Danne Solley travel bug.

Danielle Solley left on Thursday for a much anticipated holiday to Europe - England, Croatia and Italy to be more specific. She is away almost four weeks travelling with her friend Kirilly for most of the trip.

Welcome Jonah

Jonah Curry Solley was born on August 1st. A great grandson of Owen Solley he weighed in at a healthy 8lb 4 oz. He is progressing well and gaining weight at a good rate. Helene and Bryan are very proud grandparents and whilst Drew has not had him kicking a football yet I have observed one at the ready. Danielle may have something to say about that though!!

Drew and Danielle to be parents

Drew and Danielle are to add another member to our family in August 2008. Doctors report a fine healthy baby and Danielle is looking radiant. Helene and Bryan pretty thrilled too.

Christmas greetings

Love and Best wishes to all for Christmas and the New Year

WA Experience

Hi All,

Have been back a week from a conference in Fremantle (with a couple of days R&R thrown in for good measure). Had a day walking through Kings Park (41 degrees that day) and had an interesting guided talk of the native flora in the park. Then a wonderful day on Rottnest, cycling around the island, seeing the clear water - but too cold to swim for us northerners - and visiting the gun emplacement - protection during the war - seeing the quokkas and then taking the last ferry back to Fremantle. A couple of days of conference for Graham and I did some catching up with office work.

On Friday afternoon we did a tour of the tunnels under Fremantle prison, not escape tunnels but water tunnels for the early town water supply. Very interesting. Then on Saturday we hired bikes from Perth to ride to the Swan Valley - got a bit lost on the way but it was very pretty riding along the Swan River for at least part of the trip. We visited a couple of boutique wineries, as well as the Margaret River Chocolates and tasted some honey from a stand on the side of the road. Once again quite a warm day but not as bad as the early part of the week.

Along with some good food and plenty of the WA wines, and beers, we had an enjoyable week.
Now back at the hard slog until the Christmas break.

Bron & Graham

Bryan and I have just had two weeks travelling in Vietnam. It was a great experience. At first the mad traffic in Hanoi was a little daunting but we soon became old hands at stepping onto the road and not stopping as the vehicles manoeuvred around us, horns constantly beeping. The scenery in Halong Bay, where we stayed overnight on a junk, was breathtaking and in Hoi An we were fortunate to miss the floods which devastated the area soon after our departure. Our trip ended with several days in Ho Chi Min City, the highlight of which was a day excursion to the Mekong Delta. This was a great day out and I would recomment it to anyone visiting the area.
Although you work in thousands, things are amazingly cheap once converted from Dong to dollars. The people are friendly and helpful and the shopping very affordable.

Trip to Japan

HI All,

We had a great trip to Japan in early September and it has taken all this time to get around to telling you about it. We had two nights in Tokyo near the Ginza area and did lots of walking, as well as taking a trip up the river. Interesting to go under 14 different bridges, all painted different colours. Then a visit to the Asakusa area with the temple as well as a massive mall, lots of little stalls selling different foods, sweets and clothes, souvenirs etc. Lots of fun people watching and trying some of the foods.

The highlight of the time in Tokyo was the early morning visit to the fish market - see photo of the giant octopus. We had "breakfast" at one of the street restaurants serving fresh sushi - fun just watching the chef preparing it and all the staff yelling as each new customer came in.


Then by train to Takayama, a smallish town between the mountains. Several of the thatched roof houses, usually used for raising silkworms in the top stories, have been moved there to form a village. Interesting to visit and wander through the different styles of homes and workshops on the side of the mountain. Along the river there were morning markets, with the most juice, large peaches and apples grown nearby. We stayed at a local ryokan and we had our (I think) first ever shared bath! It was relaxing though. The food of course was exceptional.


We took the local train through the mountains although because the line had been damaged by the earthquake, part of the trip was by bus. Lovely countryside through the steep mountains. Then onto the coast and around to Kanazawa. City that has some of the geisha areas similar to those in Kyoto. The highlight of Kanazawa was the Kenroku Garden, a landscape style of garden and one of Japan's three great gardens. We also visited the (restored) castle. Amazing how many of the buildings in Japan have burned. Although probably not amazing when everything was built of timber and they had open fires in the homes. We visited several factories - small "cottage industries" making porcelain, gold leaf, silk painting for kimonos,etc. We also visited the "ninja" temple - fascinating with all the hidden floors, secret doors and passages, trapdoors etc. Even though the tour was in Japanese we did follow most of it through the guide given to us.


The ryokan in Kanazawa was a modern style, hotel type with the most amazing meal I think we have ever had in Japan. Huge crab claws, sashimi of many different fish and molluscs, pickles, fish - I was quite full by the end of it but we had to try everything.


After a full week, we took the train back to Narita for our trip home, missing the typhoon which had roared through the day before. Lovely to have that break though.


Bronwen & Graham