Anzac Weekend By Tina

It is Anzac Day weekend, the 1st of 2 long weekends in a row, loving it, as I no longer work weekends (poor Andy) I have a relaxing few days planned, well hopefully.
Saturday we did the usual shopping and running around. Dropped in and saw John, Dad’s mate to thank him for letting us put Homer 1 on his block while we were trying to sell it.
Back at the park Andy & I started working on putting the winch back together; well truthfully, Andy did this while I pottered around sweeping and general domestic duties arghhh.
Saturday I watched Andy play cricket, after I had been down to the Nightcliff Markets, there is so much nice stuff out there, if only we had a house to put it in. I bought some lunch and headed back to the cricket oval to see who won the toss. I will let Andy give you the rundown of the game. It was very nice sitting in the shade drinking & reading. I was so into my book that I nearly missed Andy bat! While I was sitting there watching him plug away, I heard this roar behind me & realised that it was rain heading my way (love that Darwin rain) I jumped up to get my chair in the car before it got wet, but do think I could get the chair through the door, no, and I got soaked, ah well didn’t take long to dry off. The Tigers won the day and we got a pizza on the way home, very nice one at that, from the Hibiscus shopping centre Pizza King.
Sunday after a well deserved sleep in again Andy set off on the task of putting the winch back together, only to discover that the motor is completely rooted! Well so much for that, to get a new motor was going to cost $600, and a new Warn winch was only $900. I spent the entire day cleaning out the Tojo inside & out, wow I always marvel at how good it looks when clean, if only it didn’t take so long nearly 4 hours all up, mind you she was pretty dirty, I told Andy it was the last we drive to Dundee Beach with windows down! Now we have just got to find someone to clean the roof & the seats and she will be like a new one.

NCC Round 2

My second game at Nightcliff and first at home. We played the PINT – Dravidians. Which is a team of Curry eaters. They won the toss and surprisingly sent us in on a slightly dry cracked wicket, which looked like maybe it could have offered some support to the bowlers. NCC got off to cracking start and continued this throughout the innings. There was only 5 over’s left when I finally got out to bat but a Darwin afternoon shower cut short our innings and left me stranded on 2no.
It only lasted 5-10 minutes but in Darwin that is enough to drop a fair bit of rain. Anyway it passed and 40 minutes later we were back on with the opposition needing 219 of 37 over’s. The pitch was a little sticky but played well. I was a little shocked to be given the ball as first change after Snelly went for a couple to many boundaries. I didn’t start that well and really struggled to get it on a good length. A couple in the air a couple through the slips and I could have ended up with a couple of wickets while bowling an ordinary line. But then finally the breakthrough caught in the gully and from then on found my length. The pitch gave me some assistance and ended up 8 over’s 1/18.
Coupled with a catch and rolling them for 121 it was a great win and we are 2 and 0 so a good start.
Go the Tigers.

Homer 1 is Sold :(

Well we finally sold Homer1, it took a bit longer than expected but it is gone. It is a little sad as it has been our home for 18 months.
We have two big projects on the go still, winch service and fixing the squeaky rear doors on the Tojo. I have fitted some second hand hinges so I can get the Tojo ones re pinned but they don’t actually seem to bad. (new ones are $1,000 for a set) We are going to get a new seal which is $300 so it is no cheap fix either way. But 45,000 km of the annoying squeak that doesn’t even disappear no matter how high you turn up the stereo is going to be worth the money. So the plan is get the hinges re-pinned, fit a new seal and touch up the paint that has been rubbed off and hope for the best

Andy's first match @ Jabiru,

written by NCC, Growl Editor,


A Bus drove away in the glare of the rising sun and full of collective hope. A Bus came back again carrying a victorious NCC D-Grade cricket side, full of song, cheer and beer.

