A Big Weekend

Well.... where to begin.

Friday was my little brother Marty's wedding. It was a brilliant day, but more about that later.

Step one in the big weekend was on Thursday night when everyone was around at Mum and Dads for the wedding eve. We were all sitting around trying to keep Marty as relaxed as possible (yeah right - the guy was basically asleep he was that relaxed) and then Ava decides to take her first steps (about 2 of them) right in front of all of us. She is a little star that girl, centre of attention.

Friday was wedding day, and unfortunately it was a bit grey when we got up, and it all looked a bit shaky given that it was supposed to be an outdoor event. Thankfully as the day continued to progress the rain held off, and everything went ahead as planned.

It was all happening at Balmoral beach, which is one of the Sydney harbour beaches. Marty looked sharp, Sacha looked amazing, and everything went off without any dramas. There were a bunch of folks there that we hadn't seen for ages, so basically a good time was had by all. There are photos a bit further down, but we will save those for last.

Saturday morning was hangover free, and we were off to vote!! Federal election day. In what was a bit of a surprise result given the extent of the thrashing, the government was kicked to the kerb. What is great about Aussie elections is that the result is pretty much always known a few hours after the polls close. None of this Irish malarkey where Enda Kenny still reckons to this day that he can find the numbers somewhere to form some kind of dysfunctional coalition and usher in the Fine Gael golden years.

Basically John Howard lost. Bad. Kind of like the political version of every tag rugby final I ever played in.

Today was super lazy, but tomorrow we are off to sunny Queensland up to Madonnas folks for about 2 weeks. Tomorrow I will also be formally accepting one of the job offers that I have up in Newcastle, so it will be another reasonably momentous day.

Given the acceptance of the job offer, it is a definite that we will be moving to Newcastle. We have been up there a few times in the last 2 weeks, and found the vibe to be quite acceptable. So goodbye Sydney with her traffic jams and non-existent public transport, and hello Newcastle with a 10 min bike ride to work, and equally non-existent public transport. ...and cheap rent, and 5 mins from everywhere to the beach.

OK. That is all for now. Please feel free to peruse the photos below at your leisure.



Marty in his wedding suit.... Almost. Well just the tie actually



Donny getting ready. It turns out that I am very bad at helping to straighten hair


The 3 of us bro's


Marty and Mum and Dad


Marty at Balmoral, waiting for the bride to appear


Marty, still waiting. It wasnt that she was late, we were just early


The 2 best men. I will leave it up to you to guess who is the better of the best's. (it is me)


Donny and my brother Pete's wife Lisa


Yours truly - looking good!!! And a bit bald.


Us


Us again!!


The kids, signing their lives away. (but in a good way - they are so cute and happy)


Me and Jesus. The guy had a ways to come, but all credit to him for turning up.


The Jamo boys and the Day kids. Basically our defacto siblings


The bro's and their lovely ladies


The stars of the show.

Would you like some tea????

We have now been back in Aus for over a week, and have been making inroads into the first stages of readjustment.

I have arranged a few job interviews up in Newcastle, after going up there with Donny for a quick trip last week to have a look around. It had been ages since either of us had been there so we wanted to see what the vibe was like, and it is nice. For those not local, Newcastle is about 1.5 - 2 hours drive north of Sydney, and is Australia's 8th largest city, behind the capitals in each state/territory presumably. We are looking at moving up there to give life away from the hustle, bustle and (as importantly) expense of Sydney a go.

I cant believe how much more expensive things have gotten in the 2 years we have been away. I was shocked to go to the supermarket to get a few things for lunch today, and end up paying $50 for the stuff to have a simple lunch of ham, cheese, rolls and a few other bits on the side. It is just silly expensive here. When you add in the rental market which is amazingly tight, and expensive, then Sydney loses a bit of its gloss.

Having said that, Sydney is a beautiful city. We noted it when we were back in Feb, but coming back here after travelling to quite a few cities and places around the world, it really is a very beautiful place, and the food here is just so consistently good wherever you go. I has been a pleasure to be back and meeting up with people around the place and head off to eat some lovely food with lovely views.

Friday night was Marty and Sacha's combined bucks (stag for you northern hemisphere types) and hens night, and we headed out into Kings Cross in the city. For those not familiar, Kings Cross is the traditional epicentre of debaucherous activity in Sydney, however the evening remained very civilised. In fairness, both Marty and Sach got off very light. I remember at the end of my bucks night being escorted (carried) home by older brother Pete and having a very serious philosophical debate with myself abouit the virtues of ever drinking again. Not so with those two, who seemed merry, but still there, for the whole evening.

