Almost Time to Leave : (

Hello all,

We started this post on January 25 and now it is early February (not too sure of the date...oh the laid back life of travellers). We have now been in the Philippines for almost a week:) The unfortunate part is that the stuff that we did get done on this post is a bit out of date so pretend it is still the end of January and we are nearing the end of our time in Australia.........

It is time for us to leave Australia on Wednesday and it is hard to believe we've been wondering around visiting people for the past 7 weeks. We have caught up with a lot of people so it does make sense in one sense but time has gone quickly. We'll be flying on to the Philippines on Wednesday and a new adventure begins with my (Charlene's) sister´s family. We don´t have much planned for our time in the Philippines so there will potentially be more time to put our feet up and get a bit of a rest.

It has been fun seeing friends and family and hearing stories about everyone's life journey. It is alway amazing to us how the world is made up of so many different people and we learn lots from the variety. I really enjoyed meeting all of the people that have been a part of Ben's history. I was even able to verify that a few of Ben's friends do use hankies (and are his age). Ben had lots of fun reminiscing (how do you spell that?) with people he has known for many years and driving on the left side of the road once again. Here are some pictures of our last few weeks.

Ben and friends Greg and Christina. Greg and Christina visited Ben in Canada during his first few months there. Little Anika is sadly missing from the photo.

Somehow we just lost a few pictures trying to move them on this post. One was a picture of Jade, Jono, Lilia and Bevin who we visited in a really cool small town named Boonah. Jade and Jono have a little house there with a small cottage in the back which we slept in. We even got serenaded to sleep by the possoms having a late night dance on the roof. It was good that they didn't tell us before we went to sleep that a few weeks before we visited there was a carpet snake curled up in the roof when the people sleeping in there woke up.

The picture of Ali is the other one that went missing on here which is pretty sad. Unfortunately we are not complete blog literate. Ben really enjoyed catching up with her and I enjoyed meeting her. She lives by the beach so next time we visit, we'll have to make sure we allow time for a beach visit:)

The first picture above is Ben's Auntie Cathy and Uncle Adrian. Below is his cousin Judy with her kids Kael and Bonnie. Judy was the closest cousin in age to Ben so they had some crazy adventures together. It really is a bit of a wonder to me how Ben survived all his "adventures". This family lives all together in a multi generational household (don't know if that's a real term but that's how it's set up).

Well how could one go to Australia without a visit to the Crocodile Hunter's Zoo. For those who don't know or forgot, the Crocodile Hunter is Steve Irwin and he died I think almost a year ago after he got hit by a Sting Ray. the zoo is great. There was a big memorial to Steve Irwin there and I have to admit that I shed a few tears over the fact that he is dead. It seems that he was a really down to earth person with a real passion for what he did. Terry Irwin (his wife) is in the picture where they are getting the crocodile to get mad.

And then there were the kangaroos. We didn't see any in the wild except ones that were dead (and ballooned out - Ben said because of the heat) on the side of the road. Their fur is very soft.

These guys are so fun to watch. Apparently the Eucalaptus leaves have a sort of drug in them that makes them kind of drunk so they get into very relaxed positions. Again, their fur is just like a stuffed animal...so soft.
This is incredible. Such a big zoo and the food court had reusable plates and cutlery. The Irwin family gained a lot of "'brownie" points from us for this:)

Did Ben grow?
Ben and his friend Sarah Kuebank with kids Becky and Josie. Husband Matt was already at work for the photo shoot.Uncle Gary and Auntie Betty. Ben loved hearing all about his Uncle Gary's interests - building gliders, building telescopes (didn't know that was possible until this visit), keeping bees, building a house, etc.

Can anyone figure out where this is taken?

Well in case you didn't, Sydney. We took the train from New Castle to Sydney for the day. Spent about 7 hours on the train (since we took the wrong one) and about 7 hours in Sydney. It was raining like crazy there...the picture just doesn't do it justice. Sydney reminded me of Vancouver - not just the rain but the harbour area.
New Castle - Stuart, Lisa, Zac and Madison. Stuart is the middle brother of the five. We had fun touring around New Castle and hanging out with them for the weekend.

Zac REALLY enjoying his food!


Uncle Max, Auntie Beryl and cousin Max with Ben. They live close to Ben's parents house and it was fun to hear all their stories about travel and life.

Ben's friend Megan. She has an apartment in Brisbane but does locums all over the place as a podiatrist. We had yummy Thai food with her and good conversation.

For Christmas, we gave each of the older nieces and nephews a 1/2 day with Uncle Ben and Auntie Charlene. This is Nathaneal on his half day flying a kite after we went fishing and caught one large twig and one piece of seaweed. Kite flying was more successful.

Ben's niece Kiara. She wanted to go the Chocolate Cottage for her half day - couldn't say no to that request.

Ben's nephew Kieran. He calls himself the "Bug Boy". He can catch a grasshopper faster than anyone I have ever seen.