Luckiest Girl in The World

Football girls, Good Food & Wine Show, Fancy Dress and a new niece!

2008-06-22T20:41:00.008+10:00

Phillipa Louise Chambers

You can see there has been lots going on, where should I start? With the most important news then...Ben & Kylie have new jobs....mummy & daddy. On Thursday 12th June Phillipa Louise Chambers was born. I can't remember all the stats, she was born in the afternoon and she's pretty cute. Here's some photos to confirm.

So we'll work backwards from that then, Chalky went to another Fancy Mess party...Retro theme, of course we managed to pull an outfit together with help from Robyn & Nicko's dressing up box.

Today (Sunday 22nd) Sarah & I went to the Food & Wine Show at Darling Harbour, we literally ate our way around the convention centre tasting all kinds of olive oils, breads, dips, apples, wine wine and more wine, and all kinds of other snack treats. There were 2 features for the day, a cooking session to learn how to cook a stuffed spatchcock, mediterranean vegetables and apple pies. I was really looking forward to it, I've never cooked a small bird before, actually I've never cooked a big bird either. And even after the class I still haven't, apparently the fridges weren't doing their job right and we couldn't risk it instead we had some lamb to cook...the lamb was delicious - but I still need to sort out the birds. Another time I guess. The other feature for the day was the Gordon Ramsay session, it wasn't an intimate session, we shared him with 2,500 others and mostly screaming desperate women - it was a little embarrassing but worth it to see him and watch him cook. So now Sarah & I are hoping to win one of the competitions that we entered otherwise we've both signed up for lots of random emails!

Football is still dominating our weekends, last weekend we even played in the rain. Chalky's team won a game this weekend (the first for the year) Mitch has hung up his premiership boots and has now joined the over 35's, this made a difference this weekend. Chalky's contribution was only from the sidelines or putting off the keeper as he's recovering from a blow to the ribs and hamstring. His girls on the other hand won again...Div2:9-1, Div1: 2-0, last weekend the Div2 game was captured on film.

Div 2 backline in action

Jenny (Div 4 helping out) gracefully winning the ball

Nellie super striker making a run

Nellie...shots...scores - please note Grandma keeper!

Nellie gets her hatrick...the keeper is broken. After getting her hatrick this week she scored 5!

Football football and more football.

2008-06-09T15:34:00.004+10:00

So football is fair well dominating our time at the moment, Chalky trains the girls on a Wednesday and Bek goes to training (with a different manager) Chalky trains on Thursday, we sometimes have make up games on a Friday, Chalky plays on a Saturday and manages his sides on a Sunday whilst Bek is also playing. On top of that Chalky does the announcing in the Oaks on a Saturday afternoon for the 11 men's teams that have played and then on a Sunday for the 4 girls teams and 2 alternating men's fixtures, all in all it's quite a commitment.

The announcing involves giving the results for all the fixtures including the awards for 'Man' and 'Mug' of the day, both have which have to race down a beer against each other. It's good fun especially when you get some funny stories as to the Mugs, ie blokes missing the game to watch Beauty and the Beast on ice!!! Or getting a girls number in a bar then projectile vomiting all over her ( cos we are a class bunch).

All the women's teams are going well but unfortunately the only team in the club to not have won a game is Chalky's over 35's team, to be fair they've not played too bad and have never lost a game by more than 2 goals but just can't get that elusive win. In good news bad news Chalky tells me he was having a fantastic game the other week until he had to come off with a hamstring injury (not for the first time) .

Anyway here's a clip of Chalky doing the awards on s Sunday afternoon when it's a bit quieter than the Saturday awards. What you don't see on this brief clip is that Bek had to drink a schooner for being honourary 'Man' of the day by virtue of being the only player from her team to come back to the pub, to be fair she's being the only player a few times this season but I've been ordered by her not to keep making her race beers down in the middle of the pub.

It has been a lot of hard work the football season so far & I'll be quite glad when it ends not least for the fact that that's the week when we'll be getting on a plane and coming back to England for a month, Chalky's booked from Aug 28th to Sept 23rd but Bek has still to book as she's got staff travel with Qantas courtesy of Ben who's just been promoted to Captain, this means that Bek will pay 1/4 of what I will yet she is now guaranteed Business Class, imagine my delight!!!

We also met some of the Billy Elliot cast recently - here's Bek with Richard who plays Billy's dad in the show, he grew up in Otley and we ended up drinking with him until the early hours of the morning - chatting mostly about Leeds and Leeds United...

Anzac Day, 2 up and Isla's Birthday

2008-04-27T17:59:00.008+10:00

Sarah & Bek with some coin winnings, my first bet I won $5 off Sarah!

Betting around the ring

Friday was Anzac Day so we gathered a few friends together and headed to Cabana Bar for 2-up and beers and a few of us had some food - more on that later.

For those who don't know what 2 up is, two-up is thought to have originated in the early nineteenth century on the Australian goldfields. The game had its hey-day with the diggers stationed in Flanders in the first world war. It remained popular for Australian troops during WWII and is an institution in pubs and clubs on Anzac Day. Two-up is legal only on Anzac Day, it can be played with either two or three coins (again more on that later), "Come in spinner" is the call for the coins to be tossed, The object of the game is to spin a pair of heads and if you're playing it on any other day of the year than Anzac Day you're a cockatoo if you are the person who looks out for the police since playing would be illegal.

Jayne & Sarah

And if you're not sure what Anzac Day is about, it is probably Australia's most important national occasion. It marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War. ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The soldiers in those forces quickly became known as ANZACs, and the pride they soon took in that name endures to this day.

Chalky & Karl

Roxey, Rob & Dom were first at the club and Roxey was first to toss the coins for 2 up, here she is getting her lesson from the ringer or boxer (person who has organised the game).

Roxey learning how to hold the kip and toss the coins

With $5 Blue Tongue Beer we were all getting quite merry and Chalky decided on doing sobriety tests every hour, lucky for us he failed first in most cases forgetting that the hour mark had passed so we didn't have to 'walk the line!'

Chalky celebrating a win

Some of us were winners some were not so lucky but with only a $5 stake we were all betting within our limits. As the day wore on the most challenging job was remembering who you had placed your bet with!!

Chalky disputing that a coin was on the rope and it should be a re-toss

The ringer reminding Chalky that he had a bet on heads and the coins have landed nicely for him!

Chalk & Sarah enjoying their win - even if the coin was on the rope!

Most of us know it makes sense to have some food while drinking, the food will help soak up some alcohol and besides you get hungry. For Anzac Day the bar had a bbq going and some steaks sizzling so Roxey, myself and everyone else ordered and ate food (all bar Chalky who said eating was cheating) having said that he did try to steal quite a few mouthfuls from me! Then as the day went on we moved bars and by this stage it was now dinner time so a few of us ordered more food, all except Chalky?! Now those who know Chalky well know that he does love his food but on Anzac Day I think he was loving the beer just a little more!

We've had the first fine weekend in 3 but football games were still cancelled as the grounds were too wet! What a nuisance. It's also Isla's birthday today so Happy 2nd Birthday Isla hope you love all your presents, we know you managed a sneak peak earlier this week...we'll speak to you when you get back from holiday!

Absence makes the heart grow fonder...

2008-04-13T19:22:00.010+10:00

Well what's the lesson? Shall we have a drought on blog entries and then just do a text one - we get more comments that way. So this week has been full on - we've been to the opening of the new Great Southern Oceans display at Taronga Zoo. We saw a seal show, had a bbq dinner and some animal encounters while we were eating. Link to the new exhibit: http://www.zoo.nsw.gov.au/taronga-zoo/news/media-releases/great-southern-oceans.aspx we'll take you when you come and visit as my work have sponsored the display and I now have access to gold passes to the zoo! We got to see some of the animals on the way to the exhibit. Pictures and videos below.

Then on Friday we had tickets to see Graham Murphy's Swan Lake Ballet at the Opera House. We had dinner in a new bar inside Luna Park called Deck. The view of course was awesome and we were just a short ferry ride over to the Opera House. As this was Chalk's first ballet I went with the cheap seats - and they were partial view, after the first Act the woman who was sat next to us didn't come back so we slid along and had a better view. The Ballet was awesome, such a great setting and of course Chalk managed to be front of the line to get us a champagne or white wine in the breaks! Chalk was also in fine form with his clapping and is laying claim to be the 'principal clap starter' on most occasions, I'll also award him with principal whistler too! The culture didn't finish on Friday night - I was off to Billy Elliot on Saturday night with a few girlfriends, we met for Tapas first with some great Sangria and then went to the show. Of course I've already seen Billy before and it was just as good the 2nd time around. I'd had a tip off from Simon that the cast all goto The Chamberlain after the show for a quick drink...so I was on the look out. I chatted to Mrs Wilkinson and Billy's older brother - they were so pumped after the show but still had time to chat which was awesome.

The rest of the weekend was dominated by football, Chalky played on Saturday, managed on Sunday (his 2 girls teams), and I played my first football game. The North Sydney girls are awesome - Div 4 won 3-1, Div 3 won 7-1, Div 2 won 5-0, Div 1 won 8-0. I really enjoyed my match, despite the fact that we had a thunderstorm during the match...lightening and thunder and lots of rain, at least it wasn't cold. Then our poor linesman collapsed and needed medical assistance.

And of course the 13th April is mum's birthday, we celebrated with breakfast at Trav & Dan's new apartment, it was lovely to all catch up. Kylie is really pregnant now and it was great to see both her and Ben. Happy Birthday Mum - enjoy Billy Elliot (Chalk & I got mum 2 tickets to Billy for her birthday she'll be off there next Wednesday 23rd April.

We are still here

2008-04-06T21:04:00.003+10:00

And we'll do a post soon...we're off to the Zoo this Thursday for the opening of the Great Southern Ocean and the football season has started so we'll be bombarding with those updates.
Love to everyone especially the Mortimers!

Some stuff that has been going on...Adele had a little girl Jodie Elizabeth, Maureen & John were over visiting so I caught up with them.

Robbie & Nick had a little boy...Cameron Toby and he's lovely.

Mum and Dad have sampled Skype and want to get on line now.

Ben has got his Captaincy and will be flying out of Sydney so it's full on training now for the next few months.

I've now done 6 months at my job and have passed my probation.

Weekend Cooking

2008-02-05T22:08:00.001+11:00

Well it's been raining in Sydney this weekend...what to do?

Chalky came up with the plan - lets do some cooking together. What to cook? Lasagna, okay that's not too difficult, lets make it a challenge, so from the man who hasn't ever cooked a lasagna lets cook it all from scratch...and make the pasta!

So out came the Jamie Oliver cookbook, shopping list compiled and the fun began. I'll let the pictures and video tell the story.

the fast red pasta machine

Cookbook

Measuring the flour

Mixing in the eggs

The finished dough, my Jamie Oliver!

Drying out the pasta

Preparing the lasagna

The finished product..bon appetite

Then today it was pancake day...a reason for a cook off in the house!

Guess whose pancake is the big one...

And flipping the pancake.

Skype Crazy...Isla comes to life

2008-02-03T11:55:00.000+11:00

Step 1 was to get Joan confident with using a computer - this started on her holiday here in 2006 when she kept her own blog.
Step 2 was to get Joan to buy a laptop so we could email her and she could follow our blog
Step 3 was to get Les & Andy to get a laptop so they could do the same
Step 4 was to get everyone using Skype so that we could talk for free and video call as well

It's all happenning!

