Australia Day - Michael Malone becomes an Aussie!

It's Australia Day today and we celebrated by witnessing our friend Mick Malone become an Australian Citizen. We joined Michelle and her mum for the ceremony which was in a park in Lane Cove in the morning and afterwards we met up with Karen, Cammy & Frankie for a barbeque at Balls Head, North Sydney.
This is not usual practice for a newly 'naturalised' Aussie to have to be decked out in all Aussie gear it's just how Mick chose to celebrate. The boxers were a present from Michelle's mum Lyn and the t-shirt and hat were presents from Lane Cove council! He looks pretty patriotic though doesn't he!
It's been a great day and Chalky is still out celebrating with Mick and Cammy enjoying a few beers in the Oaks. It's been a really hot day so I'm going to finish this blog and goto bed. Off to the Lake tomorrow - can't wait for all that chilling time.This is all of us (less photographer Chalky!) at the end of the day, our picnic spot was in the bush and on the other side of Balls Head is this great view of the city!

Happy Birthday again to Kimbo!

It's the Weekend, it's Wednesday!?!?

Well, it's the start of our weekend since it's Australia Day on Friday we get that off as a holiday and I've taken Thursday as holiday to spend a day with Chalky! So we started our weekend tonight with pizza's for dinner!



Homemade of course! Don't start licking your monitor screen!

Bek's finished product
Chalky's pizza about to get cooked

So what's on our agenda? Our friend Mick Malone will be having his citizenship ceremony on Australia Day and then a group of us are getting together for a bbq picnic in the park to celebrate. That's Friday taken care of and then on Saturday we're house swapping with my brother Ben & his wife to go and have a weekend up at their house at Lake Macquarie and they are coming to Sydney for the weekend, it will be great to just be able to chill all weekend and just watch the water on the lake. I can't wait!

Hope you all have a great weekend and remember we're not home this weekend in case you're planning to call us.

Love to Kimbo for her birthday on 27th!

Sydney By Digital SLR

Just some scenery shots from Garth's travels in Sydney - of course the Bridge has special significance - on 3/1/07 Garth & my dad did the Bridgeclimb. Garth covered all aspects of the bridge while he was on holiday - walked up it, walked over it, walked up the pylon, crossed it on a train - the only path he's left for next time is to cross it by push bike!



Garth's trip ended 15/1/07, no tears at the airport - maybe there was from Garth as the check-in queue looked to be at least an hour wait! We said goodbye in the queue and headed back home to recharge!

Beach Time

We met up with Dave, Coral & Darryl at Bondi Beach on their last Saturday in Sydney, it was a glorious day and as you can see lots of other people also flocked to the beach. The water temperature in Sydney is unseasonally low - only around 17 degrees which is too cold for a seasoned Sydneysider like me to swim in but Chalky and Dave had a splash around!

My Bondi Hoff!
Dave and Chalky had a race to the beach, unfortunately Dave came off worse nearly pulling his hamstring on the way to the surf...that's what 3 weeks of holiday will do to you!

Even on the other side of the world you aren't really far from the Cornerhouse Club, Leeds, it was nice to have a little piece of England around us - Dave marvelled that he was on the otherside of the world enjoying a Crown Lager with Chalky!

Just for the record - Garth did get wet on holiday - after the 2nd round of golf at Cypress Lakes when the temperature peaked at 40 degrees Garth & Chalky cooled off in the Lagoon Pool - if only they had been a little quicker getting down to the water they would have seen the topless french chick splashing about entertaining her boyfriend - sorry boys I just couldn't seem to get the camera to work until they arrived!

Garth's Golfing Holiday

Golf clubs played: Chatswood, Northbridge, Wakehurst, Cypress Lakes. Best of's as voted by Chalky - Best Round - Wakehurst, Best Putt - first 2 holes at Cypress (both 25 - 30ft), Best Hole - Birdy at Cypress, Best Buggy Driver - Bek.


Golf highlight for Chalky was single putting the first 3 holes at Cypress Lakes with these 3 putts totalling around 70ft together. However going for a golf lesson the day before cypress was like asking a mechanic to fine tune a BMW engine to find he's left all the parts on the floor and you to piece it back together.

This little critter was what Chalky and Garth thought was a crocodile on their fairway at Wakehurst!!! I couldn't wait to see the photo - of course it's only a lizard!

At dusk and dawn the roos are out at Cypress Lakes - for anyone who knows Chalky & his dad - they don't do dawn so we caught up with the roos at dusk, there were 2 mummy's with joeys in their pouches and one very big daddy. Lovely to watch them all in the afternoon sun.

So while the boys were golfing what was I upto - most days I was working but I did go away to Cypress Lakes with them where I was treated to 2 sessions in the Day Spa - a facial and a pedicure - very relaxing!

Garth's Holiday New Year and Races

Garth, Chalky's dad, arrived for his holiday on 28 December. He thought he was travelling with his golf clubs but they were on another flight due to arrive a 2 days behind him so that threw the itinerary into disarray from the start!

The new Sony digital SLR camera that Santa Garth bought himself for Christmas kept him entertained while he waited for the golf clubs to arrive. We tested the camera out on a little walk to Greenwich which was also a Candid Camera set up moment by us - there is a really powerful drinking fountain that we wanted catch Garth out on so Chalky grabbed the camera knowing that his dad would go for a drink...picture below!



Garth quickly settled into his new surroundings, had a Friday night session out around Crows Nest with the boys, Saturday night at my parents for a seafood extravaganza dinner and then his first round of golf on New Year's Eve before a barbeque with Dave, Coral, Arthur, Darryl and Neil - all visiting from the UK as well.

We all watched the 9pm fireworks together on TV and enjoyed some chocolate cake and champagne before the UK visitors headed into the city in search for a spot to watch the fireworks. We stayed at home and enjoyed a few more drinks before making a dash to Milson's Point on the train, catching the fireworks from under the Harbour Bridge on the North and then catching the first train back to Wollstonecraft to enjoy another few drinks before retiring.

New Years Day at the Ashes Pavilion at Randwick Races. Guests included Mike Gatting, Kerry O'Keefe, Bill Lawry & Jim Maxwell. We all had a great day, Chalky & I didn't really pick any winners (I think Garth picked a few!) we were entertained on the bus by some English singing...perhaps they were hopeful of a favourable result in the test match starting the next day....5-0 that's all I'll say!

Races - a great excuse to get dressed up (including hats!) drink champagne, eat meat pies???? and generally have a great day!