Poppy and the Wolverines

So with scottie and chico back in the country, we headed off to the opera bar for a few drinks. And then... well... we went to another venue in the city for a bit of fun.. check out the photos -

Night out in Sydney

Where are we for the past 12 months

I've just uploaded 13 photos onto picasa web. Click the below link to check them all out:

where are We?

Arrrrrgh Xmas 2006

So the 16th Dec was the designated day for the Arrrrrrgh annual christmas dinner. This time, we decided to go for a lunch rather than dinner - location was the Belgium Beer Cafe in the rocks.

We had a big turnout this year, with (i think) the number hitting 27 attendees. Drinking started shortly after 1pm. A late decision during the week was to take part in the kris kringle - $10 limit, and some rules to do with poaching, which would make the whole affair a bit a more interesting.

Again, a great day had - And it got better after leaving the belgium beer cafe - we headed to Glenmore rooftop pub in the Rocks... and once we were feeling like eating again, it was off to Sea-Bay - for those who have not been to Sea-Bay, it is an experience.

I've been told that you can't go in there and spend more than $20/person. Its just not possible. We ordered a LOT of dishes, there was food left on the table, and we only managed to rack up $16/person (thats about 6 pounds for our UK readers out there!).

Although the night could have gone on from there (from the original 27 there was about 12 that made it to dinner at sea-bay), we decided on going our separate ways and head home - probably a good decision given the amount of drinking that had occured during the day.Anyway, time for a few photos...

Joe "the Butcher" with his sample of beers (and sausages)

Joe was the lucky recipient of the 'pirate' kris-kringle present

The Arrrrrrgh boys on the glenmore rooftop

With Matt's current beard, the resemblence with Adam Savage (Mythbusters) is uncanny

You should see the other guy

(note: ok so it really isn't that bad. It was really from an elbow to the eye during basketball. Still, I've been playing the bad boy card for the last couple of days)

Regulator Xmas 2006

well - a late change in date meant that there was little preparation for this years annual regulator Clifton Gardens Xmas party. It was a big weekend on the regulators social calendar - ziggy and jodie had their house cooling down party on friday night; Damian & Bonnie invited us all around to visit their awesome place under Mooney Mooney bridge up the coast sat night; and of course, the annual xmas party on Sunday.

So what happened then -

• the weather forecast for the weekend wasn't looking so sweet, and it rained most of saturday; it cleared up sunday, but was still quite overcsat and windy
• Lisa and Graham got rammed up the ass on the F3 heading up to Collins' place. Basically, cars in front of them braked - they braked. The car behind them unfortunately did not brake as quickly. We now know that our Magna has an ass of steel as the car behind was quite totalled on its front, with the Magna just having a few scratches
• Bonnie & Damian introduced us all to Taboo - did the whole girls vs boys, and of course the boys won convincingly (by 1 point anyway)
• Sunday's events were moved to Georgie's parents place - gave us a good plan B as we did not know what the weather would do, and it was good to be back in familar terrority again
• Kris Kringle, with its alternate 'present opening strategy' went off smoothly in the end - however, before that, there had been many numerous/wasted discussions about how it should all work

So yeah, it was a pretty fun weekend - Dan took some photos, which are below....

Lisa showing her stuff on the pool table

Collins telling it like it is

Santa & Jon

Big Poppa Arrives

were back

We finally moved back into our unit in Artarmon 2 weeks ago. A big thanks to those who helped out (especially my mum who helped out on the Friday). Just a couple of photos from our living room with some of the new purchases we had made while overseas...

Moroccan Rug in our Dining Room

Santorini painting on our feature wall

party at the Jude's

Well, what a great day/night we just had. For our overseas/interstate folk who weren't able to make it to the engagement party, thought we would share a few photos and stories.

Firstly, big thanks to the awesome hosts - Lisa's parents, Brendan and Carol. Tahlia and Britt (Lisa's little sisters) also played a big part in helping to set everything up - I think everyone was in agreeance that Britt did a great job with her mum in putting together the engagement (cup) cakes.

