Dads. You gotta love 'em.

Somewhere in a mans' DNA, there is a DAD JOKE GENE. It hasn't been mapped yet but when it is it'll be found near the FARTING IN BED GENE.
I THINK it only activates when a man becomes a Dad, but I can't be 100% sure. Feel free to add evidence for or against that theory.

Anyway, you've all had Dads, right? and most of you have husbands. So how many of these sound familiar?

When driving past a cemetery, a Dad will ALWAYS say, "Hey look! that's the dead centre of town!"

OR "People are dying to get in there!"


When driving past black & white cows, a Dad has to say, "It must be cold out there, those cows are Friesian!"

When you ask, "Where are we, Dad?", a Dad has to say, "In the car."

When an emergency service vehicle goes past with sirens going, a Dad has to say, "You're not gonna not sell many ice creams going that fast!"

When driving past someone washing their car, a Dad has to say, "You can do mine next, if you want!"

or this humble offering, which never fails to amuse the kids. (not)

"Dad, I'm hungry"
"Hi, Hungry, I'm dad!"
"Dad! I'm serious!"
"Hi, Serious! I'm Dad!"
etc

Or when you're struggling with something, a Dad asks "Can I give you a hand?"
You say "Yes." and then he starts a slow clap.

Or you stumble and a Dad will say, "Have a nice trip?"

If you have a sore toe or foot, a Dad will say, "Better call a TOW TRUCK!"

Or he answers the phone by saying, "Hello? Statue?" OR "City Morgue, you kill 'em, we chill 'em." or any number of variations on the theme.

When hearing someone in a restaurant drop glasses or crockery, a Dad says "Sack the juggler!" or "TAXI!"

After a meal, a Dad says, "Well that was nice, what's for dinner?"

A Dad will watch you add gravy to your dinner and say, "Do you want some food to go with your gravy?" EVERY. TIME.

When you say you have something in your eye, a Dad will say, "Yeah, it's your finger."

When you ask a Dad to make you a cup of tea, he will wave his hands over your head and say 'ABRACADABRA! You are now a cup of tea!'

When you ask, "Where's the bin?" a Dad will say, "I haven't been anywhere!"

When you ask for $50, a Dad will say, "Forty dollars? What do you need thirty dollars for?"

And you know what? no matter how much kids groan and roll their eyes, there's something very comforting and reassuring about Dad jokes. Which is a good thing. Because they sure aren't funny.

Sunday Selections -- roads

I don't normally play along with Sunday Selections, because I'm such a BAD photographer, and always feel embarrassed at my meagre offerings.

BUT I love taking photos of roads. Preferably from the front seat while my husband drives. And I've seen some beautiful stretches of road in this big, brown country.
So settle back as we take a little trip.

These were all taken on the way to (or from) (or in) Cooktown, in North Queensland. I grew up in NQ and we were always going 'out bush' fishing and camping, so these photos make me feel very nostalgic! And the SMELL as you drive through this country is gorgeous.

(The smell here was NOT good. Urine. What is wrong with some people?)

These photos were taken around Norseman, on WAs' Goldfields. I feel no nostalgia for it at ALL. The bottom photo is of a dry salt lake, taken from the side-window as we sped by on our way to Perth.

And these are all of the lower south of WA -- around Pemberton, Albany and Walpole, in the tall karri forests.

The Road goes ever on and on

Down from the door where it began.

Now far ahead the Road has gone,

And I must follow, if I can,

Pursuing it with eager feet,

Until it joins some larger way

Where many paths and errands meet.

And whither then? I cannot say.

J.R.R.Tolkein

***

Kim says

I take a lot of photos and most of them are just sitting around in folders on my desktop not doing anything. I thought that a dedicated post once a week would be a good way to share some of these photos that otherwise wouldn’t be seen by anyone other than me.

I am also remarkably absent minded and I put photos into folders and think that I will publish them later on and then then I never do.

So I have started a photo meme that anyone can join in and play as well. The rules are so simple as to be virtually non existent.

Just add your name and URL to the Mr Linky.

Publish your photos on your blog using the “Sunday Selections” title.

Link back here to me.

so play along, why don't you?

a very late hair update

Due to our holiday and then a massive heatwave here in WA that melted my typing spirit, I failed to do an update on my NO POO experiment.

So.

This is my hair after the second last wash.

I tried the honey rinse as my sister suggested. But I think most of the credit is due to the treatment as a whole. My hair is settling down, it doesn't feel as rough, and it doesn't get as greasy or irritating as it used to.
In this pic, you can see the frizzies are not too bad. All I did was comb it out and let it dry naturally.
It's quicker to straighten now, too.

I washed it when we got back from the weekend away, but it didn't really need it. Even though we'd been on dirt roads and spent two days in salt-spray and wind.

It's been mad humid here for about 5 days and I don't have frizzy bits poking out everywhere, which I would normally have.

SO -- I've started washing The Princess's hair this way too! She has Shirley Temple curls, which got frizzy and messy when we lived out on the Goldfields, from the amount of chlorine added to the water supply.
I also crushed some rosemary leaves and steeped them in boiling water, allowed it to cool and used it as a final rinse for her, just because I knew she would hate the vinegar smell.

