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Published: February 1st 2010
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Inside Taylor Francis
With proud owner Paula Day 277 - Box Hill North
We have a huge CONGRATULATIONS message to shout out this morning, to ourselves! It’s our 10th Wedding Anniversary today! We hadn't gone overboard on presents, but we had got a few items stored away on the assumption we would be tucked up in the bush. The intended use of a bottle of Moscato, some Maggie Beer pate, Maggie Beer Cabernet paste, tasty cheese and Margaret River chocolate are all on hold as we are still at the ‘Box Hill Resort’! Instead it looks like we’re going to be treated to more culinary delights from head chef Grant with willing assistant Mr Howells!
We opened our cards to one another this morning, very lovely both of them and then we opened the card given to us by the Coulsells before we left the UK. Good on you for doing that LC, thank you very much. x
We’re on the school run this morning as it’s the girls first day back. We labelled all their books, pens, pencils, rubbers and folders yesterday then packed it all back into their individual boxes ready for this morning. Darryl busied himself making up the girls lunchboxes
First day back to school
Amy, Charlotte, Anna and Sarah with their sandwiches, fruit and snack bar, bless him he’s the perfect manny (male nanny) and the girls love it when he pretends to forget what they should have and whether they want crusts on their sandwiches or not!
We bundle into Anna’s car and head off to school, shame it’s not within walking distance because then Henry & Daisy would have been able to come too but it’s just too far for that. Charlotte and Amy are both in new classrooms this year and have new teachers. We drop Charlotte off with her box first, Mel’s daughter Georgia is there so we wave a cheery hello and then leave them to settle in while we drop off Amy & her box. While she’s buzzing around the new classroom we discover we’ve got the boxes mixed up, Amy has Charlotte’s and Charlotte has Amy’s! Oops! We rush back to Charlotte’s classroom hoping she hasn’t spotted our little mishap but her cheeky little smile tells us the game is up, she knows! Doh! We swap the boxes and make good our escape.
We’re keen to visit Paula’s new shop (Paula is Anna’s sister) so we make it our next
destination but we’re a bit early so pop into the cafe next door for a celebratory coffee & ice chocolate courtesy of Anna!
The short wait was totally worth it, Paula’s shop “Taylor Francis” is absolutely divine. It would slot into Oxford Street in London with no problem at all. The product lines she’s chosen to stock are cleverly complimentary to one another and there’s a good range of affordable beauty. “Taylor Francis” is your one stop shop for boutique toiletries, designer Fragonard Perfume, exclusive handbags and even Helen White paintings which really sets off the décor and the image. We were very impressed with the customer facing side of the business plus also what goes on ‘behind the scenes’ which is a wholesale business of the same lines. It’s an all round success and Paula is clearly relishing the opportunity and loving watching the business take off. Husband Cory popped in while we were there, a couple of the light bulbs need replacing and he’s the contracted electrician. It’s a real family business.
Even though we’d done a fair bit already this morning it was still quite early so the rest of my day was taken up
Cooking with love
The kitchen worktop in front of the laptop, downloading photos and sorting through the blogs to get us somewhere near back on track. Anna was still feeling yukky, she’s not been right since we came home from the beach house so she went back to bed and Dar busied himself around the house generally clearing things up. Grant was already back in business mode and making appointments for Anna to visit clients next week - she’s a sales agent for various companies and exceptionally good at what she does but he’s filling her diary up and she’s lying sick in bed so here’s hoping she’s fully recovered by Monday!
Leftovers keep the wolf from the door when lunch time comes and then in a blink of an eye the girls are home from school and we’ve got our playmates back!
We’ve got an extra guest for dinner tonight, Jordan is coming round which we’re all really pleased about. Grant cooks up a fabulous anniversary dinner for us all to enjoy, Tom Yum soup to start followed by Chilli Beef and Thai Green Curry. Admittedly I had the watered down version of the Tom Yum soup but with a bit of help
from cooling strawberry yogurt I really enjoyed it!! Honestly the 'normal' version is enough to blow your head off!
There’s a few stories told over the dinner table which have us all roaring and the hours pass by easily. Great to see Jordan and catch up on general life, he promises to come back round for another visit in the coming days so we look forward to that.
The rest of the evening is spent relaxed in front of the film Crossing Over which stars Harrison Ford. It’s not bad, quite watchable although not one of his best in our opinion. Grant is in the manhole (garage!) with his cricket, tennis and beer! He’s got so much sport selection to entertain him at the moment he’s thoroughly spoilt!
We get a great text message from the Coulsells congratulating us on our Tin anniversary! Apparently 10 years is tin so I really should have bought Dar a tinnie of VB (Victoria Bitter) or of course a real Australian tinnie which is a fishing boat! Never mind, he seemed happy enough with his pate!
It’s been a while since we spoke to Mum and Dad Howells so Darryl
gave them a call tonight. It was lovely to catch up, we think about them all the time of course but there’s nothing like a good phone call home to hear the voices and the accents which we love. Everyone is well which is great to hear, all the kids are getting on great and of course the plans for Nicola & Mark’s wedding in August are starting to be fixed and finalised. That will be a great event to be a part of.
Time was getting on but I was keen to phone Mum and Dad Kettle next to give them a bit of a surprise. It’s not very often that we speak over the telephone as Skype is normally more convenient but not today. They are both very well too and Dad is getting on really well with his recovery from the heart by-pass he had in late December. He’s been out on the walking trails quite a bit since the snow subsided and is feeling quite well in himself although there are still a coupe of aches and pains. They’re beginning to become more confident with thinking about their plans for coming over here which is music to our ears.
By the time I get off the phone it’s really really late but we went to bed happy that we’d spent our anniversary enjoying the lovely company of a lovely family.
Each day we’ve said ‘We’ll probably leave tomorrow’ yet we’re still here! Grant and Anna have made it all too comfortable and the ‘Box Hill Resort’ is proving a big hit!!
Dar and Sar
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Terri
non-member comment
Hi Dar and Sar. HAPPY 10TH ANNIVERSARY. Wishing you many more happy years together. Love Terri and Bernie