HAPPY HOLIDAYS !
MERRY XMAS
and
HAPPY NEW YEAR
2006 has come and is almost gone......... another hectic year with lots happening in our lives.
We hope that your year has been a good one and wish you an eventful and prosperous 2007
I have not even had time to do a proper greeting page but this is a quick page put up as an update of the year as it has been for us.
Major Events of 2006
January
Early January we celebrated the 80th birthday of Paul's grandfather in Yorketown. There were quite a few people around and we had a lunch onwards gathering at the local CWA (Country Women's Association) hall in Yorketown. It did carry on for a few hours and everyone had a good time.
Chinese New Year - we celebrated Chinese New Year with friends and our "island" family members with a couple of steamboat dinners and even had a toss up of Yee Sang.
CHAMPS - our cat........
He is now weighing in at about 11.5kg and we hope the diet will kick in at some stage because they just don't do tummy tucks for cats!
February..........went by in some sort of a haze.
We seem to have caught a few bugs this year and that took the wind out of our sails a fair bit. Paul and I had a bad cough in turns and I actually lost my voice for a few days.
August - September
I was kept pretty busy between touring at Seal Bay and days out with Italian tourists on tour around the island.
May
Paul's brother, David, came back to Australia from the UK and we went up to Adelaide to welcome him back. Spent a few days there with the family and did some shopping.
Paul bought his new digital camera - so he will be out shooting!
August and September
Lots of Itlians visiting the island so there was lots of touring work with groups around the island.
Virtually worked all through the month with a few days off here and there..... was ready for the holiday by the end of that stint!
October
Wind in the Wings Gallery reopened and they are carrying some of my jewellery. I hope to be able to introduce some more new work over the next few months there.
Late September and most of October saw us in Malaysia and here's a bit of a travelogue I put together on the some of the highlights of our trip.
I bought a new laptop and discovered the world of wireless......... we spent a fair few hours in a really nice coffee shop not far away from mum's house which had wireless access and I was able to download programs and update software pretty quickly which was a bonus indeed!
We spent a lot of time with my niece and Paul was surprisingly good with her.
Kingscote Show - an annual event on the island which is a showcase for agricultural and community events and lots of rides and entertainment for the kids. I had a stall in the pavillion and did some demonstrations on my torch too.
November
We were pretty busy (and stressed) about the "new" rosters management wanted to set up. It seemed fraught with complications and problems but after a meeting with our "Chief" we felt we had nutted out the concepts and that in principle it would be a good thing in the long run but the reality has only just started so we'll have lots of wrinkles to iron out to make it work.
We had a surprise visitor around the house - it has been so dry that even the goanna has been coming round for a drink from the water bowl we put out for the hens in the daytime.
It obviously didn't like us looking on while it had a drink - an dpoked it's tongue out at us......
The paddocks have been getting more and more brown and the sheep are grazing on bales of hay which our landlord has been feeding them with...........
Normally those paddocks would still look pretty nice in autumn but they were already dry and pretty brown when we got back from our holidays in late October and are looking even more brown and dry now.
We bought an iMac for Paul to work on and the problems haven't stopped........ the computer is great but I have now got a credit card dispute going on because Apple in Korea have put in charges for a computer I didn't buy from them and Apple is stumped because they can't find anything in their system which even matches the transactions presented.
So beware if you buy anything from Apple - do it on their online secure site but don't make the mistake we made. We called up to check on the delivery options and got a CINDY on the line who said if we did the sale through her it would be more efficient and easier......... yeah right....... Apple in Korea tried to put in about $5000 of charges for something we didn't buy from them!
....... and CINDY didn't process my order properly, nor did she contact me (she had my contact details for "just in case things go wrong..........") and a week later we found out the order had NOT been put through......... and they assured me that my credit card details were "safe"......... HUH......... so an ongoing saga still at this date with VISA trying to resolve ot for me........
Moral of the story - if it's fruit you can't eat - don't buy it......... especially if the person you are buying it from is called CINDY and answers the call on the Apple store info/sales line!
December
We started on our new set rosters so you can find me home alternate Saturdays, Wednesdays and every Thursday and Friday.
I have bought some new glass and have been experimenting with the colours and making some beads.
I am trying my hand at a new wire wrapping style but it is still pretty new to me so look out for some new stuff on my site.
Christmas is just round the corner as I am writing this up and I have just discovered that I have lost my addresses somewhere in all the updates so I hope I have at least got your email address to send you this Christmas greeting.
I am trying to catch up with all the unfinished business for 2006 but I know there is a long list which will be carried over to 2007.
Well - that's 2006 kind of in a nutshell........... we are having an early start on 2007 by calling it the end of 2006..... we'll see what happens in the next year !
Have a great year ahead!
Bea and Paul 0n Kangaroo Island
You can find my work for sale at
- Kangaroo Island Gallery
- Island Bee Hive - Honey Farm
- Seal Bay Conservation Park Visitor Centre
- Granny Stirlings Gallery - Penneshaw
- Wind in the Wings Gallery - North Coast, Kangaroo Island
