Winners and Losers

Its been a bit (LOT) wet in Brizvegas over the last couple of weekends and as most leisure facilities here are outside we have had to resort to the U.K. way of life again over the weekend. This included hitting the Chermside shopping centre, which incidentally is the largest in the southern hemisphere. And still no Next!! and then on to the bowling centre with Becky, Ian and Megan.
We had a couple of games with Mr. hand eye co-ordination McKenzie winning the first game and Mr. one eye no co-ordination getting beat by the ladies and just managing to beat Megan. And although reminding me on numerous times that I was beaten by the GIRLS, Ian celebrated like a true champion and got another round of beers in.
The second game was a little different though and Mr. Mc struggled to hold the mantle of defending champion, so much so that on one approach to the lane he collapsed in a heap, much to the amusement of all our party and all the other bowlers each side of us.
As the game progressed the competitive streak was begging to show in the pair of us as we each went pin for pin. On our last throws I found myself leading by four. Mr. Mc, the defending champion took to the lane to throw down a superb spare, I then followed knowing nothing less than a spare would do.
Like Sunderland v Leeds, like Wimbledon v Liverpool, like David v Goliath, like Richard Dunn v Ali....... erm no forget the last one! I managed to pull the rabbit out of the bag and hit a strike. Game over....
Unfortunately as you can see Mr. Mc. was not as gracious in defeat as he was as champion. And I thought it only fair to let him know that he was beaten by the bloke that was beaten by the GIRLS!!!!

Rob's Leaving Do

Well this week started off with a bit of a cold snap. Wednesday night saw us all going to bed wrapped up in PJ's, tee-shirts, socks and extra blankets, during the night the temp got down to 7 degrees....chilly. During the day it was back up to 20 degrees, its so odd, wearing shorts during the day and flanelette PJ's at night.

We are all down with sneezes and runny noses at the moment, but this did not stop us from celebrating "Rob's leaving for England for 3 weeks party". We headed off to Rob and Gails for a sausage sizzle and then partied the night away and had a great night as usual. Rob had installed a new toy in their bar....a pole!!! so we had great fun trying to pole dance!!!

We again visited Morgans for fish and chips on Sunday for a hangover recovery meal...it again was very nice. We took good old Sarsons vinigar and some pickled onions with us and sat in the sunshine, what a lovely way to soak up the booze residue in our systems.

Where does the time go??

Its been a month since we last updated the blog and for a moment I did not think we had been up to much through May until I had a quick flick through the photo's and it turns out we did quite a bit really.
The start of the month saw us celebrating Adies birthday with dinner at the local Tavern on the Wednesday night with the kids then a return trip on the Saturday for drinks with a more adult collection of friends,I use the word adult very loosely. We had a great night with Adrienne and Niel a.k.a.Kiki Dee and Elton John getting up for a song on the Karaoke thanks several to Vodka and limes.
The same Saturday afternoon me and Niel took the boys fishing off Woody Point pier
The following weekend me and Adie headed down the Gold Coast for the weekend and left the kids at home to look after Becky and Ian!!
With tropical storms coming down from the North, the Gold Coasts beaches were left smashed and so all the beaches were closed. With no beach to sunbath on our only other options were the pubs and restaurants including a trip to one of my favourites, Hooters. The Gold Coast is a fantastic place to visit with something happening round every corner. We had a fab time even though the weather did its best to spoil it for us. Thank you Becky and Ian for having Loz and Will.
We also had a visitor this month with the arrival of Andy 'Rammo' Ramsden, my old school and footballing buddy. Rammo is the only person to come to Australia from the U.K. on holiday for a week!! Although he was only here a week he certainly crammed in the site seeing to say the least, including a visit to Montville, Malany, Mapleton, Mooloolaba and Australia Zoo in one day and was still back in North Lakes by 3.00 pm in time for our after works drinks!! It would take most normal people 3 days to visit those places.
Last Saturday we paid a visit to Niel and Claire's for their house warming, another night of alcohol fuelled fun and festivities. They have built there lovely new home about a mile away from us on North Lakes, we were just glad we booked a taxi to get home as I think we would still be walking home now thanks to the liqueur consumption.
With Becky and Ian staying over at ours that night the drinks started to flow again once we got home with flaming Sambuccas being the drink of choice, some people just don't know when they have had enough. Well some people do don't they Becks!!! Its when you have to run to the toilet to chuck up. LOL
No real damage though as she couldn't remember anything about it the next morning.

