Quiet weekend.....

It's all relative.....this was on paper a quieter weekend than normal but was still pretty full.

Saturday started with Jame's playing cricket - his final warm up match before the start of the season. The team were looking good and all the coaching has clearly helped. One of the players Dad's is Dermot Reeve - former England test player and current coach of the New Zealand cricket team. His involvement can only help and we all have high hopes for The Kookabarra's this season.

On Saturday afternoon I played another soccer match - for KPMG this time. I made several mistakes in this match, firstly - no suntan cream and secondly - thinking I could keep up with 25 year-olds. By the end of the game I was sore, bruised and very red - my nose will probably start to peel tomorrow.

Saturday night was Party Night. Our friend Helen Peach just turned 40. We joined 80 other people for a huge party in their house - complete with Harpist, a Rock Band and full catering. The theme was "Barefoot and Black Tie". The guys had to wear board-shorts and black tie, the girls cocktail dress with a 'hint of beach'.

In the picture you can just about see Emma's thongs (Flip-Flops for the Brits) - her 'hint of beach'. It was a great night with lots of dancing and drinking - it ended about 1:30am with most of the guys sitting in the jacuzi enjoying their final beers. We woke up with very sore heads this morning - and 4 kids as Helen's kids had stayed the night with us. 4 kids & a hangover are not a good combination.

Today was very, very wet in Sydney so we did not do much.

Olivia had fun pretending to be an alien from a distant planet. Lisa, Craig, Hunter & Fletcher joined us for dinner and I somehow managed to find the courage to enjoy a glass of wine. The hangover is finally gone!

Ken

Auckland weekend

We are just back from a long (Thursday to Monday) weekend in Auckland, New Zealand.

It was David Mochrie's 40th Birthday and given that I have known him since we were about 12 months old - we thought a visit was justified to help him celebrate the occasion.

We spent our time (in between eating & drinking) seeing the sites of Auckland - including several volcanoes (did you know Auckland is built on 50 volcanoes), some wonderful beaches, an acquarium and the compulsory Crazy Golf Course.

We had an excellent time. Dave, Nic and Nate were great hosts and put up with our messed up body clock from the mere 2 hour time difference.

Our dinner experiences were exciting. On our first night we went to a local Fish restaurant and enjoyed great food. We were not expecting the entertainment that arrived with desert - the Chef & Owner, clearly rather drunk, made a speech to the whole restaurant about a long held grudge he had against a local waiter and how he had just 'had it out' with him. He then moved on to Auckland's food critics and described how after a bad review he had flown a huge banner above a bridge calling the critic a w**nker. After that he joined our table and spent 30 minutes explaining how he had beat his drug problems. While a great chef - as a dinner companion he left a little to be desired. We'll remember the night for a long time though.

Now, it may have been the Whisky (a lovely single malt) or the many beers, but I have a vague recollection that Dave & I agreed to lose a few kg's and climb Kilimanjaro in 2010. Better get in training as after a few drinks in the week before I also agreed to do a 100km walk for charity - must be something to do with being 40!

Ken

A family Sunday

It's been a busy morning and a lazy afternoon.

I played soccer (see below) and Emma spent the morning gardening with the help of the kids. By the size of the piles of garden rubbish now at the gate it was a very productive morning.

This afternoon was more relaxed. A walk to Forty Baskets Beach, tea and cakes with the Peaches & Underhills followed by a walk back to Tania Park to collect the car. In between the kids played cricket and had great fun.

Thanks to the wonderful timer on our oven (only discovered today) we arrived home to the smell of Roast Beef and quickly tucked into a good old fashioned Sunday roast dinner. James chose Brussel Sprouts as the veg (yes our kids actually like them) and we followed it with Ice Cream with Emma's home made caramel sauce - which is amazing.

The snaps above are of this afternoon activities.

Just before dinner the kids turned up the music to enjoy their favourite artist - Michael Jackson - the video is them dancing to Billie Jean until James pushes Olivia over and the tears started ...sorry the iPhone does not capture sound.

The World Masters Games 2009

The World Masters Games are the largest participatory multi sport event. They are the Olympics for normal people plus a few elite athletes.

They are in Sydney and kicked of on Saturday. I am playing in the Over 35 Football Comp. Thankfully the Comp is graded and we are in a pool of teams with similar (see below) skill levels. Some teams are rather good - for example there is an Aussie team that has 6 former Australian National Team captains. There are also 6 Brazilian sides here - that we also managed to avoid.

So, game 1 on Saturday started badly - we were 0-3 after 7 minutes. It got better from there but we still lost 0-9. We did however make the headline news on the official website.

http://www.2009worldmasters.com/Kellyville-Kolts-kick-off-to-good-start/default.aspx

Game 2 was today and we had high hopes. By half-time we were 3-1 up thanks to two goals from yours truly - one with my right and most pleasingly one from 20 yards with my left foot! Sadly we ran out of puff in the second half and lost 3-5.

Game 3 tomorrow if the muscles can recover in time. The chances of us winning a medal are now gone - so it's all about fun.

Ken