The finest dinner ever!

For someone who loves cooking and enjoys food I can say that dinner down at Berowra Waters Inn was quite simply the most amazing gastronomic experience I have ever had.

The service was discreet and professional, the food sublime and the locale, a short stop up the Hawkesbury River, was serene.

Most will remember the restaurant as Bilsons. Having never dined there before but reading the many reviews it appears that the new owners have taken up the challenge of creating something special and in my opinion they have succeeded. Just stunning and an experience to die for!

Opting for the 5 course degustation menu I had finely sliced tuna, pan fried John Dory fillets, breast of quail with l'escargot, lamb french cutlet and finally Wagyu beef. All the dishes had various interesting add ons. For example, the lamb dish had eggplant mash; the tuna a green salad with a piquant dressing.

What was served as small appetisers in between is worthy of mention also. A warm 'vichysoisse' with truffles whisked in - so rich, so moorish!

At last...

...someone gets to take a photo of me!

Cockatoo and sunset

This cheeky fellow squawked and carried on because the bird feeder was bereft of food!  They learn very quickly!

Weekend at Tuncurry

In between Pipe Band engagements, The National Pipe Band Championships and other stuff I realised it was 5 weeks since I was last up the coast. We chose a perfect weekend and I even managed to have my camera on the boat when we had to stop for dolphins!

Post Op

It's not a pretty sight but as good as one can expect after some major bone and cartilage removal.  My sinuses were drained, I had polyps removed and the two incisions above my nose were used to access my upper sinuses because internal access was blocked.  Needless to say I don't feel too good but should be ok next week.

Skiing at Perisher

We managed to get away for our annual snow fix this weekend and what a change in fortunes! Left Sydney on Thursday afternoon and stayed with friends in Canberra (3 hours south).  We were off bright and early on Friday morning and, after getting G some hire skis, boots & clothes, got on the slopes Friday lunchtime.  Lotsa snow and lotsa fun.  Stayed at Smiggins Hotel about 50m from the chairlift.

Had an awesome day on Saturday and then a southerly moved in!  Australia is a land of extremes. When it's windy boy is it windy?  We had a storm blow through that continued through the whole of Sunday  The resort was closed so we got a credit on our Sunday ski pass.

Our journey back took us back through Canberra, where we stopped at the annual Floriade Festival ( mini Dutch bulb festival).

All for now. 

The HDBP

Guess what I wear underneath? This is Summer Uniform.

Skies...

I love 'em and taking photos of them as well. Here's two recent ones. I took the first at Tuncurry Beach and the second on my way from New England along Thunderbolts Way.

The dog with the dots - on the road to recovery

Well, he might not have his whippy, constantly waggy tail anymore but he certainly looks a helluva lot better than he did underneath that 4WD! He's back to his playful self giving Hudson (the labrador) a run for his money.

The 12 Apostles

Where is the time going? I can't believe it is June. Work is taking me all over the country. Fly to Melbourne, fly back. Fly to Queensland, fly back. Drive all over NSW and Victoria... one thing being on the road does is give me the opportunity to see some of the most amazing places, which then allows me to pursue my photography.

The Great Ocean Road is a dream to drive and photograph - particularly when there's barely a cloud in the sky and no queue at the helicopter office!

Cowra Train Station

Work took me out to the Central West of NSW recently. For those who have no inkling of scale, the UK will fit into NSW about 6 times so you can imagine the amount of driving required.

Anyway, I came across a number of photo opportunities, particularly the train station at Cowra and the radio telescope at Parkes (famous for the movie The Dish).

The dog with the dots AGAIN!

The dog with the dots has been rather silly! Mother had driven down to the village shops with the windows down and the dogs in the car. James spotted (no pun intended) another dog on the other side of the road and made an escape through the open window. He managed to get halfway across the main road before he got hit by a 4WD.

Result: fractured pelvis, broken tail and numerous lumps knocked out of him and a vet bill close to $1000 later...

He is recovering really well but that really waggy tail of his is likely to be wagging no longer :-(

The dog with the dots...

So, here we were expecting to go up the coast for the weekend when the dog with the dots returned from his daily play with the quadraped from next door. Blood literally pouring from his backside and all down his hind left leg - what a sickening sight! Thinking he might have copped a kick from one of the horses we rushed him to the vets who promptly tested the blood for rat poison etc.

The blood was clotting so the poison scenario was ruled out. The trauma idea was next favourite. $400 later and having been kept in for the day James was returned home, seemingly none the worse for wear. We noticed a small pellet-like mark on his rump, which makes me think he's been shot with an air gun. The kick (if that is what it was) might well have come from an angry neighbour, who has taken exception to James and his pal going walkabout!

Sort Of Dunno Nothin'

If you haven't seen this and you have teenagers play it for them. They probably won't get it but it's brilliant!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_veIGGP1Uh4

2006 - our big adventure!

