Archive for December, 2006

Phew – five minutes to update my blog. Where did I finish last time. Ah… my brother’s arrival. Well – it’s been great to see my kid brother again and nice to meet his girlfriend. At the risk of jinxing their relationship, I reckon this is the ‘one’ – they’re certainly happy to talk about having kids and stuff. Shawna’s very pleasant – she’s from Colorado originally, but has been travelling the world for a while and met my brother in Honduras. They still plan to move here, though given the fact that Jim’s in the diving business, they’ll undoubtedly end up in Queensland, rather than down here on the NSW coast.
I reckon Jack will be gutted when they head back to Thailand, because he took to them both immediately. We’ve had some great days out, showing off the area. Been up and down the coast, surfing, walking, drinking, eating, smoking … all very relaxing.

On Christmas day, we played host to the family. My parents, my sister and hub and Jim and Shawna all descended on us. Last year at my parents we had the full traditional works (turkey, stuffing etc …) this year we did a buffet style spread with chicken, kebabs, snags and fish all cooked on the barbie. Bloody lovely it was too. Weather was a perfect 25 degrees – not so hot that everyone retreats inside to the aircon, not so cold that everyone retreats inside to the reverse cycle. The pool wasn’t up to temperature (having been out of action for a few weeks) but that didn’t stop Jack trying out his new boogie board and snorkel set.

On Christmas evening Jim and Shawna stayed over at ours and we all sat on the balcony in the warm evening air getting totally wankered. They needed to change some Thai currency and the local banks wouldn’t touch it, so we arranged to take them to Sydney. We drove up on Thursday, parked up in Helensburgh and caught the train to Central. Currency exchanged, we headed to Darling Harbour. A visit to the aquarium had been arranged for the morning – only problem being I bloody hate the places. So it had been decided that I’d bugger off elsewhere and either do the JetBoat ride or catch a movie. The JetBoat was fully booked, so I hopped on a train to Town Hall and went to see Casino Royale. Superb film. We all met up again at Circular Quay and went shopping. We were back in Broughton by 9pm.

This new years the extended family are all having a meal, followed by some excessive drinking. Will report back, complete with hangover, then.

I can only assume we’re acclimatising to the weather here in Oz. After a couple of weeks of nice 30c weather, it only managed to hit the dizzy heights of 16c today. Now if I’d been inthe UK that would have been time to get out the deckchair and the sunnies, but today it felt a bloody sight colder than 16 degrees. I didn’t wear a coat or anything, but neither did I have any great desire to hit the beach.

Got a call from my dad this morning. He’s been painting the internal doors upstairs in our house and was due to continue work today. He apologised and said he couldn’t because there was too much to do at his own house. Fair enough of course, we certainly appreciate his efforts, but they are a couple of old worry-warts my parents. Due to the impending arrival of my little brother and his main squeeze, they have no doubt repainted the guest room and filled the larder so full of food that they could stick shop signage above the door and trade for several months on the contents.

So anyway – Liz decided to finish off the painting because all the dustsheets were pissing her off. I was called upstairs at regular intervals to look for microscopic patches of green that might be showing through. After three coats of paint and about 25 trips up and down the stairs, she declared it finished. Hurrah.

We have been discussing arrangements for new years eve. On account of the fact that much of the family will be assembled for the first time since … ermm … the middle of the last century, we’re thinking of doing the Sydney fireworks thing. Obviously my parents are a bit past that sort of thing, and Jack will be tucked up in bed by 8 o’clock anyway, so we’re considering asking them to babysit him, while we get rat-arsed in Darling Harbour. We shall see.

Today’s quote, comes courtesy of Douglas Adams: “I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.”

Jack’s first sleepover went well. His two best mates Charlie and Oliver spent the night here on Saturday. We put all three of them in the sun room – the twins on the sofa bed and Jack on a camp bed. It was a successful event, all things considered. They spent some time splashing around in my parents pool (ours still being out of action) and went to bed at about 9pm with The Polar Express in the background.

The next morning, it was such a nice day that we decided to head down to the beach. We had fun for about an hour and then the wind really picked up started blowing sand around, so we headed for home. I dropped the boys back off at their parents and then we went round to see my folks and use their pool … again …

We had our evening meal at my parents and then, it being such a nice evening, went for a drive up the Woodhill Mountain Road . There are some spectacular views up there on the escarpment – I took some photos but they don’t really do it justice. We then headed down the Wotamola Road to Kangeroo Valley and stopped off at the river, where we all had a paddle.

When we got back, Liz was in no mood for working (she often has to work pretty late in the evenings because of the time-difference and a client-base in the UK) so we watched some pre-recorded and downloaded TV. Highlight of the night’s telly viewing was Dom Joly’s Happy Hour – an episode I downloaded because it takes place in Oz. This starts off in Melbourne but very quickly moves to outback Northern Territories. I wasn’t expecting much, but it was bloody hilarious – particularly his drinking sessions with the locals in the outback boozers such as the Latimer Roadside and the Humpty Doo.

On Thursday my dad and I are driving up to Sydney to pick up my kid brother and his bird. The only minor problem is that Shawna’s flight arrives four hours before James’ and none of us have ever met her. My parents and Liz were umming and ahhing over how we’d know who Shawna was, when I suggested the revolutionary ‘bit of paper with their name written on it’ notifier. ‘Yes of course!’ they all cried.

My dad was telling me about this book he’s reading at the moment, which had a very funny anecdote in it. He said that towards the end of the war, combined Australian and New Zealand forces liberated (ermmm… forgotten that bit … I’ll ask my dad later) a good couple of days before the yanks. This didn’t stop the Americans from marching down the main street with a big banner that read “The US Army – Second to None,” so the Aussies and Kiwis marched along behind them with their own banner that simply read, “None.”