House Progress - Mid Jan 2015

There were some fires down our (new houses) way last night, and being "keen" new owners, I decided to pop down and make sure the place was OK....can't help myself, haha! Anyway, thank Goodness all was OK, and there has been progress since the weekend, with the garage slab down and pavers ready for laying. Touch wood, fingers crossed and all that we'll be able to do a first inspection 3rd week of Feb.

Ours is the place on the left.

Straylia Day 2015

We celebrated Australia Day a little early (Saturday), mainly to use the cooler weather before the high 30'ies hit, which turned out was a good move. Sam Kekovich would be proud, as lamb was on the menu, and it was superb. Thanks Petie and Mariana!

 

Our mates up North also had a braai, but were bad-spanners cooking beef kebabs and boerewors, haha!

 

 

Petie carving the lamb racks with Mariaan's toasties in the foreground.

 

What more could a man want?!

 

Just waiting to say grace before they tucked in. MC was a big boy, saying the prayer ;-)

 

Malva Pudding.....yes, it was GOOOOOD! (I think?)

 

 

 

Some sort of negotiation underway for toys, or games or movies or something, haha!

 

Nightcap. Thanks Jakkals!

 

Karla and Jess at Grilled Burgers on Australia Day before we watched the fireworks in Freo.

 

 

Coogee Beach (photo's with a proper camera...)

Just some snaps taken two days ago at the beach...

Our Kathmandu shelter...some of the best money we've ever spent. Worth the extra dollars.

Karla being her usual silly self.

...being silly once more...

...then photo-bombing Karin and I...

Lazy days

With Karin home it has been nice to just chill with the kids. Did the usual coffee thing, kids played at Point Heatcote and then we watched the sunset at South Beach. Nice.

Weber Pizza and stars

So, bought one of those pizza stones to try on the Weber. The first attempt a couple of days back was "iffy", but we learnt the main lessons, so last night was try #2. Pretty much nailed it. The kids had shredded bacon pizza and we had chicken, cranberry and brie. Both were delicious, with crisp bases and that nice gourmet pizza taste. Put it to you this way, if the kids ate theirs, it must have been OK, haha!

Bacon & Cheese

Chicken, Cranberry, Brie and sun-dried tomato...very tasty.

We also drove down to the house last night, and as expected, only minor progress. The main motivation for the drive was however to see if we could spot comet Lovejoy, as it was supposed to be at it's closest approach to earth last night. No luck. However, I was once more amazed by the light capturing ability of the Ricoh GR. The below image was taken at f/2.8, 30 sec and ISO 1600. This reduced size image really does not do the full-resolution image justice, but there you go.

Two quick parting shots: One showing Eugene with Bilbo-Baggins and Gollum; the other him (sneakily) playing Karla's LOTR game on the PS3.

A relaxed day and testing the composite imaging on the GR

A slightly off-beat shot :-) Thanks Karla X.

Love you to the stars and back.

Cool that this bloke trimmed his gate to fit the hedge, and not the other way around.

While we watched something on Apple TV, he plonked down in front of the Mac as usual.

Cool beer glass we bought in Garden City mall yesterday.

Cottesloe Beach was quite windy, but this made it a kite-surfers paradise
 (not shown in this photo; but I reckon there were 50+ surfers just to the South of here).

The back of the DOME building in Freo. This used to be a drab, brown/grey eye-sore.

At Grill'd Burgers in Freo. I had a field mushroom burger. If' you've never tried it, give it a go.

A 19 minute exposure looking West towards Garden Island using the tiny Ricoh GR.
Superb piece of gear, and for the first time in my life I am truly content with a camera.

Eugene turns 7!

Today was Eugene's seventh birthday. Incredible now time flies! He had a great day, joined by his best mate Philip. Aside from a quick bite and strolling through Garden City Booragoon, they also went to the movies (Penguins of Madagascar), bought games at EB Games and did some bungee jumping (the indoor kind).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY our big boy.

Just woken up (at 10:05am!!) 

Happiness is ;-)

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Best buds

First ever backflip. Awesome!

At the movies...

Jislaaik, maar ek is darem lucky!

Mariocart racing in the arcade outside the movies.

Small cake and party this year, and God willing, a huge party next year!
Some of his prezzies surround the cake.

Thanks Philip for sharing the day with Gene and Karla, for watching over them. X