tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9995235201609882902024-03-13T10:12:37.450+11:00Shahs in OzThe story of two starry eyed Londoners seeking a new life in Sunny SydneyKunjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04781700204875581222noreply@blogger.comBlogger80125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-999523520160988290.post-21244473012572873682013-12-06T14:52:00.000+11:002013-12-06T19:03:03.782+11:00The holiday we shouldn't have had…<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">About three months ago, Sham and I booked a
week and a half off work. This wasn't with the usual excitement of planning a
holiday…. This was the week and a half that included what should have been
Hayden’s due date (thank you for the lovely messages and cards) and my birthday – one I REALLY didn't want to celebrate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We hadn't thought about how we were going
to spend it, we just knew we needed an escape from everyday life for that time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We ruled out going overseas based on the
fact that I still haven’t applied for my Australian passport (too much other
stuff going on!)… we considered various places around Australia, but in the
end, we decided to do something a bit different… we decided on a NSW road trip!
We booked some of the accommodation, but gave ourselves the luxury of being
able to stop in any of the towns along the way for a few hours or even the
night if we wanted to. It was great loading up the car without any weight
restrictions… no worrying about which shoes I had to leave behind (I actually
only took a pair of trainers and some flip flops as I knew this was going to be
a relaxed, no fancy dinners type of holiday), Sham took his golf clubs, we
packed the cooler bags full of snacks (including a home made banana bread!) and we
were ready to hit the road!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">No need to travel light...</td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-US">The trip officially started on Thursday…
and approximately 2.5km from home, we made our first stop… the obligatory road
trip McDonald's!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">The next stop wasn't for another three
hours… we were going to stop at Port Stephens, but Tea Gardens sounded so
pretty, we decided to stop there! Thanks to my trusty iPhone, we arrived at The
Boathouse Resort. It was 5pm and Stuart the manager was just closing up
reception as we walked in to see if they could put us up for the night. He was
lovely and gave us an apartment for the night, told us about the local
restaurants and pubs and left us to get settled (or as settled as you can for
one night…) We walked to the local chip shop and enjoyed dinner on our balcony with this lovely
view!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">The next morning, after we checked out,
Sham repacked the car so that his golf clubs were easily accessible, as Stuart
had told him that the local golf course was great. Unfortunately, it wasn't to
be – there were no tee off times available until 3pm, and we needed to get back
on the road….<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Next stop Seal Rocks. A lovely beach at the
end of a long, winding dirt track! Worth the drive though! We stopped for a
picnic lunch before heading through Harrington to Crowdy Head to see the views
from the light house.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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We had used Airbnb to book two nights in a town called Urunga - just outside Coff's Harbour. The place had good reviews, but we weren't expecting it to be as nice as it was! </div>
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The owners of a big house had turned their garage into a granny flat for her parents and when they weren't using it, she rents it out... she was really nice and told us lots about the area and recommended a nearby town called Bellingen for lunch and shopping.</div>
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Our second day and night in Urunga was a bit of a write off as it rained - A LOT! It meant that Sham missed out on another round of golf, but we stayed indoors watching films and having an afternoon nap... so no complaints from me!</div>
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While we were stuck indoors, Byron Bay (our next stop) was being battered by storms and golf ball sized hailstones! By the time we arrived on the Sunday, it had passed, but the locals were still cleaning up the mess.</div>
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We stayed in a lovely villa just outside of Byron bay in a place called Ewingsdale. It was really quiet and yet a five minute drive from the hustle and bustle of Byron and the beach.<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The view from our deck</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bliss!</td></tr>
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We loved Byron Bay so much, we extended our stay there (we were going to do a stop over on the drive back, but Sydney had some storms so we decided to not bother!)<br>
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We didn't do much in Byron - walks on the beach, eating lovely food, strolling around markets, a couple of rounds of golf for Sham (finally!) and a few massages for me! It really was a fantastic holiday.<br>
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Our drive back as all in one go (around 11 hours including a few pit stops).<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Almost 2000km driven (ALL by Sham!)</td></tr>
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The night before we set off, I had a text
from my boss’ boss:</div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><b>"Enjoy your holiday and the healing and reflection it brings"</b>... this was the perfect way to describe the holiday I was dreading!</span><br>
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<span style="background-color: white;">To finish on a more happy note, Sham and I found the winner for our favourite game of "find the funny signs" - what do you think??</span><br>
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Kunjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04781700204875581222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-999523520160988290.post-63835272892982734982013-10-14T11:22:00.000+11:002013-10-14T11:23:02.854+11:00Something different for the weekend!I recently had to go to Perth for work. I managed to time the trip cleverly around an event that we were sponsoring (as Marketing Manager, I get to decide what we sponsor!). The event was a comedy and music festival at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rottnest_Island" target="_blank">Rottnest Island</a>. I charmed the organisers into giving us accommodation and tickets for an additional two people (we had already given away 12 tickets as prizes) and we booked Sham's flight to Perth.<br />
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The festival was great fun - we got to see a number of local and international comedians, a few Australian bands we had never heard of, and some <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quokka" target="_blank">Quokkas</a>! These strange looking animals are obviously used to sharing the island with humans, because they were really friendly (not that either of us would actually touch them!)<br />
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Our "accommodation" was pretty basic (yes, those are 2 bunk beds you can see on the right of the picture!!!). But it was clean and the location was fantastic. We were only there for one night, and considering we are planning on camping over the summer, this was a good introduction. It might surprise you to know, I was more comfortable than Sham was!</div>
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Waking up to this view made it worth it though...</div>
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It was nice to get away from the city for a short break and see something new... Although it was a flying visit for Sham as he left on Monday to get back to work while I stayed a few more days to work in our office in Perth.</div>
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<br />Kunjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04781700204875581222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-999523520160988290.post-84979815797468677962013-08-16T13:14:00.000+10:002013-08-16T17:30:32.535+10:004 years, 8 months and 11 days...... four different visas, endless forms, an interview and test later, we are proud to officially call ourselves Aussies!!<br><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><br></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVecdddESHz_QtLd_934t5wf_lmabl7CShk5UNwNpvYKXI6klH9kmTlmhhkL0jd39iN7G7Q2hbABKglE2BaX38WuMLvIHbTUcEv7uljStJC5aDHizB3yQN2uQhVxZ_nfYLc1px8mWYNkDK/s640/blogger-image-919484976.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVecdddESHz_QtLd_934t5wf_lmabl7CShk5UNwNpvYKXI6klH9kmTlmhhkL0jd39iN7G7Q2hbABKglE2BaX38WuMLvIHbTUcEv7uljStJC5aDHizB3yQN2uQhVxZ_nfYLc1px8mWYNkDK/s640/blogger-image-919484976.jpg"></a></div><br></span></div>Kunjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04781700204875581222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-999523520160988290.post-78058539063688454372013-07-29T11:48:00.000+10:002013-07-29T11:48:35.659+10:00The hardest lessons I have ever had to learnAs most of this blog's readers know, we have had a few awful weeks. This post is not about the bad things though... I wanted to write about the few positive things I have learnt during the worst six weeks of my life:<br />
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<b>I am the lucky one in my marriage</b></div>
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Sham has been a rock... He has taken charge, organised, planned, consoled, explained and dealt with everything and everyone so I haven't had to. And he has done all this while he was processing and grieving our loss too.</div>
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<b>I will only ever be as strong as the people around me</b></div>
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The strength I have been given by Sham, my mum and the family and friends who have been checking in on me almost daily will never be forgotten. </div>
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<b>I might feel lonely, but I have never felt alone</b></div>
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I have been completely overwhelmed by the love of family and friends near and far. The lunches / coffees / walks, the flowers, the messages of support, the sharing of stories and secrets and the offers of help (and baked goods and haircuts) have shown me how distance is irrelevant and that support comes in many forms, but means the world. I have had seen kindness in people that I have been amazed by - sometimes from virtual strangers.</div>
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<b>I have a strength I never knew I had</b></div>
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If someone had told me two months ago what was coming, I would have said that there was no way I would survive this... but I have. I am still having some incredibly low days, but I am also having some good days. And it is those good days that keep me hoping.<br />
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<b>I am lucky to be living where I do, when I do</b><br />
We will always be thankful that we were in a position to be able to have a choice. We hate that we had to make it, but we feel lucky to be living in a country that supports people who have gone through this. I will continue to try and practice the live-and-let-live attitude I was raised with, but I will now appreciate personal choice in a way that I have never fully understood.<br />
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<b>There is nothing anyone can say to make it better...</b></div>
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... But thank you for trying. Knowing you are looking for the right words is enough.<br />
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As we start living life as it is now, these are the things we will hold onto - we will never take "normal" for granted and we will always be grateful for what we have while we grieve for what we have lost.<br />
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Kunjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04781700204875581222noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-999523520160988290.post-72020350482026532722013-06-17T12:29:00.002+10:002013-06-17T12:29:43.787+10:00Many happy memories for 70 years (mum's birthday surprise)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKbGUel_y-ptA3gI1MWxl614uAUZbwlR2bl7GD3298RQ_NOJdxBoXKXS5dXe1f6r66eUw0C7yz30P7_9CV53-BxhxVTC5LQZj3wOHL7W_0SrDR7fxZkVUxnEr-BMJNTUASRJJLcVXi8Opo/s1600/mum+cake.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKbGUel_y-ptA3gI1MWxl614uAUZbwlR2bl7GD3298RQ_NOJdxBoXKXS5dXe1f6r66eUw0C7yz30P7_9CV53-BxhxVTC5LQZj3wOHL7W_0SrDR7fxZkVUxnEr-BMJNTUASRJJLcVXi8Opo/s400/mum+cake.jpg" /></a></div>
My mum turned 70 in April and although we weren't going to be with her on the day, we wanted to do something special to celebrate this milestone birthday. A friend at work had recently taken inspiration from <a href="http://nothingbutbonfires.com/2011/06/sixty-years-memories" target="_blank">this </a>and done something similar for her dad's 60th. I thought it was a great idea and decided to go change it slightly and create a keepsake book.<br />
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The project started back in January when I sent an email and Facebook message out to lots of family and mum's friends asking for their help:<br />
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<i>Hi and Happy New Year from a very sunny Sydney!</i><i><br /></i><i>As you may know, my mum will be celebrating a milestone birthday next year. Its looking unlikely that Sham and I will be able to be there to celebrate it with her, so I thought it would be nice to try and organise a special gift for her.</i><i> </i><i>I am hoping to put together a book of memories that her nearest and dearest have of her - and I thought 70 would be a nice significant number!</i><i><br /></i><i>And this is where you come in!</i><i><br /></i><i>If you can spare a few moments in the next month or so, I would be so grateful if you would write down and post or email a favourite memory you have of the lovely Pushpa. It can be anything - the more nostalgic the better! You are of course more than welcome to send me more than one memory - I am aiming for 70, but would love to have more. If you have any photos that go with your memory, I would love to include them - I will scan and return them to you, or you can scan and email me a copy.</i><i><br /></i><i>I am sending this to anyone I have email addresses for and will also send facebook messages etc, but please feel free to send it to anyone that you know that might want to send something for this gift - the more the merrier! In particular, I might have sent this to the younger people who I have details for - please can you ask your parents etc to join in too?</i><i><br /></i><i>Please remember, I am not asking for a birthday message, I need a memory that you have of my mum that will make her smile (or cry) when she thinks of it. It can be in English or in Gujarati - I know it will make her smile if some are in gujarati!</i><i><br /></i><i>You can send them in the post to me if you would like to send a handwriiten message,or you can email it to me!</i><i><br /></i><i>I am aiming to have all of the memories by the middle of Feb so that I can put together the book, get it printed and send it to her.</i><i><br /></i><i>Thank you all so so much for taking the time to do this - I know how busy everyone is and I really appreciate you taking a few minutes to help me put together this present for my mum as I know she will love it!</i><i><br /></i><i><strong>Lastly, please don't mention this to her as its a surprise!</strong> I will write about it on the blog when its done! <a href="http://www.shahsinoz.blogspot.com/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><span style="color: navy;">www.shahsinoz.blogspot.com</span></a> for those that don't subscribe!</i><i><br /></i><i>Let me know if you have any questions!</i><i><br /></i><i>Thanks again</i></blockquote>
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I started getting responses within a few days and after a reminder message, I was well on my way! Fast forward a few months (I left it quite late to start the book... we had a few other things going on!) and voila - look what we all made! I am not putting the link to the pdf on here as this is a public blog, but if you would like a copy, please leave me a comment or email me and I will send it over!<br />
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We gave the book to mum after a family dinner during our recent visit to London. I cannot begin to tell you how overwhelmed she was by the effort everyone had gone to for her!</div>
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A MASSIVE thank you to everyone that took the time to send me memories and pictures - I could not have done this without you.</div>
</div>Kunjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04781700204875581222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-999523520160988290.post-88266874583609255112013-05-17T11:56:00.001+10:002013-05-17T11:56:36.208+10:00A lovely relaxing weekend with a VERY old friend!Before I tell you about our fantastic weekend in Millthorpe, I want to give you a bit of history about my friendship with Jvala as she hasn't appeared in the blog before, but anyone who knew me as a kid will know of her!<div>
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Her family moved to Kingsbury in 1986 and she joined my class (2J) at Roe Green. On her first day, the teacher picked me to look after the new girl, show her the ropes etc.... it turned out that we lived about 300 metres from each other so we ended up being inseparable throughout primary school! We would walk to school together and play at each other's houses after school. I wish we had pictures of us from back then - I reckon we were pretty cute little 8 year olds! We then went to big bad high school and even though we went to the same school, we lost touch. We were in different sets and had different groups of friends. </div>
