Few more pics

Tobias and his friend Papa speaking at the school assembly

The NZ Governor General Visits

Latest Happenings

Visiting Savo with the Luitolos

Ngella


George's home in Ngella


So what's been happening in our life? Besides a couple of trips to NZ and Carl's touring to PNG this is a brief summary of what's been happening at our place:

-Poppy has had her ears pierced after much pleading and pestering
-I attended and spoke at a community meeting with the New Zealand Governor General
-Our boat has taken us on lots of trips and provided hrs of fun
-Carl has caught a few decent size fish from the boat
-Millie is attending art classes and Poppy is attending dance this term after school
-Tobias had an operation in NZ
-Carl has had 2 new job offers and is still deciding which one to take
-Our house girl Cathy is getting married in 2 weeks
-Carl has learnt to surf behind the boat
- Today we visited by workmate George's village in Ngella - an hr by boat - the most gorgeous spot.

Poppy the Pippi

Poppy makes a great Pippi-long-Stockings and took the prize for the best book character dress up school.
Millie and Tobias made cute ballerina's and spider men respectively!!

A Bali Break

We have just come back from a great 10 day break in Bali. Carl and the kids went down to Brisbane early. The kids enjoyed catching up with family and playing with their cousins, while Carl had a bit of spending spree buying accessories ( fishing gear, skis, radio etc) for our new boat which arrived at the Port here over the last couple of days.

We packed a pile of great stuff into our Bali holiday including:
Water Bomb Park
An awesome waterslide complex - the kids were amazingly brave...Poppy went on the biggest scariest rides that most adults wouldnt try and Millie cried because she wasnt allowed, whilst Tobias tackled lots of the big rides with his fractured wrist in plaster. Yes even Mum went on all the scariest rides!!!
Elephant Riding
The kid's favourite activity of the holiday was at a beautiful elephant park. The baby elephants were very cute and Millie assisted in an elephant show
Playing with Monkeys at Monkey Forest
These little blighters made our 3 monkeys look like angels. Dont dare try and take a banana back though as they turned into ferocious beasts as Carl found out!!
White water rafting
Carl and Poppy did a cool, but I am told scarey white water rafting trip. They had a great day out
Hiring Scooters
This was probably the scariest thing I did!!! We hired 2 scooters for 2 days and with kids on board tackled the absolutely crazy Bali traffic...no road rules, hundreds of cars and scooters going in all directions!! It was a hang of a lot of fun though and saved walking everywhere for a couple of days!!
Massages and Facials
Without a doubt I think Carl favourite activity was the $6 massages you could get...yes he went three times including an hr before we had to head to the airport home. I also had a great facial...at that price why wouldnt you indulge!!!

Well we arrived back in Honiara again with over our luggage allowance - we do it every time.....and again Carl used his magic to ensure we didn't have to pay excess luggage. Not sure how he does it but he has it down to a fine art now!!

Carl is back in PNG working, pining not only for the family but more importantly his new boat that has arrived in Honiara. It will have to sit at the Port until he comes back. There are lots of fishing and exploring trips planned and he has no end of volunteers to join him.

Our Bali Break

Our Bali Break

The Adventure Race

While Carl and the kids flew out to Brisbane tody (I follow them on Thursday) I participated in a fanstastic version of the "The Amazing Race".It was part car rally, scavanger hunt, photo rally, intelligence test, physical and team challenges mixed up with a bit of bribery and corruption.
There were 25 teams and I joined a group of 3 friends to make an all middle age(average age 40!!!!) team of women to compete. We were pretty competitive, very fierce and totally determined. Was fantastic fun but hot tiring work in 35plus degrees!!!
Well we surprised everyone including ourselves to be the first team back after a grueling afternoon of challenges and came 2nd by points!!! We are pretty proud of our effort competing against many younger and mainly mixed gender teams and whipping them!!!

Exhausted, Hot, Sweaty but stoked to be the first team home

Proud owners of a trophy - it'll go straight to the pool room!!

Getting out of the Office

Some weeks you just need to escape the stress and politics of the office. Good thing here is escaping the office takes on a new dimension and can be done in style.

Yesterday I joined the RAMSI Community Outreach team to travel to the Weathercoast of Guadacanal ( the other side of the vast and rugged Island that Honiara is on). While it is only 15 minutes flight from Honiara it is one of the most isoloted and "hardest" places in Solomon Islands and was the heartland of much of the ethnic tensions. The villages are sandwiched between a spectacular rough coast line and razor backed mountains.

