Happy new year!

Hello everyone. I start on New Year's Eve eve where preparations were in full swing. We were finishing up all the loose ends finding where there were missing shells and filling whatever we could. Once the was done we started the mammoth task of testing everything! There weren't many of us as the vast qty of people were frantically setting up the bridge still. We tested the bigger barges and got somewhere close to being done.

Forch came over the radio and decoded to call it a day. That was pretty much all there was to tell about this day, it's just another rigging day...

New Year's Eve. 

New Year's Eve came around and I was up at the crack of dawn. No idea why I just was. I had a good breakfast and headed in to work. This morning a time code test was taking place at 8:30, time code is basically what synchronises the display. It came through and the laptops read it fine and everyone's firing system was talking to each other. 9 o'clock came and we had a whole team meeting. We went over all the various protocols and procedures and checking we knew who was doing what where. This was followed  by a big song of happy birthday as it was Chichos birthday. (One of the Italians) we retired from the marquee and finished testing. We plugged our barge in and fire one said nope I don't want to play. Nothing on my barge tested at all. 2 hours later and we hadn't resolved the issue. Forch came over and suggested a few things, eventually we got it working all seemed to be ok. A full time code check was then taking place at 1oclock with the system fully armed (in safe mode so nothing would fire, just pretend) it was just as well we did this as this time the system wasn't happy. It would receive it fine but if the signal dropped the system would crash. It's supposed to switch to a local back up and carry on. Frantically everyone started to work out why this was happening. None of us were able to find a remedy so a call to fire one in America was in order. It was the middle of the night for them but even so we got an answer! Eventually after rather a lot of faffing around we discovered it was our fault. All our laptops were hired and had the latest version of windows installed however the fire one software doesn't like it! So it was a mad dash to round up as many old laptops as possible and luckily there were enough! We had a bit of a plug and play session and everything seemed to be ok. We ran another full cycle on the barges and everything seemed to be happy. Few! People then started heading out on various barges, I drove up the road to collect Laura as I had arranged for her to come out on my barge. Laura collected we sat around for a short while before we were called we jumped on and were tugged out to the harbour. Our barge was on the west of the bridge closest to it so we had a brilliant view of the bridge. 

We bobbed around for a few hours before we got the cue to fire the first of 4 displays that night. Everything went perfectly and we then waited for the next cue. We had the radio going and had a bit of a party session. The next 2 displays were brilliant including the 9oclock pre display. We watched a film on one of the laptops and I had a 5 minute snooze. Half 11 came and Forch gave the announcement to test the system arm it and wait for time code. We tested it and it went nope not playing. It had got in a huff and didn't want to talk to the pyro. Panic set in and we frantically started testing one by one to try and find the cause. We were running around like headless chickens trying to work it out. Time code was being received and there was a countdown on the laptop screen just to make us panic more! With 7 minutes to spare everything went green, the system was talking and tested fine! Wow that was scary! System armed and we watched the clock to count down. 5,4,3,2,1, happy new year! followed by wallop! With a rather petrified Laura cowling away in the container we ventured out and opened the door slightly to see the bridge, it was AMAAZING! About 4 minutes into the show there was an almighty bang and the barge lit up, we ran to check the laptop to see what had gone on and to kill it if needed. The laptop said we had lost a rail of finale but everything else seemed ok. We let it run and the rest of the show was spot on. Everything finished perfectly on time we shook hands said happy new year have Laura a kiss then went to see what in the name of god the bang was! We put out the fire and investigated. Luckily the senior firer had a camera sat facing the back of the barge filming the show! We watched the footage to see what had happened. It appeared a shell had just flopped out if the mortar and bounced on the deck. There was a flash of white, bang and everything looked a little worse for wear. 

As we had watched the video we called it safe to go and have a look to see if there was any more live out there. And lo and behold there was a load of finale sat there where it blew up a module. 32 6" shells hasn't left the barge. Oh well nobody seemed to notice.

This is what the module looked like after it got in a fight with a 6" shell of shells.

Sorry Forch. $1000 down the drain!

We took out all the live stuff put it in a box and headed back to the bay. We got back and Chicho was helping us offload the shells. I was just about to pick up another box when I heard a "woahh" and a thud. Very shortly followed by help help help. I threw the box down and ran to the port side. Chicho had missed his footing, slipped and fell between the barge and the concrete wall. 3 of us lent over and dragged him out if the water. We sat him down and started to fish out the shells he had rather inconsiderately thrown in the drink. Asking him if he was ok he was more worried that his iPhone had stopped working! We took him back to the site office got him a change of clothes and let him calm down. The worst part of the whole thing was that it all took place right infront of the health and safety woman from Sydney council. Oh dear... Anyway we tried to forget about it and Tim rounded up the inducted people and loaded us up into the minibus. I left Laura to have a sleep in the car. While I went to the bridge with a few others to clean up. The bridge had to be totally clear before morning so everyone was helping out. We climbed to the top of the bridge and I had to stop to pinch myself. I was standing at the highest part of the harbour bridge overlooking the opera house having just fired the most famous fireworks display in the world! Wow! Anyway back to work. By this time we were very tired and agin stopped to look at the next most amazing sight I have seen. It was the sun rising above the horizon of the city of Sydney. Again pinching myself. It got to half 6 and we were all done. We got to the lower deck and had a group photo of the team. Rather than saying cheese it was fire haha! We jumped back in the vans and had a wacky races style race back to the port. We drove in through the gate and Forch was on the phone. He started laughing so much he was crying. Eventually we got out of him what was so funny. We had left 3 guys at the top of the bridge hahahahaha! Giovanni pulled the short straw and went to collect them. We all assembled in the marquee to have a beer and chat about eachothers shows. The 3 missing showed up and it was a congratulations from Forch and Tim. All of a sudden Tim shouted HEY RANDOM PERSON! It was Laura poking her head around the door! We carried on chatting finished the beer and headed out. Again wacky races style. My original plan was to take Laura back to the hostel and have a sleep and take her to the train station in the afternoon but as it had gone 7am I just took her straight to the station and then I headed back to my hostel. I dived into bed and fell asleep within seconds. I woke up at half 10 ish to get some free breakfast and that leads me to now. A couple of people congratulated me in the hostel saying how amazing it was. I'm now sat in the lounge writing this it's just gone mid day and I think in going to head back to bed!!

