The Bar - 19 July 2009

G'day!

Last Sunday, my plan ( made a month ago ) was to send you a picture of us on the slopes at Thredbo. Alas, I left my camera charger at home before we left on holiday................say no more! However, if you click onto this link you will find proof that we were there and the smiles on our faces say it all - http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/photocard.aspx?pc=EB72FAE605CC5583E7EAFA789616FE0E .

This week's picture is of my favourite room in our house - The Bar. This was one of the first rooms we decorated when we moved in and putting up the pictures of previous family holidays and our individual histories really helped us in our first few weeks. The only bits of furniture / gadget that was bought in Australia were the cabinet which stores our photographs and the iPod docking station. The rest is all from home and should be recognisable to most of you. Treasure hunt time! Look for...

Bron's University Certificate
the tennis balls we got at the Australian Open
a hockey stick
the picture of Gregg, Jonti and me when we went to Austria 20 odd years ago ( tough one )
my bottle of Penfolds Bluestone Port ( impossible - tucked behind the extreme left hand upright )

We spend many an evening or weekend lunchtime in this room and it already holds many new memories for us.

Matt and Jen have a week of holidays left and they will continue to enjoy going to bed late, getting up late and generally " chilling ". I, on the otherhand, will need to continue to slave away ( all relative in comparison to my previous life ). I must say it has been a lot tougher with Maureen on Matenity Leave and I have found myself in the unenviable position of being a " No Man " which is not too good for the soul. But............................I continue to make a difference everyday and have to be thankful for what I am able to do and for what we have.

This weekend we have done some garden maintenance, recovered from a heart flutter when the Arborist gave us a quote of $ 9200.00 to cut down 7 trees ( I reckon we'll go one at a time ), I have had two hockey games of which I only managed to play 10 minutes of the first one before pulling up lame with a pulled calf muscle ( I was having a blinder and then foolishly tried to accelerate ), Bron had a night out with the girls last night and we went to the lunchtime birthday party of a new friend today.

The fire is blazing, I have half a bottle of Crown Lager at my side and I think I'll go and listen to some music in my favourite room.

Later.

Dylan, Bronwyn, Matt and Jen

Wollongong to Thredbo - 6th July 2009

G'day

Well we have had a week of travelling and, as I've implied before, in Australia that usually implies many kilometres of driving.

It started with a drive to Wollongong on Thursday for the NSW Under 13 Hockey Championships. Four divisions of 8 teams each divided into 2 pools. Manning Valley are in the 2nd division. They came up against some tough opposition in Far North Coast ( 0-6 ) and Southern Highlands ( 1-3 ) but fortunately, New England with whom they drew ( 1 all ) were beaten more comprehensively. This resulted in our boys playing for 5th and 6th in their division ( they lost to Dubbo ) but at least they were not in a relegation battle. Under 13 sport is quite awkward as far as I'm concerned. You get boys in varying stages of pupertal development which results in some teams having one or two fully developed young men in their team. These are the boys and the teams who generally do well and I suppose that's just the way it goes. Imagine having some kind of system where instead of age groups they were divided according to testicular volume or other signs of pubertal development.

We had heard about Australia's ski fields from some of our friends and after a lot of deliberation and frequent checks of our bank account , we decided to give it a go since we were half way there and Matt and Jen were on holiday. We chose Thredbo and we are impressed! The facilities are excellent and the service is " above and beyond ". Today was our first ski - Matt and Jen are hooked and easily negotiate Friday Flat's, Bron is skiing beautifully and my late dad obviously taught me well when I was a teenager. Despite not skiing for 20 years, I coped well and didn't ski too badly either. We look forward to another 2 days of skiing and the experience. Temperatures are just below zero, the last snow was a fall of about 70 cm, 3 days ago and the snow making machines are doing the rest. This week's picture could have been of mountains, sunsets over mountains, ski runs on mountains or a few other varied things but instead you've got my skis as our instructor took us up The Cruiser for our run down The Playground and Walkabout.

By the time you hear from me again it will all be over but the memories of a genuine family holiday will be cherished always.

With love

Dylan, Bronwyn, Matthew and Jennifer