Here's a shot we grabbed from one of the recent calls,

Isla knows who we are and blows us kisses, tries to kiss us on the screen, brush our hair and give us a hug! She also entertains us with making a cup of tea, giving us a hat parade and even once throwing a paddy!

Joan has also been making full use of all her digital technologies as for Isla she's been practicing how to put on make-up when she gets older.

This morning we had a conference call with Les & Joan. Who would have thought it would all catch on?

As you would expect Gadget Garth has been on Skype for quite a while, the downside to that is when we catch him in his boxer shorts having a nightcap chatting with us!

Chalky says that now everyone's on Skype and we can talk for free all the time all that everyone else has to do is become a bit more intersesting so they've actually got something to say!!!

Australia Day - Adele becomes an Aussie

2008-01-28T14:49:00.000+11:00

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!

2008-01-23T22:14:00.000+11:00

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

2008-01-13T13:30:00.000+11:00

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

2008-01-06T17:02:00.003+11:00

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

2008-01-03T22:57:00.000+11:00

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

2008-01-03T22:45:00.000+11:00

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

Christmas & Boxing Days

2007-12-30T11:07:00.000+11:00

As you do on Christmas morning we got up and enjoyed some smoked salmon & cream cheese and then played golf (9 holes) at Lane Cove after opening 1 or 2 presents each...snorkels & masks and new golf shirts! I was a little uneasy about being on the golf course, not paying for the round and frightened that someone was going to come out and tell us to bugger off but of course that didn't happen - there were a few other punters having a round and it was very relaxed and enjoyable. The first 2 holes Chalk was on fire and playing some great golf - I wasn't but maybe I was tired from the 18 holes I played the day before with dad!

After golf we came home for more present opening and some croissants for breakfast before packing up a picnic to take to Balmoral Beach to meet Sarah & James. We shared a bottle of Champagne and an hour on the beach, it wasn't the hottest Christmas Day (good since mum was doing a hot dinner for Chalky) but Chalk still got in the sea and enjoyed using his new snorkel and mask - it seems the fish were off for Christmas as well and he only saw 1 big fish. Our next stop was at Mum & Dad's for more present opening and the full Christmas Dinner complete with mum's extra special Oriental Loin of Pork, some greek lamb and roast veggies! Trav had set a lovely table (sorry no pictures available they are all on Trav's camera) and had waited all day for us to arrive before opening any presents - such will power! You had better watch out when you come and visit as Chalk & I now have matching white elasticised towels with a velcro catch to wear after our showers! You'll all be jealous! After dinner a few of Trav's friends called over before they all headed out to a party leaving mum, dad, Chalk & I to battle it out in scrabble, no battle really I kicked all their butts. By this stage it was around 9pm so we started to try to call The Williams Family to wish everyone there a Merry Santa day but couldn't get through, we went home and finally got to speak to everyone about an hour and a half later!It was a great Christmas Day - thanks to Garth for the flowers, Joan for all her lovely gifts, mum, dad and Trav for their gifts too - we were spoiled!

Boxing Day was our traditional outing to the Randwick Races, the day was blazing in sunshine! We met up with a few friends, a few of us managing to get an upgrade to members - thanks Gareth and it was a very enjoyable day!

So what are you all up to for NYE? We'll be somewhere near this!

Christmas in December and Bek's December Birthday

2007-12-23T22:43:00.000+11:00

We had the Chambers Family Christmas Dinner on Saturday night - the first time we've all got together this year, unfortunately we didn't get to eat all together as Lachlan & Hamish had to go to bed but we managed to be all in the same place at the same time!Before Justin, Lisa, Lachlan and Hamish left we exchanged our Secret Santa gifts - thanks to Hamish and Lachlan for handing out the presents...some Secret Santa shoppers had help thanks to suggestions - how else would Santa know that Chalk was after a digital chess clock? and other Santa's did their own shopping giving some great gifts - thanks to my Secret Santa I can now out gadget Garth with my new digital photo frame - it's awesome and I love it.Mum did her signature Oriental Loin of Pork our traditional Christmas Dinner, mother nature put on a gorgeous sunset, Ben & Kylie set a lovely table and we had a great night.

After dinner Ben, Kylie, Mum, Dad, Chalky & I tried our best at the Good Weekend quiz - 45 questions of which Dad correctly answered the most - I guess that comes with age & experience!

So how is it my birthday in December? Today I officially ended celebrating my birthday by going to see Billy Elliot the musical at the Capitol Theatre - thanks to Chalky. Sarah & I absolutely loved the show, our hands were sore from clapping and we could have stayed and watched it all again - if you get the chance to see the show I highly recommend it (and I'm a pretty good authority on what makes a good musical!)

Still celebrating Bek's Birthday!

2007-12-19T21:31:00.000+11:00

Heading out to sail

Yes it was Chalky's Birthday but I still had a present to redeem from the Williams Family - Sailing on Sydney Harbour. The weather has been a little dodgy here lately with lots of rain in the form of sudden thunderstorms so I wasn't quite sure about being out on the water but Sydney turned on a perfect summer's day and I headed down to Darling Harbour to meet up with my fellow sailors and they all were fellas!

One of the Sydney to Hobart Boats

We were a little hands on - putting up sails and winching ropes. It was a very enjoyable afternoon so thank you Lesley, Andrew, Isla & Nell.

Chalky's Birthday

2007-12-16T19:29:00.000+11:00

Celebrations started a little early when Chalky was too excited to sleep and got up at 5 o Clock. His attempts to be as quiet as a little mouse where ruined when he blew his nose and woke me up at 5.30. I went into the lounge to see him watching football on the TV so we decided on an early present opening ceremony. It was quite a short opening ceremony as only myself and the 'Dad of the Year' (with Grandad) had got him anything there on time!! As my main present to him was a major contribution to his new Palm Smartphone (phone, camera, internet, email, organiser, mobile tv etc) that was to be picked up later in the day there was no contest as to which present put the biggest smile no his face.

http://www.palm.com/au/products/smartphones/treo500v/?creativeID=AU_HB_R-Treo500v#

This was his new golf bag and buggy from Garth & Grandad. Ths bag has designated fur lined valubles pocket, insulated cooler section, separate putter holder for quick access, individual club dividers as well as numerous other pockets and external ball and tee holders etc.
http://www.nickentgolf.com/pr_ac_cooler-bag.shtml
As such after a lovely breakfast at our newest favourite local cafe we headed up the Northern Beaches to play 18 holes of golf at Mona Vale.
http://www.mvgc.com.au/welcome/index.mhtml

The golf was a bit of a mixed bag but did get better towards the end, Chalky was pleased however that although he didn't play as well as he'd like he did some great shots with a variety of different clubs including pitcher, 7 iron, 4 iron!! 7 wood and 3 wood. You may notice the omission of the putter from that list!!!!!

For the evening we went to the Mosman Hotel with Mum & Dad, Trav & Dan for steak & chips etc followed (& preceeded) by Champagne & Birthday Cake and presents from the Chambers family.

All in all a very good day.

We're back - did you miss us?

2007-11-08T18:26:00.000+11:00

Sorry for our lack of blogging lately, I've been busy settling into my new job, I flirted with Facebook for a while and we've been doing lots on our weekends, so much so that we've been too worn out to blog.

Do I mention the Rugby World Cup? Or has everyone moved on from that? That took up quite a few weekends, very late nights and a new world record was set for shoe shopping - for those of you who have been through it with me - Chalky shopping for shoes isn't the most fun - he tries loads on, jumps and walks around in the store and then decides that they aren't right. NOT any more - we headed out for what I thought was towel shopping but ended up in a mens shoe shop where the impossible happened - it took a total of about 5 minutes, Chalky had shopped, paid for and we were out the door - new shoes in the bag! And the best part - they're great shoes and we got a voucher to buy another pair within the month so he was right back there a few weeks later to pick up a new pair.

We spent a weekend with Ben & Kylie at Lake Macquarie - Kylie & I headed off to work on the Friday and Chalky & Ben hit the golf club. The weather was a little dodgy so they apparently did the trip from the golf club a few times before they bit the bullet and teed off. They only got 9 holes in and the highlight of the day - the hole with the Kangaroos.

One of our favourite 'cheap and cheerful' spots has re-opened since its refurbishment I think only Les & Andy might have been taken there in 2000 and we felt it was only right that we had a night down there to check it out again. I am talking about Kirribilli RSL - RSL clubs are Australian Institutions they were originally set up as drinking clubs for return servicemen & women and are well known for cheap drinks and food. The Kirribilli Club has prime real estate looking out to the Harbour Bridge and Luna Park. We decided that it only made sense for us to get lifetime memberships since we'll certainly be frequenting there with visitors and it gives us first option on NYE and other harbour events.

So we had a meal there on their first night of service - it wasn't without incident but that's to be expected when things are new, it worked to our advantage - we paid for 2 main meals, had 3 delivered to our table and were also compensated with a free dessert!

Then as you do when it's Sunday morning and glorious blue skies we headed out for breakfast to Cottage Point - Chalky hadn't been there before (neither had I) so we chanced our luck and enjoyed a delicious breakfast in beautiful surroundings. We took the scenic route home and stopped off at a view point in the National Park - Palm beach to your right and the central coast to your left, stunning. That day it was also an open day at most of the sailing clubs so we headed back to Middle Harbour to check it out, we were almost too late so we had a drink at the bar while we decided what to do for the rest of the day when they told us that there would be one more yacht going out that day if we wanted to be on it. So we jumped at the chance. It was a 40ft yacht and it was awesome. We both had a go at steering and at doing various jobs on the ropes to put sails up or take them down.
Above is Balmoral (Bathers is the white building) from our yacht.

So we have been doing all the things you'd expect in Sydney. We've also started a course of Golf Lessons so those of you who play had better watch out next time we're on the course together. Life is fabulous down under - hope you're all well and we'll keep up with more regular blogging again!

Fantastic Salads

2007-10-04T07:38:00.001+10:00

Last night I went for a walk with Trav, Dan & Dan's sister Claudine over near Darlinghurst - Trav set a fairly mean pace and we walked down to Woolloomooloo then back up to the city and back to Darlinghurst. I now understand why he walked at such a pace, we had THE BEST salad Sydney has on offer at Tropicana Caffe website: http://www.tropicanacaffe.com/ not to mention the very good potato wedges...

We might even make a Wednesday walk part of our weekly routine, next week we're going to walk and then enjoy the Sydney Noodle Markets - we went there last year with Joan!

Have a good day - it's SO HOT here it was in the 30's yesterday!

A Long Weekend

2007-10-01T21:00:00.000+10:00

CHAMPION!

It's been a bank holiday here this weekend and the first Friday of me working at my new job, Chalky met me on Town Hall steps and we stopped for one or two drinks on the walk home which went through the city then over the Harbour Bridge. We decided to catch a train home from Milsons Point.

Saturday night was Chalky's Football Presentation Night - even though Chalk's contribution was limited by his injuries during the season the team still won the competition and Chalky collected his Tankard with pride! The location was the Museum of Contemporary Art which is near the Quay, the drinks flowed all night and the finger food kept on coming. We both had a great night although we didn't leave together...Chalky decided that he wanted to party on with a few of the boys but that was short lived when he arrived home around 1/2 an hour after me - he had a little trouble getting into places...it can't have been due to dress code - we bought him a new shirt for the night - what do you think?

Chalky & some team mates

After a lie in on Sunday morning I met up with the girls for a Sparkling High Tea at Mosman, we met near Sarah's old apartment and walked to the restaurant (sort of a justification for all the cakes we were about to eat!). The sparkling part comes from the sparkling wine we enjoyed before our tea. The location was awesome and the food and tea delicious, oh and of course the company perfect!

