Day 3

This was a quiet one to start off with, we headed through Burleigh at about midday on our way through to Currumbin Wildlife Park. I was a little unsure of how this would be having never been there before but was not dissapointed. We ahd planned to rush through as Colin and Eve had to get to Brisbane for a river cruise however this was not possible as the park had everything you could want to see and more. We held Koalas, fed Wallaby's saw the beginning of the Lorikeet feeding. In between all this there were Tassie Devils, Crocs and every other type of Aussie wildlife you can imagine, definitely a place we will go to again with our next guests.

That evening we all did our own thing with Colin and Eve doing the Kookaburra Queen seafood cruise and Sar's and I just relaxing though it did wind up being 2am with many dead soldiers before I got to bed AGAIN.

DAY 2

Getting there slowly. We headed down to the Kurrawa SUrf CLub for breakfast over looking hte beach. Sar's and I do this fairly regularly on weekends as it is so relaxing and seems to bring you back to where you are living. It is quite easy to get caught up in work and everyday living that you start to take for granted where you are, so a breakfast overlooking the beach is always good. Thommo and Eve capped this off with a swim and headed off to see the sights of Brissie for the afternoon.

Once back from Brissie we headed off to the Marina where we ahd dinner at Fishermans Wharf (pic above). It overlooks the the broadwater and Marina and is a really relaxed place to eat. We ended up at Palace Versace, the top hotel on the coast, for coffee afterwards listening to live piano which was fantastic.

On our arrival home the ladies headed for bed though we Thommo and I had found some live SA cricket on telly which required we watch with a few icy colds. Little did we realise that this was going to become the norm over the next 5 days, watching cricket until 2am+ and having many beers in the process. We woke up every day to a lounge table covered with dead soldiers that had fought hard to resist but failed in the end.

Day One

I am not going to try and do the entire holiday in one hit, so will do entry's from a day to day basis and will try to upload photo's into the albums for everyone to look at. This entire operation may take a few days.

At last January 1 arrived after many months of waiting for our international guests Thommo and Eve. I must admit I would have preferred to have been in better shape for their arrival after a heavy New Years Eve but was looking forward to catching up. A couple of Gatorades and coffee's later i was feeling a alive by the time they arrived in Brisbane. It was really cool to see some familiar faces again. After settling the guests in the house we headed off to Q1 for some sightseeing. Q1 is a 79 storey residential tower right on the beach in Surfer Paradise with a viewing deck for the final floor. We figured this would be a good way to give Thommo and Eve a general idea of the layout of the Gold Coast as you can see for miles from up there.

The obvious thing to do from here was to take a walk along the beach at Kurrawa (broadbeach). It was getting dark and all this activity after the night before was getting to everyone so we headed home where we cooked up an Aussie come South African feast on the baarbie with Kangaroo fillets, Boerewors and obviously we threw a shrimp on there for good measure which went down a treat along with a few icy colds and shandy's for the ladies. A cracking way to end the day.

One Day Cricket

I know I haven't blogged for a while and still need to put all the details on from our fantastic week with Thommo and Eve, however, until then Sarah and I went to the cricket game at the Gabba between Oz and England. The crowd was possibly the loudest I have been in at a cricket game. Take a look at this monkey.

