Canberra

With winter now approaching we've got a bit more adventurous with our weekends and took a weekend break to Canberra. We've been in Oz over a year now and haven't been south of the city yet so it came as quite a pleasant surprise to see that it's not all Gum trees as far as the eye can see as it seems to be going north! In fact we were treated to green hills, grazing cattle and rolling plains which made a nice change. The drive to Canberra is very easy and only about 3 hours which means Dylan can make it without going loopy.

We checked into our hotel and scooted off to the Parliament building only a couple of blocks away. All very nice too and it gave us a real feeling of how young a country Australia is. We did the usual thing and tagged on the back of a guided tour round the various rooms and took a seat in the Senate and House Of Representatives. It was the weekend so no-one was, ahem, "working". Order. Australia uses proportional representation and in Western Australia, Kalgoorlie, is a single electorate. At 2,295,354 sq.km it is also larger than Western Europe. The minister for Kalgoorlie receives a special budget allowance for flying around his constituency.

We also had a look at the National Museum of Australia while we were there and were again very impressed. Canberra is quite a nice place, but I have to say. It's pretty devoid of people too! I was having fun making up tourism slogans like "Come to Canberra. No-one else does." or "Canberra - All fun. No queues." . Not as harsh as I think Bill Bryson said though - "Canberra. Why wait for death?". Speaking of death, we checked out the war memorial which seems to be sort of compulsory when visiting capital cities for some reason. All a bit sombre but it did give you a sense of Aussie history. Another little known fact is that Australia has been in the fortunate position to have never fought a war on home soil. I reckon it should stay that way too...

So there you are. Our little escape to Canberra. Dylan liked it anyway. Loads of space to run around in without too much worry about cars n' stuff.

Visitors

So, what have we been up to... well, we've had some good fun with visitors from afar! My auntie has been in Oz staying with her son Dave and his family so we've been lucky to spend quite a lot of time with her catching up on everything. We managed to spend a couple of afternoons together in various parks etc. and took a trip to "The City" one day to check up on Isy at the office... Needless to say Dylan enjoyed being with her and I can still hear the loud cries of "Auntie Olwyn! Look at this!" and such from the little fella...

We've also had a great afternoon hooking up with Duane and his wife Michele and Connie (who has just moved to Oz). Duane, Connie and I used to hang out in Munich in 1993 and have recently found each other again through LinkedIn. What a laugh. Here we are taking up where we left off with a German Stein at the LowenBrau beer keller in Sydney after 14 years. You couldn't make it up...

Thinking about it, we've spent a fair bit of time down at the Rocks recently. Here's a few pictures of a certain someone tucking in to an ice cream (or two!)...

...a couple of the aquarium at Darling Harbour...

And just to finish off... some pics of Aussie wildlife at the local Koala park...

ahhhh...

baby kangaroos....

Mind The Gap.

In the blog that is...and it was all going so well!! Seem to have had a bit of a break there, I guess I got out of practice...

Anyway, needless to say, we're still out here in Oz and it's still loadsa fun :-) Isy has just taken a 6 month contract and I'm now working from home which, I have to say is a nice change. I even manage to get to the driving range during lunch hour. I am working hard though.

Honest.

No, really.

Anyway, we've got my Auntie over here staying with my cousin at the moment and we're meeting them for dinner tonight. It's been good to see her again after a couple of years. I think she's enjoyed it over here, especially up in Port Douglas snorkelling and stuff... nice.

Well, I gotta go get the little guy early from day-care so we can head off for dinner. I'll get some pics up soon of our latest antics... adios.

Ready...Set...

JUMP!!!

Talk about covered in sand on the way home. He was caked in it. Dylan is pushing the limits on several fronts at the moment, the best ones being, ahem, gross motor function (that's a medical term that is) and the not-so-best-ones being of the assertive independence kind. Still, the joys of being two I suppose. He has several favourite phrases which get repeated often, one of which is "I want an ice pop please daddy" but you've got to draw the line at 6:30am.

It's been two four day weeks for me recently which has been nice. Jan 26th was Australia Day which is, naturally, a national holiday. We headed off towards the centre of Sydney to see what was going on, and it turned out to be quite a lot! There was a huge classic car exhibition right through the centre of town with everything from Minis to Corvettes. (If anyone knows of a nice red, 1965 Ford Mustang going, I'll take it. But you can keep the furry foxtail whateveritis...). There was also quite a bit going on in the harbour with the ferries all decked out, Google taking close up aerial shots for Google Earth and an F-18 flyby (I'd put a picture up, but Gary's is much better...) All good fun!!

