The first day of school!

In the school office on day 1.

For the first day of school, I went to school as well on the train. The office had all the paperwork. Paul got to chose all his subjects.

Chatswood near the train station.

The uniform shop was closed today. Too bad if it is your first day. The deputy principal opened up the room of odd uniform items, so luckily we got a jumper. The pants were standard black.

Chatswood train station.

Trains are double decker.

At St Leonards train station.

A shot of the school.

The sports oval at school.

Sunday walk over the bridge

On the walkway, heading towards the city.

We took a train to Milsons Point. From there it's quick to get on the bridge. Walking across has some great views.



 The bridge was opened up 1932 and provided work for masses of people during the Great Depression.

A lot of steelwork in this thing. Takes a while to paint it as well.

Sydney Opera House as seen from the bridge.

Looking onto the city as we get closer.

At Circular Quay train station.

At the fete Blanc Bleu Rouge eating Montreal street food.

Rugby match

Walking around, or rolling on the ground, some people run.

After the walk around Balls Head, the boys were tired and went home with Marie. Me and Paul went to the Rugby Union. Not many people were there. It was ho hum until the last 15 minutes, when the lead swapped several times.

When the ball is on the ground, the game keeps going.

I think that Paul enjoyed the game. Then we walked home.

Sometimes they run with the ball.

If the ball is knocked on, or can't get out, they have a scrum.

Paul arrives

Paul in the courtyard of our place.

After some months of paperwork etc, we've got an exchange student staying with us: Paul from Montreal. We picked him up from the airport.

Walking nearby up the shops.

 After he settled in on the Friday, we went for a walk nearby on Saturday. We walked near Waverton to Berry Island. I've never done it myself. The bushland is in pretty good condition. It seems to be fairly untouched. It's a surprise to be so close to the city, and have some nature.

Near Waverton train station on the way to Berry Island.

On Berry Island, there are some Aboriginal rock carvings. We saw a kooaburra.

A kookaburra on Berry Island.

Berry Island - you can forget you're in the city.

The city centre.

One of the small navy bases.

Louis birthday!

Celebration on the day at home. No expense spared.

Our youngest little boy proudly turned the big 6! There were 3 celebrations; starting with just us on the day, and a few gifts. Then we had my family to yum cha, my absolute favourite. Sam came around to make the cake for his main event. She worked in a cake shop for 5 years or so. She showed us a few tricks, like putting some icing onto baking paper, then freezing it and popping it onto the cake. This way she could trace a car with a pencil, then put the icing on the wax side. Lou had a drag racer on the cake, nice work!

At the yum cha place for Louis's bday.

We all went down to the slot car track for an hour odd session of racing. Not sure who won. Louis and Ivan retired early.

The birthday boy himself with a pile of macaroons.

Fil, Ceal, Mill, Tess.

Sam the cake maker extraordinaire!

Crazy boys, Lou Roger David Ivan Ollie.

Racing!

Happy birthday to Lou!

Our stuff landed, mid April.

9 odd boxes, 2 sofas, 1 bike, table, chairs, fridge yeah!

After having a half empty place for a couple of months, and living out of a fridge that is barely big enough for a case of beer, finally our stuff arrived. The fridge we borrowed had a lid on top. All the stuff was piled in, and condensation ruined anything touching the bottom. Horrible!

Souvenir of the village of fishermen: Cros de Cagnes.

Our fridge: only half the space could hold things.

Our old table, chairs, sideboard. V nice.

At home..

Preparing lunch for school.

Enjoying summer. The bikes stored in the living room for a bit.

A few shots from when I remember to pull out the camera.






Lunches for school are well planned out. The boys are getting used to taking sandwiches, didn't take long. Sadly the boxes in the picture went the way of all school things - they got lost.

Louis comes up with a strategy: buy everything!

When we first got here we didn't have much stuff, so there was a lot of space in the place - enough for bikes in the living room! While convenient, and super cool to have inside, one major objector meant we had to move them all downstairs. Luckily since we don't own a car yet, there's plenty of space. Our neighbour even gave us the keys to the electrical cupboard so I could drill in a little hitching ring into the wall. Then we could lock them up down there.

Holly's turn!

Nice to have the cousins around whenever they like. Lord knows what they do. They run up and down the staircase and get excited. We've had a few sleepovers. They all pack in like sardines and get to sleep at who knows o'clock.

Dinner with the cousins.

Weekends...

The reprile man works his magic.

Lou's buddy Ray had his birthday with the reptile man. He had all kinds of snakes, lizards, turtles etc. The kids absolutely loved it. They've both had a few birthday days each.

Pat this prickly one!

Can't remember where we went to this day, Fils?

Walking on George St after Anzac day. Too easy.

NSW election day. Ceal chats to the competition, Tess and Will give a hand.

We promised them a bike when we got back home. Happy consumers!

Cricket and soccer in the cricket nets. A ride to the park.

Trying to get political

Out there trying to get some interest.

Well cycling always gets the rough end of the stick. Government announces grand plans, promises much, then these things either get underfunded or cancelled altogether. So we thought we'd start up a party. There was plenty of interest, so it took off easily enough. Getting votes, now that's the hard part. We really needed 40 or 50 thousand or something, but got 22 thousand.

Along the way, we went to a few protests, had a few sessions of handing out leaflets, and some of us did question and answer sessions. Trouble is that not many questions were about biking.

Near the Gore Hill freeway and Willoughby Road.

Me versus Gladys and the others at the little debate.

Getting mad as hell about the destruction of College St cycleway.

At one of the many College St bike path protests.

Me, James, Anthony, Party pres Omar, Barbara, other people.