Lily's Party

One of Lily's presents was a trail ride in the school holidays.
Ellie the horse has only one eye - the right one is totally missing

Super Mini Masterchef with her swimming pool birthday cake

Mini Masterchefs in action

As posted earlier, Lily turned 8 on July 13 but because her birthday falls in the school holidays we waited until she was back at school to have the party.
Lily loves cooking, and she received the Junior Masterchef recipe book, plus apron and cook's hat as presents. She has already made the family the best (and probably most fattening) chocolate mousse in the world!
Lily's party consisted of 10 friends plus family ring- ins having a cup cake bake off in the food technology room at O'Connor Catholic College. Whilst the cup cakes were cooking we went next door to the art room and created art works on mini canvasses, and then returned to ice and decorate the cup cakes. The goody bags were a box of cupcakes and the canvas.
The upside of Lily's party was that it was lots of fun for her and all of her guests. The down side was poor old Damian scrubbing muffin tins last night, and me sweeping up hundreds and thousands of hundreds and thousands off the floor today before mopping.

Buenos Dias

Hi everyone, I am in Madrid, it's pretty sweet - if you are not a bull

I haven't blogged for AGES! My life seems always a combination of manic busy-ness and rampant slacking off (or leisure-panic as it has come to be known), and somehow posting on the Roff Report has been slipping through the cracks of late, but I want you all to know that I READ it constantly and avidly.
I have so much to report, but for the moment, let's just say that I am enjoying a brilliant sojourn in Europe en route to my exchange semester at the University of California, Berkeley, because that sounds really impressive. I wish I had before and after photos to illustrate leaving Australia. The photo above is the AFTER. The BEFORE would have been me standing in the queue at Brunswick Centrelink wearing ugg-boots, thermal tights, jeans, pyjama top underneath two hoodies, woolen cardigan and parka, clutching U.S. visa and coughing like consumptive.
I have a travel blog on the go at http://amandahelenroff.tumblr.com/
It very occasionally includes adult concepts which will I hope will stimulate lively dinner conversation. Jake, I hope you have finally received your Ukelaidies CD! Harry, I hope you are still alive after being a total NO SHOW at the Harmony gig in Brisbane. Andrew and Rowan, thankyou for coming to the Harmony gig in Radelaide and please give my fond regards to "Jalihouse" Simmons. Everyone else: http://harmony.bandcamp.com/album/black-bobs to hear my latest band.
Right. I now have to go and see some art (I am writing this in the bar at the Reina Sofia, home of Picasso's Guernica among other treasures), because I have been in Madrid a week tomorrow and I can't seem to concentrate on anything except eating and drinking in the marvelous outdoor bars and cafes. Hasta Luego!

Movie review: Harry Potter

Jules and I saw it on the weekend. I tried to find some kids to take so I wouldn't look out-of-place but the theatre was full of adults with the same problem. Harry, Ron and Hermione have certainly aged and the story is quite dark, arguably making it unsuitable for kids anyway (sorry Amy, Harry, Millicent, Luke, Jake etc). It's a fitting end to a grand story. I haven't read the last couple of books so was unfamiliar with a couple of the characters. I originally thought Part One was a bit slow but, in context, it might end up being judged the best of the series. Certainly, a lot more action takes place in Part Two. Not having read the book, I didn't know how it would end so was pleasantly surprised. I don't want to ruin it for anyone else but here's a clue: Voldemort did it.
Some of the lesser characters get to shine in the end: Neville Longbottom turns into a hero. Ron and Hermione kiss - yuck - but it's a brief scene. Harry kisses too but I won't tell you who with.
My only real criticism is that Julia is on some kind of diet and it made me feel guilty eating my choc-top. Oh, and I think Snape probably deserved a better fate. Don't miss it. Four stars!

Lizzy's b'day

It's 22 years for Liz today... and we will celebrate in much more style than last year (a sad bagel on the curb outside the Detroit airport, due to an epic fail in planning).

Happy birthday Lizzy!
Kate

Mick Seage's new Music Vid!

Mick's band MSD (Music Sound Dance) - First single off a forthcoming album. The video is basically a really colourful flash mob in an unsuspecting Sydney sidestreet complete with llamas, dwarves and firecrackers. Mick Rules. See if you can spot him. (He has a black beanie)
Double click to see the full picture on the big screen, and put your headphones in (if handy) to get an idea of how well engineered the song is.

Naomis Birthday

Today is also Naomi's Birthday. Same day as Lily, isnt that weird? Happy Birthday Gnome!

Lily's Birthday!

Lily turned 8 today! She went for a horse ride and got lots of Master Chef type presents. Go Lily!

Jake "Brumby Jack" Roff is this week's guest artist!

Thanks for sending it in Jake! Check it out at www.wildhorsecomic.com

Down the road again...

This is the place where the GS1000G's ingnition and crankshaft used to be...