Her hair looks and feels no different from usual, yet, but I'll persevere for a few weeks and see if there's a change.

when a 3 pound gift card equals a priceless moment

How cute is this?? This guy (is it a guy?) deserves a promotion.




PS to see the image properly, just click on it.

do you wanna have a look?

When you're on holiday, do you ever stop at little roadside places just 'for a look'?
Sometimes it's a risk. The toilets might be dodgy, or the food crook -- but sometimes you find absolute gems.

Like a Meadery.

Having never tasted mead before, Fabio and I just HAD to stop here. We tried a couple of different bottles, but came away with the Honey Liqueur. It's lovely, though not an everyday drink.
There was also a bee-frame set up inside, behind perspex of course! The bees had private access to outdoors, and were busy flying in and out of their little hive, which had the kids utterly fascinated.
And we DID have icecream. Of course.
Mine was rose-and-almond. YUMMY.

We also stopped at Flamebird Wines, and bought some of these

They also grow marron, and showed us the babies (kids loved them) and the adults (spiky!) so we got a little tour thrown in. They are really lovely people and we wish them every success.
Also, the wine? mmmmmmmmmmmmm

Here's a picture of a marron. I borrowed it from the net because I stupidly left my camera in the car!

We also chatted to a couple of nice old wood-turners, and when we stopped for lunch in the Templemore Teahouse in Nannup, we got talking to a couple of Swiss girls over here on holiday.

Here are some pics of the tea-house, it' a gorgeous old building and I loved the architectural features.

(not an architectural feature)

Outside is a shady, pretty cottage garden, and inside is all antiques and old music, just beautiful, and while the food wasn't fabulous it was a step up from Maccas! (if there WAS a Maccas in Nannup) (which there isn't)

I love these relaxed holidays, where we stop when we want, and look at what we like, and don't have to worry about schedules. Fabio and I are both looking forward to the day when we get to do this more often!

kids and guns

DAY TWO

We packed up and drove down to Albany.

 Essential supplies.

Albanys' main street runs right down to the sea, and it's a pretty cool sight -- on a fine day! That is actually the  ocean at the bottom of the hill there.

I nearly snapped my head off trying to see all the gorgeous old buildings at once... and then it started raining.

Bear in mind that these were all taken from the front seat of our car, through the dusty, bug-spattered, rained-on (cracked) windscreen. I love taking pictures from the car, I don't know why.

We found a 'pirate' ship.... the brig Amity. She was just beautiful.

Here are some pictures of her undergirdings. Or something. I'm not up on all the nautical terms.

And here is my SEVEN year old daughter standing (just) in the 'bedroom'. All the rest of us had to duck or bend double, and I just couldn't imagine what it must have been like to live down here. The stench would have been dreadful, for a start. And NO INTERNET, people!! I know. Doesn't bear thinking about.

But there were more luxurious accomodations on-board. See, here's the surgeons' cabin:

I actually have a toilet bigger than that.

I could go on and on and on about this ship, it was a fantastic experience. But this post is getting heavy on photos and I suspect a lot of you have given up by now anyway, muttering about Aunt Maudes' Slideshow Nights, so if you want to know more, you can click here.

The plan was to next look at both the Princess Royal Fortress and Whale World, but we didn't get past the Fortress.

Here's why:

GUNS!!

With wheels to turn, and levers to pull, and cranks to .. err.. crank! The kids (big and small) were in 7th Heaven.
The kids warred on daddy, then Daddy and The Princess warred on Mr 10, and they all had a very satisfactory afternoon.

Now, I'm sorry, but there are more pictures planned for tomorrow. And possibly the next day. It's because I don't get out much. And we did have such a VERY good time!

look, it's me! I'm back!

On Friday, we unexpectedly took a holiday. It all happened when Fabio said, on Thursday, "Let's go away for the night. Tomorrow. We'll go down south and do the treetop walk."

So we threw the essentials into the car (pillows, laptop, camera, and a couple of kids) and off we went.

DAY ONE:

home to Manjimup to Walpole

We hit some roadworks, where all the bitumen had been stripped off down to bare dirt. The Princess said, "What in the world is going on here?"
I said, "They're widening the road. To make it better."

She looked out at the clouds of choking orange dust. "Well, it's not working."

***

We saw about 5 main roads workers standing in the shade, and another on the mobile phone.
Fabio said, "He's on the phone to the Boss, asking for a shovel to be sent out. And the boss says, Lean on each other till I can get that shovel sent out to you."
(made ME laugh, anyway)

***

What we saw

the sign on the girls' toilet in Manji. She looks sorta desperate for a piddle, doncha think?

Manjimup township

Pretty banksia flower.

The motel pool in Walpole.

Once the kids had been revived in the pool, we drove out of town to do the Valley of the Giants TreeTop Walk. And WOW. Look at this....

a carved totem at the entrance

the steel walkway beginning to climb up into the trees

looking down from about half-way

the highest point is 40 metres off the ground, which is cool and scary in equal proportions -- you can see we're not above the trees though! they're amazingly tall. The walkway itself sways and bounces so it was a bit un-nerving, but the walk is only 600 metres or so, and the climb is gentle.

coming back down to earth (WHEW!!)

We then did the Ancient Empire (ground!) walk through WAs' amazing Tingle trees. (not kidding, that's what they're called)

and then we found the Grandaddy of them all....

Now THAT'S impressive.

More tomorrow.