Country/City Boy

I Love you more than you know

2012-01-28T02:55:00.002+11:00

Why didn't I say I love you one more time, that's what I find myself asking. I don't use those words enough sometimes, not wanting to use them just for the sake of it, but then sometimes you find out your too late to say them once more.

Sometimes people come into your life and have the biggest influence on you, you may grow to idolise them or love them, they may just come into your life because they marry someone from your family.

Aaron King came into our family by marrying my sister Lisa, he sure shook our family up even if he did look like a boy. I grew to love Aaron as more than my brother in law, he became one of my closest friends, someone to turn to if I needed anything at all, someone you could trust and someone who I could love.

I came down to Tasmania from Sydney last week needing a recharge of body and mind and Lisa and Aaron picked me up from the airport and asked if it was ok if we went to the cemetery as Hari wanted me to go see Noah, so we parked the car and walked down to see Noah's grave and spend some time together there. Afterwards we went to Aaron's favourite restaurant McDonalds for a bite to eat as I hadn't had tea yet.

I was going to borrow Aaron's car that he had just inherited after Lisa got another car, but Lisa had a photo shoot the next day, so needed a car, so I spent the day with Aaron, going to collect my nephew Jalen from a church camp and then later we thought we'd go out and do something and ended up at Grindelwald playing minigolf.

There was a tight tussle between Aaron and I for the top prize and at the last hole I had a one shot lead and eventually won by that one shot. I must say though aaron did have distractions with Kobe who is 3 yrs old and also a lost golf ball, when he putted into water :)

Because it was such a hot day, we all decided icecreams were in order, so we ate them and then had a little look around.

Aaron loves his Iphone and instigram, he'll try to sell you on it.

We spent sometime playing on the pirate ship and fooling around and then headed off to get pizza for tea. Lisa got back from her photo shoot late, so Aaron and I spent sometime watching cricket and flicking sport channels as he had talked Lisa into Austar, so he could watch all his sports again.

I spent a few more hours with them the next morning before heading off to my Mum and Dad's for a few days.

Aaron and my sister Lisa have spent the last few years down at the East coast of Tasmania with their family for a week or so at a shack they rent and after losing Noah late last year, they had the shack booked again and thought it would be good if all of us from Lisa's side of the family came down for a few days and spent time together. Lisa and Aaron headed down on the Wednesday and I had decided it was a good time of year to escape Sydney and spend some time with the family, so Mum and I headed down early on the 26th of January which is Australia day. We arrived just after my other Sister Nicki and her Husband Alex and their three kids, Maddi, Alex and Lincoln and not long after us my brother Eden and his wife Steph and their three kids, Chloe, Lachie and Hugh arrived. Aaron has made these peanut butter cups and I had texted him to make sure they were there, so when we got into the shack he goes, I brought these for Chrish and me and we eat a couple and then goes to me I know if my pepsi goes down, who to blame as only you and I drink it, a little subtle warning, but Aaron being a softy always shares it with me.

Aaron was pumped to head to the beach right away, he loves the water, so we put up our tents, grabbed a bite to eat and then all headed over to binnalong bay. The water photos are from last years trip on Australia day, when Mum and I also went down for a few days and stayed with them.

Aaron is lucky to support an Australian sports team, ok, to tell the truth he just loves England in the cricket and was wearing his England cricket team cap, so being Australia day and all, I told him "that's UnAustralian". I needed a hat, so he said to go to chicken feed and grab him an Australian cap too, but unfortunately they were all out. That was the start of our "that's UnAustralian" call all day, I think him and I might have drove everyone batty with everything we said :D !!

I think Aaron was about the first one into the water, he was well and truly in by the time Mum and I arrived, so I threw my shoes off and ran and dived straight in. Harri and Jay were in as well and they had a skimmer ball, that Aaron had texted me about earlier on in the week about as we were both getting more excited about getting to see each other and spend time together. We spent some time fooling around with the ball, before Alex and Eden also came in and we fooled around for awhile, getting smashed by waves and trying to see who could catch a wave the furthest and sneak attacks by Aaron, trying to jump on me when my back was turned and push me under. We spent awhile in before Lisa and Nicki also came in and after a little while I was freezing, so I came in amidst protests of being soft coming down from Sydney, I was so cold that while I was trying to take a photo of everyone in the water I couldn't get it good enough as I was shaking so much :)

We spent awhile longer at the beach throwing around a gridiron ball and playing some cricket as it was "UnAustralian" not to play cricket on Australia day! Aaron was a maniac and after awhile ran back into the water with Jay and had another swim, because it was so cold we all started packing up and I waved at him to come in, he saw me and gave me the "forks" as he's always done, the old two fingers, to say no :D

After getting back to the shack and showering, it was time to make dinner and Lisa and I had a spaghetti blog cook off, masterchef here we come! Aaron had to get a "that's UnAustralian" comment in about eating an Italian dish and she was teasing me about using a fork instead of a spatula, so Aaron decided he was going to try mine instead. After tea we were kinda sitting around while dessert was cooking and Aaron goes to me you look a little anxsy, and that it looked like I wanted to go do something, so I said yeh lets go to the wharf and go fishing and Eden had been talking about taking the boat out and trying it, so I said yeh lets go fishing and said "Aaron are you coming" and then he tries to turn it around on me like I didn't want him to come like. Aaron, Eden, Alex and I took off in the car and put the boat in at a ramp maybe a few hundred metres from the shack and we headed out for an hour or just over.

We had some fun on the boat, we got a few flathead, well Alex and I did, but they were small and we threw them back in, I ended up getting six and Alex 2 and Aaron wasn't getting a nibble, so Eden was teasing him about T-bagging, where your jiggling your line all the time and bringing it up all the time. Aaron decided I had the lucky spot, so he decided he was tsking it and took my seat and then I caught another one and he was right next to me and wasn't getting a nibble, so to tease him I said "how about we swap rods" but he replies, "no you'll catch something on it". After awhile we headed in as all we were catching were small fish and thought we'd get up early and head further out in the sea for bigger fish. When we got to the ramp I jumped out of the boat and held it while everyone else got off, as Eden reversed the trailer down and we hooked the boat up, Aaron and Alex decided they'd race us back to the shack, so Aaron dropped my shoes and they went running off to see if they could beat each other. Eden made a comment about them running and we drove back and dessert was waiting for us, we got asked if we got anything and they asked how many I got and I said a couple and I think Jay asked how many Aaron got, and he replies, "your funny" or something similar.

