Photos for family & friends
Photos from 2008
Jason turned 21 on the 1st of March. He didn't want a 21st birthday party, so we took him out to lunch at Montezuma's Mexican Restaurant in Wagga Wagga. If you'd like to know more about Montezuma's, click here. Otherwise, click here to see the photos!
We went away for 3 days over Easter. We went up to Cooma & stayed at a farm stay in a 160+ year old cottage called Emma Stokes Cottage, which is on a farm on the north side of the road to Bega from Cooma, about 13 k out of Cooma. It wasn't what I expected, but the beds were comfy & warm, the shower & toilet worked just fine & it was great value for money.
After dropping our bags off, we drove to Jindabyne & had a look around. Betty & I hadn't been to Jindabyne for over 22 years. There was a sculpture exhibition displayed along the shore of Lake Jindabyne, so of course we had a look.
The next day, (Saturday), we went to the Yarrangobilly Caves, had a BBQ & went through the South Glory Hole Cave. The following day we went into Cooma & had a look around before going out of town to the local lookout, then we came home to Canberra. All our Easter photos are here.
My brother Stephen turned 45 in April. As a birthday gift, my parents, Peggy, (my sister), & I flew his daughter Eleanor down from Brisbane the Friday night before his birthday as a surprise for him. Steve's surprise was total & the look on his face when he saw Eleanor made it all worthwhile. On Saturday we took him out to lunch at Belluchi's in Dickson, After lunch, we all went to a park near our place & took some photos, which are here.
Eleanor is studying astro physics at uni in Brisbane , so we took her up to Mt Stromlo to see the observatory up there. The light on scenery was quite something, so I took some photos which are here.
In June we went up to Orange to visit Betty's sister Mary & brother-in-law Geoff. While we were there, they took us out to see Borenore Caves which are just outside Orange. Here are the photos.
We went back up to Grafton in the middle of July to catch up with some friends. We stayed at a B & B called Ivy Cottage just outside Grafton which is owned by Lorraine & Tom Raven, who were clients of mine when Betty & I owned Computer Troubleshooters Grafton. When Tom first showed it to me after he & Lorraine had finished doing it up, I thought, "If I ever leave Grafton & comeback to visit, I'll stay here", so we did. It was even better than I remembered, so I took some photos, which are here.
If you're interested in staying there, you can contact Lorraine on ivycottage@bigpond.com or 02-6642 3202. More information can be seen here.
After we came back from Grafton, Kristie & I drove Kristie's car up to Cairns, (approx 2600K), where she stayed with some friends of ours prior to starting her first job at Innisfail Hospital. Innisfail in approx 85k south of Cairns. On the way we stayed in Coonabaraban, Rockhampton, Mackay with Geoff & Jill & finally on to Cairns. It took us around 3 & a half days. Once we got to Rockhampton I started taking some pictures which are here.
On the 3rd weekend of September, Betty, Renee & I along with my brother Stephen went over to Kiama to visit Stephen's & my sister Peggy. While we were there, I took some pictures, (of course), which are here. Included in the pictures are some pictures of Chris', (our nephew), american staffordshire terrier, Tigger. Chris has done a really good job & training him. He was very patient while Peggy washed him.
Every year in Spring, Canberra holds a festival of flowers called Floriade. This year I went along to it with Betty & Renee. Here are the pictures.
In early October I went over to Wagga to visit Jason. While I was there, I took some photos of the first home Betty & I ever owned. Pictures are here. The people who have owned it since have made some changes to it including extending the lounge room out the side of the house.
Betty & Renee & I, along with my Mum & Dad went up to Newcastle on Friday the 10th of October for Kristie's graduation at Newcastle University. Kristie flew down from far north Queensland for the ceremony. Kristie now has a Bachelor of Speech Pathology. The pictures are here.
We finally bought a house in Canberra which we settled for on the 13th of October. Pictures are here!
On 4th of November this year the ACT government gazetted a public holiday called the Canberra Community & Family Day, which strangely enough was on the same day as this years Melbourne Cup. Apparently it's going to fall on the same day as the Melbourne Cup every year. Strange that :).
Anyhow, as we're not interested in horse racing, we thought we'd take the opportunity to have a look at the Canberra Botanic Garden which is stocked with Australia native plants. I took my camera with & took some photos including some closeups of some of the flowers. The photos are here.
Betty & I took my brother Stephen down to my sisters place at Kiama where we met my parents during the last weekend in November. The purpose of the weekend was to construct Peggy's new back fence. Dad, Stephen, Peggy, Betty & I built the fence while Mum & Renee cooked & served refreshments, lunch & tea. Most of the job was don on Saturday & it was completed by Sunday lunch time. I took some photos which are here.
Betty & I went down to Phillip Island for my work's Christmas party. We stayed in a house with my co-workers & their spouses. We had a great time, enjoyed the company, scenery, food & go-kart racing. Pictures are here.
This year we spent Christmas with Betty's family at Geoff & Mary's place in Orange. Betty's dad was there along with all the nephews & niece as well as the niece -in-law. We left Orange a few days after Christmas & went to my parents place in Moss Vale & spent New Year with them. The day before New Year's eve, we went to my sister's place at Kiama to inspect the fence we built the previous month & to see the garden she's planted in front of it. Of course I took some pictures & they're here.
Enjoy!
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© 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 Peter Hocking unless otherwise noted.
Last updated 5th May, 2018
Please make sure that your screen is calibrated so that you can see all the shades in the image below;
You must be able to see all this:
-- 20 sections of equal width and different tone
-- the darkest section must be pure black
-- the lightest section must be pure white
-- there must be no hint of color anywhere along the grey spectrum
If you don't see 20 different tones, you may need to lower the contrast.
If black is not pure black, you need to either darken the monitor or adjust the black point.
If white is not pure white, you need to either lighten the monitor or adjust the white point.
If both black and white are not pure, try to boost the overall contrast or adjust both, the black and white points. If there is a color cast, try and adjust the color balance. Some software allows you to do this separately for both ends of the grey spectrum
Any questions or comments, please click here to email me.
© 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 Peter Hocking unless otherwise noted.
Last updated 5th May, 2018