It's a new month and Dave's home!

Finally Dave is home from Perth!  He was gone almost all of November and it's great to have him back where he belongs.  You should have seen the Girls when they heard his car turn the corner and then drive up to the house - they went ballistic!  Dave asked if I had traded them in for kangaroos as they were bouncing about five feet into the air - and it's a pretty amazing sight to see Dora bounce like that!

We haven't really had any time to catch up yet as he got home about 10 minutes before I crashed for the night and we were both up and at work before 7am today.  Hopefully we'll be able to sit down and have a nice dinner together tonight and maybe even spend some time together tomorrow.  Hey, it could happen ;)

Work has been pretty busy, which is a nice change.  We had a cruise ship - the Sun Princess -  visit Exmouth last Sunday.  There were a few divers who joined us for a trip to the Muiron Islands and more cruisers popped in to the store to have a look around.  We don't do a huge business with this crowd, some postcards maybe.  I scooted down to the marina before work to see the ship.  She wasn't quite in place yet but she still looked big!  I wanted to catch her as she left the Gulf, but I ended up working until after 8pm, so missed it.


It was a glorious morning

The critters of Exmouth have been out and about in force lately. This enormous, scary grasshopper flew from his hiding place in our yard to a mop handle hanging from the verandah. Scared about ten years off my life. I thought it was some sort of bird it was so big! Even though his antennae have pretty colors, he is still G-R-O-S-S!


Do grasshoppers really need these serious spikey things on their legs??

The dive shop often has bird activity out front thanks to a puddle of water that seems to be there no matter what the weather brings. These pink & grey gallahs were having a merry old time splashing around


We also see this strange bird chasing bugs in the grass across the way. I don't know what he is. One day I'll get a better shot of him, but he's not very cooperative!

One of the emu families has been cruising past the shop most days, too. I was lucky to have my camera with me last week before I started working every day by myself in the shop so I got to run down the road after these guys!

The babies are just so danged cute

After scratching around in the little gully at the side of the shop, they meandered through the parking lot of the bowling club next door



and on towards the Truscott Club

and across the street from the SES & fire station building

It's hungry work being an emu chick, so they stopped for a little snack

My main computer is still not 100% but we are getting closer. I should have it up and working again by the weekend. Just in time for the wedding I have on Saturday! I am running way behind on some of my editing work because of not having the computer running, but I have been able to do the urgent things at least. I don't like being behind and it means if I ever do get a little time away from the dive shop I'll be stuck in front of the computer instead of out diving or doing something else just for fun! Oh well, I'll catch up eventually (did I hear someone snicker about the phantom Wakatobi trip report?!)