Girls at High Tea

Marilyn, Karen & I finished the evening by having a chick flick night to see Stardust and a bite to eat at New Orleans Cafe in Crows Nest. So what was Chalky up to? It was the Rugby League grand final here this weekend and Manly were in the final so Chalk met up with a few of the boys and watched the game from a pub in Manly - we were reunited at 2.30am when he came home!

The view from High Tea

What to do on Monday? Well Chalky wasn't going to be up too early so I went to the gym for a workout giving Chalk a get up time of 11.30am - we had a date for a cooked breakfast at home. We cleaned off the table on the balcony and got the barbeque fired up, we cooked all of breakfast on the barbeque except the obligatory baked beans. Breakfast was delicious and it was lovely just to chill together at home! The boys did call Chalk to try to entice him over for more drinks and sport on TV but he turned them down and we spent the day together.

Chalky & his beloved Full English Breakfast - cooked Aussie style

Back to the Humdrum (and the Opera House)

2007-09-25T20:20:00.000+10:00

The holiday is over and we're back to life as normal, so what have we been doing?

Dusting off the golf clubs and having a few rounds at Lane Cove & Cammeray
Starting a new job (Bek) and having an RDO in the first week!
Being front row centre in the Opera House Concert Hall to see The Whitlams playing with the Sydney Symphony and hob nobbing with the guest performer TORCHER in the Opera Bar afterwards
Enjoying lunch in Manly by the Ferry Wharf
Considering walking from Paddington to Wollstonecraft after failing to hail a taxi (Chalky)

This is a link to YouTube it's The Whitlams rehearsing before the show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QffXciakjU

I'm enjoying my new job, the team will certainly lift me to a new level of management, I have sussed out where I can shower and park my bike so the next step is to ride into work. It was great on Thursday night to meet Chalky after work and head straight to the Opera House for the concert, I also got my first pay packet on Thursday so we tested out one of the restaurants along the Quay.

It's a long weekend here this weekend and we've got a Football end of season dinner on Saturday night so we'll have some party shots to post from that.

Crocodile Hunting

2007-09-23T21:31:00.000+10:00

On our taxi ride from the airport to Airlie Beach we were lucky enough to have a local on board and we asked for his recommendation for what else to do while we were on holiday - he suggested the ECO Friendly Crocodile Safari on the Proserpine River so we swapped our swimming costumes for camouflage and headed west.The trip included a ride in a boat up and down the river spotting crocs, we were the last onto the boat and strangely enough the front seats were still free so we took our perch and Chalky got his binoculars out (such a well used leaving present) and off we set.

The guides were very knowledgeable and these were wild animals we were seeing, as the weather was just starting to warm up there was a very good chance that the crocs would be out on the banks absorbing some sun, we were not let down, we saw about 8 crocodiles and other bird life along the river. Luckily!?! none of the crocs were hungry so we didn't see any chomping action - much to my disappointment.

We did get into the chomping action when we returned to camp as there was quite a bbq feast for us to enjoy! This was possibly the best meal we'd had all week. After lunch we headed out on a tractor train to spot some of the other wildlife in the mangroves - this time were were really trying to spot for snakes, along the way the guide gave us a lesson in Australian Bush including how you can use the leaves from one tree to work up a soapy lather to clean yourself like the Aborigines and how to get water from a paperbark tree.

We didn't spot any snakes but we did see some wallabies, brolgas and other birds.

We returned to the camp and some freshly made Damper & Bush Tea was available for us to enjoy - this video shows the guide stirring the tea for us!

This was the end of our holiday, we spent the last few hours by the Lagoon having a swim before our flight home. The holiday was fantastic, we loved swimming with the fish, chilling out and getting out of Sydney - I am sure we'll be seeing more of the Queensland coast line over the years!

There seems to be a new holiday trend that no one had told us about - it's Theme Dressing on our day out to the reef we saw and snapped it and on this trip there was another Theme dresser, we didn't manage a snap of this guy, I am sure we could have asked him and he would have happily posed but we were just too frightened - we don't need a new best friend!

Fly us into Fantasea - YEAH!

2007-09-18T20:50:00.001+10:00

Fish on the reef - can you ever bore of these shots?

Hardy Reef & Reefworld from the air

We'll start by saying hope you're all enjoying the updates from our holiday and if you weren't already jealous you will be after this day of adventure!!!

First Officer Chalky

After hearing about Trav & Dan's fantastic New Zealand holiday and how they took a helicopter ride to the top of a glacier we were determined to do some activity on holiday in the air but not counting the flight to get to our holiday destination. There were helicopter flights on offer but we decided on a seaplane trip to the outer Barrier Reef and a day on the Reefworld pontoon on Hardy Reef, we would spend the day snorkelling, I was planning on giving Scuba diving a go, enjoy a buffet lunch and then cruise back to town.

It was another early start but Chalky wasn't fazed, he was quite excited about the flight...there were 2 other people + the pilot on the plane and we were sat in the front row, Chalky had a birds eye view out the front window and out the side window. The flight took us over Airlie, the Whitsundays, Hill Inlet, Whitehaven Beach & Hill Inlet, and the Reef.

Hill Inlet & Whitehaven from the air

The pilot seemed in no hurry and encouraged us to look out for whales, dolphins and if they looked like they were going to play he would take us down for a closer look... we did see a few whales - a mother & her calf but they were happy to just to float at the top and weren't interesting in jumping about, we also saw a few other whales and dolphins and sea turtles but we won't bore you with those aerial shots when we have loads from the water...

Groper in the water

Flying was the way to go as we were first on the pontoon - we got to see a big Queensland Groper fish called Mildred enjoying a few bits of frozen fish...this shot is her opening her mouth for a feed, I wish we'd got a video of it but all we've got is this shot!

This shot is not just gorgeous blue water but millions of little fish

And one naughty fish chasing them all away

I missed out on scuba diving - we needed to book in advance - so we had great fun snorkelling together, the water was so warm and the day was perfect, you had to remind yourself that we were about 30kilometres from land and swimming in the Coral Sea.

Chalky swimming into the horizon

more fish shots - we've got around 250!

Crusing home

Chalky with Chalkies Beach behind him

Video of Chalky out on the reef apologies if you can't hear him but the camera was in the waterproof casing.

Hanging Out on Holiday

2007-09-15T18:11:00.000+10:00

Airlie Beach & Coral Sea

We decided that we deserved at least one lie in while on holiday so we had nothing 'officially' planned for 1 day, we would just hang out, go for a walk, swim, read and relax.

With Whitehaven Beach just having the most perfect sand in the world and us staying at Airlie Beach you would expect that we wouldn't be away from the sand and surf, however that is not the case, Airlie Beach has a coral type sand, which is not so white and appealing so the council has built a lagoon right on the waterside - a perfect location for Joan to enjoy, grass on one side and sand on the other, lots of shade.

We did go for a walk to Cannonvale Beach, the walk had a few nice views on the way but didn't completely captivate us so at the end when there were no cafes or gorgeous beach in site Chalky had lost interest and we ended up catching the bus back to Airlie where we had some lunch before making a few videos of us having fun...

Chalk swimming in the pool

Bek doing tumbleturns in the lagoon

Chalky doing a handstand, he never believes me when I tell him that his legs aren't straight, now we have the evidence!

And finally shark Chalky.....

Whitehaven Beach, Scuba Diving and Snorkelling

2007-09-14T17:14:00.000+10:00

Chalky on Whitehaven Beach

So holidays are supposed to be about lie-ins and taking it easy, right? Well those of you who know Chalk would expect that, but when you're in paradise with the Coral Sea on your doorstep, the Whitsunday Islands being the only interruption to the calm sea and one of the 7 natural Wonders of the World, The Great Barrier Reef, just behind them sleep falls down the list of priorities!

(L) The Coral Sea, view from the Balcony,

above: Illusion pool

Our apartment was everything we were expecting and had everything we needed. The ensuite had shutters that you could pull back so that while you were in the bath all you could see is the sea. The swimming pool was an illusion pool so it dropped over to a waterfall and down to a second pool below it. Anyway, we hadn't come all this way to swim in a pool we can do that in West Ryde!

We made friends with Cassie in the local booking office and on her recommendation booked a day out to Whitehaven Beach taking in some snorkelling, optional Scuba Diving and a cruise past quite a few of the islands. So it was a 9am pick-up from our hotel and down to the Marina to board our transport for the day - Mantaray a cruiser along with about 25 others to enjoy the day. We cruised past some of the Islands with resorts on them and were mesmorised by the calmness of the water and the azure colour. Chalky put his hand up to do a scuba dive later on that day, (he had expressed an interest and when they mentioned that it was on offer that day - down from $70 to $45 he was a shoe in, but more on the scuba dive later.)

above: Hill Inlet (r) Us enjoying a swim at Whitehaven

First stop was Tongue Bay where the boat was moored and we boarded dingy to Hill Inlet, a stunning inlet located at the northern end of Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island, as the tide shifts, the golden sand and blue hues of the inlet blend seamlessly to create a breathtaking mosaic.

(l)Bek underwater... (above) us with Chalkies Beach behind us

The only thing you can say about Whitehaven beach is that it's better than Blackpool!! OK that's not the only thing, it is thee most beautiful beach in the world (regularly voted as such) with perfect white silica sand that is so fine it doesn't heat up at all and you can polish scratches out of your watch face. The water is just the clearest, purist sea water you've ever seen, it's all at a beautiful temperature and you feel like you never want to leave. So yeah, s'awright.

After we were dragged away from Whitehaven back to the boat for a Mediterranean lunch then it was time for those brave souls who were scuba diving to start their briefing (and signing their life away and any incling of responsibility of the operator!!)

Chalky getting geared up for diving

With all the preamble out of the way and the test routines which sorted the wheat from the chaff (or rather the blokes from the birds) our numbers were down to 2 divers.

Put simply scuba diving is a bit like holding your breath and diving as deep as you dare to get a good look underwater, but put more accurately it's feeling like you're a great big, if slightly clumsy fish, being able to follow the fish as they meander down the sea bottom, all the while amongst the colour and splendor that is the barrier reef makes you feel awe inspired. The only other time I feel so lucky and thankful is when I look in the mirror each morning!!

To use another Blackpool comparison, it would be like going on th Arabian Derby and chucking your ball in the 3 furlong hole avery time!!

When my Scuba time was up then I joined Bek in a spot of snorkelling, she directed to me a boat where 3 blokes would feed the fish when you swam by so that you were suddenly in the middle of a school of fish with them sliding by your skin, a bit spooky but good fun.

We both had an absolutely fantastic day and finished it off in a suitably athletic fashion by having a few beers (in the bar that Mathew McConaughey and Kate Hudson frequented whilst filming here) and getting an Indian takeaway delivered to our apartment. Well we had treated ourselves to a lie in tomorrow

We had use of an underwater camera compliments of my old employer - Sony, as you can tell we had lots of fun with it and you've got lots more treats to come...we're going to do a post for each adventure on our holiday and then publish one entry a day.

Holiday Time

2007-09-08T18:39:00.000+10:00

We're leaving tomorrow - we're off to the Whitsundays for a few nights to unwind and relax it's been ages since we've had a Bek & Chalky holiday and we're both really looking forward to it.Nothing much is planned but we've packed snorkels and swimming gear! We're leaving the bikes in Sydney, no bike riding for the next few days - that's a relief to Chalk who headed out with a group today and did 8okm, 50miles with an average speed of 27km/h, I just did a spin class!

