Eleanor and I are now back in Sydney after three weeks away, sixteen nights on the QM2, one night in Singapore, three nights in Phuket and one night flying back home. The QM2 was an experience, with two and half thousand passengers and over one thousand crew it's got a population bigger than many country towns, but the only time we felt crowded was when we embarked in Sydney and disembarked in Singapore. It's a very big ocean liner, one lap around deck seven was about 600 metres. Even in heavy seas the QM2 is very stable, a no point did [View Full Entry]

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Eleanor and I were invited to a wedding in Noosa, George, our next door neighbour's son, was getting married to Bess. We decided to take a week off and take a slow trip North stopping at a few coastal resorts along the way. I bought a new surfboard for the trip, a 6' 6" "rocket fish" so the trip was also a chance to try it out. Day1. It was an early start, we were away by 6am and drove for about five and a half hours to South West Rocks, a small seaside resort. It's a very pretty place with [View Full Entry]

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This morning I cooked breakfast for everyone and we then went to the beach, whilst Eleanor and Mummy looked at the shops I went out for a surf. We then had lunch at a Thai restaurant and visited the Camelia Gardens in the nearby suburb of Caringbah. Mummy is enjoying her stay here especially eating salad, stone fruits and fresh vegetables. I cooked a barbeque last night and Mummy made Palabok, Eleanor assembled a simple salad. Here's some photos. [View Full Entry]

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Rather than document every day of the two weeks Eleanor and I enjoyed in Hawaii I’ve decided to write about the five best days or as one of my Pommy work mates would say - my five besties. These days are in chronological order, it’s hard to pick an absolute best day but by the time I’ve finished writing this I may have made this decision. My first best day was our trip to the North Shore of Oahu; this day has to be included as it was a visit to the famous surfing spots of Sunset Beach and Pipeline. I [View Full Entry]

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On Friday the 16th of November we had a party for Justine at the Montien Tong Thai restaurant in Cronulla. There were 51 guests comprising of Justine's school friends, family and family friends. The food was great, four entrees followed by four main dishes and rice. Eleanor bought a very nice chocolate mud cake and pavalova though many of us were so full from the main course that we couldn't fit much desert in. The party finished up at around 10.30pm, Justine went to a local night club - Fusions that is near the restaurant with her friends whilst Eleanor and [View Full Entry]

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Unfortunately the text has been lost for this entry due to the Travelblog server crash, should have saved it myself. Anyway the pictures are still here. [View Full Entry]

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Unfortunately the text has been lost for this entry due to the Travelblog server crash, should have saved it myself. Anyway the pictures are still here. [View Full Entry]

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Eleanor and I recently had a 4 day break on the Gold Coast, it was the first time we've left the kids at home though we were confident that they'd be OK. The trip was a birthday present for me and a chance to relax, we booked our air fares online and got a great deal - $100 return each. We left on Saturday the 17th February, Justine dropped us off at the airport at around 11.30am for our 12.15pm flight. All went according to plan and due to the time difference between Queensland and NSW we arrived at Coolangatta airport [View Full Entry]

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Eleanor was lucky enough to be given two tickets to the Australian Open tennis, this prompted a short trip to Melbourne and a chance to catch up with my brother Phil and his family. We all went which meant that there were four drivers making the ten hour trip a breeze. We made an early start on Saturday the 20th (6.10am) and arrived in Melbourne around 5.30pm after stops at Goulburn, Albury and Seymour. It was a warm day so the air conditioning was appreciated. That night Christine prepared a great salad, cooked a very nice Pasta dish and Phil did [View Full Entry]

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It was time again for what's becoming our annual trip to the Hunter Valley, once again Eleanor was able to secure first class accommodation in the Ironbark Hill Winery. This year we had a group of twenty - the Whitley family (4), Ronald, Pinky and Chief, the Dela Cruz's (4), the Howes (4), the Daniel's (4) and Justine's boyfriend Matt. Our trip started at 8.30 am on Friday the 12th of January, Justine was the first driver having successfully passed her driving examination the day before and she drove for the first hour and a half whilst I drove for the [View Full Entry]

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