Happy new year to you all. Missing everyone at home, I hope you enjoyed reading the blog and if you did watch the fireworks I hope you enjoyed them too.

Here's just one of the photos from last night ill get the rest up soon. Along with some videos!

Love to all x

Christmas 2013

First things first we are so sorry this blog is so late and that the photos are all at the bottom the blog isn't playing ball and we shall sort it out soon as possible hence the delay in the blog being published! Regardless this is an account of our Christmas and we would like to thank everyone who sent us a gift or card we didn't expect it and are so thankful to have such thoughtful family! Here goes:

An early Christmas Day start, our alarm went off at 8 shortly followed by the house being filled with Christmas songs. 

A very excited Deb was STILL wrapping Christmas presents in her office and shouted a very excited merry Christmas at us both. We started breakfast which was poached eggs and English muffins which was a good start to the day. Laura wasn't feeling very well today but there was no time for that! Lots of Christmas cooking to be done and that started with a vegetable house. We didn't want a gingerbread house as it would have been too sweet along with our other creations so a vegetable house was decided upon.

Whilst this was being started Deb put Myles in charge of the BBQ, which today had the turkey in it. Very big Job but he only had to keep an eye on the temp so not a hard job either! We spent all morning cooking and creating.  

Once the turkey was ready we had our formal Christmas lunch which had, Turkey, pork belly, pumpkin,roast potatoes general veggies and lots of gravy! 

After this the next adventure was to create the 'Melon Train' this is a train that I found on the internet made out of melon and then filled with fruit salad. I got all of the fruit out of the fridge and asked the boys to cut it. This then turned into their project. From that came the competition  about who's creation was better. The vegetable house or melon train.

 (New poll, which was better melon train or vegetable house?) 

Both creations were being made for evening tea when Debs daughter Mel and her husband Kurt arrived for presents. (See photo below of the tree)

Once they both arrived with their dog winter (who was featured in the IFR blog) True Christmas madness begun, as time was getting on Deb was being Santa giving out the gifts from under the tree so everyone had something to open. This continued for a good hour and a half until everything had been opened. Myles and I were spoilt & very excited to open our presents from home. Myles got 100 points for guessing that grandmas present was, a jar of Bovril and I was FAR too excited to see the latest series of top gear in my hands! All presents opened it was time for tidy up and food! Myles and I started to lay out our huge creations whilst filling the gaps with jelly oranges & shots, Father Christmas pavlovas, brownie bite Christmas trees and egg snowmen + lots more! Everybody pulled their Christmas crackers (bonbons if you are an Ozzie) and got finger puppets which were good fun! 

Then there was a slight pause as everything looked so pretty no one wanted to eat anything! We made a start with the jellies and then everything else followed nicely. Laura's fizzy blue jellies were a HUGE hit with Mel who now wants to make more at home.

After this it was tidy up and time for bed for Myles as he had a 5:30 start the next day. He said his thank yous and goodbyes and retired to bed. A half hour later he returned in his foti top and explained there was the biggest spider he had ever seen in our room, tried to kill it and lost it. He had put his other clothes in the wash and this was the first thing he could put on. Kurt and I went on a spider hunt and just as we got into the bedroom I saw the biggest spider I have ever seen. Worst part was it was on Myles 2 foot away. I lost it and ran screaming, Myles followed me confused and then managed to tell him it was on him, he flipped out and threw his shirt off. I'm sure he's never taken a shirt off so quickly. Kurt then rescued it and took it outside. It was a huge huntsman and a jolly ugly looking thing! Merry Christmas Myles! He shakily went back to bed and I promised to follow not long after. (Myles went to hit the spider which had then jumped onto his shirt and hidden in it)

 Just as I was about to go to bed deb asked me if I understood her chain of presents that were pretty confusing. I had no idea what they were about and had already eaten the apple she gave me. She and Ian then gave me one last present and said that I wasn't meant to get it until I guessed but did anyways as I was ill. It was only a blooming iphone and all of the gifts made sense! I was so overwhelmed I couldn't help but laugh. I was so grateful to be given such a lovely gift I didn't know what to say other than a lot of thank yous. We put Tara to bed and that was about it for our Christmas. 

Hope you all had lovely christmas's and sorry about the delay in this blog it was a team effort and with no wifi pretty hard to do! 

(P.S it rained the whole of Christmas Day! So much for a hot Ozzie Christmas!!)

Christmas tree brownie bites

Christmas Tara!

Turkey on the BBQ

Laura & top gear

Myles & Laura's tree decorating with presents 

Christmas tea table 

(Myles holding the melon train before it became a train, he said he is leaning back his belly isn't that big!)

Ian carving pork. 

Day 3 of NYE setup - the Italians are here!

Hello everyone,

After a pretty uneventful day yesterday today was a little more interesting. 

We started where we left off yesterday with a barge just laid out with racks, there were only 3 of us on the barge as the crew had been split between all the barges with other teams preparing rooftop gear and the harbour bridge. With the 3 of us on the barge it became very quickly apparent that I was the most experienced so we agreed that I would be in charge of the layout. I have a map to follow of what goes where along with a show script of about 200 pages with what should happen where and when. 

This was the show plan map.

Long story short the team that laid the barge out yesterday did a pretty poor job of it racks were wrong, in the wrong place, wrong numbers it was a mess so it took a goo while I sort, once it looked ok we started nailing together breaking 2 nail guns in the process. I handed them back to the office said that they were a little on the faulty side and ran away.

Oh I forgot to mention, the Italians! The Foti family is Italian with only a few living in Australia, other Fotis from Italy have arrived on site now. What a great bunch of people, they don't speak much English but hey their English is far better than my Italian I can only say hello and thankyou. 