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Fast forward 25 years and add in the power of Facebook - the only way to 'keep in touch' with 'friends' you haven't seen or spoken to for decades! Jvala knew through mutual friends that I now lived in Sydney and when her husband Terry and her decided to road test Sydney for a couple of year, she dropped me a message to say it would be nice to meet for a drink. The rest, as they say, is history! We now see Mr and Mrs Nolan quite often as a couple, the boys play golf together almost weekly and Jvala has joined in with a couple of our girls nights out. </div>
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So a few months ago, we started talking about organising a weekend away... we were going to try our hand at camping, but the weather is a bit unpredictable in Autumn (not as unpredictable as the London Spring, apparently!) so we decided to play it safe and booked a weekend in beautiful Millthorpe - A tiny town three hours North West of Sydney, close to the pretty wineries of Orange. When we booked this trip, I was very excited about the wine tasting... by the time we went, I was 11 weeks pregnant so ended up being the designated driver! </div>
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The ANZAC Day public holiday was on a Thursday this year so we took full advantage by taking the Friday off too. </div>
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We drove over in separate cars and the Nolans arrived just long enough before us to get the fire going!</div>
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The house was sooooo pretty - a cottage with everything you could need for a break from the city - and a few really cute personal touches like his and hers bathrobes, a cheese platter and lots of biscuits and chocolates!</div>
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We had planned meals with military precision - dinner on Thursday was prepared by all of us (the boys in charge of the BBQ and the now infamous 'paprika potatoes') and the girls in charge of all prep, salad and indoor stuff! Team Shah did a fry up breakfast on Friday (I actually needed a nap after breakfast cos we ate so much!) and Team Nolan prepared a lovely healthy breakfast on Saturday.</div>
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All other meals were while we were out and about touring the pretty wineries of Orange. We did also manage a lovely dinner at <a href="http://www.tonicmillthorpe.com.au/" target="_blank">Tonic</a>.</div>
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The weather was absolutely perfect for us - crisp sunny autumn days and chilly evenings perfect for eating cheese and crackers and drinking wine (no wine for me!) and chatting.</div>
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We had taken playing cards and board games with us, but we never got round to playing games!</div>
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It really was the perfect weekend of relaxing, eating and giggling with friends and we are already planning our next one!</div>
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In the meantime, see you soon London!!</div>
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Kunjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04781700204875581222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-999523520160988290.post-37432744037819324002013-04-23T16:21:00.000+10:002013-05-17T11:56:53.435+10:00Three Mrs Shahs under one roof!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Sorry it has taken me a while to write about mum and Sudha aunty's visit - it feels like its been a fairly busy few weeks since they left - mainly because we have been making the most of the end of the summer, rearranging the kitchen and catching up with everyone we didn't see much of while we had visitors!<br />
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It was really nice to have them here - there was plenty to eat (and some still in the freezer), they kept themselves busy while we were at work and we got to spend some proper time with my aunty... something we wouldn't get to do otherwise.</div>
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They managed to fit a lot in in four weeks - the zoo, the Blue Mountains, Hunter Valley, lots of beaches, a few markets, Canberra, lots of visits to friends and family, LOTS of cooking (and teaching me a few new recipes) and playing cards and chatting after dinner most nights! We made the most of the weekends too- filling them with picnics and shopping! We hope Sudha aunty had as much fun with us as we did with her and she comes back to visit again soon!</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dinner in the sunshine!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Roadside picnic in the Hunter Valley</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sudha aunty walking at Palm Beach</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sham and mum chilling at Manly</td></tr>
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Kunjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04781700204875581222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-999523520160988290.post-69386327767931482322013-02-01T12:12:00.000+11:002013-02-01T14:41:49.123+11:00A most special dinner!On Australia Day this year, we were lucky enough to be invited to join my friend and ex boss Sue as she celebrated her 50th - in a LOT of style!<br />
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Sue has recently moved into a beautiful house that we are sure she will be very happy in for years to come (we would be!) and she hosted a lovely four course private dining dinner for 14 people. The added treat was that the chef that looked after us is actually a contestant on the current season of Australia's Masterchef Professionals.<br />
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The attention to detail on the day was phenomenal and we had an absolute hoot!<br />
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I didn't manage to take too many pics as I was to busy having fun, but here are a few... they were taken on my phone so you will have to excuse the rubbish quality.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Birthday Girl and the Chef!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Delicious!<br />
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It really was a great evening... Sham and I are already trying to think of a excuse to host one of these... although I think Sue's lovely house was absolutely perfect for this type of thing. Thank you again to Sue for inviting us and the lovely folk at <a href="http://evokeprivatedining.com.au/" target="_blank">Evoke Private Dining</a> for looking after us on the evening.<br />
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<br />Kunjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04781700204875581222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-999523520160988290.post-11751718731411969452013-01-15T16:07:00.001+11:002013-04-24T08:43:18.906+10:00The end of 2012December 2012 was a blur of catching up with people before the end of the year! The silly season actually started in November with a reunion of ghosts of CMC Markets past and present. My friend Emma and I decided we were long over due a catch up with everyone and set up a Facebook event to try and get some old faces together. It turned out to be a great night with around 30 people turning up and catching up late into the night. Thanks everyone that made it, and for those that didn't, we will definitely do it again soon!<br />
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Sham's work Christmas party was at a lovely little Jazz Club on the river in Brisbane this year. As we had spent all of November living out of suitcases while Sham was working in <a href="http://shahsinoz.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/the-melbourne-adventure.html" target="_blank">Melbourne</a>, we decided not to make a full weekend of being in Brisbane this year. We arrived at lunchtime on the day of the party and left the morning after. It was, as usual, a lovely evening and it was nice to see some old faces and meet some new ones!</div>
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The following Friday was my work Christmas Party. It was very different from most Christmas parties I have been to! We left the office at 10.30 in the morning to make our way to the lovely Clark Island. It is a little Island that's a 15 minute water taxi ride from the City. Once we were there, we enjoyed a lovely relaxed day in the sunshine: eating, drinking cider, playing games and having a sing along (!)</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kev and the laydeeez! </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1xxUlJi1TfxbVXQ9N4rmK2PLuHNCwp6Pa0FTypPKjcnrCoGF0WoZkha9lU0ZXNZTGAEaxXNnxj6a8ZmH7i0qGiwN8RbU_QDnmvrMwIFMZVLbXa12O8ZjzfD0RKjjPYZP99-0nob3GO0SZ/s1600/IMG_4029.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1xxUlJi1TfxbVXQ9N4rmK2PLuHNCwp6Pa0FTypPKjcnrCoGF0WoZkha9lU0ZXNZTGAEaxXNnxj6a8ZmH7i0qGiwN8RbU_QDnmvrMwIFMZVLbXa12O8ZjzfD0RKjjPYZP99-0nob3GO0SZ/s400/IMG_4029.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The MOST relaxing Christmas party ever! </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The whole company (just missing two I think)</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our transport</td></tr>
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By 5.30 we were back to the city. Some of us did kick on to a couple of the pubs at The Rocks, but after a whole day in the sun, I only lasted until 7.30. I got the bus home and was in bed by 9pm!<br />
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The weekend before Christmas was a busy one socially! We headed to Balmoral Beach - one of our favourite places in Sydney for Christmas carols. It was a lovely evening and we got to meet our friend Terry's parents who were visiting.<br />
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On Sunday we headed back to Balmoral (told you we love it!) for our annual Pre Christmas Gang Get together. In the past, we have done this in the pub and tried to have a roast dinner - its always been really hot! This year we decided to keep it casual and have a picnic / bbq. This is also starting to be the best thing to do with the gang as there are two toddlers and a baby in the group so we need room for them to to run/ crawl around!<br />
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We woke up on Christmas day to hear the rain! It has rained for each of the five (!) Christmas's we have had here, but this one was the worst! It rained the entire day and it was cold (well, it was cold for us!). You would think that the thought of not spending Christmas morning on the beach would make us sad, but it actually felt like we were having a Christmas day as it should be - cold and wet and miserable - PERFECT!<br />
Christmas lunch was hosted by Mr and Mrs Watters again (despite Mrs Watters being nearly 8 months pregnant!) and it was a fun day of eating, drinking, Pictionary and Only Fools and Horses!<br />
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We woke up early on boxing day morning so that we could Skype the families... it was lovely to see everyone and to share the exciting news that we will see you all in 2013!<br />
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The last major social occasion for 2012 was a New Years Eve get together at our place. The weather was lovely so we had around 10 people over for a casual BBQ and then walked to a park near by to watch both sets of fireworks. We were too busy cooking and keeping the Pimms glasses filled so don't seem to have any pictures of the evening! The highlight (apart from the fireworks) was the quiz that Neal had spent a long time putting together for our entertainment! The girls won (obviously!) and the agility round was definitely the most controversial!<br />
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I was wise enough to book the time between Christmas and New Years off. In the past, I have always worked it because a) I never seem to have enough leave and b) I begrudge using up annual leave when no one at work is doing a full day's work! That was until last year! I finished up at CMC just before Christmas and didn't start my new job until the first week in January, so I had two weeks off and it was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G! I did have my aunty and uncle here to hang out with and that made it even more fun, but I had had a taste of having a summer holiday and I think I will probably never go back (until I realise I can't don't have enough annual leave again that is!). </div>
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<br />Kunjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04781700204875581222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-999523520160988290.post-61535518639461490112013-01-09T13:56:00.000+11:002013-01-10T09:02:48.467+11:00Meltdown!Thank you to everyone who has been checking in on us to make sure we are ok!<br />
The answer is, yes, we are hot and flustered, but no, we aren't in any danger.<br />
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This week we are seeing the downside of the single biggest reason people move to Australia - the nice weather!<br />
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The crazy weather started with South Australia hitting mid 40s (Celsius) and has pretty much spread across the country during the week. It hit Sydney yesterday. I have just read a headline that says there were 1500 firefighters trying to get 140 fires under control in NSW alone yesterday.<br />
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We were lucky enough to be in air conditioned offices for most of the day, although it was still 31 degrees at 1am this morning! <br />
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Several areas around the country are still fighting bush and grass fires. It has been really sad to read about all the people who are losing their homes and some even their lives. It felt silly complaining about being hot when in the scheme of things, one bad night's sleep is not exactly the end of the world.<br />
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Today, the day after we hit 44 degrees, its a cool 21 in the city - we could be in a different part of the world!<br />
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It seems that we probably haven't seen the last of the heat this summer, though...Kunjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04781700204875581222noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-999523520160988290.post-48007161700350037752013-01-03T15:05:00.002+11:002013-09-02T13:44:57.339+10:00Living in Aus - the good, the bad, the ugly and the infuriating!Even though we have lived here for over 4 years (!!!), one of our favourite things to do is still chatting with people who are from the UK and discuss the things we love about living here, the things we miss from home, the things that are just so different and the things we will probably never get used to!<br />
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I will try and keep this post balanced, but there is a chance it will turn into a "whinging pom" post... so apologies to the Aussies that are reading this! </div>
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<b>My favourite things about our life</b>.... I think I have to stop calling it our new life now we have been living it for so long!</div>
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<li>I get to have my birthday in the summer!</li>
<li>We are only a 20 minute drive from work and a beach</li>
<li>We live in a lovely area with a friendly village feel</li>
<li>We eat better here - locally sourced food and generally healthily prepared</li>
<li>We have a great work/ life balance</li>
<li>We have made some great friends here</li>
<li>When we have visitors, we get to spend some real, quality time with them</li>
<li>On the whole, Aussies are friendly and laid back - they are welcoming and helpful. the area we live in, especially, has a lovely village feel where everyone smiles and says hello</li>
<li>BYO - you can take your own bottle of wine to most restaurants making a nice meal less expensive</li>
<li>Coffee! The Aussies know how to make a good coffee - even the crappiest coffee shop will have a decent offering</li>
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<b>The things I miss most</b>... please note, things! The list of friends and family would be too long and would end in me sobbing, unable to finish this post!</div>
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<li>British shopping! From clothes to food, we pay more here for less choice. </li>
<li>Milestones - weddings, birthdays, dinners and nights out. We miss individuals, but we really miss you all when you are all doing things together and we can't be there!</li>
<li>Holidays! Leaving this vast country is not only expensive, it is also time consuming as everything is so far! That's why we only had our<a href="http://shahsinoz.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/a-proper-holiday.html"> first proper holiday</a> this year! (Although the fact that we only live a 20 minute drive from the beach does mean that every weekend can be a holiday!)</li>
<li>Mum's cooking. But my mummy will arrive here in just over a month so I will get my fill then!</li>
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<b>Thing</b><b>s that are different here</b>... and I do kind of mean worse!</div>
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<li>TV! Australian TV is pretty average, so we tend to watch a lot of English and American TV</li>
<li>Drivers. Round abouts, lane merging and saying thank you are all alien concepts here and its amazingly frustrating!</li>
<li>Crisps and chocolates. I still haven't gotten used to Australian chocolate and would readily donate an organ for an unlimited supply of English junk food... ironic cos eating an unlimited supply would end in organs being lost! </li>
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When I started writing this post, I thought that last list would be much longer actually!</div>
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Looking at it objectively, it does look like life is pretty good!</div>
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Bye for now </div>
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Kunj x </div>
Kunjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04781700204875581222noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-999523520160988290.post-16710010806483135562012-12-06T10:10:00.000+11:002012-12-06T10:18:42.498+11:00The Melbourne adventure...As most of you will know, Sham works for a small Brisbane based company. Since he joined three years ago, the company has almost doubled in size. The two owners have still kept that "family" feel though - they still fly non Brisbane based staff and their partners to the Christmas party, give all employees a Christmas present and give hilarious drunken speeches (sorry Craig - we haven't forgotten that one!).<br />
