Picnic food and coffee at Las Chicas

Escape to the Great Ocean Road

We all had a well-earned break to the Great Ocean Road in August - we rented a fabulous house at Kennett River, halfway between Lorne and Apollo Bay, where there was peace, quiet and a koala infestation. Morning number 1 saw breakfast on the deck in the sun!

Mmmmmm... parrot...

Here is Dan doing a fine demonstration of 'Men's Catalogue Pose #32'.

Saturday night we celebrated Mel's 30th birthday. Shenanigans abounded, ample evidence of the corrupting influence of inflatable plastic provided below.

Thank goodness Felicity and Andy were around to bring some class and romance to the weekend!

And the ever-beautiful Grace as well.

But not Dan.

Here is a koala.

Me and Jay looking colourful.

A lovely weekend, with lovely people, lovely ocean, lovely food, lovely music, lovely scenery, lovely parrots, lovely everything.

Canberra - Feel The Power!

I had to go to Canberra for a course. Jason came up for the weekend. Rrrrarrgh!

Nuts to you, JHo and lackeys!

hee hee hee!

Ah, what a great weekend. Canberra - Where You Go To Make Home Seem More Exciting.

Random winter photos

Voila! Des photos d'hiver australien. Ici - le fameux ballon Re/Max!! C'etait chanceux pour Francesca et Terry - ils ont trouver un appartement tout suite!

Jason et un petit chat du quartier.

Mon petit castor 'huileux' attends le souper...

Et finalement, un cafe chez Ici, Fitzroy...

Et un cafe chez nous!

Grampians

Jason's birthday present was a weekend away to the Grampians, which he can't really claim was a surprise because it was exactly what he asked for. Well, not the Grampians in particular, but the weekend away. And it was lovely.

We stayed in a little two-bedroom house of interesting architecture that I can't show you because we neglected to take a photo of it, but it was great! And quiet, peaceful, there was a wood fire and a well-equipped kitchen. We ate well, and in the morning had a spectacular breakfast involving smoked mackerel, scrambled eggs, fromage frais, grapefruits and possibly other stuff but I don't remember now.

While we ate, a procession of interesting birds pimped themselves for snacks on the deck. Rosellas, crows, magpies and a bunch of unruly cockatoos.


Here they are showing some mafioso attitude. I'm afraid we folded like cards to their threats and tearfully gave them all our french fries and salt and vinegar chips. Swines!

Later we hiked up to the Pinnacle. And ate some chocolate once there.

It's beautiful in the Grampians, I'm sorry we haven't been more often.
The area is still recovering from the terrible fires of January 2006, but there is greenery amongst the charred trunks, and the eucalypts are sprouting new growth from what seems to be nothing. The parks are being rehabilitated and reopened slowly, and there is still much beauty around.

After that very pleasant day, back to the house for roquefort on the deck!

Which was, I think, Jason's favourite part of the whole weekend.

Eurovision 2007

What better way to celebrate the spectacle that is Eurovision than dressing up like idiots and shouting at the television. Here are Lauren and Ross - Lauren with the best flicks you will ever see (and spookily foreshadowing the Serbian winners, who practically won on the flicks alone), and Ross dressed, as he told us, as 'bad taste'. And how!

Jason and I came representing France - I didn't manage a baguette and a string of onions, but I've got a beret on and a saucy show of bra strap.

Jason, meanwhile, decided to go the more specific route of faux 80s French pop cheestrel 'Michel'. Here he is singing his massive 1987 hit 'J'aime les femmes!'

Grace adopted the 'all-white on the night' approach often favoured by the best Eurovision stars - Rrrrowr!!

And Felicity and Andy were deliciously Germanic. You can practically hear the oompah band.

Dan was also channeling l'Allemagne, specifically his authentic German navy trousers. Comfortable!

I thought I had a picture of Mel, smothered in tiger fabulousness, but alas no. Here instead is a photo I promised Lauren & Felicity faithfully I would not put up on the interweb. Oops!

Le petit dejeuner

Here is our delicious Sunday breakfast, which may have taken two and a half hours from Jason saying in the morning "would you like me to make breakfast" and the actual eating, but boy, was it worth it.

Poached eggs, potato rosti, hollandaise sauce, spinach - thanks Nadine Abensur!

Pomegranate - just the beginning of a pink fruit bonanza.

Mmmm, grapes. There was pink grapefruit too, but it didn't photograph nicely.

Quinces poached in botrytis semillon and vanilla, with organic yoghurt.

What the kitchen looked like afterwards (a.k.a. why I usually don't let Jason make breakfast on weekends)

To make up for the kitchen disaster, here is a photo of Jason in nature (Dandenong Ranges).