An Award for Katy

The Lorikeets are improving so much as each week goes by. The best bit is that they are enjoying themselves so much - even making up their own goal celebration dance!!!

Two weeks ago, Katy scored her first goal and played extremely well with a big burst of confidence and 'getting it!' As a result she was awarded the encouragement certificate!












The weather over the last few weeks has taken a turn - obviously winter is here. Last weeks matches were washed out thanks to the 30mms of rain we received.

Annual Conference

As I arrived in Melbourne for the 2016 ASA Annual conference, I reminisced that 'twas six years ago that I attended my first official ultrasound conference here in Melbourne. Slightly different circumstances - in 2010 I drove down with the rest of the family and we stayed with friends. This time I was looking forward to soloing it.

Despite being solo, there were many familiar faces amongst the 1300 participants and not enough time to catch up with everyone!  Dinner and brekky with my old hospital colleagues was lovely.

The program was varied and interesting and as always there were several lectures/workshops that clashed. Although I didn't come away as brain strained as I did on that first conference, there are numerous papers to read up on and new techniques to explore and master!

So where to from here....ASA have a Special Interest Groups (Musculoskeletal and Obstetrics) weekend in NZ in September...ASUM annual conference is in Brisbane in late October.....or perhaps I should hold off and attend the 2017 Fetal Medicine Foundation World Congress held somewhere in Europe in June...

Katy's Talk Time

Katy's most recent talk time involved conducting a survey and producing a graph of some sort then presenting this to the class. After a little bit of discussion, Katy decided to use her stuff toys as her topic...all 33 of them....and these are her results.

Mum to Three...

After a cold, windy, wet day at orienteering, the rest of Mothers Day was spent snuggling with my favourites in front of a cosy fire.

Mount Clear

We made tentative plans during the week, that if the weather was clear, we would have a night camping at the Mount Clear campground in Namadgi National Park as orienteering the next day was conveniently located a further 5km down the road.

Saturday morning was taken up with the usual soccer routine. Once home, it was a minimal pack of food, clothes and camping gear and we were on our way by 2pm.

It was a beautiful cool but sunny afternoon, so we were surprised on our arrival at the campground to see several groups already set up. We surveyed the area before choosing the best spot. Andy headed off with map in hand for a run while the girls and I set up camp. We weren't alone too long before Al arrived with Max, Mira and Mica in tow.

With daylight fading we decided to do a little exploring. Through the tussocky grass, crossing the creek, we peered down wombat holes before successfully negotiating the creek once again. Climbing up the little ridge on our return, we found a firelighting forest which would be visited many times thanks to the excited little people wanting to help light the campfire!

And so finally the much anticipated fire was lit! With the temperature dropping, the warmth of the fire was certainly appreciated. Post dinner marshmallows were toasted and enjoyed. With the kids asleep Andy, Al and I relaxed with cheese, wine and chocolate - a lovely way to finish the day!

Next morning we awoke to a little drizzle. We knew from the forecast that the day was not going to get any better in the weather department. Orienteering was at Boboyan Ridge with the assembly area a short walk from the cars. The wind was chilly, so with everyone rugged up we trudged up to the assembly area and despite being tucked into a forested area, it was freezing. It didn't take us long to realise the kids weren't going to be able to last here while we were out on our courses. Back to the car Andy went to get the tent.

All the kids completed the blue course happily and had warmed up too! While the adults were out they split their time between building a cubby house, arguing over the cubby house and warming up in the tent. By the time we all arrived back, they were at the end of their tether. Needless to say, it was an extremely quick departure and great timing as we drove through the rapidly deteriorating weather.

New Look

It's a well known long standing fact that I have pretty bad eye sight especially distance stuff. Recently an inability to read books in bed at night, struggling to see ingredients on back of food stuff and a sore upper back have led me to have my eyes tested.

Final results were suggestive that a little help maybe needed. The first option was reading glasses with the comment tag on the end 'but you are too young for those.'  What?! Next sales pitch was anti fatigue glasses which sounded like some sort of fad.

Off I went to research the various options. Despite not being able to find a single person with anti fatigue glasses, the graduated lens and being able to leave them on and still be able to see distance was appealing. After much reluctance I returned to the shop with Andy and Ella in tow to place an order knowing that there was a 30 day return policy.

So now here I am....happy and amazed with how clear the small stuff has become :)

Bird Spotting - A Sad Story

It was a Wednesday afternoon. Ella was the first to arrive home,  riding up the driveway on her bike when she spotted a little bird and took a closer look. A short time later Andy and Katy rolled in finding Ella holding the little bird and looking extremely upset.

The brightly coloured yellow and black bird was dead. It was then that Andy then recalled how during the day he had heard a loud bang which in hindsight was the bird flying into the window. A burial was performed and the little bird was laid to rest.

Ella retrieved her Bird guide book to discover the bird was a (male)  Golden Whistler. She spent most of the afternoon researching interesting facts about this bird!