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When they were taking on a new client in Melbourne, they asked if anyone wanted to go and help set up - it would mean six weeks in Melbourne in a serviced apartment just on the outskirts of the city. The deal included flights to and from Sydney each weekend so Sham volunteered to do it! He left Sydney mid October.<br />
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We quickly realised that the return flights were best spent on me - I could holiday in Melbourne at the weekend rather than Sham coming home to help me with housework! Altogether, I got to visit for three weekends - and each weekend was different in what we did and saw, but each was as much fun as the one before!<br />
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On my first visit, Sham had already been there five days and was very excited to show me around his new home! The apartment had two bedrooms (he occasionally had a colleague staying for a night or two), a small open plan living, dining and kitchenette area and a bathroom. It was not flash by any stretch of the imagination, but it was perfectly functional, clean and most importantly, it was in a great location! A four minute walk to the office and a ten minute stroll to Flinders Street Station - the heart of Melbourne's CBD.<br />
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We spent the first weekend exploring Melbourne on foot - according to an app I have on my phone, we walked approximately 17km that weekend! We wandered down the lovely lane ways, shopped in Brunswick and strolled along the river at Southbank... stopping frequently for sustenance (coffee) and to take pictures of some of Melbourne's delights! It really was a perfect city break.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0CE8-epvRU9VdUDuFAIpcXQRx68FUJkN-wKUBCfPf5jR_Gm9AQ_kMw69y6aQowTwKdRyBKrVcsf0I1BJBkRuqyrQnfJ0zA_dMbTooMpfBrcsIYmWlgxsWXgHaoEs4ZVSso-hKPMs6g_N0/s1600/busking.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0CE8-epvRU9VdUDuFAIpcXQRx68FUJkN-wKUBCfPf5jR_Gm9AQ_kMw69y6aQowTwKdRyBKrVcsf0I1BJBkRuqyrQnfJ0zA_dMbTooMpfBrcsIYmWlgxsWXgHaoEs4ZVSso-hKPMs6g_N0/s400/busking.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Yep, it's a busker!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmjIaJQyuCZSE-M6eS-C5COiMqbMXNhhlxjK5bWgz21UfzSKwa4sp8bAkKgNpJjX-q_yYvSAGDBZXimLCp2ek54KAak_1W2JNMhihEkKNyuv8qaNFz5EarC0g3b3_27nbQkWLB_KPBr5WP/s1600/Flinders+street+station.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmjIaJQyuCZSE-M6eS-C5COiMqbMXNhhlxjK5bWgz21UfzSKwa4sp8bAkKgNpJjX-q_yYvSAGDBZXimLCp2ek54KAak_1W2JNMhihEkKNyuv8qaNFz5EarC0g3b3_27nbQkWLB_KPBr5WP/s400/Flinders+street+station.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The iconic Flinders Street Station</td></tr>
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The second weekend just as lovely, but we did completely different things. Sham has an old friend from London, Mike, whose family moved to Australia around seven years ago. Because his family run their own business, Mike splits his time between Melbourne where his parents live and Brisbane where his wife and kids are. Luckily for us, he was in Melbourne while Sham was there. Mike had very generously offered to lend us his car over the weekend... but as we were negotiating a parking space in the apartment's underground car park, we were not quite prepared for the "car" we were borrowing!!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO2QLanm3k4kD9kgIN_sqi9Qhqm-5PJtNRPd4HO2chLYphi0D6Dcssmwj-Y66dLWVuN3w1-mocJwSQSRrrxdw4rtgEgC_Ynn-2i4m4NYMTMP7Ph20dQoDYUK7xDdvA4VcXkvMuPvx5Ggxa/s1600/car.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO2QLanm3k4kD9kgIN_sqi9Qhqm-5PJtNRPd4HO2chLYphi0D6Dcssmwj-Y66dLWVuN3w1-mocJwSQSRrrxdw4rtgEgC_Ynn-2i4m4NYMTMP7Ph20dQoDYUK7xDdvA4VcXkvMuPvx5Ggxa/s400/car.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our chariot for the weekend</td></tr>
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Sharing the driving was out of the question as there was no way I was going to be able to drive that beast! This was a shame for Sham as he had some big plans for the weekend! After a late breakfast with Mike in the famous St Kilda beach, we dropped him back to his parents house and set off for a drive to Mornington Peninsula. It's a lovely sleepy coastal town and as the weather was lovely, we enjoyed a walk and lunch there.<br />
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We got back in the car and Sham said the next destination was a surprise! I worked out within 5 minutes that we were on our way to Ramsay Street, Erinsborough... home of Neighbours! Ok, don't judge me... I have watched Neighbours on and off since I was a kid and it was my first reference to Aussie life! I am not even slightly embarrassed to say I was very excited about our next stop! Pin Oak Drive (AKA Ramsay Street) is actually a really tiny, residential cul de sac. I wouldn't say I was disappointed as it was cool to see the Robinson house, but the size and non majestic nature of the street was a bit surprising ( I am not sure what I was expecting!)<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoQsbY98DQjrQCgLKfTqlOH9Hs2rILreR_WGI5kRJGeb-EUPJ3UP9M5WBlUerhc6dAmt_JJ2Ie_2LxyzfMTiqAa1IQnMyAsEcr-L5w1XjtI-66tU-kkrt7KFx5INlUbNGDdFt2fKM2yt7A/s1600/robinson+house.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoQsbY98DQjrQCgLKfTqlOH9Hs2rILreR_WGI5kRJGeb-EUPJ3UP9M5WBlUerhc6dAmt_JJ2Ie_2LxyzfMTiqAa1IQnMyAsEcr-L5w1XjtI-66tU-kkrt7KFx5INlUbNGDdFt2fKM2yt7A/s400/robinson+house.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Paul Robinson's house, Ramsay Street</td></tr>
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Our next stop was the beautiful Dandenong Ranges.<br />
It was a windy, steep drive up there and as we were there for sunset, it was absolutely freezing! I have to be honest, despite my best efforts to keep warm (hot chocolate and jumping up and down), I struggled to keep focussed on the amazing views looking down on Melbourne's CBD, so once the sun had set, I decided to wait in the car while Sham tried to capture the moment!<br />
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By the end of our first day of having the car, we had driven over 200km (approx 125 miles) and we were ready for an early night to prepare for the next adventure.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG_DZfPJ-WQU1ZHw96qb8cywoL0oY20cxpwFWk9eGSIyQPILZMFZG7RM-cYCeIZNHIwUTc3PI4IQAFILVpzAsVsQd4sdoKvLeEdx7hpXzu2w3vIGvbz3dfMzQBy-MGuoJYaJ5LAI_9uwQL/s1600/Day+1+map.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG_DZfPJ-WQU1ZHw96qb8cywoL0oY20cxpwFWk9eGSIyQPILZMFZG7RM-cYCeIZNHIwUTc3PI4IQAFILVpzAsVsQd4sdoKvLeEdx7hpXzu2w3vIGvbz3dfMzQBy-MGuoJYaJ5LAI_9uwQL/s640/Day+1+map.png" width="539" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">200 km later...</td></tr>
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The next day was an early start and after a quick stop for coffee and snacks, we were on our way to do one of Australia's most famous drives - The Great Ocean Road! It really is a breath-takingly beautiful drive.<br />
We stopped frequently to take pictures of the amazing scenery.<br />
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It was a REALLY hot day, so by the time we got to the 12 (now 8) Apostles, we wanted to get home the shortest possible way. The journey back on the motorway was not nearly as pretty, but it was quick!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">530km driven</td></tr>
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By the time we gave Mike his truck back at the end of the weekend, we had clocked up over 800 km (almost 500 miles!!) We loved road tripping together and are already planning our next one!<br />
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My last weekend in Melbourne coincided with my birthday so the weekend was spent shopping, eating at yummy restaurants and drinking cocktails!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCq7tcA1qG5ed8Z9wpUqOCZ5fwxtrD278GbTuo0fnZf0e8cfYmpT0-Srjvi_e1-DZg-0WLnfM6_xPI6tKCP0lZoFxH8GDuB4x8xgJHGbGGphV9kvtyGwuERC2H_lq0bxOucAt5ajogppFa/s1600/birthday+drinks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCq7tcA1qG5ed8Z9wpUqOCZ5fwxtrD278GbTuo0fnZf0e8cfYmpT0-Srjvi_e1-DZg-0WLnfM6_xPI6tKCP0lZoFxH8GDuB4x8xgJHGbGGphV9kvtyGwuERC2H_lq0bxOucAt5ajogppFa/s400/birthday+drinks.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Birthday dinner!</td></tr>
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We both really liked Melbourne both as a city to work in (Sham) and as a city to visit... and we reckon we probably wouldn't rule it out as a city to live in! The weather is not as nice as Sydney, but it's also NOT as bad as London!!<br />
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<br />Kunjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04781700204875581222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-999523520160988290.post-27477069913959146742012-11-07T13:14:00.001+11:002012-11-07T13:15:18.166+11:00A proper holiday!<br />
This post is being published in November - 3 months after our holiday... it feels like a lifetime ago!<br />
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In July we realised that we hadn't really had a "proper" holiday since we moved here... we have enjoyed lots of weekends around Australia, a couple of lovely visits to Auckland and of course trips to the UK and Kenya... but we haven't had a do-nothing-but-sit-on-the-beach or a drink-cocktails-at-a-pool-bar type holiday for nearly 4 years!!<br />
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I had a small window of opportunity at work before various members of the team went off on time they had booked off, so we did something that we are getting quite good at - booked something spontaneously! We booked a 8 night trip to Thailand. It worked out to be a perfect time to go as it would mean we would get to be there to celebrate our seven (!) year wedding anniversary!<br />
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The trip was everything we had wanted - the food was yummy, plentiful and cheap; the weather was perfect for lying around on a sunlounger and cooling off in the pool (with a swim up bar) and the massages were exquisite and only $6 each (I enjoyed <i>at least </i>one every day!)<br />
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We stayed in a resort that was an hours drive north of Phuket, a place called Kao Lak - it was pretty and the staff were lovely. It was a really quiet area with only a handful of restaurants and bars, but that suited us just fine for the holiday we wanted.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Relaxing at the swim up bar!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The view from our balcony</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG2b3iaHKpy4o0mf5vgz_N_HNr_01IKYz4oiE8kgVMXTR49uL-NSki8kWD8V6FwucFoVPOXAnnKPCdQs65tSTd8pGdBO9J-fY7ms_JNHzmAVZy9GQfzaiPYpPmnoJmnMpbyWWIhbU15t4R/s1600/Thailand2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG2b3iaHKpy4o0mf5vgz_N_HNr_01IKYz4oiE8kgVMXTR49uL-NSki8kWD8V6FwucFoVPOXAnnKPCdQs65tSTd8pGdBO9J-fY7ms_JNHzmAVZy9GQfzaiPYpPmnoJmnMpbyWWIhbU15t4R/s400/Thailand2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A beautiful Thai sunset</td></tr>
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We did manage to change out of our swimming costumes for a whole day to do a tour of Phuket - we visited 2 temples, a pearl factory (where Sham bought me some beautiful Southsea pear earrings for our anniversary), Phuket Old Town and a market! In that sort of heat, its more than enough to fit into a day - we were more than ready to have a nap by the time we got back!<br />
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It really was a perfect holiday and I can't wait to do it again... no pressure readers in London, but Thailand is about halfway... we could meet you there??<br />
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<br />Kunjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04781700204875581222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-999523520160988290.post-80778600771278129622012-10-25T15:34:00.000+11:002012-10-25T15:37:23.177+11:00Using the right side of my brain!Some of you have been "lucky" enough to have experienced my new hobby first hand... for those that haven't, don't worry - I am sure you will by your next birthday!<br />
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I have started a card making class that I go to fortnightly on a Wednesday evening... its a fun way to be a bit creative. The other ladies in my class are a little older than me, but all are lovely and so cute!<br />
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Here are some of the things I have made recently... please excuse the bad photography - I didn't take them to put on the blog, more to remember what I had made!<br />
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I don't think i am ever going to be able to retire from making cards, but its relaxing and nice to be using the creative side of my brain... and if I can sell a few to help with buying supplies, I would be chuffed!<br />
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Let me know what you think!<br />
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KunjKunjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04781700204875581222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-999523520160988290.post-61666068259241790832012-06-27T10:29:00.002+10:002012-06-27T10:29:39.869+10:00Food Food Food<br />
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Since the beginning of the year (well since the last of the visitors left), Sham and I have been making a conscious effort to eat well... cutting down on wheat and dairy, taking lunches to work* so that we don't end up buying oily noodles everyday (I MISS CBD NOODLES!) and eating more fresh fruit and veg than processed stuff! This has been a bit of a necessity for me as my new office is not in the city so there is a very limited choice of places for me too buy my lunch... and being vegetarian, my choices are limited further!<br />
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*I have taken take food to work one step further and make a big salad with a friend at work everyday! </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv3nWTUm5RbfbLpdfLcTcyxsjR4okmko4Hl3RbDHrWPIEDvL5m5IeWlRN9-VGiFnBs_xmQKEypvPwKDdvB6AWrQXmOP-SJ5RBb49CUhcJG5Zhj176o4HYcJmUKKpfaXtgCw4n_G18SFRTU/s1600/photo(8).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv3nWTUm5RbfbLpdfLcTcyxsjR4okmko4Hl3RbDHrWPIEDvL5m5IeWlRN9-VGiFnBs_xmQKEypvPwKDdvB6AWrQXmOP-SJ5RBb49CUhcJG5Zhj176o4HYcJmUKKpfaXtgCw4n_G18SFRTU/s320/photo(8).JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yummy Falafel salad</td></tr>
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The wheat and dairy took a bit of getting used to - spelt bread is an acquired taste and its pretty damn expensive...The eating fresh stuff has become a lot easier since we have discovered a farmers market that is on every Saturday thats not too far from our house.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicZTVofB5aUEjp2CxzB3cbvzAczdVRSnEY4TO-jdtWHbVlQTiZ17D7zosIE2DFLAcw3RPIoqmBOdP96gGflQzSJoJrJXBfFRVDpOMlxgO2a3R_Jlk6MSeg58gFZwS5x6F4FvOWAODloBTV/s1600/photo(7).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicZTVofB5aUEjp2CxzB3cbvzAczdVRSnEY4TO-jdtWHbVlQTiZ17D7zosIE2DFLAcw3RPIoqmBOdP96gGflQzSJoJrJXBfFRVDpOMlxgO2a3R_Jlk6MSeg58gFZwS5x6F4FvOWAODloBTV/s320/photo(7).JPG" width="240" /></a>We get eggs, fruit, veg, bread, quiches, cakes (!) and some meat or fish for Sham there every week. The prices are comparable to the supermarket (and things that are in season are sometimes cheaper), but the freshness and quality is unquestionably better!<br />
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The rest of our fresh food is delivered on a Tuesday evening by Helen!<br />
We are part of a farmers co op that delivers local food to a home in the area (to the Hubster!) The Hubster then boxes it up according to the order people have placed and then people go and collect it from the Hubster.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_PS1TTs78n-ggYvTsbgdhvSibiDY1eh6439czxzqpO_JV255RUfR3LvCDtQyKRlg_h-OTLT62RMlxkX8-Ngjy2DVobhMEY6cJH8aM4qXszPizTd1kMVlMAWzwauOkXZJyyWrz6Pzdl1BK/s1600/photo(9).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_PS1TTs78n-ggYvTsbgdhvSibiDY1eh6439czxzqpO_JV255RUfR3LvCDtQyKRlg_h-OTLT62RMlxkX8-Ngjy2DVobhMEY6cJH8aM4qXszPizTd1kMVlMAWzwauOkXZJyyWrz6Pzdl1BK/s320/photo(9).JPG" width="320" /></a>Helen is our local Hubster, so I get a personal delivery each week when she pops over for a cup of tea! This works out good cos it means that we always have plenty of fresh fruit and veg in the house. And because its only things that are in season, we get to save on our weekly food bill as well as supporting local farmers.<br />
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Don't worry - as per my usual luck, all this eating well has not resulted in ANY weightloss at all!! Its ok, its enough to know I am saving money, eating well and putting good food in my belly!<br />
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</div>Kunjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04781700204875581222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-999523520160988290.post-7706013065134713972012-05-04T15:47:00.000+10:002012-05-04T15:47:26.929+10:00Sham Shah - Action man!As anyone who knows him will tell you, Sham is relatively fit... he maintains this by joining any odd-squad of football players he can find for a kick around, a semi regular round of early morning golf and occasional basketball and running stints. He also has a damaged knee that has been giving him hassles for the best part of 15 years! So it is sods law that he signs up to do the <a href="http://http://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/mens-health/urbanathlon/"><b>Urbanathlon</b></a> with our friends Naz and Geraldine and promptly puts his knee out playing football!! Five weeks to go before a 10k run with various obstacles along the way, Sham managed to knock it at football!
Here is a map of the course - I think it will mean more to you if you are in Sydney or have been to visit!!
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It was a very early start on a cold and foggy morning. (These guys actually look half asleep!)
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Luckily Hels and young Fraser came along to join me as spectators! We waited for the runners to set off, had a McDonalds breakfast(!) and then strolled to a few of the points around the course to cheer on the runners.
The bad knee meant that there was less training done for this then planned, but on the day, Sham managed a not-too-embarassing time of 1 hour, 25 minutes and 41 seconds (1:25:41).
Here are a couple of action shots... I have left out the ones where he was caught walking!!