We share with the community about our work with RAMSI and listen to any concerns or issues they have. Isolated they might be but the questions on the world economic crisis and the impact on Solomon Islands proves they are right up with the play and know what't going on in the world. Kept me on my toes too as I have to answer the economic qustions!!!!!!!

Was only a brief fly in fly out visit but a real treat for me.
Carl heads back to PNG today to do a week of flying around New Ireland/New Britain for a telecommunciations company. Hard to believe he gets paid for it really!!!

All dressed up and somewhere to go..in Honiara?

Yes..its a first. Sharron glammed up in a flash frock!!!!!
Last night we joined friends at the Annual Fundraising Rotary Ball themed James Bond Casino Royale. Both Carl and I were decked out in clothes from XJ6 ( 2nd hand shop) Was loads of fun, a night a great food, friends and dancing (me not Carl unfortunately) and I've decided I taken a liking to flash frocks now...so will have to keep my eyes open shopping!!!

Poppy's Class Assembly

This week it was Poppy's classes turn to perform at assembly. She had a pile of lines she had to learn and they did some great singing dancing numbers!!! Their teacher Mrs Payne is a music teacher so they have lots of fun with singing and dancing in class.
Just a couple of pics of Poppy and her friends.

Betsy , Azalea & Poppy - still best mates!!!


Class 3P


Poppy & Ayesha - the kiwi girls in the class

Cathy and Clay

Last night we enjoyed a special night attending our house girl Cathy's engagement party. We don't know Clay well yet as she has kept him pretty well hidden but he seems like a really nice guy and we are all looking forward to the wedding next Easter. The girls are going to be flower girls and Tobias the ring boy apparently!!

The big question of the night is 'do we have to pay a bride price??" Cathy's Dad Festus is a wonderful Christian man, His answer was "God gave Cathy to us as a free gift , so we give her to you Clay as a free gift"

The boys on a winning streak!!!

Tobias received a Principal award at assembly this week for his caring and compassionate nature at school. He stood very straight and serious like a little soldier in front of the whole school when being presented his certificate.

Not to be outdone Carl also won a competition this week - the parent's dancing competition at the school disco!!! I know it is extremely hard to believe. Nearly 18 years we have been married and I have really never seen Carl dance but on Thursday at the school disco Carl threw himself recklesly all over the dance floor to the entertainment of many and stole the prize for the best Dad dancer!!! Sorry no pics to prove it but it is all true!! Bodes well for the Rotary Ball we are attending next weekend!!!

Thurston's Flying Fox

Honiara has officially got its first flying fox. Carl the master of invention has built a fantastic flying fox that is giving hours of fun. We're getting lots of visitors turning up try it out!! Here's a movie of Millie zooming down the hill.

Playing Shop

Playing shops takes on a new twist in Honiara. I found Millie busy playing shops with Tobias - selling vegetables at the market!!

Republic of China Visits

The Republic of China (Taiwan) is a GOOD friend of Solomon Islands . The relationship serves both countries nicely. Taiwan gets SI advocating for their independence at the UN and SI gets lots of cash.

This weekend 2 ROC warships visited and opened up for visitors so we went along and had a look.

Camping in Guadacanal

Two days camping on the edge of a coconut palm clad beach, kayaking with dolphins each morning, snorkling, kayak surfing great food and wine and a neat bunch of friends - all for $10 seems too good to be true especially here in the Solomons where travel and accomodation is notoriously expensive.
Last weekend we hired a recreational area 1/2 hr from Honiara with a bunch of friends and went on our first camping trip in Solomons. We all had to go out and buy cheap (and as it turned out) a little dodgey tents from a local Chinese store - consequently looking like a matching group of girl guides. Had a fantastic weekend, beautiful weather, bon fires on the beach, kayak surfing waves and each morning enjoying the visit of a large pod(50-80) of dolphins who we kayaked amongst.

We've all promised ourselves we must go back soon!!

Millie our Maori Maiden

Millie dressed up in her Maori outfit for her classes assembly item this week.......and as you can see looked gorgeous. She also did a great job with her speaking part, inviting "Mr Don to present the Principal certificates"

Cooking Classes - Round 2

Last year I taught some of the girls from work how to bake biscuits and muffins. This year they wanted to learn how to bake and ice cakes.
We had another fun afternoon baking 2 cakes and icing 7 cakes.

As you can see the cake colouring you buy here is totally psychedelic and makes for very loud and happy results!!!