2017 July

Left: the kids climb a curly fig looking tree at Balmoral Beach

Julia came over from WA to say hi to the cousins and hang out for a while. At Balmoral, we wandered around, then had some lunch, then off to work for me. Nice to see you again Julia!





Right: selfie Ted, Ceal, Julia and Marie











Left: standing room only at a Beaches Link information session organised by the Castlecrag Tunnel Group. The guy who organised it will be having a tunnel right under his home. It will be 6 lanes, and I bet he will be able to feel the tunnelling machines, maybe the traffic itself. I don't trust the RMS one tiny bit when they say don't worry about it.


Right: at the same meeting news of flooding in Japan. A new 6 lane motorway under the north shore is like a carbon bomb - releasing more CO2 with more cars, affecting the weather, bringing floods here.








Left: and at the same meeting, news on the TV of drought affecting multiple countries across the horn of Africa. Climate is changing and has changed dramatically bringing more droughts and flooding. It hasn't stopped us bringing more roads that will lock in high CO2 output for transport.




Right: the mad hatters tea party.
The boys discuss life in general.

To say farewell to Alice, Ellen and Jean Claude had a lunch in their back yard. With the sun shining, it was really perfect. It's awesome to see how Frenchies take advantage of sunshine, green spaces, and food, to get some people around.


Left: the new coffee pot - courtesy of Stephane and Catherine.








Right: Marie organised an alco tasting evening for my birthday. Stephane and Meredith came along as the mystery French kind of guests. We tried out Absynthe, Rin Quin Quin, French whiskey, Armangac and others I can't remember, especially since I drank half of Marie's as well. We went to the standard Bay Thinh afterwood in Marickville.



Left: more protesting action at the Lantern Parade. I made up a traffic toilet that the kids loved amazingly enough. It now hangs proudly in their room.











Right: Louis at the Traffic Jam with the Traffic Toilet.



















Right: adventure cat. The cat is exploring outside. Not for very long! She generally sprints inside after around 10 minutes. Not sure what is spooking her out.












Left: stunt cat gets off the fence. Not much space for stuffing it up here. Nice work cat!

2017 June farewell Thyae, Mill confirmation.

Left: turkey cat.

Our new cat is slowly slowly slowly getting used to the place and settling down. Even the boys can pat her now. Not me though. She runs away.














Right: the farewell dinner for Thyae (pronounce like Tia)

Thyae's husband Adil got a better job in Abu Dhabi, so they left Oz with Maysanne, Sofiane, Idris, and Elias. Sorry to see them go, as Margaux our nanny enjoyed visiting them a lot, and the boys too. Au revoir les gars.


Left: at Vivid Ollie and Louis, with Charlie, Holly and Lola, plus Sarah and Amy who came along with Sonia. Too much junk food, flashing plastic stuff etc, all good.

Right: at Mill's confirmation lunch Belle, Mill, Tess, Will.










Left: Mum, Ceal, John, Marie, Fil, me.









Right: excellent photo bomb from Lou, full marks to you. Me, Fil, Marie, John, Ceal, Mum, David.









Left: Ollie nicked my phone, Will and Ollie.

Right: Alice's last shifts at GG's cafe, run by famous (?) Rugby player George Gregan.










 Left: the protesters Ted, Davie and David at an RMS misinformation session.

Much to my horror, they're planning on building a big arse freeway right through North Sydney underground. If you're reading this in the future, yes people really were this insane back in the day. All the signs for climate change were there. We've just had mass hurricanes, bushfires and flooding but the nut bags in charge are giving the people what some want: another road so people can keep burning fossil fuels to get around the place. Nice work.



Right: geo tech drilling to see how the ground will take a 6 lane tunnel road. It says they're building for growth, but only growth in private sector profits, while poor people must pay through the nose to make millionaires of those who would foist the carbon problem onto the poorer nations, while delivering a second rate disfunctional transport system.

2017 June long weekend in the Blue Mountains

Left: at Jenolan Caves

I tried book accommodation for a few weeks prior, but not one thing was available. We decided to go up anyway, and found a very cosy but dusty pub on the way up with a slightly weird rude old man bartender. But mainly very good. We did one tour of a cave, which everyone enjoyed a lot.


