Off To Goughs

 We wanted to see progress at Goughs Bay.  Mark and Cooper were working on the house so we went up for the day.  Things have certainly moved along since our last visit.

We arrived to see the last of the floor panels being placed in position.  Mark was lucky to have access to an excavator to lift the panels.

Cooper was working hard.  That Builder's Licence should not be too far away.

Next task is to bolt down the panels and start on the walls.  We went to the lookout on the mountain on the other side of the lake and were able to see the house rising from the block (and the workers making it happen.)

Brett's Birthday Dinner

 Brett's long distant birthday was finally celebrated at Fedeles Restaurant last night.  This is our third visit there over the past few months so is familiar territory.  Again, the meal did not disappoint. 

Traveler's Group Lunch

 Our quarterly catch up with the travel group took place at Redwood Gardens in Dingley today.  The restaurant always puts on a top banquet and today was no exception.

The long, leisurely lunch was almost immediately followed by a  long, leisurely afternoon tea at Noelene's place.  Needless to say, this evening's dinner is in the low priority category.

Goughs Bay Goss

 The weather has finally allowed Mark to make some significant progress at Goughs Bay.  With the garage in place, the whole left side of the house had to have foundations dug and poured.  The trenches were cut and the steel placed for when the concrete could be poured.

With concrete in place the wall blocks had to be placed and the girders positioned to support the floor.

During the school holidays, Lachlan became part of the building team.

Now with all the foundation blocks in place, Mark is hoping to be able to fill the walls with concrete on Monday so that work can start on the floors and walls of the house.

Birthday Dinner

 The birthday celebrations continued with dinner at Brett and Cathy's place.  Brett had prepared a slow cooked brisket as the star attraction of the night and we had a couple of beautiful old red wines to complement the meat.

Unfortunately, there were a number of deviations from the originally planned agenda.  Lisa and her family were quite ill and unable to attend.

At the end of the night, after digging into  Cathy's birthday cake, I managed to disgrace myself by overindulging in food and red wine and toppling off my chair.  Despite the deviations from the plan, it was a wonderful family gathering.

Birthday Brecky

 In honour of my birthday, the day broke fine, warm and sunny.  As we will be having a meal with the family tonight, a late breakfast was the order of the day at the local Peddlers Cafe.  It is a good thing that dinner is still some way off!

Ocean Grove

 Adam purchased their property at Ocean Grove some time ago now and it has needed an almighty amount of work to bring it back from what was originally a rather sad condition.  That work is now almost complete and the interior is now  bright and welcoming.

 The clearing and contouring of the exterior is now in place waiting for the garden to be planted.

Even better is the five minute stroll over the dune to arrive on the main Ocean Grove beach.

Five minutes in the other direction, you are in the heart of the township with a good range of eateries and variety of shops.  Good times ahead!

Mullauna Concert

 The Mullauna music program is going from strength to strength.  The majority of students are now involved in the program and it showed last night at their final concert.  The place was packed and the standard had dramatically improved over the past couple of years.  Getting all the students in place to play was a real logistical challenge.

Cooper is now an old hand and was involved in many of the groups playing on the night.

This was Lachlan's first full concert.

In a couple of the items during the evening, both boys were on stage together for what was a very successful and entertaining evening.

Adam's 50th - A Final Fling

 We had Adam's 50th birthday dinner at Fedeles Italian Restaurant last night.  The food was great as usual and both Adam and I had brisket to see how they did it. As it turns out - very well!  Of course we had to have a traditional Italian wine with the meal so we had two versions of Chianti.  I had not been fond of this wine in the past but it was excellent with the meal.

Jack's Last Soccer Game

 The soccer season has finished for Jack and next season he looks like switching to basketball so he had his last game last night.  We had to leave early but he was holding his place on the field and the score was nil all.

Cooper's Final

 Cooper and his team of mates made the final and after a slower start they came good.  They were going well but some incomprehensible umpiring decisions were made that put an end to the boys season.  Next season he has put together another team to try their luck.

A New Car

 We finally called 'time' on our old Honda Jazz that had looked after us for the last 14 years.

This car had carried us through a period of big changes in our lives without missing a beat so we were a little sorry to see the end of her.  Consequently, the replacement, a Honda HRV, was really an updated version of the same car with current features and a little more room and comfort. 

While larger, it still easily slots into the garage.

Fathers' Day Dinner

 Jack, Cooper and Lachlan took on the task of meal preparation for the Fathers' Day Dinner at Lisa and Mark's place.  Jack prepared the main of lamb shanks and pasta.

Lachlan made a pavlova.

and Cooper baked a special non chocolate, chocolate cake.

Needless to say, no one left hungry

and the fathers were happy.

Fathers' Day

 I had a great Fathers'Day catching up with all my 'kids'.  We went to see James play with Adam and Kate in the morning, in the afternoon Brett and Cathy walked over and we had dinner with Lisa and Mark.  I got a special t-shirt from Lisa.

That Was Not The Plan!

 Whitefriars had been winning all season so the hope was that they could carry this on to the Grand Final.  As often happens in such cases, things did not go as hoped as they went down to Mazemod.  James played well but Mazenod did not appear to be the same team they played and easily beat earlier in the season.