We made the impulsive decision to live in the UK for 12 months very quickly and within about 12 weeks we had sold the business, rented out the house and we were on a plane!

The timing of the children's schooling was just right. We ended up renting in Baslow, Derbyshire. A charming, 300 year old stone cottage with (much to the disgust of eldest daughter) only one bathroom!

I had to duck everytime I walked through the lounge or whilst entering or leaving a room due to the low beams and doorways!

Next door was Chatsworth House, the estate of the Duke of Devonshire. We were surrounded by the most picturesque Peak District countryside, everything was idyllic.

The eldest two went to school in Bakewell and G went to school in the village. .

Our aim was to try and escape every weekend or two. London twice, Lake District, East Coast (stayed at Boggle Hole Youth Hostel), Yorkshire and Lancashire Dales, 10 days youth hostelling around Scotland, Stonehenge and Avebury, Lichfield, Oxford, Northumberland, weekend in Amsterdam etc etc. When we weren't 'away for the weekend we went walking around the Peak District and took every opportunity to see such places as Haddon Hall, where Pride and Prejudice was filmed, Hardwick Hall, Bolsover Castle etc.

In August 2006 we hired an RV in Frankfurt, Germany and took almost 4 weeks driving through Germany, Austria, Italy and Switzerland. Highlights included the medieval towns of Rothenburg ODT and Dinkesbuhl; the Castle of King Ludwig (Neuschwanstein); the ski jump at Innsbruck; Tyrol Valley; Venice; Pompeii; Rome; Sienna and Pisa; the Swiss Alps; the villages of Sass Fee and Zermatt and finally Lucerne.

M and I both worked. M was Finance Director for a privately owned company and I managed an estate agency office in Sheffield.

It was great catching up with my Mum, Dad and sister (and her daughters) on a frequent basis but I saw too little of my old mates, but that's what comes with having a tribe!

Brisbane, The Gold Coast, Polar Bears and back to school.

Mother is working in Brisbane for the foreseeable future. Her company is providing an apartment on the South Bank so, using my QANTAS frequent flyer points, I took the children up for a week before they go back to school. I also had job interview for a Brisbane based company looking for a key account manager, so killed two birds etc...

The weather was very humid but the children and I managed to cool down at White Water World theme park, next door to Dream World, on the Gold Coast. We also went to Sea World with Mother on the Sunday. The polar bears were very active and the dolphin show and the water ski show were sensational.

K and I went on the Drop Zone ride at Dream World - a huge tower with seating on the outside, legs dangling. You get dragged to the height the equivalent of a 20 storey building and then 'released'! It's a stomach churning (and singularly unpleasant) 4 second freefall and that's coming from someone who has jumped out of aeroplanes, parapented off mountains and bungy jumped in NZ !!

G was initially reluctant to go on any rides but once she overcame her fear we couldn't hold her back!

Back to Sydney after a week and I didn't get the job! Shortlisted to the last two but the other candidate had previous higher ed. 'book' experience. Vevermind, back to the drawingboard - I wonder where people went before drawing boards were invented?

Children are back to school this week. I think they are looking forward to it. All 3 at high school!

So that was Christmas and this is 2008

Quiet, perfect weather and back to normal! Sarah [K 's friend from UK] went home last week. She had a great time but I'm not sure what she has done will sink in immediately. Climbing the Harbour Bridge for example... swimming with the dolphins up at Tuncurry, surf lessons in the most pristine water, water skiing and snorkelling, shopping in the CBD. It's a lot to take in and we tried not to overwhelm her.

So, we are back into the swing of things and looking forward to 2008. Not sure what the year holds for us. Perhaps a year of consolidation as we recover from our year in the UK.

I'd like to continue to develop the Navman Vehicle Tracking business and Mother is making big inroads as the National Commercial Integration manager for her new company. She's just returned from NZ and is likely to be interstate quite a bit - I think she enjoys having some time to herself and the challenge the role presents.

Tuncurry, wakeboarding & the MGB

House and sunset from back garden

We all came up to Tuncurry at the weekend. Got here late on Friday night and had a great day waterskiing on Saturday. K wakeboarded and made it look so easy - I tried! Wakeboarding is not as easy as it looks. Give me a ski any day! Sunday was too windy to go out on the boat so we had a day around the house.

Mother and K went back to Sydney in the afternoon. The MGB had the roof up for the first time as it looked like there was a storm brewing. (Sydney had been hit by a terrible hailstorm earlier on Sunday and there was a good chance Mother and K would be heading into it - fortunately the storm had gone out to sea).