The caterers (grinners, based in Camden) turned up at about 6pm, and set themselves up in a nice little section out of the way. think we went with the right option with platters of food being served out, and everyone seemed to be happy with the selection.

Then came the alcohol - Brendan basically said that he hates to go to a party and the alcohol runs out mid way through the evening. Well, that turned out to not be a problem at all with plenty of excess to last the family well into the future.

We had a little photo slideshow going with our makeshift projector/screen setup, along with the ipod playing DJ for us - and although we did fear having 75 people in the house (as well as the rain coming down pretty much all day), we managed to comfortably fit everyone into the backyard - big thanks to Dave and Georgie's massive tarp that gave us that extra room.

The speeches made by Lis, Stu and Brendan were all different and all well appreciated by everyone. A few jokes, a few well told stories and a few tears always makes for a good occasion.

A big thanks again for all that did make it on sat night - hope you all had as good a time as Lisa and I did.

view photos from the night

Festivus fun

well, the swans may not have won, but we still managed to have plenty of fun at Graham and Dan's place over the weekend.

Festivus did take its toll on Sergio, who had to retire early at 8pm. The 2nd day of festivus did bring about a successful result for the broncos. Goof way to let Webcke retire.

Cheah admiring the hosts cooking ability

Sergio & Nuggets ensuring festivus goes well

Singing the anthem during the AFL

 

Naxos, Greece

Lisa enjoying some quality red wine

 

Athens

Some photos taken while in Athens....

Shell, Lisa and Al at a seafood ouzerie

"where are we" - on top of the Acropolis, Athens

 

Da Amalfi

 

Roma Photos

 

By the Sweet Sorrento Moon

18th August – Rome to Sorrento

An earlish start, check out of our very attentive Rom-antique Hotel and get on a 2 hour train to Naples. Once there, we needed to find our way to Circumvesuvia train line and there we would find our train to Sorrento – easy yes? Well sort of, there is very little signage so we were told to just follow two other tourists who had asked the tourist office the same thing we did, how do we get there. We just hoped they heard the directions correctly or didn’t stop to go to the bathroom or we could look odd waiting for them. Found the train line and the letters above our train info DIR seemed we would get there very soon. However, in Italian I guess DIR means every single stop not direct as one might have thought. So it was 40 stops to Sorrento and we were still smiling as we were on the way to the beach! 20 min into the trip and I feel some very old hands on my arm pulling me to the other side of the train and a very angry old Italian yelling. Seems I was in his path to the door and he suffered from a condition which meant he couldn’t go around me. Al did his best to keep me calm but I still got in a “Ciao asshole” as he left the train.

We arrived in Sorrento safely and without being man handled again. When we got out of the train station though we must have suckers written on our forehead cause we were quoted 20 euros for a 10 min taxi ride to our hotel and we took it! Still can’t believe we said yes.

We stepped into Mami Camillas and the day was looking up. A little family owned hotel just on the edge of Sorrento. First stop was the beach which was a bit of a walk ... down. Sorrento in perched on cliff tops and to get to a beach (no sand really just water but who’s counting chickens) we had to walk through a cool path they had through the cliff face. After a quick swim I had a date with a cucina (Italian for kitchen). I had signed up for the evenings cooking class. Our teacher (Massimo), two other girls and I were going to cook dinner for the staff and Mami’s guests. On the menu was Arancini balls, homemade pasta with tomato and eggplant, pollo with cream and mushroom sauce and lastly Neopolitan chocolate sponge cake. I didn’t stop smiling the whole time I was in that kitchen, it was the most fun I had had all holiday.

That night Al and I ate with the rest of the hotel and enjoyed the meal I had helped cook with some local vino.

Roma

Last night in Rome tonight. Then off to the Amalfi. When we first arrived into Rome, it was quite a difference to the other cities we had visited thus far in Italy.

