James makes his debut at the Sydney Cricket Ground

The Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) is hallowed turf - the place where legends are made by Australian sportsmen - be it in Cricket or Australian Rules Football (AFL).

Last Saturday it was an AFL day and the Sydney Swans were taking on the Freemantle Dockers on a chilly afternoon in front of 25,000 people and a live TV audience of 1,000,000+.

James was part of the half-time match. His Manly Bombers team were selected to play the game. We arrived an hour early for the match so that the boys could receive their instructions - where to change, where to go etc. We got to watcht the 1st quarter of the game together and the the boys went to change into their special Sydney Swans match strips. At half-time they emerged onto the oval.

James is the one with the white boots who is doing a side step kind of run onto the pitch.

They quickly got into the game and James followed his dad's instructions. "Ignore the position they give you - just go for the ball all the time and enjoy this - this is the SCG!!"

I know I am biased but I think he took more marks (catching the ball) and had more kicks than any other player in the 15 minute game. An example follows:

James and his Dad had a great day......

Ken

Weekend at 'the farm'

Thursday, 3:00pm and Ken, Craig, Jules and Michael collect their kids from school, pack the car with lots of warm clothes and too much red wine - and head West - to "the farm".

"the farm" is about 3.5 hours North West of Sydney, in the Capartee Valley - a trully magnificent part of NSW that is under-rated and thankfully for us, under visited.

Craig has a 1/8th share in the farm, which consists of a 3 bedroom cabin, 500 acres, 50 cows, 1 sheep, 3 motorbikes and 1 quad bike. Just about the perfect recipe for a boys & kids weekend.

After an initial hic-cup in acomodation which involved an unplanned night in a motel it was all go - hearty breakfasts (it was frosty so we needed warming up), lots of feeding the cows, lots of 4WD trips around the farm, lots of quad biking and lots and lots of standing round the fire looking at the stars - which were amazing.

Given that each night the kids were in bed & asleep by 7:30pm, everyone ate well, all the kids made it back with 2 arms, 2 legs and no broken bones - I'd say it was a success.

The pictures give you a sense of stunning location, great weather (it really was a frost each morning!) and great fun we had.

Ken

We load up the hay and the kids into a trailer and head off looking for cows to feed!

The cows hear the car and come running (seriously) towards us - they like hay!

The are no tracks, we walked along the boundary fence looking at the next farm - a mere 350 acres, for sale at $250,000.....

Maggie and Michael.

The 4WD's get good use - we have to find our own track through the fields - watching for rocks and Wombat holes as we go. My new Range Rover stayed out of the fields - too soon to get it scratched!

The kids were collecting cow bones when I took this photograph. Thankfully they dropped the bones to pose for the photo.
This is an approved method of transporting kids in Outback Australia.....honestly...it was perfectly safe.....

The morning view, mist in the valley, sun just coming up. It was about 2 degrees.

Quick update

Normal blogging service will resume next week......

It's been a hectic month with Anne, Eddie and Andrew having an extended stay thanks to the volcano. They finally got home on Friday after a month in Sydney.

We've had a glorious weekend in terms of weather which has involved LOTS of sport for the boys (3 soccer games and an AFL game), sleepovers for James & Olivia and a Toga Party for the grown-ups. All great stuff....but I need sleep now.

Ken