After falling for the oldest trick in the land when he called the toss before the coin had left the hand of his Jabiru counterpart, skipper Johnny Fryar readied his charges for a field. Brad Hatton and journeyman Anthony Snell combined for a sound opening spell, which placed immediate pressure on the Big Birds (Jabiru) and should have yielded more than 1 wicket after an edge off Hatton’s bowling unfortunately found its way back down to Earth. The “Velvet Sledgehammer” Nathan Jury (2 or 3 wkts) and NCC Action hero Brion Foley (3 wkts) then combined for an outstanding spell in tandem to first dry up the runs, and then the wickets began to fall. 4-63 at drinks then became 116 all out as the Jury/Foley show continued, before ‘Danny’ Glover chimed in with one scalp and pocket-rocket Andrew Moore on debut dismantled the lower order with a few tracer bullet like deliveries, one in particular shattering the stumps and effects mike.

The NCC innings started steadily but after a few wickets Brion Foley (31) then steadied the ship and played a sheet-anchor role that almost saw the boys home. Foley combined with skipper Johnny Fryar who carved out a dazzling 44, to take the game right away from the Big Birds and ensured a happier bus travelling home. The baby was put to bed with some Andrew “007” Moore pyrotechnics (including a brutally whacked six!) and it was a merry Tigers’ outfield that travelled home again – save for a small outburst from the President following a would-be assassination attempt on the bus (later downgraded by the Tribunal to a grade 1 ‘icing’)…no culprit has yet been caught, but safe to say the Jury is out in this Who-dunnit on wheels!

Easter @ Dundee

Its Easter weekend and we are finally off to Dundee for the weekend. W e are packed up Friday morning and head off. A couple of nice showers on the way and every man and his dog is heading out there too. They have a fishing comp on.
Brian, Jan & Rob arrive later, Tina and I have had a bit of clean up while we were waiting. We are keen to do some jobs so we empty the spa and clean it out as well as fixing the outside sink which has fallen apart. Everyone is off doing their little jobs and as usual we head down to the cliff for sunset.


Saturday brings bad news on the weather front again with rough seas preventing us from going out. So more jobs are on the card’s not to mention excessive eating & drinking. Brian and Rob head off with the crab pots in the secret spot. There is enough food out here to feed us all for a month. John & Dianne come over for tea and I DJ Brian’s old records well into the night.
Sunday brings more bad news on the weather front so there will be no fishing again. We are all a little worse for wear this morning and feeling quite lazy. We head off to the ant mounds and the lodge for a beer.
Brian gets the Suzi bogged retrieving the pots and we have to head down for a rescue mission. Block and tackle some chain and a 2k walk through the swamp where we hear the growl of a big croc.
Anyway little damage except Tina and I getting covered in mud. All for one big delicious Mud Crab.
We are going down to the beach tonight to fish, we cannot spend the weekend at Dundee with no fishing. The water is rough and yucky but finally some bites. I get onto about 5 sharks but they all bite through the line before I can get them in, good fun at least.

Andy Signs up to play Cricket in Darwin

We are back on line now so expect some more regular updates. It’s April fool’s day and I was expecting a few more gags at work, I thought in the world of IT that would be a bit more popular. We have been hoping to get out to Dundee but work and other commitments have meant we couldn’t. Not to mention some later wet season weather. Jan & Brian have been out and the weather has been so rough nearly no fishing at all.
We have been having our regular Thursday night dinners with them which is often a roast. We cooked a Pork roast in the cobb the other week.
I’m playing cricket with Nightcliff cricket club this year so its off to training Thursday nights. Wow have been lazy or just getting older because I have been pulling up quite sore. It has taken a couple of weeks but I’m getting the hang of it slowly. I’m going to play one dayer’s on Sundays. There is a link to NCC on our blog and I will add a link to the association soon you can keep an eye on my performances. It is a bit strange going home to watch AFL after cricket though?
I have been given two major projects t manage at work and my cruisy weeks are gone and now working 10 hour days. It is a steep learning curve but one I’m glad to be able to experience.