The number of people trying to scam you (or at least sell things on the streets) seemed to multiply some what. But, all that aside, it was still great to visit all the famous landmarks that it is known for.

A quick rundown of our 3 days here:
Aug 15th - we left Florence at around 11am, with a fairly easy 2 hour train ride. Got into Rome, to feel the humidity sap all the energy straight out of us. The hotel that Lis had found (RomAntica) turned out to be a nice little place, just a short 5 min walk from the main train station; good work hon. We were only 2 metro stations away from the Colosseum, so thats were we headed.
Saw the large lines, then some tour company approached us and asked if we wanted to join. Normally €12 to get in, and they were asking €20 so we thought - deal! After the colosseum, checked out the Forum.

Aug 16th - Headed into the centre of town to visit a few of the other key sights; Pantheon, the Trevi fountain, and numerous piazzas (they love their piazzas over here). Lisa mentioned that its becoming very clear why wogs back home love to put concrete all over their backyards!

Aug 17th - From our tour of the Colloseum, we decided to try the same tour company with their tour of the Vatican City. Met at the metro station closest to St Peters at 8.15am. Nice and early start. Downside was the past two days the Vatican had been closed to the public, so every tourist and their proverbial dog were there that morning.

We queued up for 2.5 hours! Suprisingly went quite quickly, although fitty people inside made it quite stuffy and claustrophobic.

Sistine Chapel, and the St Peters Basicalla were as expected, the highlights. And our guide turned out to be quite informative, which always makes the time go quicker.


Anyway, pizza is calling.

Milan to Rome

10th August - Milan
We arrive in Milan MXP airport (50 km out of Milan!) and make our way to our hotel. Al is very frustrated as this is the first city we have come across where maps are not free and he is forced to pay 3 euros for one. After that our hotel is located and we head staight for the Duomo and to do a bit of shopping for Donna's birthday.

11h August - Lake Como/Venice
Up at 6:30 to get to (insert name of church here) to see The Last Supper and head off to Lake Como. Then get the 4 o'clock train to Venice! Again Al is frustrated that he is asked to pay for a map ("I remember a time when maps used to be free!") so refuses and asks the information girl to direct him to the hotel. She musn't of liked him because her directions couldn't have been more vague. After wandering the streets and finding a very nice local who phoned the hotel on her mobile to get the right directions we off to a great start in Venice. The saying, bad dress rehersal, good show must be right because Venice turned out to be my favourite city in Europe. Each corner we turned we were amazed at how beautiful everything was.

12th August - Venice
Happy Birthday Donna! I am going to need Al's help to remember what we did this morning because it is alraedy a blur! Earlier that day we had passed an Opera Hall and decided to get some tickets for the Venitian Opera. It turned out to be a great night.

13th August
Checked out of the hotel at 9:30 and head straight for the train station to book our tickets to Florence, lucky we did because the earliest train we could get was at 1.30pm.

Barca

So much to say here, but only 1 min on our internet... will have to edit this later!

7th August - Barcelona

8th August - Barcelona

9th August - Barcelona

Birthday celebrations were at hand, and Lisa did a great job at making the day go so well. Started off with a quick stop at the food markets just off Las Ramblas. Dman, they were good! plenty of fresh fruit to be had, and we managed to even get a fry up.It was then off to one of the city beaches. No waves, but plenty of sun, and the water was remarkebly refreshing, so made several hours of the afternoon go very quickly.Back to the hotel for a quick change before heading off to Park Mojito (to be fixed later), were we enjoyed a nice walk around and some great views of Barca as the sun came down.We did make reservations for Los Caracoles (thanks chico for the recommendation), and this is were we found ourselves at around 9pm. The restaurant was buzzing, and had a good atmosphere to it. Definitely was a great way to finish the day off.

next stop - Milano

San Sebastian

Lisa with the beautiful San Sebatian beaches in the background

2nd August - San Sebastian
As soon as we arrived in San Sebastian, we new that we would have a great time. The old town was great with a different Tapas bar at every 2nd store. Lisa and Dan were loving all the clothing labels around - I knew this was a good thing, as it meant beach time for me :)

The hostel that we stayed at was Pension Amariur, which was a recommendation from our old flat mate Josie. And it was tops. Apart from being in a porn location, the friendliness of the staff and the cleanliness of the rooms meant our stay was extremely enjoyable.

