STEW AND DAMPER

We have had a wonderful week in Hughenden.

The teachers and students at Hughenden State school were fabulous and some exceptional poems were written during our visit.

Skin met up with Lyn Carrot at a Stew and Damper night at the caravan park. I was pleased to see the fruit and vegie enjoying the music and settling into eating and relaxing instead of running away.

Mim and Leah and another gorgeous friend ladled out the stew to the audience.

One greedy man came back three times for an extra helping!!!!

Mim thought the damper was HILARIOUS!!!!!!!

 

a GOOD NIGHT WAS HAD BY ALL!

As darkness falls out west, like a dark blanket……we would like to thank everyone at Hughenden State School for a delightful visit….

We all hope we can come back again!!!!!!!

Especially Skin and Lyn who love being OUTBACK!!!!!!

SKIN CAMPS AT HUGHENDEN

Today we set off in the van from Home Hill, northern Queensland, OUT WEST…..to Hughenden.

We left Col recovering from his operation for writers cramp! He has been over doing it lately!!!!!!

(No more bananas and carrots in his writing groups!!!!)

It was a six hour journey through a never ending landscape of  low lying bushes sprouting out of yellow grasses growing courageously out of dry sand. In the middle of this desert we foundthe town of Hughenden where dinosaurs roamed thousands of years ago. There are new bones being discovered all the time in this area.

We might go on a dinosaur hunt this week!

We set up camp in the caravan park near the school and Alllan the owner said the ensuite site involved a bucket and a tree.

Here is Skin trying out the ENSUITE!!!

We went to a meeting along the banks of the river.

As you can see there is only sand to be seen at this time of year.

We are both going to school tomorrow to work with the primary and secondary students.

Skin will have to get a good nights sleep so he will be on his best behaviour.

I wonder what mischief he will get up to???????

SKIN AT THE AUSSI LIFESAVING TITLES

What a fabulous weekend Skin had watching Cass compete in the Lifesaving titles at Kawana Waters in Queensland.

We were chauffer driven to the beach in a racy convertible by Dale Topp. I think his name is TOPP because the top of the car rolls down!!!

Here is Skin in his straw sunhat looking at all the competitors on the beach.

As you can see…his neck is getting quite red in the hot Queensland sun.

Here is Cass waiting for the gun to go off to launch her boat.

BANG!!!!     THEY ARE OFF….LOOK AT THE BOAT SOAR OVER THE WAVES!!!!

YES!!!! Cass and kristy won their heat!

 

Skin watched the events from behind the barricade.

He was horrified when Cass was injured in the finals and had to have her knee bandaged before being taken away in an ambulance.

He had to go too to be treated for sunburn!!!!

What a foolish banana!!!

Luckily they were both patched up and returned for the presentations.

Congratulations Venus Bay for a mammoth effort!!!! 

Will Skin learn to SLIP, SLOP, SLAP SOON!!!!

If not, he will end up looking like Lyn Carrot.

By the way……where is Lyn Carrot?????

SKIN JOINS A CATTLE RANCH

WHERE HAS SKIN BEEN FOR TWO WEEKS???

WELL!!!!!

He has just been brought back in a cattle truck from an adventure on a cattle ranch in outback Australia.

I took him to see a show called,’Outback Australia’ on the Gold Coast.Cassidy my gorgeous daughter, came too. Here they are lining up at the bar for a drink of lemonade!

 

 

Here he is having a ride on an oversized, furry cassowary, waving an Australian flag.

He thought cassowary riding was much too comfortable and decided that sitting on a hard saddle on the back of a horse was for him!!!!!!

Cassidy laughed and laughed, as she has spent many hours in the saddle throughout her life.

But Skin could not be deterred!

He made friends with a lonely looking cattleman…

AND……..THE NEXT THING WE KNEW…..

HE WAS GONE………….

              FAR, FAR AWAY INTO THE HARSH, DRY OUTBACK.

I have been worried for two weeks!

Lyn carrot was so upset that she cried non stop for the whole fortnight. She is a soggy, soft mess and will have to go out in the sun to toughen up.

We are all going to watch Cassidy race the rubber inflatable surfboats on Saturday at Kawana Waters, here on the Sunshine coast in Queensland.

She is competing in the Australian Lifesaving championships with all her team members.

Maybe Skin will decide to become a lifesaver!!!!!

Watch this blog to see what happens!!!!!

 

 

 

 

He was so excited that he took off on one of his escapades out west.

Here he is

SKIN AND LYN BECOME WRITERS

Where have Skin and Lyn been for 2 weeks????

They enrolled in Colin Campbells’ writing workshop on the Gold Coast hoping to become famous authors in a fortnight!

Here they are, sitting in their new snake skin chairs, with pens poised waiting to write words of poetic charm and perception.

Col sits waiting with his pen poised waiting for the fruit and vegetable to pay attention!

They keep swivelling their chairs around and locking their eyes on the computer screen……

What a naughty pair!

Just before they started this course, Skin decided to have a bath with all his clothes on!!!

Is there any hope for this appealing character?

It is Col’s birthday tomorrow and Skin and Lyn found this fabulous birthday cake at Eumundi market made of chocolate with a spiralling  Queen cake tail. They were too frightened to bring it back to the coast!

The writing course finished today. Skin wrote a collection of poems about the joy of being a banana and Lyn wrote one long poem about her life as a vegie!

Will their work be published and will Col receive a cake!

Find out in the next weekly installment of, ‘Skin on tour 2009’

LUNASEA TOUR 2009

We all left Venus Bay on Wednesday 3rd June heading for Merimbula to the jazz festival

In no time we were amongst a throng of people enjoying a blast of sousaphones, saxophones, drums and guitars....not to mention pianos!

Soon a very relaxed Skin was enjoying a beautiful picnic lunch.

During his lunch, a photographer for the local paper discovered we were from Victoria and suggested we should go into quarantine.

(Lyn remembered that she had been shopping with Kath and Kim at "Fountain Gate" and began to feel slightly sick). We would be "out of action" for 2 whole weeks!

After 2 weeks in quarantine, Lyn and Skin went out to celebrate. Skin booked dinner at Blackwells on Sophie on the Gold Coast. He hired a car from Maya's Car Yard, taking a scenic route via crocodile country!

But the car broke down, so Skin caught a wild brumby in the bush and rode to collect Lyn.

They had a private table at the restaurant which was nice, but they had a little disagreement, and Skin went off to hide in a palm tree.

How long will Skin sit in the dark?

Will he make up with Lyn Carrot?