Today is my 40th birthday.
To celebrate this momentous event and also to bring in the New Year, we've journeyed to Sydney.
Last night we spent the evening down at The Rocks and Darling Harbour before heading back to the hotel where me and dad had a nightcap to bring in my birthday.
It's 7.30am here now, I got up extra early to open my cards and gifts. Thanks to everyone from home who got stuff out to me for the big day, it was overwhelming.
I won't bore you by listing all my pressies, but the main one was a flying lesson to be taken at Albury airport.
And, in one hours time, I will be meeting up with my old mate Hed for a surfing lesson at Bondi beach.
Following that we'll be having lunch out at Manly with the folks and then me and the wife are having a big night out in Sydney.
Contrast today's plans with my birthday last year - they're a world apart. Literally.
According to my blog entry one year ago, I spent a soggy day in Rhyl with Weeb as we scoured the towns pubs trying, unsuccessfully, to find somewhere to watch the Everton-Newcastle game.
I would dearly love to be drinking with Weeb today, but here in Sunny Sydney not Rainy Rhyl.
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Field Of Dreams
Christmas has been good so far. Having the folks here has made all the difference.
Me and dad had a traditional Christmas lunchtime drink with fellow expats Glyn and Alun followed by Christmas lunch at home with all the trimmings. We rounded the day off with a pool party at Dave and Karen's house, around the corner from our own.
Boxing Day saw us visit Wodonga races. My luck was in as I backed the winner in the first three races. I lost the final three, but still ended up even-stevens overall.
We're in Melbourne at the moment. The girls have been to St. Kilda beach while me and dad have spent the day at the Melbourne Cricket Ground watching the test match between Australia and India.
The 'G', as it's affectionately known, is an awesome sporting arena and a must-see for any sports fan. Dad had his photo taken with the statues of Dennis Lillee and The Don himself, Sir Donald Bradman.
Being at a test match was a first for both of us and although it was a relatively ordinary days play it was still an unforgettable experience to be there, especially with the old man, who's a lifelong cricket fan.
I have fond childhood memories of watching cricket with him, as he explained the games intricacies to me as a young boy. I recall sitting cross-legged in front of the telly in our lounge in Winchester, watching some of the games greats like Lillee, Thomson, Richards, Lloyd and Boycott, with my dad in the armchair behind me.
Today, we were at the 'G' watching modern day greats Tendulkar, Hayden, Kumble and Lee.
The place and the names may have changed, but it was still me and my dad watching the cricket.
Me and dad had a traditional Christmas lunchtime drink with fellow expats Glyn and Alun followed by Christmas lunch at home with all the trimmings. We rounded the day off with a pool party at Dave and Karen's house, around the corner from our own.
Boxing Day saw us visit Wodonga races. My luck was in as I backed the winner in the first three races. I lost the final three, but still ended up even-stevens overall.
We're in Melbourne at the moment. The girls have been to St. Kilda beach while me and dad have spent the day at the Melbourne Cricket Ground watching the test match between Australia and India.
The 'G', as it's affectionately known, is an awesome sporting arena and a must-see for any sports fan. Dad had his photo taken with the statues of Dennis Lillee and The Don himself, Sir Donald Bradman.
Being at a test match was a first for both of us and although it was a relatively ordinary days play it was still an unforgettable experience to be there, especially with the old man, who's a lifelong cricket fan.
I have fond childhood memories of watching cricket with him, as he explained the games intricacies to me as a young boy. I recall sitting cross-legged in front of the telly in our lounge in Winchester, watching some of the games greats like Lillee, Thomson, Richards, Lloyd and Boycott, with my dad in the armchair behind me.
Today, we were at the 'G' watching modern day greats Tendulkar, Hayden, Kumble and Lee.
The place and the names may have changed, but it was still me and my dad watching the cricket.
Monday, December 24, 2007
Do They Know It's Christmas?
It's lunchtime on Christmas Eve, the sun is shining and I've been working.
The latter two events may explain why I'm struggling to feel any Christmas spirit.
The calender says it's Christmas, so it must be. I think it's just a much lower key event over here. I can't say I'm too bothered about that, Christmas is over-hyped in the UK. People see it as a nice week or two off work over here and that's about it. Xmas decs go up, presents are exchanged and all that, but on a smaller scale.
I got a great pressie from my new boss - a Leatherman multi-tool. I've owned a Gerber one for a while but always fancied the more compact Leatherman. And now I've got one. Get in!
Fair do's to the guy, I've only been there a week or so. I'm working as a pool technician, repairing and installing swimming pool equipment. It's an interesting job with plenty of variety and I'm enjoying it thus far.