We started loading mortars and wiring the same as the last 2 days. Lunch today was a fantastic roast lamb, that went down a treat! The wind picked up this afternoon which kept the temperatures down but made working more difficult.

4:30 came and we packed up and went home. Last night I had a brilliant Heinz spaghetti and meatballs which I made in a matter of 2 mins, stir and microwave for a further minute. I have that down to a fine art now. Tonight I went all out and cooked a creamy mushroom pasta. Thanks Dolmio! They put good things in so you wear the Dolmio grin (aparantly) well so the advert says...

That went down a treat and I retired to my room. I'm sharing tonight with a South Korean girl that grew up in France and is studying in London. Try and get your head around that accent then!! Anyway a pretty boring blog from me sorry ill do something better when I have more energy! 

Oh here's the show so far...

Sorry for the delay!

Sorry for the delay on our Christmas blog Myles is working on it! 

So for now here's a song we learnt at the carols in Bowral! 

http://youtu.be/OAT33pqvHlY

Myles' adventure

Hello everyone and welcome back to Myles' tale of his trip to Sydney.

It's actually not very interesting... For those that don't know I am part of the team preparing for the New Year's Eve fireworks in Sydney.

I was up just after 5am as was Laura because My alarm woke her up. I had a cup of coffee to get me going took my bags to the car kissed Laura goodbye and hit the road. In the rain. In Australia during public holidays the RTA will issue "double demerits" basically If your caught doing something you shouldn't be on the road you will be hit with double points. After a couple of minutes I noticed there was less traffic than normal actually there was none after half an hour a car went the other way and we waved to eachother haha! An hour and 40 min drive only took an hour and 15 so I was half an hour early at the port. This was plenty of time to laugh at the management setting up the new access system. When I did the IFR earlier in the year it was sign in sign out now we have retina recognition! Yes we have to have our eyes scanned before we start! Security is rather tight here! Staff started to trickle in,  people that recognised me came up and had a chat and a catch up before we had our site safety briefing. Then we had an all new briefing by the city of Sydney and the Sydney ports authority. It was basically a repeat of what was said by the Foti guys just padded out... There is actually a requirement from Sydney ports that cars be driven at walking pace with lights and hazards on with someone walking infront of the car in hi vis! I'm not joking! A smartass from the back said oh we are back in Victorian times again? The briefing then went on to how we should do our jobs. Apparently we must wear safety goggles when loading shells. The same smartass said, "hello, sorry, if a 10" shell goes of when your loading it, its probably going to kill you how the f*** is a pair of f****** goggles going to save you! If anything it's going to make it worse because you will have bits of plastic in your eyes!" The safety woman didn't have much to say to this and the meeting was soon ended. I went straight to loading shells as that's a nice easy job. Unless it rains, and it wouldn't be a a firework display without rain! By lunchtime the rain had cleared and the sun was shining. We tucked into a huge lunch and watched a video of the show that Foti did in turkey! It was laugh a second and made lunch even better. Back to work doing more loading and before I knew it it was time to go home. I took my sunglasses off and realised that my arms had gone pink, yes I think I have sunburn... I logged out by staring at a screen and traveled back to my hostel that I was in for the IFR. The lady recognised me on reception and gave me a key to my room, she said that she had tried to keep it empty for me as I need a good nights sleep. This was much appreciated! My 4 bed room only has a Myles in it! Ahhh dorm to myself!

I took a walk up the road to get some bits for dinner and realised it was half 5 on Boxing Day, I was right the shops are all closed. I think it's going to be a maccas for dinner...

Anyway Myles signing off here more updates for you tomorrow.

(I also know what the shape will be on the bridge this year but shhh it's s secret)

Pre Christmas post

Hello all, I do realise we haven't blogged for you in a very long time but we have been busy doing nothing particularly interesting. It's been beautiful weather out here on the run up till Christmas hitting a high of 44 degrees so far! (Just what you all want to hear out there!) That's the same temp as when we were in Vegas! For here that's a bit hotter than normal so we have turned into water babies and spent a lot of time in the pool. The heat got the better of Laura earlier in the week and today it's caught up with Myles who is sleeping off a headache. Other than that we have been Christmas shopping and helping prepare with Deb and Ian. Myles has had an important job working with Ian to get Debs bore working before Christmas! Today we can safely say it is working which is fantastic! It means they can water their garden using underground spring water even when drought restrictions come in, which they will soon we are told. So this means all our hard gardening won't go to waste! We have been starting to plan where we are going to go after we leave here in the new year which feels a bit daunting again. We will have to see where we end up next! 

Laura has also finished painting the utility room to a lovely green colour (it's not easy being green) 

For those who didn't see on Facebook, we got an early Christmas present from Deb and Ian which was this beautiful Christmas tree decoration which was engraved for us. It's such a lovely memento we can take home with us at the end of our trip! 

So with that your pretty up to date with our world. It's still very difficult getting to grips with having our first hot Christmas and our first away from home. Luckily we are with people who feel like extended family now and that will be lovely or make us miss home more were not sure which yet!

So if we don't blog before we love and miss you all and hope you have a lovely Christmas we will be thinking of you all! 

Tuesday 3rd December

Laura got a phone call from an excited Ian today asking if she wanted to work and that he had a surprise for her! He wouldn't say more so she set off pretty sharpish because Laura hates not knowing! Once at the office she was treated to a HUGE box on the table with her name on it! Very excited she started to pull at the brown tape which failed miserably. She considered that it could be from aunty Helen the way it was wrapped! Once a knife was located there were no problems! 

The first thing was a note:

After reading this 2 lovely advent calendars were found and a wrapped present and card! Yep more waiting for Laura her least favourite thing! Well I suppose you have to get some joy this Christmas ey mum and dad?

What a lovely surprise for us both we are very grateful and can't wait to open it!!

Lots of love from us both, this has gotten us into the Christmas spirit a little more as it seems too warm still!! 