Bruges in Belguim where we had our last night in Europe. The picture was taken from the tower featured in the movie, "In Bruges". Where the boat is going around the corner is the hotel we stayed in when we first arrived.

The crash scene was well attended by armed police and council workers who couldn't work out what the slippery stuff was. Unfortunately in regard to an insurance claim, the coppers couldn't find the offending truck. See if you can see the bits of Grant's knee spread along the road..

It wasn't my fault. A truck dropped a load of fat or grease on the first roundabout after it left the ferry we were on and we were the first on the scene. It was a relatively low speed crash but violent enough to tear the ignition off the side of the bike and break the crankshaft, rendering the whole bike worthless. So much for Plan A where I resell the bike and get my money back.
We weren't hurt apart from me having one knee twice the size of the other and both of us having some bruising. A local bike dealer gave me £100 for the remaining good bits and we hired a car to continue to Scotland where we are now.
We've had a good rest here with the Bookers, though, and head towards London tomorrow to fly home on Friday night. I've just spent an hour or so trying to clean the grease off our bike gear so Singapore Airlines will let us on the plane. This is the way life goes sometimes but it doesn't change the fact that it's been a great trip. Don't visit Melbourne in the next six months or you'll have to see ALL the pictures...

Movie Review - Transformers 3.

Overall it is a triumph. If it has one weak point, it would be the tedious character and plot development at the expense of Transformer action. Who really cares if Megatron had an unhappy childhood? Does it really matter that Sentinel Prime had issues with his father? What if Bumblebee was teased about his speech impediment? Nonetheless 5 stars.

Happy Birthday Kelly

This was sometime ago on the 25th of June but happy birthday anyway! I hope you got something nice!

Happy birthday Paris!

Not sure the Roffs behaved themselves in Woolloomooloo on the weekend. Luckily, the Forrests were setting an even lower (or is that higher?) standard so nobody noticed. The theme was 'P' and there was lots of police and pilots and even a pope (thanks for that unnecessary image Daniel). Paris looked dashing as a playboy.

I managed to take some photos of Uncle Stuart before things got too messy. The photos are technically perfect but the people in them are a little blurry. The blonde is actually Lara in disguise. I had trouble looking at her but she had no problems getting a drink at the bar. The next 30th is going to be Daniel's in August. I didn't kick on at Paris' but am hoping to win the competition for best horse on ground at Daniel's in amends. Happy birthday Paris!

Grant and Julia blog from Europe

Jules and the mighty GS outside our apartment in Paris.

We'll be home in a bit over a week and Nicholas flies out on Saturday for his own European adventure. Maybe Kate's right: we should have Roff Christmas in Europe. It's been a great trip. It took Jules a while to get used to the bike but good weather, less speed and plenty to look at made all the difference.

After a week in Paris we ambled down towards Spain. Plan A was Sevilla
but it was too far if we were going to enjoy the riding. Plan B was
pretty good - four days in Barcelona. A highlight was the
Gaudi-designed church but I'm not sure if it was a tribute to God or
just a man displaying his vanity. The newly religious Julia thinks the
former. For the heathens, a day on the beach is fairly revealing, if
you get my drift.

We rode from Barcelona to Cahors in France which is in the area known
as The Lot, which is also the name of the dominant river. The Lot is

in the Dordogne region and is full of 12C architecture.
We had a night in the John xx11 Hotel in Cahors which is next door to
where he was born. I've already told you about his grave in Avignon
and, on the basis of this coincidence and thinking it might be some
kind of sign regarding my destiny, I looked him up on the inter web.
It seems he spent most of his time arguing with the Franciscans who
thought representatives of God should be considerably less
ostentatious than John xx11 turned out to be. No wonder it took so
long before a pope used the name "John" again.

We've done lots of long walks which are constantly full of splendid views and rich history - what a treat.Tomorrow we head north again for a few more days on the road before catching a ferry to Hull in England and riding up to Scotland to visit old Emerald neighbors, the Bookers. Our kids grew up together and it will be nice to see them. They're rich, too, so I might finally get to eat some meat again

.

I've sold my bike for around what I paid for it and need to drop it off near London before we fly out next Friday night. Hope we can attach some pics to sweeten the narrative. See some, at least, of you soon.

One of Grant's dream cars - a Citreon 2CV

Market in Barcelona - mucho co our

A check tablecloth, a baguette, a bottle of French red, a field by a river - no cliche was safe from us!

All good things...

Forget culture or history in a holiday. I asked myself, "What would Wild Horse do?".

So after a week on the 29th floor of a Gold Coast high rise, I have officially finished my Long Service Leave.

Other highlights included; - The Ukeladies CD launch and subsequent hospitality and entertainment at Annika's place.
- Watching the Brumbies beat the Reds in Rupert McCall's Box at Suncorp.
- Regular Lattes / Babycinnos with my little girl.






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Maisie found this pamphlet and was keen to go, but I'm sure even Wild Horse would say that there are limits..