A few wildlife shots from our holiday in Port Douglas

Whoooops, three months since I updated this thing.....soz

Well, what has happened since June?! wedding planning is in full flow, the venue is booked, caterer booked, celebrant booked, dress - not found, best man booked, family's flights booked (nearly) etc etc. We also bought a blokart (a land yacht) a little while ago, so that has been great fun down at Sandy Point. I have managed to flip it twice, but don't worry, had a helmet on and nothing too horrendous happens. Clare and Simon visited us at Sandy Point just before our holiday. Another great weekend down there, table tennis competitions deluxe. Paul and I had a brilliant holiday to Port Douglas, in Far North Queensland. We went crocodile spotting, kitesurfing, visited the Daintree Rainforest, patted kangaroos, saw a cassowary, went to Cape Tribulation, drove the Bloomfield Track, went through the Atherton Tablelands, snorkelled on the reef, went for a sunset sail on a catamaran (in the rain), ate some delicious food, drank some wonderful wine and generally relaxed! A few photos attached.....the last one of a snake which we ran over (by mistake!)...

4WDing in the Wombat State Forest, my new car and a photo of Paul Stand Up Paddle Boarding.....

Hello, it has been ages, and I am sorry. Just having too much fun! All is great with us. We had a fantastic last weekend, in the Wombat State Forest, 4WDing - in our new hi-lux toyota. Paul has modified it so it now has..... a winch, spotlights, 2inch lift suspension, mud terrain tyres, diff lockers..... it is a beast! We went with Kevin and Maureen, in their Land Rover Defender. It was very muddy, pretty overcast and we had to winch Landy out of a couple of tight spots! We got very very muddy!

Pictures attached. Oh, and here is a picture of my brand new car - it is a wonderful Mazda 3 SP25. Love it!!! Work is great too.

January has ended (nearly)

It is 31 January 2010 - how time flies when you're having fun!

We have just got back from a wonderful weekend at Sandy point with Kim, Jac, Clare and Simon. We cooked a thai meal last night and ate out on the paved side of the house, under the shelter of the new roof Paul installed last weekend. Today was probably my best day's surfing. I haven't been in such big waves before, it was fantastic. The tennis men's final is on, and I'm wondering whether I can stay up to watch it (it is only 8.15pm!) but I am exhausted from surfing today. Attached are a few recent photos - excuse the spider - I had to put it on here. It was an unwelcome visitor to our house - it was on the ceiling of the car port and was very very big!!!! Not at all nice! Don't let it put any of you off coming to visit. This is a huntsman, but we don't see them very often. On a more pleasant note, Paul was kitesurfing at Shallow Inlet this morning and was sharing the water with a very big seal! The photo at the top left is a view of the building we live in - it was taken from the jetty at Sandringham Yacht Club.

A new decade has dawned.......

Well, Christmas 2009 came and went with a bang in Sandy Point. We had the tree, we had the weird singing snowman and reindeer toys, we were joined by our great friends Laura and Miles, Laura made the stuffing, bread sauce and peeled all the veg, I made the cranberry relish and a pavlova. With great moral support from Laura, I bbq'd the 5 kilo turkey. We went for a splash in the sea on Christmas morning, opened our presents before lunch, had a delicious bottle of Pol Roger 1998 Champagne with the Luckin family Christmas must-have - smoked salmon on brown bread (crusts cut off).

We sat out on the deck, shaded by the umbrella as it was 30 degrees and the sun shone whilst we toasted absent friends and family.

The best Christmas present of the day for Laura and Miles was the koala who sat in a tree in the garden all day.

Kim and Jac (who I'm delighted to announce has agreed to be one of my bridesmaids) arrived on 27th December, accompanied by Larry their border collie - he makes the saying "As happy as Larry" really make sense. We bbq'd one night and Laura cheffed up a delicious pasta dish the next night. We have surfed, kite surfed, been wakeboarding behind Kim and Jac's boat, and done some gardening, intermingled with sitting on the deck in the sunshine setting the world to rights over some cold beers.

Laura and Miles set off for Warnambool (near Victorian/South Australian border) to spend New Year's Eve with other friends. Laura's mission for the holiday was to stand up on my surfboard - mission accomplished and so she was able to leave for the next leg of their trip back to Adelaide!

Karl joined us on the afternoon of 31st December - another gloriously sunny day, but immensely hot. Emmy his Belgian Shepherd dog arrived, much to Larry's delight. I put a very large piece of lamb on to the spit roast in the bbq, did some baked potatoes and made a salad.

At about 10.45pm the heavens opened with thunder and lightening and mother nature put on a firework display of her own for us - so we de-camped the party into the car port!

We counted the new decade in with the radio caller live from Sydney and here we are on 2nd January 2010.

Here are a few snaps. Happy New Year to all of my fans who read this, I hope it gives you a sense of life in Melbourne. I am terribly excited to be joining the Bryce family as Paul's wife. Planning is underway - not exactly sure where to start! I only know that James and Charlie will be required to sing a duet somewhere in amongst the proceedings. Signing off now, until next time.......

Some months later.....

Well, it hardly seems possible that I haven't updated our blog for such a long time.  Since my last post, months have passed, we've been to London, Dad turned 70, Mum and I had a wonderful two days in Paris, Paul and I then went to Durham, home to Suffolk and spent a weekend in Coggeshall, before the journey back to Melbourne via Hong Kong, where Paul proposed!  Here are some snaps of what we have been doing recently....

Old Friends reunite in Australia

Laura and Miles came to stay with us in Victoria on the Queen's Birthday weekend.  They hired a car and drove up from Adelaide, along the Great Ocean Road.  They stayed the night at Port Fairy and continued on to Melbourne on the Friday morning.  We drove them down to Sandy Point for the long weekend.  It was a brilliant weekend!  Couple of photos attached, from the scenic drive back to Melbourne on the Monday.