Where to start....

...sorry, everyone, for not posting in a while! We have been so busy! Here are some of the highlights in the last half a week or so: Wednesday we met a few members of the Toowoomba North club (Elton and president Christo) and went out to Elton's house. We had a most excellent morning tea, and then the four of us team members played tennis (Canada vs. USA...but, we didn't keep score) and then went for a quick dip in Elton and Shirley's in-ground, covered, heated pool. Then we were off to Elton's paddock (farm way out in the back country!) and we split up into two vehicles and went "off-roading" in the 4x4's...it was so much fun (in our car, the screams could probably be heard back in Toowoomba!). We had a great barbi lunch (thanks to chef Christo!), and then visited another farm. The Tmba-North club meeting was that night.


Thursday last week we had the morning off (my host "mom" Jan took me shopping), and then presented at the Toowoomba East club meeting over lunch...a few words in memory: top shelf and dancing queen. :-)













Friday we packed up and headed out to the conference...I travelled with president of Tmba-East, Geoff (and his lovely wife Chrissy - sorry if I mispelled that!). We met their daughter Lucy for lunch in Brisbane and got to the resort where the conference was held that afternoon. What a beautiful place! Due to the cyclone's presence, we had clouds and a few scattered showers for Friday and Saturday. The team was up VERY early Saturday morning to attend breakfast (6:30 am), attending the welcome and morning sessions (heard an awesome didgeridoo performance!), and then working on the presentation. We met up with the out-bound team for social drinks that afternoon and then went to the District Governor's dinner together. What a great time - our two teams get along very well...lots of fun and laughter!!















Sunday morning we made our presentation to the conference attendees - word on the street is that we did well, and we were happy with it.

We had lunch with the guys and Alison, as well as Peter (GSE chair out here) and his wife Debbie, and then packed up to head to St. George. It took my car 8.5 hours to get there (including stopping for a meal and coffee)...I think we travelled about 750 km.

Today (Monday) we got up and went for a tour of Roo Works, a roo meat processing plant. No exaggeration, the worst smell we have ever encountered! It was interesting, though, and Terry provided us with a lot of great info: they process about 1000 kangaroos a day; it is all controlled very well, so that Australia maintains a roo population of at least 50 million; it takes 4.5 minutes for a roo to make it through the skinning and de-boning rooms; the roo meat is used either for general human consumption (we have a couple of recipes...), or pet food, depending on the quality of the meat and the way it was handles once it was shot. Needless to say, it was interesting (no pictures of the inside, for obvious reasons)!

We then paid a visit to the Unique Egg, a place where Stavros carves designs into Emu eggs - so neat! We also visited the Visitor Information Center and then the Beardmore Dam, where Robert (my host) made true Billy tea in a pot over the fire. This is where we saw our first kangaroos (live!)!

Sorry this post is so long, we'll be more faithful in coming days, I promise!

Until later, Cheryl