Where are we for the past 12 months

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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