I remained at Tuncurry with L and G. We have to pack up the house and lock all of our personal stuff away before the holiday tenants get here. The house is holiday let the week before Christmas, then we have it for Christmas week, after that it is booked for the whole of January, most of February and the beginning of March. It's not going to bother us too much as the holiday season is full of boozed up idiots in their boats doing the kind of stupid things boozed up idiots tend to do. I'd rather not be here when all this is going on.

We have some nice rain to keep the temperatures down to the high 20's, which is very pleasant. G and I went out in the 'tinnie' (aluminium run-a-about) on Tuesday afternoon to do some fishing but we didn't have much luck! We got rained off after an hour.

K is very excited about the visit of her friend Sarah, who arrives here on 20th December. We have lots planned for her!

More soon.

Try this for size...

There was an interesting article in The Land newspaper recently. It featured two brothers, who had bought a 'property' in Queensland to run some sheep, cattle and grow a few crops.

Nothing unusual about that except the property is close to 2.5 million acres! To put that in perspective, they are hoping to fence the property over the next 6 years - 1,300km of fencing (yep, one thousand, three hundred km's). That's the equivalent of fencing from Sydney to Brisbane and part way back!

Weather, painting and The Sydney Harbour Bridge

We've had some rain! But, in true Aussie fashion, when it rains boy does it rain. With the rain comes the thunder and lightening and we've had some amazing storms over the last week. The rain and hail was so vicious that, at one point, I pulled over to the side of the road rather than risk driving in it.

I'm slowly making my way through the house with paintbrush and roller in an effort to repair the damage done to the house by our illustrious tenant in 2006, while we were in the UK. Just about every wall has been marked or damaged in some way! So much for employing an agent to manage the place. Poor property manager, she must have conducted her quarterly inspections with a white cane and labrador. I warned the agent, who now has the pleasure of dealing with our ex-tenant, to monitor the inspections closely as I would hate to see someone else have their home trashed the way we did.

Mother and I have her works Christmas dinner tonight at the Crystal Palace, Luna Park. Hope the weather clears as it is such a fabulous setting, overlooking Sydney Harbour, The Bridge and the Opera House.

Speaking of the Sydney Harbour Bridge... I booked a bridge climb for all of us yesterday, as a Christmas present, and included K's friend Sarah, who is visting us for two weeks over Christmas and New Year. What a way to start a holiday! The climb starts at 7.25am and lasts three and a half hours.

K is busy planning what she can do with Sarah. Two weeks is not nearly enough time but they should be able to pack plenty in. I have suggested Taronga Zoo, Centrepoint Tower, Bondi Beach (naturally), the City, Darling Harbour etc. We will be going up the coast for Christmas week so the girls can take a surf school course for 3 or 4 days and learn to surf.

More soon...

Dolphins, pelicans and lizards

We managed to escape the Sydney rat-race by going to our 'holiday' house at Tuncurry, 3hrs north of Sydney on the NSW mid-north coast.

The Land Cruiser was full! Four adults (K and L are taller than Mother), G had a friend staying so that was two 'littlies' and the two dogs, James (Dalmatian) and Hudson (Labrador).

Saturday was perfect for skiing with the lake unusally quiet for the first day of Summer. It was hot with some cloud cover but I still got burnt, even with SPF30 on.

Rianna (G's friend) saw her first dolphins! At one point the boat was surrounded by them with a few surfacing just 3m from where we were observing. What an experience for her. When we got back to the house our 'pet' pelican was waiting for us but James likes to chase him so the bird scarpered pretty quickly. He often visits and has even been in the house.

Thai takeaway, a few cleansing ales and a hot tub finished off the day nicely - boing, "time for bed" said Zebedee.

Sunday was a lazy day in that the weather was warm but we had a few light showers. We decided not to launch the boat and go for a ski. Instead I mowed the lawns and weed wacked and had a general tidy up.

We left the laundry door open and our resident blue-tongued lizard came in. We must have frightened him as he climbed inside the underneath part of the washing tub. Couldn't tempt him out with some meat scraps so I tipped the tub up and left it half-in and half-out of the laundry. Went back an hour later and couldn't see him so have to assume he made an exit. If he didn't he's going to be hungry by the time we get up there next weekend!

More adventures soon.

New government!

We've got one! The Labour Party stormed it and John Howard has, unfortunately, fallen on his sword! I think it will be along time before we get anyone as good as him as PM.

The new guy, Kevin Rudd, is so centre that he could be mistaken for a Liberal. In fact, when you reflect on all the media hype over the last 6 weeks, it would be difficult to separate either Rudd or Howard as opposing, political idealists. It will be interesting to see what sort of a fist he [Rudd] makes of the job. Howard has seemingly left the country in a very strong, economical position with low unemployment but the pressure on inflation is rising.

A real concern is that Rudd has stacked his side with ex-union officials. As we haven't had a strike for nearly 15 years I hope the union faction don't pressurise Rudd into stupid decisions - he'll need to show some backbone!