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...

Cake, Cricket and 6ft Koalas

A whole month has gone! Zip! Just like that. It's pretty scary actually 'cos it's taking a real effort to think what on earth we've been up to...and then I remembered. Cake.

In the past couple of weeks we've been to two two year old's birthday parties (Did I stutter just then?) and we've been invited to another soon!! First up was a little pal of Dylan's called Jordan who kindly invited us to her house for the usual fun and games. Little monkeys running around all over the place! Some especially nosey ones taking a particular interest in the family's huge boxer dog (pic). Who would be a nursery teacher I don't know. Dylan had a great time as you can see from the photo's and ended up with cake all over him which, as we all know, is the whole point of kid's birthday parties.


The second bash was a joint-affair with all the kids from a weekly playgroup going to a huge party held in a local sports hall. There were bouncy castles, ride-on toys, tunnels, climbing stuff - you name it. And of course, cake.

But it's not all been for the little 'uns. Last Saturday we were invited to an evening BBQ with some of our neighbours and very nice it was too. Actually, it was a bit of a treat for Isy and I as it is fair to say we haven't had too much of a social life in the recent months. To sit around and talk rubbish over a few beers was a great escape. Poor old Dylan didn't fair too well though as he decided he was going to pick up a tea light which had only just gone out. He now fully understands "Don't touch it's hot" and hopefully he's got a long memory...

We also managed to get out of Sydney for the day a couple of weeks back and head up into the Blue Mountains! The mountains are about a two hour drive west of Sydney and are very picturesque. Blue, because they have a hazy blue mist over them all the time due to the Eucalyptus in the air. It was a nice lazy day which we spent walking around a small town called Leura and also on a short trail to a tourist spot where you can see the Three Sisters peaks. Whilst on our wanderings we came across a massive Koala bear which caused some amusement (and a little trepidation...)We took a trip on a cable car which Dylan just about managed to keep himself together on, but the "steepest railway in the world" had him (and a few other people) screaming all the way to the bottom. I'm sure he loved it really... :-)

Closer to home, the house is still being kitted out and we've now made in-roads on setting up the office. We've got a great new wooden "exec" desk and a plush leather chair which makes you feel like an oil baron when you sit in it (I know why JR was always grinning now. It was the chair). Summer is coming and, slowly but surely, the garden furniture is making it's way...yup...into the garden :-)

We're also very close to purchasing the quintessential Aussie accessory! A new Barbie is on the cards soon and I imagine we'll be sending the invites out to the friends (and relations!) we've met in our time so far for a bit of a knees-up. BBQ's are somewhat of a science over here - I saw one the other day for around $1500AU with an entire spit on it!! Mr.D can eat a fair bit for a little guy, but I don't think we'll be getting anything quite that size...

And then of course, the cricket season is nearly here. The traditional Ashes sledging has started in earnest and good ol' Geoffrey Boycott seems to be batting for the Aussies off the pitch!! All good fun though and I for one can't wait. The Ashes urn is doing a tour at the moment and I might pop down to the Museum tomorrow to check it out. Apparently Shane Warne was also signing his new book in Sydney this week - with his clothes on no less!

I'm surprised people recognised him.

Summer Toons

You know that thing that happens every year when you "Get That Summer Feeling"? Well, it's definately here today and to mark the occassion I've put together a Summer Toons play list. Here's what computer code is being written to today...

Ash - Shining Light

Athlete - Wires

Coldplay - Fix You

Counting Crows - Mr. Jones

David Gray - This Years Love

Dido - Sand in My Shoes

Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
Gorillaz - El Manana
Guns & Roses - Estranged
James Blunt - High
Johnny Cash- Wanderer
The Killers - Mr. Brightside
The Killers - All These Things That Ive Done
Led Zeppelin - Going to California
Madonna - Hung Up
Madonna - Music
Oasis - My Big Mouth
Oasis - Magic Pie
The Rolling Stones - 19th Nervous Breakdown
The Rolling Stones - Sympathy for the Devil
The Stone Roses - I Am the Resurrection
The Stone Roses - Fools Gold
The Strokes - Reptilia
The Strokes - 12_51

Sorry Dan - I would have put something from Simpatico on but haven't got it with me :-(

Rave On.

Possums and Palookas

What did I tell you! PC is nearly fixed, it's hotter than hell and the tax man has coughed up. Sorted.