There was a card game going on next to the tv and we were standing around and Aaron had stolen all the chocolate pudding and had sat on one of the single couches and started eating and he made a sound and we all looked at him thinking he was clowning around like usual and was going on about someones cards, so we all looked at him and Lisa goes sometthing like" No there's something wrong with him" Aaron was on the couch and it looked like he was having a fit, Lisa said to put him on the ground, so we pulled him down and thought he'd soon be fine, but he didn't seem to be breathing, so we started to move him around to try and get his airways clear incase he was blocked. We called an ambulance and Eden had walked in, so he was talking to them on the phone while Alex and my Mum were doing CPR on Aaron. Aaron and Lisa's sons, Jalen who is 12 and Harri who is 7 were in the room and were shocked and were yelling is Daddy going to die, and kept yelling and moving around, so we had to grab them both and after a little bit their Auntie Steph took Hari into one of the bedrooms and I went outside to wait for the ambulance and Jay was wandering around and asking me is Dad going to be ok, and I was sure he'd be fine, so told him yes, that Alex and Mum was looking after him and the ambulance was coming. Jay wanted to go down the street, so I had to hold him and in a little while, Nicki came out and took him into Steph and Harri in the bedroom, where they were all praying hard for Aaron, that he would be ok. After about 15 mins or so, two ambulances came and I flagged them down and they went in and took over from Mum and Alex and the three paramedics went to work on Aaron and I thought he has to come right now. There was no way in my mind that it wasn't going to be ok, Aaron was going to be fine, they would take him to hospital and we'd follow close behind them. I rang Jared who had been planning to come down with Bec and their three kids the next day and told them what was happening and Jared was going "what, are you kidding" and had to tell him that I wasn't and told them I'd let them know what was happening and then had to call Dad, who was at home and let him know as well. Dad also thought I was joking around. Just as I was coming in a police car arrived and asked me what was going on as the two ambulances had on flashing lights, so I told him and he goes I'll come in and as he's walking in the door, he tells me that he doesn't have to come in, but if I wanted to see if he could help, so I said if you can help come in.

The paras tried for about 30-40 mins, using adrenaline, and shocking him, trying tubes down his throat, but nothing was working and they had to tell us "sorry" but they couldn't do anything more for him and that he was gone. Shock, surely that wasn't all, there had to be more, Aaron couldn't possibly be gone, we had just been back 5 mins from fishing, it couldn't be happening!!! It was just after 9pm.

Lisa had now lost a son and husband within three months of each other, not possible I said in my mind, Noah I could understand as he was only given a short life span, but Aaron was only 39, we had been having fun together all day. Kobe was asleep in bed while it was all happening along with most of the other kids or others who were outside so Lisa had to tell Jay and Harri that their Dad had passed away. I went and called back Jared and Bec and Dad and passed on the news that they and all of us didn't want to hear, that Aaron was gone and we couldn't do anything more for him. I also called a couple of my close friends Dave and Ande and blubbed to them what had happened, I was a wreck, I had tears pouring out talking to them and I'm sure I was incomprehensible most of the time. We then had another police car come as well.

He was gone, Aaron was one of my closest friends, it couldnt be, the policeman arranged for Aaron's body to be picked and we all sat there wondering why and not being able to contemplate it. We sat there for a couple of hours with tears all streaming down our faces talking to each other and holding his hands and stroking his hair, not believing it was true, but it was a dream that we would surely wake up from. We had a family prayer together and Eden and Alex gave Lisa and the boys a blessng.

I had to kiss him goodbye when the guy came to collect him, I know it was just his body, but it was still Aaron and we had to help to put his body onto a stretcher to be taken away to the coroner in Launceston. We all stayed up with each other till close on 2am or so, then went to our tents and did a little cleaning to get ready to pack up in the morning. Lisa gave me Aaron's Iphone and told me to accept any friend requests that came through as word had spread about Aaron and a lot of his students wanted to become friends on facebook and there was confusion as people were wondering how he had been accepting friend requests if he was dead, so Lisa had to facebook it that it was true and then I had to as well later on. Aaron was very loved, as soon as you accepted a batch of people as friends and looked at notifications or messages that were getting sent to his accound, there would be more things to accept and look at and it went on until close on 3.30-4.00am when I went to bed to try and get some sleep.

I think I might have got an hrs sleep before I was awake again and went inside the shack and read all of Aaron's tributes on his fb page and also on lisa page and her photography page. Nicki and Mum were inside and were just going out for a a little bit, so I sat on the couch and read and Lisa came out and saw I was crying and held me as I blubbered away to her and made her wet with my tears about how much I loved him and it wasn't right, that he can't be gone.

We all packed each other up once the kids were up and fed and we cleaned the shack, then had a family prayer. I drove Lisa and the boys home, it felt weird not having Aaron there with us, I was used to Nan's van and sitting in the back with the boys, but there was no Aaron. I think I drove pretty well for tears coming every now and again as I listened to Lisa on the phone as people rang her.

Dad was waiting for us with Uncle Kim when we arrived, and Simone was only a couple of minutes behind us followed by Jared and Becky, Nicki had driven Mum back and we had followed Alex and the kids back.

It still seems so unreal, one of my closest buddies is gone, I keep wanting to wake up and it will be all ok. I was thinking maybe if I hadn't wanted to go out fishing, he'd still be with us and Lisa would still have a husband and the boys a Dad to grow up with. Lisa and Aaron were meant to grow old together, that was the plan, and today as it was sunny, we were supposed to be catching fish then fooling around in the water and diving off the rocks like last year when we were together.

The tears keep coming as I think about you, thankyou for all you did for me, I still remember being away for two years in 96-98 and you put together a book for me off the Crows finals and premiership win, I would have done anything for you and I know you would have done the same.

I guess you were needed somewhere else, Noah is a lucky guy getting you back so soon

It feels "unAustralian" Aaron

I love you always

We were GREAT friends, but....

2011-12-21T18:22:00.000+11:00

it may be time to say goodbye.

Queensland Sep 2011

2011-11-27T22:39:00.001+11:00

I've been splitting my holidays over the last year between Tassie and QLD since Dave and Ande moved up north last year and since I have been slack blogging I've gotten behind on blogs, so thought I'd rewind to Sep when I was last in QLD.

The first day there we went to a local farmyard and got to play with the animals. It didn't cost anything and you could but food for the animals if you wanted.

We nicknamed this Goat, Gertie, it liked to get attention.

Papparazzi at work, getting photos for her blog :D

Fri night Dave and I went to little athletics and I got to partner up with Poppy and help her with her events, but mainly I took photos and encouraged.

Saturday Dave and I hired a boat and went out for a few hours, luckily we werent fishing for a living or even for a feed, because we caught like three things all day, it was relaxing being out on the water. We had to pull a jetski out of the mud for some french guys.

Sunday night I went and caught up with my cousin Konnie and her family, it's been nice to see them a few times over the last year and get to know them a little more.

Monday Ande, Monique, Poppy and I went up the mountain a little and had a short hike to a waterfall which was pretty nice, then after that we went and met Dave at Yatala famous pies.

Thanks for having me, I love coming up and seeing you all.

A short time, but more precious than Gold.

2011-10-10T16:28:00.000+11:00

You know it's hard sometimes to put into words how you feel about someone or something that's happened. My nephew Noah was diagnosed with Hydranencephaly around 9 weeks old. You can read more about his story here http://lisajking.blogspot.com/p/about-hydranencephaly.html, written by my sister Lisa.

Last Saturday night, Lisa contacted me and said that Noah was sick and that they were flying him from Launceston to Hobart as he needed specialist care. I didn't really think much about it and thought everything would be fine.

On Sunday I found out that it was a little more serious than I first thought and that he had a collapsed lung and he was intubated and a respirator was breathing for him. Living alone sucks at times like that and not being able to do anything or be there to give a hug if needed because you live in another state.

Monday was a bit of a better day for me as Steph and the kids were up and being a public holiday, I went out to Richmond and caught up with them for a few hours and took my mind off things. Lisa and I would text back and forth every few hours, so I could see what was happening with Noah and facebook got more of a workout more than usual, if that's somehow possible. Noah was fighting and his condition was pretty stable, with a little bit of improvement and then some setbacks, but I thought that he would be ok.

