Christmas Day

Christmas Day and it feels as if its going to be a warm one.
Its been forecast to reach 34C today.



We were up early to discover that Santa had been and left lots of presents. That really was the time but Alex slept through until 7.00.



Santa even had time to leave a 'thank-you' note for Alex.



Poor Alex had to wait until everyone else arrived before he would be allowed to open presents.



And he waited...................



Finally we were all assembled...............



....... and the present opening got under way.



Lots of wrapping paper everywhere and two very excited little boys.







Special jelly desert for Alex and Ben.



Taking the last of the meat from the Webber.







Loads of food and another lovely day.

Christmas Eve.

This photo was taken a couple of weeks ago when the tree had been decorated and the boys were starting to get excited about Christmas.



Christmas Eve and the boys have put out a huge sack for their presents.



I hope that they wont be disappointed.



Alex has dictated a letter to Santa, signed it for himself and Ben and left it with a bottle of beer, a carrot and mince tarts, on the coffee table.



A local tradition is that the streets are lined with cut down milk cartons, housing lit candles, to form a flight path to guide Santa and his team to a safe landing spot. Thats Graham with Alex and Ben walking down the road to see how the preparations are going.



The long walk back and its time to start lighting the candles.



Santa has landed and is coming down the street, complete with his Elves and a police escort.



Alex has just been given lots of lollies from Santa.





Santa is still following the flight path.



One of Beckys special photos.


Looking back up towards our house where Di and Graham are sitting to watch the parade go by.
Quite a late night for the boys. Alex stayed over night but would have to wait until everyone arrived to open presents on Christmas Day.

Kitchen Capers, Part 3.

We are slowly getting things sorted and back to normal. Everything is working well although Di is a little afraid of the new oven, too many programs, different cooking times etc. but I'm sure she will get the hang of it. There is sooo much storage space and of course Di is thrilled with the pantry.





All the glass has been put away, and the big collection of cookery books are now housed in the island bench, behind closed doors.



I have just finished the tiling behind the cook top and sink unit. The bright red lifts the overall colour but I will never again lay such small mosaic tiles. Although they come on a backing sheet, approx. 300mm square, it is very difficult to maintain a true horizontal line.

The electricians are back later this week to relocate the light over the island bench, fit a spot light over the sink and fit a light in the pantry.

We have finally decided on a new floor. We are going to use cork again. We like the comfort of it, the warmth of it, both in texture and colour but unfortunately we are going to have to wait until just after Christmas.

Another lovely colour at this time of year is the blue of the Jacaranda trees in the garden. We have had very good rain but it has knocked a lot of the flowers of the trees but they form a lovely blue carpet under the tree.

Kitchen Capers, Part 2.

We are under way!!


The carcass for the pantry, ovens and sink unit are in place. The base for the island bench is going down under Di's watchful eye.



The island bench being fitted with drawers and doors. The bench tops are extremely heavy.



The end of the first day.




Nearly done! All the appliances are installed, oven, microwave, dishwasher, cook top and exhaust hood just leaving the refrigerator to go back in. I seemed to spend most of my time under the house sorting out the plumbing and drainage, also relocating one of the air-conditioning outlets. The relocation of this outlet gave me plenty of headaches. We decided to fit the outlet close to the end of the island bench so I drilled a hole through the floor to miss the floor joists. When I put my hand through the hole I found that I had selected a position between two of the closest set joists in the whole building. To get over this was no real problem , just time consuming. A new piece of timber was bolted to the old joist to strengthen it which allowed me to cut part of it away. The hardest part was that I was working in a very confined and muddy crawl space !

Still a few things to do, final lighting to sort and decide what sort of floor to lay, still it will give us something to do!!!

Kitchen Capers, Part 1.

Di has been wanting a new kitchen for a few years, especially a pantry, and she finally won me over! I will be doing the project management, ripping out all the old kitchen and making good, plumbing,tiling etc. The joinery work is being made locally and will be installed by the manufacturer.



Some of the units in Michael's workshop. All the new appliances were delivered here so that they could be trial fitted.



Di getting her hand in already and showing off her new wall oven with side opening door.






The last couple of photos of how it used to be. Its amazing how much stuff is in kitchen cupboards. When the cupboards were emptied most of the pots, pans etc found temporary homes in a bedroom and the dinning room.



Doors coming off and bare wall cupboards.



Some of the cupboards have been removed, and all the brickwork has been removed from around the work bench, back to just below floor level.



The existing stud wall being extended out and up to suit the size of the new units.



Cork floor coming up and the repair work to the floor getting under way.




Floor and walls patched, with some of the pre-wiring installed.



Tomorrow it all starts to go back in!!

Saturday 4th September, continued.

Following on from our disastrous, canceled Heritage trip of the 4th September.

We were rescheduled for the 13th November but in the opposite direction. The weather was perfect, sunshine with a forecast temperature of 26C. We are heading out through the Heads and then south down to Wollongong and a return trip by steam train.

We picked up Alex on the way into the city and arrived at Circular Quay just after 9.00am. A strange start to the day as when we arrived at the underground car park there were no lights on, only emergency lighting.



A walk around the quay to pick up our boat near the Opera house.





We are the little one on the right!



A beautiful morning in the city and a photographers sky.



Heading for the open sea.



There was about a 1.5m swell running and we were quite a way out to sea so no interesting photos for a while.



Wollongong Harbour.



Nice fish and chips overlooking the beach.



Our transport for the return leg of our trip.










Back at Central Station and the end of a long day for a little man.