As I said, things have warmed up considerably this week. Yesterday reached 31C and today we're expecting a high of a rather nice 33C. The good news is that it's also quite breezy so still pleasant to be out in. Dylan spent this morning running around on the decking wearing next to nothing and delighting in splashing us with a tub full of water. Too much excitement bless 'im - he's now flat out asleep and I expect will remain so for a good couple of hours.

He's also been going to swimming lessons these last few weeks and seems to have taken to it really well. He's been "dunked" a few times and managed to get over the shock and can sit on the side and "jump" into Isy's arms. There's an open air pool down the road from us which we might pop into this afternoon for a bit more larking about... hee hee (His language is also coming on. This week he cried "Hello daddy! Palooka!". He gets it from his mum.

Mr.D has also received a kids-size table and chair which he loves (Yea, we know he needs a haircut). It also means I can drop the travel cot and high chair off with my mate Marcus this week as his sister and baby are coming to stay...

Speaking of which, we're also expecting our friends Lorna and Graeme out here towards the end of October which should be great fun!! We were expecting Liza from South Africa to come out for a bit too, but she didn't make it due to changing jobs :-(

One final thing, last night Isy and I were having a beer out on the deck when a mother Possum snuck down out of the trees, crept across our garden and ran off with her baby clung to her back!! How cool was that!

Anyway, time to do something. (To prove I actually do things around here, here's a pic of me sweeping the remnants of about two tonnes of leaves from our garden last week...)


Catch you all later.

Newsflash: Blog / Sun Outage

Unfortunately, a harddrive failure on our home PC has thrown a
reasonably large spanner in the works when it comes to blogging this
week leaving me with my trusty phone. That, coupled with the fact that
so much rain has come down that the lavender in our garden is now
growing horizontally means not a lot to report this time.

The good news is that the living room has seen the addition of a
great coffee table, TV platform and corner table this weekend and the
Aussie tax man owes me big bucks.

Here comes the Sun. Doodle do dooo...

Golf Balls and Gift Wrap

Ok, after all that napping I guess it was time to go out and do something...


...so, after much talking about it, I finally made my way down to the driving range in Terry Hills to whack a bucket of balls with Dave and a lot of fun it was too! According to Dave, I did Ok and I certainly managed to get most of the balls flying in pretty much a straight line which was more that I was expecting :-) I've also invested in a glove as I came home with a couple of cracking blisters from not using one. Another couple of sessions and I think we'll head out for a round! Can't wait!

Last week was Isy's birthday so Dylan and I spent a few hours wrapping presents one evening which was a lot of fun. (The secret is to give him something ELSE to wrap while you get on with business...) I kept saying to him "shhhhh, don't tell mommy!" and when she came home he was saying "shhhh!" all the time which was pretty cute.

Spring is well and truly here now and the weekends have seen us putting in some serious time down at the local parks. Dylan is now a big fan of the swings... as are a few other people we could mention... The garden is also coming into full bloom and the plants are growing a quite a pace. Fortunately there was a note in out letter box from a local gardener offering his services recently so I think a quick call is in order soon before jungle starts taking over.

This afternoon we headed over to Manly to have a BBQ\Braii\Barbie at Gary's place with a few other friends. Very nice it was too and I think we'll have to reciprocate in the not too distant future. Speaking of Manly, the Manly Surf Cam on the right is live in Australia so if it looks black, it's cos it's night over here and even crazy surf dudes don't tend to go out at night. If you want to see the action, best times are probably between 8:30pm and 10:30pm UK time...

This week we have been mostly snoozing...

With teddies on our heads......

In our hammocks...

...and like old ranchers after a dusty day herdin' steer.

Cup o' Tea

Well, it's been a busy week or two that's for sure and first up is the big news about Isy! As I mentioned before, she had in interview for a Business Analyst contract with a consultancy in the city and....big drum roll... she got the job!! Yey!! It's working three days a week so not too much impact on Dylan (an extra day at nursery) and is based at one of the main Aussie banks helping them implement (wait for this project title...) Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Legislation. So don't mess with her. It seems that the team are all pretty nice folk too so all in all, she's one happy camper right now.

Out and about we've done a few things. Last weekend we went to the Manly Aquarium which was great! They have one of those underwater tubes you can walk through with sharks, manta rays etc. swimming right over your head! One fish with a long snout swam past to cries of "Noooooossse!!" from Dylan which kept us laughing for a while :-)

Today we drove across North Sydney to Terry Hills and had a look at a driving range we'd heard about. It looked very good and I will probably have a bit of a session there one evening next week with cousin Dave. We also had a quick peek into a small, modern Buddhist Temple which was very nice. Lots of fat laughing buddha's and gold stuff :-) Then it was on to Mona Vale to meet with an old collegue of Isy's, Gill and her fella Ross who have recently arrived in Sydney.

