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Tims went for a ride in the annual Bikers Charity Toy Run

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IMG_1381-800Sunday 4th of December dawned bright and clear, a welcome change to the past weeks of incessant rain and thunderstorms.

Arising at 6:45am I was soon showered, dressed and out the door, off to the annual Bikers Toy Run. Each year in Brisbane bikers congregate en masse for an organised bike ride and give gifts (toys) to charities like the Smith Family and others who provide for those in need at Christmas time.

IMG_1408-800My daughter Miranda kindly donated a teddy bear for the event and he was strapped to the front of the Warrior.

I met up with Ivan and Sam on their scooters and then with a whole bunch of their scooter riding friends. It was strange to be the only (very large) motorcycle amongst a bunch of scooters! One was actually a 650cc model. Most of them had a pillion as well.

We headed into the city and down to the botanical gardens where we rode through to the staging area.

IMG_1464-800Here we had some time to wait til the ride started after a short riders briefing. I took a lot of photos, met up with some other friends and made some new friends. Anton and Marushka aka Guns and Roses were staged beside me and as we rode off I handed Roses my video camera. She filmed quite a bit of the ride for me. (This is so excellent as I can now watch myself riding my bike when it is too wet to go out on it!)

We headed (via a roundabout highway route) down to a seaside suburb called Wynumm where we congregated in a huge park and put all the toys into the vans each of the charities had provided.

Ivan then locked his keys inside his scooter so while we waited for his wife Sharolyn to arrive with the spare keys Sam and I went and got lunch. We went over the hill and noticed some awesome sirrus cloud formations as well as some very picturesque views of the sea, the sand islands and the trees. I went back after lunch and took numerous photos. After Sharolyn and Jess arrived I took Jess for a short ride finding some even better shots of the clouds.

Then we headed home on the freeway sunburnt and happy! It was a great ride.

Going to the beach - 2 November 2005 at Caloundra

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Tim's parents are over from New Zealand on holiday. This week they are holidaying at an apartment in Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast just north of Brisbane.

2nd November we went up to visit them. Miranda had already stayed over for a few days and this time it was Jadeen's turn to stay with them for 2 days.

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First though we had to go to the beach and make sandcastles. This was a lot of fun with a large fort being constructed with some fairly rudimentary towers on the 4 corners, the best of which was smashed by a child before any photos were taken!

This was followed up by a visit to the rock pools along part of the coast while the tide was out.

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Tim managed to get some fantastic shots of the foam droplets as the waves smashed against the rock shelf we were on. The new camera really captures this well with drops of foam hanging suspended in the air.

All the pictures are in the Outings gallery as well as the other galleries they belong to. Click on Jadeen's gallery to see all her pictures for example.

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Finally we enjoyed a meal of fish and chips in the apartment with Mum and Dad before heading home leaving Jadeen to stay for 2 days. We will miss her but she is bound to have fun and will be back before we know it.

Sandcastles

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We all went to the beach last Sunday afternoon and built sandcastles.
The main castle was a 3 metre square tide fort. While shovelling the sand I developed blisters on my palms!
It successfuly held the water out for some time.
We also did some sculpting of wet sand making some simple

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spires and towers.
The kids loved playing in the sand and revelled in all the sights and sounds. We found a soldier crab, watched a hawk riding the wind currents, played in the current of the incoming tide (we were right at the entrance way to a long passage way between the mainland and a large island)
Then we had a great swim before coming home.
There are a heap more photos in the galleries.

Went to the creek and played

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Today we went to the creek and played - it was great!
The kids found some mud and splashed and had a ball as did the dog. Mercedes preferred to watch from the comfort of the bank with me as I used the camera to good effect - there are 50 odd photos published here today.
Check the Nature Image Gallery for the pictures