Dad's 60th Birthday

Me, Caz and Adam headed to Wrenbury for my Dad's 60th this weekend. An excuse for a family party, a few beers and plenty of sandwiches, sausage rolls and cake.

I made a Birthday card to "prove" that Dad was older than the 60 he claimed to be. Here is one of the pictures from it.



Our trip happened to coincide with Wrenbury's Scarecrow Trail. Here was one of my families entries.

Barbecue Time

We thought we should give our new barbecue it's maiden voyage whilst the sun was still shining. Rain was on it's way. A Gas BBQ - 3 burner with a side burner - it's a proper BBQ. No fiddling with charcoal and lighter fluid.

Ali and Craig said they didn't mind being the guinea pigs for our cooking. We bought shedloads of fish, meat, and drink. With the family motto adhered to, "if it's brown it's done, if it's black it's buggered," it all seemed to go ok. And a valiant effort was made by everyone in ploughing through it all.

Once we could eat no more, the boys went off to see if there was any fire making equipment around the school. They returned with not one but two metal bins, and a stack of wood, mostly from the old furniture the school had dumped at the bottom of the field.

Tim with the back of his entertainment unit, now surplus to requirements.

Ali toasting her backside.

City folk mistaking a garden rake for some form of musical instrument.

At 11pm we were feeling a little tired, so by way of relaxing we headed to the school pool for a couple of hours. 4 canoes, a game of water polo, and some floating around on water noodles later we were refreshed enough to carry on drinking for a few more hours. There is nothing like having a proper swimming pool all to yourselves, for free.

And so we sat outside until 3 or 4 in the morning , drinking and poking the fire occasionally until the rain came. The fire was that succesful that 12 hours of solid rain later the fire managed to start up again all by itself...

Last Day before we leave tomorrow - 18th April

The last full day here. Just time for some last minute shopping before meeting Rach for a walk round the park with her niece Amber. After a little conjoling we managed to get her to walk across the Harbour Bridge, albeit the kid's version.

A bit more persuasion Amber went on the swings and enjoyed it. Then we had to persuade her to come off the swing...

A cup of coffee later, and it's time to hand back Amber to her parents. It seems in the space of a couple of hours I have become her new best friend and favourite word.

One last night of drinking started with some lovely cocktails at Longrain, where a member of INXS was drinking with Layne Beachley. Real Aussie celebrities, which were a bit lost on us Brits. Then it was on to Surry Hills and Non La for some nice Vietnamese food and the Cricketers Arms for a few more drinks.

The next day and with a heavy head it was time to say goodbye. We had to leave the apartment by 10 in the morning, though our flights aren't till later. We are able to store our bags in a room off the lobby until our taxi came to pick us up at 2.

I just had time to take in the views one last time from the apartment balcony, and take a few more early morning misty looking pictures.

We all met up to have breakfast and a walk before we departed. We attempted to visit with much anticipation the toilets at the Sydney Town Hall. An architectual must according to the guide book, only for us to be turned away at the foyer. We'd only really wanted to see them because it seemed a funny thing to mention in a guide book. It seems Sydney council think slightly less of these magnificent toilets and are ripping them out to replace them with some rather boring normal glass modern affairs. We know this because one rather green looking Kevin (one to many cocktails the night before) manages to persuade the Town Hall Official he really does need the loo, and so gets a sneaky peak. Possibly another example of Sydney's enthusiasm for the new; indifference to the old.

One very long plane journey later I arrived back at Heathrow, delayed on departure, I met up with Dave at the baggage carousel, who in turn had bumped into Sara and Ben on the flight from Bangkok. So we all took the train back into London, catching up on Sara and Ben days in Bangkok and our final days drinking in Oz.

All in all, expensive but well worth the trip half way round the world. You never know I may just go again.