Thursday, April 02, 2009
Thanks for all the fish
As many of you will know, we've planning for a little while to move to the UK, and today we're boarding the flight to make the long journey. We've all thoroughly enjoyed the last five-and-a-half years or so living in Balmain, and we'll all miss the many friends that we've made here.
In the last few days and weeks, we've been trying to cram in many of the things that we always meant to do, but never got around to doing - such as finally managing to do the Bridge Climb, which was very good (although a little expensive) - as well as organising for the removalists to pack up all our stuff and ship it to the UK.
Ironically enough, our last full day was a bit wet, but Caitlin & (especially) James leapt at the chance to throw themselves into the big puddles that had formed in Tumbalong Park - see the splashing...
Of course, moving out of Balmain also means that “Hughes of Balmain” is no longer a very accurate destination so, if you're struggling to sleep at night you could always head on over to Hughes of Warwick.
Chris
posted at 7:31 am
Monday, February 09, 2009
New Zealand
After 3 weeks touring in New Zealand, starting in Auckland and finishing in Queenstown, we made it back into Sydney on Saturday evening to be welcomed by high-30s heat; and it wasn't until the following day that we heard of the terrible bush fires in country Victoria.
All-in-all, the trip went very well - once Caitlin & James had settled into the rhythm of the trip, and we had gotten used to navigating around the motor-home. We only had a couple of rainy days but, unfortunately, one of them was on the day that we were visiting Fox Glacier.
I'm not sure exactly how much of it the kids will remember in months and years to come - I suspect not much apart from trampolines and jumping pillows, but they certainly had plenty of fun anyway!
Chris
posted at 9:14 pm 0 comments
Friday, January 02, 2009
Featherdale Video
posted at 10:24 pm 0 comments
Friday, December 05, 2008
In the Red Centre
After some debate about the best itinerary, we spent last weekend on a 3-day trip to visit the Uluru - Kata Tjuta National Park, to see the famous rocks. The schedule we decided to go with was pretty hectic but, rather than having the kids bored/time-to-think, we opted for the “no sleep till Sunday night” plan of:
- Friday morning - fly from Sydney to Connellan Airport, and catch the 10-minute bus ride to Ayers Rock Resort
- Friday afternoon - take a guided tour of Kata Tjuta, and watch the sun set
- Friday evening - enjoy a catered barbecue, with amazing views of the night sky, before settling into bed not much before midnight
- Saturday early morning - up at 3:00am in time for the three-and-a-half hour coach trip to Kings Canyon, taking care to avoid the camels wandering across the road
- Saturday morning - take Caitlin & James on the “Rim Walk”
- Saturday afternoon - after a well deserved lunch, we take the return coach trip, stopping off for an ice-cream at Curtin Springs station, near Mount Conner
- Saturday evening - dinner, then off to bed for another early start
- Sunday early morning - up at 3:30am in time for the half-hour trip to watch the sun rise over Uluru
- Sunday morning - tour around Uluru, and see the great rock up close
- Sunday afternoon - fly back to Sydney
- Sunday evening - fall asleep while eating dinner, while Anna goes off to orchestra!
We were pretty lucky with the weather - although the temperature didn't dip much below 37°C while we were there, it was not humid at all: so was very manageable as long as you had plenty of water. All in all, it was a great trip and both Caitlin & James were better behaved than we feared they might be.
Chris
posted at 9:43 pm
Friday, October 17, 2008
Sold
The house went on to the market for its first public inspection on Saturday and, just in time for the 12:00pm timeslot, the clouds cleared so that the sun was shining down on us. Speaking to the agent later that afternoon, he was pretty bullish as he reported that he had seen around 35 groups come through the property (including one group that had sent a building inspector through the property the day before); and predicted that it would be a “busy Monday”.
Come Monday, it became apparent that there were two parties who were looking to make an offer on the place, and that afternoon we ended up accepting an offer from a couple who were keen to exchange contracts, without any cooling-off period, as soon as possible. So it was that, by the end of Tuesday, not only had we accepted their offer: but the exchange of signed contracts had also taken place.
Chris
posted at 9:58 pm 0 comments