One slightly "small world" moment also happened at work the other day when I found out that one of the guys I work with used to be a barman at the Bear and Staff pub on Charing Cross road - A favourite watering hole of Ken and I a few years back. Aussie barmen in London. Who'd have thunk it?!

Dylan's phrases of the week are "cup o' tea" which I particularly like and "Again!" which accompanies everything he particularly likes.

Just the three of us

We have accumulated about 500 photos of Dylan over the past two years and, give or take, approximately 4 with all three of us in.

5 now.

This is us, on the front steps of our gaff, saying a BIG HELLO to all of you out there reading this...

Spring in July?

So how stuffed was I on Sunday morning after the game? Very, in case you were wondering. I'm going to say it once then it's done with.... Why the h*** can't England kick the ball from a spot on the ground into a huge net from a few yards away? What? Why? It's one of those never-to-be-solved mysteries right up there with the Bermuda Triangle and the Yeti. Give me strength. Still, it's all over now eh? Poor old Zizou...

So what's been going on in the real world now the World Cup has finished? I have no idea, I've been halucinating from sleep deprivation. Young Dylan is having plenty of fun and has recently been painting at daycare, dancing to his CDs and getting lots of cool toys every week from the toy library. He continues to astound us and others with his linguistic skills (favourties this week are "possum and teapot") and he can do a pretty mean half-volley with a footy. Actually, the poor little guy has had a bad cold the last few days and he had to sleep in until 10:00am on my early morning shift. Shame that.

Still, colds aside, I think it's warming up slightly as it seems to have nearly cracked 20C a couple of time recently. The trees are doing their best to wake up and there are definately bulbs etc. starting to grow. All very strange for this particular Englishman... I keep seeing things on the net like: "Sunset in London: 9:31pm" then looking outside at the crispness of it all :-) Our turn will come!

And it's not just the flora. Fauna is out too! We saw a possum! Yey! He was shimmy'ing along the telephone cables in the street as I came home from work on night. He was a cool little guy with BIG eyes! Isy gave him a name, which eludes me at the moment, but hopefully we'll see him (and his mates) again soon.

This weekend has seen us acquire some more creature comforts! We were genuinely excited about having our bedside tables finally arrive and we've invested in a decent set of pots, pans and crockery. Exciting eh. I had a big fast sports bike once you know. Sheesh...

This entry has taken a few days to get round to and the big news today is that Ms. Smarty-Pants dos Santos has an interview on Wednesday!! Fingers crossed all goes well...

See ya later.

p.s. If you use the customised google as your home page, you can add our blog to it!

1) Click "Add Content" in the top left
2) Click "Add by Url" on the right next to the Search button
3) Enter http://cidinoz.blogspot.com, click Add and then Close
4) Click "Back to homepage" in the top left
5) You should see "Chris, Isy and Dylan in Oz" as a new section!! Wey hey!!

Also, adding the link or http://cidinoz.blogspot.com/atom.xml should work in most RSS readers...

The Big One

At last the most important game of the competition is nearly upon us. It's the usual 2:00am kick off but there are no trophies, no medals and no ticker tape parade at stake for this one. Oh no. This is serious. The loser has to get up with Dylan at 7:00am!

Yup. It's England vs Portugal tonight and Isy and I will be glued to the TV, bleary eyed.

Whoever said "Football is not a matter of life and death. It's much more important than that!" obviously had kids who bounce like Tigger in the small grey hours of morning too...

So it's the first of July then! I was led to believe the seasons were reveresed here in upside-down-land but it's got to be said it's a beautiful day today. (Here's a pic of the sky...) We've both earned our points and been to the gym this morning and now it's chill out time until sleepy head wakes up then we're going over to Dee Why to hang out with our mates, Mike, Tae and little Stephen (who got a new bike last week apparently. Cool.)

Not a great deal else happening at the moment to report on. Work is going well and we're now into designing a new architecture for one of the company's products. All very nerdy stuff... Isy is still job hunting. Her CV is getting lots of attention but the part time thing tends to throw a spanner in the works :-( Frustrating but we'll just have to keep plodding on.

