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Eemeli has decided to take up the option of spending the second half of his stay here in Australia with another host family, & we are all happy with that decision. It coincides with the long weekend coming up, where we are getting away in the bus to Grenfell with the "old farts" & he will have time to settle in before going back to school next week. Julie goes for an X-ray & Ultrasound on her sore shoulder, suspected torn rotator cuff, & possible cortisone injection, on Friday, after which she has the day off & I'm off work to look after her. We'll see how she shapes up! Meanwhile, planning is well underway for our trip to Queensland next month, up via the coast & back via (we hope) Lightning Ridge. Looking forward to that. Just checking back on last month, I finally managed to upload the pictures of the GG's Rolls. This part of the newsletter comes to you from Cootamundra, online via the Bigpond Elite Gateway that we switched over to, from the internal card in just one laptop. Combined with the installation of an antenna from Mobile One in the roof of the bus, it does a fabulous job of keeping both of us online. Julie's shoulder problem appears not to be a torn rotator cuff as first suspected, but a small spur on the bony part of the shoulder joint, which is irritating the tendons. (update - yes it is torn but not badly) No wonder it's so bloody sore! After that, we went home, packed up the bus, loaded up Eemeli's luggage & dropped it off at his new home, then headed out to Grenfell, to join the CMCA Chapter, huddled around a fire at the showground. Saturday morning was a short walk into town for the Henry Lawson Festival, checking out the various stalls & buskers, followed by more fire huddling, then dinner at the Bowling Club, which turned out to be a 2-hour wait for our meals. Sunday morning, we decided we could take the opportunity to do some exploring instead of staying at the showground with very little to do, so we headed out on some back roads to Temora & then to Cootamundra for the night. Highlights included some "creative" navigation, seeing cows on the road (another new Aussie experience for Julie) & a visit to the Temora Aviation Museum. As we were in "browse" mode with limited time, we skipped the Aviation Museum itself, but did have a quick look at the Air Park, which is a "village" set up with alternate roads & taxiways, so that the houses have a street frontage & at the back, a light plane hangar with direct access via the taxiway to the airport. As we thoroughly enjoy browsing like this, it has been a very relaxing way to finish off the weekend. I have to say that I am very proud of the way that my wife has dealt with the news of major family traumas in America and there is nothing we can do but be supportive. And this in addition to HUGE changes going on at work. Apparently, her job is the only one in the office that is still "safe". Almost a case of "turn the computers & lights off & lock the door on the way out". Needless to say, the phones have been running hot for the last day or so. Nearly to the end of June now & it's been pretty rough on both of us. Julie has had to deal with her works changes, plus dealing with the family trauma from halfway round the world, while my boss Bob was made redundant at work. Which was OK for him, because he received a payout, but he was escorted from the building at very short notice on Monday morning. I don't think I have ever seen a team of people quite so upset. Meanwhile, we've just been discussing the merits of going away at the beginning of July, as the trip was originally planned to coincide with school holidays. Julie's replacement at work is probably not ready & my team leader at work will be away for the same two weeks. It's starting to look like we will postpone it for 2-3 weeks. It's also getting cold here. We've had several -4 degree mornings & right now, it's 10pm & -3 outside already. For Julie's birthday, she received vouchers from the Weston Club, valid until the end of June, so we're going there tomorrow night. They also have a huge cash give-away, so here's hoping! And yes, we have put the Queensland trip back by 3 weeks.
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