Lakes, Launches,Tramcars & Tennis Courts

Welcome back everyone for a new year of adventures with Rhossie & Bill. Hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year as we did. The fun and adventure has started already in 2010 and we are having a ball.

Our first adventure of the year was to return to Lake Eildon and visit Astrid, Hans, Travers & Bianca at their campsite in the Fraser Camp Grounds. Yes, I know, we piked again, staying in a little motel in Eildon. We had a great day of fun and frivolity both in & out of the water. Of course after my 'success' on the tummy board last year Bianca was still hoping to get me onto ski's. Ha - over my dead body thought I - but after mastering the tummy board again this year, I felt the need for a further challenge. At this point I actually agreed to give skiing a try, but here we have good news and bad news. No I didn't break anything, I did survive and though I tried very hard, I did not make it out of the water, but I sure provided lots of laughs to those with the cameras while I tried to master this totally un-natural method of travel. We did have a lot of fun and I just might be silly enough to try again. Our picture at the top is Bianca showing me how it should be done. A yummy dinner and a few bottles of Red finished of a great day and it was two very weary adventurers who hit the sack that night.

We headed home the next day taking a drive through the Cathedral Ranges National Park near Taggerty. The Cathedral Range is a spectacular 7 Km ridge of sharply upturned sedimentary rock. 92% of the park, including all the visitor facilities at Sugarloaf Saddle, were burnt by the Black Saturday bush fires. The drive across the saddle is both eerie and spectacular now with the burnt trees giving way to green shoots everywhere. We came down from the ranges near Marysville and had our first look there since the fires destroyed the little town. While it was devastating, Marysville is buzzing with activity as people are rebuilding their lives and their town. The drive down the Black Spur was wonderful as most of it had been spared and it still remains in my mind one of the nicest drives in Australia.

After a quick stop at home to unpack we were off again to the Eco Centre in St Kilda to attend a Book Launch. During our stays in Jamieson we have met Freddie & Angie, they own the retreat where we stay. Freddie is also a photographer, specialising in underwater photography. Of course seeing Bill wandering around with a camera, they got to chatting and we saw some of his amazing underwater work. He has just released a book called Underwater Wonders of the Mornington Peninsula. It is a little book of images that highlight the pristine underwater environment of Port Phillip & Westernport Bays. I grew up swimming in both these bays and if I had seen any of these creatures I would never had got into the water. Ignorance is bliss sometimes. You can see some of his work at his website www.aquaticpix.com.

A week at work filled the gap while we waited for our next adventure on Saturday night when we met Suzanne & Bryce, with her Mum & Dad who are visiting from Scotland for a pre dinner drink at Crown before we boarded the Colonial Tramcar Restaurant for dinner. We all had a great night. Good food, good wine and lots of laughs as we rode the rails. After our dinner we all went to have a drink in another Melbourne Icon, Chloe's Bar in Young & Jacksons, where we finished off our night in style.

Grant & Jill arrived on Sunday afternoon and we had a bar-b-que at home and caught up on all their news. I had to go to work the next day while Bill joined them at the tennis. They all had a good day and I got to play again that night with dinner in Lygon St. As always, a good night was had by all. Grant & Jill had a very early start to Australia Day as they were catching a 7am flight home. We had a sleep in and then took ourselves to the tennis for the day. We watched Henin win, Roddick lose, the Williams girls were given a bit of a scare but triumphed in the end and we laughed like mad watching the Woodies play Patrick Rafter & Henri Leconte. We finished the night watching the Oz day fireworks from our window.

So with January almost over it's time to take a break and ease into the coming months, will keep you posted.

until next time...............

And so that was Christmas....

And what have you done, another year over and a new one just begun, and so that was Christmas, I hope you had fun....Lucky you can't hear me singing along with this or you might all log off right away. Yes 2009 finished with a real bang in Melbourne. We had a huge storm go through with lightning flashes to rival the planned fireworks. They did go ahead but apparently were delayed and modified for the night. We were not there this year, we were watching nature's display in Mentone with the family.

Faye, Rem & Ethan had come home from The Haig for Christmas and we had a good time catching up with them during their visit. Our Christmas day was spent at Maree's in Bonbeach and we all had a lovely day together. Mum was thrilled to get Jarrod & Aaron together in one picture. Bill & I went for a walk along the beach to help walk off some of our lunch before we embarked on another feast for dinner. And the boys driveway cricket game helped too. Gave us girls a chance to sit & chat a while. We all gathered again, together with Rem's family, Amelia, & Laurie to bring in 2010. Anne & Paul were there from Perth as well so it was quite a party. The storm stayed away until the bar-b-que had finished and just as Ethan was watching the 8.45pm fireworks from Sydney Mother Nature obliged with her own display. We had a great night with everyone, the last time we celebrated together was 2000.

Bill was lucky enough to have some time off over Christmas so got to spend a bit of time with the camera & computer, fine tuning his photo's. I worked, other than the designated public holidays but still managed to fit in lots of fun, food and good times with friends. We joined Astrid, Hans & Bianca for their Boxing Day 'leftovers' party. Great fun, great food and great company, thanks Astrid. On Sunday we caught a train to Mitcham and had another excellent night with Karen & Lauren for their Christmas Eve party, moved because of the weather. Wow - the punch was great. Food awesome and a great time was had by all, as always.

A couple of trips to the movies served to give us a few hours downtime and recharge the batteries over the two weekends. We saw Avatar and Sherlock Holmes. Both in Gold Class, with Champagne & a Cheese Plate, it is the only way to go if you want a bit of spoiling. Both movies were very different but both hugely entertaining.

After the movies we signed off from Christmas for another year with a final look at the Crown Christmas show and watched Olivia helping with Christmas on the last night of the Myer window display. Couldn't believe it had been there since 6th Nov and we hadn't managed to have a proper look. Mission accomplished.

So now there is nothing left to say other than to wish you all a great 2010 and we look forward to seeing you all during the year on both sides of the country.

until next time.......