We'll obviously be blogging when we get home, to give you a taster....

Sunday Bike Ride to Manly

2007-09-03T22:13:00.000+10:00

Manly Beach

Something that we thought would just be a dream turned into a reality on Sunday - we rode our bikes to Manly. For those of you who don't know the geography of Sydney from where we live we had quite a descent down to the Spit Bridge before a big climb up through Seaforth before again descending down to sea level at Manly and then of course we had to get home again!

We had the bikes serviced last week so they were in top shape and we set off around 1pm, Chalky carrying the backpack with swimming trunks and towels packed.

Looking down from Dobroyd Head Manly Wharf side

We made it to Manly - the views along the way were stunning and we were both pleased with our effort climbing up through Seaforth. We had the same agenda as almost a year ago when Chalky & his mum headed to Manly - food first! We enjoyed a sandwich before heading back to the beach, by this time most of the heat had gone from the day and so we didn't get wet, we just enjoyed stretching out on the sand visualising the ride home, both not wanting to express our doubts and fears about what lay ahead and how challenging it might be.

Chalky stretching out after the ride

In all honesty the ride home was not as tough as we had thought, we covered 40km, 25 miles for the day and both deserved the barbeque meal we went to Mum & Dads for afterwards.

We're now looking forward to even warmer weather and our next trip to Manly that will include a swim!

Goto Boxing Day - Fun with Karl & Jayne for shots of us swimming in the pool.

Let's Get Dressed Up - Lidia Is 30!

2007-09-03T21:54:00.000+10:00

Marilyn's flatmate and now our friend Lidia had her birthday on the weekend and we decided to make it a great excuse for a girls night out. The party was Wonderland themed so you were to get dressed in anything Fairytale!

Sophie came down from the coast for the weekend and on Friday night we caught up with Mick & Michelle, Karen & Cammy in North Sydney. Saturday Sophie and I had quite a shopping and Sydney agenda set, we walked the Bay at Drummoyne before having a spot of lunch at Birkenhead then onto a new chocolate shop that Soph had found - Belle Fleur in Balmain. The store was amazing, I had to walk out to just walk back in again to be hit with the smell of chocolate. They had a fantastic window display including pieces of art made out of chocolate and gifts for Father's Day all made from chocolate in the shape of spanners, paint tins, paint brushes and other manly tools!

The chocolate was pretty amazing - they put fresh cream inside some and they just melt in your mouth for quite a taste sensation. Our next point of call was Simon Johnson's in Pyrmont where we sampled some cheese and splurged on a few luxuries. Then it was back to Crows Nest as I had a hairdresser appointment and Sophie got some rest in before the party.

The party was celebrating 3 birthdays and the array of costumes was fantastic, we all had a great time as I hope the photos will tell. If only there had been enough light for me to capture Marilyn's bunny hop dance - it was sensational!

Fairy Soph & Angel Kaz

Lidia (one of the 3 Musketeers) and Witchy Mar & Bek

Soph - feeling the love!

Soph & Mar making friends

We all loved the cake - especially me, I had blue icing stain under my fingernails the next morning.

Lidia getting her own back on her trainer Mal!

Soph's wand was all danced out!

We all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves just dancing, catching up and having lots of laughs. Thanks for coming to Sydney for the weekend Soph it was great to spend time with you, thanks for driving us all to the party Kaz and good luck with your September detox we'll try not to tempt you away from goodness! And Mar thanks for your crazy dancing you entertained us all!

Happy Birthday Lidia - you have set a high standard for celebrations!

Little Nell & Mum Doing Fine

2007-08-24T19:17:00.001+10:00

Little Nell & Mum

Congratulations Lesley, Andrew, Isla & Nell we are delighted and excited with the addition to the Williams Family today. This blog is just full of nothing but good news lately! It's very exciting.

Hope you all like the shot of little Nell & her mum! We're looking forward to the real shots coming through.

Speak to you all soon.

Love

Uncle Chalky & Auntie Bek

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

If you'd like to see some real shots of Nell goto Lesley & Andrew's Family Blog:

http://lesleynandrewnisla.blogspot.com/

So, Dinner with the Queen? Or a Dinner fit for a Queen!

2007-08-18T14:39:00.000+10:00

I have got a FANTASTIC NEW JOB! We had decided to keep it quiet after all the stress of that other job at Easter, the job was advertised in the paper on a Saturday and I spent a weekend trying to revise my CV taking on board some of what Chalky had learnt at his careers session he had when we first moved to Oz. In the end it just didn't feel right to me and so I adopted some of the lessons from Chalky's session and I phoned the company, sold myself to the manager who was recruiting, got a copy of the Job Description and wrote the most 'in your face' application letter I'd ever done. Applications closed 10th July and I hadn't heard anything so I followed up with another phone call expressing how interested I was in the role and how right I was for the role...

Then on 2/8 I got a phone call - was I available for an interview 8/8/07 at 9am! I've always done well in interviews, especially interviews first thing in the morning. It was a very structured interview - panel of 3 all asking a question in turn. Very competency based and I needed to give examples of how I could demonstrate that I could do the job.

The final question - thrown in for a little fun was "You can invite 3 people over for dinner, alive or dead, who would you invite and why?" Before I could stop my mouth from moving the words 'The Queen' came pouring out...(then my mind registered what I'd just said and I was praying that none one on the panel was a republican!) so I continued saying how much I love the Queen, her discipline and strength of character and her humour and I'd love to meet her, my prospective boss then said "ME TOO!" so I breathed a BIG sigh of relief and thought 'this is in the bag, the job is mine!' In case you're interested I followed up with Jamie Oliver, so he could do the cooking and I'd have more time to chat with Queenie and I respect Jamie as he seems to have a very balanced life, he seems a good dad and husband, has a passion for what he does and also gives back to the community - characteristics that I admire. Finally since I would expect Chalky to also be at our table I chose Sir Steve Redgrave for him as it's one of his biggest regrets that he didn't go in 2000 and see him win Olympic Gold for the 5th (I actually said 4th but it's wrong) time and I know Chalky would love to meet him and be inspired. (Chalk has since told me that he'd be as happy if I invited Cameron Diaz to dinner but hey, it's me sending out the invites...!)

It was supposed to be a one interview session and they were going to make a decision quickly and if successful I should hear within the next few days. Driving to work on Monday I got a phone call on my mobile from a private number - I answered with my heart in my stomach and it was EnergyAustralia they started by saying "thanks for coming in for the interview last week, we were really impressed (at this point I was just waiting for the BUT!) instead came and we'd like to invite you back to meet the senior managers and to just further discuss the team and the role in a little more detail, was I available the next afternoon? OF COURSE!!!!

Going back the next day I knew quite quickly that I was going to be offered the job, I wondered if they could tell exactly how excited I was from the goofy grin I felt was all over my face!

So after a quick chat with the senior boss I learnt that the team is really under performing and that I would have quite a bit of work to do but the only way is up and they were really pleased to have me on board and I would have their full support for the job!

I was planning on just going straight home so I could tell Chalk face to face but I couldn't contain my excitement when I left and I phoned him straight away! I just screamed into the phone. Unknown to me he'd considered following me into the city and was planning on being in a pub near by so that when I phoned him I could just meet him and we'd celebrate straightaway but then he thought that if I didn't find out how would he explain where he was and it would make me feel under more pressure!

So as I walked in our front door I heard the clink of glasses and the pop of a champagne bottle! He'd made reservations at the Summit http://www.summitrestaurant.com.au/ - the revolving restaurant in Australia Square, we were going out to celebrate! After making a few quick calls to share the news with family we headed into the city, stopping off at Zeta Bar http://www.zetabar.com.au/ for a cocktail before walking down to the summit, neither of us could stop smiling and it was a perfect evening. The food was divine and our conversation was so positive and full of energy. Certainly a night I won't forget and so perfect that we celebrated straight away.

The view from the restaurant

I've handed my notice in at Sony and my last day there is Thursday 6th Sept, I've got a week off before starting at my new job on 17/9. My new job is in the city, down near Chinatown, I work a 9 day fortnight and have a team of about 12 to manage! I'm sure that I'll do another post soon to tell you more details.
Zeta bar is also in London next time you're visiting as for the Summit that's a Sydney only experience and certainly worth doing so be sure to add it to your itinerary!

City To Surf - 72 years waiting to race

2007-08-13T21:53:00.000+10:00

A special event - the streets were closed and 50,000 people joined dad to celebrate his birthday.

Well we did it! The weather was perfect and Dad was up for the challenge!

After a shaky start last week when I found out my friend hadn’t actually entered us in the race, I sent out feelers to see if anyone could help and on Saturday I got us 2 numbers – so Dad was Spyridouca and I was Deborah– nevermind! We had the numbers and we were in the race.

I baked us some Bill’s Banana Choc Chip bread (which has become the traditional food of walkers over here - we had some on our 22km walk last October when Joan was visiting), we joined the SOUL "back of the pack” crowd for the start and while we were waiting to start we heard that the winner had finished, in around 41 minutes. 2 minutes later we crossed the start and we were off and racing!

1/2 way 7km

We paced at around 12 minute kilometers and even though we had walked heartbreak hill before I think the preceding 5km might have been a little too much of a warm up and dad was starting to feel it in his ankle, we stopped for a breather and then pushed on downhill to Bondi.

The last kilometer is always the hardest and we were both delighted to see the finish line.

We had taken 3 hours and 2 minutes to finish – not a bad effort! (this was our timing on our watches the official time will vary as they give all the Back of the Pack 20 minutes off for their delayed start when in fact it took us 40 minutes to get to the start line!)

The oldest man who was a first time entrant was 87 – so since dad wasn’t registered as having done the race he could still take out the record in years to come!!!

Smiling through the pain! It's over.

Just because Dad likes numbers and co-incidences and we had 3 hours of conversation to cover we realized that in 2000 when I did the race on my birthday I turned 27! In 2007 when Dad did the race on his birthday he turned 72! It was all about the 7’s and 2’s today.

The Rockports performed beautifully and Dad’s delighted with them. I’ve checked in with him tonight, he’s been snoozing since I dropped him home and I’m sure he’ll have a great sleep tonight, I nearly wore him out but as you all know he’s got quite a few more years in him yet.

Clipping from the website: Well done Deborah on completing the 2007 Sun-Herald City2Surf. You were 50729th over the line with a time of 203:08.
Well done Spyridouca on completing the 2007 Sun-Herald City2Surf. You were 50730th over the line with a time of 203:09.

PS - Since the race dad has discovered that the discomfort in his ankle was actually gout, such a shame because otherwise he would have done the walk easy. Anyway it's something that can be managed, it's not caused by alcohol as dad has given up drinking so he's already talking about doing it again next year!!

PPS - I'll update the Queen story over the weekend.

Dinner with the Queen

2007-08-13T21:52:00.000+10:00

This is just a teaser but recently I have been talking about having the Queen over for dinner - I'll fill you all in soon! Stay posted.