This photo was one of the last one's that I took when I was down in Tassie in September, we had just done a walk for StGiles, which is a school for handicapped kids and Noah was sleeping away as per usual :)

I was worried about Noah and kept asking Lisa if I should come down, but she told me to hold off and she'd let me know if I needed to. Saturday morning I was lying in bed watching tv and playing on the internet, when I looked at my facebook and there was a message from Lisa saying trying to ring you. Can you ring? As soon as I saw that message my heart dropped and thought that it could only be bad news and leant over to grab my phone, which I found was flat. I plugged it in and rang Lisa back and got her voicemail, so I messaged her back on facebook and after a few minutes we were finally able to catch each other and she gave me the news that Noah wasn't going to improve and that they were going to take him off the machines. What do you say in that second?! I think I came up with something lame, like I'm sorry and we talked awhile longer and she said to come down for the funeral because they didn't want Noah to have to be on the machine for much longer, but I said I wanted to come down and that I'd look at flights and get back to her. Luckily there was a flight, so I booked myself onto it for 3 hrs later and told her I was coming down and arranged to get to the airport. I was doing pretty good till that stage, but I rang my boss and told him what was happening and I was bawling my eyes out and sniffling away and he got the gist of what was happening and told me to not worry about work and that family was more important and to take as much time as I needed.

I talked to Jared to get him to pick me up from the airport in Hobart and all the way to the airport I had tears on and off. Arriving in Hobart I was fine until Jared turned up and gave me a hug and I just started breaking down with him hugging me (Sorry Fard). When we arrived at the airport, we first ran into my Sister Nicki's husband Alex and one of his sons, so we went up together to the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) and Lisa's youngest son Kobe who is 3 saw me and goes Pish, Pish and runs up to me and grabs me and goes lets dance. Kobe always cracks me up and all I ever hear all day when I'm around him is Pish a million times.

All my brothers and Sisters and their families had all driven down to say goodbye to Noah and Mum had also been down staying to look after the kids if needed, so it was nice to see them all for a minute and to hug them. Hugging Lisa and Aaron was the hardest thing and the tears flowed again and I wished there was more I could do to take away their pain. After a short time everyone said their goodbye's to Noah and it was nice to see all his nephews and neices with him, holding his hands and kissing him like they always did.

I was able to spend a couple of hrs with Noah, Lisa, Aaron, my nephews Jalen, Harri and Kobe and also Mum and be able to sit by his side and rub his arm and hold his hand and kiss his forehead and be able to tell him how proud I was to be his uncle and how lucky we all were that we were able to have him in our life for 10 years, when the doctors only gave him a year or two to live when he was diagnosed in his first year. After giving Lisa and Aaron some time alone with him, they let me have some time alone with him and to say goodbye, which was special and also hard to do, as he would be missed and was a big part of the family. Lisa, aaron, the boys and Mum and I were there when the Dr came in and he talked about what they would be doing and told Lisa and Aaron to let them know if there was anything that they could do to make Noah more comfortable. Harri had a seat and I think he needed a hug, so I sat him on my lap and wrapped my arms around him and held him tight. Ok to tell the truth I needed the hug and Harri was a good excuse for me to hold on tight to him and be near Noah and try to be strong for them all. After all the tubes and machines were shut off Noah passed away from us just after 7pm on Saturday the 8th of October.

One Angel was called home, we had him for a short time, but his time was up and he was needed somewhere else. Noah will now be able to use his body the same way that we take for granted, he can walk and skip and be able to talk with his loved one's and for that I am grateful. My tears flow, and I'm sure they will for awhile, know that I loved you and wish I could take away the pain of your family if I could.

I say bye for now, but in the future, I hope to talk with you and be able to take the footy out and kick around with you, just don't show me up to much :D

I'm sure Pop and Nan and Uncle Daniel are there to greet you.

Love always Uncle Chrish

A get together

2011-07-10T19:26:00.000+10:00

It's been awhile since I caught up with Ryan and his family and last Sunday I got a phone call asking if I wanted to come over for tea, so I thought why not.

When I first arrived I got a happy birthday from the kids, guess they had been talking about it as I'd turned 34 during the week.

All of the kids are growing up heaps.

To top the night off I even got a birthday cake :D

Sydney 4.5.2011

2011-05-04T20:07:00.000+10:00

Today is the type of day, that makes me love Sydney, nice crisp days, not too cold and the air clean and glorious.

Sailing on the Harbour.

Goldcoast Easter 2011

2011-04-30T20:39:00.000+10:00

The Easter bunny turned up and put eggs out in the backyard of Dave and Ande's house, only problem was he didn't take into account the heat and by the time the girls got home to search for the eggs, the hollow eggs were slightly melted and squishy. Hint to the Easter Bunny, please remember to put them out as late as possible next time, if you get the job of scattering them about. Oops, luckily the freezer refroze them enough after the collection.

On Easter Monday Dave's brother John and his wife Kate and their daughter Laura, came down to spend the day with us. Kate was a friend growing up and we had alot to do with her family as her Dad was our bishop and we used to stay over there a fair bit when they lived in Tassie before moving away.

I spent awhile sitting near the water with my camera as their was this pelican sitting a little out on the water and I was waiting for a perfect shot of it, but it never came about, but I shot this while waiting.

Laura

John decided that we needed to go to the skate park and he showed off some of his moves, while Ande and I snapped away, Kate wanted us to get some photos of him crashing, haha.

Dave loves teasing us about always having a camera about.

Was pretty good weather for the few days up there, it kind of reminded me of Tassie weather though, with all the seasons at times.

It's funny what kids remember, last time I was up there and I was playing around with Monique, I'd capture her and hold her down and she's try to escape and I'd tell her nope, your mine forever and this time up, when we fooled around, she'd say to me Chrishy, am I yours forever? And I'd say yep you are, it was pretty cute.

Just a drive up the road.

2011-04-28T19:16:00.000+10:00

What do you do when you have 5 days off work for Easter and ANZAC day and the airfares to Tassie are over $700 return?

Got in the car and decided to head north across the border to see the canetoads, just a little drive of 900 km's or so, heading off at just after 12am.

I arrived in QLD kind of unannounced as I had lost my phone the day before, so I found myself all alone for awhile, so went off to visit Konnie, who happened to be away for the holidays as well, so next stop was a visit to Uncle Howard and Auntie Marilyn, to find out, they werent home as well, so I decided to go explore a little. Last time I was up there we went to a pool out in the canefields and so I headed out there and there was a storm brewing, so I was waiting for the lightning to crack and to capture this amazing photo, which didn't happen, as the lightning never came.

Two of my favourite girls, Poppy and Monique.

The day after getting there, we went to the beach, it was a pretty warm day when the sun was out, warm enough for even me to go in the water a couple of times.

A little beach babe.

My hosts for the weekend, Ande and David.

Just a stroll down towards the ocean and these two were playing in the shallows.

Quite a fun day, just as we were leaving, I spotted some people who looked familiar driving in to the car park. Lanai and her family, had popped an hour down the coast to see a friend of her husbands and by sheer coincidence on any of the beaches we could have been at, we ended up at the same one. Later on we went to a park at Coolongatta and had tea.

Adelaide Trip 2011

2011-04-10T16:53:00.000+10:00

While I was over in Adelaide to watch the Crows, I had a day to kill, so I caught a tram into the city and wandered around seeing what I could find to photograph.

