Nick's Birthday

We were invited to Nick's Dad, Geoff and his partner Jude's home today to celebrate Nick's 23rd birthday.  It was a lovely warm day - 27 degrees and beautifully sunny - so we all sat outside and enjoyed a really nice BBQ lunch and easy conversation.

Geoff & Jude have a lovely outside area to sit in, catching the sunshine
and shaded by a beautiful weeping cherry!

Zoe, Wayne, Nick, Richie & Geoff with Coco

Nick's Mum, Sue and her partner Steve were there, as well as his sister, Lauren and her partner Lee and Jude's two daughters, Alice & Zoe.  So it was quite a crowd of new people to meet and names to learn!

Torie, Lee, Sue & Lauren

Alice, Jude & Torie

Nick cutting his birthday cake, Wayne behind & Richie to the right

Lauren, Lee, Lizzy & Nick

Geoff & me having a laugh

Lizzy made daisy chains for her & Wayne

Zoe braiding Torie's hair

Alice with little puppy Obi

Christmas Day 2012

We were again blessed to have our family and friends join us on Christmas Day.  It was not as joyous as other years because of the passing of Wayne's mother Coral in June and she was sadly missed by all of us, today.  However, we know she was with us in spirit and so we all did our best to celebrate the day together.

The Christmas Tree looked gorgeous, as usual!



It was great that Torie and her boyfriend Nick could join us for lunch, even though they had so many others in Nick's family to see on the day!  But, even more than that, they left their home at 8am to travel down to Phillip Island to pick up Mum and Dad and bring them to our house.  Such an amazing effort and so very much appreciated by all of us!




Wayne's dad, Geoff and his sister Debbie & hubby Phil were also there, although understandably much quieter, this year.


 


Dad went into permanent care in November, due to his Alzheimer's Disease.  So, we gave him a picture of the family to put on his bookshelf.

Mum was with us for Christmas too, but somehow I didn't manage to catch a snap of her this year!


It was lovely to have Lizzy's boyfriend Adam join us for this first time, this year!

The Christmas lunch table was a riot of food and noise, as usual.  Thanks to Wayne, with the help of Phil, we had the most wonderful Christmas feast!

Everyone had fun with the Christmas crackers and it was lovely to be able to welcome Adam's mum, Nebbie to join us today (although I didn't get a photo of her either!).



I felt it was important to acknowledge our losses, as well as our blessings during this past year, so I did a little research and came up with the following Grace, which I read out as everyone held hands, before we began to eat:

God of all gifts, we thank you for the many ways you have blessed us

and we thank you for bringing our family and

friends together on this wonderful day.

 

We are grateful for each of those who are gathered around this table

and we ask you to bless us and our food

and to bless those we love who are not with us today.

 

In our gratitude and love, we remember your humble birth into our lives

and pray for those who are without enough to eat.

 

We remember the stable in which you were born

and pray for those who have no place to live.

 

We remember your challenging message of caring and giving

and we pray for peace in families and nations throughout the world.

 

Despite the hardships of this past year,

we are grateful for the unity and grace you have bestowed upon us.  

 

As we celebrate your birth Lord,

we will remember countless blessings in our lives which we are so thankful for.

 

Let the gift of your peace come into our hearts and remain with us

and may we rejoice in your blessings for all our days.

 

Amen.



Happy Australia Day!!

We were invited out to a BBQ lunch today to celebrate Australia Day with our friends Simone & Shane.


The weather was just fantastic ... warm and sunny with just the hint of a breeze.














The food was delicious too - we are so lucky to live in a country that has such a wonderful supply of top quality meat, seafood, vegetables and fruit, not to mention the best chefs and restaurants in the world to cook it all up with!










The company was good fun.  There was Mandy & David, Michelle & Greg and Caz, too.












We spent the afternoon chilling and chatting about everything, including our new toys - the iPads and iPhones and the girls introduced me to a new online scrabble game called Words with Friends.



Thank you, God, for leading my Mum & Dad to make the decision to immigrate to this wonderful country!  Thank You to, for such lovely friends to celebrate it with.

A Night at the Tennis

We went out to the tennis, this evening ... the Australian Open, having been invited by Wayne's accountant Paul and his wife, Lauren. First we had a lovely meal in the Racquet Club restaurant...

... then, we walked just a few metres over to the Rod Laver Arena to catch the Serena Williams vs Greta Arn game. Unfortunately, this was a bit of a walkover, as Williams far out-classed her opponent.

However, because there wasn't a whole lot happening on the court to catch my attention, I was able to turn my focus to all the other things that were going on, like what the ballkids were doing, how the line umpires behaved, how impressively huge the lenses were on the press photographers' cameras and how beautiful the sky looked through the open roof of the arena, as it gradually turned from day to night.

Then after only an hour, the women's game was over and then it was time for our own Lleyton Hewitt against a young Canadian called Milos Roanic. This was a completely different ballgame, to coin a phrase, as these two were extremely well matched! They went point for point and won a set each, then went to a tie-breaker in the third set, which Hewett finally won. The match was to be the best of five sets, and it was already 11pm when they started playing the fourth set so we hoped Hewett would take this one. He did it in the end, but it wasn't easy for him and it was a real "edge of your seat" game. We both had a thoroughly good time, this evening and are very grateful to the accountant's firm for taking us out.

Dinner with the Angels

For the past four years, we have been honoured to have been invited by our dear friends Rob & Lorraine to attend Anglicare's biggest fundraising event the Dinner with the Angels.  This year, twenty-two of Melbourne's top chefs from our best restaurants prepared the most wonderful meals for over four hundred guests, who had attended the event at the National Gallery of Victoria to help raise funds for Melbourne's most underpriviledged.

The chefs

We sat at a table with Rob & Lorraine, their son Leighton and his partner Kim and two of their friends and our other good friends Lea & Les.  The meals were delightful and the company was great fun.


The entertainment for the evening was a comedian, a set of three tenors and then the main performance was from Ross Wilson (ex-Daddy Cool and Mondo Rock).

They had a silent auction and a raffle during the evening and this year they raised $163,000 to help fund their programs which assist children, young people and families who have fallen on hard times.

We had such fun that night, chatting and dancing and eating, while knowing that it was all for a good cause.  They had a photo booth there too, so we all grabbed some hats and feather bowers and crammed inside for a bit of a giggle - here's the result ...

Comics Lounge

We went out with our friends Lee & Les, Bianca & her dad Ray this evening to the Comics Lounge in North Melbourne. The food was good and the comedians varied from OK to really funny. I particularly enjoyed a guy called Gab Rossi, whose jokes were based mainly on the theme of racism and (even though I'm staunchly anti-racist and usually dislike discriminatory generalisations), I found his take on the various personality traits of the different communities in Melbourne really amusing. I liked the fact that he said he wouldn't make any jokes about the Sudanese just yet, as they "weren't ready". This showed that he was sensitive to how powerful a tool comedy can be and how it can be used to break down or to lift up a person or a community. All-in-all an enjoyable night with good company!

A Night with Basil, Cybil & Manuel

Ha Ha!  What fun it was tonight!  We went out to dinner with Shane & Zoe to Faulty Towers.  Well ... not the real Faulty Towers, coz that was just a TV program in the UK.  This one was a theatrical reenactment and was just as funny, if not more!  We were all laughing so much we could hardly eat, even though the meal was beautiful!  Another great memory was made.