Labour Day Weekend

Yes yet another lovely bank holiday weekend has just passed us by.
Saturday we decided to give the house a bit of a spring clean!!!! so we all chipped in and cleaned up, even the garage got a sweep out too. Then Saturday night we went for a Thai at the local with Garry and Sharryn from across the road and their friend Peter and Cheree. We had a lovely meal, then returned to Garry and Sharryns for a wine tasting!!! umm!!! unfortunately I cannot tell the difference from one red wine to another, especially after drinking several glasses of it!!! It was fun though trying to guess which wine was which. We decided to have a group photo, but Garry had sneaked of to bed after we had tried to convince him to shave off his tash!!! Then when we had done that it was onto the shooters and then the cocktails....needless to say Sunday was hangover recovery day and nothing much was done!!!
Bank Holiday Monday was again a sunny day so we took a trip to Bribie with Becky, Ian and Megan and had a lovely day on the beach. William and Ian had a wrestling match and then both went into the sea to do some boogie boarding. The rest of us watched on the sea shore!!! Megan was loving it chasing the birds around the beach.
Another lovely weekend.xx

Goodbye the Grays

This week has not been one of the best weeks we have had during our relatively short stay in Australia due to close friends leaving us and heading back to Blighty. They told us of their intentions weeks and weeks ago but it still hits you in the guts when the time comes. When your thousands of miles away from the place you were born, your friends become your adopted family. We will miss them, especialy their sense of humour but wish them all the best in their new life back in the U.K. knowing that we will be life long friends.
O.K. well it was another busy weekend with myself joining my buddy Mick for a round of golf at St. Lucia golf club. Very impressive and I was astounded to to find out it was just a public course. The tee's, fairways and greens were immaculate and for a change I hit quite a few nice balls, this along with Micks excellent contribution saw us turning out winners in the 19th. With the sun shining and an Esky full of tinnies what more could you ask for?
Straight after golf I returned back to Walowa Street to prepare dinner for a few friends to say goodbye to the Grays. I timed it perfectly as I pulled onto the drive, that I could marinade the meat and peel the spuds have a quick beer and still have time for a quick sleep. Well I thought I did until Mr. Gray arrived, after a quick drink he called me out the front to give me a leaving present. Upon opening my garage door he sped off into the sun leaving me with a van marinaded in honey and flour. As if that wasn't bad enough, he had also done the inside with the same ingredients. I felt it was my duty to return the compliment and managed to get hold of his car keys and deliver 1 kg. of Prawn tails into various hidden places inside his car. You can only imagine what that smelt like the next day after sitting in the Australian sun : )
The last supper didn't have the same feel as the many previous ones we had shared with the Grays, but I think we still managed to have a nice evening feasting on Gary and Sharyns lovely curried prawns and Duncan's favourite Kilkoy steaks!!
Sunday, we had a quite subdude day just waiting for the Grays to leave on Monday until Little Megan arrived with Becky and Ian so we decide to bob down to the beach and throw an impromptu barbie with a game of William catch Megan as she as run away again. Those two just love each other to bits.
On the way home we called in at the Tavern to say our final goodbyes to the Grays before heading home. Well not quite straight home, we called in at their house so I could put a pair of scissors through the air bed they were sleeping on just to make sure they had a bad nights sleep before they set off back to the U.K. on a 21 hour flight the next morning!!
Monday was my birthday, not the best day for a birthday. When I got home from work Adrienne, Loz and Will were sat round the lounge table with my cards and very red eyes after saying goodbye to the Grays that day. What a day to have a birthday! I decided to take us out for a slap up Kebab at the local take away and dragged young Jamie along with us as he was as depressed as the rest of us. Thanks to all of you that sent me birthday cards. After Kebabs we called round to Claire and Neils for a quick beer and a slice of my birthday cake that our lovely neighbour Sharyn made for me. At least we finished the day on a nice point.
We have also turned into theatre goers all of a sudden. With a trip to the QPAC theatre to see Steve Cougan last Monday and a trip to see the 39 steps at the 12th. night theatre on Wednesday with a bunch of friends. Thanks to complimentary tickets from our friends Gail and Rob. We had a great time on both occasions.