There was plenty of entertainment in Rundle mall.

There were all these random pianos around the city you could sit down and play if you felt inclined to do so.

I even ended up at the museum and had a browse around for awhile.

Taking some time out just to catch a pic of myself.

What a babe, she even sprinkled glitter onto my shoulder.

Catching a fashion show.

I stayed in Glenelg for the weekend.

The kids were up nice and early to use the water slides.

Beach at Glenelg.

20 Year Love Affair

2011-04-08T22:32:00.000+10:00

20 years ago there was a new team who came into the AFL, I remember thinking that thats my team after seeing them come into the competition and from game one against the Hawks, where the Crows touched them up by 86 points, I was hooked.

For someone who likes their team there's nothing quite like being in a home crowd and I had never been to Adelaide before, so seeing as though this was the anniversary of the Crows coming into the competition, I thought I better change that and headed over to Adelaide for the weekend.

The original players were shown to the crowd before the new crop of stars came on to play, earlier on in the day Andrew Mcleod, football superstar who retired the year before was on playing a game for the Northern Territory team, he was rolling along as per usual with ease.

The banner says it all!!

.Well worth the money and the experience of being in a crowd who wants a win as much as you

One of the two premierships we have won.

Two legends of the club.

A couple of more legends.

10 years

2011-02-17T21:29:00.001+11:00

Today one of the managers asked me to come into his office and I said to him, what have I done now. I'm not used to going to the office unless something has happened, so I reluctantly went in and he goes to me, I'm sorry to have to do this to you, so I said ok, just tell me what I've done and he goes, I have to apologise, but work lost this and he then says to me I hear you have been with the company for ten years. It was a bit of a relief to realise what I was getting and I wasn't in strife.

Who would have thought that ten years ago, I'd leave Tassie for Sydney, let alone work for the one company for ten years, it wasn't something I'd even thought about. I'm on a pretty good wicket with StarTrack, they look after me pretty well, with how much time I've needed off since 02 and all the hospital visits, guess thats why im still with the company.

My dream Job

2011-01-11T21:02:00.001+11:00

You know when your asked what your dream job is??!! Well I think I've found what would be mine.

Usually you just have to watch out for the cricket ball coming flying your way without needing to worry about the elements sending things flying at you.

Just about the perfect shot for the lense used, with the bails in the pic flying in the air with the ball cannoning into the stumps.

I find AFL easier to get shots of as you can pretty much tell where the balls about to go and can follow it easier as its alot bigger.

So can you guess what my dream job is??!!

Christmas 2010

2010-12-28T21:51:00.000+11:00

This year for Christmas I had my friends Dave and Ande come and stay with me as they had moved to Queensland and had decided they would come back and spend Christmas with their families, so we had a bit of Christmas spirit, with us as they have their two daughters.

Ande decided that we needed a tree and as it was only me usually, I hadn't bothered, so she bought a tree and her and the girls decorated it.

Second stop for the day after we all left to go our seperate ways was at the Rances, who decided id been a stranger for to long and so rang me up to come over, so ended up their for lunch and a chat and a snooze on their couch :)

After the Rances I headed over to North Richmond and visited with the Hargreaves and the Sandelin-Mccanns and watched a movie and had tea.

Who knew that huggies nappies boxes would come in so handy for a piniata :)

It was a nice day all up and was nice to spend it with lots of friends, who have meant so much in my life from early childhood friends to people who have taken me in and looked after me well the last few years.

Rams Footy Presentation night

2010-10-03T18:12:00.001+11:00

Last night we had our annual football presentation and it was bigger and better than usual.

U18's best and fairest winner Matt Payne, who also won best and fairest for the u18's Sydney comp.

I took alot of photos of everyone on the night, so just thought I'd show a few.

There was a tie for first grade best and fairest this year, Lachie on the right won the Sydney best and fairest as well, but Dave got enough to catch him in the club vote.

I just thought this was a cute pic of the little kid with his Dad and his trophy, he seemed really proud of him and told him to put on his medal.

A couple of familiar faces I always sit with every year :D

I hadn't got a vote since swapping clubs to Penrith in like 6-7 years of playing, but this year it was interesting to sit there and watch while the votes were read out and actually hear my name come up few times. Club voting is different to Sydney comp voting as one of my team mates won the Sydney best and fairest, but only came third in the club best and fairest.

One of the first things Ande said to me, was about where I'd come from a year ago, just having finished the third of my operations and hadn't been playing footy really for a couple of years and here I was getting best and fairest for the Rams reserve grade.

We had a band this year, who after the awards and formal part of the night took over.

Some of the boys watching the big screen of the grandfinal game for the first time.

Another Season Ends

2010-09-29T19:35:00.000+10:00

If you know me at all you know apart from certain people, there are just a few things I love and two of them are footy and also taking photos and this year I started to combine both of them.

I've played footy for the Penrith Rams the last few odd years and this year, we hd a successful year overall after hardly winning games the last 5 years or so.

We ended up getting two of our three teams into the grandfinal, so I ended up taking around 1300 photos for the day, kinda crazy huh, but there was so much going on and great action to be captured.

Dave in action playing his last game for the Rams, where he is well renowned taking out a few awards over the years including best and fairest, when he was much younger I might add.

Screamers are always plentiful and I started getting a little bit better with my shots by the last few rounds and finals

One thing I do like about footy is the comradship between all the players.

The final was played on the home turf of the new GWS team, loved playing on a nice surface and look at the crowd, AFL is slowly becoming more apart of Western Sydney.

At the end of the day, it ended up being a loss for the senior 1st grade, but a great season. "Rams to rise again in 2010" will be replaced with "Rams in heaven in 2011", with hopefully going another step and taking out the big game.

One win for the day out of the two, with the 18's winning quite easily which was expected with them going undefeated through the season with an average winning score of over 100 points.

I thought I'd try some different photography and headed down to Penrith's 1st grade's match, where a couple of the boys from footy, were in the team, it's alot harder trying to get good shots at Cricket compared to footy, trying to get the perfect shot. I'm pretty sure, I need a better lense for the job, ahh to dream of all these lenses I want :(

Swans training and slotting some Goals on the SCG

2010-09-07T21:59:00.000+10:00

Today for work I had to deliver some computers to the Sydney Swans, so after I had delivered them I asked the receptionist if training was a closed session and it was except for a group of Aboriginal kids who were in Sydney for a visit. She goes do you want to see them train and as I'd finished my work and it was very early in the day, I said yes if possible, so she gave me a contractors pass and opened a ack door for me and took me into the SCG to see the boys train.

I just got there as they were all coming off the ground as most of them were going to the pool, but a few of the younger guys stayed out and ran laps and sprints, so I sat down and watched them do their thing. The Aboriginal kids all got to go onto the ground and have a kick and as they were coming off, one of the balls came my way, so I decided it was for me and emptied my pockets of keys and passes and phone and went for a bounce of the ball and kicked some goals on the field. Oh to have a field like that to play on, the ball came back from the lush grass when you wanted it to and it was fun slotting a few goals and having pot shots from 50 metres and the feeling of what it would be like to play in front of a packed house and the atmosphere you would. Everyone can dream right :)

Captain Kirk

The boys came back after awhile for a quick jog and warmdown, Goodsey, Jude, rising star Hannebery and big Pikey stretching out

Goodsey and I, what a nice bloke he was!! Definitely one of the good blokes and great players

Penrith Show

2010-08-30T20:59:00.000+10:00

Ande had some Relief Society activity on Saturday and as Dave and I didn't have any footy on this day, we decided that we'd head off to the local show and check it out.