Just for joy here's a tiny green tree frog I saw at work, was the size of Laura's  thumb nail! 

30th/1st new month!

Firstly happy first of December Myles was very excited to open his woolworths Christmas calendar! 

This weekend was a vary varied weekend, we started Saturday morning going to a local car and truck show,

This is Laura with a 'Kenworth big double' it currently has just under 2.5 million miles on the clock and still going strong. An 804hp caterpillar V8 is the power plant.

We had a browse at all the various cars and bikes and ha a trip home.

On the way back we picked up a tilt tray car trailer for Ian which had been hired for the weekend. I was asked to drive it home which wasn't too tricky as the roads are so wide over here! We got it home and loaded up the Clio race car to take it to work as that is the next project.

Poor polly the Peugeot wasn't happy towing the trailer and car but she got it there none the less.

All was good and we dropped it off. 

In the afternoon we hung debs birthday present from her mother which was a rather ornate bird feeder. We erected a steel arch and hung it from the middle.

Nothing much happened in the afternoon until the evening. Deb had decided that we would go to a concert down the road from us, it sounded quite good so we packed up a picnic and headed out.

The concert in question was in aid of the RFS as a thank you to them for the heroic firefighting they have done recently. (The event was to raise money for the NSW, RFS (Rural Fire Service) which is a charity/voluntary organisation which provides training for volunteer bushfire fighters during bushfires. I am told the RFS claims to be the biggest voluntary fire fighting organisation in the world with 70,246 (ish) volunteers! 

Before anything musical everyone stood and sung the national anthem, something I doubt would happen in Britain. It's great to hear everyone singing, except the 2 pommies that were there. 

We sat down and tucked into our food while we were treated to some amazing singing ranging from modern songs to classical. 

The concert started at 7:30 and by this point we were all pretty chilly in jackets and wrapped in blankets. It started with the Phantom of the Opera sung by Dale Burridge & Danielle Everett - Original stars of Phantom of the Opera. They were amazing and we had a lovely time listening to them and a few other singers. By the end of the night around 10ish we were all freezing and hurried home to cups of tea and hot chocolate. Later to discover that the temperature was actually 13 degrees according to polly! 

(There will be some videos to come of the singing you lucky people you!)

Sunday morning was an early start for Laura and me as we had a trip to work. As nothing got done on Friday it had to be done at some point! We didn't get much done as on Tuesday I hurt my wrist playing tennis, it was still sore and I twinged it again Sunday. The decision was made that we would go home and join Debra shopping. This in itself was very exciting! Debra was going to Costco! Costco is a rather large store, actually it's a warehouse where everything is sold in bulk. And by bulk I mean by the pallet. We wondered around having all the free samples which was lunch taken care of! After a couple of hours I left Laura and Debra to it and headed up the road. Foti had been in contact and had asked if I could do a couple of shows for them. Tonight's show was for a Sydney suburbs Christmas carol concert. As a guess there would have been 4000 people there. It was a big do! Fireworks were all set up and loaded ready to go. I had asked Deb and Laura to come up if they wanted to see what it actually is that I do! Debra was very interested in the various systems that are used and the fireworks themselves! After this Laura stayed and took photos of the fireworks and even helped with the derigging afterwards! Once we finally got home around 12 we had a feast of cheese, meats and biscuits. With slightly full bellies it was time for bed as I had work again at 8am the next day!

Friday 29th November

6.30 alarm by Miss S,Collins sending a message of her dinner. GREAT! Luckily I had to be up anyways as I was heading out to the central coast today with Deb whilst her and a colleague Michael  had to see a client. This meant I could see a little more of OZ even if it was just for a few hours. 
We had to leave by 7:20 when Micheal arrived. Deb and I were pretty much ready when she told me to get Myles as he could work Saturday and come today. I very sleepy Myles had a shave whilst I made him breakfast still aiming for 7:20 to be ready! Michael was running late and arrived at 8ish which was pretty handy for us as it gave us time to make lunch to take with us. Car loaded with picnic, a boogie board and the usual camera gear we set off. It was about a 2 hour drive to the Central coast where it was bucketing it down with rain! Yipee poms at the beach and it rains, typical much?
 Being true brits we braved it as it wasn't raining too hard by the time we got to the beach and took our picnic onto the sand and took a few photos in the sea. 

After a while we got too damp and retreated to the car feeling very normal eating in the car watching the sea, feeling very much at home.
We had a drive around the coast looking at the very expensive beach and cliff side houses and went to pick the workers up. 

Myles out of the drivers seat we were treated to lunch in The Entrance in a hotel restaurant. This place had some good choices but Myles and I settled for a steak sandwich although I still think Myles should have had croc or a roo burger! (We still have plenty of time for that tucker though!) We ended up with a seafood and chicken wing platter too which was yummy, the chips were covered in cheese and bacon also which Myles LOVED as you can imagine. We watched some ducks in the rain whilst we ate and left with very full bellies. Myles offered to drive so Deb and Micheal could have a drink and I got front seat as Micheal wanted to have a nap in the back! We set off home and within minutes were all asleep except the driver of course. (Deb says she wasn't asleep though she was working the whole way) I managed to sleep for a good 50k which cut out most the motorway nicely. We arrived home around 5ish still very full, feeling a little tired and lazy Deb decided she didn't want to cook so I offered but she decided we could go out for dinner too! We needed to work off some of what we ate earlier so played a spot of wii tennis and Myles joined in to play bowling and baseball where somehow he got a score of 10! (Which anyone who has played wii baseball knows its stupid and no one gets that many points!) 

By this time Ian had come home and decided that an Indian would be a good choice so we cleaned ourselves up and headed out to the Indian we went to when we first arrived in Tahmoor. Same as last time Deb chose for everyone as she always does a good job. We had some lovely curries and enjoyed ourselves rather a lot. Home was followed by bed.

