Farewell to Mike and Ingrid

This week sees big changes on the work front as my boss Mike and his wife Ingrid head back to IRD Wellington and his replacement Andy Minto settles in. It is through Mike that I ended up here. Mike has been a great boss to work for and will be very much missed by everyone, while he and Ingrid have become good friends of ours
Honiara is of course a place of regular good byes and hellos as people come and go which makes it ever interesting but also sad.

In proof that the world is small Andy and I have also enjoyed working together in New Zealand - over 10 years ago.

School starts on Monday - Poppy into Grade 2 (Year 3 - NZ) and Millie goes into Preschool which is the same hrs as school and kind of between kindy and new entrants. Hopefully Tobias will start kindy before too long as well.

In case you're mildly interested.............

.......the piglet has been named MAISIE. (This would have been Millie's name if I could have got Carl to agree!!!!!) I know Rosie and Maisie is all a bit much but hey ..they're pets not twins so who cares.

She is very adorable.....and although pigs aren't meant to be inside pets you can see from the photos she does manage to sneak inside on occasion.

The Menagerie Grows

Added to our three chicks that are now well and truely chooks we have recently added two new members to the family. A little Solomon dog called Rosie...( yes she came with that name Hilary and Natalie so now we have matching dogs!!) and a 6 week piglet as yet unnamed. Carl now has his hands full bottle feeding the piglet while Poppy is taking great responsibility for the dog. I am simply keeping my distance.

This morning I was awoken at 5.30 by one of the supposed chicken who has a very distinct cock a doodle do call!!!! I suspect his life may have just been shortened somewhat!!

Holiday Pics

Happy New Year - 2008

Happy New Year!!! I have been absent for a few weeks from the blog holidaying in Brisbane but time to get back into it again. We arrived back yesterday to a very wet, muggy and mouldy Honiara. Everything has been growing like crazy in the garden and in the cupboards alike so a bit of work to get things back to normal!!!!

We've just a had a great 3 weeks in Brisbane sharing Christmas and NY with my family and then heading to Noosaville for a week. Was nice to get back to a place where things are much easier to acheive and a few more of the good things in life to enjoy. Must say shopping was much too easy to acheive. There is something to be said for difficult unpleasant shopping!!!

Was great to have all the Phipp's together for Christmas for the first time in a long time and the kids enjoyed spending time with Oscar and Jack - their Aussie cousins.

Maybe I'll just give you some quick holiday highlights.................

• Boxing Day horse races where Carl lost and lost .... and lost


• Great trip to the Australian outback Spectacular dinner and show (see the cheesey hat photo!!)


• Fun Day at Australia Zoo where we were lucky enough to have Terri Irwin doing the croc show. (in case you don't know Carl is a pretty big Steve fan!!!!!!)


• Camel ride at Eumundi ... just because we could! and because my sister Kylie recently did a fabulous camel trip in the Sahara and it was the closest we could get to doing the same!!


• Carl's much long awaited jetski ride he has always wanted to do. In the years he has been contemplating it the half hr price as gone from $30 to $80!!!! The kids all loved it though


• Catching 8 fish on the Noosa River


• Playing with Oscar and Jack- the cousins and hanging out with the whanau


• Boogie boarding some awesome surf


• Managing to keep our luggage to 110kg...just below the limit. Yah!!!!!!!

Lots more but won't bore you with the details

Well its back to work for me tomorrow while the kids get two more weeks of holidays before they start back.

Catching you soon