June 26

Thanks to Oli,  who is keen on racing, we went to Narooma to watch the Rally.

On Friday night, they had the cars on display. I asked the VW Beetle guy about his. It's a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo with a VW shell and wiper motor. The rest is Evo. It cost about 200K to build and about 50K more over 4 races so far. I don't think we'll be joining it any time soon. 

We're staying in Moruya, and stopped at a pizza place with the doors open, about 2-5 deg C outside, and concert floor and metal seats. We played Coup at the dinner table,  v fun. Charlie had cheese pizza. The cheese slid off but it was pretty ok. Me and Olis was boring but o on, with over cooked rock solid crust. Lou had a fettuccine carbonate, that was salty,  and creamy, as hell, and mostly didn't get eaten. 

Saturday we got to the spectator area. It was packed.  Viewing was not excellent,  but ok. The speakers were to loud, interfered with the view. Lou climbed up a tree and had the best view in the house. 

Cats 1 and 3 were so fast. Others were very smooth. The Ford Escort spun 180 in the corner,  coming to a stop before hitting something. 3 others damaged their front end, or punctured tyres. 

After we celebrated with donuts and a thick shake in Bodalla. They have friendly spotless huge chickens strolling the footpath. 

We got to Big Rock road,  got turned around by officials. Went the long way, past homes, wondered if it was allowed, moved a tree blocking the track,  and stopped where 2 huge trees had fallen over the road. The consensus was park and walk. We didn't know the way but got to a tremendous spot with awesome views and long sweeping bends. Such an unexpected and fun experience. 

Lastly in Narooma, we wandered around the repair and inspection area to get some more snaps of the cars being looked at. 

Dune was at our Motel in Moruya, Karaage chicken burgers, Schmitt, fish chips, all pretty good. 

April-26

The first weekend was a 4 day weekend for Easter. Went to John's property. Camped, rode bikes, sat around the fire, got smoky. We had a nice time. 

Monday, had lunch with my side of the family. 

Went to Canberra Friday. Marie went down to babysit Tom and Casey's boys. They are doing really well, just sold their home and looking to move to Woden, close to the city and surrounded by large park lands. Good luck guys.

Saw the Project Hail Mary movie, which was good but kind of dumb and dragged on a bit. The main character meets a cute alien in deep space who cracked funny jokes and looked like a few rocks strung together. Everyone else really enjoyed it.

Saturday night at Bent Spoke Brewing with Tom and the boys, plus a hamburger place.

Went to Melbourne. Took Thurs Fri off. Wandered around. Went to Art Gallery, saw lots of designer clothes. Can't say I'm a fan. 

All the alleys and laneways are a big surprise,  so many little restaurants, bars, cafes. People living well. Starting their Thursday night real early. Melbourne is just like European cities such as old Nice or Genova.

Friday, I took an electric bike from the hotel. Went to Albert Park to find the F1 circuit. The ripple strips are clear, along with a yellow edge guideline. The ripple strips have some seriously vicious bumps.

Wandered with Marie. 

Went to Brunswick St Fitzroy with Marie and Vonne. A tram had broken down so we walked the rest of the way, op shopping, lunch at French Resto, some Japanese stand up to order place with 3 boys that were or boys age. 

Saturday,  train to Windsor, wandered Chapel St/Toorak Rd, got shoes, had beer later due to my bladder. More drinks at home, gummy, went Mexican Resto evening, felt sick, went straight home to sleep. 

Sunday, saw a kinda artsy boring photography exhibition. The American photos from the depression era were great,  plus sites of kids playing in the street. Flew home to see my wonderful boys. 

March-2026

Left: Oli had to get dressed up like a musician. He chose Don West; shoes are Vinnies, belt is Marie's and voila. It's pretty close.

The start of this month I was on call.

We went over to Vonnes to assist her finish her celebrants course for both days. Me and Marie got married 5 times. On Sunday there were 20 guests to witness our marriage. I had to lean over to read my views because my name was the words and I did not know my name. Good times. 

 

Next weekend, Lou went with some friends to the coast, while me and Oli stayed home. We walked the dog. The grand prix was on so we watched.  

Max Verstappen crashed in practice due to endings breaking locking the rear. Once you have a decent lock up, it's hands over, hello tyre barrier. He will start from the rear. Oli is still strongly interested in F1. Me too but I don't follow it. 

I'd better clean the house before Marie comes back hey. It's a mild disgrace today.

 

Above: we picked up some ceramic bread container for the over, so I had a go at bread making. It was pretty good, just a bit plain. I'm working on it.

Had lunch at Fils while still on call, John pictured at hers on the right here. 

 

I ate way too much. Marie and Lou were up the coast. Oli was at volleyball.

Ceal and Fil were at Fil's place. No sign or message from Peter.

First weekend after,  was nice to be free.  Nothing special happened. Walked dog. 

Last weekend: Walked dog. Attempted to make Olis fly screen to swing out for access to the roof. Aye, there's a decent gap to the side that needs some kind of fix.

Joe and Julia's wedding

3rd weekend in March was Julia's wedding. It was beautiful, touching and we had a very nice time.

