• watagans camping (1)

This was yesterday’s new headlines in the local Manly Daily yesterday after the terrible event on Monday. It seems that the Northern Beaches is fast becoming as unsafe a place to live as the rest of the world.

Dee Why is very local to us and we have a fair few friends living there so we were all a bit shocked to hear the news. Fortunately no innocent parties lost their lives.

The armed robber was shot dead by a guard when he tried to rob an armoured van outside Dee Why RSL. He has not yet been identified. There was one innocent bystander injured by a shot in the foot but luckily no one else was injured.

For the full story go here.

• dee why robbery (7)
• dee why armed robbery (6)
• armed hold up dee why (2)
• armed robbery dee why (2)
• armed rob dee why 2010 (1)

She chose the 4 Pines in Manly for a relaxing Sunday afternoon lunch and sample of the beer; the 4 Pines is also a brewery and have a fine selection of their own beers. Mat and I had given Ruth, Henry and Cam a lift so they could drink and we met up with Wayland & Kirstie and Phil & Teri there. It worked out quite well as Manly is a good middle point for all of us and I had assumed this was the reason behind the choice in venue, though apparently it wasn’t; Ruth wasn’t as thoughtful as she appeared and had picked it simply because she had gone there the week before and liked it (I mean to say, how selfish lol)!

It was a beautifully sunny day but not quite warm enough to sit outside. The inside of the place was very nice though and they sold the beer in pints which made a refreshing change from the usual Aussie scooners. The beer wasn’t particularly cheap at around $9 a pint but the general consensus was that it was very good beer and worth the extra money for something a bit different and a pleasant atmosphere.

The food was exceedingly good and very reasonable averaging at $20 for a main course. There was a good selection ranging from the enormous mega burger, to fish & chips and Mushroom risotto. I chose the chicken pie and was not disappointed. In fact everyone reckoned mine was the best. There was heaps of chunky moist breast and pieces of bacon accompanying the vegetables topped with a lovely puff pastry lid. It was a good size and if I’d wondered whether I should have ordered chips to go with it I was very glad I hadn’t afterwards.

Henry surprised us all (apart from Ruth who has to cater for his bottomless pit on a daily basis) by ordering a mega burger and a main course dish of mussels and managing to eat them both but this was by no means a sign that the dishes were on the small size; they weren’t. Mat had the mussels as well and found them to be most satisfying, though I think he did pinch a few of Ruth’s chips!

Going round the table from the left: Phil, Teri, Ruth, Henry, Cam, Kirstie, Wayland, Mat and me.

After food we all went for a wander in the sun and I made myself incredibly sick by having an ice cream and large coffee. All in all it was a lovely day and great to catch up with everyone; Phil and Teri had just come back from two weeks home in the UK and we just don’t see Wayland and Kirstie as often as we would like because they live all the way out in the city (yes, we are very lazy – they don’t call Avalon the Insular Peninsular for nothing)!

• Manly birthday celebration (1)

WOOH HOO!!! We both did a little woop and a skip and then re-read the email to make sure we were correct. Yes, as of the 13th May we are both now permanent residents of Australia! Grats to us! Who says the 13th is unlucky?

I like to add pictures to my posts so here are Mat and I in the Australian bush, Abercrombie National Park, back in March. We were camping at the Sink Campsite whilst on an off-roading trip with our friends Wayland and Kirstie and my brother – very Australian

• course in Australia witch give Permament residence (1)

What is Project 365? Well, if you are frequentor of Flickr.com you may be familiar with it as it is very popular among photographers. It’s basically a commitment that one makes to take a photograph for every day of the year (and then upload it to Flickr if that’s your choice of platform). I think if you are doing it seriously then there are other rules but I’m just going to do it for me so that’s as far as I’m going.

My main aim is to improve my composition and eye for an interesting photo by regular practice. As I only have a basic point and shoot I’m not expecting brilliant photography but I figure the science behind it is something I can learn at a later date when I get a manual SLR or the like. There is no point in being able to take a physically brilliant photo if my composition is shit. A good photo is a piece of art, in my opinion anyway.

So, you can find my photostream here for now and with any luck I will be able to add a Flickr feed to this blog later so that any new photos appear in the sidebar. Shown below are my photos for Tuesday, Wednesday and today:

The Ibis regards the somewhat jaded grafitti and is of the definite opinion that it is in need of an overhaul.

The first photo is already explained. Yesterday’s shows my brother’s amazing and wonderfully colourful piece of grafitti art that he did for Mat and I on his visit. I wasn’t sure whether to do a closeup or include all the surrounding rubbish. I opted for including some of the rubbish as I figured it depicted our “Life” which goes with the word “Life” on the art board.

This morning, as I was finishing tidying the kitchen I heard next door’s dog, Sparky, barking in the garden. I grabbed my camera and took the opportunity to snap some pics through the chain link fence and amazingly this one came out okay. He is the cutest little terrier (not sure what type) with the biggest sticky up ears I have ever seen

Our life surrounding Life

Come and play with me, please please please...

Consequently the theme for this blog has reverted to it’s standard look and I will have to spend a little time changing the colours back. I hope to do this today, however, as I didn’t write down the hex codes for the exact colours I used previously it might not look exactly like it did before. Well “a change is as good as a rest” so say!

I would like to say a huge THANK YOU to my awesome blog fairy for toiling away for hours to fix it, especially as he also has his own blog, a baby blog fairy to look after and many other sites to contend with.
Thank you, thank you, thank you

The last month has been fantastic and it was with a heavy heart that me and Mat had to drop Rich at the airport yesterday. I will miss having him here very much but I have also gained a lot from our long chats and have much to think about. I vow to be more positive; positivity breeds content

I shall, in time, get around to posting some pictures from our many adventures but for now this shows me and Rich at Avalon Beach on Monday just before we went for a refreshing swim.

• ?thank you bro (1)

Hint to anyone travelling here to visit relatives from their home country: Don’t take them any credit cards in their name; post them instead. After waiting over an hour for my brother a customs guy finally came out asking me for ID before handing me my Lloyds credit card that my brother had brought out for me from the UK. He stated that if anyone brings cards into the country that aren’t in their own name it becomes a matter for the federal police. They had kept my brother aside for ages, interrogating him and only finally believed his story when I tried to ring his mobile to find out where the hell he was. Apparently they wouldn’t let him answer it but were persuaded that it was me and came out to find me so I could validate his story!

Finally we got back to Avalon and had a relax before Mat went to bed as he had to work today. I stayed up with my brother and we were chatting away at our table outside when Rich suddenly started making noises to something under the table and said that a cat had just appeared.

“A cat?” I said. “We don’t get cats round here.” I looked down to see a brush tailed possum boldly sniffing Richie’s hand. He pulled it away quickly and then we both went to grab our cameras.

We get possum visits regularly in our garden if we’re outside late at night but this one was extra inquisitive and bold as brass. It was as if she had decided to give my brother a proper Aussie welcome and he was chuffed to bits. His first encounter with Australian wildlife couldn’t have been better.