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Sarah went to the house today.  They are putting the final touches to the rendering, all the roof is now on.  Latest photos are on the website.  We’re just waiting for the building manager to finish his holiday to check the changes to the inside before the gyprock panels are fitted.

We spent last week in the sunshine of North Queensland.  I had entered a Half Ironman in Yeppoon, which was based in a resort on the coast.  The resort is regularly in the top 10 places for family holidays so we decided to for us all to go up for a few days.

We flew up very early on the Thursday morning, with a change in Brisbane, and arrived in Yeppoon at lunch time.  The resort was based around a beautiful looking pool, which was extremely cold.  Very good for paddling but only swimming for the brave.

On the way up we remembered we left the camera and hotel vouchers at home.  Dee very kindly found them and took them to an overnight courier, who promptly lost them.  After many frustrating calls the package arrived on the 4 days later on the Monday.

There was a very good kids club where Jack and Grace had a great time.

As the weekend approached the resort became full of very fit looking triathletes with lots of spouses and children to watch.  Unfortunately I started getting a fever before the race started.

Saturday was full of rides for Jack and Grace as they were on camels and ponies during the morning.  This was probably a highlight for them both.

Sunday morning arrived bright and sunny, though a little chilly, and I was up ready for a 1.7km walk up the beach to the race start.  Then the swim was straight back along the sea which was nicely current assisted.  By the time I’d finished the 90kms cycle the sun was very hot and I struggled on the run.  With 4 kms to go I picked up the pace to run hard to finish.  My time was a few seconds over 6 hours which I was very pleased with, but I was in a bit of a state in recovery.

We tried to spend the rest of the holiday doing children stuff, but I got sicker and sicker as the days went on.  Jack and Grace also became unwell and Sarah had to look after all of us.

On the way back we stopped in Brisbane to meet up with some friends.  We spent an afternoon with Suzie Booth (which worked with Sarah at The Commonwealth Bank) who we hadn’t seen since we left Australia in 2000.  She hadn’t changed a bit and she and Sarah had lots of catching up.  Then we stayed the night with Steve Dyson who I’d worked with in Sheffield.  He’s also emigrated but this was the first time we’d caught up.

We had planned to spend the last day at a theme park on the gold coast, but I wasn’t up to this so we had a fairly leisurely stroll near Steve’s house and an hour or so on the beach.  It was lovely to arrive home on the Wednesday night knowing that we would be spending the night in our own bed.

We have finally sold the 4WD we took on our trip when we first arrived in Australia.  We have been trying to get rid of it for a while as I probably drive it once a week and the rest of the time it has been sat in the drive way.  Anyway we shall see how it goes with just the one car for the time being.  I will commute to work on my bike, and if we ever need a second car we can always hire one for the day.

We have had a few problems with our house build over the past couple of weeks.  These have been some bits that they’ve either forgotten to build in or we weren’t happy with.  After a long site meeting with the builder this morning, they should be resolved to our satisfaction (just a matter of not backing down!) and they can speed up their progress a little.  The outside is now being rendered and painted and once they’ve done our modifications, the insulation and walls will be put in.  Lock up will now be at the end of next week and they will start on the main internal work.

We go off on our holiday to Queensland in 2 days.  An early start to catch a 6am flight to Brisbane to connect with another flight to Rockhampton.  Weather is warmer up there which will be nice and the others can have a relax while I compete in my 2nd half ironman on Sunday.