The wedding itself was at Joe's family's place, which is a large estate. I think there was golf there?

It's got several self contained units, next to a lake. The bridesmaids, bride stayed, and got ready there. Then they arrived the short trip by golf cart, nice.

Froze our arse off at the ceremony. Bride and groom have wonderful vows, very touching and personal.

Julia had a cathedral sewn into her dress.

Much getting, drinking and dancing was done in the main building. 

Our kids are the coolest.

I go the vest at St Pats in Freo, and the shirt was a local vintage shop. Everyone else was orthodox.

Fil, Maryanne, Ceal, Julia, Joe, Peter, John, me and Peter Joel.

My boys are the most handsome creatures.

Before the wedding: I worked from home Thursday, including a 4 hour flight. I got off at Mascot and walked for 10 minutes as I didn't want to pay $23.30 to go the extra stop. I paid $5.38, train took 30 mins. My work laptop battery lasted 3 hours,  and I ran out of things I could do on the flight.  In Perth, the airport train is modern, excellent, cost $3.50 and is valid for 3 hours. Wtf NSW govt??

Got out at Freo. Stopped at the excellent St Pats Op Shop where they upcycle jeans, jackets and bought a vest. The walk to Anne Sophie's is beautiful and brings back great memories. She's retired. We bemoaned the state of democracy and war in the world.

Drove directly to dinner at Margaret River with Julia, Joe and 30 odd family members. Another great day.

I'm awake and it's 5am, 8am NSW time. Will try to get back to sleep or I'll bomb at 8pm tonight.

Went for a walk at the beach along a bit of the coastal walk, a really beautiful area, low tick green shrubs, perfect sand. 

 

Ellen's just moved in here. Her new place is a lovely new town house,  open plan with a mezzanine style 2nd floor, in a strata  of 8. There is a locked gate entry. A single driveway access is lined with mature trees like it's a street in a French village. We all had dinner together at Anne Sophie's. 

She's started to work 2 days a week. Said hello to George, Yannick and David, who are in good health.  

Me and Anne Sophie went for a swim at Coogee Beach, following the shark net. I had to cut out after about 200m due to the nausea caused by the bobbing ocean. A seal had jumped the fence and was cruising around inside the area. 

Walked Freo, via a gorgeous viewing point, to collect a hire car for AS. I checked if I could change Marie's booking by chance,  and yes all good,  I picked up a car also.

Marie and my boys arrived at Freo station directly from the plane. We met them there and wandered to get a coffee (image directly above) and did a bit more op shopping.

After the wedding weekend, we drove to Perth and stayed at Ellen's place. Went to the market with the boys, got a couple of belts, take away food. 

Bought more stuff at the vintage testify St Pats Op Shop, trained it, flew home. Got into a car that's not a taxi or uber but charged $65. He was from Karachi Pakistan. 

Feb-2026

The Kiari family sent photos of the Himalayas under snow. It looks spectacular.

Rishabh has started to see someone. I hope this is going well!

Well the only weekend we could make turned out to be Kyle's birthday. She wondered if we'd asked to visit just when that was, but alas sorry I didn't know. Anyway, it was a lovely weekend.

I tried my hand at Indian food. It's funny; I planned on doing it often but somehow have not been cooking. I really like the idea of bread with no preservatives etc etc. It turned out quite well and everyone ate it.

I was on call (S1 duty) for work, so haven't done anything for two weekends.

Jan-2026

It feels like another world to be "home". At the airport, I asked for help and wasn't hounded into bying anything.

Happy birthday Fil.

Finally got to see my boys again. A few of Marie's sisters decided to come to the coast and visit.

I had a tube of Mehendi, so we had a bit of a go.

And a puzzle as always.

The guys from Kiari sent some photos of their village now it's snowing. This is the house at the end of the street where their Grandma lives.

I brought back some scarves to hand around. I think Mohammad and Farnaz look great in them.

Here's a snap of Shimla in the snow from this year. I wish we were there!

More visitors. January, everyone is on holidays.

Went over to dinner at Andy and Monika's to talk about India, but mainly talked about everything else, work etc.

Well happy new year everyone.

And lastly, to Delhi!

For up at 7, feeling relaxed and by 7.30 I was rolling, skipping the breakfast, as that comes at 8.30.

Finding the parcel office is an adventure that goes past the police, the new metro construction, down the road, and two left turns. 

The parcel office is shut,  opening at 8am. The train leaves at 9.10, and I have to walk back to the station from here. 

I waited till 8.10, then started stripping the bike in order to dump it/ give it to the nicest looking guy, who turned out to be a helpful parcel person at that stage. He'd told me the train is delayed by an hour, so it seemed hopeful. 

Rolled back to the station proper to the info board, confirmed it's late, back to parcels. It was now open, yeeha! One customer speaks excellent English. I asked him to pay, as they do UPI only. It's 53, I gave him 100, which he refused, so I gave him 50, looked for more coins but he doesn't want that either. The parcels office has 90% great people, and 10% who would like to supplement their income. It's important to concentrate on the overwhelmingly majority of amazing people. They would honestly help in any way possible, and just want a simple thank you. 