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Bye for now
Kunj xKunjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04781700204875581222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-999523520160988290.post-76619746246528415092012-03-06T08:53:00.000+11:002012-03-06T08:53:07.235+11:00A birthday treat worth waiting for!I am not really into celebrating my birthday... it may surprise you to know I don't like being the centre of attention!<br />
But this year, Hels' promised me cake! It took us three months to co ordinate diaries to get it booked in, but MAN did I get cake!!!<br />
Those reading this outside of Australia may not appreciate it as much, but I think you will still be impressed by the idea.<br />
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<a href="http://http://adrianozumbo.com/adriano/">Adriano Zumbo</a> is a bit of a dessert king here. And his newest venture is a "Dessert Train" concept that is to die for!<br />
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Take a sushi train, and replace the sushi with the most amazing desserts you can think of! Add in two chocoholics and what you have is heaven for two girls that are lucky to have not gone into a sugar-induced coma after having 3 desserts between them!<br />
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My favourite was the V8 Diesel - goodness that is flourless chocolate, chocolate crunch, burnt chocolate brulee, choc macaron, choc jelly, choc creamaux and choc chantilly... all assembled into one rich, delicious cake.<br />
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Just incase there is ANY question in your mind about how we felt after sharing three desserts between two of us, let me assure you, we felt SICK!! It was an amazing treat that I could probably only cope once a year with... se better get booked in for next year Hels!!<br />
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Bye for now<br />
Kunj xKunjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04781700204875581222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-999523520160988290.post-91469305074901535242012-02-21T12:00:00.001+11:002012-02-21T12:00:00.848+11:00My new favourite sport... my Mummy will be so proud!!Despite my mum, my aunty, my uncle and my father in law being MASSIVE cricket fans, I have never really given it a chance! Usually I jump on the bandwagon of any sport that has a tournament going - rugby and tennis both being recent examples. Football is my only real sport and cricket REALLY REALLY bored me! Or at least I thought it did!<br /><br />When Baru and Nitin booked their trip, we realised that they would be here during the Aussie/ India test. I didn't fully appreciate this at the time, but this was kind of a big deal... something about it being the SCGs 100th test and some guy called Sachin-something may be getting a century blah blah blah.... Anyway, we booked some tickets as their xmas present and then forgot about it (well I did!)<br /><br />Then we got to January and it was time to go to the cricket... by this point, we had spent some time with Baru and Nitin while the Perth test had been going on and realised from their regular checking of the scores that they were going to love the day out we had booked.<br />The day started ok - we had great seats, the weather was glorious and I had packed us a decent picnic. India batted first and we realised quite quickly that it wasn't going to be pretty! I didn't mind though as I was loving the atmosphere and I had Baru teaching me about the game.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJWjeajHT0cVXAqa602msVBrmW8OVfJqaRDYnLWbBNlmGP04p807TKEVAAC6PnSVsp_nfExn_oZd1g52QMu1Q5wIhINlXD0gkk3vAbu_pbIkfgCpaz6-tOw4v0pwe_GRo1z2ycE3MzRR9q/s1600/cricket2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJWjeajHT0cVXAqa602msVBrmW8OVfJqaRDYnLWbBNlmGP04p807TKEVAAC6PnSVsp_nfExn_oZd1g52QMu1Q5wIhINlXD0gkk3vAbu_pbIkfgCpaz6-tOw4v0pwe_GRo1z2ycE3MzRR9q/s320/cricket2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5711385590601458674" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv_GeoIsq4EPCDChn4MH49AblHMtOJyAP4ymvzXddur_mSO_sXUWGPiKhsgLGZ_EImqsPmnPIFRTyfJpuwGjWgJagGM2Z5TJsd8INz0r84AE9sEHg6c0SpVo2xlAEZ2LQ9SGP7F1GNXSfv/s1600/cricket1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv_GeoIsq4EPCDChn4MH49AblHMtOJyAP4ymvzXddur_mSO_sXUWGPiKhsgLGZ_EImqsPmnPIFRTyfJpuwGjWgJagGM2Z5TJsd8INz0r84AE9sEHg6c0SpVo2xlAEZ2LQ9SGP7F1GNXSfv/s320/cricket1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5711385600142729874" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6pB9uhEJuUid0lRUwEwGZ8443UE2k0E6I3PkZD4RBeWiQ7lQU-zKieaFnm7InWJWTxIKbb68fnB5JPhR32Vg2YqcfzqWttR-mneAzCNVLElvCkx9Euq46mhpqzPEZLNKYjyHJp9jcSH-E/s1600/photo.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6pB9uhEJuUid0lRUwEwGZ8443UE2k0E6I3PkZD4RBeWiQ7lQU-zKieaFnm7InWJWTxIKbb68fnB5JPhR32Vg2YqcfzqWttR-mneAzCNVLElvCkx9Euq46mhpqzPEZLNKYjyHJp9jcSH-E/s320/photo.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5711386413709879234" /></a><br /><br />By the end of the day, we had seen 13 wickets! All of India and 3 Aussies... my resident cricket experts assured me that this was highly unusual for a test. India went on to be smaashed by the Aussies in what has turned out to be an embarassing tour, but I had discovered thatI quite liked cricket!<br /><br />India went on to have an awful run - pretty much not winning a single test for the rest of the tour, but that didn't matter cos I was hooked!<br />At the beginning of Feb, India was playing India again in Sydney - this time it was an evening 20/20 game. The tickets were cheap, so we got a group of our friends together (a mixture or Australia/India and not-a-clue fans!) and as Chris' parents were here on holiday, even his dad joined us. It was a very wet evening in Sydney, but as I was now an expert, I sat between the other girls in the group "explaining" what was going on. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW5wgIBTFSlVzvOr0FEN7lybOYq7CNCwxlvC3OGysezxF9-qKBdUoKSzAADzAbHZTUf9eL43K8gok1pol1jmz8xwGg5gRRpmcjMLB0x_N-tQmOeFpwVa7RSHFvPR0lVOCDlI5TgRygLYU7/s1600/20120201_200418%25281%2529.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW5wgIBTFSlVzvOr0FEN7lybOYq7CNCwxlvC3OGysezxF9-qKBdUoKSzAADzAbHZTUf9eL43K8gok1pol1jmz8xwGg5gRRpmcjMLB0x_N-tQmOeFpwVa7RSHFvPR0lVOCDlI5TgRygLYU7/s320/20120201_200418%25281%2529.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5711371596677689778" /></a> 20/20 games are like a cross between a baseball and an ice hockey game with dancers, fireworks, mexican waves and random crowd pleasing music all making it an entertaining and slightly bemusing night out. Of course India lost! But now I had convinced Hels about how fun cricket was... and we have decided that we are Sydney Sixers. We ake this quite seriously - we picked this team as they are our local team and they also wear pink!! Unfortunately, the season is now over... lets see if we are still this excited when 2012/2013 starts... I think we probably won't be!Kunjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04781700204875581222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-999523520160988290.post-71574386629687299532012-02-06T11:18:00.001+11:002012-02-06T11:18:26.342+11:002011... (ALL of it!)Sorry, I seem to have managed to not tell you anything at all about 2011!Last year flew by so I thought I better post something on the blog and then we can start afresh with 2012!! So, month by month, here are some of the years highlights and lowerlights(!) of 2011... Some months feel a bit light on things we did, but I have been relying on our Google Calendar to remind me what we did! Even so, this is a long one, so you might want to grab a cuppa!<br /><br /><font style="font-weight:bold;">Jan</font><br />We said goodbye to Shakil and the boys :-(<br />I went on a girls weekend away on the same weekend as my mummy arrived in Sydney! We spent the weekend in a house with a pool and a winery next door - whats not to love?!<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSXWz9YkYYynIfEtWuAK4oYPsA7Nn8Brf77nDDq2RtSv2sjOUpAgZEVScODCM1HrtRoeoqKqxsA3ZZUYxnaWoHMqEPFpvODWC5f5aqOyMVS6C4auCxF30Ew_W4zuvK6WsSlTE3ye5ACiWs/s1600/P1000646.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSXWz9YkYYynIfEtWuAK4oYPsA7Nn8Brf77nDDq2RtSv2sjOUpAgZEVScODCM1HrtRoeoqKqxsA3ZZUYxnaWoHMqEPFpvODWC5f5aqOyMVS6C4auCxF30Ew_W4zuvK6WsSlTE3ye5ACiWs/s320/P1000646.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5695200631907514450"></a><br /><br /><font style="font-weight:bold;">Feb</font><br />A month spent with my mum! She cooked for us and spent a month making more friends in Balmain than we have managed in over two years!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJzahnSJsgIy_HOQjycVGxZVjjvbMEPADuy80NqkdyJnVKLE3mA9zjIpS9pjmBsnoJTUEH8s4F_wV_Pf0ctYSBrw6y0sBbLt4rxihVjQEJv-n-6YlkdPLjzCRoHLaMwy_TrQVpraafQOJz/s1600/P1000654.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJzahnSJsgIy_HOQjycVGxZVjjvbMEPADuy80NqkdyJnVKLE3mA9zjIpS9pjmBsnoJTUEH8s4F_wV_Pf0ctYSBrw6y0sBbLt4rxihVjQEJv-n-6YlkdPLjzCRoHLaMwy_TrQVpraafQOJz/s320/P1000654.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5695201545638037138"></a>We had Julia's "Alternative baby shower". The venue booked for Afternoon Tea cancelled on us an hour and a half before we were due to arrive, so we cobbled together a little get together at Chez Child-Mitford and all was perfect.<br /><br /><font style="font-weight:bold;">March</font><br />Sham started his VMWare course which meant it was a nice quiet month for us socially...<br /><br /><font style="font-weight:bold;">April</font><br />We went on our first "interstate holiday"... a weekend in Melbourne with the highlight being some really really good seats at the Usher concert!<br /><br /><font style="font-weight:bold;">May</font><br />Ajay made his annual trip over to Sydney this year and this time brought Kay and Aaron with him! We had a lovely weekend with the three of them...<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV1TJOrQJv-tWDYwgs9wSObTFwbZD_jog9R15D4YmBgwk45ncYchT1suJuBGJuIKr6VNalj6yY4zRROZK331CXcoxDbzZK21fDL1IZQkwwtxWHbEdAfV3cpm5ri9gGBV74pQnuW2XbhgeH/s1600/P1000830.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV1TJOrQJv-tWDYwgs9wSObTFwbZD_jog9R15D4YmBgwk45ncYchT1suJuBGJuIKr6VNalj6yY4zRROZK331CXcoxDbzZK21fDL1IZQkwwtxWHbEdAfV3cpm5ri9gGBV74pQnuW2XbhgeH/s320/P1000830.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5695201547877254434"></a>For Sham's birthday, I took him to a Michael Jackson tribute show. We had amazing seats and it was so much fun dancing in our seats!<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiycxJ4GQM3i4MdvD2x6Gz53uxBWvVTRsLccj4fUdqgj7jwhbQgLqUp9dsxdAtA2wBqZVG8x_pK1926kAi4esBpCQKrNenNgRsIN5BKs0LZMgC61V4_IBF47XyHQNN5mlInkgMC6tmBUI6a/s1600/P1010409.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiycxJ4GQM3i4MdvD2x6Gz53uxBWvVTRsLccj4fUdqgj7jwhbQgLqUp9dsxdAtA2wBqZVG8x_pK1926kAi4esBpCQKrNenNgRsIN5BKs0LZMgC61V4_IBF47XyHQNN5mlInkgMC6tmBUI6a/s320/P1010409.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5705804794362142434"></a><br /><br /><font style="font-weight:bold;">June</font><br />Sham got some qualifications! He completed a recognised VMWare course... I don't really understand it to be honest, but he assures me that it makes him more employable. This turned out to be more important than we ever thought it would be as I was made redundant from my job. I am sponsored by my company so without finding another way, there was a chance that we were heading back to London having lived this dream for two and a half years! More about what happened with this later.<br /><br /><font style="font-weight:bold;">July</font><br />I came back to London for a flying visit so that I could be at the lovely Jo and Pete's beautiful wedding! <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyDIDfI_mEAVi3w5saputHNFOZOKntaNuY1v0FoatoHWGW7g0agZM_H0cEov_Ckcrll1VCW4jX-pYZWPSDwq0QjktlN1KgGRiJtY1ENQVC4Sce5dJZUh2nYB0wZphQy3DR0oZYP3OfvYVC/s1600/P1010040.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyDIDfI_mEAVi3w5saputHNFOZOKntaNuY1v0FoatoHWGW7g0agZM_H0cEov_Ckcrll1VCW4jX-pYZWPSDwq0QjktlN1KgGRiJtY1ENQVC4Sce5dJZUh2nYB0wZphQy3DR0oZYP3OfvYVC/s320/P1010040.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5695204031091149570"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVY8zQTkpyagBKu9zXYJBXO_401O6FrXEJNIPi8vRhUqqgSr-NBOG_8Aakrf_Bz7Z2HPl37zFFpIAK3xbqcHd8PmFbEFsHDVb6EO7d3WwKQut8g-poYnIIWu13nbhKSjFve7Dkwx2zll4V/s1600/P1010011.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVY8zQTkpyagBKu9zXYJBXO_401O6FrXEJNIPi8vRhUqqgSr-NBOG_8Aakrf_Bz7Z2HPl37zFFpIAK3xbqcHd8PmFbEFsHDVb6EO7d3WwKQut8g-poYnIIWu13nbhKSjFve7Dkwx2zll4V/s320/P1010011.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5695204023792043090"></a><br /><br />It was the very first time I had ever flown anywhere on my own... but I had no one sitting next to me for both legs of the flight there so I managed to rest loads!<br />I had a great trip that was over too quickly, although I did find myself missing Sham more than I thought I would! It was lovely to meet some of the new babies that have arrived since we have last been back- although I didn't get to meet them all :-(<br /><br /><font style="font-weight:bold;">Aug</font><br />We celebrated our anniversary and Christmas on the same day! Due to everyones busy diaries, we ended up celebrating Xmas in July, in August! Julia and Grant hosted a spectacular Xmas spread and the only disappointing thing was that the weather was unseasonally warm. