Merry Christmas everyone!
Posted 24 December 2006 10:47:23 by Michelle
Filed under: Living Overseas
This year we’re swapping the sweltering heat, cold ham and coleslaw for roast turkey, veges, and mulled wine. While this all feels a little bit wrong, it also feels a bit right too. ‘Real’ Christmas trees for sale on the streets, freezing cold, thick, white fog, and Santas that don’t look like they’re going to pass out from the heat.
Christmas for me is all about family, making it far and away the hardest time to be away from home. Luckily we have a bunch of great friends here in London to share it all with and we’re over the moon to have Ben’s sister Leisa staying with us for the week. We just got back from meeting her at Heathrow – so exciting!
Anyway, think of us tomorrow while we’re in the kitchen wrestling with a gigantic turkey, the first time any of us have ever cooked one! We’ve bought some board games, stocked up on ridiculous amounts of food and alcohol and we’ve started planning for a big family fight.
Wherever you are and whoever you’re with, have a wonderful Christmas with lots of laughs.
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2006 – Year in review
Posted 21 December 2006 10:30:00 by Ben
Filed under: Living Overseas | Year in Review
It’s that time of the year again, yep, it’s almost over. And while the masses are rushing to finish their last minute Christmas shopping, I’ve decided to take the opportunity to reflect on the memorable moments of the last year.
2006 has proven to be a year of new experiences, most of them great but with some at the other end of the spectrum too.
It was also the year of a re-vamped website design, and of the 3 minute music video.
Following is a list of some of the highlights:-
Love life:-
- This young duck married this beautiful swan on May 6th. The happiest day of my life is only topped by the rising of the sun each and every day since. Waking up next to my bride every day makes me the happiest man alive.
- Our friends Andrew and Melina also celebrated their wedding this year in Brisbane. Unfortunately we couldn’t make it but were glad we could see them a couple of months later at ours.
- Brad and Jackie our are great S.A. friends and went home to get married on Jackie’s birthday. Yet another wedding we sadly missed.
Destinations:-
- Egypt – We spent 15 days travelling through Egypt with some great friends, escaping the cold winter of London.
- I celebrated the first of two bucks bashs in Amsterdam with 8 great friends.
- A 2 day stopover in Hong Kong on the way home for our wedding.
- I think we made a little trip to Australia at some point too. Early Days, The Gold Coast, My second bucks bash, Story Bridge Climb, We got married.
- Thailand honeymoon
- France – Normandy
- You know what they say? When in Rome
- Stepping out in New York
- England (Kent, Brighton)
- Ireland with Lou and Steve.
- Sailing the oceans of Croatia
- A wonderfully fantastic weekend in Champagne
How we earnt money:-
- I started the year off as a full time employee of Global Energy, the company I contracted to previously. However 6 months in it was time for a new opportunity, so I moved back to contracting, this time for an Investment Bank.
- Michelle continued her career at Adecco, being promoted to a Senior Marketing Executive.
Where we lived:-
- After spending a year in our lovely loft apartment we decided it was time to move on in November. We now live about 1 mile down the road in a much nicer flat in a fantastic little street.
Visitors:-
- Surprise of the Year – Gerrod and Kristy pop over for a long weekend.
- Michelle and Paul visited us for Easter.
- The Dahls made it across in August.
- Jen and Tony managed to travel 7 weeks through Europe stopping a few days with us in Chiswick.
New babies:-
- I became an uncle this year. You can see some piccies of my new nephew here
- Nonie and Chris brought little Michaela into the world in May. Can’t wait to meet her.
Musicals/Concerts/Entertainment:-
- Puppet Musical – Avenue Q
- Pete Murray
- I saw Muse twice … once in NY and once in London.
Celebrity spots:-
- We caught a flight back from Italy with Kiera Knightly. Hot stuff!
Miscellaneous:-
- I had my bag stolen
My apologies if I’ve left off an important event, occasion, or story. It’s just a genuine mistake and not a deliberate snub.
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Winter has finally come…
Posted 20 December 2006 07:20:43 by Ben
Filed under: Living Overseas
-1 degrees at the moment. 4 degrees maximum today. yikes!
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Life in the water
Posted 19 December 2006 08:00:06 by Ben
Filed under: Living Overseas
Gerrod and Kristy gave us a wonderful package in Australia earlier this year to aid in our travels abroad for our honeymoon. Included in this package was an underwater camera. It’s taken us quite a while to get around to finishing the film and we have finally got around to getting the photos developed.
Some of the highlights follow:-
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Secret Santee
Posted 17 December 2006 13:20:14 by Ben
Filed under: Living Overseas
Tradition dictates that the Uni Gang catch up for xmas and exchange secret Santa gifts. The last few years have seen the group geographically dispersed and as a result we catch up via web cam.
This year, the balance of power has shifted to Brisbane, with 5 of the 9 members (Cathy, Grant, David, Jen and Tony) calling the place of eternal summer sunshine and no water, home. Not to be disheartened though, Jaimee, Damian, Michelle and myself still know how to party, and we shared some fine pizza and mince pies while opening up our tacky secret Santa presents in front of the web cam.
This years Secret Santa theme was ‘Anything Orange’ and boy, were some tacky gifts exchanged. There was the 2 cent orange plastic pen, a pooper scooper, and a pokemon bubble bath creature. Some great stuff.
It was great seeing the brizzie contingent milling about in summer clothes and enjoying Champagne, Croissants and Smoked Salmon for breakfast, while we were decked out in warm coats, drinking beer and wine under the moonlit skies of a cold evening. The groups newest member Amelie seemed to enjoy herself too, playing up to the camera and speaking lots of baby talk.
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