James Drives Me Round Many Bends

The school holidays is a good time to rack up the hours on the road required for a driving licence.  James needs 120 hours behind the wheel, so today we did a country tour of over 300k in the country areas around Melbourne.  He is already a confident and competent driver so he should have little trouble.

And So This Is Christmas ...

Lisa and Mark hosted the Reid-Garnett Christmas festivities this year on a very pleasant Christmas Eve.  The Preparation Elves had been busy before we arrived.

And their work was appreciated with starters and a magnificent meal with contributions from everyone.

The stars of the Christmas Game included chocolate (the perennial favourite), basketballs and an espresso coffee maker.  It was a wonderful relaxed evening to get us in the mood to receive Santa in style.

Jack Graduates

As Jack has now completed his time in Primary School he took part in the Graduation ceremony. The students were presented to parents and friends in the school hall spectacularly decorated in a beach theme.

 Jack also approaches the end of his time as School Captain so there will be fewer official duties next year.

Watching the year in review is always a highlight of these occasions.

As is the dinner served by the parents.

Base Emerges

As work continues on the house the outline of the ground floor is starting to become evident.
The plumbing below the floor level has been installed and we await the foundations of the alfresco area.

Lisa's Birthday Celebration

The family celebration of Lisa's birthday was held last night at Brett and Cathy's place.  Ebony and Holly had decorated the cake and Brett had cooked some beef and kangaroo to perfection.  It was a wonderful family evening.

Melbourne Summer

Yes - it certainly came down last night!

House Outline Emerges

It has been terrible weather for the builders but they are working still and the outline of the building is gradually developing.

Anniversary No 49

To mark the official passing of another milestone in the advance to senility we decided to watch "Mortal Engines".  Weird film! An exact trace of "Star Wars" in an earth based setting.  The reviews were funny - basically "it's likely to bomb but see it for the effects".  We would agree.

 Best part was the dumpling feast after the film.

Foundations in Place

With the footings finished the next stage of the build was to drill the holes for the stumps.

 Then the holes were filled with concrete and the stumps put in place.  The weather was not cooperating as the builders were nearly drowned in the downpour.

Marcia Comes to Play

Marcia has decided to have a tilt at a local Council vacancy and wanted some headshots for publicity. these are the ones we came up with yesterday.

Ebony Wins Grand Final

We arrived back in Melbourne in time to watch Ebony play in her Grand Final.  It was a relatively easy win for the girls after dropping their guard mid game they put the foot down and demonstrated their superiority.  Ebony is amazing as a goal shooter, if the girls could get the ball to her it usually went through the ring.

 The local politician presented the trophies for a job well done.

Holly Wins Grand Final

Holly played her season Grand Final while we were at Portarlington.  While we could not be there, Brett sent text updates during the match.  After a nail biter, the girls held on for a narrow win rising from fourth on the ladder to be Premiers.  Given that Cathy was the Team Coach and Ebony was the Assistant Coach, this was a fantastic performance by the whole family!

Portarlington

This year, the group we met on a European bus tour 20 years ago met up at Portarlington for our annual retreat.  We took a Bed and Breakfast that had been moved down to the coast from Surrey Hills.

 The area has plenty to offer visitors and we spent time having a look at the area, the vineyards and, of course, the associated restaurants.

Dinner at the Heads Restaurant at Barwon Heads was a highlight.

 The Oakdene Winery had great food and a sculpture garden constructed from bits of old farm machinery and implements

The local Saints and Sailors Restaurant featured live music in the evenings and the Melbourne band "Tramwreck" was playing plenty of music we knew well so we had a great evening staying a lot longer than originally intended.

Geelong

We took a day in Geelong to see if we could find the farm taken over by Thomas and Mary Kervin in 1852.  To our surprise we were able to find the allotment on the old maps and it appears that the current padlocks reflect the boundaries of the original property.

 We also took time to wander around the city centre and see some of the buildings that did not look like they had changed much in the past hundred years.

It is an interesting place to visit with many attractions for visitors.