The delay continued and we got away finally at about 11.30am. A family has my seat as always,  but they've swapped me a cabin to myself. It always works well, train seating. 

I spent the time hotel hunting. Nanda told me to do the bike at Old Delhi station. She'd wanted to buy it. I offered it for free. 

I was expecting the ultimate boss battle in Delhi traffic but it is just too civilised. If Jaipur is 9 on the scale, Delhi is an easy 6. There are spaces between the cars even. Arrived at the hotel. Guard says 2 wheelers must go two gates away, but at the front door. The supervisor came out. I would like to go into the front door. I asked if he could park it? Yeah no problem. I slung him a hundred.

When I came down he was eager to get it out. I slung him another hundred. I really really like valet parking.  When I came back later, he was desperate to know: where's the bike?? I'd given it away. Sadly he was getting no more 100s but still he was very responsive. 

At parcels office, Old Delhi station, Nanda knows someone who knows someone. I can't get past the guard. He wanted me to go to police. The guy turned up, confusion reigned with the guard, got Nanda on the phone. The receiver eventually took it. I wandered to the metro. I'm dying to know what the ladies who will ride it think of me beast.

Wandering the Connaught Place, a kid asked if he could practice his English. We chatted. He took me to some Lassi place, was going to walk away but I invited him to dinner. He had chicken bryani. I had some paneer thing,  plus butter rotis. We parted ways, and I went home. 

It's great to be in a wonderful hotel. Breakfast is street food. I asked for Aloo Chole, got dahl. Went to Modi's residence. The streets are immaculate, wide green street gardens. At the home, many soldiers are on guard with machine guns. 

Nearby, Nehru's library is closed Mondays. Can't get anywhere near parliament, went to get Pashmina shawls, stopped at Afghami Resto, for fish tikka on a skewer,  and thick hard to chew flat bread. The main man spoke excellent English,  told me much about Kabul, where he's from. He reminds me a lot of Stephen Pav with his kind enthusiasm. 

They speak Dari which is 99.9% exactly Persian. The hellos, goodbyes, etc are v v familiar, so i told the waiter the food was خیلی خوب. The main guy recommended a shawl exporter, seemed an excellent tip. I picked up a bag load. 

I tried to view Humayun’s Tomb हुमायूं का मकबरा from a distance but it is too packed with people. Metroed it back, had a Malai chai with Sachin, met his buddy Rohan. They took me to another carpet place. I keep stating that I'm just there to look, and if course ended up getting a hand woven silk one with extremely fine detail, 1.2m wide by 1.8. 

Rohan did let me carry it for you.  I needn't have worried: he handed it back when I asked. I went home solo, dropped it, went out to get a backpack for the flight. Another guy offers to show me a carpet place, told me my one was a tourist trap. He knows the best place. He took me back to The weaver cottage arts and craft द वीवर कॉटेज आर्ट्स एंड क्राफ्ट, much to my relief!! Said it's the best.

There was a choice of hand knotted silk. This is about twice the price. He also showed me an ultra fine hand knotted work in 90cm width, which is really stunning. He said an artist may only do this,  was it once a year,  or once or twice in a lifetime? Only super rich buy this, and it takes an age to make.

For dinner I asked for Paneer. And got dahl. Again. 

For breakfast,  I asked for Aloo Chole Chawal, again,  at the cashier. The paper receipt just said "Rice". I asked the guy who makes the rice, clearly "Aloo Chole". Today I received Aloo Chole, after 2 attempts, on the third we had success!

Packed, chucked out shoes, single use slippers that I've used a lot, and the Indian phone charger. Checked out, stored my bags. 

Met up with Rohan and Sachin, had a chai, got them a novel each to improve their English. 

We went to a tea wholesaler, tried Darjeeling, Earl get, Chai Masala. Rohan wants one for his mum so I got all three, and then saw the eye popping price, went ahead as I said I would. Fuck.

We went to a park to relax, but the afternoon I'm miffed about the f ing tea. Had veggie burger/fries at Hungry Jacks. Can't believe they eat this in this cuisine rich country. Went home, got metro to airport, saw the tea there, a lot is a fraction of the price. One 100g pack is 4,000, which is the rate I'd paid, so maybe I wasn't robbed? Rohan said his mum loved the Darjeeling, so I figure it's the service and try to absolve my fault in financially f ing it, and get some mental relief at her pleasure. [Edit: I don't think she drinks $100 bags of Darjeeling. I broke off contact with these two boys.]

At the airport, I had Benne Khali for dinner, so much butter, almost like a thick fluffy crispy sugar free pancake, with accompaniments and a dahl flavoured side, very good. 

I slept well, on and off, for most of the flight. More or less woke up with 2 hours to go. Tried to take photos showing the curvature of the earth, for John, haha, but it's not clear due to clouds, poor visibility.

Getting through customs took about 10 minutes. Walking and waiting for the bags was probably 15. Plane landed 18:34 according to Google maps. I got to Central just in time for the 19:18 train for the Coast, which is miraculously good.