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizFPHkvYzV6Pk6QFmTIiOVEOLfPvrptJE2yzxByLxyUIo4LQYJZ7mHuF-xhsvyRQBZdygIu3s5743PdTJ0S8IuAxI9yGiYBdrXYJAG761FOluCt6AllKByxlbaDKSWkvK-R_C3gLTXop1K/s1600/P1010125.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizFPHkvYzV6Pk6QFmTIiOVEOLfPvrptJE2yzxByLxyUIo4LQYJZ7mHuF-xhsvyRQBZdygIu3s5743PdTJ0S8IuAxI9yGiYBdrXYJAG761FOluCt6AllKByxlbaDKSWkvK-R_C3gLTXop1K/s320/P1010125.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5695201562537460210"></a><br /><br /><font style="font-weight:bold;">Sept</font><br />When we realised that there was a chance that we could be going back to London, I thought that it would be a real shame to have lived here for this long and have seen very little of the country. So I busily started booking some short breaks!The first of these weekends away was to Bryon Bay - a hippy town at the very north of NSW.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7ncy0EyDMfTo3yIP9uHFLb3aiZHAhzznbPhgriEaF3CpVwhwMqblU6nZnoPIrcW9FipWGTUgbRbvt9W7eGpWPHuqGPw6C5bLEqMVAwWTwrxpwC2Zfuasqak6DjfpZ6qjDpIWLIYCateNV/s1600/byron.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 234px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7ncy0EyDMfTo3yIP9uHFLb3aiZHAhzznbPhgriEaF3CpVwhwMqblU6nZnoPIrcW9FipWGTUgbRbvt9W7eGpWPHuqGPw6C5bLEqMVAwWTwrxpwC2Zfuasqak6DjfpZ6qjDpIWLIYCateNV/s320/byron.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5685756548146705746"></a>It was an hour or so flight time but it was a world away from Sydney!The highlight of the weekend apart from the gorgeous weather and beaches has got to be the random musical version of a flash mob that just started up outside the market!Here is a picture of Shamir at the Byron Bay light house. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYC0wjwru733jh59vt_9SNQbJpFgUUmBwM5Yl3PBILWx7IxmwTFxhuCnoOxt4-JltlZQEQad_lbDJVWKUTJVMHJiyELgAVFrbP0-cCsW5REcT-L4OXMWf55WD91_vyhdUVn3PqJdxQgSuR/s1600/P1010163.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYC0wjwru733jh59vt_9SNQbJpFgUUmBwM5Yl3PBILWx7IxmwTFxhuCnoOxt4-JltlZQEQad_lbDJVWKUTJVMHJiyELgAVFrbP0-cCsW5REcT-L4OXMWf55WD91_vyhdUVn3PqJdxQgSuR/s320/P1010163.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5695204041158531874"></a><br /><br /><font style="font-weight:bold;">Oct</font><br />October was a particularly busy month for us. We had found a way to stay in the country - thanks to Sham's AMAZING bosses, we were going to be sponsored for permanent residency. We spent a lot of Oct getting together a lot of documents, filling out forms etc. We celebrated baby Fraser's first birthday. Check out the little man!<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwTAFrR63s7SWxInLusiErDc7w7Vg_Ov3CMuGUiCoKG9MUXAurPPQ67Cdawo2K6FopYxAsA2pWH8T-Xe7zjmlG43sGoJ96N7QIHIMcpcceFcLrxwAm7hMlHDcvbm66Gy4b8G1AiqLAoKib/s1600/DPP_0005.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwTAFrR63s7SWxInLusiErDc7w7Vg_Ov3CMuGUiCoKG9MUXAurPPQ67Cdawo2K6FopYxAsA2pWH8T-Xe7zjmlG43sGoJ96N7QIHIMcpcceFcLrxwAm7hMlHDcvbm66Gy4b8G1AiqLAoKib/s320/DPP_0005.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5705750800015085634"></a><br /><br /><font style="font-weight:bold;">Nov</font><br />We had another short break in Nov! This time to the Gold Coast. It was a nice weekend of eating out and walking on the beach. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyCba4sk6nOH59a0rHQtLNN5xLOJCb1S4_DCEEXGR4lxbionyTF45xRGyFkcjxAF8CvsWAaokTybotqC_gzK2hVz14IYjfm3aGxlL_08KCfGHkn2q6dm0bKob7RPuFLdbU4pddUYf3Z9in/s1600/P1010237.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyCba4sk6nOH59a0rHQtLNN5xLOJCb1S4_DCEEXGR4lxbionyTF45xRGyFkcjxAF8CvsWAaokTybotqC_gzK2hVz14IYjfm3aGxlL_08KCfGHkn2q6dm0bKob7RPuFLdbU4pddUYf3Z9in/s320/P1010237.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5705804803626688226"></a><br /><br />I had booked the hotel on a Groupon type deal and was a bit worried it would be rubbish, but it turned out to be a lovely apartment! <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisfKtRJtERvRq2nzV3IeZd4y0rOI0Uo7TY4Cs6bnwF2BK6WSP18BKq1CId6iBCBSxSoME8vKeG6xO3Thuam7biTwlyZTNe4MSZuxH_54byjA9E-b-IWC2SMvmxfk9PHJuIO2Gff51lWDkg/s1600/P1010230.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisfKtRJtERvRq2nzV3IeZd4y0rOI0Uo7TY4Cs6bnwF2BK6WSP18BKq1CId6iBCBSxSoME8vKeG6xO3Thuam7biTwlyZTNe4MSZuxH_54byjA9E-b-IWC2SMvmxfk9PHJuIO2Gff51lWDkg/s320/P1010230.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5705809421895316130" /></a><br /><br />This year for my birthday we had a lovely HOT afternoon at lawn bowls... I must apologize again to my team for how bad I was... Let's just say, thank god it was my birthday- so no one could be cross with me!! Here is the winning team.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihWzh2DJoikHW4KqIiC2YNapinKA46Ubf65zsYc_l-Ca9Ka08i53SHCqhijJDxaymG0OueJCIdYc8gEJ0oQInfnPGu5PZJowHe3IVO4UWX6v3K9-ph5eFj2yHzOk80YQlxHUe9ZsTBlQnC/s1600/P1010265.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihWzh2DJoikHW4KqIiC2YNapinKA46Ubf65zsYc_l-Ca9Ka08i53SHCqhijJDxaymG0OueJCIdYc8gEJ0oQInfnPGu5PZJowHe3IVO4UWX6v3K9-ph5eFj2yHzOk80YQlxHUe9ZsTBlQnC/s320/P1010265.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5705750828979625970"></a><br /><br />I am not sure when I got old, but I know that I have because of my excitment over being bought a tree for my birthday! Let me explain:<br />Some friends recently told us about a "fruit salad tree". Its a tree with several fruits grafted on - so one tree gives you 3-4 different fruits! I wanted one! and for my birthday, the girls got me a lemon/lime/orange tree! It doesn't look like much yet, but I will put some pics up when it does. Thanks ladies for a great present - and thanks Hels for the pot of poo!!<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCV3jzkg_pBFSugL7ZzXhWVnEpkdkbb1UZaizr2_xJF-xhV3p-Lch02mqLoZMA2gtpcvctGz3FNsvpYCdXDWsuCY9evA5EBWAgVw-kHi85g_gp2smmdzGomxDuTWmIC6KyO8XJtG634LvO/s1600/P1010270.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCV3jzkg_pBFSugL7ZzXhWVnEpkdkbb1UZaizr2_xJF-xhV3p-Lch02mqLoZMA2gtpcvctGz3FNsvpYCdXDWsuCY9evA5EBWAgVw-kHi85g_gp2smmdzGomxDuTWmIC6KyO8XJtG634LvO/s320/P1010270.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5705804787338761122"></a><br /><br /><font style="font-weight:bold;">Dec</font><br />December brought the Christmas silly season with work parties (including one for Sham's work that involved a weekend in Brisbane for us!), team lunches and gang lunches. On the 19th, we lit a candle to remember our Ba. She must have been looking down on us because on the 19th of December, we got the amazing news that we finally had our Australian residency!! everyone's messages of congratulations were overwhelming- thanks guys! <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ3sr_CO-wsYnagAI-5G1EdL_y7us3K3RFhdDjX39PbV8O1DT28ItNRq9ViRCoIHmtkLy-ByTyRxJqQ_NkKGViLVsNA5_IbSPfCnzYJzQNMY0t3Zmee159HqOygBBSb_ts71IHbzKtf6bE/s640/blogger-image--1207463785.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ3sr_CO-wsYnagAI-5G1EdL_y7us3K3RFhdDjX39PbV8O1DT28ItNRq9ViRCoIHmtkLy-ByTyRxJqQ_NkKGViLVsNA5_IbSPfCnzYJzQNMY0t3Zmee159HqOygBBSb_ts71IHbzKtf6bE/s640/blogger-image--1207463785.jpg"></a></div>I could now leave my job by negotiating a shorter notice period on my redundancy. I will miss the friends I have made at CMC and I will certainly miss the view from my desk, but it was definitely time to leave!<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCU2ENVQYPbXz3bnwtDHcn5l7SFi1wN1Za6sndhwFWsfwaKMW2orhn_wkMqNarSYNocKSZU3rELmw9x-zz0PWqg0uUAYDtE0zrthx_ZgVz5BkkgV2K4I51rlD5NMDuYrJwf_kwfs7Mx6GX/s1600/P1010403.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCU2ENVQYPbXz3bnwtDHcn5l7SFi1wN1Za6sndhwFWsfwaKMW2orhn_wkMqNarSYNocKSZU3rELmw9x-zz0PWqg0uUAYDtE0zrthx_ZgVz5BkkgV2K4I51rlD5NMDuYrJwf_kwfs7Mx6GX/s320/P1010403.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5705750821842860610"></a><br /><br />Christmas day started the same as every year- on the beach! We then spent the evening with some friends as we ate and drank!<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxpEduewZzt8TbRMHNt-xN6EpWhOb-rGB5Y7Qxmr8Ky84UfcSm44LAXrzRL8fCQZyjg_pTBHpk-LPNgpU_uc5LnIkCc7M8ISzIdWavgUv4suS5KXKSLZ37HanwCERFehCQM8VpoFDbZGe1/s1600/P1010445.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxpEduewZzt8TbRMHNt-xN6EpWhOb-rGB5Y7Qxmr8Ky84UfcSm44LAXrzRL8fCQZyjg_pTBHpk-LPNgpU_uc5LnIkCc7M8ISzIdWavgUv4suS5KXKSLZ37HanwCERFehCQM8VpoFDbZGe1/s320/P1010445.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5705804795461512034"></a><br /><br />Jo's list made me giggle as she had every minute accounted for - it was worth it though... Xmas dinner was FAB!<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoC298kv3OnWC7V6d6HS04HmTfKJgvMc2XkhMu-dtVd7TxYnObNSs2MwN9CfHx_hhDiXGoU7hPjhbrx_88XJP5avur9vR684paTFC46uf_NiHk-xnOkDJyuuBbZ_4j8SNqgLZ2C2a3PsU2/s1600/P1010423.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoC298kv3OnWC7V6d6HS04HmTfKJgvMc2XkhMu-dtVd7TxYnObNSs2MwN9CfHx_hhDiXGoU7hPjhbrx_88XJP5avur9vR684paTFC46uf_NiHk-xnOkDJyuuBbZ_4j8SNqgLZ2C2a3PsU2/s320/P1010423.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5705750807457107586"></a><br /><br />Thanks again Jo and Paul!!<br /><br /> On the day after boxing day we headed to the Blue Mountains for our final short break of the year! This was a special one as we were joining my aunt and uncle Baru and Nitin! We headed back to Sydney as they carried on their tour. On December 30th they arrived in Sydney.... also that day, our gorgeous niece Aria arrived into the world!We saw in 2012 in one of the most spectacular ways possible- on a cruise-ship on Sydney's harbour watching the fireworks! Thank you Baru and Nitin!<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5hblf3RvdnCZv6CXSy2e2i3y97RG2hOnCqq8GAASEQ4LQIep9z796Hm4wgognhQSDlUelBzjEw8k-p4OlYdmdQVE_-ShsIJNqpLbMm7dYA6wAShur-Wgp7GLPw5SOfTU3be4xiLm18C-7/s1600/P1010635.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5hblf3RvdnCZv6CXSy2e2i3y97RG2hOnCqq8GAASEQ4LQIep9z796Hm4wgognhQSDlUelBzjEw8k-p4OlYdmdQVE_-ShsIJNqpLbMm7dYA6wAShur-Wgp7GLPw5SOfTU3be4xiLm18C-7/s320/P1010635.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5705750819448304418"></a><br /><br />And that, dear friends, was our 2011... I am sure I have missed out some stuff, but I was mostly relying on our Google calendar and our photos as my memory is not what it used to be in my old age! Sorry if I have missed out anything important! Happy new year to you all and Don't be strangers in 2012 guys! By for now<br />Kunj xKunjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04781700204875581222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-999523520160988290.post-56298955436380354902011-04-26T21:17:00.019+10:002011-04-30T18:07:15.674+10:00December 2010... only a third of 2011 gone!Sorry sorry sorry! Life has been pretty busy recently and I have just realised that although I wrote this AGES ago, I hadn't added in all the picture and published it!<br />Here is how we ended 2010 - and I promise to write an update for 2011 very soon!<br /><br />Happy reading<br /><br />Kunj x<br /><br />Decembers festivities started with my work Xmas party. The venue was a boat on the Harbour and the theme was 'Under the Sea'! Some people went ALL out on their outfits, but I was one of the lazier ones that didn't bother...<br />It was a fun night which must have cost the company a bob or two!<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjomgOot_H2Xp8eRVF0wUa8jEai_-9GF_0PvUhI5YJw2WJKIcKXx5woX2l_uuYVqP_guws0w0AxfJ-lU7f5Zk5U5fJMEGr66RhnfHrRjUiW25beTrHKoJ026IR12hxhT8mSTOgKOscdatJ/s1600/P1000297.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjomgOot_H2Xp8eRVF0wUa8jEai_-9GF_0PvUhI5YJw2WJKIcKXx5woX2l_uuYVqP_guws0w0AxfJ-lU7f5Zk5U5fJMEGr66RhnfHrRjUiW25beTrHKoJ026IR12hxhT8mSTOgKOscdatJ/s400/P1000297.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5554888187830447810" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP0UhDDxDE7UDvtoyCAbM5XSp7YAfAym9j6N8OENgSOFIS_azhEP0-QvOlbhJZw5RRffUUent2uQcnzp7mmfmdOFPK0tDNYw90y1QAD0tN2iqoRdSrRaF3ql731kevgKJZW_xgGAfFczw5/s1600/P1000231.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP0UhDDxDE7UDvtoyCAbM5XSp7YAfAym9j6N8OENgSOFIS_azhEP0-QvOlbhJZw5RRffUUent2uQcnzp7mmfmdOFPK0tDNYw90y1QAD0tN2iqoRdSrRaF3ql731kevgKJZW_xgGAfFczw5/s400/P1000231.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5554888184030718242" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_UD8ShmTzdiDrF8udEszPz-65MCAokgKidZa8Abylt3ayJmIWQ_DydfFeD1HvvF1gTA4KDbegcUGntqqcVmlKb1AuhFCDxpdVAKmPYcwPxxZlfD7XB1o84tlb93QvQCI8RggLBz2p5Vzy/s1600/P1000241.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_UD8ShmTzdiDrF8udEszPz-65MCAokgKidZa8Abylt3ayJmIWQ_DydfFeD1HvvF1gTA4KDbegcUGntqqcVmlKb1AuhFCDxpdVAKmPYcwPxxZlfD7XB1o84tlb93QvQCI8RggLBz2p5Vzy/s400/P1000241.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5554888179452165938" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8nb3m36uQnvAltRNC6uuS9mXs0IVQKjRiwNuk5ZIgE7zMgrghCkLv_tXrIm1wGbhByqLI0tFue6psNpz5_r4t7OgvTH3IKun87kAnbnm_3VtVld9HtJ7atHNG4v_VG4VrbEqF0ytck5Ix/s1600/P1000236.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8nb3m36uQnvAltRNC6uuS9mXs0IVQKjRiwNuk5ZIgE7zMgrghCkLv_tXrIm1wGbhByqLI0tFue6psNpz5_r4t7OgvTH3IKun87kAnbnm_3VtVld9HtJ7atHNG4v_VG4VrbEqF0ytck5Ix/s400/P1000236.