Family | Fiona Palmer

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Apr 2010

Lest we forget

Here is their spirit, in the heart of the land they loved; and here we guard the record which they themselves made.

Charles Bean, 1948

ANZAC DAY – Lots of things to remember.

I think of my great grandfather Richard Hicks, whom my father was named after, and his brother in law Gordon Benham who both served. I have posted Richards recommendation form for the Military Medal he received in the First World War. My brother, who is in the army, now has his medals and looks after them proudly.

It’s hard to imagine what they went through, I guess shows like The Pacific try to emulate the war and to give us a glimpse of the hardships they endured and the losses they encountered.

I sit at my desk in my comfy chair, hot coffee at the side, and children playing happily (for once), feeling safe so I find it’s hard to imagine the feelings these brave and scared soldiers had, many of them so young. So I will do my bit this weekend to remember them all.

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Apr 2010

Hockey

By Fiona

My daughter had her first game of hockey yesterday and is still keen to keep playing, so that is great. She’ll be seven in July, so she’s getting an early start and it’s lots of fun for her. Kids don’t seem to feel the pain like us. I can remember feeling very unfit running around yesterday…but that said we managed to win 4 nil. So it was a great day for our A and B grade teams both winning. Go girls!!

I love being back at hockey, being apart of a team and having a blast with the girls…and it’s nice to get a win under our belt. (I’m playing for the Karlgarin – Hyden club…the KHats) We had a home game on Saturday which is great, I only had to drive 55km but we play some towns that are further away like Narembeen, Corrigin, Kukerin and Bruce Rock which is 140 odd kms away, so it makes for a long day.

Oh.. and yes, Mac’s fringe is crooked…she decided her fringe was in her eyes and gave it a trim…I think it will be a while before its even close to her eyes now LOL.

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Mar 2010

Out with the old in with the new

By Fiona

I loved growing up and spending time in my dad’s shed as he worked fixing trucks, utes, and build things (when I wasn’t running from the noise of the drop saw!). Here are my kids checking out how their Pop is going building his new speedway car. His old yellow one he’s hoping to sell eventually and the white one he’s been busy building. He’s a clever man my dad, he’s doing all the bar work himself and getting it ready for my uncle to give it a new paint job.

And you can tell Blake has got the same revhead gene, look at the smile on his face as Pop lets him take it for a test drive. I was in a go kart at the age of three and loved getting behind the wheel and my daughter is a good driver, but dosn’t have the love of cars like Blake does.

And the last pic is of Homer, (RIP) the buggy my dad built with our mate Steve. We had an old brown Datsun we used to drive around in also when we were nearly teenagers, the older we got the more daring we became. My dad was the one who taught me how to do a reverse spin in Homer (which is flogging along in reverse, spinning the car and taking off forward in one smooth motion). This picture was taken at the Kukerin Creek Bed racing event where you go through a muddy track, as you can probably tell. Poor Homer is retired to the back of the yard now, but he gave us years of fun and adventure.

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Mar 2010

National Production Title at Narrogin WA

By Fiona

For those of you who have never seen speedway here is a clip for you. This is the start of the final, 20 cars doing 40 laps at Narrogin Speedway Club.

The orange car out the front is Kye Blight who is the state number one already and is one of the local lads (and only 17). A very good driver and although he ended up sitting out most of the final he’s got plenty more chances to get the number 1 spot, and I don’t doubt that he will.

I took the kids, who absolutely loved watching the cars race. I enjoyed catching up with blokes I used to race against and watching them race in the national title. Yes, it makes me want to go out and buy a car and start racing again, but it is an expensive sport…and I lack funds. The production division is the division I raced in, just about the cheapest after street stocks, which my dad still races in. After juniors, I went into productions at the age of 17 because dad thought it would be better as productions are allowed to have more bar work protecting the car (don’t think he liked the idea of lots of panel beating).

There were a few crashes, one with a missing wheel, engine failures – but the kids loved the crashing the best.

And I must say I was amazed at the turn out and what a great event for the Narrogin Club. The place was packed and cars were parked down the road outside the club. I even got to show my kids my name up in the club rooms on the champions board…not that they really cared or understood what it was for - LOL!

You can see more about the speedway on their website.

Category: Family, speedway One Comment

Feb 2010

My darling boy!

By Fiona

What a sweetheart. My boy decided to vacuum his room and then went on to do his sisters and the play room. If he keeps this up till he’s a grown man he will find he has plenty of brownie points with the ladies. (I won’t tell him that it’s a job…for now he thinks it’s fun)

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Feb 2010

Esperance

By Fiona

We did a trip to Esperance, to visit family and see how much our little niece had grown, and to see Sammy the Seal. The kids couldn’t wait to see him at the jetty (plus I think it was also the lure of icecream!) .The coffee van parked there is a rippa…a win win for all.

Couln’t complain about the beaches down at Esperance either. The kids couldn’t wait to hit the water.

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Jan 2010

Hopetoun

By Fiona

An eager boy waiting for bait so he can start fishing in the river.

We were amazed at how low the river was since the last time we were there and the dead tree’s about after the hot scorcher they had only a few weeks back. It must have been real hot as birds were dropping like flies and its sad to see these big trees with dead crunchy leaves which fell all over the ground with each gust of wind.

Hopetoun is our little get away as we always went there when we were kids also and the caravan park is nestled right on the beach just about and you can’t get better than that.

We also took the kids fishing off the jetty, trying to catch a fish or two… or in our case none, ziltch, notta thing (Think we fed them up well though). But the sunsets over the water was the highlight of the evening.

Category: Family, Only in the country One Comment