We were at a bar whose gimmick was the serving of cocktails in teapots, and we set about going through a not very civilised amount of "tea". Pete seemed worse off than Marty by the end of the evening, and it was left to myself to steal a cab from underneath the noses of 4 girls to get us home. Trying to find a cab in Syd in the early AM is painful, I guess even more so if some prick steals your cab, but hey, we had to get home somehow. Marty and Jo Day have a bunch of photos that may make an appearance soon. My favorite one is of me doing a guest DJ spot, which I might add brought the crowd into a state of semi-frenzy (that I was able to negotiate my way out of eventually).

Last night was a bit of a get together at the Day household (longtime fam friends) which was also excellent, and today I met up with my mate Pete and his daughter Charlotte, who has grown heaps since we saw her earlier this year.

OK, this is probably starting to get a bit boring, but I guess that is the awkward transition from interesting to less interesting that is the first non-travel entry.

I am going to head out into the nice sunshine now and continue my one man hurling exhibition. One day I hope to find someone with an interest in going for a proper puck around, but until then I will just have to keep pestering Madonna. I just realised that I am going to have problems with using terminology that may only be familiar with one certain group of potential readers. Oh well, we can live with that cant we.

Next stop, job interviews in Newcastle, and then Martys wedding on Friday. Should be excellent, will let you know how it all goes.

Khutse and Capetown

Getting ready to go camping!!!


On the road. Hannes' driving really wasn't that bad


Beer and profiterole break


Waiting for some animal pedestrians


Distances from Khutse to.....


Gate to the park


Wild Dogs - very rare to see


Wild Dogs


Sunset in Khutse


Round the fire


Campsite 15


Steve, Jean, Jill, Alan, Donny, Hannes. This one is for you Paidi


Ground Squirrels, looks like Jonny W kicking a penalty


Mummy and Daddy Ostrich (with babies although they are hard to see here)


Steenbok - so cute


Girrafe


Oryx and big vulture type bird


Lion!!!!!!


Springbok


On the road in Khutse


This is one of my favorite photos that I have ever taken. Oryx and sunset


Sunset 2


Another of my fave photos ever, on the same day


Campsite for the second night. Lions had been around us making noise all night, a bit freaky, but cool. We were all present when Jean did roll call the next morning thankfully.


Capetown. Heading up to Table Mountain


The view along the coast from Table Mountain


Lions Head from on top of the mountain


Capetown


Madonna at the Waterfront


Waiting for the plane home. Almost over.......

Unfortunately Madonna was quite sick while we were in Capetown, and also the weather was mostly crap, so this hindered our ability to see all of the sights. We were glad to get a bit of clear weather on top of the mountain though. Capetown was nice, we would like to go back one day and go a bit further around the Cape when we have more time.

E-rratic

Back in Oz now and slowly adjusting to the timezone.

Unfortunately the internet connection at the folks is not working 100% so you might not hear regularly from us until it is fixed. There are also the remaining Africa photos to post, so they will be up when the internet gods allow.

More soon.

Botswana 2 and Rhino Tracking

Birdie in the backyard


On the way into town from Jill and Hannes place


Downtown Gaborone


On top of Kgale Hill, which is on the edge of Gaborone


Jill, Hannes and Madonna, and the view over Gaborone


Us. Madonna is the one hiding under the red hat.

Before the next few pics I will give a bit of an explanation. Yesterday we went to Mokolodi game reserve which is quite close to casa de Westra, whilst they were busy at work. We went on a Rhino Tracking expedition, which involved driving around the reserve looking for Rhino tracks, and then following them until we found the Rhinos. This took a good few hours and we came across a number of other animals along the way. It was really really brilliant, and it was quite an experience to be walking around the reserve, as normally you are strictly confined to your vehicle. Anyway, pics........


Madonna + Cheetah


Steve + Cheetah


Elephant


Elephant


Giraffe


Beginning the Rhino Tracking, heading off to look for tracks


Setting out walking


Rhino print


Rhino crap - still warm, a good sign


The tracks leading off into the bush


Success. After a number of hours of tracking, and a number of lost trails in difficult areas. They subsequently bolted away and we chased for another 30-45 mins before they stopped again


Mummy and Baby


Donny and the Rhinos


The tracking involved a nice lunch at the end with our guides, which was set up in the middle of the bush, and was very much needed at that stage after walking all morning.

Today has been torrential rain all morning, but is now sunny. We are off to the Khutse game reserve tomorrow with Lynchy and J&H's friend Jean for a few nights camping and driving around in the Kalahari desert. Yay.