7 Jan 10 - Ipswich

By Lou: From Carnarvon Gorge we made our way to Ipswich to catch up with family and friends. The prime purpose was to celebrate Jaime's 21st which we did. The Festival of Jaime began on her birthday 7 Jan and ended at sunrise 10 Jan. We slotted in a Newsome family dinner at the local Hog's Breath cafe and had a good night.

Was also lovely to see our grandson Seth who has just started taking his first steps (14 months). Craig used the luxury of his dad's garage to tinker with the trailer and attach to our trailer the tinny that had been in storage for a few weeks since its purchase sight-unseen on ebay. I caught up with some admininstrative loose ends and Sam enjoyed playing with his 3 cousins. We all drove Craig's mum crazy I'm sure with our mess and noise but it is always nice to be welcomed and looked after. Craig also managed to age his mother and I 10 years by electrocuting himself while fixing an electrical lead he mistakenly believed he had pulled out of the wall. I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen Craig taken aback and this was one of them. But after a couple of shakey glasses of water he was back to work. No shock to me.

By Craig: What more can a proud father and grandfather say? I enjoyed the time, although short, I was able to have with my daughter and her son Seth. I enjoyed the opportunity to celebrate Jaime's 21st in the company of the rest of my family (Mum, Kathy, Julian, Beau, James and Hope).

Thanks to mum and the old garage (which 3 mates, my father and I built in the 70s) I was able to do some vehicle and trailer adjustments: added brackets and repositioned spotlights on the roofrack; added small solar panel for a kitchen light; welding a bracket for an additional gas bottle. As Lou refered to above my brief shock was as a result of not looking carefully and removing the wrong plug. The bigger shock was finding out through an electrician that the old method of standing on a rubber mat to protect from earthing no longer is the case with modern safety switches: if electricity doesn't earth, safety switches don't work. The short of a long story is that had I not been able to drop the exposed wire cable I would not be here to tell the story. Eight hours later a doctor confirmed my heart rate had returned to normal.