We hit the tapas bars that night - not really knowing what to expect. Think we got ripped off in 1 or 2 places. Mainly because we decided not to pay straight away and trust that the bar man had a good memory. The other times we gave tapas a go, it turned out a whole lot more successfully.

3rd August - San Sebastian
No breakfast included in the Pension, so we headed out. We tried to rip off a not very smart waiter. But he was faster then us, and we couldnt get away. Hit the beach... well, I did, while Lisa and Dan hit the shops. They soon worked out that Siesta time was in full effect, so their shopping turned to be more wondering around, but still a worthwhile cause.

Not wanting Tapas, we thought Paella was the go. With a recommendation from our hotel staff, we headed out to a place on the other side of the river. Turned out they dont do Paella any more but we still took some awesome sunset photos (see below) and then headed back to the old town for Paella.

Al & Lisa on bridge at sunset

4th August - Biarittz
It was time to head out of town and check out some more of Basque country. Decision was made to head towards Biarittz, and all 3 of us were very happy with the decision, with me getting some much needed beach time, Lisa finding a bikini top, and Dan buying a new t-shirt. Not to mention, having a great lunch (although we weren´t too happy with having to fork out €7.50 for a coke each!), and admiring a bit of Southern France at the same time.

[photo here]

"where are we" in Biartittz

5th August - San Sebastian
The KLB would be reunited today, and Dan and me headed to Bilbao airport to go pick the little filo (Chico) up. He was very excited to see us, and plenty of stories to swing both ways happened throughout the weekend.

We headed up to some place with a good view (wheres chico when you need him to remember the name!) and had a few KLB reunion shots.

It was then back down to check into the hostel - one issue with being in the old town was the lack of parking, so €18/night was the order of play for carparking. We all headed to the beach (even Dan this time), and all enjoyed the sand, water and waves. Oh, and there may have been a few tops missing from some ladies on the beach as well, but I wouldnt know about that.

Finally, the day was topped off with a fine dining experience at Arzak, Spains number one restaurant. Lisa will bring her thoughts to the table at a later time - hopefully with pictures...

Lisa and Dan at a resturant not serving Paella

6th August - Barcelona
With a big night last night, it was time for a bit of a sleep in, and then a plan was decided that we would drive Dan and Chico to Heneye, which is just across the border in France. Mind you, no border police at all to be found... Heneye really didnt seem to have much going for it, so we settled for a little cafeteria and some cheap food.

Really not much to write about, especially with our meal, as I think some of us were still full from last nights meal (think Lisa counted 17 courses in total). We loaded Chico and Dan up (thanks guys once again) with all our Marrakech purchases and said our goodbyes.

It was then a bit of a drive back to Bilbao airport. Only sour note was to be hit by the Eurocar folk for a new scratch on the side of the car. Probably was us that did it, as we did touch a few curbs in 1 or 2 car parks... but what can you do.

We arrived in a fairly humid Barcelona and the info desk at the airport provided all the info we required to get ourselves to our hotel.

on the way to San Seb

31st July - time to depart Morocco
Even though it was 1st class on the overnight train from Marrakech to Tangier, it still proved difficult to find a way to sleep comfortably throughout the night. It didn´t help that there was several stops with people getting on/off the train every few hours; we managed to arrive 1 hour past the scheduled arrival into Tangier (arriving at 8.30am). Then it was straight off to the ferry port where we saw a ferry about to leave in 30 min.

Cost €40 for the ride, and with 30 min you would have thought no probs to get past passport control. We thought we were cutting it fine, but the ferry was running on Spain time, so it all worked out in the end (Al did manage to get into quite a fuss in the passport queue though).