Tuesday 26th November

Today was a very exciting day. Firstly Laura started a job collecting debts for Debs accounting buisness and generally harassing people over the phone! During the day Laura got a message from a very confused Myles saying Deb was buying him new shoes. Baffled I replied and found out that because Ian was in Melboune Deb needed a male tennis partner for the tennis comp that they have been playing in, so she told Myles he was playing and needed new shoes. He requested I go with her to ensure the trainers were black and not bright green or some crazy Deb colour! I agreed and we set off to rivers to get some cheap trainers. We found some in Renault sport colours that Myles would have loved but they didnt have them in his size sadly. So black with tequoise bits were selected. These bought and a few more phonecalls made I was off home to cook dinner and check the shoes fitted okay! All good and dinner done it was tennis time. Myles looked pretty confident and we all went to the courts (I say we I mean Tara came too much to her pleasure) Deb and Myles warmed up whilst Tara watched very pleased she was invited as she loves tennis, sadly she wasnt allowed on the court as she likes to lay at the net and collect balls during the game. We watched till it got too cold for her and wished them luck and headed home. A good hour and a bit later the tennisists came home very happy. They hadnt won the match but had won a few games which is how the points are counted overall so thats better than getting -9 for not turning up! Sadly Myles had hurt his bent hand bone and needed a little ice to ease it. Being about 9:30 that took us swiftly onto bed time! 

Just a little side note, we have made 12,000 views which is very excting! 
Thanks to everyone that has been keeping up with us regardless that we havent been writing too many blogs recently. In the run upto christmas we are a little more busy so hopefuly you will all get a bit more to read!!

Sunday 24th Debs Birthday!

Today was an exciting day as it was Debs birthday and Ian was throwing her a pool party at the house. We got up and started to help out getting things ready. First things were to get tables and chairs ready and all that sort of stuff. Myles was in charge of doing the BBQ this afternoon which was a very big job! Luckily he didn't have to start straight away and was occupied with putting up a marquee over the shallow end of the pool. We all set out to get last minute bits and Ian went to pick Debs mother up whilst we started the food. Once this was done Myles joined me in making canapes for when people arrived. The first was a rocket, salmon and cucumber with aoli mayonnaise on a fork. The second was a prawn fork and then oysters to go on the platter around this. All very pretty and fancy stuff. By the time we had started guests had started to arrive. The weather was perfect for a BBQ nice and warm( which didnt help our seafood canapes! ) All done and put on ice we carried on getting drinks for people and getting introduced as Debs Pommie children.

 Once everyone had arrived and had enjoyed the seafood portion of the party Myles moved onto the meat. There were 5 different types of sausages, steak, burgers, chicken wings & legs and more seafood to be cooked! 

Along with sides like halloumi cheese, this was very big job for a lone pom! 
Myles made a start looking very daunted but there was no time for that and he soldiered on. I was in the kitchen still doing other bits like salads and sides as well as finding space for puddings people had brought along too! It was quickly realised by those who offered to help that I spent far too much time in the kitchen and knew where everything was so for the day I was the go to girl!
By about 2 O'Clock everything had come together nicely, Myles and I sat down cider in hand with everybody else to enjoy the fruits of our labors! It was a fantastic BBQ and everyone seemed to enjoy the food but we were still left with a good 20 sausages left over! (This was then 3 days dinner & lunches!) 

Clean up in progress we had a well deserved rest and got changed for swimming, before we got into the water it was time for cake. Debs daughter had made her a swimming pool cake, It was a carrot cake with blue jelly topping for the water and looked beautiful. Singing and photos done it was time to find all the deserts I had hidden away in fridges and freezers to then be served.

 Bellies very full it was time to relax. This meant I was pushed in the pool and bullied for being short whilst playing volleyball. The pool today wasn't too cold and we stayed in for a good hour and a bit. After getting very cold I got out of the pool and Myles did too resentfully. Shower and some warm clothes on and it was just family left so we started the final clean up and loaded the dishwasher for the final time. Everybody shattered we relaxed and played a game of outdoor bowling which was great fun and Myles somehow won! He got 72 Aaron and I both got 58 and I forgot Deb and Ians scores (Sorry) :S

Left overs for tea starting the consumption of the sausages! 
Time for bed not long after. Very long day but so worth it everybody had a great time and most importantly Deb did too! 

Tara during bowling being an added obstacle <3 

Wednesday 20th/Thursday 21st - Orange

Ok All week we have been excited about going to orange. Mostly Deb because she wanted to show us the 'backwards bike' but more on that later.
On Thursday We had an early start as we were due to leave the house by 8 so the usual things had to be done, packing, breakfast, saying goodbye to the dog and sherry. With 'Polly' (Debs Peugeot) all packed up we set off to Orange.
Ian being a professional rally driver wanted to show us some of the dirt roads in Australia. We had only a very short experience of dirt roads, we travelled about 4 kilometres on a dirt road when we went to the blue mountains back in September. Ian said there was a great track on the way to orange that goes past Genola caves. After a short while on tarmac we turned off and the road seemed to disappear, poor Polly knew what was ahead, mile after mile after mile of dirt track. Ian engaged the sport mode and we were off, after only a few meters Ian was already frustrated with Polly as the paddles on the steering wheel wouldn't let him change gear when he wanted and also the button that turns off the traction control doesn't do so, it wants you to be wrapped in cotton wool. Anyway I was up the front with Ian while Deb and Laura were in the back, Deb was calling the road layout from Google maps so Ian knew what was ahead. I suppose it was probably 45 minutes of driving and we arrived at the caves. Ian was already tired from driving, I was tired from passengering and holding on! Laura was feeling quezy and Deb was looking up the next stretch of road on the laptop. We saw some amazing scenery blur past and a stunning river at the bottom of the canyon which eventually we crossed and climbed the other side. After another 74 kilometres (46.2 miles) were covered we came to a tarmac road. This was like driving on silk after the rocky dirt road! We were now fairly deep into outback Australia and the busy roads of civilisation were disappearing with long winding roads of, well, not a lot really. Occasionally we would see a car or a bike or 2 enjoying the roads but that was about it. The roads were now fairly open so Deb didn't have to call them and could sit on her laptop working. A short while later and Ian paid the consequences with his enthusiastic driving. Laura needed a short rest at the side of the road thinking she was going to be sick but luckily wasn't! Anyway we swapped and Laura sat in the front and I sat in the back and we were off again, this time a little slower much to Pollys relief. We came to a relatively large town of Bathurst where for those of you that watch Motorsport will know holds a very very famous racing circuit. Mount Panorama. Every year it plays host to the Bathurst 1000, a 1000km supercar endurance race. 95% of Australia watch this race and its known as Bathurst day.