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5554888176921889394" /></a><br /><br />This picture is officially my favourite pic of the night - it makes me giggle EVERY time I see it!!<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs6vfPT8NeBNKyjePfq8jfZg5FVUe2ci83QrZwEPehq9pg38yK_JI1WS8sPLOtcnvxAKNJiXBoIY2WfGTARtHbws0pE-WT0PPEWeL6hJHNrPd0zeYSxrNJGlD0HYzRdQls5fvbIX9DTPgV/s1600/P1000318.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs6vfPT8NeBNKyjePfq8jfZg5FVUe2ci83QrZwEPehq9pg38yK_JI1WS8sPLOtcnvxAKNJiXBoIY2WfGTARtHbws0pE-WT0PPEWeL6hJHNrPd0zeYSxrNJGlD0HYzRdQls5fvbIX9DTPgV/s400/P1000318.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5554888193804478786" /></a><br /><br />As we said goodbye to mum and dad, we thought our next set of visitors were going to be Shams brother and the boys... but then we had some surprise visitors!<br />Hanisha is my cousin's cousin, but as kids we spent a lot of time at my aunty's together so it was really nice to spend some real time with her and her husband Amit as adults (although the term 'adults' is questionable when you consider how much we laughed that week!)<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-reit4ZFeX6X9pqw0rJXduS2OjKRJP7eFO6-KJzHReXe69vMorzaq3KDwQvrmWjKvkEUq3GCPs5QFbt7Ef2HfMQPPCxqonjIMemZ41zlmJV_vGM7H5kbujfFLCrKjAaZs_RkchZ_bbXqp/s1600/IMG_9608.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-reit4ZFeX6X9pqw0rJXduS2OjKRJP7eFO6-KJzHReXe69vMorzaq3KDwQvrmWjKvkEUq3GCPs5QFbt7Ef2HfMQPPCxqonjIMemZ41zlmJV_vGM7H5kbujfFLCrKjAaZs_RkchZ_bbXqp/s400/IMG_9608.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5554890616366305074" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiOyeL6qFkQMZn3LH3t_6v2KgM2JsbVDq-j7bxR-ZRnPCrijGBj5BZ3R79TsJ_qMEMHsKSrg8Gks7d4tPg5O9KxNZluA4oolOJnh_QDCifty5m5ITQt42DXMzGeTd4pVlKbWFb3th0zkL1/s1600/P1000346.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiOyeL6qFkQMZn3LH3t_6v2KgM2JsbVDq-j7bxR-ZRnPCrijGBj5BZ3R79TsJ_qMEMHsKSrg8Gks7d4tPg5O9KxNZluA4oolOJnh_QDCifty5m5ITQt42DXMzGeTd4pVlKbWFb3th0zkL1/s320/P1000346.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5554891177432296178" /></a><br /><br /><br />It was the well rehearsed routine of evenings playing tour guides - we managed to convince them to stay an extra night so that they were here for Friday drinks...<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyRMeMpzCln9HmFynxLrJ63d1mj_mwnST8qOew5mZ7aZCrgCu14-K5Kgn9bv6I3upeOFOoHCT0lbintYgppJx-Ma-nVszmYFWIrcvhKfyqGjba-j94PnVOscYDJdEya4JfYFTEOxAGeJQz/s1600/P1000354.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyRMeMpzCln9HmFynxLrJ63d1mj_mwnST8qOew5mZ7aZCrgCu14-K5Kgn9bv6I3upeOFOoHCT0lbintYgppJx-Ma-nVszmYFWIrcvhKfyqGjba-j94PnVOscYDJdEya4JfYFTEOxAGeJQz/s200/P1000354.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5554891745200416482" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBXar61FDwElt0Dq-yu6TSwuO1iCXC89h03EXSSfb401d_GtAze5hrsIQ4Eff9Qy40UYSy37rsW_D2cyYVHpREN69xL5jpJV-JMyR8LyfozwszQwsTlNlkNhI-8lOMLl1k1mGRXsWvhCkw/s1600/P1000349.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBXar61FDwElt0Dq-yu6TSwuO1iCXC89h03EXSSfb401d_GtAze5hrsIQ4Eff9Qy40UYSy37rsW_D2cyYVHpREN69xL5jpJV-JMyR8LyfozwszQwsTlNlkNhI-8lOMLl1k1mGRXsWvhCkw/s200/P1000349.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5554891738510190578" /></a><br />the evening ended with us being locked out of the house and Sham having to climb up onto our upstairs balcony (for once, I wasn't in trouble for leaving the balcony door unlocked!)<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzmoO6MeIybyzP2xAMM-nq8ITeeRPXUTdxs-mmbmXpkFVAX2kaEveiynNRrX6Ytqx1lBdqk7XzNROxn7qXhWM9clmpEo0EKsT5r0o95jRADZaZd07mSyY8lITVGgcPEaxAjmFmeSkDeEoM/s1600/P1000364.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:left;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzmoO6MeIybyzP2xAMM-nq8ITeeRPXUTdxs-mmbmXpkFVAX2kaEveiynNRrX6Ytqx1lBdqk7XzNROxn7qXhWM9clmpEo0EKsT5r0o95jRADZaZd07mSyY8lITVGgcPEaxAjmFmeSkDeEoM/s200/P1000364.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5554891762706181842" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0GXig2ycrjkqGV_96BzNLOO0GKljwziRtLyk-znf4VpMcaYdOnaw7mIxnXo0-K1jVQ6wB_i39Tk4fJHzaZEmQifkx3nfIJfrVvUPvk-Si8DWYxXhyHId_8z57r5twe6NUiLGp-6rXj1fO/s1600/P1000365.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0GXig2ycrjkqGV_96BzNLOO0GKljwziRtLyk-znf4VpMcaYdOnaw7mIxnXo0-K1jVQ6wB_i39Tk4fJHzaZEmQifkx3nfIJfrVvUPvk-Si8DWYxXhyHId_8z57r5twe6NUiLGp-6rXj1fO/s200/P1000365.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5554891768091143650" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpbir5F0cwN5j0RAMEozWbW92iAQ4uJC_tQvfMyeHFKFWjnLFOKu8h96vIIYD0OJALF1R2iLqOPL2sX-hl4ivxIPXo61tIhOzxEhzIc1zJDcwQ4fPOnuQQ-CUCAkw4eiFcDDl-jB2gL9P9/s1600/P1000366.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpbir5F0cwN5j0RAMEozWbW92iAQ4uJC_tQvfMyeHFKFWjnLFOKu8h96vIIYD0OJALF1R2iLqOPL2sX-hl4ivxIPXo61tIhOzxEhzIc1zJDcwQ4fPOnuQQ-CUCAkw4eiFcDDl-jB2gL9P9/s200/P1000366.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5554891769538967186" /></a><br /><br />The gang had our Pre-Christmas lunch in a pub in Surry Hills. It was Xmas day as it should be...<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWabeQyhtxRaKkaX5njslIqOgrSBC1vz9tAIfFjovuOFc0WyDB1BBEwqMRxz9jSIoLASQg8ekYZA0Wivm7znnZ1QI4vG0E10Satu33-hWNvik8pbaE8QFdp0YrhbGNDdVAETSniltR4cKv/s1600/P1000380.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWabeQyhtxRaKkaX5njslIqOgrSBC1vz9tAIfFjovuOFc0WyDB1BBEwqMRxz9jSIoLASQg8ekYZA0Wivm7znnZ1QI4vG0E10Satu33-hWNvik8pbaE8QFdp0YrhbGNDdVAETSniltR4cKv/s320/P1000380.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5557453687080631650" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwLhk6abkb4FpneUTrYUtqV_yWuquN9i_NgO8tz44E4F5MLX1w8Ani-v-BqsPqSTvwkn9_8nNs4URzgJ5dcYdMsoJsdzurXsXUSzs11qsvjZ2BNQmLS0W8NK_7KT0XrWKCgSL38CW6OrbQ/s1600/P1000404.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwLhk6abkb4FpneUTrYUtqV_yWuquN9i_NgO8tz44E4F5MLX1w8Ani-v-BqsPqSTvwkn9_8nNs4URzgJ5dcYdMsoJsdzurXsXUSzs11qsvjZ2BNQmLS0W8NK_7KT0XrWKCgSL38CW6OrbQ/s320/P1000404.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5557453686526636370" /></a><br /><br />except it was SOOOOO hot that a roast was optimistic! The star of the show was Baby Fraser!<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyj_ln1VO3OnrT35tlxQ8GHUZ4BKsBxDOTpAkT8hyZ4I30Q9O-K_8aITTb94MvSClFLlL7jMPjnnn7JA5U-WLew-qXehNslrmRzRLikIPV1-SXPf9CFosiKQwoBJGrn1V2SxXr5tfmWIMV/s1600/fraser+xmas.bmp"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyj_ln1VO3OnrT35tlxQ8GHUZ4BKsBxDOTpAkT8hyZ4I30Q9O-K_8aITTb94MvSClFLlL7jMPjnnn7JA5U-WLew-qXehNslrmRzRLikIPV1-SXPf9CFosiKQwoBJGrn1V2SxXr5tfmWIMV/s320/fraser+xmas.bmp" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5565281521439253090" /></a><br /><br />The next week saw the arrival of Sham's brother and his friends Ashif and Brij (and later Amit who spent Christmas in New Zealand, then came to Sydney for New Years).<br /><br />We had a nice day at Centennial Park with a picnic, bbq, a cricket set and a frisbee that ended up in a tree!<br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTpZNhDSGp2rUu210-q-sh_8iaDbBG7_01yxebOgiVgT53qCmEzEOFKjdjkIsPcNdXVHVM758irms4oRRG_oHB20q0XkKrsEoIMeazOCLrqwkcedrx-GgUMpCfcqTN79ei249u2BWpzJeD/s1600/P1000462.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTpZNhDSGp2rUu210-q-sh_8iaDbBG7_01yxebOgiVgT53qCmEzEOFKjdjkIsPcNdXVHVM758irms4oRRG_oHB20q0XkKrsEoIMeazOCLrqwkcedrx-GgUMpCfcqTN79ei249u2BWpzJeD/s320/P1000462.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5601261572772340114" /></a><br /><br />The rest of December was various semi touristy things with the boys - we did the going to work and then meeting them in the evenings which although tiring, was great fun. They went to Melbourne for 5 days on a road trip and then flew back to Sydney.<br />We had a few days where it was actually too hot to go out - so we stayed at home with the fan on and entertained ourselves the old school way - with board games! check out Brij's sunburn!<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP9-j9KeVcU7aoojXZMoHSjg8p5aKSu1grWiXInRSP4HfjQbNUfMRPq75QhoNMChTFoSMQX1PLy9DdnySiSy5MiN7H6x7YDUvTTwiMHF6OxHEFeuw7PZ5kKOOhZs29gCi0MaI6BJALiWAl/s1600/P1000504.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP9-j9KeVcU7aoojXZMoHSjg8p5aKSu1grWiXInRSP4HfjQbNUfMRPq75QhoNMChTFoSMQX1PLy9DdnySiSy5MiN7H6x7YDUvTTwiMHF6OxHEFeuw7PZ5kKOOhZs29gCi0MaI6BJALiWAl/s320/P1000504.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5601267608496913778" /></a><br /><br />Christmas morning started with everyone opening the presents that had piled up under the tree.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2opRzqQeUlzsVBOMBUy8t-JBzFplE2NMfKBOD19BUc-Xl1MrHGTJc-hNaeiCf-XUtugs3HCSghQINVELcuatjoZXI_xyIelcUlie3teahjEbdFqkcSK0h7Uq-AiM5eL030K0GOc2ZZr3r/s1600/IMG_0120.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2opRzqQeUlzsVBOMBUy8t-JBzFplE2NMfKBOD19BUc-Xl1MrHGTJc-hNaeiCf-XUtugs3HCSghQINVELcuatjoZXI_xyIelcUlie3teahjEbdFqkcSK0h7Uq-AiM5eL030K0GOc2ZZr3r/s320/IMG_0120.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5599859395008625826" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQQt-FLFIaotUjaMFtFuuDBjcnmsjCkhyphenhyphen0WeOx8VlVPOX0Aaa9TCaxz7FajsBOziOdKup63OieC4nwapA9ZdWLSqs4SK9nHQsp4EMCZpOymvfJkeBdXD2UFn0kkiHnV28p4651DNqccTqs/s1600/P1000474.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQQt-FLFIaotUjaMFtFuuDBjcnmsjCkhyphenhyphen0WeOx8VlVPOX0Aaa9TCaxz7FajsBOziOdKup63OieC4nwapA9ZdWLSqs4SK9nHQsp4EMCZpOymvfJkeBdXD2UFn0kkiHnV28p4651DNqccTqs/s320/P1000474.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5599865007756646594" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHjet2Ym9_JbqZToF2nttURuYWhyphenhyphenEAykdFUXLvnK01lvKC28kfLo-Ue62wCuLwXRIzRsTs7MKuI-ndzyWs2YEDO-Zcqd9W0RZsiTJUIVwnQAaEK43bNbFi7B59akPY8E3vDntJ4RJ2GEc0/s1600/P1000478.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHjet2Ym9_JbqZToF2nttURuYWhyphenhyphenEAykdFUXLvnK01lvKC28kfLo-Ue62wCuLwXRIzRsTs7MKuI-ndzyWs2YEDO-Zcqd9W0RZsiTJUIVwnQAaEK43bNbFi7B59akPY8E3vDntJ4RJ2GEc0/s320/P1000478.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5599865002795418354" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgplolDczeIRq-D80d69iWkydQlddo5GnTINuptwZM_jNqCT5C9emGNZ4U322UuMA7prVUXlwiczlBXGQ851RhXzyEOFaQasNT28ruOH2ft440feYts2qe_nV4hmwAR1rhGi4GLQxA9u8qn/s1600/P1000473.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgplolDczeIRq-D80d69iWkydQlddo5GnTINuptwZM_jNqCT5C9emGNZ4U322UuMA7prVUXlwiczlBXGQ851RhXzyEOFaQasNT28ruOH2ft440feYts2qe_nV4hmwAR1rhGi4GLQxA9u8qn/s320/P1000473.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5599864993052219538" /></a><br /><br />We then spent the day on the beach at Curl Curl followed by a pizza BBQ at our place:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-Dm4SNUXqDygh1TIptlfgEthTjsj4Q7Fb8LbhBaH2J825Sf5-ZLP2xVinYF0Efu-4ufQBiOiBVBd5Txb5b4Qv9B2ZThmZKkUI6cV6c3ijT3Lxozn4nu2vsl9WwSO2qXR_764G2zL8N-Ub/s1600/P1000494a.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 251px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-Dm4SNUXqDygh1TIptlfgEthTjsj4Q7Fb8LbhBaH2J825Sf5-ZLP2xVinYF0Efu-4ufQBiOiBVBd5Txb5b4Qv9B2ZThmZKkUI6cV6c3ijT3Lxozn4nu2vsl9WwSO2qXR_764G2zL8N-Ub/s320/P1000494a.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5601265614369654834" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpO48vlEi7vw-_ubYt-xjLDF8WyxAoSdfzrc7nk3HhpJ124B9DKPDbKfXYiUpWskGKl3HsjYYlpz_KFc_XfuaTHZDX0f6I7RR2SjThbltgvk9g48glwY6EI5xjVggTImAL9MVL5w2MAbBc/s1600/P1000488.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpO48vlEi7vw-_ubYt-xjLDF8WyxAoSdfzrc7nk3HhpJ124B9DKPDbKfXYiUpWskGKl3HsjYYlpz_KFc_XfuaTHZDX0f6I7RR2SjThbltgvk9g48glwY6EI5xjVggTImAL9MVL5w2MAbBc/s320/P1000488.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5599869199300795538" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilw5ULR7FNxoHbDLxG93tjjjnQGfmESTpr1rLGqZsfya5ekOwlFjlB_jdix6TqHWx9mft7ZboG8HTn-W6Jf5mvNDGb17EdD8D7dVFEEcYFiS_8j7u5o2-dJbJ5k_suLkNY8Qqlr87dmREb/s1600/P1000484.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilw5ULR7FNxoHbDLxG93tjjjnQGfmESTpr1rLGqZsfya5ekOwlFjlB_jdix6TqHWx9mft7ZboG8HTn-W6Jf5mvNDGb17EdD8D7dVFEEcYFiS_8j7u5o2-dJbJ5k_suLkNY8Qqlr87dmREb/s320/P1000484.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5599869179202679954" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVgPQiV7q4Qxh1i2BRNBy0ollxyUfUXUw4uwUEis_uUZ-RA_QUIHtZ4_lEGmCDgxqxM5VmIAS4TppAETRndRWhA7y9-td05qfEfgEuxM54I5A5WUKmvA9GIKILYNKN0kOehBMeTT4EtrOi/s1600/P1000496.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVgPQiV7q4Qxh1i2BRNBy0ollxyUfUXUw4uwUEis_uUZ-RA_QUIHtZ4_lEGmCDgxqxM5VmIAS4TppAETRndRWhA7y9-td05qfEfgEuxM54I5A5WUKmvA9GIKILYNKN0kOehBMeTT4EtrOi/s320/P1000496.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5599869187508549730" /></a><br /><br />Between Xmas and New Years, Sham, Sali and Helen had a surf lesson at Manly.<br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjchrZ6bYMgOG_c_435Vd3ISXmFCKT5kHt9YuBK2e1Q27LsVxpxpEbREFFqN1UBt1o1doZ32AM-m56HZ1xDMe0jGdzgaucMrcXcdubVJIQD0eSbkvuHaxli_MgsOI4c9I3Rvhb9dpTKxd32/s1600/P1000543.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjchrZ6bYMgOG_c_435Vd3ISXmFCKT5kHt9YuBK2e1Q27LsVxpxpEbREFFqN1UBt1o1doZ32AM-m56HZ1xDMe0jGdzgaucMrcXcdubVJIQD0eSbkvuHaxli_MgsOI4c9I3Rvhb9dpTKxd32/s320/P1000543.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5601264413846045618" /></a><br /><br /><br />Unsurprisingly, Sham was better at surfing on dry land! Honestly though, it looked really hard!!