Right: the Three Sisters.

At the three sisters, you could barely see 50 feet in front of your face. Shame for Alice, as it would be one of the last chances to see it before returning to France. Still pretty amazing.




Left: at one of the many many waterfalls, all of which were really flowing.

At the waterfalls walk, as Louis says, "entertainment achieved."







Right: back at the pub accommodation. A relaxing game of Uno.

Left: waterfalls











Right: Horseshoe Falls walk at Hazelbrook, nice camera work by Ollie.








Left: the photographer extraordinaire.














Right: Louis watches the bike stunts at a local BMX track.

2017 June

Left: the WestCONnex Traffic Jam - nice for breakfast, bad for transport.

After a trip to a showing of how the East West link in Melbourne was won, I picked up some traffic jam.

Right: after the helmet free ride at Olympic Park.

We went for a sort of protest ride with the Freedom Riders of Sydney. We rolled through Olympic Park. V. relaxing. Lou had one little stack. Easily fixed with lunch.


Left: lunch at Rhodes near Olympic Park. Formerly all industrial area, chemical plants etc.








Right: packing a family load of bikes on the train. The boys are troopers for putting up with this kind of thing. But there's nothing that a bit of device time won't make pass quickly.

2017 May

Left: Happy Birthday, Lou!

We didn't do anything too much this year, so we had a little birthday celebration for our wonderful little ones this year.









Right: the delights included pancakes, waffles, cake, everything that you're not allowed to have for brekky.






Left: curiosity cat satisfied. Any new door that opens, and the cat is straight in there, even if you need to stand up to see all the new stuff.
















Right: the cat is becoming settled in, and not worrying about people being around. Even Ollie has kept on patting her despite getting scratched a few times. Now each time he picks her up, and the cat doesn't complain, he gives her a couple of treats.



Left: the line up for the cross country at the zone.

Ollie came fifth at school in their cross country, and so got to go to zone.



Right: he started off really strongly, and was right up with the pack. He certainly doesn't get it from his Pa: I always always came about last.








Left: still running strongly. I do have one shot were my little one was walking. The front runners were doing freakily by comparison though, running fast the whole whole way. I called out to him, and he sped up again.





Right: super boy still has enough in the tank to finish very strongly. Seems we just need to get motivation for the middle bit. Wish I could run like this! Very happy that he can.









Left: a pat on the back from the coach as Ollie runs out onto the field at Tunks.










Right: making another excellent run. This boy is fast.










Left; and a nice side step on him. Would be good to work on that.









Right: getting caught by the bad guys.













Left: catching one of the opposition to stop a try. Ollie did some great tackles in the season. Once their in his grip, that's in. Sometimes he did some turnstyle work, and the other team got through, but a few times he put his chest into them, then gripped strongly, and stopped them. It was great to watch. Hope it continues.

2017 May

Left - the new member of the family. The boys approve.

We got a brand new cat! She did belong to Felicity, but due to a second cat at their place, which old Isabelle didn't get along with, we thought we might give here a home where she was the only owner.

Right: Issy is getting comfortable at home now.

She rapidly stamped her ownership on the place. The boys tried to pat her, but Issy is not big on pats, or children, or people in general. She's starting to settle in a bit. We got some cat grass, a catnip plant and fed her. Whenever we're in the kitchen she comes meowing and rubs our legs, so I think food is the trick.




Left: Issy the super cat.










Right: ready to play, or maybe run away

Left: my old bike back home again, on the Lane Cove river at 

Right: at St Leonards on the way home from work 

Left: transport to the League. We only tried this once, because the last bit with no footpaths is a bit dodgy.







Right: the cousins put in their orders for the next birthday or Christmas. No idea what this plasticy stuff is, but was a hit once their birthdays did roll around.









Left: Marie asked did you take Louis to the shops in his pyjamas?? Hmm, maybe... it was about 7am and no-one was around.







Right: a trip to Barangaroo a bit later, just for somewhere to walk for a bit.