Ian had never driven around the circuit before and decided that it was about time he had. We wound through the town and followed the signs. The track itself is actually a public road that is closed for racing events, there are actually houses within the track and use the racing circuit as their driveway. Obviously as its a racing circuit and a public road there are many people that drive around it to explore. You can go wherever you want on the circuit to explore however there are ferocious speed restrictions, the speed limit was actually 40kph (25mph)!! we pooteled around until we started to climb only to find that the road was closed as they were resurfacing it! What a let down! We turned around and came back down to find some lunch. This was not as easy as first thought, we just wanted to find a small cafe but there wasn't one in sight! Being in a bit of a hurry as we had wasted so much time at bathurst we scrapped the lunch idea and carried on our road trip. I spotted a diner at the side of the road and we pulled in, we all ordered a toasted sandwich. This was a very old style Cafe and had lots of farming antiques and also produce for sale! They had 6 honey samples on offer of which I tried extensively and also an indoor bee hive. It wasn't actually indoors but in the wall of the building with a glass window as the wall so you could see the bees working away! 

It was fascinating but unfortunately the lure of more honey samples was too tempting... Laura and me found our way back to the table with the food yet to arrive, asking how long the food would be the useless waitress said around 25 minutes. I know full well it does not take 25 minutes to make a sandwich and we left. We blasted up to orange and found the farm where we would be staying for the night. The farm was exactly how I imagined it, it was a typical; Australian farm. The farm was around 1200 acres in size which is the biggest farm in this state. There are much bigger farms in western Australia but most of that is just desert. We were greeted by the farmers wife and 4 very friendly and way over excited dogs. We had a short explore and were shown our sleeping quarters. It was actually a very sweet new 3 bedroom annex and was beautiful. We dropped our bags and went in the main house where we were presented with fresh bread rolls and a huge selection of meats and salads, this was one of the best things of the day!
We were taken out for a 10 minute drive down the main road where the farmers were working on the other side of the farm building a new fence for the cattle. Laura was now the excited one as she finally met someone she classes as 'Australian'. A very rich accent and the mandatory Australian hat.
We then were taken into the local village to collect the kids from school. It was a very sweet village, a little like Ringmer but nicer. We arrived back home, again to very excited dogs and Laura had a nap to try and shift the aftermath of the dirt road. Early evening came around and we were presented with the backwards bike, named Dr. Wobble. It looked like any other push bike however this was no ordinary bike. We were given a demonstration and it was ridden with ease. Me having ridden push bikes and motorbikes fancied my chances and jumped on first. After closer examination the bike had an opposing gear on it, so when you turn the handlebars left the wheel goes right and vice versa. I peddled for all of 10 inches and had to put my feet down, this was hard. I did do better than Debra when she tried before she fell off before going anywhere. I tried and tried and tried until was out of breath. The farm is around 9000ft altitude so the air is thinner and the sun much more intense. 10 minutes of sunbathing and you will be burnt. I had enough of the bike and Ian had a go. Ian is very competitive with others and himself, if he has a challenge he will complete it. after 15 minutes he gave it to Laura as he too was knackered. We sat on the tailgate of the Peugeot out of the sun to watch Laura struggle. All 3 of us had failed. I had another go and took turns with Ian until we were called for dinner. Neither of us had managed to ride it more than a metre. We sat down with the family for a fantastic meal of roast chicken and peach crumble for pudding. Ian fairly swiftly went to bed after the day of driving while the rest of us stayed up to play a board game. I wont go too much into the board game as it was totally stupid, but very good fun none the less. I lost, but I expected that as board games aren't my speciality. We all headed for bed and had a good nights sleep. In the morning we were awoken by the cockerel as is the way on the farm. We had breakfast and then were taken on a tour of the farm in the mule. A mule is like a golf buggy on steroids with an area on the back for the dogs etc. The dogs knew the drill and jumped in the back however they were very very disappointed as normally they would go on the morning patrol however they had been replaced with a Myles and a Laura and left at home. We were showed around with Debra being very excited with a 1 day old calf. A few fields across and we were shown the sheep on the hill that overlooks the farm. 
The picture you see here is the farm in question, pretty much all you can see was the farm to give you an idea of size!!