Speaking of work, my mum has finished! For good! Yup, retirement last Friday! Well done mum! There's plenty of time for you to read this blog now eh!?! :-)

Oh yea, one last thing, we bought a web cam a few weeks back and have successfully done a live link up with my folks back in the UK! Awesome stuff - sound and picture worked a charm. If anyone fancies hooking up online for a laugh, drop us an email and we'll arrange a time...

Footy Fever

So the footy is on then. The whole world switching on to watch the beautiful game being played on the world's greatest stage. Switching on, bleary eyed with a cup of cocoa at 3 o'clock in the morning if you live Down Under that is...doh :-( Still, everything is going to plan so far. Unless you're called Michael Owen that is.

And what about the ol Socceroos eh? (Or Sheilaroos as I'm led to believe they are called in the UK). Ranked 44, into the last 16. You'd think they'd won the cup the other night after the draw with Croatia! Chants of "You're red! You're white! You're going home tonight!" ringing out before kick-off. Heh Heh! Mind you it is all quite a new experience for them. The last time they were in the World Cup finals was 1974 when I was Dylan's age! Their win over Japan was their first ever in the finals! Confidence is running high and they're bigging-up the Italy game... hmmm time will tell.

So anyway, by the time most of you read this, we'll either be going on about how Ecuador were never going to be a problem, or Sven\Becks will be the most hated man on the planet (according to the British tabloids anyway...). Fingers crossed all goes Ok. If we beat the south americans we've only got to get past the Brazillians, Argentinians and then...dare we think it... The Germans...

in the final...

on penalties.

Winter Sports

You know those times when you wonder what on earth you've done all week...we'll I guess we've just had a couple of those as it seems to be a good while now since we last put up a blog entry. Oops.

The good news is that, we have actually been up to a few things! Yey! At the weekends we've started to explore a bit further afield and spent an afternoon down at Coogee beach in south Sydney. It's a bit further south than Bondi and personally I thought it was much nicer. It was pretty chilly despite the sun but Mr.D enjoyed running amok and chasing the seagulls and playing with other toddlers who were out and about. (Some crazy old guys were swimming in the sea. Mad.)

The main event recently though has to be our nice long weekend away playing in the vineyards of the Hunter Valley about two hours north of Sydney. We booked our stay in a small cottage on the edge of the wine lands and while it was quite basic, it did have a log fire and a TV (neither of which we have at our place!) so it was quite cosy in the evenings sipping on a glass of red or two. As you know, it's winter here in Oz and things can get a bit chilly (down to single figures at night) especially as the houses aren't really built to keep you warm! The log fire really was very nice, it has to be said...

We covered most of the wine lands touring around popping in to the odd vineyard here and there (we like to try and find the small boutique ones) and spent a few hours in the Hunter Valley Gardens one afternoon which was very nice. I think our favourite vineyard would be Brair Ridge just for the overall atmosphere of the place - we'll definately will be making a trip back in spring or summer next year :-)

On a different sporting note, we spent the morning of June 1st hammering away at the Australian Ticketek web site trying to get hold of tickets to this year's Ashes series. Talk about busy website\phone lines! The good news is that our hard work paid off and we've secured some good seats for days 1 & 4 of the Sydney test and a few for a day-nighter one day game. Half of Syndey was furious about the way the tickets were sold complaining that they couldn't get through. I wanted to ring in and tell them to try getting U2 tickets in London...

Still on sport, I did manage to "borrow" the BBC streaming TV feed of the England vs Paraguay game last night. I just switched on to see Becks whip one round the wall and some Paraguian (sp?) bloke stick it in his own net. Unlucky mate, but we'll take 'em any way they come... I must admit, I've got a wierd feeling at the back of my mind that England might just do it this time, and buggerlugs here is going to be miles away from the party. Hmmm...

And finally, on the sporting topics, it's round to my cousin Dave's tonight to watch England vs Australia in the rugby union. I've not been keeping too close an eye on their form recently but I'd imagine the Aussies might have the upper hand. Who knows.

So that's about us for now. Dylan can now say amongst other things, careful, coffee, juice, water, bubbles, please, "Daddy Cool" and Bic! (biscuit). He's also a pretty keen footballer and does quite a respectable half-volley when he's not picking the ball up or running away! Isy has been trying to avoid giving Dylan his dummy too much recently so when he moans for it, typically she plays ignorant and responds with "What?". The result of all this is that Dylan now calls his dummy his "What"...

All The Trees Are Brown...