Last Friday Isy and I had day off and went to see Casino Royale in the morning which was fantastic!! Daniel Craig is a great Bond and the new gritty edge was excellent. The day went one better too!! England managed to win something, and We Were There! Yep, after so many games and weeks that I've lost count, the England cricket team played their socks off to beat the Aussies at the SCG in a day-nighter. Very entertaining and beyond all my expectations. I tell you, it's not how many you win, it's which ones you go to watch that counts :-)

Today we all went off to Camden Valley golf course for my first ever full round. What can I tell you. I thought my score was my phone number at the end :-) A "few" shots over par but it was a great laugh and I learned an awful lot. I kid you not, I hit three trees in three consecutive shots. I mean c'mon, really... although I did manage to get down in four on one of the par threes which I was pretty chuffed with. I'll definately be giving it another go soon though. Just not for money.

The New Year has seen quite a few old friends surface (Hello everyone!). Amazing really, coming all the way to Sydney to find people again who (some of them) used to live round the corner!! Anyway, it's been fantastic hearing from everyone and we're looking forward to visits from Duane in May and Connie sometime soon!! It's been nearly 15 years since we all used to hang out in Munich doing the beer gardens... "Noch ein Stein bitte. Ausgezeichnet."

Happy New Year!!

So it's 2007 then. Zip another one gone. I have to say, our Christmas was somewhat different this year. Being away from the family was a bit tough and I just couldn't get my head around it being 25C and blue skies (My brain was screaming "Juuullllyyy!!!"). Having said that, we had a great Christmas day, starting with Dylan going mental unwrapping presents and finishing slightly sozzled (us, not him) in the evening at my cousin's place after a bit-of-a-do. We managed to do a web cam linkup with my folks back in the UK for a good half hour or so which was great. Wifi and a laptop at our end meant I could "show them round the house" and follow Mr.D running around all over the place. Great technology! On boxing day we headed off to Mona Vale beach and basically just hung out making sandcastles and got some fresh air (i.e. detoxed).

I've also been practising my golf up at the driving range a few times thanks to Isy getting me some lessons for Christmas! The instructor was excellent and I managed three straight shots onto the green!! Of course, as soon as he left I was slicing them like mad again but still, I know what a half decent shot feels like now :-)

And so now after a quieter New Year, it's back to the old routine. Dylan has returned to daycare a few days a week, I'm busy as always at work and Isy is again looking for a contract to keep her sane. Actually, Dylan is now in the "big kids room" at daycare which he seems to be settling into OK. He's still a chatterbox and this week's classic was listening to him talk a little Chinese women crazy on a half hour bus ride into the city.

The weather is also pretty fantastic now and we spend a fair amount of time either playing in the parks or swimming in the outdoor pool down the road. Dylan is now an expert at "Ready, Set, Spladoosh!!" and often shouts "No big dunk!" before jumping in... Would I!?!? ;-)

On the weekend we decided to head down to Circular Quay for a harbour cruise and a walk around the Opera House and Botanical Gardens which was nice. If Sydney has one thing, it's an amazing waterfront and just sitting back watching the world go by was pretty cool. Some of those houses!!!....

So that's about it I guess.

All the best to everyone for 2007!! Let's see what this one brings eh?!

"Two Years Old Daddy!!"

...and every time he says it, he looks ever so pleased with himself :-) As promised, here are the pictures from Dylan's second birthday party. We held it in a local park which worked very well as the place has all kinds of playground distractions and it's fenced in so mums and dads aren't constantly looking around the place... Pictures are in rough order of the day, starting with presents in the morning, party in the park and then more presents in the afternoon...

.... Big Day Daddy...

Blog Statistics

As some of you may be aware, we've been posting to this blog for just over a year now and thanks to Google Analytics I can show you some of the interesting visitor stats that have accumulated over that time. (Yes, I can keep my beedy-digital-eye on you all from here...)

So, first up where are you all? The map shows all the places people have viewed our blog from. (Europe is a little crowded, but if you look carefully there are alotadots...) The size of the dot is vaguely representative of the activity at that location...As you can see, our loyal fan base is trans-global and in four continents....

Next up is a pie chart of major locations. The good folks in the UK accounting for just under half of our visitors...

And finally, the traffic generated this month (I don't think we need to upgrade the Euro\Australia fibre optic backbone just yet eh....)

Other stuff I can find out is that most people use Internet Explorer but a few of you use Safari and Firefox, connections have been made from PlusNet, Harris Corporation (Hi Ang!), Tiscali GmBH (Hi Gail and Tito!), Royal Bank Of Scotland (Stop slacking you lot!), and Eircom to name just a few.

So, if you know anyone in either South America or East Asia send them a link. Gotta get more dots!!! :-)

Anyway, there you are. Watching me, watching you, watching us. Stay posted for pics from Dylan's birthday bash coming soon...

Cheeky Kids and Web 2.0

Cricket. Ouch.

On a more brighter note, it's been an interesting couple of weeks since cidinoz last checked in. We've been busy preparing the little guy's second birthday bash which is going to be held this coming weekend. We've been trying to explain to him that it's going to be HIS birthday party this time and he just says "Cake!?". Marvellous...

