Rich

Well rather than chasing my boys and watching them excitedly searching for easter eggs, I’m on a work visit to Mackay, Australia. Its unfortunate to miss my boys during a long weekend back home. I think we miss Easter every year.

Mackay’s weather has been windy and pretty wet this visit, we’ve hardly seen the sun. More incentive to keep working. Have been enjoying some local wines as usual, and the odd 4X Gold!

Despite some setbacks at the beginning of the trip, software seems to be working. Big test on Tuesday and Wednesday when we show off our wares to some clients and collegues.

Mackay Webcam

IMG_1455, originally uploaded by Rich and Jen Pearson.

Max actually got mad at me, as this wasn’t a real dozer.

IMG_1434, originally uploaded by Rich and Jen Pearson.

Well New Years Day we took the kids to Willows for a nice walk. The boys wore their new Muddy buddies.
Christmas was a great time this year, we just stayed at home and visited with my parents. It was nice to be home.

Not sure how this happened by it looks like my boys will have my taste in music.

Travelling in Australia is great, travelling to and from Australia on the other hand is not so great. I took a different route than usual this time, via Los Angeles with Quantas landing in Brisbane. We had a bunch of business to attend to in Brisbane, and then made our way to Mackay via Gladstone, and Rockhampton.

Brisbane is an amazing city, as a major business center on the east coast of Australia, and the capital of the state of Queensland. If you didn’t already know, according to many bumper stickers in Queensland, there are only two states to be in; Queensland and pissed! Brisbane’s population is about 2 million, and the third largest in Australia. There is a fantastic restaurant area just south of downtown that boarders the river (Brisbane River), where you can sit and have a glass of wine and watch the boats.

Some favourites are

• Kingsley’s
• Aria
• Alchemy

The views from all of these establishments is quite picturesque.

Next stop was Gladstone, a quick meeting with some clients, and then on to Rockhampton, Beef capital of Australia. Its also where the Tropic of Capricorn passes through Australia. Woo-hoo! Officially in the tropics, although the car temperature was reading about 34 degrees Celcius so we’d kind of already figured that out. I’d been here once before when my dad and I were setting up the office in Mackay. We stayed at a dodgey hotel, which funnily enough was just about next door to where we stayed this time. We stayed at the Edge hotel, which is a so called Luxury Apartment Hotel. It was nice, but hardly luxury by North American standards. The restaurant was pretty good, and served some decent wines as well. Although I can’t recall what we actually drank! Not due to the quantities, I think the jet lag was kicking in that night.

Finally we drove into Mackay, the old stomping grounds, with plenty of great wines and some of the best Beef you’ll have any where. Barrimundi is a great local fish, provided that its’ fresh! The Deck is the usual location, where you’ll find us, but on special occasions there is the Church on Palmer. An old church house that is converted to be a restaurant, fabulous, with great wines and good eats.

Highly recommend the double cooked pork belly… mmmm pig.

As you can see, I take my time between posts, and a lot has happened in the last month since my last post. Most exciting was my younger brother’s wedding, which I was lucky enough to Emcee. The wedding was held at the Royal Victoria Yacht club, a truely amazing spot for a wedding. Specifically when the weather holds out too!


I’ve also resurrected my road bike, spent a few dollars to get it running real smooth again. I swear the shifting is better than it ever was now. The bike is a Concorde Gavina, which was the 1989 PDM Team bike all Columbus SL tubing, and Dura-ace components.

Big thanks to the Gerry at Straight up cycles. Great job on getting the old girl running so well.

IMG_5591, originally uploaded by Rich and Jen Pearson.

Love this shot of Max. Shortly afterward, he walked up to his waist.