We drove back to the farm greeted by sulking dogs. Ian and me broke into the barn and got out Dr. Wobble, we were not going to be defeated. I sort of got the hang of it eventually and managed to ride a short distance. This frustrated Ian greatly as he still couldn't do it. Photos were taken of the bike and Ian is planning on building one at home so he can do it. (He will always complete a challenge). Ian Laura and me took a drive back into orange leaving Debra with the farmers to do accounting things while we had an explore and also to find some morning tea at the bakery. Ian got some bananas to keep his energy levels up, Polly got some diesel to keep her energy levels up, and some air in her tyres to keep her tyres up. We got back not realising what the time was with an Angry Deb as she had to be in a meeting back at home in 4 hours. We said quick goodbyes and thank you and left. Thinking ahead Laura sat in the front. We blasted back to Bathurst where we did another lap of the track, this time it was open so we could a proper lap! We had a quick driver change and I had a lap of the circuit enjoying it thoroughly. Oh and not venturing above the 40kph limit... much...
Drivers changed back and we headed back home. There were evil looking black clouds on the horizon so Debra studied the possible routes home on her laptop to see what would be quickest as Australian roads get incredibly slippery when they are wet. A dirt road was selected and was coded in the sat-nav. Mr tom-tom didn't like this and said that there was no route possible. So Debra planned the route on the laptop and we just paid attention to where we were going. Soon enough the tarmac ended and we hit the dirt, the rain was drizzling now but our spirits were high, except Polly who was back in rally mode. The route Deb had selected was interesting shall we say and after 20kms there was a rather large sign stating that the road was unsuitable for road vehicles. We opened the gate and proceeded as the clock was very much not on our side. Debra was trying her best to call the roads but Ian misjudged a corner and cut it a little too much dropping poor Polly into a rocky ditch at quite considerable speed. The momentum kept us going with many lights on the dashboard telling him that 'he was driving too fast and to slow down' (in a French accent) the rain was coming down now and made the surface a little slippy. Eventually We came to another gate with a much smoother looking track the other side, we were through. I opened the gate and ian inspected the car. As it turns out A peugeot 4008 is surprisingly strong! The only injury Poly had was a cracked washer bottle a missing wheel liner. The front bumper had been pulled off the wheel arch but after some gently persuasion it snapped back into place. We proceeded home and finally hit the highway to discover that we had bent a part of the steering as it now didn't steer quite straight and then we met the black clouds we saw earlier. Fork lightening repeatedly blasted across the sky with torrential rain howling down. eventually we came out the other side and drove to the hotel where Debs meeting was. We looked at the clock and had 9 minutes to spare, just enough time for a change of clothes! Ian was very tired after that drive and I offered to drive the last 40 mins home. 
We arrived home safe and sound where it was still dry, Ian and me inspected the Peugeot in more detail and everything appeared to be ok. He said it didn't really matter anyway as it was going for a service in 3 days. God knows what the mechanics at Peugeot must think when they inspect that car! We relaxed in the living room watching those evil clouds close in, this brought some awesome lightening and incredibly loud thunder. Tara the dog is completely deaf however can still feel the vibrations and was rather confused with it! I tried and failed to get any decent photos of the lightening, I did get one which looked amazing but was so bright the photograph just looked white. otherwise it would have been good.. 
This concludes our trip to orange really I don't think there is anything else that happened. I hope you enjoy reading this as it took over 2 hours to write, which is valuable rally car working time!!

Love to all xx

  

Sunday 10th

An early start for Myles with more car work on the cards. Unfortunately Ian wasn't feeling to well so that was put on hold. Laura got up at 9:30 ready to start sanding the stairs again. Breakfast done we both got our sanders out and made a start. Myles at the bottom and me at the top. This was our days work pretty much!  Separated by Laura going to Debs mothers with her to remove an old heavy TV and Myles making a clearing in the Garage for the Clio to make an exit. At one point all 3 of us Debra, Myles and I were all using sanders to try and get it all done in 1 day. This didn't quite happen but it's only edging to be done which won't take long at all. During this time Sherry had come back from a night out with a friend and retired to bed after a late night. Apparently she slept through the whole thing but I'm not sure she could have short of passing out! Clean up done and fresh clothes on it was time for dinner to be cooked. As its a Sunday it was a roast day which we love! We had lamb today And it was beautiful!

After that a little TV and bed. Not a lot to report but here's a photo of the stairs thus far! Next step is staining them! (Excuse the poor quality photo)

 

Saturday 9th

Today started as a very normal non eventful weekend. It was a beautiful day even though it was meant to rain and have possible thunderstorms. Myles had another day of cars planned with Ian and deb and Laura were going to sand and stain the stairs. After a morning on cleaning the house it was pretty warm about 35-36degrees and Deb Swherry and I had a swim in the pool which was lovely! Especially as the boys had fixed the waterfalls. After this the sanders were located but we needed more paper so the customary trip to Bunnings warehouse was required. Before this lunch was on the agenda so some sausages were cooked and some wrapped in foil for the boys on the way. They got their lunch and we carried on to get the required things. All very exciting when we got there greeted by a woman who was off her face screaming and shouting at 2 guys who had her restrained. Turns out she had been caught stealing drills and wasn't happy about being caught too much! Police arrived and that was that. We found the stain for the stairs very well and good but they had no Black andDecker  paper at all so we were very unhappy with Bunnings and the useless man working in the tool shop department! We found another hardware shop and got what we needed which was pretty good. With this a speedy drive back home where the boys came home pretty soon after. We were setting up our sanders when we were asked to go swimming. Neither of us wanted to so Myles decides it would be a good idea to throw Me in the pool again. This is becoming a regular habit. After a 5 minute struggle he got to the pool side where he asked me why he shouldn't throw me in, with this Ian had come up behind him and just tapped him on his back over balancing him an we both went in fully clothed shoes and all! Worst part is Myles' phone was still in his pocket! It was taken out very sharpish, dried and put in a bowl of rice. Myles was hoping this would attract Asians who would fix the phone and I hoped it would draw out the water so an overall win win. 

This far it's still working but we shall keep you posted! Once dry Debra and Laura carried on sanding the stairs but could only do 2 as Ian wanted to watch the news so a drink and we all sat down and watched a toy story Pixar short that was on the TV. 

Tonight we were going out to the King George pub in Picton for dinner as they had a band playing. It's quite a historic place an one of the oldest pubs in Australia. It used to be a coach house where they would store English prisoners over night whist in transit. Myles had a beef burger and I had a steak and caramalised onion sandwich. I think I got the best deal but we did a swap half for half which was very nice. Debra had a seafood platter and a pizza for Ian. After enjoying the band for a while we headed back home where we are now. We're watching Johnny English Reborn which is very good. We have had a good week but not done a lot! 

Love to everyone back home hope your enjoying your rain! ;) x

Things that are different in upside down world

Here's a small list of things that we have noticed that are different when you live upside down.