The girls had great fun riding on the ponies and Poppy had never been on one before but rode one handed like a cowgirl

No show is complete without a dagwood dog or fairy floss

There were reptiles to handle and to feel

This goat decided my finger was more tasty than the food we had bought the girls to feed the animals

It gets a bit that way after so many visitors, the koala decided he needed a little snooze.

Mon and I rode the Dodgems as you do

The gun actually shot straight, whats up with that

Run 4 Riley

2010-08-04T21:04:00.001+10:00

My Close friends Dave and Ande lost their Son Riley during Ande's pregnancy at 31 weeks. This Sunday we are doing the http://www.city2surf.com.au/ city2surf fun run to raise money, running from Sydney city to Bondi beach which is a 14 Kilometre run.

click the link below if you want to support our fundraising effort and to donate some money.

http://city2surf2010.gofundraise.com.au/Run4Riley

No footy to play !! :(

2010-07-24T21:46:00.000+10:00

What do you do when you have no footy on? I decided it was time to get the kayak back out and make use of the sunshine and free day and have a paddle. I headed out to bents basin, thinking I could get in the river there, but alas I couldn't, so they kayak stayed on the car and it was just the camera and I :)

There were a few people about, some had wet a line and were after a fish or two

I had fun just fooling around

Bents basin is quite a nice spot for a bbq and get together, and is quite frequented in summer for such and also a swim

My trip to Tassie in pics

2010-07-19T17:55:00.000+10:00

A couple of Models

2010-06-06T22:05:00.000+10:00

While I was down last time in May, Lisa and I decided to go to the gorge in Launceston and have a play around with our cameras and taking pics.

Kobe was easy to take photos of as he was always smiling

There were alot of photos of Lisa taking photos suprisingly !!!

Oh no Mum, not another one !!!

A Nan for the ages

2010-05-25T21:31:00.000+10:00

I sometimes think that some partnerships are never to be broken, In January my Pop died and left behind my Nan, but just this past week, my Nan has managed to find her way back to him. Nan and Pop were apart for close on 4 months, not bad after being married for 66 years.

Sydney in May part2

2010-05-08T10:07:00.000+10:00

Sydney in May part1

2010-05-06T21:48:00.000+10:00

Lest We Forget

2010-04-25T10:45:00.000+10:00

This is the first year that Pop hasn't been around for an ANZAC day march, it was always special to see him march in Deloraine and see his smile and proud look. Pop has always been my hero, the person I would look up to and would always want to be around.

Sometimes hero is a word used too frequently, but not so with Pop, he served in the war and would do anything for anyone, there was one time when one of my cousins and I were staying in Pop and Nan's old shack with both of them, and a pack of bullets accidentaly got knocked into the fire and with Nan, my cousin and I in the room, the bullets started to go off and Pop came rushing in and grabbed us all and pulled us out.

You will be missed everyday, love you and Nan for your examples

A baby blessing and get together

2010-04-19T20:18:00.001+10:00

Yesterday the 18th of April, Ryan and Nicole Hargeaves had their newest edition to the family blessed in Richmond Chapel, her name is Ame'lie Isabella Hargreaves and I was blessed enough to be invited to her blessing.

Bro John Hargreaves was able to be over here for the blessing.

One of Ryan and Nicole's friends little girls

I had fun snapping pics of all the kids running around and playing and doing their thing.

Sister Colleen Hargreaves and two of her grandkids.

The proud parents

Ame'lie and her Dad sharing a moment.

It's back on!!!

2010-04-12T21:22:00.001+10:00

In training for the next Stake footy match

Yep were back, got a few touches, thats all we wanted

Dave is always being flashy, going after all the big huge Speckies

There's always next week!!!

What do you think of the new uniform? I got a top that actually fits this year, not the dress that I've been playing in the last few times.

Oh and for the record Dave played first grade and I was in the reserves and we both had over 50 point wins, that hasn't happened for as long as I can remember playing for Penrith

More Photoshop practice

2010-04-08T21:37:00.000+10:00

Learning photoshop

2010-04-05T22:34:00.000+10:00

Lisa has been trying to teach me photoshop over the internet, there's alot of questions all the time, and Emails and phone calls flying off everywhere all the time.

Sassafras Tasmania

One of my very close friends daughters

Two of Ryan Hargreaves kids

Aaron and the boys wrestling

Fiona Harding took photos for our family and a few of the rest of us were running around with out own cameras capturing different moments.

Very sticky delicious mess.

You can tell which photos were taken with my old camera and which one's are taken with the new DSLR

Up the creek with a paddle

2010-04-04T17:25:00.003+10:00

Come with me on a trip, we could spend the day inside or like people u will see in a little bit fishing in the river, but strap in and I'll even do the work for you.

Come bob on in, well actually were off to Bobbin Head. up the Hawkesbury/Nepean river, a little piece of a national park.

The birds are chirping and tweeting, there is a tranquility to our day, just lots of natural sounds and splashes in the water as we paddle up a little river.

We will encounter lots of different species, even a spider sunning itself on a rock

The fish are plentiful, as we paddle or lazily flat along, the water changes from deep enough not to see the bottom, to very shallow in parts, where we just scrape the kayak in the sand if we don't go in the right channels.

The rocks are stunning, with alot of different colours and textures, we do some exploring and decide to climb up and have a look around, the little crabs soon scatter as they see us coming towards them, they are red in colour, but so small and scittish, you cant get a shot of them.

Bobbin Head has a few boats moored there, one day, we like to dream that we will have a flash boat as well, but then we could't head up the little inlet as it's not for motored vessels.

It's a popular spot for Easter Saturday, families are strolling along and talking, kids are playing or riding bikes and there are alot of people wetting a line, trying to catch something worth keeping.

2010-04-04T16:06:00.000+10:00

Just fooling round

2010-04-02T17:00:00.001+11:00

New photo size

2010-04-01T19:31:00.003+11:00

I wanted to change my picture sizes to make it look better and Lisa emailed me what to do awhile back, but tonight I got Lisa to change the blog for me, so I just need to do it normal now and hopefully have some nice looking photos on here from now on, so thanks Marge!!!

C'mon the Rams!!!!

2010-03-28T14:59:00.000+11:00

Were back, the mighty Penrith Rams after a big preseason, were into the trial matches and season proper after Easter.

We started off with a family day and a huge crowd as the local under 16's played in the Rams U16 round robin cup.

Whose up for a jumping castle, it was a stinker of a day, way to hot to leave the trees and shade for long.

Receiving my jumper for the year, I'm still walking after a trial match the day before.

Poppy can't hide her excitement that footy is back on!!!

What a Poser, too bad Dave doesn't look so good on the field lately. Hey David!!!

A mix of the old and new, wait till you see the whole new uniform, might have to get David to pose once again for you.

Poor Ande is sick of footy already I think, that's all we watch on the weekends, Ande also took the bottom three pics for me. Thanks!!!

Teach a Man to fish.

