G'day all,

For those of you that do not already know, Uncle Bernies' wife, Joan, died on Christmas day. Our condolences to Bernie and family

Love to all,

Paul and Sandra.

PS If any one wishes to ring Bernie please remember that the time in Queensland is one hour BEHIND our time!

Paul

G'day Every one,

Sandra and I have had a fairly good month except for the past week. In November we headed to Shoal Bay and then on to Pokolbin, both places near Newcastle. We spent a week at the beach and a week at the wineries. Wonderful area lots of places to go and see and most relaxing.

We stayed at Goulburn twice, once each on the way up and back. Accommodation, so -so. For a meal the Soldiers Club is best avoided.

Back home and prepared for Christmas. We were to meet Graham and Linda and their respective families at Samantha's on Christmas Day, however plans required changing.

Last Saturday 20th Dec, Sandra had a heart attack, complete with pneumonia, lungs and kidneys closing down etc. Ambulance was called and off to Wangaratta Base Hospital we went. Wires and tube hooked up and tests commenced. Then after about five hours she was moved from Emergency to CCU where she has been ever since. She is now feeling a lot better and Graham, Linda, Samantha and their respective families are taking Christmas to Mum at the hospital.

To you all, Merry Christmas from us all at Wangaratta and have a safe, happy and healthy New Year.

Love Paul and Sandra

G'day all,

Things have been a bit crook over the past few months and much of what I wanted to do has languished upon my desk. The reasons are myriad, however it has been mainly caused by lots to do, places to go and my desk top computer getting so slow that it blew the "mother board". I then coninued on my lap top which then had a hissy fit and died. I lost a lot of material and have slowly recovered most of it.

I now have a new laptop and am starting to get the hang of it. I am in the process of setting up my email account again and would appreciate the odd email containing your email address. That goes for every one please.

Ken has arranged a "Gannan Get Together" for the 4th of March. A very good idea that should be supported. He has all the details. I hope it happens again next year, perhaps.

Graham got engaged last month to Emma Graham. A wedding to follow, but no date set as yet. Graham and Emma are looking to buy a property at launching place. I hope they take this one as it already has a concrete slab for a caravan.

Samantha and Andy are doing well. I really like their property and could quite happily live there. Sam and Andy and Sandra have totaly different ideas.

Linda, Robert, Annaleise and Maryrose are all well and finding that the house is a bit small. Linda will probably have to kick Robert out of his shed and turn it into her home office. Maryrose turned one year old on 8 Feb  and is running around quite well and is gorgeous. Annaliese is is a wonderful little girl and seems to look after Maryrose quite well. As our grandchildren they are both lovely and bright, a real joy to be around.

What are we doing? On Saturday 3 Mar Sandra and I head for Fiji just in time to celebrate our 45 Wedding Anniversary on the 4th. We shall only be there a week. We are staying a Fiji Palms Resort in Pacific Harbour on the Eastern side of the main island. We shall be home in Wangaratta late Sunday 11 March.

After we get back I will get stuck into this website and and get some more interesting stuff on board.

Until next month,
Love
Paul and Sandra  

G'day everyone.
We have been and are now back.
Our trip this year started OK and went really well untill the radiator on the Explore blew itself apart. We were on the Newcastle Expressway at the time and waited for three hours for the NRMA to arrive. Wer now have a better appreciation of 100kph. For three hours about thirty thousand trucks and cars sped past us causing the caravan to shake rattle and roll. We were eventually towed to a caravan park in Toowoon, overlooking the Ocean and settled in for the night. I organized repairs and for the next 5 days we waited and toured around the Gosford and The Entrance area, before heading further North.

We first visited friends Phil and Kay and their daughter Angela and her five week old twins. We actually spent five days on the Gold Coast before heading to Caboolture and Wendys. We had a free camp at Wendys for a couple of days and during that time we visited Doreen, Martin and Bridget. They were all well, as were Wendy, Des, Tegan and Kasey.

Next stop was Bargara near Bundaburg where we met up with Kay and Phil, again. A great time was had and the five day relax was most welcome. Next was a visit to Des and Ann at Gladstone. Gladstone is a very busy place, plenty of work with coal mines and gas mines, processing plants and increases to the various ship loading terminals. At one stage there there were 19 ships waiting their turn at the terminals.

