evening view

evening view

Monday, December 26, 2011

christmas 2011


We have had the family christmas - it was as usual busy noisy fun and full of eating and drinking
We had 19 attend and 3 dogs - noodle and krumm came to visit at well
We missed bethan's presence as she is in france - but she managed to ring and talk to the family
Frannie contacted us on skype



stella and tony
Tony is looking much better following his recent back surgery. He isnt allowed to drive for 2 weeks so I went and picked them up from mt martha and they spent xmas eve with us at the flat.

Ant and jess drove them home today - going back on the ferry - stella says they have arrived home so i assume they all survived the trip




We found my camel lights so they got put up for the night
















Em came early and helped with the preparations
peeling veg, moving furniture etc

Thanks Em











Lindsey and Ian were also there - but it is our house and we were doing the food preparations.













 Matt and family were next to arrive. They  were departing for Kaniva on Boxing day but had to head back home to locate Jarrah their Golden Retriever who loses it in thunderstorms and had disappeared from his enclosure overnight
Luckily he was eventually found hiding under the house much to the relief of all.

A 6 foot fence fully reinforced is now the order of the day!








Simon noodle and the kids were next to arrive.

























Ant Jess and krumm also came to visit






















Christian and Cass turned up after driving through a nasty hailstone storm on the Eastern Freeway where they had had to pull over to wait for the storm to pass.





Sue also got here having driven through the storm.Well done











and Wendy arrived - happy birthday Wendy
































Ant is heading off to perth in the new year to start his new job. Jess and Krumm are going with him. Hopefully he will get back to Ballarat for future Christmases.

Em has enjoyed her first year of work as a physio and is waiting to see what her new year brings to her.


The table was set. Luckily we have a big lounge and lots of muscular males to move the furniture around for us.


The table started to fill with people who have ventured into the kitchen to fill their plates



Sage and Belinda arrived at the table













Doesnt Tony look well.



















Ian and I finally arrived at the table ready to eat drink and make merry.













Then it was time for Christmas day cricket. The dogs came out to help play.

I think that Noodle also enjoyed herself.


Think that we all had a fun Christmas

See you all again next year for Christmas 2012


Sunday, December 4, 2011

early summer gardening projects

the veggie patch is coming along - it would be helped if the chooks hadnt decided that is a good place to get their feed - so todays project is to heighten the fence so that they cant jump over it

the ducks and geese dont fly and so they are prevented from accessing it by a temporary gate

chuckling is growing fast - still thinks she is a chook
Maria helping with the seed planting
Maria still inspecting seed planting
chooks and silverbeet dont mix
Luckily they cant reach the berries
Last years spuds are doing well
i wish i could remember what seeds these are
the peas and beans are doing well
as are the silverbeet away from the chooks
This years spuds are doing ok
As are last years snapdragons
Luckily the snails dont like mint
or bottle brush
noodle is growing
 A spider found in my suitcase, now in the garden

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

New iPhone pictures

A nice Ian evening meal
Dragon boat racing
my new camel from inner Mongolia - as you do
A mt Martha breakfast on cup day morning

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Welcome Fred and Barney

I headed off to lort smith animal hospital on saturday after doing my work shift in the morning. They had a couple of silky bantam roosters which needed a home. One ofmy nurses daughters works there as a vet and lets me know about birds which need a home. I am now at capacity.


Fred and Barney exploring

Welcome chuckling

What do you get when your silky bantam sits on a duck egg?
Chuckling
He/she is doing well and starting to venture outside with it's adopted mum.

Friday, August 19, 2011

Thoughts on a Japanese Wedding Trip 2011

random thoughts

1. when you take pots of vegemite for others to take home - remember to at least take a small tube for ones own use

2. encourage Ian to do his pdf travel plan - print it out and have a copy on your ipad and a paper copy in your backpack

3. hotels will use the wotif booking from your ipad when you cant find the paper copy quickly enough

4. it is difficult to collate photos and videos from about 1/2 dozen people, many hours later i think i have most peoples - still need to collect ants, christians and judy's

5. you need an engineering degree to work out how to flush japanese toilets - just when you think you have them sorted another method comes along



6. some members of the group wont eat raw meats and fish - wouldnt try the cured chicken and others were reluctant to eat raw fish

7.  if you can construct ikea furniture you can manage to find your way around the tokyo subway - reading the maps is similar to reading ikea instructions

8. tokyo subways do have a daily ticket and it is cheaper to buy one than buy multiple tickets

9. it isnt easy to find a restaurant that will take 15 people without a booking but we managed it



10. some members of the travelling party are more apt to wander than others



11. it is fun travelling with a large group that will split up and regather later in the day to compare notes

12. japanese cafes and restaurants are happy to look after non japanese speaking people - we ate lots of different foods and had fun trying out different plates