...but fortunately, the sky isn't grey. Another week has passed down here in 'stralia and we are now definately into the Autumn. Nice warm sunny days but a touch on the cool side in the evening, especially as the houses aren't really geared for keeping you warm! We have a real fire in the living room but as of yet, haven't figured out how to spark it up. Necessity they say is the mother of invention... time will tell. As promised, here's a couple of pics of the neighbourhood in full colour.

The season has also brought out one or two interesting creepy crawlies and itchy things... check out our pet Preying Mantis! He was awesome! If you moved, his beady eyes would follow you. After much deliberation we decided to name him Sir Archibald as he was truly a very statesman like fellow...

We've also booked our weekend away in the Hunter Valley at the end of the month. Yey! Isy's organised it all and all I can remember is we're staying in a log cabin amongst the vineyards and there's an open fire. I mean, what more do I need to know really? It should be great and give us a chance to start mapping out the Sydney surrounds. (At the moment, it feels as it does when you first move to London and all you know is a 200m radius around your tube stop. Imagine that, but Sydney is your tube stop and you'll see what I mean.... The map might as well say 'There be Dragons' 15km around Sydney in all directions.)

Today is Mother's Day so we all headed off to one of the parks for a picnic and a bit of a mess around. My cousin and his family were there with all their kids so it was quite a laugh. Dylan was being his usual adventurous self and wandering off all over the place followed by dad who had to keep going and 'fielding' him. *sigh* The little chatterbox is now repeating lots of what we say and I'm sure he called a truck driver something un-printable the other day. Oops. Amongst many new words, his vocab now includes turtle, beetle, DeeeLan (!), park, digger, and, (this was a proud-dad-moment-of-note)..... beer. He's also very keen on high-fives and handing out the kisses much to everyone's delight!!

Anyway, as I said, it's Mother's Day so I'd better get off this computer and make myself useful. Here's a picture of our little romeo...

Autumn In Oz

Well, I don't remember reading this in the brochure, but apparently, it can get cold and rain in Oz sometimes. Unbelievable. When I say cold of course, I mean it's recently dropped below 20C and the rain amounts to about as wet as you'd get walking through a sprinkler, but all the same... bit of a shocker! I've even started to wear a jacket on my way to work. Nightmare.

Our part of town is quite a leafy suburb and the trees have started turning all the colours of autumn. I'll try and get round to taking some pics if I remember, but the place looks pretty stunning at times - especially in the evening sunshine. I cleared the path to our house (once) and won't be doing it again for a bit as the leaves were covering the place up as fast as I could sweep 'em. My gardening skills also extended as far as watering the back lawn... an hour before it chucked it down. Green fingered me.


Speaking of a bit of the rain, here's a couple of pics of young Mr.D in his rather fetching blue mac at the fair on Anzac day. I can only say it was a bit like having your very own little blue penguin follow you around. Very funny to watch and as usual the young fella made quite a few friends...

He also took a keen interest in the fire truck and loved sitting in the driving seat. Lots of lights and switches to play with but I just managed to grab him just before he let the handbrake off though. Phew.

What else have we been doing? Bought some cutlery. Feeling very posh now we're not eating with plastic forks (The plates are still plastic mind). We're also plugged into broadband which has been a big boost as we can now manage all the boring things like bills etc. more easily and can also check out the local info on things to do and places to go.

Dylan is off to daycare for a few hours this week, just so he (and mum) can get used to it. He starts properly the following week and I'm sure it'll be good for him. Surprising words Dylan can now day include Turtle, Moon, Star, Sore (as in a "Niles Crane" injury to his finger) and he can also hoot like an owl on demand and wave his arm like an elephants trunk. Wicked :-)

Other stuff happening includes us thinking about taking a long weekend up in the Hunter Valley at the end of May. We'll probably try and find a nice cabin or cottage to rent with a log fire and purchase some of the local produce for sampling in the evening. Nothing too hectic you understand.

We've also signed up to get our names down for tickets to see the next Ashes series this November. Unfortunately (for Brits outside Oz) the tickets go onsale to Aussies with a local address first. Seems a bit unfair but hey, when in Rome... (p.s. Anybody interested, email me and I'll see what I can do).

Anyway, thats us. Catch ya next time.

Easter Eggs and Pony Rides

It's been a funny couple of weeks one way or another down here in the land of plenty. Over Easter there were the usual national holidays and then the following week it was ANZAC day. Work-wise I wasn't sure if every day felt like Monday or Friday...