On the move again, this time to Rockhampton. A visit to Bernie and Joan in Yeppoon was in order and Sunday lunch and great chat was the order of the day. Both are well, though Joans back is playing up. A good look around the area demonstrated that all was well with this part of Queensland after the floods earlier on this year. There is still a lot of work to be done on roads and bridges, but things are definately moving.

Heading West this time, not too far,  down to Dululu then Southish to Banana and on to Theodore and finaly to Isla Gorge for the night. The Explorer was making some strange noises so  the next stop was at  Goondiwindi where we put into a caravan park and arranged for the vehicle to be looked at. We took the car to a mechanic on the Friday and discovered that the chap that did the previous repair put a far too small fan belt on the engine causing strain on the water pump shaft and consequently a couple of days later a new water pump and fan belt were fitted. We stayed for another day just to have alook around. 

Time to move again, and this time just a short trip to Moree. Sandra decided a few days here at the hot springs would be benificial. The caravan park has four pools of varying temperature, from 35C to 39C. Very relaxing. A sign said visit the Big Plane. We did and the plane turned out to be an old DC3 of the New Guinea Air Force parked beside the Amaroo Tavern.

It was realy time to go home, so off to Dubbo for a couple of days with a visit to the Wellington caves and Japanese garden. The Dubbo Japanese gardens are under construction and should be very nice when finished. Then onwards homewards, with an over night stop at Narrandera  and finaly home on Tuesday 6 Sep.

More pictures in the Queensland Trip Album.
 

Anzac Day has come and gone once again. This year we visited Jamieson for the day and met up with Linda, Robert, Annaliese and Maryrose. We had spent last night at Samantha and Andys near Merrigig. Their place is brilliant, nice and relaxing and rather hard to leave. Sam and Andy followed us across to Jamieson. This year Annaliese marched with me and wore her Great Grandads (Gerald) medals. After the march I attended the service in the hall and met up with the rest of the family at the local cafe. Sam and Andy went home, Linda and her tribe went home for lunch and Sandra went out to see Beryl. Me, I went to the pub where I met up with many friends that I had not seen for quite some time.  Sandra arrived at the pub just before the big match between Essendon and Collingwood started. We said goodbye to family and friends and headed home to Wangaratta.  All in all a quite enjoyable day with the only blemish being a win by Collingwood!

The reason for our trip was to attend Angela Littlers wedding on the Gold Coast, meet up with some old friends and visit family.
The trip coincided with our wedding anniversary (44th), Doreens brithday and an old friends visit to the Gold Coast. We arrived on the 3rd and went to the Littlers for a BBQ that evening. Friday was our Anniversary so out to the Twin Towns RSL for dinner, Saturday was Angelas Wedding, Sunday to Doreens, Monday to Wendys at Burpengarry, Tuesday, to Angelas for lunch with Phil and Kay, Wednesday, Wendy and the Girls visited and that night  to the Sharks Leagues Club for dinner with Ian and Joan.
For those of you that are unaware, Phil, Kay and family are friends from our Singapore days and Ian is a friend from very early in my army days. 
It was a full and very interesting and enjoyable week.  It was good to get home though, but sad to hear about the Tsunami and Japan.

The day after visiting Doreen we went to Burpengarry to see Wendy and her tribe. Wendy, Des ,Tegan and Kasey are realy well and the two little girls were exhausting. Tegan is at school now and turns 5 on 19 March. After a few cups of tea, a photo session arraged by Tegan and some play on the trampoline and swings, Sandra and I headed back to Surfers Paradise.
On the Wednesday Wendy bought the girls down to Surfers for a visit. After a brew we headed out to Pacific Fair for lunch and then along the beach front and found an "all abilities" playground. After a couple of hours of play Wendy packed up the girls and went home.
That was a realy nice couple of days. Wendy sends her love to all those that know her and talk to her on facebook.  

We visited Doreen, Martin and Bridget today. After a brew and a bit of a chat we went for a walk down to the sea side. The tide was out, as it always seems to be where ever we are in Queensland. Nice spot though. Martin did good. He took the dog with us, on a lead, on the walk. We stopped at a table under a shelter. Had a bit of a look around and decided to try another table about 150 metres away. After being at the table for a couple of minutes Martin asked "Wheres the dog?" He had left it tied to the last table we were at. Martin collected the dog and we spent some time chatting and watching Bridget and Lewis playing on some strange sort of skate board.
  As it was Doreens birthday, I permited a picture to be taken that included myself almost smiling.  We all went out to dinner at the local Thai Restraunt. Great food. It was a nice visit, and it was nice to be able to surprise Doreen on her birthday.🙂

Here we are at Surfers Paradise, on the Gold Coast in the Sunshine State.The sun has not shone, yet. It is raining, off and on with a promise of a downpour this evening, hopefully after the wedding. Had a good trip up, except for the roadworks between Grafton and Tweed Heads.
Of to Doreens tomorrow, Sunday. Hope the weather fines up a bit.

