Just another Friday at the office

Today (Friday) was the end of term 3, so we had the usual Barby for the lads and a bit of a play!
John, above, had a go on Gary's scooter, whilst we got through several kilos of meat on the barby! Yum!

The lads brought in a go cart, they made, so it would be rude not to have a go wouldn't it?
And John on the Scoooter again!

front garden in!

They mamaged to dodge the showers today, to get the rest of the garden in. It'll be complete in a couple of weeks, when we get a week off, so I can build a small retaining wall for the little gem Magnolia, which will be going in, in front of the front door. This will be Kipper's Tree!

Yay! Grass!

At last - a bit of green, where it used to look like a builder's yard!

They laid the lawn at the front today, which was good timing as it 'piddled' down almost all day!

At least it'll be well watered?

Phoebe all better now!

It's OK!!!!
I managed to fix her, so I didn't need to send her away to those nasty guys at Toyota!

John at work managed to convince me that I could do what the specialists would do...
...and it worked! He already wears a Superman Tee-shirt, so we'll have to open the big doors for him to leave next time! There will be no living with him!

Thanks John - You ARE a star!

Just a peek at the 'bits' we took off to find the problem, which was a sticky valve!

Sump off the transmission.
Valve block split - there are 12 plastic Ball Bearings that MUST go back in the correct places!
The other half
The bit that splits the two halves - Gasket, that cannot be broken or twisted or bentBut when it all works, The relief is great, and to come home to this image, makes you feel like there is a pot 'o gold! lol Grass down next week too! (new trees went in last week!)

Is it Furthest or Farthest?

Well, which ever one is right, I am talking about a 'little' trip East today, to Kalgoorlie.
700kms to be presact!
I was invited to deliver a day on RPL (Rocognition of Prior Learning) at Curtin Uni for their trades people, an all-expenses flight to 'Kal' was booked and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Kal is a mining town and is rather 'unique' in many ways!!!
The architecture is similar to York, where we went a few weeks ago, but Kal is bigger. It's only had a bitumen road for a few years! Before that, it was red dirt! It feels like you're walking into a western movie with cowboys etc?

Lots of 'hotels' of 'reputable' fame??And MASSIVE holes in the ground, which are gold mines! The red circles I've put here are hard to see, so click on the picture to see a bigger version, but the circles outline those super-trucks you may have seen in quarries? Each one carries 250 Tons of rock and only every eighth truck contains enough gold the size of a pea!!! They make 8 to 10 bars of gold per day and this super-pit is almost a kilometer deep!!!
I asked why they dig all the rock out with such tiny trucks, which amuzed the locals, so they showed me a bucket that each truck takes THREE scoops to fill it up. Only then did I realize just how piggin HUGE these things are!
Then on to the local 'entertainment' in the bush, which 'used' to be used for 2-up. A gambling game. The hut below is the 'Hilton' of Kal. It only has 2 metres of gutter, so when it rains, you're the lucky one if you get to stand under it!