During the break we're taking the folks down to Melbourne, me and dad are going to the cricket at the MCG, and then off to Sydney for my birthday and the New Year.
I was on the phone to my old mate Weeb last night and he was telling me of his xmas plans - the lads are meeting up at two in the arvo, in about nine hours time, in the Swan and getting on it for the day. I wish I could join them for an hour or two's festive drinking.
We'll miss our xmas drink with Caroline and Paul this year in The Crown, Trelawnyd and our xmas day drink with everyone in the Esp.
We'll be thinking of everyone from home and we hope you all have a great, safe xmas.
Have one for us.
The latter two events may explain why I'm struggling to feel any Christmas spirit.
The calender says it's Christmas, so it must be. I think it's just a much lower key event over here. I can't say I'm too bothered about that, Christmas is over-hyped in the UK. People see it as a nice week or two off work over here and that's about it. Xmas decs go up, presents are exchanged and all that, but on a smaller scale.
I got a great pressie from my new boss - a Leatherman multi-tool. I've owned a Gerber one for a while but always fancied the more compact Leatherman. And now I've got one. Get in!
Fair do's to the guy, I've only been there a week or so. I'm working as a pool technician, repairing and installing swimming pool equipment. It's an interesting job with plenty of variety and I'm enjoying it thus far.
During the break we're taking the folks down to Melbourne, me and dad are going to the cricket at the MCG, and then off to Sydney for my birthday and the New Year.
I was on the phone to my old mate Weeb last night and he was telling me of his xmas plans - the lads are meeting up at two in the arvo, in about nine hours time, in the Swan and getting on it for the day. I wish I could join them for an hour or two's festive drinking.
We'll miss our xmas drink with Caroline and Paul this year in The Crown, Trelawnyd and our xmas day drink with everyone in the Esp.
We'll be thinking of everyone from home and we hope you all have a great, safe xmas.
Have one for us.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
In Rod We Trust
Tonight is Wodonga's 'Carols By Candlelight' service down at nearby Willow Park.
Robyn is taking part and virtually the whole town will be there to watch. She is part of a three girl group and will be singing three songs on the main stage.
She was on local telly on Friday promoting the event. And yesterday they performed at the Mate Street Festival in Albury. It was great to see her perform in front of a crowd and to have her grand parents there too was nice. She sings a solo part during 'Silver Bells', something she would have never have had the confidence to do back home.
Last night me and the wife had our first night out together since our arrival in Australia. It was the Softball team's Xmas do and we had a good time. I'm struggling to get my head around the fact that it's the festive season- it just doesn't seem right in the warmth of an Aussie summer.
Joining the Softball team, as gay as it sounds, was a social master stroke, as they're a great mob, all around our age with a similar outlook on life as ourselves.
Last night we both noticed how the Aussies seem to be charmingly lacking in self-consciousness. We spent a good deal of the night observing them as they let their hair down. They dance like no-one's watching.
We caught the excellent courtesy bus home for the bargain price of $5 apiece and whilst travelling we witnessed another example of them not giving too much of a hoot.
This pretty young girl got on the bus, her appearance not dishevelled even after a nights partying. She looked about eighteen or nineteen, prime age for vanity. She sat on her own near the front and about ten minutes into the journey she reaches into her handbag and pulls out this massive chicken leg and starts munching on it. Due to it's 'doggy-bag' style of packaging it was obvious that she had liberated said leg from the buffet of the Xmas party she had been attending. She gets down to the bone in no time and then, very delicately, wipes her chops as if she's at the Captains Table and folds up all her rubbish and tucks it neatly away into her bag.
Nothing too remarkable, I suppose, and no-one on the bus so much as raised an eyelid but it struck both me and the wife how unlikely it would have been to have witnessed this in the UK. She probably wouldn't have travelled alone to start with and it's unlikely such a bus service would even be running at that time of the morning anyway. Thirdly, self-consciousness would have prevented her British counterpart from, not only, eating her snack until she was safely out of the sight of her peers, but also of taking it in the first place.
In other local news, Wodonga's superbly named Mayor, Rodney Wangman, has been re-elected to serve a second term.
Although Rod possesses the classic political 'smiling assassin' look I'm glad, purely on the basis of him having such a cool name.
Robyn is taking part and virtually the whole town will be there to watch. She is part of a three girl group and will be singing three songs on the main stage.
