Mid November - after a 3 month build.

The kitchen - before & after.

Total overhaul. New floor, cupboards, sink.. the lot.

Apocalypse Maleny- Friday's Helicopter action over my backyard

Ooops! ALMOST LOST THE HOUSE!

Friday afternoon. Early finish and we were having a coffee when our Maleny neighbour, Jane, phoned to say that there was a fire threatening the homes at Bald Knob.
I left at 3.30 and got up there in an hour and a half - traffic!
Helicopters everywhere, a dozen or so fire-trucks.
Thick smoke blotting out the sun.
The firemen did a great job and got control of it before it became dark.




It was like a scene from 'Apocalypse Now'
I stayed up there last night to let the house 'air' and get rid of the smoke smell.
I think we may be culling some of the old shrubs & trees near the house.

Bring me a Shrubbery!

After looking at it for a long time, Paula & I eventually finished the rockery (ok. Not really a 'shrubbery') at Chartwell.

It's the little things that count.

So, after nearly 3 years I got round to putting up the 'St. Pancras Fixture' toilet-roll holder in the hall 'loo' at the Maleny house. This involved creating a specially painted backing board and purchasing a 'stud finder' so it wouldn't fall off with the first couple of sheets.

First NEW TOY of 2008!

Popped into town to get a small stereo system and was pulled - as if by a black hole - into the Bang & Olufsen store in Fortitude Valley. Walked out 20 minutes later with a Dark Grey 'BeoSound 1' system.
It Sounds Great!

The 'KLIMTs" arrive

The two paintings we saw and ordered in Vietnam arrived last week and have been got through customs and quarantine with minimal fuss and maximum expenditure.
They are sensational but need framing.

The first is the 'Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer. No.1'. This was sold to a museum in New York last year for US $135,000,000!


The second is an oil painting done from a Klimt watercolour, so there aren't many of these around. I think she'll hang on a staircase somewhere.

The Training

So August has gone and I was only able to run 80 km and walk - as above in my 'weights & backpack' outfit - for 89 km. A total of 169 for the month - 669 km as my training for Tibet, with a week to go! I'll nail 700 km in total and feel like I've made some sort of effort to 'go high' as they say on Rum Doodle.

20th & 21st July. A Rock Wall for Chartwell

Before & after pictures of the rock wall lining the drive-way at the Maleny house called 'Chartwell'. It took 4 truck-loads of rocks from Toowoomba and 2 days to build it.
Next step is to get the tarmac down within the next year before the weeds take over.

25th May

The first batch of pies were made last night - minced beef, potato & onion - and they were AWESOME!
Took 2 to work for lunch today.
Everyone must rush over to Australia and try our pies. (Mushy peas at no extra charge).