<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgduoJm4i8dJI5cO7xAmYD6UzHLKGAldBaK9DPfgc3zPAo3SJl_3YVA4sA-aRYtvje2ikTebktl0s8tZczWefJjwpA56uydu4r3OXNWOmT5YmvmPM-vaQsIH9gaeDC3c4VcS0KNJSsx1-Gc/s1600/P1000540.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgduoJm4i8dJI5cO7xAmYD6UzHLKGAldBaK9DPfgc3zPAo3SJl_3YVA4sA-aRYtvje2ikTebktl0s8tZczWefJjwpA56uydu4r3OXNWOmT5YmvmPM-vaQsIH9gaeDC3c4VcS0KNJSsx1-Gc/s320/P1000540.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5601264415667566930" /></a><br />I love that the point and shoot camera Sham bought me for my birthday also does HD videos. It came in useful while the guys were having the surf lesson!<br />For the purpose of this video, its important to remember that Sham is on a pink board and Hels is on the green one!<br /><br /><iframe width="440" height="300" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/KCvMkFWmLD8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><br /><br />The last thing to do in December was to see 2011 in with a bang!<br /><br />We got to a view point called Barangaroo around 5pm - plenty of time to have a few beers and get ourselves into place for what was the BEST fireworks ever!<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii25Gcu2yzj_EyVWHkjakT034XGief6HmkBV8puv_iJ5yidAnSteXhdX4uSWHOD3cqV9CLdsHxunHLO-3eavUoxNy2zPpZbKO6S-TZ1N23-bN9cp5gcCQul1Go_N2Ks5UG5L98FdVTBxRN/s1600/P1000575.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii25Gcu2yzj_EyVWHkjakT034XGief6HmkBV8puv_iJ5yidAnSteXhdX4uSWHOD3cqV9CLdsHxunHLO-3eavUoxNy2zPpZbKO6S-TZ1N23-bN9cp5gcCQul1Go_N2Ks5UG5L98FdVTBxRN/s320/P1000575.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5599861839809828098" /></a><br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB_kAOwQuMe4Syqu-ZXNsfn2VHld0_7QthSRjtBso10RzkAIcMG4XvKPz5PruANZO2gkL4lC9yL83WEN-GWKNLGM3uu4Rd9fUxLR6NMSUHadfOxVvgmgmgBGI5gNeyLGPEpGWQLGaibhxX/s1600/P1000577.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB_kAOwQuMe4Syqu-ZXNsfn2VHld0_7QthSRjtBso10RzkAIcMG4XvKPz5PruANZO2gkL4lC9yL83WEN-GWKNLGM3uu4Rd9fUxLR6NMSUHadfOxVvgmgmgBGI5gNeyLGPEpGWQLGaibhxX/s320/P1000577.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5601261569375089026" /></a><br /><br />Check out the "photographers"<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYbKmA67JnLgDIitb7gbDYBaU8W71Ztw7ckDHkI0OWi8ZlwrAPymZlZ9XMR00nR3AmodOxTwq9kRY9dHRfwwsY6yObnRNKPPacV0St_rts5IxSd3hyHCvsNGadN6zBkr4V5bcZYRgKb-pO/s1600/P1000590.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYbKmA67JnLgDIitb7gbDYBaU8W71Ztw7ckDHkI0OWi8ZlwrAPymZlZ9XMR00nR3AmodOxTwq9kRY9dHRfwwsY6yObnRNKPPacV0St_rts5IxSd3hyHCvsNGadN6zBkr4V5bcZYRgKb-pO/s320/P1000590.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5599861844824329426" /></a><br /><br />Joking aside though, they got some great shots!<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf_nW4p_MklVJa6qH1yz5KR0i_fPf_qkQOp_v5V8pfAiZeiZZMKfC6-DUooJvpdMkEFM2ANZZJtyuKh3KNq6bUiRJhVQsoTPiw6lLjHLSbOqR9EIolY6uyDiUV_NB875q3F-A7MhJQeUep/s1600/IMG_0066.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 185px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf_nW4p_MklVJa6qH1yz5KR0i_fPf_qkQOp_v5V8pfAiZeiZZMKfC6-DUooJvpdMkEFM2ANZZJtyuKh3KNq6bUiRJhVQsoTPiw6lLjHLSbOqR9EIolY6uyDiUV_NB875q3F-A7MhJQeUep/s320/IMG_0066.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5599861854958147458" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKCjnyD-CXhvz9Lp79o01YCk-o7h5ZPrrQJQY5zrbT0JvoY6AlTzlwsA7F07rZpqDIq97t5TDbLxaVeQSToDllIKngWXXmIcoE9Kmz6fLt6PFn2ViTvJzo5Phjk4yvJPNZymdyFOxufieT/s1600/IMG_0019.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 188px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKCjnyD-CXhvz9Lp79o01YCk-o7h5ZPrrQJQY5zrbT0JvoY6AlTzlwsA7F07rZpqDIq97t5TDbLxaVeQSToDllIKngWXXmIcoE9Kmz6fLt6PFn2ViTvJzo5Phjk4yvJPNZymdyFOxufieT/s320/IMG_0019.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5599861849213637330" /></a>Kunjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04781700204875581222noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-999523520160988290.post-85957253223322488762010-12-10T09:19:00.004+11:002010-12-10T12:17:32.896+11:00The royal visitNovember 2010 was a fun month!<br />after nearly two years here, we finally welcomed parents to Sydney.<br />Sham's parents arrived the morning of Saturday November 6th. I left about 30 minutes after they arrived! My friend Jason was getting married, so off I went with some friends from work to his wedding, not to return until the next day - giving Sham some quality time with his parents!<br /><br />Here are some pics from Jason and Emma's beautiful wedding:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaIEITXih8BEII8AckGxFM4tQAD89RLvSeyFonUTovv8bI9wplzcEIFzExE0dCDm4b5g6zXPG9nXiKiqGU2mO-XblzqOo4SYPfMmAc_SW0Bjs55cqW01pCC04ftyj987oiysHQEuKMxmup/s1600/CIMG8464.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaIEITXih8BEII8AckGxFM4tQAD89RLvSeyFonUTovv8bI9wplzcEIFzExE0dCDm4b5g6zXPG9nXiKiqGU2mO-XblzqOo4SYPfMmAc_SW0Bjs55cqW01pCC04ftyj987oiysHQEuKMxmup/s320/CIMG8464.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5544431529984639298"></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT6-ZWYLSNVyhqyFTthpCvGVStxzJKVbuSlxG36gJVkwS0YMEXeNggnvjJbhGHC6no4UylfFYn6jqSYJ4zb1mcgn4wyWyg8zVJ6mXO4RrPR4ju900T46oR_ZBIqrdMqeuiClq7ASMNTgtL/s1600/CIMG8455.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT6-ZWYLSNVyhqyFTthpCvGVStxzJKVbuSlxG36gJVkwS0YMEXeNggnvjJbhGHC6no4UylfFYn6jqSYJ4zb1mcgn4wyWyg8zVJ6mXO4RrPR4ju900T46oR_ZBIqrdMqeuiClq7ASMNTgtL/s320/CIMG8455.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5544431523919438754"></a><br /><br />The first weekend was Diwali weekend - so we took the parents to Parramatta to a mela... We saw more Indian people there than we have seen in the ENTIRE time we have lived here!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTJziS_Msdhv6nBtjynOd3f3S9IvXNQwuG83Hdb1yOMBPXuQN4tLBmmiejC3sn8ODCdRHTYMIr0-ibV5mnGGh6Va9kHZe50oJxhNEo0Fo3UZRc-GouappQVyl3kW-3Pv-mhKhQnrVVz7_K/s1600/P1000082.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 180px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTJziS_Msdhv6nBtjynOd3f3S9IvXNQwuG83Hdb1yOMBPXuQN4tLBmmiejC3sn8ODCdRHTYMIr0-ibV5mnGGh6Va9kHZe50oJxhNEo0Fo3UZRc-GouappQVyl3kW-3Pv-mhKhQnrVVz7_K/s320/P1000082.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5544432563774104274"></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwDNcUB4FtZEiJYpQSqTrk1tyLZV5rc_3bvB7FHQdsy2keTvMVYKCQ51zoo1x_KXNvw2A11ngDWCQSrturtzFGLTe0uM5waBD5dz9JC1p8zwZ_xT_ykf-U4rATG92rtxqgubm8w0MpuBrb/s1600/P1000100.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwDNcUB4FtZEiJYpQSqTrk1tyLZV5rc_3bvB7FHQdsy2keTvMVYKCQ51zoo1x_KXNvw2A11ngDWCQSrturtzFGLTe0uM5waBD5dz9JC1p8zwZ_xT_ykf-U4rATG92rtxqgubm8w0MpuBrb/s320/P1000100.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5544433381086632562"></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh32asoGw3E3WFDbdZNFjJyOD57NbufX-uW8CwpuzgVxpDj3L4HJMghQiBDFCPlip-Pc-k80O5D94EADA1Ba8tTiBWeBYyWo5DYI33Z76XV8t5YXQGp-AIJzo9tbk0jHaWTcvnc7USr7Exm/s1600/P1000092.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh32asoGw3E3WFDbdZNFjJyOD57NbufX-uW8CwpuzgVxpDj3L4HJMghQiBDFCPlip-Pc-k80O5D94EADA1Ba8tTiBWeBYyWo5DYI33Z76XV8t5YXQGp-AIJzo9tbk0jHaWTcvnc7USr7Exm/s320/P1000092.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5544433377189342914"></a><br /><br />That week, Sham did lots of the Sydney must do tourist things during the day, and I joined them after work!<br /><br />Mum and dad at Bondi<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjozW6YbovEMeGGGtqL8z7ZBJiWCWBw1QoWmNWECpFimyD-gZSRNCGY3dQrgi28oh1P7MinPYwWCh-0NJKHZklCRPuAfjeLRhGPlpjkCZ_tADMP-KOqFw1wOxAl4RUG7tZG8wsWjyb7OFXU/s1600/P1000133.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjozW6YbovEMeGGGtqL8z7ZBJiWCWBw1QoWmNWECpFimyD-gZSRNCGY3dQrgi28oh1P7MinPYwWCh-0NJKHZklCRPuAfjeLRhGPlpjkCZ_tADMP-KOqFw1wOxAl4RUG7tZG8wsWjyb7OFXU/s320/P1000133.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5544435288596546002"></a> <br /><br />Mum and Dad at Manly!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3udgQF7iDAPd2_yOFQ-nN1NqRsWULHpcLkJ2xHMxCoit3X3bsBJ29rdkv6T6em5oqea3h4uD9gb995HtdcanWj5varH1ro5IhiCenG2et1pVrfMLfQDVwT9kiubvblSIoD0i3wddK-eK3/s1600/P1000105.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3udgQF7iDAPd2_yOFQ-nN1NqRsWULHpcLkJ2xHMxCoit3X3bsBJ29rdkv6T6em5oqea3h4uD9gb995HtdcanWj5varH1ro5IhiCenG2et1pVrfMLfQDVwT9kiubvblSIoD0i3wddK-eK3/s320/P1000105.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5544435281092235506"></a><br /><br />Sham, Mum and Dad at Sydney Sky Tower<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjH-EPuEU0lmpQEsS0WYi3tWSqFwfdI4LNLqDONOk-die50LWfBCMquUAW155f5RkkJEnr9Ph-jJNoS6Ll21TKtL7cxlB1gp388n9CjP4lA1jgH6Tk21ohV5FqJ9Otm957Z4eTYL9rjvQX/s1600/P1000212.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjH-EPuEU0lmpQEsS0WYi3tWSqFwfdI4LNLqDONOk-die50LWfBCMquUAW155f5RkkJEnr9Ph-jJNoS6Ll21TKtL7cxlB1gp388n9CjP4lA1jgH6Tk21ohV5FqJ9Otm957Z4eTYL9rjvQX/s320/P1000212.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5544468370689333970"></a><br /><br />The following weekend, the parents visited Perth where they spent time with Shams cousin Shilan and his family as well as seeing various business contacts.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCmnhkM5wSaZyg_EGaDpaBYQAtfDdrlifVVk7UaazI6FK83bTbKXD6MfQ9xLxN9BBluqdS3GzLiGYuzfmdFA8qQTWROJbbPJYrUIdzHfmKbQ_-jhkp384IHwve75pwsUTddth4VHeQigYX/s1600/P1000194.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCmnhkM5wSaZyg_EGaDpaBYQAtfDdrlifVVk7UaazI6FK83bTbKXD6MfQ9xLxN9BBluqdS3GzLiGYuzfmdFA8qQTWROJbbPJYrUIdzHfmKbQ_-jhkp384IHwve75pwsUTddth4VHeQigYX/s400/P1000194.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5544472837266702386"></a><br /><br />For my birthday weekend, we all went to New Zealand for a few days. It was really nice to meet Sham's cousin Malik and his wife Makilah who live in Auckland with their kids Imran and Aisha and to see the Blackshah clan again. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKh7zttaMXRxncOYGIKcgNckdT5Je8j6fUocB-Bg47M0Rzn2JVRbyQlbGIzjiBzWz2pNZf9aEC0TCP5XUx6u2norbke9RDwqG_PzU7nxg1qZtMEaEq1OxDTSRxNtcek9j2Mn12spJLO-5g/s1600/P1000301.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKh7zttaMXRxncOYGIKcgNckdT5Je8j6fUocB-Bg47M0Rzn2JVRbyQlbGIzjiBzWz2pNZf9aEC0TCP5XUx6u2norbke9RDwqG_PzU7nxg1qZtMEaEq1OxDTSRxNtcek9j2Mn12spJLO-5g/s400/P1000301.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5544470308586048146"></a><br /><br />We all holidayed in a place called Paihia which is a three hour drive from Auckland in some lovely waterfront apartments. Check out our views!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvm5T65Ppf4EKUW-ENHay10TTzzRDUKyRCHdpsEMFyFtJFg8nM9GgdddFcX-OZV9VTi7m0FmhC8xQB5HaN-f-mqjGLR6YzMlRLIOq7TVYJ4yhBKB7ByP5pCJSaVDidMvr2uqCa-6PVTI8F/s1600/P1000043.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvm5T65Ppf4EKUW-ENHay10TTzzRDUKyRCHdpsEMFyFtJFg8nM9GgdddFcX-OZV9VTi7m0FmhC8xQB5HaN-f-mqjGLR6YzMlRLIOq7TVYJ4yhBKB7ByP5pCJSaVDidMvr2uqCa-6PVTI8F/s400/P1000043.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5546633938058831042"></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKugR0fo98cHVF31MQ72V0GjsQXG5DjhS8knT507jfcVPTWeRSTnnvY1ROjppXZHGcGnh80sar7FmEOwEIHayvy1pgJoGDxdUPu0Pm_LG7jwTaIyW1xA7ArH57r5o2buXQY-oaDAip-6SI/s1600/P1000041.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKugR0fo98cHVF31MQ72V0GjsQXG5DjhS8knT507jfcVPTWeRSTnnvY1ROjppXZHGcGnh80sar7FmEOwEIHayvy1pgJoGDxdUPu0Pm_LG7jwTaIyW1xA7ArH57r5o2buXQY-oaDAip-6SI/s400/P1000041.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5546633928211274466"></a><br />We had a lovely day out on a boat (despite my sea sickness) and the highlight of the day was without a doubt the dolphins and whales we got to see!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA2_VDBVKdB_dFo4w00ZAHyICJBEG11bOdtbKm2MPc7mEaI6gEng5jgjHZdrS_zqXGxPt-2V3zj6JnFaai66hYqzBophQ_YPw_bmoG_BFRx_orU8rnQ0aIbgp2UntZW-A0tg0teCYdgZno/s1600/IMG_9716.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 267px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA2_VDBVKdB_dFo4w00ZAHyICJBEG11bOdtbKm2MPc7mEaI6gEng5jgjHZdrS_zqXGxPt-2V3zj6JnFaai66hYqzBophQ_YPw_bmoG_BFRx_orU8rnQ0aIbgp2UntZW-A0tg0teCYdgZno/s400/IMG_9716.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5546638974426255938"></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoEFY8umqM0lVduKczmXTy5jFovNYe-ZnEL-fKfyaJCwM0Ru-be0OiJ0fR99m-1xy-jVoWPJAIPEXweh30xvFGETyt0m8QOHlwBJl6XEfw2sMi1sL6rfS-zHJ-S0VBPIo_yHPX1XLTvN1J/s1600/P1000267.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoEFY8umqM0lVduKczmXTy5jFovNYe-ZnEL-fKfyaJCwM0Ru-be0OiJ0fR99m-1xy-jVoWPJAIPEXweh30xvFGETyt0m8QOHlwBJl6XEfw2sMi1sL6rfS-zHJ-S0VBPIo_yHPX1XLTvN1J/s400/P1000267.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5546638997302256146"></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3kneZfoqB2ZTaQ7KpwSZklm2ONeSyz7JY6LozAhtlzlkRsNPKjyt-zvWfNQHSAz4Z_Gg0Qs6Nygn01km90G7COGIwuSSrRyfoFgbQTVDd1dVpX0qYR3DxjMn9thxWxORrqrDc6pF2aVi7/s1600/IMG_9749.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 267px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3kneZfoqB2ZTaQ7KpwSZklm2ONeSyz7JY6LozAhtlzlkRsNPKjyt-zvWfNQHSAz4Z_Gg0Qs6Nygn01km90G7COGIwuSSrRyfoFgbQTVDd1dVpX0qYR3DxjMn9thxWxORrqrDc6pF2aVi7/s400/IMG_9749.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5546638987189872402"></a><br /><br />Sham and Ajay even managed some physical activity!