And we're off

<-- after the biffo, all is forgiven (I think) when the 2nd cake turns up



A good time had by all.

Many thanks to Evonne for getting up out of bed at 6am to drive us to the airport. It was starting to feel like it's really happening. Louis pees past the nappy, down his pants, and into his shoes. After looking through some of our 7 odd bags, and 40 minutes later we're ready to checkin, pass security, and board. -->

The long farewell

<-- taking it easy

competitive cricket -->

The long farewell went for about a month. I'd already had 2 farewells from work, so did not want to go back there again! Thanks to Evonne, Fil and Baka for letting us invade their homes for weeks.



<-- brekky

magic bubble lady -->

A job offer

<-- boxes and stuff everywhere. What a mess!

All our furniture ready to go on the truck. About 160kms and 7 stops (Mum's, Felicity's, Steve and Ang's, Evonne's, Bo and Igor's, Baka's and Adam's). The whole day went perfectly, and we expected complete disaster. Thanks Orana truck rentals and the completely awesome 4.2m Hino 616. What an awesome truck. If it drank less, it would be the family car. -->


HR finally interviewed me in February. It seemed the job was a goer. 2 bosses from France came out about April, and gave me a contract. 6 weeks holidays, so many public holidays, and 1.5 days off per month; how could you say no? So, I told work I was leaving, we sent our stuff to France, and then left our home, just as our work permit was approved. Great timing! Then all we needed was a national criminal statement for every country we've lived in for the past 10 years, and to try to get an appointment with the consulate while most of their workers were on holidays. Not great timing!

So while we tried to work out who to ask for a criminal record in the USA, we stayed at everyone's homes again, after swearing off doing so.

It was a nice way to say goodbye to everyone though, and great to spend a huge amount of quality time in people's homes.


<-- photo of Ollie taken with his brand new camera, of him on his brand new scooter. Do you think kids are spoilt these days?

Marie laughs since the camera looks like a fake kids one. It works fine! -->

The last 12 months

Here's a quick catch up post:
Jack and Ally got married.
Before Christmas, the boss wanted to know who would go to America to start a new support centre there. Marie said no. I would have said yes, for the fun of it. I was going to just say no, but I didn't want him to think I wasn't open to the idea of other places. After saying as much, he turned around pretty quickly with a job ad for France. 2 interviews later, we thought we were in with a good chance. So, we told everyone at Christmas we might be off, and we got some renovations done in a hurry. Oh yeah, that was stressful. I could not get any money for the first month odd, and the builder had progress payments.

We stayed at my Mum's, Felicity's, Tony and Evonne's and Peter's place. The boys really enjoyed having an 8 week sleepover, but we found it tiring, living from 4 suitcases. We swore we'd never do it again.

Ollie fell over backward and cracked his head. Celia said we had to keep an eye on him in case of concussion. I knew you can ask simple questions to test if their brain is functioning ok. I asked who won the race at the end of the Cars movie. He said "Chunkin, and Mr Shrinking Hat." This test does not work on a 4 year old.

We went to the Wiggles. It was pretty damn boring, but I think the kids had a good time.

We had a good time at Joshua's 1st birthday. There was a jumping castle, a great idea!

Trip to Wagga, and Easter

<-- Elkie, us, Adam and Anna at the Licorice Factory in Junee.

At Vince's for Easter. There were so many chocolate eggs for the hunt, that we ran out of spots, and had to throw them all over the lawn. -->

Port Macquarie April 2010

We went on a trip to Port Macquarie. It has nice beaches, and is pretty quiet.
<-- On the way up, we stopped at the Reptile Park. It was great. Ollie chased some emus, fed the kangaroos, checked out the snakes, spiders etc. V cool, and a nice way to break up the trip.

On night one, we found a farm stay at Bullahdelah. The manageress was lovely, and her two adopted kids were unusual but very friendly. Ollie helped feed the animals, and had a horse ride in the morning. What a great find.

On the train

Each Sunday, train tickets cost $2.50, if you bring a kid. You can go about 5 or 6 hours north (300km), 3 hours west (150km) and 4 hours south (~200km). Sorry, that's not far on the train.

It's about 15mins into town, so we head into town, and be tourists for the day. Ollie always asks to go to the train station, and Louis seems to enjoy it a lot too.