2010-03-25T22:12:00.003+11:00

There's this place that I spent alot of my weekends when I lived in Tassie. It was never far away depending on how fast or slow you would drive and on the road, there's this great jump if you hit it at speed, but Alas, I ramble on. PortSorell/Shearwater was always good for a swim, the beach, fishing, playing tennis and seeing friends.

This trip down Eden asked me if I was keen for a fish, and I said of course, so Eden, Steph, Chloe, Lachie, Mum and I headed on down to Portsorell for a fish. Mum Caught the first catch of the day, look at the size of the lovely seaweed

The People you meet out on the water, miles of it and we come across Levi, Louise and the kids, who were trying to reel in the big one's as well.

Jaws once started out this size, Steph relled in her line after no bites all the time and had this ripper on, we released it to one day eat a boat :)

Seriously, do they get any bigger than this one? Two bandaids, but I did feel it bite.

Pop always used to tell us, that if we didn't catch any fish, that we weren't holding our mouths right.

The captain got upsurped, by the junior officer, Chloe was soon the captain and was always wanting to try a new spot. Nice shot by Mum.

A beautiful part of the world.

Lachie had great fun grabbing sand and running to the water and throwing the sand in.

Strahan and Gordon River, Tassie

2010-03-22T19:56:00.007+11:00

Dad had talked to me about going for a day trip down the westcoast as he wanted to do a cruise on the Gordon river, we got up nice and early around 4.30 and drove on down, whilst on the way we had a problem with Vermin, who had a death wish, within 5 minutes of leaving home, with me driving I had hit 2 wallaby's in 10 seconds and just missed a third and there was a funny noise to the car. Sorry Dad!!!

Strahan isn't much of a town, but it's very picturesque and pretty.

We headed out to the heads of Macquarie harbour, was rather shallow.

The harbour is thriving in aquaculture, they had lots of Salmon and trout pens and they sprayed food into the pens through hoses, so they would get a even spread. Each pen held a phenomonal amount of fish, something like 25,000.

The poor guy walking in looks like he would have a heart attack, when he saw me in charge of piloting the ship, took her around a bend and all and she wasn't a small vessel.

There were two stop off's on the cruise, we spent 10 minutes at this last habitat, which was pretty cool with lots of plants and trees, but you could only walk on the boardwalk and they wouldn't let you fall behind to take pics, it was a shame, it was pretty nice.

Pretty impressive, how old it was, wonder if I'll get to that age??

Because we booked late, there was only the top tier tickets left, so we were up the top of the boat with the best views, anything we wanted to drink and nibblies of Tasmanian goods and a great lunch.

It was pretty cool for the morning, I got dad out and about on just a few occasions, he did have a nice view inside.

Look, how small it is, they crammed over 300 convicts on to this island

The old boat building yard, they made alot of boats from here, I think the rope may be new though??!!

Our guide was pretty cool, they told stories of who was on the island, I missed a few of them though, as I was off taking pics.

Pretty impressive how they used to bake.

The old sleeping quarters.

Me and my boat :)

The scenery was brilliant, crystal clear and gorgeous.

The home stretch towards the end of the day, the mighty Mt Roland.

Thanks for the day Dad, was good to spend sometime with you and to see more of Tassie.

Liffey falls Tasmania

2010-03-13T21:45:00.001+11:00

This trip to Tassie I decided to get out and about and do a few more things, so I put a message on facebook about going to Liffey falls and the crew decided they would come as well, well those who could.

The kids had a great time exploring all of the trees and moss and ferns and berry's, it's fun to watch what they call things and were looking for fairys.

I always thought Liffey was beautiful, today proved it again, there was lots of water flowing

The water was freezing, my feet nearly got frost bitten

The gang made it to the bottom of the falls, prams and little babies and all, the kids were troopers.

West coast of Tassie and camping

2010-03-08T15:06:00.001+11:00

I decided that this time I might try to come to Tassie while it's a little warmer instead of winter months. I always love to get out with the boys while I'm down and try and get some Crays and fish, so Eden picked me straight up from the airport and after a brief stop at his house for some camping gear, we went to Levi's to pick up the boat and him. Uncle Kim and Auntie Deidre decided they were coming as well, so after some umming and ahhing, we decided to leave the bigger boat at home and to take the little Tinny instead.

Sheffield, the town of Murals

We arrived just after 8pm and had just enough light to set up our tents and get some firewood. Eden and I shared a tent, it had been years since I'd camped, so we had a restless night, Levi had his own tent and Uncle Kim and Auntie Deidre roughed it and slept in the 4wd.

Gotta love having a fire when your camping, now who forgot the marshmellows?!!

We awoke to an overcast morning, it had rained alot of the night and was still raining on and off during the morning, bacon sandwiches got most of us going though.

The view from one side of our camp, notice the toilet setup at the bottom of the photo, wonder who would come up with a set up like that.

You can take the boy out of the country, but not the country out of the boy, we had a couple of 4wheelers along for the ride on trailers, so I got to test Eden's out for alot of the time, notice the bumber is still on the front!!

Yep Levi, it's definitely a 4wd and what a powerpack she is, Levi just started cracking up once, we were driving along a rutted track and I was fooling around taking pics and not paying attention to the road and all of a sudden my head is hitting the roof, then im down and then back up at the roof again, needless to say I was nearly sitting with Levi by the end of it.

Our resident carers were always just behind us making sure we didn't get lost or that our equipment didn't malfunction, us boys were laughing how we had all the poor equipment compared to them, but you have to start somewhere right!!

If you cant get close to the water, take the boat over the rocks, lucky the tinny was very small, and after all the effort, we didn't end up using it, but it did house the Crays Eden and Levi caught.

The boys bringing in the catch, was quite a shallow bay and lots of Crays. I decided I wanted to see what they were seeing, so left my shorts on and jumped in the little bay Eden was in, he was suprised to see me as the water was quite cold, after trying on his mask, I put my head under the water and it filled up with water, that was the end of that bright idea.

This one was fighting to the end.

We decided we'd even cross this ricketty old bridge to see how far we could go, we were looking for a river. Carefully now people, it might collapse.

ahh, we found it, lets celebrate by doing some donuts!!!

The day ended up coming out gorgeous, there were miles of beaches and sand dunes to try out

Go hard or go home, thats the saying.

Towards the end of the day, Eden's bike had nearly lost the battle, I'd had lost the front bumper, which was holding on by one bolt after shearing off the others, so we took it off and it ended up nearly killing the motor, with lots of smoke pouring out, hope the warranty will cover it.

Time off

2010-03-04T17:49:00.000+11:00

I'm on holidays until the 15th of March, so might actually find something to blog about soon!!! See ya, well some of you anyways :)

Lawson NSW

2010-02-28T13:08:00.000+11:00

After a not fun past month, I decided I'd get out and about and try to take some pics and go for a walk up the blue mountains, actually I didn't make it far up at all, only to Lawson, but I went and had a look at some falls and fooled around with the camera.

I had company for about 5 minutes but then had the place to myself, it was nice and quiet and relaxing.

My superman pose after climbing my way up the falls without tumbling down as it was so slippery.

Doesn't it look Idylic?

Lets start over

2010-02-11T22:08:00.007+11:00

I was admiring Lisa's and also Makayla's blog the last while and decided I was going to join them and redo my blog a little, so I found out from Lisa what she's been using for her Blogger header and have been playing around with some collages, and I'm sure I'll play more in the next few days until I'm happy with my new look.