That night, we stayed in Malaga in a really nice hostel (Picassos corner). Malagas vibe was very cool and it was a shame we only spent one night there. Managed to visit the Castello in the middle of town and get some great photos from there. Somehow managed to find a taxi at 5am to take us to the airport.

1st August - Costa Verde
The flight from Malaga went smoothly and we found our selves in Santiago De Compestella. Picked up the car and drove into town. Checked out a few sights (big ass church that had plasmas within - a sign of the times perhaps). With having no hotel to stay this evening, once at Santiago, this was one of our first priorities. We managed to pick a hotel near Gijon, which should have been about 4 hours drive away from Santiago.

On the open road, some very beautiful scenery, and we did decide to go for a few scenic roads, which meant that our 4 hours, became a bit more like 6. Our main problem was entering into a city, then having no idea how to get out of it! guess it may pay to have (better) maps next time we embark on a driving expedition.

2nd August - Costa Verde
We left Alvires and headed on the road towards Basque country. The drive continued along some very beautfiul seas side and green hills - plenty of bridges, hills, valleys, beaches were passed, and all looked like they would provide a great relaxing getaway. We made it to San Sebastian in the afternoon... we learnt very quickly that fitty one way roads can make navigating the streets there a bit hectic.

a hot city!

After almost a year, we finally got to catch up with Dan again. He is currently midway through his 4 weeks around the world. He arrived in London wednesday morning, and Lisa played the host as I was still working that day.

Thursday 27th July
A nice early flight leaving from Gatwick meant we caught our taxi to the airport at 5am. A pretty uneventful flight, with a slight delay meant we got to the heat of Marrakech at about 11.30am. Our host for the Riad that we were staying at was there to greet us at the airport and take us straight to our home for the next 3 nights. We basically drove to the edge of the medina, where a boy then with a wheelbarrow-like-trolley took our suitcases as we swerved amongst the many people in the markets (souks), dodging donkeys, horses, motorbikes, bicycles and plenty of people. Its always a great experience to be greeted with a large glass of orange juice at your hotel. The riads are definitely something special, with each room having its own theme. At the centre of the riad was a table and also a little wading pool that we made heavy use of every day at around 2-4pm (when the day was hottest). And then it was off to do some sightseeing

Friday 28th July
A bit of sponantiety hit me when I dragged Lisa and Dan into a carpet store. He looked like he had a wide selection to choose from. The price that I originally had in my mind turned out to be a far way from what we ended up paying - in the end though, I think Lisa and me were very happy with our purchase (hey, if the store is good enough for Mariah Carey and Hillary Clinton to shop at, then its good enough for us).

Saturday 29th July
It was time to check out a little out of Marrakech - we visited the tourist office and they recommended a tour company that could lend a hand. We paid 900 dirham for the 3 of us to be driven 2 hours to the cascades. Morroco as you would expect is extremely hot and dry - to find these cascades where there are beautiful water falls and lots of greenery was just fantastic. It made for an extremely relaxing day (albeit a bit of walking to/from the cascades), and we were all very glad to have made the journey out there.

Sunday 30th July
Our final day in Marrakech - last minute shopping was the main priority. Having to check out of the riad also meant that we wanted to not make it a big day with no shower in sight for another 36 hours.

Marrakech airport...

Our rug man who has brought us plenty of good luck on our trip

checking out the merchandise

 

goodbye stuart rd

Photos taken from our final night at Stuart Rd... we headed to the Grand Union for one last meal together....

Lisa, Jess and Mateo at the Grand Union

Blake, Lisa, Jess (top row); Mateo, Renee, Al and Dan (bottom row)

 

windsor.

With only a few weekends left in London, it was time for some much needed sightseeing. Still managed to get to basketball on saturday, however it was a jam packed day, ending with having dinner with Matt and Di, who had one night in London before flying out to Malta.
Saturday 8th July: we checked out westminister abbey and St Pauls
Sunday 9th July: a visit to Windsor castle. For 14 pounds, probably a lot better things to spend your money on within London.