Bike smash! 4 Mar 2010

Had a smash. It was my fault for not checking my pannier properly. It got loose, and became lodged in the front. I chipped a small bone, triquetrum, in my wrist, and got some scrapes. Its another vote for confidence in the bicycle helmet. I wacked my head hard, but am fine.

The neighbours asked if I was going to give it up now. Luckily, Marie still allows me to ride. It's either get fat, and guarantee bad health, or risk another smash. I'm trying to ride more carefully.

<-- due to the speed, the frame got very bent when the front wheel stopped.

Merrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry Christmas!!

<-- what we look like in real life

a huge crowd for the music. The crowd also got an unexpected treat from our Solid Gold little dancer -->

A big Merry Christmas to cyber space, and hope that 2010 is better than ever.

These are from about a month before Christmas. They had some Christmas Carols. We didn't last until the carols came

<-- No need for a cage for this go-go dancer. I said, how's your hearing, OLLIE?

hittin the highs -->

Ollie and Louis are really well. Louis is smiling at everyone, and has some excellent strength. Ollie is entertaining now. We were getting used to his limited vocab with little words like Mama and Papa. Here's a list from February of this year
hello, hat, bye, all gone, up please, hot, car, bus, truck,
bike, ball, see ya, mama , papa, book, shoes, woof,
meow, no, ta(thanks), fish, walk, baka(grandma),
are you?(where are you?)
We are very proud of his language skills, and every new word was pure delight to hear.

But now Ollie is now really expanding. The other morning he came up to the bedside. I asked him How are you? And he replies "Not too bad!". We both had to laugh. Before that I told him I love you, and he responded "You're welcome!". We went to Ang and Steve's today, and he entertained everyone with his odd sayings. At the local daycare he encourages the other kids with "come on!"

The 27th of December

<-- What do you call THIS? His first taste of ice cream. Looks like he liked it.

Louis, Marie, Ang, Steve, Alexandra, Gabrielle and Ollie escaping -->

Ivana was playing in a tournament near Manly. It is a sensational beach, with an overcrowded plaza. At least its just for pedestrians.


<-- the happiest man alive

ta naaa!!-->

Citect Christmas thing

Michael, Wei Ching, Tim

Dean, Bernard - 2 bosses up, and me -->

I just thought I'd put up a couple of shots from this one, as it was fancy dress, and lots of fun.





<-- Marie, me and crazy in a good way adventurer Dave

Bernard says I can still turn up on Monday, as long as the moustache is gone. He won't have competition -->

Boxing day 26 Dec

If I wasn't so lazy, I'd look it up. I'm not sure how many people boxed on Boxing Day, but now there's a yacht race, the Sydney to Hobart, and not much else on. It's a public holiday, so Christmas is the best time of year by far!

Merrry Christmas!

<-- at Tim and Zdenka's in the Alladin's room

Beautiful Milly -->

Christmas this year was at Ceal's and Zdenka's. Ate too much as usual. I was astonished at the huge room piled up with presents for the hordes of children. Had a great time.





<-- Louis and Marie

At Ceals-->

<--at the bowlo in Tribal Zone

on the way down-->

We went down the South Coast to Sanctuary Point, Jervis Bay with Zdenka and Tim at their place. Had a lovely time at the beach. It's perfect for kiddies. Louis watched everything excitedly, and Ollie just loved getting into the water, building sandcastles, and annoying hell out of the cats next door.




<--telling the cat where to go

The weekend

<-- one the trampoline at Tess, Belle and Will's

very excited about "going in the water"-->

We've been doing some swimming lessons. Ollie enrolled for his first set. He absolutely loves the water. He just started to understand kicking to get some propulsion. It's marvelous to see the idea click.


<-- Beautiful Louis

Fran holds her latest beautiful grandchild -->

The trip to work

Here's a 3 minute video of my trip. As Marie said, it's more interesting than I thought it would be.

The way there is via Pacific highway, then back home on the back streets and the path.

The school fete

A day at the school fete. We went on every ride, and even the jungle gym. Had two huge slices of watermelon.

<-- the best slide ever

2 happy customers -->

<-- one of the cutest boys

what's he thinking? -->

Emily's 2nd birthday!

<-- beware the cake monster behind

Emily and Anna watch closely -->