Australia Day - Adele becomes an Aussie

Adele & her Citizen Certificate

Seeing our friends become Aussies could dominate our Australia Day Celebrations for the next few years, last year it was Mick Malone and this year it was Adele's turn, just in time so she can be an Aussie before baby #2 arrives. I can't think of a better way to celebrate than by seeing someone become a citizen of my great country. It will probably be Chalky's turn next year.

After a quick chat with Lesley & Joan we were off to an early start to get to Wahroonga for 9am. There were some official speeches for nearly an hour before the new Citizens took their Oaths and got their certificates. While the speeches were on Ainsley was quite entertaining - we caught her performing a flag dance...

And playing the air (fan) guitar...

Adele taking the Oath (along with 91 others)

As you would expect of anyone taking this step it was a fairly emotional event, let alone being nearly 38 weeks pregnant, Adele did shed a few tears. She was watched closely by Dr Brendan Nelson - Leader of the Opposition and former Health Minister who was concerned that he might have needed to deliver the baby while performing his Official duties on the day.

Dr Nelson congratulates Adele (above)

A brotherly congrats from Crombie (below)

Ainsley & her Nana

After all the formalities we headed back to the Wood House for a celebration. Bacon butties hot off the barbeque (Aussie meets Yorkshire) cooked to perfection by Roy, lots of croissants, fresh fruit and other treats. Of course it was all washed down with some champagne or some beer.

We bought Adele an Aussie wooden chopping board for her to remember her day

And in true Aussie tradition we had a pavlova for sweets! Thanks Bronwyn for the best pav I've ever seen or tasted.

What a pavlova!
Ainsley had made some gingerbreads here she is helping Chalky pick out the biggest

The kids were kept cool and entertained playing in some paddling pools and Ainsley was very entertaining with her goggles and showing off her new swimming confidence. No question which flag Ainsley loves!

Group picture - sans Chalky the cameraman

A still shot of Ainsley swimming and the video is below.

We also managed a trip to Balmoral this weekend to test out our new beach tent.

In the beach tent

Just to make you all jealous, this was our Sunday!

The tent is really easy to put up and provides good protection from the sun and keeps our snacks and drinks cool, it will also extend the time we spend out on the beach since we're well protected from the sun. We bumped into Chalky's mate Mitch and his son Louis who were also swimming, Chalky got Louis using a snorkel and he got to see a few fish. Below are a few shots you won't have seen, Chalky has now got a rashy vest for swimming.

Chalk in his new rashy
Us before taking a dip

Chalks new golf shoes mentioned in a previous post

And this is what greeted us in the kitchen sink Sunday morning!
Don't worry it was dead...but as for poisonous? We don't know! But we're both still alive.

And you know how I like to have the last word, one picture of me!

Bridesmaid In September!

Whilst in a 1 to 1 with one of my team today I received a special delivery to work, these were waiting for me when I got back to my desk...

How quickly thoughts ran through my head - "Oh how romantic of Chalk", "what naughtiness has Chalk been up to?" "who in the team is trying to bribe me?", "how much did Chalk make on the stock market today?", "how much did he lose today on the market?"

How wrong was I...instead it said "I would be so privileged if you would be my bridesmaid" Kimberly!

You could have knocked me over with a feather - what an honour, delight and how special did I feel to be asked. We'd only just made the decision that we'd goto England in September - we'd been tossing up between June & September and had finally decided on September last week.

What a full itinerary we'll have - Kimbo & Phil's Wedding, Nells Christening (for who I'm a Godmother) and lots of family and friend time. So get ready!

Another day wasted in Sydney

North Curl Curl Beach

9.00am Golf Lesson at Ryde Parramatta - sandbunker and putting refresher.

10.00am finalise Chalky's Christmas presents and buy new golf shoes from the pro shop and book 6 private lessons to polish off our golf swings over summer.

12.00pm grocery shop, home to pack a picnic lunch out the door with snorkels, swimmers, towels in hand - we were off to North Curl Curl, apparently a great snorkelling beach.

1.00pm in the water, really clear water, just like the Barrier Reef, some great vegetation but not the best day to spot fish but not the best we've seen in Sydney. Good waves for a body surf though.

Curl Curl

3.00pm it was getting too hot at North Curl Curl so we packed up and headed to Shelly Beach to check out the snorkelling there.

Shelly Beach

4.00pm in the water at Shelly beach to see some unbelievably large and colourful fish - this is the best spot to snorkel so far.

