Sept-2024

 

Me and Oli went to Eastern Creek to watch the car racing. Oli was very happy to have a look. Not many people, so it was easy to wander around to check the different corners.

Tims 70th at King Toms club. Ater too much, had a nice time all the people danced traditional dances. 

Danesh's farewell... you will be missed at work Danesh!

The fam and Mumma cat.

I volunteered to help out Clover's re-election effort, again. She got in, again. Got to hat to her about her mum, and bike lanes. She is surprisingly easy to chat to.

Make it new! I went on a denim repair workshop. My old brown jeans got a much needed patch on the knee. I've got a lot of projects needing some stitches for sure.

Lunch at Fils!f

At Olympic Park with the boys for something to do. Went for a walk to the cafe, got some interesting sweet drink

Aug-2024

 

We are part of a fruit and veg coop to pick up these from the Sydney markets at Flemington. It's a big amount of food. Connaugh gets up at 5am to get in before the crowds build up. She is a chap who does this every week.

We've had a competition at work for ping pong. So we've been spending a lot of time preparing. 

The new leg of the Metro opened this week, so I had to go check it out, with Marie and Lou. It is impressive, and so far been a smash hit for moving people around.

Jaime and Marie hard at Pandemic, a cooperative board game. Players work together to keep viruses contained before they spread to too many cities.

A weekend away with Tim Trish Jaime and the kids. An excellent time.

I had to go up early to empty the bins.

A night at Tone and Vonne's

We had everyone around for lunch at our place, including Aunty Ellen. Ceal couldn't make it but the cousins did.

Took Mohammad and Lou for a ride along the Parra river, v good.

July-2024

Not much happened this month, as I was on S1s. Here' s anice shot of the local station.

Finally finished off the patches I've been working on for a month.

We went up the coast for the holidays, and had some fam for visitors.

This is the view from the train on the way home. I think it's some of the most beautiful spots in the world.

The walk to the beach is v nice. Goldie just loves the dog beach.

The back yard.

Out the front.

I caught up with Dan, Chap and his sister Cathy for a game of the Swans. They lost pretty badly. Oh well. Nice to see the guys after a good long while.

2024-May

 

We went for a plant tour at Riverstone where Haresh explained how everything worked. It definitely had the feel of an exciting factory tour.

Persian food! With the experts: Mohammad, genuine foodie from Iran, and Danesh, Mr Zoroastrian from Pakistan, from Iran, partly connected to India-this guy is Mr International. We have many interesting restaurants close in to Parramatta.

Went on a really lovely walk from Watsons Bay to Double Bay with Saurabh, Danesh and Mohammad from work.

Here they are at Watsons Bay. Great city views, bush views, interesting homes.

Happy birthday to one of the most beautiful people in the world, our Lou. Eeek we're all gettin old.

Had Lous birthday. Sunday said he could do anything. We went for breakfast at the local Cafe, had French toast, then the rest of the day was spent in a game mode.

 

I got some photos from Ellen, of Pop's. Some interesting ones in there of the Dorahys, my Mum when she was young, Pop and a Christmas from 1985.

On the day, we went to Sushi with Vonnie and the cousins. 

On the actual day, down at the Brighton Cafe like 30m from our front door. The boys always get French toast minus the bacon. It's kinda like pankcakes but bread, too nice.

One night i had to get up early to go to site. The night before i had vivid dreams of living in a 6 bedroom house with problems, and Marie had a collection of 15 sewing machines. Nothing unusual there.

Managed to get a snap of our lovely Oli smiling at the camera. Usually it's a grimace for the camera, fair enough.

Blurry is how I felt eventually, but had a really nice mid week catch up with Rara, Vonne, Tony, Marie telling a tall tale here, and Nick the most civil of engineers.

Parra town square. This place suddenly got fancy.

The office refurb now includes a ping pong table.

Had lunch at Fils again. Thanks Fil for your kind hospitality.

Ellen brought along a few interesting historical snaps.

Went for a walk with Goldie which invariably seems to catch some baseball. It's actually pretty interesting. I think I'd prefer to watch baseball to cricket, not that that is saying much.

I inherited these boots from Lou. His feet are now bigger, and his old boots fit me perfectly. Thanks Lou, these boots are awesome.

Random spontaneous night at our place with some local parents: Tim, Jaime, Claudia and Trish, with Andrea at the end here.

2024-April

Left: finally got to put the stepping stones down in the back yard. The grass is looking really great as it thrives when not crushed when muddy.

Mumma cat had an adventure. No idea how she got down here. It could not have been graceful. I couldn't reach her at all. Shoved this old little ladder down, and after a lot of meowing, she finally just climbed out on it.

The Golden Strangers - really excellent musicians, all with a LOT of training.

Bike ride with the work guys, from Granville out to Prospect Reservoir, then only Canley Vale for some fantastic authentic Vietnamese food.

Me and Oli at the local Chinese in Lewisham. The chili plate was hot as hell.

School holidays! Oh Lord I have to say these are so nice. We rolled up to The Entrance on the train. The 1st train was a 3 stop express but the boys wanted to stop for pizza, as it was dinner time, to be fair. So we passed up on the fast train, got the all stops to Hornsby, spoke to the owner of Mad Toppings at length. He'd just broken his foot on some steps in the dark. I worked on my laptop while the boys played games. The trip goes very fast. 

Did a paint and sip at Emily's place with 5 girls. Learned about how often people have sex these days and about their desire levels. There were a few apologies but i don't really care. There was a lot of laughing, good times. 

Mohammad came the following day for a ride around the lake via Long Jetty. Yesterday was enough rain to put the path about 30cms under in places. After rolling in the water to meet him at the station i advised him to take his shoes off to get through easier. All good, and some v nice photos too. Farnaz, his wife, called from Iran. She got to see the sunset over the water.

Saw Dune. It was awesome. 

We did a lot of lounging around and sleeping. I have to say; it was a real holiday, too good.

To the right: Anzac Day march at the Entrance.

Oli has 4 friends up, Curtis, Felix, Oli and Julian. We all went to the dog beach for a swim. They were about to go in when Marie niftiest the rip. She said to go between the flags. I came a bit later.  As me and Marie approached Lou looked like he was being dragged deeper and away from the flags. The life saver in the tower was coming down, one was already in the way, 2 more were running in.

One said, the girl in the head dress keeps going under. The young guy Sean straight to her. One on the pale board went to Felix and surfed him into shore. I started to worry immensely about the girl in the headdress who then had to wait for the same guy to get out there again to get her. Oli pushed Lou along back into the safe zone. He put his hand up while being hit by more waves. Felix lounged out on the sand exhausted. It was a great relief that the girl in the head dress was next onto the paddle board. I didn't notice but the girls gather and someone else had to get rescued. The rest of our boys made it back in, but Curtis said the drag was strong and tough to get back in. Marie thanked the life guards but i was a bit to embarrassed to express my gratitude. The girl in the head dress did not take on any water and seemed unfazed by it all.

Claudia, Jaime, Andrea, Akemi and Esteban came up.

Went for a very pleasant ride to see the sunset over the lake with Akemi.

And on the next day, this time we went a bit to the north. There are heaps of paths around here.

After months of being a long haired hippy, Lou chopped it all of for a laugh. We were very happy. he looks magnificent. 

The champions of table tennis at work. Left Mohammad versus Nima to the right. Kheli khoub e.