Ang's Surprise 60th

It was Ang's 60th birthday last Wednesday. He didn't want to have a party and was just happy to have his kids over for dinner. Which is what we did. However unbeknown to Ang we decided that you can't turn 60 without a reasonable gathering. We booked the restaurant 1912 at Riverlea Winery and invited our close family for lunch but kept it a secret from Ang. Ron our best friend told Ang he had a great promotional deal at Riverlea, a 3 course meal plus drinks for $20. Well Ang couldn't pass up a great deal like that.

He tried to tell Ron that he was going the wrong way. We entered through the front gates and parked were VIP guests park. All our invited guests entered through the back gates parking at the back of the restaurant.

As Ang entered the restaurant there was a resounding "SURPRISE!!!" sung by all the guests inside. Ang was quite shocked and a little overwelmed.

It was a delightful lunch. We had the restaurant all to ourselves. The atmoshere was enhanced by the open fire and the candles burning on the tables and its sheer cosyness. Food and wine was good and everyone had a great day.

Jacob and Kim even gave a speech.

After lunch everyone came back to our home where the party continued. At this stage I'm not sure how it went as I was rather pickled myself. Looking at the photos though it seemed we all had a good day especially Ang.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANG!

Adam and Izabella's Wedding

Adam and Izabella were married on the 10th of May. It was a beautiful wedding and the bride looked stunning. The wedding and the reception was held at the Park Hyett Hotel and apart from a few drops of rain the ceremony went well. Pictured above is Adam and Izabella listening to Rebecca (Adam's sister) do a reading. Ben's father was the minister for the day and they had Harry and Izabella's niece as the page boy and flower girl. The ceremony was in the courtyard of the hotel and as you can see a little of the backdrop it was quite a nice courtyard.

The reception was good but the music and noise level of the guests were a little loud.

Overall we had a great time. As usual Luke couldn't make it.

Ang and I stayed at the RACV City club so we had a great weekend as well.

Martin and Sabina's Wedding day

At long last Sabina and Martin were married in Australia Their third to date!!
They were first married at the registry office in Switzerland then the following day they had their church wedding. A month later they came to Australia and renewed their vows to the Australian crowd. Following on from the reception at Chateau Yering they finally had their Honeymoon in Haymen island where they originally met each other.

Good luck Martin & Sabina.

Here is a family photo of us. Unfortunately Luke was not able to come as he was in the bush somewhere in Townsville training some new recruits
Below is a great picture of the boys. It's rare to get them together

New Toy

I have a brand new camera to play with. When Ang went to Switzerland he brought back a fancy new camera for me to play with. It is a Sony Cyber Shot. I am only just getting use to it. My pictures I've taken are not that fantastic but I am learning slowly. What I love about it is I can get close up shots of my roses and it has an automatic thingo that allows me to take shots with me in it.

Here is a picture of me taking a picture of me!

Thankyou Ang

Sore Toe

I work at home now and my office is in the bedroom. Very compact. The other day I was washing the dishes when I heard the phone ring in my office. I ran very fast to get to it as I often miss the phone. As I was entering the bedroom I stubed my toe on the door frame. Boy did ot hurt!!! It was my boss on the other end of the phone wondering what the heck was going on as I was in so much pain.

I'm not sure if I broke the toe or just squashed it. My toe blew up and turned purple and I was not able to go on my long walks for a week.

But now its back to normal.

Bridge Road

Went shopping with Kimmy yesterday trying to fnd something to wear to these up and coming weddings. Kim thought Bridge Road, Richmond as the best place to shop. Bridge Road, is a shopping mecca with great cafes; It's the best selection of small, unpretentious cafes serving tasty food of any food precinct in Melbourne. It's organic vegetable shops and flowers on the footpath, alternative bookshops and Nepalese wares. But best of all is the array of fashion shops that are scattered between the cafes. You will find all types of fashion from the grundge to the top designers mingling with each other. Bridge Road is very much multicultural like Melbourne in that it is tolerant and accommodating of all types of people and fashion. Here you can be Bohemian, poor, rich, alternative, trendy, young or old. You can drive an Audi TT or ride an old pushbike. You can have 10 earrings in your navel or flame coloured hair, or wear an immaculate business suit - you fit in regardless of what you look like or where you come from. Stroll down the street and take in the atmosphere, sounds and aromours that just signifies Bridge Road. And it was only $2 to park great!!

By the way Kim couldn't find a thing to wear and we came back empty handed.

Nonna's 88th Birthday

Well it was Nonna's 88th birthday on Australia Day. So we decided to gather at Maria's house for a BBQ. Mostly everyone was there, sortof. The food and company was fantastic. Unfortunately we had too many deserts and couldn't get through them all. We had the fantastic birthday cake. My delicious pavlovaand we also had these gorgeous cakes which Elizabeth made to make into an 88 shape but it didn't turn out so she bought the birthday cake insteadBut we had a great time.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NONNA!!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Well the year is coming to a close and when I look back on it WOW!!! what a busy year we had. My new job keeps me busy and I find I just don't have enough time to keep up with all my blogging pages. But my New Year Resolution is to ensure I resume active blogging again. We'll see.

