Hello Eaton family, Can you believe I am sending this from the middle of the ocean on our lovely ship on waters that are now calm, but which last night were so very rough. Sorry I missed your phone call yesterday when we were in DJs with Jenny. She had been showing me how to use the mobile and when it rang I thought she was playing a trick to see how well we had absorbed the lesson - needless to say we failed once again!
Tonight we are going to the Captains cocktail party all dressed up in our finery and then we are going

to meet some folk we met last year - Norwegians. Al has already met them and he recognised them, but I am not sure I will. Tomorrow we are meeting Penel in Melbourne and escorting various children to various places before returning at 10.30 pm in time to leave for Hobart. It is indeed a hard life. Hope you were all able to pass the fitness tests at the doctors surgery on Friday and that all your other plans are coming together nicely.
Lots of love from those of us lucky enough to be all at sea, Mum and Allan

Hi Cath

I have been following your travels! I love your photos. WA is my home state - been a while since I've been there - but I do like those open spaces.

It's report writing time again and of course checking out your travels is far more interesting than writing.

Cheers

Kayelene 

Hi Cath and Co,

Hope you had a great birthday Cath-Murray's next.. I just returned from a year 10 camp at Wiseman's Ferry-bushwalking and canoeing. Great until I had to drive a student to Richmond Hospital at 2a.m! Suspected chronic asthma-was bronchitis.

I'm just about to start lesson plans for Year 12..

Love to all. Lib

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CATH!!

Love all of us. Lib

     Hi there Cathy, Hope you are in a really great place to make your birthday tomorrow  a memorable and special one - after all it will probably be your last in Australia for several years.     Happy Birthday from us both.  Since our recent visit with you all (which was a wonderful experience) we have a very good idea of where you are at as it were and know for sure you won't be doing any 5 star hotels or cruises or even fancy dinners on Friday night!

     We had a lovely weekend at the Hunter Valley music festival where the atmosphere was amazing - 5,000 odd people all sitting out under the stars, mostly on the grass on rulgs or BYO chairs.  We were in the middle of the 5th front row on their chairs, where we certianly saw everything very clearly.  Obviously a lot of work goes into making this night such a wonderful success.   Lots of love to you all and happy birthday from Mum and Allan

Hi Cath, Wishing you a very cool birthday on Friday. The first birthday on the road, with another next month! I hope it's a memorable day and everyone makes a big fuss of you.

Not much to report at this end. Holly is getting ready for the year 6 'graduation' and farewell party, Josh is getting ready for his school music tour of the Castlemaine region of Victoria over the Melbourne Cup weekend, and YABC performances after that. Tim is madly writing film scripts and editing a film for uni, and just had his first audition for quite a while (for a commercial). I'm getting ready to begin my interviews with CEOs and Board Chairs for the book I am compiling and Peter is getting ready to find another job.  Lot's of 'getting readys...'

Thankfully, beyond that life is smooth sailing! Long may it last.

You are heading towards the end of your trip, how does it feel? It will seem really odd coming back to life in suburbia, no matter how short that time will be.

All love, Penel, Peter, Tim, Josh and Holly 

Hi everyone,

Just saw your BEAUTIFUL photos. I loved the photos of Cape Leveque. So you are back on the road? Hope all is well. Cath, sorry I didn't get back to you-will ring later this week. I'm back into work after a great little break in Oberon with Mum and Dad on a 2,000 acre property. We also enjoyed Hannah's birthday lunch at Mt Tomah-loved the Asian walk-the gardens are so well structured.

Visited Dad today-he had a hernia operation yesterday but is doing well-stubborn as ever. As for your Mum-I'm very impressed with her computer skills!! I'll try and visit her soon. I haven't heard anything from the Passport Office, so presume all is well.

Murray's almost finished his job at the Church. It's all gone very smoothly. Tori had a clarinet exam yesterday-got Grade B+ for Grade 3 so we'll have a break from the scales for a while..Looks like we'll definitely be coming to Hong Kong in April for easter-especially if we've saved our money from K.I. Decided not to go.

I'll be in touch for the BIG 42.....

LOVE LIB

Dear Matthew, We have a new boy in our class his name is Daniel and He looks just like Jonathan Sheedy. They are the same size and they have the same colour hair. They even have the same raincoat.

 We really like getting your emails. We really miss you. We can't believe that we might not see you till year 5

From Carol and Lauren

Dear Mathew 

We engoiyed your message! Guess what!  We have a new boy in our class called Danial and he is like Jonthan Sheedy.

dear  matthew    how    big  was  the  salt   water   croodile. We  hope   you  are  having  a  good  time.  We  thoght  your  storys  were  intresting.I  hope  you  like  our  masage.

From David,        The animal  you were holding,was it a crocdile or an aligator? I hope you have a nice holiday. Where are you in Broome. I hope you are having fun. Is

Dear Matthew we loved your e-mail but it is very sad to hear you  might  come when it is year 5.We really miss you but  we had a good holiday and we hope you are to.Is the crocodile that you were on real or not?Were you scared of holding the baby crocodile? Love Richard and Ariel.xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox