Ottoman

One last piece of furniture arrived today - the leather Ottoman - which completes the furniture for our informal Family Room, which has become affectionately referred to as "The Lobby Bar" Even more so now, this area seems to be the first place people head to when they come down the stairs into our living area.

We have Stairs!

Finally, after 3 months of having to enter our new house via the Garage, we got the front stairs constructed, so we can now get to the front door! Now we just have to stain them to match the front doors, and get the hand-rails and balustrades installed. It is so good to be able to get into the house easily, and perhaps we will now be able to put two cars in the garage, which will be a luxury.

Birthday Dinner

On the actual night of Jessica's 17th Birthday, we had a dinner at home, and we were joined by Granny & Poppa and the Leans: We all enjoyed Burritos followed by Ice Cream Cake!

Jess & Alyssa turn 17

Tonight we went to the Piper's for a combined birthday celebration; Alyssa turned 17 on Friday, and it will be Jess' turn tomorrow:

The girls each had their own cakes, and teased each other over whose birthday it was as usual. It was good to have everyone together to share the celebration.

Mike's Trip to Oman

This week, Mike headed to Oman (yes the one in the Middle East) for kick-off meetings for a Technical Integrity Audit with the Oman Gas Company. The Omani's are actually very friendly, jovial people, and Canadians and Aussies alike fit right in. You just have to overlook the fact that most of the men are wearing dresses! This was the view from my room at the Crowne Plaza, Muscat: The hotel was shaped like a large cruise ship, and looked over the Gulf of Oman. You could almost see all the way up the coast to Dubai (~200km). The road up the coast is dual carriageway and lit all the way. We were treated to a dinner at the Inter Continental by one of the Sheiks: On the other side at the harbour of Mutra, the Sultan's boat could clearly be seen docked: The coastline is rugged but beautiful (in an arid kind of way):

One of my favourite places was the Mutra Souk, one of the last remaining old Souks in the region. It was fun to barter for things like Frankincence, and GOLD! (Yes I did bring back a few small pressies for the girls, and Jake a Dish-Dasher - the traditional dress the men wear there)

On the Tuesday Night, we were invited back to the home of OGC's chief auditor. His grandson reminded me a lot of my nephew Teddy, he was even wearing Crocs; he took to me and chewed my ear off with the most amazing stories:

On the Wednesday evening, we made time for a quick sight-seeing tour. Here is the 7 star resort of Shangri-La, just south along the east coast from Muscat - it was certainly the playground of the rich and famous:

And finally I did meet a couple of girlfriends there, but their breath was horrible:

The flights on Emirates were all excellent and thoroughly recommended.

1st Official Party

We had the honour of hosting Roy and Sally's Golden Wedding celebrations at our new house:

Jess went to great lengths to find the same flowers that Granny had in her original bouquet, and recreated it at work at the florist shop that morning, and presented it as our gift to them.

Jess also modelled Granny's original dress for them, which had Mike feeling old!

And Poppa confused!

But Granny was tickled pink.

There were copious amount of champagne consumed to help them celebrate. And plenty of photos taken. When you mix the two, you can always count on Jenni and Kate to hijack the odd photo here and there...

And there were all smiles at the end of the day.

It was a fitting celebration.

Jacob's Mirror

We finally got around to hanging Jacob's Beetle Mirror in his bedroom:

We had originally bought this when we were in Kirrawee, and have lugged it to Queensland and back wrapped in bubble wrap!

It suits his new room just as much as ever...

Sunrise at Cronulla

During the school holidays, we promised the kids we would go down to Cronulla to watch the sun rise over the water.

This provided Jess with lots of opportunities to take some nice photos:

There was some cloud on the horizon, but it was still pretty spectacular:

We had a beautiful breakfast at a sunrise cafe, then we went for a walk to Bass & Flinders point, overlooking Port Hacking to Bundeena:

The water looked so pretty at that time of the morning; we could have been anywhere in the world!

Granny & Poppa Return

After spending Christmas on Norfolk Island, Granny and Poppa returned home late last night.

So we invited them over for Dinner, to see us settled into the new house for the first time.

Jacob waiting in the "Lobby Bar" for them to arrive. Multiple Lasagnas (or is that Lasagnii?) cooking in the new oven Desert at the Table, with our new Knife Block in the background (Thanks Tina!) Day out at Bundeena Today, we decided to go for a ferry ride to Bundeena, and discovered that you don't have to go far from home to see beautiful places:

Jake and Mike were treated with some "boy toys" on the beach:

And the trip back was just as good - it was a lovely day out together!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone. Last night, Jess had some friends over, and we watched the fantastic fireworks displays in Sydney on the Tele, accompanied by sounds of locals setting off flares along our river out the front.

Kate had unpacked some sparklers (that have probably come from this site 10 years ago), and to our amazement they worked: So we cheered in the New Year with sparkle and colour.

Lets hope this is a good one for everyone.