This afternoon we are heading off for Sorrento and spending New Years Eve at Gail's villa with the rest of the mob. No doubt we will be drinking and eating throughout the night. It is going to be a warm night 43 degrees. Yuk!!! I hope Gail has air conditioning. Unfortunately Ang is on afternoon shift tomorrow so we will return around lunch time. Hopefully to the open arms of our lovely children. Hmmm! don't think so.

Anyway - Happy New Year Everyone!!!!!

Veggie Garden

At last Ang has been able to grow a veggie garden. He abandoned his garden when we had the drought because it was too difficult to maintain and get water to it. At the moment he is growing lettuce, peas, broccoli and silverbeat. He will attempt to put some tomatoes in soon. At the moment the weather is just gorgeous but I haven't noticed much rain over the last 2 weeks. October is suppose to be our month for the rain so let's hope.

Family Gathering

We had a family gathering on Sunday. Our nephew wa s celebrating his recent engagement and our niece was saying goodbye to the famuly as she will be going soon to work in the USA. It was a lovely sunny day and we had lunch at my sister's place out on the verandah. My brother in law took this great picture of me with my siters and younger brother. As you can see by the smiles on my face, we had a fantastic day.
It is always good when we get together.

LOG SPLITTER INCIDENT!!!!

I thought it would be a great idea if we got a log splitter to cut up our wood for the winter. Up to now Ang always has to go out and spend hours chopping the wood up. Our wood fire heater is our main heating for the house. The Winter nights lately have been a bit chilly. We have a lot of wood collected fro trees being felled and trees falling over naturally from storms. We hired the splitter on Friday and started that night. It was fantastic. It split the wood like a hot knife slicing through butter. We did a large amount that night. But as I was busy on Saturday Ang asked Jacob to come down and assit.

We were all plowing though the wood when I took these photos.

I left to see a good friend of mine recovering from an operation when I got the call from Maroondah hospital. It was Jacob telling me that dad had crushed his finger in the wood splitter and that they were at the hospital awaiting the doctor. .

As it turned out Ang ended up staying most of the night undergoing an operation to repair his index finger. At present he has his hand plastered until Friday and will need regular check ups to ensure the finger repairs. Looks like having around 4 weeks off work

We managed to get a quarter of the wood cut. We only put a dent in the pile but it was amazing how much wood we ended up with.

What a day!

We had an amazing night last night. It will be Ang's birthday on Monday so we decided to spend the night in the city at the RACV club. As it was also Ang's sister's birthday last week, so we invited them to join us, along with Paul and Elizabeth, in the Members dining room. RACV had a guest chef from Western Australia cooking that night. All six courses along with the various wines were a showcase of culinary fare from WA. We had a great night and got to chat with guest chef Shane Keighley and his assistant. The food was great though Gianni would had preferred a larger helping.
Ang and I went to the club around 2pm and spent the afternoon in the gym. We had a go at the equipment, swam a little in the pool and finished with a sauna and a spa.

I thought it would be good to work up an appetite ready for the big meal.

Happy Birthday Ang & Maria!

Mother's Day

It's been a while since I've down loaded any pics. But here we are celebrating Mother's Day at the Red Olive Restaurant.. It was a little noisy in the restaurant as it was chokkas with people celebrating how wonderful their mother's are.

I'm tryng out a new thing today from Jigzone I hope it works.
This is a fab picture of me visiting my son at Singleton in NSW. It was only a short visit but we had a great time.
Click on the picture and it will go to a puzzle for you.

We have been renovating our back garden. We have put brand new steps and paving. We have increased our garden beds to make them larger and have attempted to add lawn. However we were advised against putting the turf down until September because that is the best growing season. So in the photos you will notice patches of bare dirt well that's where the lawn will be going. We were very please with the final look and now all we have to do is plant. Unfortuantely we need to wait for the rains to come. Hope they come soon!

Gardening

Well it's been such a long time since I've added to this post. That's because I have been so busy with work and everything. At Vittorio Park we have commenced our next major landscaping renovation. We had 5 trees pulled down that were around the house and now we are planting same trees further away. 25 in fact. You can see the last remaining logs of the big tree that was in the centre of the old holding paddock.

. In this photo you can see I've planted a stand of candlebark trees with native grass as companions. At the moment I am having to hand water them using a bucket. Hopefully the rain will come and give me a break. Once they start growing I'm sure they'll look lovely from the verandah. Next month we will be paving the top area of the block

. This is the view from the verandah. Soon hopfully to be improved.