"where are we" at Windsor Castle

next stop... Lisbon. forecast is for mid 30's - can't wait!

wimby - 2006

Sat 1st July - a very early start for Lisa and me. Wake up at 4.30am for a taxi pickup at 5am, to arrive at Wimbledon at 5.30am. Why so early you ask? to join the queue of course!

We were Number 1387 and 1388 in the queue. There were a lot of people that had camped over and with the sun coming up, people were just getting out of their tents and heading to the many food stalls that were offering breakfast and coffee.

The queue card given to us on arrival

The queuing has been going on for some time, so when we first arrived, along with our queue number, we were also given a guide to queuing - you can't save spots; you can leave the queue for small periods (eg to go to bathroom, get food, etc); no queue number, no entrance into the grounds.

We sat on the oval in our line probably for an hour and a half - then we started to move. Plenty of old friendly stewards (who all seemed very British) to help direct us, and certainly add to the wimbledon vibe.

in the queue waiting for tickets... will we get onto the show courts?

Just after 9.30, we managed to go through the security check, and so I guess we officially queued for 4.5 hours - but it really did fly by. There was plenty always going on around us. The bad news was that even though we got there so early, we still ended up with ground pass tickets only. The man behind us queued about the same time 2 years ago, and was able to get court 2 tickets (the order of valuable tickets was: centre court, court 1, court 2, ground pass) so we had hoped.... You could see the people who had managed to get the show court tickets - they were the ones with the coloured wrist bands. Crazily enough, there were 6 people at the front of the queue who were actually queuing for monday's tickets!

With the newspaper that we had bought in the queue, the order of play was the next thing we had to tackle. Being the 3rd round, there was always going to be plenty of matches on, and quite a few aussies on show. This also meant that there were a LOT of aussie supporters around - and this made seeing any of the aussies play particularly difficult.

We started the day checking out Myskina play - for those who don't know, she is the one who's face looks quite similar to Lisa's. Match was pretty uneventful - Myskina cruised through after a slow start; we did get introduced to the 'wimbledon wave' - its a wave through the crowd that goes around 3 times with a 'celebration wave', a 'hissing wave', and finally a 'slow motion wave' - with the 3rd providing quite a humourous spectacle.

After the match, we raced off to check out Lleyton on court 2 - turned out to be a 2 hour wait to get into the standing area, so our last chance was possibly standing on the back row of court 3 (court 2 and 3 are back to back) - alas, they were completely taken as well.

The order of play - lots of big names on show today!

With no chance of seeing his match, there was another big match on at the same time - Agassi/Nadal. So we headed to Henman Hill (aka Murray Mount), and found a nice relaxing position to watch the rest of that match. Agassi was just not his same self, and the winners and running around that I was so used to seeing from him, was being done by Nadal, who made some impossible shots look easy.

With that match over, they did show the remainder of the Lleyton match on the big screen. The one thing they didn't show at the grounds was the football - They kept flashing up on the big screen "the world cup England game will not be shown here. we will occasionally show score updates".

As was to be expected, a mass exodus just before 4pm occured as people headed off to watch the football. We decided it was time to get some food (strawberries and cream rock!) and work out what else to check out.

The remaining 2 hours we spent there, we checked out a few different matches - saw the end of Samantha Stosur/Lisa Raymond playing doubles, which they won. Alicia Molik and Wayne Arthurs were playing last match one of the courts - at 6pm, they were still 2 matches away from playing, so we decided to call it quits.

The football, which had reached extra time by this stage, was still going on, so we managed to find a little food stall on the side streets of wimbledon that had a small crowd gathering to watch the game through a little tv. the penalty shootout would have been so cruel if you were English.

So on the whole, a great day out to the tennis - just being there, and soaking up all the atmosphere was a lot of fun.