She was on local telly on Friday promoting the event. And yesterday they performed at the Mate Street Festival in Albury. It was great to see her perform in front of a crowd and to have her grand parents there too was nice. She sings a solo part during 'Silver Bells', something she would have never have had the confidence to do back home.
Last night me and the wife had our first night out together since our arrival in Australia. It was the Softball team's Xmas do and we had a good time. I'm struggling to get my head around the fact that it's the festive season- it just doesn't seem right in the warmth of an Aussie summer.
Joining the Softball team, as gay as it sounds, was a social master stroke, as they're a great mob, all around our age with a similar outlook on life as ourselves.
Last night we both noticed how the Aussies seem to be charmingly lacking in self-consciousness. We spent a good deal of the night observing them as they let their hair down. They dance like no-one's watching.
We caught the excellent courtesy bus home for the bargain price of $5 apiece and whilst travelling we witnessed another example of them not giving too much of a hoot.
This pretty young girl got on the bus, her appearance not dishevelled even after a nights partying. She looked about eighteen or nineteen, prime age for vanity. She sat on her own near the front and about ten minutes into the journey she reaches into her handbag and pulls out this massive chicken leg and starts munching on it. Due to it's 'doggy-bag' style of packaging it was obvious that she had liberated said leg from the buffet of the Xmas party she had been attending. She gets down to the bone in no time and then, very delicately, wipes her chops as if she's at the Captains Table and folds up all her rubbish and tucks it neatly away into her bag.
Nothing too remarkable, I suppose, and no-one on the bus so much as raised an eyelid but it struck both me and the wife how unlikely it would have been to have witnessed this in the UK. She probably wouldn't have travelled alone to start with and it's unlikely such a bus service would even be running at that time of the morning anyway. Thirdly, self-consciousness would have prevented her British counterpart from, not only, eating her snack until she was safely out of the sight of her peers, but also of taking it in the first place.
In other local news, Wodonga's superbly named Mayor, Rodney Wangman, has been re-elected to serve a second term.
Although Rod possesses the classic political 'smiling assassin' look I'm glad, purely on the basis of him having such a cool name.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
So Far So Good
My folks have been here for two weeks now.
It's absolutely flown by and it makes you realise the worth of having an extended stay over here. They didn't seem to suffer too badly from the jet lag that hampered our first week in Australia
We haven't done an awful lot, the folks are happy just coming and going as they please and sitting out in the sun all day.
We've had a couple of nights out down at the golf club and we went to Pete and Helen's for a barbie at the weekend. They seem to like their surroundings and it's been great for us to have them here.
Our house feels more like a home now they're here and even when they do go back, just the fact that they were here and we'll be able to relate our everyday environment to them will help. It'll help me anyway.
Although I'm enjoying life I'm still missing home. Not all the time but with varying frequency and intensity. Knowing we can go back is a great crutch for me. Whether we will or not remains to be seen. Life is better here, in many ways, but whether it's that much better to compensate for missing family, friends and familiarity, I'm unsure.
Whatever happens, this has been an amazing experience thus far and has benefited us a great deal. All of our horizons have been broadened massively and that can only be a good thing. As individuals and as a family I feel we have learnt an awful lot.
When I think about how far we've come, not in a physical sense, but in a development sense, I feel proud. We are carving out a life for ourselves from nothing in a brand new environment.
We've really challenged ourselves by moving so far away from what had become our comfort zone and we're doing OK.
It's absolutely flown by and it makes you realise the worth of having an extended stay over here. They didn't seem to suffer too badly from the jet lag that hampered our first week in Australia
We haven't done an awful lot, the folks are happy just coming and going as they please and sitting out in the sun all day.
We've had a couple of nights out down at the golf club and we went to Pete and Helen's for a barbie at the weekend. They seem to like their surroundings and it's been great for us to have them here.
Our house feels more like a home now they're here and even when they do go back, just the fact that they were here and we'll be able to relate our everyday environment to them will help. It'll help me anyway.
Although I'm enjoying life I'm still missing home. Not all the time but with varying frequency and intensity. Knowing we can go back is a great crutch for me. Whether we will or not remains to be seen. Life is better here, in many ways, but whether it's that much better to compensate for missing family, friends and familiarity, I'm unsure.
Whatever happens, this has been an amazing experience thus far and has benefited us a great deal. All of our horizons have been broadened massively and that can only be a good thing. As individuals and as a family I feel we have learnt an awful lot.
When I think about how far we've come, not in a physical sense, but in a development sense, I feel proud. We are carving out a life for ourselves from nothing in a brand new environment.
We've really challenged ourselves by moving so far away from what had become our comfort zone and we're doing OK.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)