New Years Eve

Well as mentioned New Years Eve had a 5 beer kick start through the afternoon and following a much needed power nap we headed up the road to a cocktail party at Chris and Sonia's place with beers and a bottle of spirits to add to the mix. The evening started off slowly but gathered steam as the evening moved toward midnight with many games of pool, where Andrew and I dominated the table against all comers, namely Sarah and Karen. New Year was seen in with the Sydney fireworks on the big screen and more cocktails of varying strength and many different names which escape me now!!! By 1am the majority of people had started to drift off, Sarah had snuck home and returned for what is becoming known as her customary midnight cup of tea and Andrew was in the pool-for what reason no one really knows. It was a random case of one minute here next in the pool with beer in tow. By 2am there were few people left with Sarah and Karen calling it a night at this time-after all we did need to be at the airport at 11 in Brisbane to collect Thommo and Eve. I assured all was well and I would be home shortly!!! We all know where this is going, last confirmed sighting was Chris, other Sarah, Andrew-other neighbour and I holding up the bar with a fowl tasting green concoction in our hands. After convincing Sarah I was in no state to consume this beast she agreed to take it off my hands at which point I bolted for the door not to be seen again for about 24 hours at least that was the idea!!! I was woken 4 hours later feeling a little lot brittle to get set to head off to the Airport to meet Thommo and Eve from the UK. The good news is that they won't want to have a good to see you drink as it has only been a year since we saw them-ye right!!!!

AND SO THE FESTIVE SEASON CARRIES ON WITH NO END IN SIGHT

Old Years Day

We started our Old Years day/night with a bang with a mid day BBQ with 2 sets of Sarah's schoolmates of whom she hadn't seen for at least a few years and I had never met. They arrived in full force with children in tow, it is still quite strange to be socialising with alot of people our own age who have 2 to 3 children. With Sarah coming home and getting in touch with friends who have remained in Oz and settled down along with us buying a house in the burbs you really begin to see the family side of life which you believed was miles away from your flat in busy, nothing stopping you London.
It really was an enjoyable day with a group of people I am sure we will see alot more of in future. Needless to say a few beers were consumed as both men were working New Years Eve so considered the BBQ to be their New Years Eve and not being on to ruin a party I joined in without second thought that we also had a cocktail party to attend that night!!!

Webcam

OK we are up and running with the webcam, so those of you with access to Skype (free calls) and if not download it from www.skype.com (Matt & Imogen) we are now able to converse over the PC with video. Those with a skype address let me know and I look forward to catching up.

Christmas Day

Well after seeing in xmas day with the neighbourhood planning our assault on the Christmas lights competition for the following year (I believe comparisons to Vegas were thrown about) Christmas morning dawned a little murky, though Sarah was fresh as a daisy and raring to go-even after her beetle in her drink episode the night before! After removing all the dead soldiers from the garage and driveway from the night before we exchanged gifts, which we had picked ourselves and pretended to show surprise and disbelief that yes, Santa got it right again!!

After morning coffee on the patio with Watermelon we headed off to the folks at around 10.30am, I think I still had sleep in my eyes though the thought of a cool swim kept me going. On arrival we were greeted by a fantastic spread put on by the Harrison's who had clearly gone to an enormous effort in their Christmas Day preparations. There was a fruit and nut spread in the dining room to greet us with another coffee (thank goodness). It was clear to see that the folks were really excited to be spending Christmas with Sarah and Sar's with them as it had been 10 years since their previous one together.

The day was spent falling in and out of the pool between tucking into some fantastic cold meat and salads for lunch. The traditional christmas day nap took place which was followed by a super hot dinner to cap the day off. In order to butter my bread I must say that one of the deserts prepared by Sarah's dad was absolutely out of this world-something Jamie would have been proud of and I thouroughly enjoyed. Yes while Sar's lit the brandy soaked xmas pudding and everyone was mesmerised by the flames I was tucking into Dave's very own home made out of a box jelly. I could not think of a better end to the day and as Sarah and her Mom planned their boxing day asssaults on the shops I thought "Thank heavens for boxing day tests to keep me out of that one"

PS: Don't forget to add your pin to our guestmap in the right hand column of the blog!

Its all coming

Ok it has been a lomg time since the last blog and this is going to be a short one. I will let you all know about and in this order:
1: Xmas Day
2: New Year (one hell of a klomper the following day)
3: Our 1st International guests visiting (Thommo and Eve)
4: Diving at Tangalooma wrecks.
5:Skype Webcam (get connected it is a great way to chat)

Sarah and I are back at work tommorrow so I will have time between getting home and when Sarah gets home to start posting again as life swings back into routine.

All the best everyone for the year ahead.