These are my mates bikes and Dad and my BMW. How good do they look?
Dad dropped in on the sibling weekend to complain and give nick a wedgie.
There is a wild dog that roams the property called 'Tiger'. Bonnie wasn't too impressed and Tiger has been known to kill and eat other dogs. He takes good care of Amanda though.
It was great to have Glenn and Sue visit us last week. They raided the op-shops, as is their want, but equally at home on the verandah of D'Arenburg's at Mclaren Vale appreciating a local sav/blanc. To work off the calories we went down to Encounter Bay to undertake the taxing King's Beach walk (note the gentleman in the Manly-Warringah guernsy holding a New Zealand fur-seal). It was an added bonus to have Daniel visit. He fitted in very well, buying lots of Coopers' Ale and providing some classy guitar entertainment at Andrew's house party.
Stations of the Cross-Damian and Amy were up close and personal
Amy and her friend Araluen meet Casey Donovan at WYDO8
You can see where modern aboriginal art gets its inspiration from when you see the landscape form any sot of elevation.
Strange, rocky and very old country up here. The soils are crap but everything stays green somehow.
We became a bit fascinated with crocs towards the end of the trip. This warning sign was at East Alligater river which borders Arnhem Land and Kakadu.
Since it didn't say no swimming 'Adam' we got a bit closer. Anyway, the locals didn't seem too freaked out. There were Barra' jumping out of the water everywhere and these salties were going for it. The fishos were competing with the crocs and having fun doing it.
The crocs seemed busy to me so I got a bit closer for some photos for the Roff Report.
They are surprisingly placid up close.
Actually, I take that back. They are killing machines that have been eating everything they get near unchanged for 100 million years. Don't go anywhere near them folks. They can come at you at 70km/h. It's just not safe.
Hey everyone, Adam gave me a digital camera for my birthday! Best brother ever (not counting Nick and Dom). So get ready for visual excitement in my future posts. In the meantime, how about some boring scenes from my day to day life. Above mansion is my home at 46 O'Grady st North Carlton. I share it with my two beautiful wives Courtney Collins (scholar, novelist and mystic. Good cook. Steals my clothes) and Lilith Lane (renowned Melbourne musician and tap dancer, played keyboards in the Countdown revival tour, which lead to me sitting around the pool at the Radison Motel in Newcastle, drinking beers with Jon English, Leo Sayer and Brian Mannix. What a night.)
My washing. Note in the middle, my new t-shirt, merchandise of the band "Cut Sick" a brilliant 90's revival punk band from Melbourne. In the undies department (foreground) I favour BONDS boy leg, size 14. Although my arse is technically a size 12, I despise visable panty line (VPL) and unsightly bulges (muffin top) and find that buying a size up reduces the possibility of these crimes against nature and increases comfort! I expect the comments section will be writhing with debate on this subject.
The washing up. We have a house inspection on Monday so I will definitely have to throw a towel over this lot.
The contents of my fridge. Staple diet includes porridge with yoghurt and honey and fruit. Mung beans, miso, tofu, alfalfa, brown rice, lentils, red kidney beans...hippie food. We never eat meat at home which explains why you see me crying with joy over the barbeque at christmas. Note jumbo container of olives on top shelf. I got 2 of these for 12 bux at Brunswick safeway. Total bargain. Also note on top of the tub of honey, top shelf- a jar of Meredith goats cheese- the best goats cheese in the world.You must try it.
The barbeque...need to build the bricks into a sort of circle thing and put that black round thing on them. Its a weber.
In other family news, Dom has a cold which has prevented him from going to school for one day this week but, curiously, hasn't prevented him from going to the Dogs v Essendon game last night or planning to go to the new Ben Stiller movie tonight. Second last soccer game is tomorrow and there's still a chance to pick up the premiership but with the usual permutations of team A having to lose to team B and team C having to beat team D by X goals. Annika's new glasses are working well and she's making enough to get by on by babysitting. Ask her at Christmas about the "baby whisperers" - a technique of child rearing which has clearly escaped the Roff radar.
Among the celebrity guests at the gig were Annika and her mate, Meg. Annika is showing off her new glasses. She underwent an eye test a few weeks ago and the optometrist couldn't believe she got her driver's licence. Annika can't believe the improvement, either. She used to go to sleep while she was reading which, she thought, happened because reading is relaxing. Turns out she was going to sleep because reading was such an effort. Movies make a lot more sense now as well. The previous reading difficulty may also account for her poor academic results. We're expecting better now...
In other news, I had a week in bed recently with food poisoning. I had to go to a gastroenterologist and he's booked me in for the autopsy or whatever it's called for bowel cancer. I know the Forrest side of the family hasn't fared too well, but is there actually any evidence of it in the Roff side? We're enjoying the olympics - particularly the women's 200m relay win. How come Tom isn't representing us in judo? He was leading the Australian rankings in his weight last time I checked. Dom has two games left in the soccor season and it's still technically possible for his team to snare the premiership. It's a tough competition, though. Nick might make it into his rugby finals as well, which might prompt a lighting raid on Newcastle on frequent-flyer points.
We have started Maisie young. The Chinese girls look like they may be pre-pubescent. We've decided to start training in the pre-toddler stage. It's looking good for London 2012!
