Julie's Korea saga continues. After the deadline of early March passed, that's the one that would have given her a "good year" for 2005/06, we settled on a tour starting on 15 April, for 7 weeks, until early June. We have SFC Harris (Sergeant First Class - Army) in Seoul looking out for her - he's the one she has been working with now for many months to actually make it happen. The GTC Card is apparently on the way. Meanwhile she needed to get her dental & medical checks done. Dental was no problem, that was done by our local dentist at the same time as her 6-monthly check-up. But she had a very interesting time convincing any of the military powers that be, that she was in fact living in a country where there is no US base handy. Australia, stand up & take a bow! Then for the medical, someone suggested the US Embassy here in Canberra, resulting in us meeting with a lovely lady, an Embassy staff member who is also a reservist herself, who made that happen as well. And she also put us in touch with the travel agent that does all of the Embassy's travel & they were only too happy to book flights without needing immediate payment. So now the flights are locked in.

Meanwhile we had a phone session with SMSgt Lowden (Senior Master Sergeant - Air Force), the recruiter in Japan, with whom we have been working for well over 12 months, where he guided us through the intricacies of the AF orders system & got her orders in. So the next drama came from a Lieutenant Colonel (Air Force) in Hawaii, who said that she had too many days in the tour. So we politely replied to him that no-one would be likely to work with her on the weekends, so extra days were factored in to the total lapsed time. Then after hearing nothing for nearly a week, as we were about to decide to pull the pin on the whole thing, the orders have been approved & it's all go. All that remains now is for the Travel Card to finally arrive & for Julie to be ready, boots shined & all.

I have even insisted that I will personally drive her to Sydney very early on the morning of 15 April, rather than have her trying to make a 3-hour connection from Domestic to International in Sydney in just 2 hours. And on the return, we changed the original booking to allow more time for the inbound transfer, based on previous experience. We have just checked her orders & discovered that she is working 12 days straight on her Annual Tour & then has the weekends off, at our cost, for the remaining 5 weeks (24 days, which would normally be the usual one weekend a month for 12 months). She's back on the morning of 3 June.

Well, I survived my colonoscopy. My work colleague Mal's advice was that the preparation is the worst part, because the bowel has to be thoroughly cleaned out. With the stuff they give you to start taking 2 days before the procedure, he said, "You'll know what it's like to shit through the eye of a needle." And boy, was he right. On the final morning, the liquid was coming out bright yellow. When I asked the specialist about that & suggested that it might have been the yellow jelly, he concurred. Anyway, when the guy before me came out, I heard the anaesthetist advising him that he had a lot of wind in there and "don't worry about us, just fart it out." Just a couple of minutes later, and blaaaaattt from the other side of the curtain, and again. Wow, I thought, that's the best piece of advice I've ever heard! Then found that I had to apply the same to myself. Heh heh. At least the bowel was clean & it didn't smell. Then last night, because I'd finally collapsed into bed at 8 pm, I was awake at 2 am & surfing the net, & my tummy was grumbling & rumbling, & yep, still farting! Man, the coffee tasted good this morning. Oh & the report was "all OK", or as Julie puts it, "good to go".

We've just returned from a short weekend trip out to see Wagga Wagga. I t all came about because Julie was on the phone to a customer some time ago & said, "So you're from Wagga Wagga?", except that she pronounced it as it reads, instead of the local pronunciation of Wogga Wogga. The entire office stopped dead & then burst out laughing. Anyway, we cruised on down the highway & this time, took the opportunity of stopping of at coffee shops & galleries that we never seem to have time for, which only served to enhance the quality of the time together. After a tour of Wagga Wagga, we headed for a little town called Ganmain, where the prime movers of Straw Bale Housing are based, managed to track them down in the town & were privileged to receive a quick tour of their own place, that they are still trying to finish. We decided to stay overnight at the Coolamon Hotel. Walked into the bar to find a band playing! Julie was fascinated by an instrument that we found out is called a "Lager Phone" - very expensive, because the maker has to drink all of the beer before he can attach the bottle tops.

We slept upstairs where there was a nice breeze blowing, but also overlooking the only major intersection in town, as well as the railway crossing, where the freight train just had to shunt up & down at some ungodly hour of the night. Then some of the other guests decided to sit right outside our window on the wide balcony. They did finally leave when I sat up & growled (like I growl at the dogs) & Julie woke up in a panic. Geez, I've got her well trained!

Next day, after finding a wallet on the floor of the room, (how well was that cleaned?), we had 3 attempts to get out of Junee on the correct road, dropped it off to its owner in Cootamundra & headed out towards Temora, to have a look at the Aviation Museum.  We got as far as Stockinbingal & decided to check out the Village Fair, kinda like the Royal Show, but MUCH smaller. After an hour or so there, it was time to head for home, before we got too tired. And it's a local public holiday for Canberra Day tomorrow!