I've started back at footy training this past week and it's all running and pushups and situps, it's good to start to get some fitness back again, though the heat and humidity really do suck at the moment.

Actually tonight while we were doing sprints up the hill and then walking back down I noticed the most gorgeous sunset and my first thought was
"where's the camera, I'd get a great shot from up on the shed roof"

Weird the ways your mind works at time.

The Sun has Set

2010-01-30T00:54:00.001+11:00

This morning we all put our brave faces on as we got ready to go farewell the man who has left us the best example to follow.

I was proud to be able to with 5 of my other cousins to be pall bearers

Mum had some flowers for the nephews and nieces and some petals for them to put into Pops grave, it was nice seeing them all together doing it.

I loved how Aaron helped Noah to be a part of the day with his own Rose, I know that Pop thought Noah was special.

I wasn't really suprised to see how full the chapel was, it would had to be closest that it's ever been, a lot of people also came out to the cemetery for the grave dedication. I had to have a little laugh when during one of the talks given by uncle Howard and uncle Shayne, that Pop had been in a gang of sorts, but that he hadn't really done anything he revealed in the last few years.

I know Pop would have wanted us to have tears of joy for him, but my Pop was gone, one of the main people I ever looked up to and the tears just flowed, knowing that he had left us. Before the funeral service we had a chance to see him one more time and Pop just wasn't the man that I grew up with, He would take me down the river with him and we'd move irrigation, plant crops, fence, mow and bale hay and move and look after stock. My Pop was a worker and he had these strong calloused hands that could do anything, he was always quick with a smile and would do anything to help you. Was he perfect, probably not, but he had to have been the closest person I knew to it.

It was good to see Nan all spruced up and happy for the most part and to see her brother Arne, who came up for the service.

I was walking to my brother Daniel's grave and Eden was there with his Daughter Chloe, she wanted to know about Daniel and why he died, and I thought it was pretty nice how he said "sometimes people just don't wake up"

Don't you just love the hat,

Some of Pop's fav things, he used to play the harmonica all the time, he loved to wear braces to hold his trousers up and he loved the dirt and growing things.

Alot of people loved Pop and there was always someone coming up to me saying what a great man he was and telling stories of what he would do to help people out.

I've thought about this alot since Pop died and how Nan is doing knowing he isn't there anymore, my grandparents were married for 66 years and were still in love and devoted to each other, it's hard to communicate with Nan these days since she had a stroke and can't speak words, but it's nice just to sit with her and let her know you care and be near her.

There was a gorgeous sunset tonight over the Gog range and over Pop's riverflats, it seemed quite fitting for today. The sun has set on Pop's life and he will always be my hero and the person I look up to, the example of the man I'd like to become and I'll always remember the love he had for his family. I was never going to miss the chance of Saying goodbye, no matter what it cost me.

Have you ever known what you want to say, but Can't express it very well? Right now I want to say alot more, but Lisa has covered it pretty well in her Blog.

"I love you Pop" what more can I say.

A man to never forget

2010-01-27T11:57:00.002+11:00

Once in awhile your touched by someone who you will never forget, sometimes it's just fleeting, but this person touched me for 32 and a half years, I was proud to call him pop

Pop was more than a grandfather, he was someone to look up to, he was a friend, a buddy, an example, father, great grand father, and also to me, a hero. I was blessed to live just a paddock away from him for most of my life, I know nan loved you and misses you already, as do I

I will love you forever and the world is a better off place for having you around these 89 years

Oh no, what was that bang?

2010-01-18T20:42:00.000+11:00

Yesterday morning I was woken up by a loud bang, so I rolled out of bed and went to investigate what was happening as there were dogs howling everywhere and I'm always curious about bangs. There were people everywhere and then the fire brigade and a police car showed up.

Suprisingly there was no car crash, but the fire brigade were cordoning off a electric pole. I checked my power and there was faint lights and my pc screen worked, but nothing else would and my tv kept flicking on and then straight off.

I made a phone call to the electicity company to see what was happening, and got the message saying the power was out and they were determining why. A couple of hours later the power came back on, so I went to jump on the pc and the monitor came on, but the box was dead, I thought ok, that might not be good, so I wiggled the power cords around and tried again, and there was still nothing. Hmm, wasn't happy, so I left it alone for a few minutes and tried and filed again, out of desperation, I put the power cord straight into the power socket and hey presto there was life, which let me tell you I was very happy about as it's a fairly new pc.

A few pics of the last few weeks.

2010-01-17T22:21:00.000+11:00

So I was told I haven't blogged lately by Sis C, so I thought I'd add some pics, so you can see what I've been up to

I hung out at Dave and Ande's Christmas morning and had a Skype with the Walters and Suzanne and Dave's parents who were in Tassie.

Poppy and I played the piano, yep I'm a maestro

I captured a blue eyed girl hiding away

Christmas afternoon Jonny, Eden and I took Eden's new boat out for a spin on the harbour and wet a line, it was pretty choppy and didn't stay around for two long, I forgot how exciting it can be to have something nibble nibble nibbling away on your line.

Christmas night we headed up to the Cummings's for a bbq as Eden and Steph were staying there and they had a pool, but with the rain we didn't end up going in.

Lachie telling us a story, couldn't quite work out what he was telling us though

Jonny and Chase were thrilled to See Chrish with his camera for the 50th time

Vienna and Serena both smiled for the camera

Chloe thought she'd get in on the action and snapped away some pics

We played some Pool, the winnings were huge, who doesn't like bragging rights really?

New years was spent at Dave and Ande's for a bbq and to see the new year in with them and his brothers Craig and Gary and their families. We did some ghosting as you can see.

Special

Sydney is the place to be, Craig's wife Irena, even had her mum here from Russia.

One hot day we decided to crash the Cummings place for a swim, I turned up just in time for the bbq food, seems like the rest of the Cummings kids, decided it was time to crash their parents too, I had my first swim in a few years.

I'd become a food photographer if I got to sample this all the time

I grew up with this rough looking character, he married a nice young lady and has 3 kids with another on the way.

I love how Pyper is doing her own Rabbit ears

I love to just take photos, there's nothing so simple to do, but can bring so much pleasure, I've taken hundreds lately, just to see what the camera can do and to have fun

Back???!!

2009-12-12T14:23:00.000+11:00

I'm back, well maybe for awhile, I realised I dont have half of my companions email addresses or phone numbers, and only chatted with them through facebook, so I re added it to get them.

Some of my fav images

2009-12-10T20:55:00.001+11:00

This week at work one of the jobs that I had to go help fix up was a Computer rack weighing 500 Kilos, to my suprise when we arrived, the company was a photography company and they had photos up on all of the walls and were very professional. It was amazing some of the photos, so I've been looking at their website and photos that people have sent them in.

I think it would be amazing to just be able to do take photos for a profession and to just have a few lenses and cameras and just be able to take off and see the world and take photos.

Just a few of my fav shots from this year past.

Bye Bye Facebook

2009-12-07T18:32:00.004+11:00

I've gone facebook free.

If you want me call me on 0425220916 or Email me on triff77@hotmail.com

There's villains afoot

2009-11-06T20:06:00.000+11:00

I have a feeling that there could be trouble in Gotham, look what I saw today!!! Batmans car had broken down, The Joker will have carteblanche to do what he wants.