A bike ride, a new view and a winter swim

2007-08-13T21:41:00.001+10:00

Last Sunday 5/8 in the depths of the Sydney winter we braved the elements for a Sunday bike ride along the northern beaches.
We lathered ourselves in sunscreen (as you do in winter!) and headed out with the bikes on the back of the car and found ourselves at Dee Why
While we didn't set off as early as we would have liked we still had a large part of the day ahead of us, usually it's Chalky who's first to call a break and stop for a sandwich but this time it was me, I was finding all the hills along the sea quite treacherous and needed a break, after only 3km!
Refuelled by a ham sandwich and salt & vinegar crisps we headed on toward Manly. We fought the crowds along the beachfront with all the pressure on me as Chalky's oversized handlebars don't take a bell so I've got to do the ringing for both of us - I nearly came off my bike when my handlebar got caught up with someone's shopping bag but I managed to stay upright.
So after Cabbage Tree Bay we climbed up Darley Road (where nearly a year ago we'd seen Nicole Kidman go by on her way to her wedding). Chalky hadn't been to North Head before and was very impressed with the view (who wouldn't be) so this has now been added to Joan's itinerary for her next holiday!
We stopped to eat the rest of our picnic and rest the legs before returning to Dee Why, we were pleasantly tired and while the day was starting to cool off someone decided to cool off by heading in to the see for a dip - mad englishman!

It was lovely to be out on the bikes again and I'm sure you'll have more posts soon with our riding adventures, hope you enjoyed the video - I've just learnt how to do this so I'll try to add a few more in future.

What a view - well worth the ride!

Isla's been 'round the globe!

2007-07-25T13:48:00.001+10:00

My recent posts don't seem to have generated too many comments but I have a feeling somewhere, someone will comment to this post! For those of you who haven't met our little niece (we actually haven't met her (and we regularly get reminded!) but that's only due to the fact that we live on the other side of the world) this is Isla Jane who turned 1 in April. She's about to become a big sister and everyone we talk to tells us how special and cute she is - we don't argue with that.

We do get to talk to her although none of what she says makes much sense, she made her Uncle's weekend recently when she apparently said his name while looking at a photo of him!

Anyway, here she is playing at her Nana's house with the globe we bought her for her birthday, it has the potential to drive people mad as it sings tunes but we loved it as she might understand where we live compared to where she lives! We would have preferred if the animal for Australia was a koala rather than a kangaroo, while koala's are SO much cuter - just check out Nellie below! Kangaroos are slightly more active so it sends out the right message to say "I'm a kangaroo, I bounce" rather than "I'm a koala, I sleep!"

An Aussie In Yellow - we're betting on it!

2007-07-22T19:39:00.000+10:00

Our little Nellie is in yellow but we're betting on Cadel Evans getting up in the Tour de France to wear the yellow jersey on the Champs Elysées. I thought we had $27 on his win, today I found out we actually had $54 since Chalk lodged the bet twice! If he wins...we'll be $297 richer!

Support the Aussie for us!

Just when you thought it was all over...it's still my birthday!

2007-07-22T17:23:00.000+10:00

Never one to be satisfied with just one day of celebrations my birthday has stretched out to the weekend, on Friday night a few of the girls (Adele, Karen, Marilyn, Sarah & I - apologies from Jayne, Robyn & Sue) got together to enjoy dinner and a movie at Govindas http://www.govindas.com.au/. Adventures on the way in there when I tried to drive the wrong way up a one way street! We all met at Darlo bar for a quick drink before heading to dinner, you can't ever have a bad meal at Govindas, their signature lentil shepherds pie was missing but in it's place was a delicious potato dish that I went back for seconds on!

We watched Paris, Je t'aime, well some of us watched, some of us caught up on sleep after a hectic week. While I am very well known for falling asleep anywhere I managed to stay awake, for Sarah & Marilyn the combination of shoes off, warm room, full stomachs was just too much, they were in the land of nod quickly... ;-) It was lovely to all catch up, Sarah spoiled me with some scrapbooking supplies (she knows me so well!)

Generic govinda's photo for those who haven't been there - you'll understand why it's easy to fall asleep!

Saturday morning Dad and I tackled Heartbreak Hill, part of the City To Surf route that we're hoping to walk on 12/8/07 - Dad's 72nd birthay, the first time he's done the event and a goal he's had since his heart attack in January. I had no doubt he'd kill the hill and I wasn't wrong, here's the view from the top, and Dad hadn't even broken a sweat! We'll get the doctor's okay on 10th August if Dad's blood pressure isn't too low we'll be off walking!

Saturday night was a girls night in at Sophie's flat on the central coast, Karen, Marilyn & I left Sydney at around 3.30pm and got to Sophie's an hour later (the drive up there was my chance to catch some zzzz's!) We arrived, started nibbling on cheese, dips & pate and food dominated the rest of our evening - we were all bursting at the seams by the end of the night and mutually agreed that next time we catch up it's elastic pants for us all (it would be smarter to agree to eat less but that's just not as much fun!)

We took a break from eating to do presents! Sophie & Stuart knowing my tastes so well added to our collection of accessories from Freedom with a tissue box holder (filled with Lindt chocolates) and a box for some of our electrical accessories & cables - thank you so much! Marilyn, Karen & Frankie spoiled me also with lots of lovely chocolate gifts from Max Brenner - Chocolate from the Bald Man and an afternoon pampering session with a pedicure! I can't wait - I've never had a pedicure before, I think it could be a birthday present that costs me in the future!!!

Sophie cooked us a delicious dinner of stuffed peppers & eggplant, the only person who was missing was Kaz Ball, now living in Perth - we called her just as we were putting dinner in the oven, she sounded very jealous at our menu and if we could have we would have magiced her over to us! After dinner we settled down to watch a film - Dreamgirls, Karen & Marilyn got themselves very comfy on Soph & Stu's reclining chairs.

Mid-film we stopped for cake & tea - Sophie has introduced me to Mariage Frères Marco Polo Tea, ever since I last visited her I've been dreaming about the tea and Marilyn has been wondering what all the fuss was about -now she's converted! "Marco Polo Tea for the uneducated is a blend of Chinese and Tibetan flowers and fruit lend it a unique velvety taste. Its extraordinary bouquet makes Marco Polo the most legendary of flavored teas."

What a change for me - to talk more about tea than cake! The girls had organised a delicious flourless chocolate mud cake with a special inscription....

I feel blessed to have such special girlfriends, we had a perfect night so thank you! This could be the end of my birthday but I know that there is one more treat on the way ... from my favourite English cousin Kimbo! So it's guaranteed that there will be one more birthday post to come!

It's Been My Birthday

2007-07-17T21:55:00.000+10:00

There are 2 posts for my birthday, scroll down so that you read the one titled:

It's My Birthday - What Was Planned

Before you read:

It's My Birthday - What We Did

Hope you enjoy reading about my Birthday as much as I enjoyed living it!

Thanks for all your cards, texts, phonecalls, messages and presents - in a year that I didn't really advertise my birthday I've been a very lucky girl ...Love to you all. xxxxx

It's My Birthday - What We Did

2007-07-17T21:03:00.000+10:00

I was quite nervous when I woke up, I had a few cards to open and then just a few big envelopes...all my cards were lovely and inside one of the envelopes was a voucher for a red balloon day, me and a friend were booked to go horse riding in Centennial Park at 10am that day...all my friends were working, I wasn't sure who would want to come with me...except for the one person who I wouldn't dream of going without...Chalky! Luckily he wasn't working.

We headed across the harbour and in true Chalky timing arrived on the dot at 10am. We fitted ourselves up with helmets (this will be important later on in the story) and shoes. One thing I don't like to do is to wear other people shoes and other people's hats but hey it is my birthday so I got passed it.

We met our guide for the morning and more importantly our horses - I was to be riding Decs and Chalky was on Billy.

Off we headed, out of the Equestrian Centre, across a road and into the park, even though it is the middle of our winter I think we're having weather that you'd love in Yorkshire at the moment for summer, it was about 15 degrees and lots of blue sky. The park has paths for horseriding, bike riding, walking & running and a road for cars to get around, we set off walking on the horses, enjoying the activity in the park.

Our guide, Natalie, seemed content for us to just walk around the park so Chalky asked what the plan was, would we be trotting?? She replied, if you feel confident enough then go for it, with minimum tips from her we both gave our horses a kick and off we went...

I was having a great time, it was great to be out doing something different, having the whole day ahead of us and it was my birthday. We continued to make small talk with Natalie, asking questions like where else would she recommend riding in Sydney? What's the fastest that you can ride in the park? What was Billy's history? (he used to be a race horse!)

After stopping for a quick drink I think Decs remembered back to my question of how fast can you go, not content to trot, he quickened the pace and before I knew it we were off down the straight leaving everyone behind, it all happened so fast I can't really remember but I was being swung from one side of the horse to the other trying to get him to stop, pulling frantically on the reins calling out STOP!

He just wasn't obeying and now I was hanging off the side of the horse, luckily it was on the side opposite to where there is a fence and next thing I knew my head was bouncing on the ground, luckily for me i'd managed to free myself from the stirrups and reins and was clear of the horse, once I was bouncing along the ground the bugger stopped!

Meanwhile, Chalky was just having to watch all this unfold, thinking great - I've bought Bek a Birthday experience that could kill her! He also tells me that he wanted to come and help but wasn't sure how to get off his horse, or if he approached on his horse would this further excite my horse! I was a little shaken up but managed not to cry, I could feel that I was now in for a right headache and my bum was a little sore and really all I wanted to do was give the naughty horse a smack! Our fearless guide Natalie came down and suggested that she take the naughty Decs from now on and that I ride her horse Jenny! (those who know me well will know I don't have a great history with Jenny's!). It was about this time Chalky suggested that I should have said "WHOA!" to Decs and maybe he would have stopped, I thought it was just in cartoons that WHOA would stop a horse.

Naughty Decs!

We were near the end of our hour, Chalky continued to just pat his horse - saying "Good boy Billy, don't you go and do anything stupid like Decs - look after me Billy and I'll look after you!" We can laugh about it now, the bruises haven't yet come out and I'm only a little stiff in my neck so I'm sure in a few days I'll be back to normal.

Onward through the day, Centennial Park is right next door to Fox Studios so we wandered over there with the plan to have lunch in the restaurant where I taught Chalky one of my food rules, Double Dipping. There is a temporary ice-rink set up at Fox Studios as the school holidays have just finished - we toyed with the idea of ice-skating but I really couldn't bring myself to wear more shoes that weren't my own and I didn't think that my bum needed any more of a pounding that day.

Chalky says this is the horse I should have been riding!

The restaurant didn't live up to our memory so we decided to hop foot over to Bondi (as you do!) and have some lunch there at a place we'd been to before that did a great burger! We jumped at some early parking and enjoyed a long walk down to Campbell Parade, we passed a number of eateries but couldn't find the one we'd been to before (it must have closed down!) so we walked back up the Parade to a cafe called Trio and enjoyed some lunch there, looking out at the sea!

We walked off our lunch by doing a lap along the prom, we were going to call in for an ice-cream and to say hello to one of Sydney's best looking ice-cream scooper men (according to Joan) but we just didn't feel like one.

We headed back to the car as the next engagement for the day was a movie at an old cinema on the North Shore. It's a film that has increased takings each week over 9 weeks, it's a film shot in 1994 and it was a Swedish Film about a conductor who returns to remote Sweden and ends up giving some advice to the local church choir...it's called As it is in Heaven and I would recommend it. We both enjoyed it and we bought the average age of the cinema session back down to about 50!

We headed home then, expecting some love on the answering machine and some more love in the letterbox - we weren't disappointed on either count. Joan & Garth's cards arrived on the day and I was presented with yet another envelope, their joint present, a voucher to attend a cooking course at Govinda's (a hare krishna vegetarian restaurant we took Joan to and one of my favourite places in Sydney) so I'll look forward to doing that when they next offer the course and maybe I'll even cook a lentil shepherds pie in Joan's kitchen when I'm next over there to visit! Thank you.

