It's Holiday Time...

Well,

The past three or so weeks have been a massive blur.
Sadly, we lost one of our brothers unexpectedly and as well as getting his funeral organised, there have been a few trips to the place where he lived and worked to pack up his belongings.
It is more than 8 hours each way, so it is a trip that cannot be taken lightly.
There still may need to be a trip or two to finalise his affairs up there, we'll just have to wait and see.
The next few months will be spent tidying up his finances and selling his properties, something that I have been given the task to do, but one which makes me feel like a vulture in a way as it feels like I am invading so much of his privacy.

Just leaving Broken Hill as the sun comes up. Only eight and a half hours until we get home. The next three hours in particular can be a little tense at times due to the large number of goats that roam around here, as well as emus. Then there is the constant hassle of kangaroos, especially at this time of day.

Will and Nev after two days of solid cleaning and ready to hit the road for home.

The shed is just about done, perhaps a trip at a later date to collect the boat.

Our son overseas...

For nearly two years, one of our boys, Sam, has been living in London. He is currently working there as an accountant, but is also getting away as much as he can to see the rest of Europe. It was a highlight of my trip over there a few months ago to spend time with him in London.

Over the past week or so he has told us that he is having a bit of a sporting focus, going to the races at Royal Ascot ( he did see the Queen), heading over to France for Euro 2016, and next week heading o Wimbledon.

The races and soccer don't really interest me, but as for Wimbledon...Jealous!!!

These few shots at the races clearly show that it started off as a very respectable day, but the last shot shows that a good time was obviously had!!!

 

The start of the day and it is looking good.

Arms in the air and around each other as the day progresses...

Peace, Love and Happiness all in the one shot!

And this must be after a successful day at Royal Ascot. I can't imagine that the Queen looked the same at the end of the day!

Apparently a few days ago the boys were camping in France after watching a game at Euro 2016. Sam woke up in the middle of the night to see a face right over him. It turns out it was someone reaching in the window trying to steal stuff while they were sleeping.

Sam said he just started yelling at the intruder and waking everyone else up, and got in about 5 punches to his head before he pulled himself back out the window.

It turns out that they had noticed this bloke skulking around their van earlier, needless to say they will be even more vigilant now.

The last I heard they were in Amsterdam watching some more games.

 Some shots taken at school on Friday when I was working in a class of Grade 4's.
They have a pup that spends time in the classroom, and she is great at helping the kids to relax.
She just roams between the two rooms and the kids are totally fine with it as they don't get distracted by her.

To finish the school term off on Friday, we had a netball match between the Grade 6 children and the staff. The whole school gathered in 'The Shed' to watch and it was a huge success, not just for the spectacle, but also in the way that it really strengthened the staff/children relationships (which are already incredibly strong I must say!)

And finally, yesterday we cranked up a firebox that was made for our brother who passed away recently.
This was meant to be a surprise birthday present for Moose from his workmates at Broken Hill, something which he would have loved.

As there are only three brothers who follow Richmond, my siblings decided that I was to have it, as one couldn't take it back to Brisbane on the plane, and the other one felt that he didn't really follow them as madly as I do.
Needless to say, as the flames took hold last night I definitely charged a glass or two in memory of Moose.

We are now on holidays for the next two weeks, so hopefully I'll be able to get back into my blogging.

This week is a few days of stuffing around the house before heading to Melbourne for a few days as I have to get my shoulder looked at again as it is just not getting better despite recent surgery.

My wife has been away for a few days visiting her parents, so the firebox will be torched again later today as will the spit roast. A few relaxing drinks together tonight around the fire is something I'm really looking forward to.

Until my next post....

Cheers!

It's been a rough week...

For the past fortnight I have been scratching my head for something to write about, sort of a writer's block.

Little did I know what was around the corner after last weekend.

After a very relaxing weekend (well, every weekend is fairly relaxing as I still can't do much with my crook shoulder) I was super organised for school and had lots of planned meetings with parents scheduled to get through.

I was in my first one of these when I could feel the gentle vibrating of my phone ringing in my pocket. Thankfully it was on silent, so I ignored it. But the phone was not going to give up and it rang persistently, and I continued to ignore it.
Next minute our school secretary pops her head in to the meeting to tell me that I need to answer my phone urgently.

The next few minutes were a blur, as I took a call from my wife who sadly had to tell me that one of my brothers had died, being found dead in his home in another state of Australia.

So many things were rushing through my head, and thankfully our secretary sensed what was going on and very calmly was able to calm me down so that I could think more clearly so that I would be able to drive home safely.

I was home 20 minutes later, and after ringing the police was able to get the full news about what had happened to our eldest brother, who is known by everyone as 'Moose'.
Then it was the worst 20 minutes of my life as I rang my six other siblings to break the news to them.
Absolutely the six hardest phone calls I have ever had to make in my life.
The short sense of relief after finishing each call was replaced by the dread of the next one to make.

After hearing the grief coming down the line during each call, I was wondering if I would be able to get through them all, thankfully I did. Then it was time to ring close friends in the Colbinabbin community where we all grew up, as well as close friends and relatives.

In a matter of hours there were various siblings at our house sharing their grief and supporting each other, which really helped.

The next day was in to the funeral director's to get it all organised, and the care and concern from Mark at Mulqueen's could not be surpassed.

As Moose lived and worked in Broken Hill as a quarry manager, we needed to travel up there to collect his things and begin to sort out his affairs.
This isn't just a quick trip in a car, it is about a 9 hour drive, so last Weds myself and four siblings jumped in my car and off we went.
It's just as well that we all get on, because 16 hours in a car over two days means that if someone grates on the others, it can be a very long trip.
So how did we entertain ourselves? Put 5 teachers in a car and there is instantly loads of stories about kids, teachers, programs, professional development and whatever else that involves teaching.
Sounds nerdy, but it passed the time.
And as for some of the games we played...lots of arguments (friendly of course!) debates and challenges. For example, one of my sisters really challenged me when I said that Congupna ( a town in Victoria) starts with a 'C', while she insisted it started with a 'K'.
Thank you Google for helping me on that one!!
And two sisters went to town on each other with the spelling of Enniskillen, where one insisted that it started with an 'I' while the other was sure it started with an 'E'.
Google to the rescue again.

The rest of the trip up and back had more games such as "List 3 things you will see in the next three hours" (they were not allowed to be blatantly obvious). My brother suggested ' goat up a tree', because he actually saw that on the trip up. As for the trip back...zilch. One of my suggestions was 'a car crash', which they all thought odd. I eventually confessed that I overheard on the radio in the police station that there had been a crash on the highway just before we left Broken Hill.

When we all felt like crap after having to deal with the loss of Moose, it was great to be able to have this enforced time together to be able to talk about so many things, and to be able to help each other to deal with it in their own way.

So the next few days will involve being back at school for a few days before the funeral, then I'm heading back to Broken Hill again to do the final sorting of Moose's things. Luckily I'll have one of my sons with me, so even that time together will be special.

Not a great thing to write about tonight, but it has been therapeutic for me.

RIP Moose.

Until my next post...

Cheers