Booked and Confirmed

2009-11-03T20:36:00.002+11:00

What a bargain, today in the mail I got my confirmation to do my DLSR camera course on the 21st of November. When I bought my new camera a few weeks ago, they threw in a free course, so I thought I'd take them up on it and learn a little about Cameras and hopefully will be able to take some nice shots and know what I'm doing a little more, than just pointing and shooting.
Want to know another bargain that comes with it, for just 15 dollars more, I can get parking in the city for 8 hours. That isn't heard of, usually it's at least $15 an hour, so after the course finishes I'll be able to go play in the city for a few hours. Marvellous I say.

Wanna come???

2009-11-01T17:40:00.008+11:00

Yesterday was so nice and warm I decided I had to get out of the house and try a little paddle, once I got in the water I was paddling against the current and also the breeze, maybe I'll end up getting some arm muscles yet.

How many modes of transport can you spot?

Can you guess where this place is famous for?

I was fooling around taking pics and wasn't paying much attention and the breeze pushed me hard into this yacht, I soon woke up after colliding with it, haha

I thought there was going to be a little bit of water rage, the yachts were racing around a course and this other boat just went straight at the yacht and there was some words exchanged

Homebush bay with the olympic stadiums in the background

When I ended up getting back to the cat there was a text message for me asking what I was doing that day, after a few texts back and forth Uncle Kim and Auntie Deidre dropped by for a visit.

Tea with the Cummings families

2009-10-18T23:44:00.007+11:00

Monique in one of her many change of dresses or should I say, Snow white in all her glory

Classic poppy photo

Dave's brother Craig and his wife Irena today celebrated the 1st birthday of their daughter Chloe and we all had tea over at Dave and Ande's as it was Moniques birthday yesterday as well.

Craig Cummings

Irena made a pavlova and it was delicious

Irena and Chloe

A 4th Birthday and a little paddle

2009-10-18T00:00:00.008+11:00

Today was Moniques 4th birthday and so she decided she wanted to go to red rooster for her birthday, twas an interesting choice of places to go. Mon loves to dress up, and today she was Ariel from little mermaid.

Ande and Poppy

Dodgy brother David

After having lunch I thought I'd go to Yarramundi and take the kayak out for a paddle and seeing as though I bought a new camera, thought I'd give it a try.

Nan and Pop's 66th wedding anniversary

2009-09-27T22:00:00.005+10:00

This afternoon I had the chance to catch up with alot of the extended family up at Grenoch for Pop and Nans wedding anniversary. Can you believe being married for 66 years? I have a hard time imagining 1 year let alone that amount of time. Congrats Nan and Pop

Nan was looking quite spriteley today which was great

We even had a song made up for the occasion and we all got to get the words to singalong to it, I was busy taking a shot of everyone singing.

There you go Em, you made it to the Blog :)

If your ears can hack it along with your eyes for the roving, have a gander

Stormy Heavens

2009-09-23T17:19:00.005+10:00

This is what I woke up to this morning

The last few mornings have been gorgeous and last night we had a thunderstorm and there were warnings about the weather for today and the wind. I've been riding my motorbike to work lately, but thought today I didn't want it to get blown away with the wind and it was a good choice.

You were lucky to see much out of the window from all the dust that was surrounding Sydney today

The wind really picked up in the afternoon and getting out of the truck to take the pictures, it felt like I was about to be blown away.

Not your usual view of lovely Sydney, but it was an interesting day, when I got home I was glad to shower and get rid of all the dust and grit built up. Actually it reminded me abit of working for uncle Tom and sanding his log cabins and then coming home and you'd have dust and sawdust everywhere you could just about think of.

My Saturday

2009-09-19T19:29:00.006+10:00

Dad has been up this week, last night I asked him what he wanted to do for today and he didn't really say anything, so this morning, I thought we'd go for a drive up to Wentworth falls and have a look. As we were driving up, he goes to me I've never been up the mountains before, so instead of Wentworth falls, we kept on going to Leura. I wanted to hit the lolly shop, but we couldn't get any parking close so kept on driving instead.

Dad at his first visit to the sisters after numerous times coming to Sydney

The local talent

Was a nice day for a walk

Dad became the official photographer, I don't think he could believe how many photos he had to end up taking.

One stop I always took when I lived in Dubbo was Victoria pass

Loved this place, was an awesome time there

After a little remembering I found my old place after 11 years

Eden has been wanting a new toy for his business and asked me to try out a digger for him, I wonder if this is what he is after?

At the end of the day, it felt like Sydney was burning up, but it was just bushfire backburning. I had a nostalgic tour for the day and Dad came along for the ride, I guess at least it was a part of NSW he hadn't seen. I enjoyed my playing round

Just playing round

2009-09-10T22:10:00.001+10:00

A afternoon with the Putts, Tronkies and Cabs

2009-08-30T17:53:00.010+10:00

Today I headed out to Richmond for church, it had been awhile since I'd seen the peeps out there and the sun was shining, so thought it was a good excuse to take the motorbike out for a spin.

After church it was decided that we would all head back to Ricky and Vienna's for lunch

I think Steve was trying to measure up some of the stories going on :)

Don't you just hate it when someone is just snapping pics off

I got to have a few cuddles today

Another great shot

After a hard day at church, what else to do but have a snooze on the couch

Another cuddle buddy

It was good to catch up with all you guys and this is another blog for you all. haha. Thanks for lunch :)

A couple of days with the East Warders

2009-08-16T17:58:00.009+10:00

This blog will be big on pics as my facebook seizes up when I try to upload pics, but blogger uploads without a problem.

I was looking forward to this weekend for awhile as the East ward youth from Launceston were coming up for a temple trip and Aaron was coming up with them as a leader. I picked Aaron up friday night and dropped him off at the temple accomodation and I grabbed a football ticket they had got for me as they were all going to watch the Swans vs the Cats at Homebush Saturday night.

After playing and winning footy by over 100 points, I went home and showered and found out where they all were and drove down to Bi-Centennial park at Homebush as they had all been to DFO shopping and then went over to the park to eat. I had only been to the park for work late at night, so it was nice to see how nice it was during the day.

We filled in sometime by kicking the footy around before we walked over to the stadium.

Aaron was funny, one minute he was fooling around and the next he was a real serious teacher getting everyone to listen to what was going to happen, it was funny to see, especially the comment by one young lady about him having two personalities. haha

The pre game entertainment were by some Abba wannabes

This poor boy was wishing he was at the crows vs hawks game at the G on friday night

There were a few people at the game for the first time ever, Adam thought it was great and said he didnt realise how good it was to be at the game.

Tayla was estatic with the result as she was going for the cats as her granddad or uncle Jim follows the cats and so she had a scarfe for them.

Just before heading to the airport they all headed up to the temple for some photos and a little meeting, I'm sure you'll all be filled in and many more pics to come from people on the trip.

You couldn't ask for better weather, very nice and sunny and a warm 27 outside today, just glorious, hope your enjoying the rain down home.

Zoom Zoom

2009-07-05T16:41:00.002+10:00

After alot of years of Joy with my Commodore and the last trip to
Tassie, the old girl was starting to make some funny noises and play up a little, so I figured it was time to let the old girl go as I had been thinking about upgrading cars for awhile.

I had an idea of what I wanted and this caught my eye straight away, and I decided after driving it, I didn't need to look any further, so now I just need to get myself some roof racks, so I can put my Kayak on top again.