Cable Beach relaxation

For my one weekend off, we headed for Cable Beach in Broome. It was great to unwind, go for a swim and watch anohter gorgeous Cable beach sunset. As David played with his tripod and serious shots, I played with the self portrait function on my camera.

Christmas in Derby

Thanks to the hospitality of our many friends in Derby, we had a wonderful Christmas day. Cathy did a ward round to help the kids open their presents.



Then it was off to Liz's house for brunch. This proved to be a feast of bircher muesli, fruit, scrambled eggs, croissants, pancakes, fruitcake and marshmallow balls. Cups of tea continued until about 3pm. Throughout the day we made phonecalls to all the family ending up with a bedtime call to Phil in Mexico who was waking up to Christmas morning.
Christmas dinner for us consisted of marinated prawns with mango salad - no BBQ but they still tasted great.

A week of Kimberley Paediatrics

Arriving back in Derby, I have settled in to the routine of daily ward rounds, Thursday clinics and time in the office catching up on bits and pieces. We've had some cute littlies in to gain some weight and they enjoyed trying to catch bubbles.





Last Monday, a sick 2 weeker was in Broome so I flew out with the RFDS crew over the flooded mud flats near Derby. By the time, we'd waited for weather to clear and given the baby some CPAP ventilation, he was well enough to stay at Derby - instead of the night trip to Darwin we had expected. He recovered well and went back to Broome at the end of the week.





It's important to socialise as well. We had planned to go out for Pizza but the Jila Gallery Cafe was closed so Monika, the paedaitric registrar, helped me prepare some home-cooked pizzas!

Another view of The Sunset

Sunset on Cable Beach - Wish You Were Here!

Sunset at the Jetty

Video of some Derby rain - Post Cyclone Laurence

Another Day when I should have stayed in bed.

The phone rang early - but I was half awake so I got up and answered it. Mary had called to give us an update on Mount Waverley, the grass and the latest from Australia Post.  This would have been followed by breakfast, but we were short of milk. It's only a short walk to Rusty's and it was early - so not too hot and humid but still hot and humid. I took only money.

On my return, our car was missing, the door was locked, no key under the mat and I had 2 litres of milk slowly warming up. Damn. Now I gotta walk over to the hospital - at least it's not TOO hot and humid.  Spoke nicely to the man on reception - "Cathy's been called in and has left me without keys". "No problem, I'll page her. Just have a seat"

After a couple of minutes of wondering "Why!! Why!! Why Me!!" the receptionist came back with the message "She's in the unit".  Oh great. Back across to the unit.

"So what's going on" he says.
"Nothing" she says. "
"I came back on the car was gone" he says
"It's been here the whole time" she says

Whoops. (*loud* penny drop) I went to the wrong unit.

Lucky Cathy had the morning off, it took her most of the morning to eat breakfast in between p5ssing herself laughing. Especially as we discussed the "obvious" differences between the 2 units.


This is OUR unit


This is NOT our unit

Friday 18 December

"If it's rain and wind you want - we got it.  At least the cricket is interesting." - David

TC Laurence "Red Alert"

At 9pm last night we went onto "Red Alert" - Take Shelter. Cathy went and stayed at the hospital as part of the essential staff. At that stage TC was 100km away with winds of 220km/h and heading our way at 8 km/h.

However, the predicted trouble did not arrive. The TC promptly slowed and turned left. Twelve hours later (9am today) it was still 90km away!!!  It slowed (now doing 5km/h), turned left (almost running parallel to us) and weakened (winds up to 130km/h) . In Derby overnight, the strongest wind gust was less than 50km/h with approx 20mm of rain.

The Red Alert was downgraded to Yellow Alert at 9am.  Whilst winds are expected to pick up during the day, however, the destructive potential has now dramatically reduced.

All info sourced from the Bureau of Meteorology

TC Laurence Information

The Awesome Bureau Of Meteorology

Derby on TC "Blue Alert" - Take Precautions

David has been out taking precautions -

• Moved the outdoor furniture indoors
  
• Moved the bins
  
• Bought 2 torches and spare batteries
  
• Bought batteries for the radio (and returned them and got the correct size!!)
  
• Bought some frozen food and snacks
  
• Went back to the supermarket to restock chocolate
  
• Bought some reading material from newsagency
  
• Took some "before" photos
  

I'm sure Cathy will have more for me to do later :)

Hmmm...Tropical Cyclone Laurence heading our way!!

Things may change but it looks like TC Laurence is heading our way.

Tuesday 15th December

Cathy is feeling a little better after a good nights sleep. We had our first thunderstorm at 2:10pm. It rained solidly for 20 minutes, dumping 20mm of rain - then stopped as quickly as it started. We are enjoying having accomodation close to the hospital, a coffee shop, a newsagent and supermarket (with liquor store).

We are on the edge of a cyclone.

We have arrived in Derby

Flying into Broome. There was a substantial amount of dust in the air. Apparently, it was been very hot, dry and windy in the last week or so.


Town Beach was at it's usual spectacular best. Nothing matches the colour of Roebuck Bay. It was warmer and more humid than we are used to. But a delightful breeze kept us reasonably comfortable.

Thanks - A Big Thanks

We want to thank all the wonderful Doctors and Nurses at Dandenong Hospital who helped Cathy through a rugged Wednesday. All is well thanks to their skill and dedication to care.

Santa Claus in coming to town.....