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx0sxzUf5b2c8cUjJwEK03LVFDszmISpa2RcyQyEIDfkCFfmIrnQ5o2vHdT2OxIOu5xEVH7ytSCGakd6pZS3DlXr8-jAfFFWakpaPWURaalFa5JbLiCkYYVagg7czVkGs0h72ucdiTyW28/s1600/P1000324.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx0sxzUf5b2c8cUjJwEK03LVFDszmISpa2RcyQyEIDfkCFfmIrnQ5o2vHdT2OxIOu5xEVH7ytSCGakd6pZS3DlXr8-jAfFFWakpaPWURaalFa5JbLiCkYYVagg7czVkGs0h72ucdiTyW28/s320/P1000324.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5546642193965232402"></a><br />Back in Auckland, dad toured the Indian convenience stores and we all got to spend lots of time playing with the kids...<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkaxltsf18YIzYiAvUPIj9ye6_3PJCG8nskEqoibOhY2_ye_3P2EkP5T3niSRG7Lkk9JehAampSFB4WftbwSp7KsQIqSM2qz7aYj4JynBwFTypvOMMUfbYPcSMX7ypA6xU4dTTxmMJp6a9/s1600/IMG_9875.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 214px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkaxltsf18YIzYiAvUPIj9ye6_3PJCG8nskEqoibOhY2_ye_3P2EkP5T3niSRG7Lkk9JehAampSFB4WftbwSp7KsQIqSM2qz7aYj4JynBwFTypvOMMUfbYPcSMX7ypA6xU4dTTxmMJp6a9/s320/IMG_9875.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5546642190026301730"></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdj0tCVvG_782fdLbseEtCD9g20z6yn-MTQPuQ1kFyNjK_vvf_0osYHGMf3f50iHQO8xXyU5LNM-308LaTNrIVR0JzT-eCiyCQGbO_3ICJO4c4UShC6yDvsAHZooe0Ve2qytzhXoIKTv4y/s1600/P1000222.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdj0tCVvG_782fdLbseEtCD9g20z6yn-MTQPuQ1kFyNjK_vvf_0osYHGMf3f50iHQO8xXyU5LNM-308LaTNrIVR0JzT-eCiyCQGbO_3ICJO4c4UShC6yDvsAHZooe0Ve2qytzhXoIKTv4y/s320/P1000222.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5546644273915372722"></a><br /><br />When we got back to Sydney, we had a few days left to show mum and dad the rest of the touristy things left to do. <br />We spent their last full day in the Blue Mountains before coming back into the city for dinner at Darling Harbour. We couldn't have planned it better as they were switching on the Christmas lights that evening, so we got to watch the fireworks! I am having a few issues with the video we took, so I will post that on a later blog entry.<br />We ended the evening with a rather profitable visit at the casino! <br /><br />It was really sad to say goodbye to mum and dad - and I doubt the goodbyes will ever get easier so we have to not think about the goodbyes and just remember the fun we have when they are here!<br /><br />Next official visitors are Shak and the boys, but we do have surprise visitors with us at the moment in the form of Rikki and Nikki's cousin Hanisha and her husband Amit. <br /><br />Bye for now Kunj<br />xKunjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04781700204875581222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-999523520160988290.post-30859545574925557192010-10-24T13:10:00.006+11:002010-10-24T13:25:22.449+11:00One I forgot a while ago!Every weekend, you guys in the UK have various XFactor related status updates... the thing is, if I start to download them, Sham will most definitely KILL me! So I watch the odd clip on youtube so I know who you are talking about!<br />Anyway, we have an Australian version on at the moment too (but I can't watch it cos it is soooo bad!)... and a while ago, Neal got some tickets to go and watch some live auditions! It was a lot of waiting around, average singers and on-demand cheering and booing.... camera's weren't allowed, but here is a sneaky one from my phone! <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz5Pn-oK4jWO7HatDM5EA4IXos-D-YOWapbUcWlLOEHJir2g58WsfjPXo9KbD27Hij08s2H9hWj2U3vjWYw1cyZ9FWv0zS3HZJ35Pr360DtlxEJZtjZV87CbVOJwsREdExoC6nqqcMf41W/s1600/photo-1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz5Pn-oK4jWO7HatDM5EA4IXos-D-YOWapbUcWlLOEHJir2g58WsfjPXo9KbD27Hij08s2H9hWj2U3vjWYw1cyZ9FWv0zS3HZJ35Pr360DtlxEJZtjZV87CbVOJwsREdExoC6nqqcMf41W/s320/photo-1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5531432424071475794" /></a>Kunjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04781700204875581222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-999523520160988290.post-76949525051067881722010-10-17T19:21:00.009+11:002010-10-24T13:28:18.372+11:00October 2010 - so far, so busy!We are only just over half way through the month and it feels like we have done lots and lots has happened!<br /><br />The first weekend in October was a long weekend and as is the rule with long weekends, it rained NON STOP!<br />Unfortunately, this was particularly bad news because my colleague Tanya was hoping for an outdoor wedding..<br />Despite Plan B (an indoor wedding) having to be actioned, our first wedding in Sydney was lovely!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha6v4k3d9uOzdFH6djhc_-bIr2I_5q7LYxK26lY74V6yoi17UaDYTt3D2ujb5tmZ_j2jRJGphbN2c1q_u7Hw-N7EJvLF7PfJUjoCMKZdGp7rPvzwvviX4lmdbPtUc31NM1_QbzBmnf3UUq/s1600/CIMG8419.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha6v4k3d9uOzdFH6djhc_-bIr2I_5q7LYxK26lY74V6yoi17UaDYTt3D2ujb5tmZ_j2jRJGphbN2c1q_u7Hw-N7EJvLF7PfJUjoCMKZdGp7rPvzwvviX4lmdbPtUc31NM1_QbzBmnf3UUq/s320/CIMG8419.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5528932042566815378"></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihj4f_Sj1vl_qM4hRkyFai-YpN9HVYcYRsjjzl0aYXfmUOyxRa-eMyGxC6pB_4qKuCnpAKeJbUQVtvPUAfeOCI40O46DoiYlmrtFdEpfvjcFOq9l0Pe2SRp29eAHWITjZTvcA0RpjNE2Hn/s1600/tan+wedding.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihj4f_Sj1vl_qM4hRkyFai-YpN9HVYcYRsjjzl0aYXfmUOyxRa-eMyGxC6pB_4qKuCnpAKeJbUQVtvPUAfeOCI40O46DoiYlmrtFdEpfvjcFOq9l0Pe2SRp29eAHWITjZTvcA0RpjNE2Hn/s320/tan+wedding.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5528932034809672498"></a><br /><br />On following Friday, we woke up to a text from our friend Chris to tell us that while we were sleeping, Baby Roebuck had arrived!!<br />Baby Roebuck is actually called Fraser and he had arrived very early that morning!<br />Now anyone who knows me will know that teeny tiny babies terrify me... but there were two reasons that Fraser is a bit different... I have known about him for pretty much as long as his mummy and daddy have, I was his first visitor and I know that I will have a lot of baby sitting duties with this little man so there was no way Hels was going to let me get away with not holding him!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheozSafkle8cG4n6ngxUJPwqPN6EVke5wg8XsAXLpuNpVWW6gwc2HBxWjUI1OmIlyXEMDx-G6BzoXofSOl1PtaANId7o_CLBQSKBlfBc0k-EOiXJ8eAGDMGyySdlU3y25YyE-3ZaV5SRGv/s1600/fraser+and+kunj.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheozSafkle8cG4n6ngxUJPwqPN6EVke5wg8XsAXLpuNpVWW6gwc2HBxWjUI1OmIlyXEMDx-G6BzoXofSOl1PtaANId7o_CLBQSKBlfBc0k-EOiXJ8eAGDMGyySdlU3y25YyE-3ZaV5SRGv/s320/fraser+and+kunj.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5528934898177942978"></a><br />I am glad we visited them in the hospital as two days later, I was diagnosed with laryngitis... I was gutted to be missing out on cuddles, but pleased that Helen was sending me daily picture messages!<br /><br />On Sunday 10/10/10, Sydney harbour bridge was closed so thousands of people could have a picnic breakfast on the real grass they had laid down.. we were lucky enough to have tickets to take part!<br /><br /><object style="background-image:url(http://i3.ytimg.com/vi/zznivHinIbE/hqdefault.jpg)" width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/zznivHinIbE?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/zznivHinIbE?fs=1&hl=en_US" width="480" height="295" allowScriptAccess="never" allowFullScreen="true" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object><br /><br />It was my friend Fiona's birthday, so we gave her a money-can't-buy birthday present... the only catch was, we all had to wake up VERY early (and I had lost my voice completely by now!)<br />It was a great experience (although, another weekend, more rain!) and if ever you are allowed to drink champagne at 7am, this is it!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNz5sd7Kzf9Dza_AqxNE1WyHjxblwy2ORwCi9G1ZMvMRUEjZPR5dSpIAxu5J0XklUzU8kElBw4O4lUS12rAZRYS3sZwybBr-35FHkP-8ntpGOV5G5GqGbQ3ifZCQHCy_aBFqgJjS2mPE7O/s1600/IMG_9535.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNz5sd7Kzf9Dza_AqxNE1WyHjxblwy2ORwCi9G1ZMvMRUEjZPR5dSpIAxu5J0XklUzU8kElBw4O4lUS12rAZRYS3sZwybBr-35FHkP-8ntpGOV5G5GqGbQ3ifZCQHCy_aBFqgJjS2mPE7O/s320/IMG_9535.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5528942578304945330" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8u4eaf2u3DF4kkEjScwvDPKhzOksn7mVYG5gawazUEBlaNvSFDSQDu4r0BefpEP6AU0NvzBQhuKd6HrHPtmSu8p6qsP628DE5MS1oQacsZGSokCUPkqjJmSohwAvTAHRgZEus398W_TkG/s1600/breakfast.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8u4eaf2u3DF4kkEjScwvDPKhzOksn7mVYG5gawazUEBlaNvSFDSQDu4r0BefpEP6AU0NvzBQhuKd6HrHPtmSu8p6qsP628DE5MS1oQacsZGSokCUPkqjJmSohwAvTAHRgZEus398W_TkG/s320/breakfast.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5528954368244608610" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1-Gr5EaNa9OpArECQOO0CqI0JD_2Fe0iFHOwVYBI82f2Q1aZsE4pHLwhzuGcPr1tissJCuHzwjPuBPKGKQq69zSOA6gYJEPJyO8eW1SZUR2-4gwW43XMVRwcQNcqYOvgZ0Cwz7K1EfLSD/s1600/CIMG8431.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1-Gr5EaNa9OpArECQOO0CqI0JD_2Fe0iFHOwVYBI82f2Q1aZsE4pHLwhzuGcPr1tissJCuHzwjPuBPKGKQq69zSOA6gYJEPJyO8eW1SZUR2-4gwW43XMVRwcQNcqYOvgZ0Cwz7K1EfLSD/s320/CIMG8431.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5528954365378819490" /></a><br /><br />This weekend has been spent at a first birthday party and helping Neal with his exciting new purchase... a flat... but more about that later!<br /><br />We hope you are all well and have had updates from quite a few of you recently - those that haven't, please tell us what you are up to - we miss you!!<br />xxxKunjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04781700204875581222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-999523520160988290.post-45897807026857857542010-10-03T21:15:00.004+11:002010-10-04T10:43:41.989+11:00Ladies Day at the races!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDw3ww094v-rrkBC2vP7ntFS0xwgfrG30e-HMAXjjZMz-MY2M8sLaA7HRdfFJcPMAXC3PnhiSfXJq2Ki6YvIEu6hgEwDVN5cZYuUK9PiaQ_tV_tlglPs_82ki0vgRe0bpHW8e0XtnnLPN_/s1600/CIMG8405.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDw3ww094v-rrkBC2vP7ntFS0xwgfrG30e-HMAXjjZMz-MY2M8sLaA7HRdfFJcPMAXC3PnhiSfXJq2Ki6YvIEu6hgEwDVN5cZYuUK9PiaQ_tV_tlglPs_82ki0vgRe0bpHW8e0XtnnLPN_/s400/CIMG8405.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5523763101401234978" /></a><br />We booked tickets for a girls day out at the races a while ago in the hope that Hels' baby held on in there and she got to have one last day out... and he held on in there! <br />It was another great day out and it was fun getting dressed up again (although I HATE clothes shopping in Sydney and it was a struggle to find something I liked (so look forward to seeing this dress often for dress up events!!) <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNrvhBp_azT4w8UT8ViqCl-ZxmoaDdi0qdu7bF51Ke_mRt9NgwHHtsEuJIxJx9W8IybYDzfPw6NCQw_lc3ivkQ3IbHZJ9-ss9I-Ypihy0uEOlBoaTqdPlsze-zdvJKTGzCp-OHXLMgqWVE/s1600/races.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNrvhBp_azT4w8UT8ViqCl-ZxmoaDdi0qdu7bF51Ke_mRt9NgwHHtsEuJIxJx9W8IybYDzfPw6NCQw_lc3ivkQ3IbHZJ9-ss9I-Ypihy0uEOlBoaTqdPlsze-zdvJKTGzCp-OHXLMgqWVE/s320/races.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5523969425397415042" /></a><br />I didn't do as well this year as l did last year-this year, Fiona cleaned up - turning a $3 bet on the last race into $245!!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhncBd5lElJNrckiKccYAAMf3ZpB1c4-H9Ywtvx0uSCMThsKXW5iutRvdJ0UA0xENbPRUH61OB6Ey2Tu_Sds9uMGc7np6Ms3CK3EEYah_ebg55BVrPakAHzRpUNSK9a75UMepH_6LE7v6jK/s1600/CIMG8407.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 270px; height: 350px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhncBd5lElJNrckiKccYAAMf3ZpB1c4-H9Ywtvx0uSCMThsKXW5iutRvdJ0UA0xENbPRUH61OB6Ey2Tu_Sds9uMGc7np6Ms3CK3EEYah_ebg55BVrPakAHzRpUNSK9a75UMepH_6LE7v6jK/s400/CIMG8407.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5523763108585891202" /></a>Kunjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04781700204875581222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-999523520160988290.post-81263275395684908972010-09-19T11:38:00.005+10:002010-10-03T22:02:00.128+11:00Our youngest visitor yet!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-90cD26MGiA2M3ul9u6iWTdfpOoZ64XeZbcJaVc5tXqi00o0cAM8wUZzwmxgV8GgQsG6UShmSqiW9RI4iu_-z4-nHIMtSQTU2zqisRk07MF5TVKg5UBAkBfL9EHDeFXkxqI2vI8zaWeea/s1600/aaron.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-90cD26MGiA2M3ul9u6iWTdfpOoZ64XeZbcJaVc5tXqi00o0cAM8wUZzwmxgV8GgQsG6UShmSqiW9RI4iu_-z4-nHIMtSQTU2zqisRk07MF5TVKg5UBAkBfL9EHDeFXkxqI2vI8zaWeea/s400/aaron.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5519988871634872034" /></a><br />It was lovely to meet little Aaron Blackshah!<br />At 2 months old, the little man is already a jetsetter - his trip to Sydney got him on planes, trains, buses and trams!<br />We got to have a few dinners and drinks with his mummy and daddy cos he was very well behaved all week and was happy sleeping or talking to himself in his buggy.<br />So now he knows his aunty Kunj and uncle Sham, we are looking forward to getting to se him again in November on home turf - and I am sure it won't be too long before Kay and Ajay will be sending him over on his own to visit us!Kunjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04781700204875581222noreply@blogger.com0