Les was greatly amused with our horseriding antics so she understood when I said I wouldn't be redeeming their red letter day for sailing straight away, based on today's track record maybe I'd be thrown off the boat and end up drowned! So thank you Les, Andy & Isla I look forward to sailing sometime in October when the weather is a little warmer!

We settled in at home, watching Titanic on DVD - another present from Chalky for my birthday, ordered some chinese food to finish off our treats for the day! Oh and I hadn't forgotten, the other present that Chalky got me was a ticket to see Billy Elliot!!!!! I'll be going Sunday 23rd December it's the last show in Sydney, I'm three rows from the front and my friend Sarah is going to join me. Sarah & I met through the lovely Aly and little did she know how much we'd have in common... including scrapbooking, keeping fit and musicals - especially Les Mis! So i'll be really excited to watch a show set in the North of England with a girl from Newcastle!

So.. what an action packed Birthday - I couldn't have asked for a better day so big thanks to Chalky for spoiling me and putting so much thought into my day! I love you!

It's My Birthday - What Was Planned

2007-07-17T20:37:00.000+10:00

Chalky & I don't believe in working on our birthdays and usually have a lovely treat day...I'd suggested a plan of catching a ferry from Greenwich to Manly (via the Quay), lunch at Shelley Beach and then back to the Quay for a movie at the Dendy cinema, a drink at the Opera Bar and back home again. I thought this was the plan until Sunday night.

Let me start with the whole birthday preparation weekend - on Saturday I had an appointment to have my hair done at a new salon in Crows Nest, I had a facial booked at Clinque and didn't realise that the facial included having my make-up done as well...so it was a full day of pampering and on Saturday night I was ready to hit the town, or Neutral Bay at least for Gareth & Mitch's housewarming party. I was hot to trot...Chalky was only awake for about 10 minutes before this picture was taken and he had planned to shave.

On Sunday we had a long lie in and then Chalk was off to watch the boys play football (his hamstring is still injured so he didn't play) while I met Marilyn for a quick catch up at Macro Cafe. Sunday night we had dinner plans with Mum, Dad, Travis & Dan at Mosman Hotel. They all arrived at our house (loaded with presents!) we collected Chalk from the Oaks and went for dinner.

Of course a Birthday is not a Birthday for me without cake so everyone came back to our place to have some champagne, cake & watch me open their presents.

Mum and Dad gave me a new suitcase, I just need to think of somewhere I'd like to travel and who I'd like to visit!?!? They filled it with some bathroom treats and candles and other stuff girls like. Trav & Dan got me a Bodum tea pot - after all those years in England I quite enjoy a good cup of tea these days and my friend Sophie has introduced me to some Marco Polo tea which is really fruity so I needed a teapot to brew it in properly. Dad made me a cutlery tray that we can use when we're entertaining outdoors, it has room for cutlery, salt & pepper, napkins, and other condiments, hand made it was a lovely surprise engineered to perfection.

We all had a lovely evening, it was while I was telling mum & dad what was planned for the next day that Chalky advised me that I wasn't doing what I was expecting...the restaurant that we'd been saving going to for a special occasion was closed in July for refurbishments and I wouldn't be partaking in any ferry trips...

Hmmm, I went to bed a little curious as to what he had planned, I had seen that the tickets for Billy Elliot went on sale on my birthday and so joked that he'd planned for us to queue to get the best tickets.

Let's see what the day brings...

Happy Belated Birthday Andrew

2007-06-28T22:07:00.000+10:00

Inspired after watching another episode of Grand Designs we logged onto the website hungry for the inside track and saw that there is a Grand Designs magazine that you can subscribe to. Figuring as Montague Crescent will be getting too small for the growing Williams clan and Andrew is probably dreaming of building is own tree house in the sky we'd give him a head start and so now he can expect his fill of Grand Designs for the next year with his subscription being delivered from July.
There is one catch with this present - you need to keep all the back issues for Bek to catch up on when we visit!

Bek is starting to feel better, to celebrate we're going to have a little midnight feast that any 10 year old would be jealous of given that Bek spent $20 and I spent $35! The weigh in isn't going to be kind tomorrow!

Get Better Soon

2007-06-27T17:37:00.000+10:00

This has been my worst winter for sickness - we started with Chalky having Bronchitis and then I got it and haven't quite been able to get rid of it, I've now picked up a sinus infection as well so...I've got a week signed off work to get better, lots of soup, garlic and some help from anti-biotics and I hope I'll be back in circulation next week.

To cheer me up my lovely boyfriend bought these home with him today....

Ship to Shore

2007-06-27T17:22:00.000+10:00

We headed up to Lake Macquarie for the weekend to visit Ben & Kylie and to see the top tourist attraction in Newcastle - the ship that went off course and ended up on Nobby's Beach.

A quiet Saturday night in with Kylie, (Ben was working - due back at 10pm) we enjoyed a risotto Kylie cooked and had a glass of wine to be polite. The idea was that by going to the Lake we wouldn't be tempted to go out partying and drinking and we'd come back feeling really relaxed and healthy. Unfortunately a few Pure Blondes put an end to Chalky's best laid plans...Ben came home and wasn't at all tired and was keen to chat and enjoy a few beers with Chalky...we ended up going to bed at 2.30am! Not much different to staying in Sydney!

Ben & Kylie are now home-owners of the lake and they have put their stamp on the house giving it a lick of paint. It was lovely to have the fire roaring in the lounge room.

Sunday we headed to Nobby's Beach to check out the boat that ran aground after the recent storms, rain and flooding in Newcastle, so did lots of other people...the traffic was a nightmare and we had planned to see Kylies football match at 3pm but we didn't make it back in time. Even though we have seen the ship on the news you really don't appreciate it until you're there. I hope the photos give you perspective.

Grounded on Nobby's Beach

Where the ships should be...

And when I asked for the rain to go away in the last post I didn't wish for it to head to Yorkshire we've been following all the flooding in Leeds, Sheffield etc - hope you're all okay. When we were driving through Newcastle you could see where the water had been in their recent floods, we got a picture of this tree that had been uprooted - Mother Nature is a powerful woman!

Rain Rain Go Away

2007-06-19T14:13:00.000+10:00

So another weekend of rain! No football game, no running, just lots of wet weather. And lots more forecast. The good news is that the dams might be up to 50% capacity after all this!

It even looks like it could rain on my birthday! (first reminder...)

So we had a non picture weekend but managed to keep busy. I had some Friday night drinks with Marilyn in North Sydney and Chalk was out with the football boys on Saturday doing a pub crawl from the city to Kings Cross. Sunday we just chilled and watched the TV1 Groovy Movie - Sliding Doors, drank hot chocolate and ate some cake!

Nellie has also been feeling the cold, when I got home yesterday she'd taken measures to warm herself up! Isn't she just the cutest koala!

Cooking - it's all Greek to me!

2007-06-12T19:25:00.000+10:00

Sarah & Jayne put their newly acquired Greek cooking talents to the test by cooking us all a dinner on Monday night.

Some of the food we enjoyed

The food was delicious, James had even gone to the trouble of lighting a real fire for us all so the lounge was really cosy (if not a little smokey!) and when some Greek music came on we posed for a photo (cheesy!)

L to R: Chalky, Jayne, Bek, Sarah, James & Karl

The real fun started after dinner when we played Cranium. Chalky & I were Cranium virgins but quickly picked up the technique. We were the first to land on a green square and had to do a performance. It should have been fairly straight forward except all the people on the cards are Australian so not knowing who they were, why they were famous, what they sounded like, what they did or looked like made for lots of laughs!

It took us quite a while to move off that green square, meanwhile Sarah & James' competitiveness shone through, the photo below was after James gave up trying to describe see-saw to Sarah (who was trying to think of pogo stick) or was it when he was blind drawing a can of worms???

Karls top performance was captured on video (I'll try to post it later) when he had to get Jayne to say Cold Chisel (an Aussie band).

Since it was a school night and we weren't making the fastest progress around the board we declared one card the winner and the team who guessed it won. Well we pulled it off, you may look at this clue and wonder how I knew Chalk was blind drawing cupid but I did! So Jayne & Karl were ahead on the board and claimed moral victory Chalk & I enjoyed our win and James was just relieved that the games were over.

Sarah finished the night spoiling us all with brownies, ice-cream, strawberries and chocolate sauce. Divine!

Long Weekend - Queen's Birthday

2007-06-11T18:03:00.000+10:00

We're celebrating the Queen's Birthday this weekend and I guess to set the mood we got some English weather. It rained non-stop on Thursday and Friday and there was flash flooding in some areas of Sydney but worst hit was Newcastle where roads collapsed, a container boat ran aground on a beach and unfortunately some people died. So to save on road traffic we decided to not venture very far at all...we had planned to spend Sunday night at the Lake with Ben & Kylie enjoying a Sunday Dinner and a few games but we've postponed that activity.

Chalky was pleased with the rain only because it meant that he didn't miss the 2 football games to injury - instead they were washed out and everyone missed out on playing!

I bought some cakes to celebrate Kylie's birthday but since we didn't make it to their house we've been enjoying them while we watch films, read books and playing darts!

We watched the groovy movie on Foxtel - As Good as it Gets and also All the President's Men - an old one but a great movie about Watergate. I started as a force to be reckoned with in the darts but my form didn't continue and Chalky won - my victory for the weekend was on a bet about who was the close talker in a Seinfeld episode.

Enjoying Sunday dinner - Roast Beef complete with Yorkshires!

Tonight we're off to see Karl, Jayne, Sarah & James for a Greek night so that's going to be a great finish to our weekend and also it's finally stopped raining!

Manly Food & Wine Festival and other Weekend activities

2007-06-03T19:00:00.000+10:00

The lack of Saturday afternoon (Sat AM UK TIME) phone time to Joan can only mean one thing - not much football action to report about. Chalk played only 10mins in the second half and pulled his hamstring the team went on to lose 5-1, coincidence?

We celebrated Duncan's Birthday with a meal at Libertines in Kings Cross and then to Iguana Bar for some drinks and dancing. I left at this stage as I have developed Chalky's chesty cough that he's finally kicked. I greeted him home at 5am where I had to pay the balance of his taxi fare as he had no money left and then had to let him in the front door as the lock and key had become a mystery to him.

This weekend was the food and wine festival at Manly so we arranged to go with Sarah, Karl & Jayne (James was doing an exam). We surveyed the food stalls and all got something to eat and something to drink and then staked a claim on a beach spot and enjoyed the winter afternoon. Chalky came to life after his burger and 2 cans of coke, meanwhile we all kept tasting wine and our favourite was a merlot from Mudgee. The tasting was $5 per glass and your glass was fixed around your neck with the glass in a neoprene brace - very cool but also very dangerous because if you walked too quickly you were very quickly wearing that glass of wine.

Anyway - all that explaining would have been much easier had I remembered to take the camera so instead you will have to suffice with this generic photo of the scene from the website.

Hope you have all enjoyed your weekends, we've got a long weekend next weekend and Chalky's got 2 football games.

Fireman Needed - Where's Andrew?

2007-05-31T21:56:00.000+10:00

Why did we have a fire truck outside our apartment today?
Because a naught ginger (Oliver) cat had frightened a lovely black (nearly Stiggles) cat up a tree and it didn't look like the cat could safely come down!
The tricky part is due to our steep driveway, the cat was probably 15ft in the air so I phoned the local station and within 10 minutes we had 2 firemen to the rescue - only they weren't really bothered, they got out their ladder and managed to frighten the cat further up the tree! They gave it up as a bad job and suggested that instead we put a bowl of milk out - that would attract him down!
We could still hear him crying at 7pm but we've just got home and there is no sign of the cat and lots of bark around the bowl of milk so a happy ending after all! Although I am sure that a fireman of Andrews calibre would have rescued Stiggles!