He's a very happy camper at the moment and we've managed to get a couple of pearls onto video but my favourite this week was when my mobile rang at work, I answered without knowing who was on the other end and he yelled "Lazy Bones Jones!" down the line. I mean what the hell??? The guy isn't two yet and he's giving me all kinds of grief :-) Actually, I lie, the BEST moment was this evening. We've just got our Christmas tree in and tonight we were decorating it - Mr.D was having a great time and getting very excited about it all when he came up to me all meek, snuggled up and for the first time said "Love you daddy". It gives me goose-bumps now just thinking about it. What a top little kid.

Mind you, it's not all been plain sailing this week. The blo*dy digital camera has packed up!!! How's that for timing?!! Kids birthday and Christmas round the corner. Sheeesh. I've managed to borrow one for this weekend but we'll need to sort something more permanent out sharpish. Canon has got it at the moment and there's a good chance we'll be covered by warranty. Here's hoping.

Last night, Gary, Marcus and myself (lads from work) went of to "STIRR Sydney" which was a very good gig. All Web 2.0 entrepreneurs pitching their stuff (.com's with a real plan this time...allegedly) meeting for beers and mingling etc. (If any of you Uni folk are out there... how exactly DID we manage to drink what we did??? Bit of a sore head this morning on what would once have amounted to a warm up). STIRR was pretty fast and furious and quite amazing to see how some of these internet start-ups get going. The raw creativity in the place was great to see and you get the feeling some of these guys really could sell ice to the eskimos (over the net of course). Now all I need is a half baked idea... hmmmm....

So that's about it for now. I'm off out on Saturday to watch some basketball apparently. The Sydney Kings playing, er, some other team. Big fan me obviously...I vaguely remember a rule about travelling or something...

Summer is a comin' in...

I guess the weather is a bit bizarre all over the place these days (They announced snow AND bushfires here last week...) but finally after a few cold snaps and some rain, we're getting those balmy evenings here in Oz, and as luck would have it, The Ashes starts on Thursday! How's that for a summer feeling?!! Nice...

Yep, Freddie and the boys have landed and after a slightly wobbly start the oldest cricket rivalry will soon be under way and I for one will start that long, slow, slide into enjoying one of the more sedate spectator sports. In what other sport can you say "Just popping out to watch the match love!" and come home five days later? All I need to do is figure out how I'm going to get Aggers and the team on Test Match Special over the Internet here in Oz...

As you've probably noticed, it's nearly Christmas. We're having to be a bit more organised this year as the postal situation has changed a little. It definitely doesn't feel right, shorts and sunglasses on, trudging round shops that are all decked out in tinsel with pictures of frosted windows and robins all over the place. Weird or what. I'll have to admit that I'm already missing the idea of Christmas dinner and watching the Bond movie in the afternoon but I'm sure we'll have a blast over at cousin Dave's.

Young Mr.D has continued to keep us busy from dusk 'till dawn. He's well into his swimming lessons now and is loving every minute of it and day-care seems to keep him entertained with lots of new things to try. Actually, that said, the poor guy has another ear infection today and was feeling a bit feverish at 4am, and 5am and 6am this morning. (Apparently four ear infections by their second birthday is about average. Phew) He is now starting to entertain us quite a bit and can do a "two year old's rendition" of Baa Baa Black Sheep, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Now I Know My ABC among other favourites. He's good on names too and insists that Grandpa's name is Grand Peter. Sounds more like a Womble to me...

This week we have mostly...

...been messing about...

...sticking stamps on our heads...

...nicking "dollars" from Dad's wallet...

...and having puppy dog faces...

Oh yea, and it's nearly Christmas and 30C. Go figure...???

How much is your gopher wood now?

It started raining on Friday. It's now Sunday. It's still raining. The forecast is not ideal until at least Tuesday and while most Aussies will be celebrating the fact as NSW is suffering a serious drought, our unlucky friends, Lorna and Graeme decided to visit us from London this week on the long way round to South Africa! Fortunately, we did managed to make the best of it and had a pretty good weekend all round. On Friday night we had a nice meal at our place with one or two beers out on the decking and some good catching up into the small hours. A lot stories and a lot of laughs to be sure...

On Saturday night Isy and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary with a superb meal at one of Sydney's finest restaurants, Aria on circular quay. The food was fantastic, the drink was a little extravagant and the atmosphere was great. (We even managed to spot the Edradour single malt - The smallest distillery in Scotland which we've visited and loved!) Our night out did mean that young Dylan had to spend his first night away from us (ever!) and slept at good ol' David, Tina and Francesca's place. After some initial tears he was fine and came through unscathed. Not so sure about us though :-)

Sunday saw us all head down to Bondi for a brisk walk across the headland and look at some open-air sculptures. The surf was up and one or two of the more extreme surfers were out doing their thing (pic).







Other muppets were out running around in the windy weather, doing their thing...