• TV its rubbish and they get English shows about 5 months later than in England
• Vegemite its not the same or as nice as Marmite!
• They have weather, its not always rain.
• Things are upside down.
• Gardens are not gardens they are mines for you to dig rocks out of.
• Flip Flops are called thongs.
• We are pommies and Ozzies hate when we mention that we own things or invented things they call stupid names like football being soccer
• Cars are different lots of 4WD cars and they all have different names out here! Most cars are 'utes', basically a car / pick up truck mix with a supercharged V8.
• Car Parking spaces are bigger.
• It takes AGES to get anywhere.
• There is no primark and we dont like that.
• Meat is a lot cheaper but veggies are more expensive.
• Australians are passionate about buying Ozzie grown/made things.
• There aren't kangaroos everywhere but there are ants!
• Birds are much more colourful.
• Only aboriginals are allowed to play didgeridoos otherwise its offensive.
• Ozzies dont get the jist of things they get the gist?
• Bushfires make life smell like bonfire night constantly.
• You have to work in 40degree heats!
• BBQ's are a normal way of cooking/life and not an exciting event.
• Things are always trying to kill or bite you.
• Australian wildlife is a bit more exciting than England. 
• Seeing a kangaroo in the garden while you eat breakfast is cool.
• Not all Ozzies say G'day or speak with an Ozzie accent like in the fosters adverts.
• Hardly any Ozzies drink fosters.
• An hours drive is a short drive.
• When you live here 16degrees is kinda cold.
• Pommies are the biggest import into Australia!
• Felt pens are called Texters for some reason.

Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd November - Sydney Opera House

Saturday 2nd November

Today was a very exciting day which started early for a weekend! 8.30 we were up to be greeted with a car decal being fed under our door called Pedder's suspension with that Myles took the hint and got up! Breakfast on his agenda and a shower on mine. Myles had a day of creating and fixing race cars ahead of him and Laura had an exciting trip to Sydney Opera House to see South Pacific! Very exciting, Deb had planned to take her mother and found out that it was cheaper to get 4 tickets than 2! Bit silly but nevertheless it was the case. So Sherry and I were invited. This brings me onto the next news one of the people who has stayed with Ian and Debra before has come back for work near by! So it's a full house at the moment. It was an eventful morning moving beds and doing all sorts but during this time Laura had the fright of her life finding the BIGGEST centipede in the world taking residence in her jeans! After a few squeals and Myles capturing it all was fine again. Laura now never leaving clothes unattended... Not fun at all! 

After all the excitement both sides were ready to go, the boys set off first to Picton to start work on the Proton rally car whilst we set off in convoy to pick up Debra's mother. Sherry is staying with a friend in Sydney so she is taking her car and we did a convoy to the opera house. I jumped in with her so she wasn't so alone if deb got too far ahead! All was fine only 1 point we got separated by rather short traffic lights but not too bad! Once we arrived we drove into the underground car park in the Opera House. Only $15 for the day, not bad for the Quay on a Saturday! The carpark is 2 huge circles that goes under the Opera House and would be great for drifting. Once we found a space we were off, tickets acquired and a nose around the gift shop we had a quick drink and found our seats. I took a few sneaky photos with the camera as your not allowed and put it away before I got told off! We had the first 3/4 of the play before the intermission which was amazing. It was really great and we all really enjoyed it. Tomorrow is their last performance before it goes off to Melbourne. For those who don't know what it's about here's a quick breakdown it's a musical that centres on a group of 'American sailors and Navy nurses stationed in the South Pacific during World War II. Arkansas native Nellie Forbush befriends and quickly falls for Emile de Becque, a French expatriate and plantation owner, and Lt. Joe Cable finds himself in a passionate affair with Liat, the young daughter of Bloody Mary, the local grass-skirt peddler. As the war against Japan escalates, reality sets in for both Forbush and Cable, who struggle to reconcile their unconventional love affairs with their long-held prejudices and insecurities.'

After this it was time to go and had the long hour and a half drive back from the city. A quick stopover at woolies to get dinner and tacos were on the menu which we like lots :)

Lots of food eaten it was pretty late and after dinner chats we made our way to bed as did everyone else. The F1 is on tonight and Myles ha elected NOT to watch it!! Mind you it runs from 11:35-2:00am. He said he will watch the race though.

Sunday 3rd

Another earlyish start breakfast and it was time for Myles to go as he was playing fixing race cars with Ian today. This left me with morning jobs of cleaning the kitchen until deb came home from going to the shops. This was sharply followed by us going upstairs and unpacking the flat pack bed that had to be made. Once we checked all parts were there we found that the wooden headboard was chipped so we put the whole thing together and then went to get another bit for it. This took us up to 1 O'clock when Myles was home! It was lunch time so he was feeding himself and I stole his lunch and he had a tuna sandwich which was bigger anyways. Then the rest of the bed was put together! Yay! Myles and Deb got the mattress from the garage along with a bedside table and the room looks beautiful now! All of these bits were for Sherry's room. 

Because today was a muggy day Myles had decided that it was swimming time. I was happy playing catch with just my legs in but he rugby tackled me and threw me in the pool.. After a while the wind picked up a lot and it was warmer in the water than out so we played a few games and generally larked around. Laura got cold and gave Myles notice that she would be getting out soon. He was having none of this and threw her back in again and again. Once he got bored of this he stole both towels and then threw Laura in. This was fine but she also dragged the towel with her! Deb tutted out the window and we rung it out and had a shower! That brings us to now really! Myles just got a text alerting of a local fire. Here we go again. It was very very windy today and the fire local to us which was nearly out is not out of control again. It's a fair way from us still so no need to really worry just yet. All our fire plans are in place anyway. 

We thought you would like to know that tonight we had fillet steak, pork, satay chicken, lamb chops, a wide verity of salads and fruit, chips and coleslaw all prepared in house and cooked by Myles on the BBQ. 

Don't get too jealous now...

 Apart from that we had a good fun weekend which was nice :)

Love to you all! X 

Myles' addition to the blog.

I was playing race cars with Ian over the weekend, Ian wants to run the brake and fuel lines internally on the rally car. Also install a hydraulic handbrake. The inside has been stripped and I have been preparing to spray the interior and roll cage. Ian has been doing a little bit of electronics. That's all so far. Hopefully we can drive it properly soon! (photos to come soon!!)