Football Branding - Body Art

2007-05-28T20:42:00.000+10:00

Chalky is back in fine form this football season - Man of the Match 2 weeks ago with 2 goals (a very near hat-trick when one hit the cross bar) and another goal last week - Joan will know all about these goals since she gets the first match report before he heads up to The Oaks for post match analysis with the boys!

Anyway, in Saturday's game he was in the wall to stop a free kick and that's exactly what Chalky did - put his body in the line of fire and now he's got a tattoo of hexagons on his chest where the ball hit him. It's Monday night now and it's finally fading!

Now Shane you might be remembering what happens when Chalky takes a hit to the chest - all the other boys certainly like re-living the seal story. Needless to say there was no seal episode after he stopped the ball - apparently that must be saved for when I'm there watching - sympathy votes I guess.

Hope you've all had a good Bank Holiday weekend, it's been absolutely gorgeous here. We had a few drinks with some new friends in Balmain and quite a few of them were English, Yorkshire in fact so it's lovely to be able to know what and where everyone is talking about when they re-live Otley Road run and other stories. There is a common consensus among people I meet who have lived in Leeds - Casa Mia is their favourite place in Chapel Allerton!

We're also on a bit of a winning streak at the moment - I've won us tickets to a cinema night for World Environment Day next Monday, Chalky has put in a great entry to a Sony Socceroos competition so tonight over dinner we were dreaming what we'd spend $100,000 on (if we won it!)

PS - If anyone is reading this blog - feel free to leave us a comment!
PPS - Still having trouble uploading photos

Australian Institute of Sport

2007-05-15T21:35:00.000+10:00

We were really looking forward to looking around the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), I think Chalky was considering doing some spying! But unfortunately we were a little disappointed. I guess we had set our expectations a little high when researching for our trip we actually thought we could stay at the institute as there is a section on their website titled "Stay at the AIS" however I learnt after phoning and asking that this is only offered to school groups, team trips or if you're having a conference there, so then I asked about the dining hall - where they do meals with colour coding to let you know how healthy / nutritional value of the meal but again this is only offered to school groups, team trips or if you're having a conference there etc.

So we got over that and were looking forward to the tour we were going to do...then we met our guide, you could see Chalky's face drop - we were being showed around by a WALKER! Some respect was restored when we discovered that our walker's 10k walking time is faster than Chalky's best 10k running time!

Anyway, we saw quite a few of the facilities but since it was early afternoon no athlete's were working out, they were mostly resting before starting again just after our tour finished...ho hum!

So going back in time, we did get up early and complete almost the full circuit of the lake. Today we didn't see any kangaroos but still saw lots of lovely parrots and cockatoos. All up we ended up riding just over 50km over the 2 days - not a bad effort and an absolute pleasure on racing bikes.

We had time for just one more Canberra sight and so chose Parliament House.

We enjoyed the tour and the view from the top of the building.

All in all a very relaxing and enjoyable few days and certainly somewhere we will visit again.

Canberra Trip

2007-05-15T21:12:00.000+10:00

We had a mini break recently in Canberra - Australia's National Capital. Chalky had never been to Canberra and it's a great cycling city so what better way to test out the new bikes. We left Sydney on Anzac Day planning to be in Canberra in time for the fly over however we were running just a little bit behind schedule and so we ended up just hearing them!

Our first tourist stop was the War Memorial, really you could spend a few full days here seeing everything that's on display so we saw all we could that afternoon. We ventured into the city to an Irish Bar for dinner, Anzac Day is a public holiday in Australia and every city has a march for returned servicemen/women and it's a day of reflection for all those who have died fighting in wars. So many people choose to reflect in the pub after all the ceremonies are over so us heading into an Irish Bar after 7pm when most of the patrons had been there since lunchtime was perhaps not our smartest move. The bar served pints so Chalky did his best to try to catch up, he also told me that we were going to make some friends that night and get out of our comfort zone to talk to some strangers!

Well we certainly talked to strangers, or were they just strange people????

After a later start than we planned we rode around Lake Burley Griffin, this is around a 30km ride and we didn't quite make it the whole way round as we were distracted by the Australian Museum.

Canberra had all its autumnal colours on display and the weather was a little crisper than it is in Sydney, while we were riding we were reminded of so many of our rides in England. Parts of the ride were like Roundhay Park then when you get to a dam it reminds you of Eccup and of when we went riding in Windsor and then you see kangaroos in the grounds of Government House and remember that you're in Australia after all!

That night we enjoyed dinner at Canberra's revolving restaurant in Black Mountain Tower. The food was delicious and it was really relaxing, we also managed to not meet any strange(r) people!

We wanted to get an early night so that we could get up and do the full ride the next day before heading to the Australian Institute of Sport.

Chalky's New Bike

2007-05-15T20:48:00.000+10:00

One of my promises to Chalky was that I would buy him a brand new racing bike...on the day after the wedding since we were on annual leave we headed out to the bike store...this is what we ended up with...
It's a carbon fibre frame, weighs only 8kg, has altegra shimano gear set and goes REALLY fast.

We've been out for a few rides around Sydney, we crossed 5 of the 7 bridges we did on the walk with Joan, Chalky had a (mis)adventure down the cycle side of the Harbour Bridge and the bike has been out to most football training sessions.

Pieta & Rod's Wedding

2007-05-15T20:30:00.000+10:00

One of my oldest friends recently got married and it was like an infant school reunion. Pieta & Rod have been together longer than Chalky & I, but Rod finally popped the question on their holiday to Santa Monica in 2005 and now they are married.

They got married on a boat on the harbour and then we were all treated to a fabulous reception at Doltone House in Sydney. The wedding went without any hitches although Pieta had to fight her way through the Greek National Day celebrations on the Opera House forecourt before she could board the boat.

The wedding had it all, a 3 course meal, chocolate fondue fountain, cake, dancing, alcohol, slideshow of Pieta & Rod's life together and some lovely speeches.

It was great to have an excuse to get dressed up on a Sunday afternoon and head out on the harbour, the rain held off and we really enjoyed ourselves.

75th Anniversary of the Harbour Bridge Opening

2007-04-07T18:36:00.000+10:00

To celebrate 75 years of the Harbour Bridge, Sydney had another party! This time the bridge was closed to all traffic except foot traffic and trains. To ensure it all ran smoothly you booked your walk time and they estimated 250,000 people crossed the bridge that day. We invited mum and dad to walk with us and then we all went out for dinner afterwards.

It was great fun crossing the bridge, everyone got a free bright green hat to wear and there was lots of entertainment across the bridge, sound shows, music, funny planes flying towards us, lots of boats on the harbour and lots of people around.

We had dinner at the Oyster Bar (Joan will be familiar with this restaurant) this gave us a perfect view of the night time light show on the bridge. As we walked back to catch a train home we saw the night crossers coming off the bridge, now decked out in orange hats with little lights attached to the top of them - quite a sight and a great day!

2 Queens In Sydney

2007-04-07T14:05:00.000+10:00

Tuesday 20th Feb the Queen Mary 2 and Queen Elizabeth 2 were both due to be in Sydney harbour together. Not ones to miss a party Chalky & I headed into the city to join in the festivities. The QM2 was too big to berth in Circular Quay so was docked in the Naval Base at Woolloomooloo the city was grid locked with traffic so we were happy to view the boat from a distance, meanwhile the QE2 was berthed in the Quay so we got a really good look at her from the Harbour Bridge and then down in the Quay.

Opera House & QM2 lit up in the background

We were in-situ in the middle of the Harbour Bridge when the fireworks started, there were loads of boats on the harbour and I don't know what Chalk was more fascinated with - the fireworks or all the boats dashing down the harbour after the fireworks - it really was quite pandemonic.

We met Mum, Dad, Trav & Dan near the Opera Bar, they had watched the fireworks from Mrs Macquaries Chair, after a quick drink we headed back across the Bridge to see QM2 leave our city at 11.30pm.

QE2 at Circular Quay

A great night out and an opportunity that doesn't come around very often.

Australia V England 2nd One Day Final @ SCG

2007-04-07T13:54:00.000+10:00

Those of you who know us will know that we don't really watch our 2 countries competing against each other very well so when my brother offered us free tickets to the cricket one day final for the tri nations series when England were already one game up, I should have just said we were busy! Instead, we took the 3 tickets and in the next error of judgement I allowed the 3rd ticket to go to a Welshman - who was supporting England, so Gareth joined our party and in dubious looking weather we headed to the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Our seats were fantastic in the Bradman Stand, great view of the ground and undercover in case the weather turned (thanks Justin). England batted first and while their innings was affected by the rain they still got their 50 overs to bat, a shortened break then the Aussies went in...then it rained, England got a few quick wickets and due to the rain the Duckworth Lewis (a mathematical way to calculate the target score for the team batting second in a one day match interrupted by weather or other circumstance. It is generally accepted to be a fair and accurate method of setting a target score, but as it attempts to predict what would have happened had the game come to its natural conclusion, it generates some controversy.) calculation came into play and England were magnificently victorious! (unknown edit by Chalky!!)

The weather got more and more miserable but of course we couldn't leave early - in case there was the chance to cheer the English boys for their performance (they didn't get many cheers during the summer - remember The Ashes 5-0!) In the end the presentation was all done inside and we were quite wet, 2 out of 3 had enjoyed the day...

Australia Day - Michael Malone becomes an Aussie!

2007-01-26T22:28:00.000+11:00

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!?!?

2007-01-24T21:43:00.000+11:00

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

2007-01-17T22:22:00.000+11:00

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

2007-01-17T22:19:00.000+11:00

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

2007-01-17T22:12:00.000+11:00

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

2007-01-17T22:01:00.000+11:00

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!

Boxing Day - Fun with Karl & Jayne

2006-12-26T22:03:00.000+11:00

Another 2 things crossed off the list - watching a Boxing Day Test (that was for Chalky as I've seen plenty of Boxing Day tests!) and seeing the start of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race. Karl & Jayne live in Manly and from their apartment we had great access to a local park where we could watch the boats heading out the heads. The harbour was filled with boats and looked quite a picture.

Back to their apartment where we played with Karl's new toy - a Wii from Nintendo, a few tennis challenges - quite entertaining - especially Bek's backhanded serve! Chalky's highlight being beating 3 boxing challengers in the first round. (what is a Wii - it's a controller for an electronic game where you make lifelike movements (serving, punching, backhands etc) in your loungeroom and the characters on the television move just like you!)

More friends arrived, new faces for us and lots of northern hemisphere accents, Jayne & Karl put on a great spread of salads, bread, potatoes, corn and a barbeque. With everyone's appetites fixed we headed down to the pool and the harbour to cool off. Their apartment block has the largest pool in Sydney that juts out into the sea, it's stunning to be swimming in a pool and to hear the crash of waves next to you and ferries passing by as well.

We all did some stunt diving with someone tossing up the ball for someone else to try to head or kick before they landed in the pool, the only problem was when you're heading a ball the end result is usually a belly flop into the water ... OUCH!

Chalky and Karl did a little snorkelling in the sea and quite quickly nearly 7 hours had passed. A fantastic Boxing Day. What did you all get up to????

