Xmouse and New Yers - And Lots of Driving

OK - last post for 2013.
Our children are spread over the width and breadth of this wonderful country, and unlike last Xmouse we are not all able to be together for the celebrations of love and family.
Red dots indicate where our kids are situated:

Soo, this year we are on the road.
A trip to Brisbane to be with our daughter will also include a detour to visit my brother, and time spent with my sister on the outskirts of the city.

For overseas folks - you non-Oz residents - here is a size comparison to show distances compared to the USA and Europe:

The trip to Brisbane is like driving from Eugene Oregon to Oakland California in distance.........

..

..............or from Paris to Nice, or Istanbul to Kosovska Mitrovica, Kosovo ..............

Family time - nothing better.

A few images from the trip:

Brisbane by day..............

....... and by night

............ and from my brother's verandah ................ not in Brisbane  - can you tell .......  :)

...... and so to New Year's Resolutions ..........
................... to finish the ukulele ...hahaha.
 That will re-commence with the first post of the New Year.
Happy 2014 everyone .......... may the fresh year bring you peace, and as much joy as you can handle.

Making A Boat Paddle Tenor Ukulele - Part 5 - Catching Up

Oh my, where has all this time disappeared to?
So much to do around here and the ukulele build has been on the back-burner.
Our home is a large log cabin construction with a fully painted exterior.  The LOML, in her spring cleaning mode, started an outside spruce-up that turned into a full exterior house clean. A huge job!

We last painted the exterior in 1996-97..............
You can see what's coming...............  Now that it is clean let's re-paint, she said.  OK, I replied.  I really love painting .............. hahaha

 (this male king parrot landed on my painting trestle)

Soooooo ........... guess what has occupied my leisure hours of late - we have been painting, and painting and painting ...............

Oh, there was also the rehearsals for the concert by the Tele Point Ukes and Singers.......................

.............and the concert itself..................

trips to Young.................

.............. and Sydney - and my son's engagement to wonderful Edwina .............

........the party ..............

........... gardening .........

................. lots of gardening .........

...... babysitting ............... lots of babysitting ............

............ end of year parties and wrap-up dinners, as well as.........
..........school concerts .................

(......everybody was Kung-Fu fighting ......................)

.................. and woodwork........... well, bits and pieces.
I have found some time to cut and shape the gusset blocks for the ukulele body as well as lay out the fretboard and make a start on the neck.
I'll get back to that in my next post.

Soooooo ........ we are back up to speed.
 Every blessing to you and yours for this season of Xmouse.
May you find some peace...... and in doing so, add a little more joy to the world.