:: MARCH 2011 :: The year so far

JANUARY:
We both had the whole month of January off work,  I was on holidays and Peter was on health-leave.    We spent most of it at the caravan at St.Helens.
We've really transformed the look of the caravan now with the new deck.
The weather was great and having the verandah helped keep the sun out a bit which helped keep the van from getting too hot.  We practically lived on that deck,  so its been one of the best things we've ever done.  Its something we have waited years to do. 

Below are a couple of Before and After photos. 


AFTER   RENOVATIONS

  

BEFORE

On Australia Day we took the tents and went camping at Arthurs Lake for three nights.  Our friends Sally and Fred came too.  We set up camp at the Pumphouse Bay camping ground.  The first night was windy and cold,  but after that it was quite warm.  Peter caught a fish which we shared for entree that night.   Another fisherman camping there had caught a lot of fish and he smoked one for us.

On the saturday night,  Danny and Alison came to visit for a BBQ.  They have a shack near the Great Lake.

FEB::

The first two weeks of Feb we were back to work again.

Then Peter had two weeks long-service leave that he had booked last year.  I'm only working in Launceston two days a week now and paid to work at home 5 hours a week,  so as long as I have the laptop with me,  I can do those 5 hours work anywhere that I can get an internet connection.  So we took off again on the days that I didn't have to work.

One weekend we went up to Arthurs Lake and stayed at Peter Rasmussens shack.  I planned to leave there early on the monday morning to drive the 90 minutes to work.   It snowed all night ....... this is what we awoke to the next morning!!

Arthurs Lake Winter wonderland in Feburary

I left Peter at Arthurs Lake and managed to drive to work.  Then I went home that night for two nights.  Peter was spending more time at Arthurs Lake as Peter Ras was going to join him for a couple of days fishing. 

The wednesday was Launceston Cup Day and I only had to work half a day,  so I got away at 11am to go up to Arthurs and pick up Peter.

He had caught a nice trout so we took that with us to Queenstown

On the way to Queenie we stopped at the Iron Blow look out.  They've built a new steel walkway out over the old Iron Blow open cut.  Its awesome ......  photo below .......

When we got to Queenstown we called in to see Margie, then we went around to Janine's place where we were staying for the two nights.   Peter cooked the trout for our dinner that night.

On the way to pick up Peter earlier in the day at Arthurs Lake,  I had to stop on the side of the road for a telephone interview for a new job with Salmat.   Before the interview ended they told me that I had got thru to the next round of interviews and they wanted me to participate in a 2 hour conference call tomorrow with three others.   Yikes!!

THURSDAY:
  We were up early to go on an underground tour of the Mt.Lyell Mine with Anthony Coulson.   The tour went for about 3 hours,  we saw all the workings of the underground,  then he took us up to where the ore is brought out to the surface.   What an experience. FANTASTIC

Then it was back to Janines as I only had 20 mins until my phone hook up.
I had to be sitting at a computer and logged into Salmats server as well as be on the phone .  I took the laptop into the bedroom and used Janine's cordless phone.
Peter went to play golf.    I was still on the call when he got back from his round of golf.
That evening I got an email to say that I got the job !!!!
I will do the training in March while I'm still employed by the City Mission,  then I will leave to start my new career in April.

Next day we headed home via Burnie and Ulverstone.

Peters sister Heather was home that weekend.  Her Mother-in-Law,  Audrey was not well and she came and spent a day with her in the hospital before she passed away.    We all got together for tea at the Centennial while Heather was here.

On the Monday Peter came to work with me, then went off and did his own thing until I finished work.
When he picked me up we went off down to St.Helens.  I'd had a lot of sales on my website the previous week from customers on the east coast,  so I had a busy couple of days delivering parcels to my customers and catching up with friends over coffee.   Two days wasn't long enough.
I was meant to go back to work on Thursday morning,  but we had had no sales all week so there really wasn't much to do at work,  the rest can be done at home on my laptop.   So we left St.Helens a little later than we planned.
My sister Sandra was in Launceston for the day we so caught up for lunch at Mortys on our way home.

NOW ITS MARCH
My friend Sally has also scored a position working for Salmat too,  so we got together to organise our telephony equipment.

Online sales at the City Mission are not going too well this year,  so I think I will be doing them a favour when I resign later this month.
Today I have the day off and Sally and I are going over to Port Sorell to see my nephew Shaun,  he also works for Salmat so we are going to see him at work to see what the job involves.
Tomorrow is my birthday.  Nothing big planned this year,  just Rotary dinner tomorrow night.  But I've just had a text message from Tracey and Alana to see if I want to go out to lunch at Belle's tomorrow.  mmm yumm
:)