Christmas Night

2006-12-26T21:49:00.000+11:00

The good times continued at Anthony Road, Trav had set a beautiful table, Mum had cooked the traditional Oriental Pork that we all love, the lamb was roasting in the barbeque and Chalky was on the case with some Yorkshire Puddings.

Yorkshires Rising in the oven - they were beauties!

First things first - presents to exchange and presents to open. Santa was good to us all this year and we all got some lovely thoughtful gifts. Dad entertained us with never-ending 'Why did the chicken' jokes - most of which we just didn't get!

Dinner was delicious and as usual we all ate too much, after dinner we played Taboo - Dan & Trav were good first time players and ended up the winners, Mum and Dad were a little slower picking up the game but had a few good rounds although dad's tactics and clues would be contested on any other day of the year!

How quickly time passes, after some home made berry icecream served with fresh berries we made a call to England to hear how Isla was enjoying her first Christmas, just as our celebrations were ending you were all starting.
An exhausting day but one of the best Christmases we've shared. Chalky was particularly happy to not only tick off his list - "Christmas on the Beach'' but to have started a new precident for years to come.

Christmas Morning

2006-12-26T21:32:00.000+11:00

Most days it's a struggle to get Chalky up and out of bed, especially on days after he's had a few drinks at the pub with his mates, but not on Christmas Day - everyone gets up early don't they? Well they do when my mum phones up at 8.20am to start the good wishes! But really Chalky was up early to meet Mick Malone on the golf course to start his day with a quick 9 holes - for free since no pro's were up to take the course fees so Chalky was a very happy Yorkshireman on Christmas morning.

At around midday we met up with Karl & Jayne for Christmas Brunch on Balmoral Beach. We set up on the island at Balmoral looking at the beach, Bather's Pavillion (Joan's favourite restaurant in Sydney) and the water. We snacked (as you do) on smoked salmon, salad, bread rolls, cream cheese, freshly baked mixed berry muffins, fruit salad and drank fresh juice. Chalky & Karl did some swimming while Jayne & I chatted and relaxed in the sunshine. Of course we toasted the day with a glass of champagne, Chalk did the honours opening the champagne, it was a little too keen to be drunk because as soon as he'd removed the cage around the cork the cork flew out of the bottle right into his cheekbone, a good thing it didn't fly a little higher and take out his eye!

As they say, all good things must come to an end and it was time for us to continue our Christmas celebrations with Mum, Dad, Trav, Daniel & Rugby .

A fabulous start to Christmas so far!

Bek sees the Queen

2006-12-23T11:08:00.000+11:00

A break up from work treat and since we know we've got lots of drinking ahead of us (after 28th when Garth arrives) we decided to make it alcohol free and so we dashed to the City to see Helen Mirren in Queen. A great surprise from Chalky and quite a good film although I don't think it was worth seeing it on the big screen. After the film we wandered around Sydney to view the light show on the buildings & David Jones' Christmas windows.

One of the light show scenes - The Con

Hyde Park Barracks in the Dreamtime

We thought all the buildings looked good but voted the Conservatorium of Music the best. Last weekend before Christmas, lots to do... Merry Christmas Everyone!

Our Favourite Light show

Christmas Celebrations Begin

2006-12-23T10:44:00.000+11:00

I was the only one who was still working but Gareth, Marilyn & Chalky were all quite in the festive spirit for an impromptu barbeque and then the challenge of a game of Taboo. Gareth & Mar were Taboo virgins and old timers like Chalky and I kicked their butts. So round 2 we mixed it up with Chalky & Mar teaming together and Gareth and I. Common losing denominator was Gareth! For a man with so many words he was lost for them a few times whilst trying to describe things to me! We all had plenty of food, plenty of laughs and quite a few wines! Merry Christmas Mar, who is going to Eden to see her family. See you when you get back and I'm sure we'll be seeing more of Gareth...Taboo round 2 sees Girls VS Boys! Bring it on.

It's beginning to look a LITTLE like Christmas!

2006-12-17T22:53:00.000+11:00

Today is officially 1 week since Chalky's Birthday which means we can start getting festive. We have put the tree up and started playing Christmas songs but I have to say after 4 years with cold Christmases it's hard to get into the swing of a hot Christmas, it just doesn't feel the same. I think it's because the nights are lighter, you don't see everyone's Christmas trees twinkling in their front windows and I miss the hot chocolate at Betty's. But as much as it may not feel like Christmas, I wouldn't swap our January for yours!

We're both starting to get quite excited about Garth's arrival which is only 11 days away. Nellie is also looking forward to meeting her English Grandad, she's hoping Isla has mellowed him, Chalky and Auntie Lesley have been warning her that she might get a smack at meal times if she doesn't behave!
The itinerary is done and it looks like we're going to have a great few weeks! You'll have to check his blog for all the adventures (address will be posted later). One week till Santa comes, I'm off to bed.

New Dart Board - Pa Beware

2006-12-16T19:42:00.000+11:00

Today has been a very steady day, nice lie in, an afternoon putting up the dart board and the early evening spent playing like a world champion. After peppering the treble 20 all afternoon, scoring a few 140's and several tons I notched my first 180 on my new board after about 2 hours play. All I can say is after a first day 180, watch out Pa, you could have as much success on Australian soil as the English cricket team, as I write, Panesar has just been hit for 24 off 1 over by Adam Gilchrist, 3 sixes, 1 four and 2 runs.

If any of you doubting Thomases don't believe all those darts are in the treble 20 look below.

Anyway this Blog isn't just about me, Bek says hello!!

Dinner With the Blackwell Family

2006-12-15T23:29:00.000+11:00

This time last year they were 2, now they are 3 and lucky for us little Amy woke up for a feed before we left. She was asleep for the first time in her big cot tonight with one little arm out of the covers and a curl on the top of her head - she was so cute. Robbie & Nick's house looks very festive with the Christmas tree and lights on the balcony. As always we enjoyed a taste sensation dinner - lamb salad and having learned my lesson from last time (when I got a telling off from Chalky for bringing a bread dessert) I didn't buy dessert from Bakers Delight instead made a mars bar cheesecake.

A great evening topped off by Amy meeting the Nellies and showing us how she likes to dance on the table! Merry Christmas Robbie, Nicko & Amy and have a safe trip up to Queensland. Thanks also for our Christmas pressie - a pasta maker, we'll have you over for dinner next time...wonder what will be on the menu???

Gigja In Sydney

2006-12-13T19:45:00.000+11:00

Gigja has had 3 weeks in Australia mostly in Melbourne & Tasmania with an Au Pair she met in DC. With just 2 full days in Sydney the pressure was on to show her the best sights. We decided on Bondi Beach, of course including some of the walk so we parked the car at Bronte and walked along the coast to Bondi.

The water was a VERY chilly 17 degrees so Gigja and I didn't last very long. It was a really hot day so we dried off while brave Chalky stayed as long as he could in the water just so we felt like wimps!

Hunger meant it was time to leave the beach and so we headed up to Campbell Parade to find a suitable cafe to eat at - we found a place that had bed booths so we could all stretch out in comfort and relax while our hamburgers were being cooked!

The sun and all our partying on the weekend meant we were pretty exhausted the threat of a thunderstorm made it an easy decision to stay at home and so we had a bbq for dinner and just chilled. Gigja looked through my creative memories album of our trip in America and we all laughing remembering some of the fun we had.

We were both working on Tuesday so we directed Gigja to the train station and she did some shopping and explored Sydney. After work we headed into the city and shared a bottle of bubbly at Opera Bar with the harbour bridge our backdrop.

A ferry ride to Darling Harbour was next where we had some dinner at Bungalow 8 bar on King St Wharf.

Gigja has decided that next time she's in Sydney she'll be climbing the harbour bridge, she even gave us a quote in case we wanted to have an Au Pair when we have children!

It was a surprise to have Gigja in Sydney and really lovely to show her around, we're looking forward to when we're in Iceland for the Lobster Festival! Gigja have a safe trip back to Iceland via India and a really fantastic Christmas & New Year, give our love to Alla & Fiola!

Happy Birthday Chalky!

2006-12-13T19:38:00.000+11:00

Well as you can imagine we weren't up early! Chalky had a few presents to open, both the Nellie's had been shopping for him - they are clever koala's getting him Chocolate Orange and Rochers. Chalky took early delivery of his presents from his mum when she was here on holiday, some new shirts casual and smart. He'll take a later delivery on presents from the rest of his family when Garth arrives on 28th December.

I bought him a new dart board with blades rather than the staples so I'm sure the competition will be quite tough in January when it's father vs son!

After a late brunch at a local cafe we met up with friends at Cabana Bar for drinks and birthday cheers. To redeem my sinking cake I made Chalky some chocolate muffins and re-used Joan's candles!

We finished the night at Sydney airport picking up Gigja, our friend from Iceland who we met while travelling in the USA last year. After all this celebrating I'm glad to have Monday off work!

Happy Birthday Eve Chalky!

2006-12-13T19:19:00.000+11:00

Chalky's birthday celebrations began early with a fish & chip treat tea on Thursday, he then met me for lunch at work on Friday and again another treat lunch (Oporto's Chicken!). Mum and dad came over for a BBQ & cake on Friday night. Chalky loved his present from mum & dad (so did I) it's a light for the barbeque so he can see while he's cooking our dinner!
I've been experimenting cooking Flourless Chocolate Cakes - made with eggs, Lindt chocolate and butter and it rises really well in the oven but once it gets out and cools it starts to sink and this is only the 2nd cake I've made and it was quite a disaster, but as they say looks aren't everything, once it had some icing sugar dusting, fresh raspberries and Joan's Happy Birthday candles she left with me I think it came off ok??? It tasted devine anyway!

Saturday activities were dominated by ROBBIE WILLIAMS in concert. Gareth & Marilyn joined us for a pre-concert barbeque (no light required). We had a few beers before the concert started and then headed for the oval for the show to begin. The concert was good but it can't compare to being at Knebworth for his concert with Joan & Les. I don't think Robbie had the same passion for the Sydney crowd as he did for a home crowd. The best thing was that we stayed until he'd sung Angels whereas at Knebworth Chalky had us running back to the car to get a quick get away. His last song was actually Kids and the rumour is that Kylie will join him in Melbourne for the concert! Bugger!

After the concert we headed to Paddington to have a few drinks, the first pub we stopped in was Irish and there were some scary characters in there...all very drunk and very fancy dressed! We only hung around for 1 drink before we headed further up Oxford Street to what was Kitty O'Shea's. By this time Sarah had joined us and Karl & Jayne weren't too far away either. We sung Happy Birthday at midnight and were home for around 2.30am when we called Joan & Isla and Kimbo for some birthday chats.

Nellie's In School

2006-12-13T19:13:00.000+11:00

While flicking through the Foxtel TV Guide one Sunday night we found a program for the Nellie's to watch - all about Koala safety! There was a story of one koala who was raised in a family and every night he'd come out of his tree, up the front stairs, in the front door and straight to the mummy of the house for a bottle of milk! It was really cute! (But not as cute as Nellie!)

The Nellie's have been much better behaved lately and we found Nellie writing out her list to Santa the other day while flicking through the department catalogues! She's put a new racing bike in the same frame size as Chalky on her wish list...wonder if she's been good enough?

Luckiest Girl In The World?

2006-10-13T19:10:00.000+10:00

I ask, would the luckiest girl in the world be off at work while her boyfriend is off at Manly Beach enjoying the 35degree day in Sydney??? Hmmm...

Why this title?

2006-10-07T12:16:00.000+10:00

This is a phrase I hear a lot from my boyfriend, Chalky. I'll show you why he keeps telling me this!