Monday, September 19, 2011

What a Weekend!

"Race Round" is over for another year in Kalgoorlie-Boulder and the 3 major race meetings have been blessed with the most glorious weather (much to the delight of all the ladies and their hats, fascinators etc.). 
Yesterday was the final day of race round and this is celebrated by "Coolgardie Day" which is basically a fun day which has markets, stalls a parade etc.
We had the AGM and a club run at the gokarts so we went there for the day.
Again, the day started off perfectly, the sun was shining, the birds were singing etc. but then a bit of wind started to blow....and it got stronger and we could see big black clouds descending on us at a rapid rate.  There was also thick dust and it was getting worse.  Chairs started blowing away, 44 gallon drums started to blow over and I was getting a bit concerned.  We were at the pit bays which is a fancy name for a concrete floor and a tin roof!!  As the wind got stronger and the dust got thicker I said to Dean "Should we go and shelter behind the sea container", to which he replied "No, I don't want to leave the gokart on its own"    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
So, realising my status in life, I suggested that we take the gokart with us and seek shelter behind the sea container.  Dean thought this was a good idea so he carefully wheeled the kart to safety.
Once the gokart was safely protected by the sea container we decided to put a few things in the boot of the car and as we were doing this we heard a horrendous roaring, cracking sound and saw people running.  I looked up and saw that the timing tower was completely gone and all that was left was the uprights at the bottom of the building.  I will never forget the feeling that I had when I saw this as, like just about everyone else there, I thought that there were people in the timing tower and I knew that there would be death or serious injury due to the fact that there was nothing left of the building. 
Thankfully, the ladies that were in the building had decided to evacuate it 5 minutes before it was destroyed and no one was hurt.
The building and everything in it that was lost can be replaced but precious lives can't be.
Here are some pics for you.
Nic xxx


The storm moving across the track


















Image provided by Lee-Anne Martin


What the timing tower used to look like
















Image from http://www.speedcafe.com/2011/09/18/karting-officials-escape-death-in-wind-storm/

What the timing tower looks like now!

Images provided by Lee-Anne Martin


Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Sketchabilities

I found another challenge blog the other day called Sketchabilities.....I am so addicted to these blogs!! If only I didn't have to work I would have more time to scrap!!!
Here is my layout for the sketch provided.

Nic xxx

Monday, September 12, 2011

Sunday Drive

Every weekend lately seems to be a blur of housework, gardening and maintenance so about the middle of last week I asked Dean if we could go for a drive out to Lake Douglas and have a picnic lunch on Sunday.
I woke up yesterday and made up some rolls and a fruit platter for us and we set off to Lake Douglas which is a man made lake about 10kms out of Kalgoorlie-Boulder. 
After turning off the main highway onto a gravel road with a convoy of other cars in front and behind us (of which every one seemed to have a dirt bike or 4 wheeler in tow), I could feel Dean tensing up and he started complaining about the off road bikes, the noise, the dust etc. so when he said "We should go to Coolgardie and have a look around", I agreed and we turned around and promptly left Lake Douglas and all the bikes.
We ended up doing a 220km "Sunday Drive" to Coolgardie, Rowles Lagoon (which sounds like a lovely place but due to no water is just flat brown dirt), Ora Banda, Broad Arrow and finally back to Kalgoorlie-Boulder.
I took my camera with us but after taking 3 pictures realised that my battery was about to go flat so I could probably only get one more shot in.  I wanted a photo of both of us so I quickly threw the camera on the bonnet of ute, set the self timer and ran like the wind to get back on the picnic table (looking relaxed and at ease) before our picture was taken.
Here it is (please note that the angle of the photo is due to the bonnet not being flat!!).



After a bit of a rough start, we had the most wonderful time and Dean was so enthused by the time we got home he went straight down the shed and made up a tripod to hold a billy over a campfire so I can have a cuppa next time we go out bush......I wonder if he could whip up a tripod for my camera.........
Love Nic xxx

Saturday, September 10, 2011

A Bit of a CATastrophe!

My friend Jenny left Kalgoorlie today with her Mum and two of their friends to go on a 3 night cruise off Fremantle so I volunteered to dogsit her fur baby "Lucy".
Jenny dropped Lucy off last night to our house and we settled down to watch TV for the night with Lucy lying at the back sliding door looking in. 
Our youngest cat "Agro" noticed Lucy and the next thing we knew, his hackles were up, his tail had doubled in size and he was spitting and trying to get at Lucy through the glass door.  I told Dean to grab Agro while I went outside and showed Lucy where her bed was. 
The next thing I have Dean holding the side of his face and yelling at me to "HELP" him.  I get to the back door and say in an aggitated voice "WHAT??" and he tells me that Agro has scratched him and he needs me to help him.  So I promptly tell him, "You'll be OK, your not gonna die!" and that I will be there in a minute.  I am just getting inside and the next thing I know, Dean is chasing after Agro, lunges at him, misses and ends up on the floor!!!
So after telling Dean to get up, I finally have a look at his face which he has tissues held up against and see that Agro did a good job on him!  There were 4 large, deep scratches across the side of his face and there was quite a bit of blood.  So after rummaging through the first aid kit, Dean had one side of his face covered in large wound dressings (not so much because the wounds were bad, but because I didn't want the blood or betadine ointment leaking onto my white sheets and pillowcases).  Anyway, this morning, after ripping out half the whiskers from Dean's face when taking the dressings off, the wounds don't look too bad and a couple of butterfly stitches are now doing the job nicely.   Dean is still not talking to Agro.  Agro is oblivious to any wrong doing.
PLEASE NOTE:  No cats or dogs were harmed in the above incident, (only 1 human).

Nic xx

P.S.  Mugshot below of the culprit!