A rather quick trip to Lindas' this weekend, as it was her birthday on Sunday and a goodish excuse to see Maryrose again. And Annaliese, too.
A pleasant surprise was Billie that was there when we arrived. Allways a pleasure to see that young lady.🙂

Annaliese was fit, healthy and ready to play, but was abit annoyed that "Maryrose was taking up so much time". Nan and Grandad found time to play with her, but Maryrose took up much of Nans time. Later in the afternoon Nan took Annaliese to the library to hand back some books. 
After dinner a bit of TV and of to bed. It started to rain about 2300h and continued far into the next day.

Annaliese came over to the van to wake us up and take Nan to the house to give Linda her birthday presents and I made a brew. After breakfast, a game of cards with Annaliese and I was ready to go home.
After the obligatorty photographs etc Sandra and I headed home in the rain. As we crossed the Great Divide the rain stopped and the ride home was a bit more pleasant, arriving about 1500h.😀

Our stay in Melbourne ended yesterday after a visit to Aunty Celia and Graham and we managed to get home by around 4pm.
With visiting the hospital and taking Annaliese to school and back there appeared to be time to do a couple of other things. On Thursday we visited Aunty Mary (B) for lunch and a couple of cups of tea. Uncle Tony and Mary were at a meeting somewhere, so will visit them next time. Aunty Mary looks well and is preparing "for another 20 years" as mum would have said. Aunty Celia seems well and is slowly getting used to Uncle Ted not being there. All the cousins and their children appear to be well. It was great to see Daniel, who dropped in at Linda's to see her and Maryrose.
There seems to be hundreds of them. Kens idea of a "meet and greet" looks a "bigger than Ben Hur" affair!

This morning at 1112hours 8 Feb 2011 Linda gave birth to Mary Rose Elizabeth Ingham a beautiful little girl weighing in at 7 pounds 10 ounces and 52 centimetres long. Linda and Mary Rose are both doing well. In the birthing room at the Mercy Hospital with Linda were Robert and Sandra a midwife or two a doctor and a nurse plus a trainee from Monash Medical Centre. I too, was privileged to be in the room to supervise the proceedings.
We were given the call at 0335 this morning at Wangaratta and arrived at Lindas just after 0700h to have a brew, allow Fred and Marj Ingham to go home, and get Annaliese to school. We also picked Annaliese up from school about 1230 and took her to the hospital to see her mum and be introduced to her baby sister. I think Annaliese was a little overawed by the proceedings but then she was the Big Sister now and all is good.
Most of the pictures I took today are a little dark, but when we get home on Friday I will put up some nice clear pics of Linda and Mary Rose. 

Sandra and I went to Melbourne last weekend for Grahams 38th Birthday. It was a great turn and we have to do something like that next month for Linda.
Annaliese's little sister is due around the Australia Day weekend. All we need now is for the other two, who shall remain nameless, to get on with the job of providing more Grand Children.
The petrol tank is full and the bags are packed, Sandra is just hanging out for the call.

Judy has been kind enough to volunteer to write a story about Nan and Grandad Brereton for publication on this site and provide some pictures. She has a stack of stuff from cousin Jean who lives in the cold country, and will draw much of her story from that. If any of you have any special thoughts about Nan and Grandad could you please email them either to Judy or myself for inclusion in this site.

G'day All,
This afternoon I have spoken to Bernie in Yepoon, Doreen in Banyo, and Wendy in Burpengarry.
From Bernie, everything is ok at Yepoon and the swimming is great, but its a bit wet out at Gogango. His son Matt is over from England and daughter Helen is up from Maroochydore. There is water all over the place at Maroochydore.
At Doreens shop, the area is to be evacuated and Doreen was not sure if she could get home tonight. Otherwise every one is well.
Over at Wendys, they were given orders to evacuate Cabulture and Burpengary. She is not quite sure what is happening, but they are all well and just waiting to see what happens next.