6.00pm pack up from the beach, head home for the night, dinner of lamb salad and a DVD - This is England

8.30pm call Grandad in England, speak briefly to Garth before they head out to ASDA. This is England starts showing - it's set in the North of England in 1983 and the main character was 12. Other than a few television shows and video games flashbacks I am pleased that Chalky who was also 12 in 1983 couldn't draw any other similarities to his life!

What to do tomorrow???

More Christmas Shots

Trav has sent me over some photos from Christmas that I didn't have when I did that post, I thought I'd put them here for you to enjoy.Christmas Day Dinner at Mum & Dad's
Trav's tree & presents!!
Dad & I posing for the auto-shot

Table including the glowing Christmas Tree from Barb

One of the hampers for the shop suppliers complete with Mum's knitted Santa

We've put the tree away today, it's left quite a hole in the lounge room. Looking forward to seeing some snow pictures from England! Happy end of Holidays!

Happy New Year

Last year we had a houseful of visitors (hello Garth, David, Coral & Co), this year we just took it easy! Chalk spent the morning playing golf with Stuart while I worked (status quo here then!). We spent the afternoon at Balmoral Beach using our snorkels and masks that Santa delivered to us. We had no fixed agenda at all and stayed on the beach until around 6pm.

We had been invited to spend the night with friends down in Milsons Point but had big plans for New Year's Day so wanted to keep NYE simple. We enjoyed our own little party of treat food before heading out on our bikes for the 9pm fireworks. We cycled around Wollstonecraft looking for our best vantage spot and decided on the overpass at the train station. We could see the Bridge well but not too much of the other fireworks so that spot was ruled out for midnight!

We parked the bikes up for the night and cracked open a bottle of champagne to have my new favourite drink - Shambles (redbull and champagne) and kicked back on the sofa...we got a little too relaxed and the combination of having been swimming and on the beach for the afternoon had worn us out so we took the easy option and watched the midnight fireworks from the comfort of our sofa!

So New Year, New Year Resolutions??? The year is off to a great start with Chalk up and out of bed at 7.30am New Year's Day....I kid you not he's like a new man! The bikes were hooked up to the car and we were off to Dee Why...we wanted to see in the New Year with a big bike ride...around Cottage Point (which is relatively flat) near to the 20km mark I asked what the plan was and were we doing a loop or was there a turnaround point? Chalk had decided that he wanted to cycle around 40km (25mile) that day so we could turn around now...or we could continue and have the satisfaction of having done a hill climb that Lance Armstrong would struggle with!! (Just kidding it was tough though - 3km climb I didn't see Chalky the whole way up and it wasn't because I was in front! but when I did get to the top it turns out that he hadn't been there very long at all!) We had now reached the turnaround point and had the fun job of getting back to the car! All in all we did 50km (30 miles!)

You can't help but be pleased with yourself to think you have given up getting drunk on NYE to be out in the sunshine of New Year's Day, exercising and setting the standard for things to come in 2008! After the ride we made a few calls to wish Aussie's Happy New Year and found out Trav, Dan & Claudine were in Manly - right where we were heading to! We met up with them for a bite to eat before going onto the beach to see Sarah, James, Jayne, Kat & Charlotte (Karl was still throwing up from too much wine the night before, how virtuous did we feel!).

A fantastic day - thanks Chalky for pushing me to ride up the hill. All the best to everyone for 2008. PS the great firework shots are compliments of Trav!

Karen Ball & Boys in Town

Craig, Kaz & Chalk

Craig, Kaz & Bek

What a special Christmas to have our lovely mate Ballenium in Sydney. Karen & I used to work at Sony together back in 2000 - 2001, then we left to goto England. We visited Kaz in Birmingham (her home town) in July 2001 and then next saw her when she visited us in Leeds in 2005 complete with a bump under her jumper that turned out to be Jenson!

L to R: Sophie, Bek, Ballo, Siobhan & Kaz Sales

Now she also has Ashton to complete her family and we got to meet them over the Christmas Break! It's great having the internet, mobile phones and digital cameras because even though Jenson is 2 and Ashton is almost 1 seeing them for the first time was a little strange as you felt as though you knew them already but of course seeing them in person is just the best!

Ashton, Kaz & Jenson

Kaz is a great mum and has 2 very special little boys! We had a night out in Sydney at the Opera Bar and a quick visit to Loretta & Bob's to meet the boys.

L to R: Ballo, Ashton, Soph, Bek & Kaz

Love ya Ballo! xxxxx