settled and the storm clouds rolled in the winner by only 8 points was “Team Evolution” in the huge GU Patrol.

Bring on next year, I’ll be there

Henoch-Schoenlein Purpura

If our Easter wasn’t bad enough with kids and hospital, then this past week has been a whole new experience.
A week or so ago Samantha started complaining of joint pain in her lower body, my wife and dismissed it as growing pains but it persisted to a point where there was swelling in her ankles, thighs and then her lower back. Most afternoons and into the night the pain was so bad that all Sam could do was sit on the lounge. We had her to the doc’s where some tests were carried out, but no specific diagnosis was confirmed.

A day later Sam started to break out in a rash/spots on her lower body. We were both concerned and rushed her to casualty thinking it may have been Meningococcal. Thankfully the doctors quickly dismissed our fears, but they were concerned with Sam’s condition, enough to admit her to the children’s wards for observation.

After a few days testing and a visit by the paediatric doctor Sam’s diagnosis was confirmed as “Henoch-Schoenlein Purpura”. Yep, you may ask what the! Its a rare inflammation of small blood vessels. It is unknown what causes it but it only affects about 14 out of 100000 schoolchildren each year. A fact sheet on it can be found here

The end result of this was that Sam had to spend a week in hospital under observation. Thankfully she’s at home now and on the road to a fully recovery. Its amazing the viruses that are out there now and how quickly your life can change when you or one of your family get struck down by one of them.

Easter Sunday & kids

Easter at our house has always been one of fun times, however the past 2 Easter’s have been filled with incident. Last year Leonie fell and broke her arm. This year wasn’t much better. The day started fine, the kids were all extremely excited having received their Easter eggs, to which they spent the day devouring.

Late in the afternoon I was getting ready for a trip out to Penrith, the kids were happily playing in their rooms. When one of the rooms was filled with screams, I found Sam on the floor holding her left arm, telling Daddy how she’d fallen from the bunk bed ladder.

After some reassurance and basic first aid it was off to casualty where after a long wait and no x-ray it was decided that the arm wasn’t broken. This was only the start of our concerns. Ethan, who had been a bit off-colour for a few days was checked over and a chest x-ray was done on him. He’d had a bad cough/virus, was running a temperature, not taking fluids and in general didn’t look too well. After another lengthy wait (8hrs) he was finally seen to by a doctor who admitted him to the children’s ward.

In the meantime I had taken Sam home where she continually complained about her sore arm. Needless to say the whole family had a restless night, spread all over Wollongong. In the morning it was back to the hospital to visit Leonie & Ethan. Both of them were well established in the children’s ward. Ethan’s condition had slightly improved, he was on a ‘drip’ and resting. We then took Sam back to casualty where finally an x-ray confirmed she’s broken her arm (near her wrist). This resulted in a half cast being applied, as the swelling was too great for a full cast.

Back in the children’s ward the staff joked with us stating ‘how both of our kids could be admitted to beds side-by-side’. Thankfully this didn’t happen and as the day progressed Ethan’s colour and enthusiasm slowly returned to a point that some 30 hrs after arriving at casualty he could be discharged.

Its now 2 days later, Ethan is slowly on the mend. Sam goes to the specialist tomorrow where a full cast will likely be fitted. Lets hope next Easter isn’t marred with the same drama.

Macquarie Pass Canyon

Its not Claustral or Empress or one of the many other canyons in the blue Mts. It is however the closest and most accessible canyon to the Illawarra and one the SES often like to go and play in.

Today was the first time this season we’d been down this canyon, a recent planned trip had to be called off due to high rainfall. Today’s trip however was bathed in full sunshine with a tinge more water than normal. We had 13 in our group, some hadn’t canyoned before while others had done plenty. With a group this size our speed through the canyon at times was slow, but all the time enjoyable. The water was refreshing and clean, however those recent rains had washed and dislodged so much debris into the canyon that you were constantly checking jumps or clambering over fallen trees.
With our travel time slowed we opted out of some of the abseils thus hoping to make up some time. We eventually stopped for lunch, not at our usual spot but one downstream further and one that was bathed in sunshine. As we enjoyed lunch one of our party stumbled upon a diamond python who too had just feasted on some animal. Its torso was easily the size of a mans lower thigh and due to this the snake was happy to rest while we all marvelled at its size.

Pressing on after lunch it wasn’t long before we’d come to the end of the canyon and the largely popular ‘jump rock’. This spot has a huge rock while towers over a seemingly bottomless pool. We all took it in turns to ride the slide, ride our bike or jump from the heights into the pool.

Unfortunately from this point there’s the dreaded walk out, but for those of us that canyon know, this is part of the deal. Thanks to all who made this an enjoyable day.

Brindabella/McIntyre Hut Trip

It was 2003 when I was last down in the Brindabella’s. Back then I was with the SES and we were supporting the RFS and the residents of Canberra who’d just been through hell as a bushfire rained down on them. A few of us back then said, we must come back here and have a look around.

It took 5 years of planning but last weekend we finally made it down to the Brindabella’s for a weekend of 4WDriving and camping. A group of us from SES headed off to Cotter Dam on the Friday night. This would be a good starting point for an early getaway on the Saturday, besides our last experience of Cotter was of melted traffic lights, burnt buildings and charcoaled trees. Remarkably the landscape has come back pretty well; there are still scars on the earth of just how bad it was back in 2003.


Saturday dawned and by 9.30am our full party of 4WD’s were assembled. An acquired track file was the bases of our route. We were quickly off the black top where we encountered numerous joggers and MTB’s, all out for a bit of exercise. The tracks, and there were plenty to choose from as this is a logging area, were hilly but all in good condition. We were up hills and down dales countless times. A punctured tyre had us stopping for our first view of the vista. Onwards we went; eventually we were driving into the town of Brindabella. In 2003 this was a command post full of firies and smouldering trees. Today it was our stop for morning tea and quick dip in the river for the kids.

Northwards we headed, into some rugged mountain ranges. The tracks were steep, the scenery breath-taking and everyone was having fun. We stopped down on the Goodradigbee River for a cache and some lunch. The river was flowing well, from recent rains and most of us had a relaxing swim. A few of us par-took in the nearby cache Vertigo. Onwards again, this time, up up and up we went. The track followed the ridge line, taking us to a height of approx’ 1300m. Eventually it was time to drop back down to the river. This time we were heading to our camp site at McIntyre’s Hut. I’d heard so much of this place that I just had to come and see it.


Again on the banks of the Goodradigbee River we made camp for the night. With refreshments in hand it was time for another swim in the river. Some chose to do a bit of fishing, others floated down the rapids. All of us enjoying the peace of being out in the bush. As the sunset and with everyone refreshed, our bellies full of good food we sat around the campfire enjoying the banter and a few ales.

Sunday started with a fresh breeze letting us know how cold this place can be. Packed up we were on the road again. We picked and chose our tracks carefully and eventually we were at the base of Mt Coree. A holed sidewall on one vehicle slowed us temporarily but we were quickly making our assault of the impressive pinnacle nearby. 1421m later we were on top of Mt Coree. A 360 deg’ spectacular view greeted us. Canberra in one direction, Tumut in the other and rolling mountains all around. We had lunch atop here, you couldn’t have ask for a better backdrop.


Eventually we had to head back down the hill and our weekend was slowly coming to an end. As we hit the black top for the first time in 130km we bid farewell to few of our party. The rest of us went on to grab a few more local caches before putting closure to the weekend.
Thanks to the Cheekyfrogs, Odee McPodie, HK Rat, Big Matt & Shell and few muggles for making this an enjoyable weekend for the Rats.