The picture attached to this snippet, I pinched from Wendy. Thanks Wendy!

G'day all,
Sandra and I arrived at Samantha and Andys place, Brumbys Run near Merrigig about 1100hrs 26 Dec. After a brew we set up for the arrival of the rest of the 
crew. Iggy was first and David was last, or realy it was Lynette because David came with a Bus, 2 x 4WD and a small station wagon. Ken said there was still one more to come. He was right. Dale and Alyce turned up just before dark after a trip via Woods Point and Jamieson.
It was good to see everyone and just sit around having a chat. The little ones seemed to have a ball with wide open spaces to play in and the use of Andys table tennis table. For this , the table tennis, we are thankfull for Tanielia bringing her boy friend, John, along. He was kept amused playing with the youngsters, especially Reece.
Later in the afternoon Elly, Mark and Madison, along with Virginia, Phil, Jamieson, Dessi and Ledger headed of to Eildon. Bill and Judy went back to Oxley. The remainder remained at Brumbys run for dinnner and the night. There was even an impromtu fireworks display, much to the annoyance of the local animals. The humans thought it was fairly good though!
I was up early and set the urn, teabags sugar and milk to "go", had a couple of brews while waiting for the late risers. First Sandra  and Samantha, then Andy followed by a long wait. Slowly the rest arrived from their various buses tents and allocated rooms, with Patreace being last up. After breakfast of bacon, eggs and toast the multitude sat and chatted for a while, packed up and left. Well that was the plot. Everyone was ready to go when it was discovered that Dales trailer lights did not work, so all hands on deck to fix. Some time later they left, or Iggy did. He went in to Mansfield and was to catch up with David in Jamieson. Even later the rest left, Dale to Tatong, David, his two 4wd and small station wagon to meet with Iggy in Jamieson and then to Doctors Creek, followed by Ken, heading in the same direction.
After a couple of brews we, Sandra and I, packed up and cleaned up with Samantha and Andys  help and the went home to Wangaratta.
Those that could not make it this year were Maureen(Tasmania),Chris and John and their crew(Paynesville),Doreen, Martin and Bridgett(Qld), Linda(Pregnant and could not travel) Robert and Annaliese, Jacinta(pregnant) and Ryan(working),Amanda, Chris,Daniel, Graham and Emma(working), Wendy, Des and girls(QLD), Kerry (working) and Vicki.
There was even a decision made on boxing day. Although Sam and Andys should be designated "Party Central" the next gathering shall be at Eleanors on 26 Dec 2011.
From mine and Sandras veiw it was a great get together and thank you all for coming along with a big thank you to Samantha and Andy for the use of Brumbys run for the activity.

Last weekend, 11/12 December Sandra and I were called on to "look after Annaliese for a while" on Sunday. This involved going to Melbourne the day before. We arrived mid afternoon and had a cup of tea. To Annaliese, that means I am hers. A quick play on the Wii and a "Grandad, will you take me for a walk?" eventually led me to Malahang Park and the play ground, Only a little while I said. We left the park about 7pm. She played on everything and wore me out.
Next morning she came into the van early and got us moving. Linda and Robert disappeared to where ever they were going and Annaliese got impatient.
So off to the city. Parked under the Casino and went upstairs for a drink. From there to the Atrium to have a look at the Christmas lights. They are quite spectacular. From there we found a river boat and took a cruise on the Yarra. Up stream and down, a very muddy stretch of water. A lot easier than walking. The weather was warmish with scattered showers. The little girls stomach turned to hunger which was put on hold while we watched a silly man with a ladder, some fire and a knife to big for his mouth. He did not set himself on fire nor did he cut himself with the knife. Then he jumped off the ladder and again did not hurt himself. Hunger set in again. Off to the food court for some chinese and ice cream. The venture now ended with us taking her home to Mum and Dad. Annaliese was asleep before we got out of the carpark and was put straight to bed when we got her home.
Another brew, goodbye to every one and we headed home via Davids. Another brew and a chat about boxing day, we were finally on our way home after a fairly tiring but good weekend.

G'day,
It has rained a fairbit over the past month with over 100mm being recorded at Wangaratta. Put with 100mm the previous month the ground is quite full of water, so combined with the latest rain, the waters in the various rivers and creeks rose rather quickly. Judy's place at Oxley is prone to flooding and the waters rose a bit higher than expected. Right up to the cattle yards and into the front yard with a long drive through the water to get from the main road to the house.