Ok its a Turkish Japanese restaurant


13. happy hour cocktails arent good for weight loss

14. walking 6-8 hours a day negates the weight gaining effects of happy hours

15. judy and i can both drink blue cocktails at 68% and continue drinking



Lindsey enjoying her blue cocktail
theo and judy enjoying happy hour













16. the group enjoys edamane beans - better to eat than chips with cocktails



17. travelling on the shinkansen from tokyo to nagoya puts the ballarat "fast" train to shame

18. electronics are cheap in nagoya - an ipad 2 cover was 1/2 the price of melbourne or the tokyo mac store

19. USB sticks are also cheap in nagoya

20. it is bloody hot and humid in august in japan and hong kong

Lindsey in the heat at miyajima


21. weddings are enjoyable where ever you are

jess, ant, em, kaori, austin, lindsey and ian


22. it is fun to skype the grandparents to the japanese wedding



23. the japanese play cute music at weddings

24. the japanese know how to prepare wonderful food for weddings

beef cheek


25. it is fun to travel on the train to get to a wedding



26. if you are travelling on a train to a wedding you are apt to be picked up by other people travelling to the wedding - " do you happen to be going to a wedding. is it austins. good then i will travel with you"

27. travelling back to the hotel after the wedding on a bus is also fun



28. wedding after parties are fun



29. i am too old to go to after the after party - i piked on the karaoke - the young ones didnt pike

30. when travelling the day before the wedding make sure you have a change of underwear in you hand luggage so that when your luggage gets lost you still have clean underwear - you still have to buy a suit however

zoy in his new suit


31. make sure that you have a spare battery to the video camera - i had spares for the still camera - luckily it also takes video

32. carry multiple universal power adapters - others like to borrow them

33. organising an internet dongle from narita airport was worth every cent it cost

34. people travelling on public transport will indicate how you have to pay when you cant work it out

35. japanese train workers are universally friendly and helpful - they could upskill a few of the melb transport workers

36. i wake with sunrise - ian doesnt like to

37. nara local deer bite you if you dont feed them - deer from miyajime dont

if these deer want food dont try and stop them


38. hiroshima is overwhelming
A bomb dome



39. hong kong disneyland as per austin is underwhelming



40. the big buddha at ngong ping is worth the scary cable car trip




big buddha



















41. the cable car to victoria peak hong kong has long waiting times

it took 45 minutes to get onto the tram


42. the food at the top of the peak is fun



43. taxis in hong kong are fairly cheap

44. alcohol and food in hong kong are cheap - austin says 2 maccas meals were the cheapest he has had

45. if you go looking down dark and dingy lanes in hong kong austin can find cheap wii games and hard discs with many wii games on them

46. if after 10 years of contemplation you decide to plant daffodils bulbs, they will, without question flower when you are away on holidays



47. ian obviously looks more dodgy than i do at security checks - was checked out for cigarettes coming back into japan from hong kong and has his carry on baggage pulled apart before allowing him through narita airport security coming home

48. ian might look dodgy but his gold card status on frequent flyer points gave us an upgrade to first class when coming home - way to go

49. suitcases are never big enough - but it is better to travel to a warm destination as summer clothes weigh less
and as a group we had lots of suitcases

waiting for a train at shinagawa station



50. ipads are wonderful to travel with but writing up blogs are better done on a proper computer

51. dont annoy the japanese fish - they are huge


big fish





52. japanese food is colourful and tasty or is just rice and seaweed - both types wonderful


food platter - nara
bento box - ginza - Tokyo

53. Japaneses outdoor air conditioning is different from ours

Em cooling off in the mist after a hard hot days walking


54. if you take a photo of the food photo outside the restaurant you can indicate what you want for lunch when there aren't any english menus



55. it is nice to get home to a washing machine and somewhere to dry the washing


56. japan is busy and quiet, hong kong is busy and noisy

ian and austin hong kong - looking for wii games



57. night lights look good

hong kong


58. things get lost when travelling - including train tickets, phone chargers, socks, bandaids, people - most things eventually turn up

59. we say hello to new friends and goodbye to old ones

judy and frannie
jim and theo

austin says goodbye at nagoya


bye austin bye freyja
bye frannie and jim















bye bye kids - hope you had fun


60. you learn to hate blogger as you and it cant agree on how to upload photos and it crashes multiple times as you try to do so!

61. the boys scrub up well

christian zoy ant
62. the family looks good as well

except we lost jim's head
63. austin got to collect flowers and give one to Kaori at the wedding

 64  it is easier to upload photos at the flat where the internet connection is much faster and so i will continue to up load when i get to Melbourne




Austin and kaori
65. brides look beautiful



















66. grooms look handsome


Ross































































































67. family loves survives distance and times













Austin and Frannie

 















68. We had all had a good time and came home with lots of good memories, lots of photos and lots of videos to edit!