Oct 2018 pt2

 We went to 774 Jamberoo Mountain Road, Jamberoo NSW in a shack on a property. It rained like hell coming down..

 We went for a walk along the quiet road next door on day one, then it rained during lunch.

We walked in the afternoon on the property through the forest. I scored a leach. Then it rained more. Then the following day it was dry. Long story short, we avoided the seeming non stop rain

 At the park before dinner at Jamberoo pub.

 Back to marshmallow roasting.

Stuck in the tunnel, maybe the M5? The usual road joke around here. The answer is to build a few more.

Oct 2018 pt1

 A day at Balmoral Beach. Both the boys buried themselves.

A

Back at home with the cat.

Sept 2018 pt 2

 Above; praying for the win, with George, Cameron, Henry, Sammy and Rylan.

Right: playing for the win, that's right - slide the bat! No ball from the ump.

 Right - the worst croissant in the world. Looks like a croissant, smells like one, tastes bland, texture of a chunk of bread. It's supposed to have thousands of layers, not be some random chunk of wheat based solidity.

Above - heritage always evolving! In this case, all the handsome terrace shops from the turn of last century have evolved into a giant hole. The current advertising is for human scale 2 story developments to replace, but the actual plan is for some mega towers to get this place Hong Konging along.

Right: a walk to Balmoral from Bradley's Head via Middle Head. Beautiful!

Sept 2018

 Above - Harley's birthday - turning one is a nice milestone. Well done Harley.

Right - bushwalk down to Ball's Head reserve, then up through Waverton to get the train back home again. A nice way to spend the day. I wish we could get our little monkeys to be interested in walking more.

 Above - Wendy Bacon, Alison Taylor, Pauline Lockie, Dr Michelle Zeibots, Noel Childs and the organiser of Stop the Tunnels Larissa Penn. I did video the whole thing if you're keen to watch, just google Stop the Tunnel in Youtube. I was closely involved in their group to try to get signatures on the petition, publicise the talk etc. They got about 100 people along which worked out very well.

Above - my beloved scooter kind of died. It's aluminium, so it won't last forever. I first got it after Ollie got his aged around two years. When I'd arrive home from work, he'd have the front door open calling "Scooter! Scooter! Scooter!" So we did some rides in the garage and around the place. That makes its age around 8?

Left - finishing off the walk to Balls Head.

Confirmation of the boys August 2018

 Ollie and Lou got confirmed, much to Baka and Val's relief and joy. We went to Borruso's restaurant after for a 3 course meal of salad, pizza and some nice desserts. John and me had to stuff a last few pieces of pizza in, so we were overdoing our duties as the garbage bins of the table.

The boys got confirmed, First Holy Communion and did their first Reconciliation done, all in one year, v efficient.

 Marie made Ollie look like Bam Bam off the Flintstones. Seems he liked it! No change in the hair that is out of control. The other day we saw Oscar who truly has seriously long hair. It down't look bad with a baseball cap.

Above: me and the cat, in a rare moment of understanding. She tends to hiss at me if I try to pat her...

To the right: another monster tower in St Leonards. I don't really care, as it's up on the highway. My question is: who the hell buys these apartments. The views might be nice.

Happy birthday to our beautiful Oliver

 Our gorgeous Ollie had his double digit status confirmed once more. We had some buddies over for a shoot em up, and some soccer, at the local park, followed by cutting the cake, lord knows what tomfoolery and a bit of combined device time of course.

The birthday boy blows out the candles.

Evie tells some stories to Charlie.


Left: we're always trying to work out the bits and pieces while we wait and wait for approvals, detailed design and construction on the new place to begin.

At the time of writing (Mar 19), they've smashed all the walls out, constructed a feature wall with a big blue post in the middle, and have started to put in the floor joists. We've been cleaning bricks. Luckily Marie's been there to stop the plumber putting gas into the kitchen, and asking it in the back yard for a bbq instead. The ventilation of the stove is still not worked out. The flyscreens/security screens on the windows were forgotten, but worked out some days later after we personally visited a showroom. They said the ceiling was always going to be flat after we'd spent several meetings asking for exposed ones, and a stepped ceiling. The sides of the opening lever for the slat windows were going to be on the wrong side until Marie picked it up. I've explained about the exposed bricks off the lounge room twice now. They tell us not to worry, but that worries me!

More August 2018

 We got Lou some 3D goggles, but then worked out it doesn't actually fit any of our phones. They still had a nice time of it.

Holly and Lola had their birthday party with cousins, aunties and uncles from both sides of their family.

Across the road from work about 5 buildings are springing up, including a replacement for our current building, which seems fine, bad apparently is not fit for purpose. 

 To the left: Epping Road - that's after it had been calmed down from a four lane highway to a one lane in parts. Still it's a pretty crap road, and it stinks as well. I always wear a P2 dust mask to try filter out particulate matter. My throat does feel better with a filter.

Last but not least, well this is really one story that does stick in my head. Dennis brought in some Indonesian snacks, v tasty. Clearly I had too many and they didn't agree. I puked at work, then told them I'm going home asap. Fought the waves of nausea until I boarded the train. After concentrating as hard as I could, I just had the overwhelming urge. I cleared the carriage of people. I sprayed the bike down with water the following day to stop acid eating the parts.

Did I take the following day off work? You bet!

Big Steve gets married - August

 My cousin Steve got married at last! She seems like a lovely girl and they're very happy together. Was nice to see the cousins once again. We had a bucks night going bowling. I drank too much and argued about global warming with a cousin and a bro/cousin in law.

 Bike parking at work, see below, not usually very glamorous at all. Now they've got us in our own cage with weird fake carpet, with a bike pump and tools - not bad really.

 

End July 2018

I'm sure plenty of stuff happened. I just forgot to write it down.

I went for a job interview, but it seemed like more of the same, just a bit different, so I didn't pursue it. On the way there, I passed a window saying they're preparing for the future. At least the picture is honest: more roads, more cars.

 Alexandra had her 18th birthday. Marie and Tony were bouncers, but the kids were so polite there was zero trouble, apart from one puker. A couple of people came in though Alexandra popped out to say they could enter. People were trying to show Marie their ID in order to get in!

Gabrielle and Estephano looked fantastic with their outfits.

Ollie made his last break for it here. He had to come off in the second half as he took a hit that made his teeth all bloody. Don't tell Marie that... Anyway, I guess that's it for league for a bit as (at the time of writing in March 2019) we're planning to travel.

Stephane gets a new bro

Yves and Meri had the pleasure of adding one more to their fam, Elliot.