For Easter we did the usual shopping for furniture thing with mixed results but also managed to escape the city on the Saturday for an afternoon up at Lake Macquarie. Very nice it was too. A leisurely drive north out of Sydney and an afternoon pottering around small towns and villages along the lake side. We even made good use of our esky and had plenty of padkos to keep us going :-) One thing I have noticed about Australia so far is that typically, you can actually drive your car on the road and get to where you're going in a time which relates to the speed limits. If it's a 60kmh limit and your journey is 60ks then it's not uncommon for you to arrive in one hour. Exactly. A novel concept that after living in London...

Sunday saw us round at the Rowlinson household again for a huge BBQ spread and good natter over some cold ones. Unfortunately a stomach bug kept half the family away (and bed-ridden) so we had to make up for the lack of numbers :-) The kids did the traditional Easter Egg hunt round the garden and surpisingly some of the eggs hadn't actually gone molten in the sun.

For ANZAC day we went to the St.Ives showground to check out a local fair which had been put on by the churches in the area. Lots of things like pony rides, bouncy castles, clowns, kids climbing on fire engines etc. Dylan liked to look at the ponies but definately wasn't too keen about sitting on one bless 'im. Mind you, the doggie balloon from the nice clown man put a big smile on his face. Excellent fun and a certain little boy was absolutely bushed afterwards... (p.s. Names for Dylan so far include: Sir Sleep-a-lot, Fidgety Small, Little Lord Farty Pants, Bumpus and obviously, Mr.D)

On the "putting our lives together" front, we've moved on a bit. We now own a bed, some garden furniture, we're getting cable broadband in on Monday and Mr.D is signed up for daycare two days a week starting in May. The daycare should be good for both Dylan and Isy as, while they are obviously best mates and have a lot of fun together, they both could do with people their own age to talk to now and again. Also, Isy is going to start job hunting soon and see if 'stralia has a COBOL programmer shortage or not... We've also had a gardener round at our place recently and, now that it's been recovered from the undergrowth, our brick BBQ looks like it might have potential!! Just need a grill and some coals and we may well be looking at our first Aussie cook-off soon!

Work for me is going well. For those interested I'm currently working on getting a web-site tuned so it'll scale up a lot better (more users). Lots of work from the nitty gritty to full scale re-working of the architecture which is pretty nice...

Anyway, that sees us just about up to date. Hopefully we'll be plugged into the grid at home next week and can put some more pics etc. up. Keep the comments coming and don't forget to drop us an email now and again from your corner of the globe...

Apologies for the break in service

The ol' blog has been a tad difficult to keep up to date recently
folks due to a number of reasons but the main ones being: no internet
connection at home yet, busy at work, Easter weekend and a wonderful
24 hour bug which I'll spare you the details of...

Needless to say we're still here, putting it all together and having
fun exploring and what-not when we can! Dylan is rapidly turning into
a little toddler and can say more words than I can. count. :-) His
favourite trick at the moment is to bring you a book to read. Ah. Then
another one. And another, until you've read them all. Not-so-Ah I can
tell you.

Anyway, it's getting late. We should be getting our home internet on
1st May when we will really have some fun. Until then, I'm going to
see if I can beam this in an instant from my phone into your office,
living room, bedroom or net café. (They'd have burnt you at the stake
for that not so long ago...)

Speak soon and don't touch that dial...

Monkeys at the zoo

As requested by some of our most fervent readers, here are some pics of young Dylan up to his usual antics.

Last weekend was spent the afternoon at Sydney's Taronga zoo and had loads of fun. Mr.D was sent into a flat spin at seeing so many funny looking animals which, up until then, he thought only existed in his bedtime story book. His reaction to seeing monkeys for the first time was a sort of laugh-choke-splutter-o-my-god-what-are-they kind of explosive reaction!!!


Much time was spent being his now ever-so-independent self walking about in the park and pic-nic areas making lots of friends and attracting more than one or two of the local papparazzi. A group of japanese girls were particularly taken with him... although I'm afraid the feeling wasn't mutual. Such a showbiz luvvie....




I think that Isy and I have come to realise that when you're only 16 months old, running up and down on a bit of grass is definately a favourite activity. Things like where the path meets the grass can keep a little guy fascinated for, oh, minutes! And never forget that no matter how much stuff is going on around you, there's nearly always an aeroplane going overhead. Not that you have to look at it however, just pointing it to everyone out is fine...


Phew!! All that running around can make a you pretty thirsty I can tell ya....



Not to mention a bit sleepy.....



...one monkey...two monkeys...three monkeys....zzz