Race Day and Paradise Resort Kids Club

Holidays are good. Some photos below of Woodlawn Race Day and our 3 days at the Gold Coast.

Golden Slipper Tip

Sydney Race 7 number 8 Crystal Lily

ever refereed 2 midgets boxing?

In life some people want to run marathons, others want to help poor people, others again want to climb great mountains. Mine was but a simple goal...

The rest of my life is set to be an anticlimax.

Cheers,
Joe

Disclaimer 1 - Whilst this may be politically incorrect, the 2 little gentleman were there of their own free will, and made a nice little earner.
Disclaimer 2 - In no way do I condone such activity, and certainly not at home
Disclaimer 3 - No-one was thrown in the taking of this photo
Disclaimer 4 - I am sorry mum

Harry and Vicky in Egypt

I know I can't compete with a Bear surviving uni or Annika surviving being lost in a cafeteria or Keight being rated as a fair teacher or Jake not even being found on that web page, but I did survive Egypt with out Vicky killing me (she came close a few times). The first being drunk on an overnight train and talking too much which was keeping her awake, the second was washing the camera battery, the third was loosing the camera card reader thingy and the fourth was making her climb Mt Sinnai in the middle of a dust storm. Could your bear do that Nick?

Abu Simbel, Awesome place to visit once all the tour buses have disappeared.

The one directly above is Vicky outside the small church at the top of Mt Sinnai and the one above that is the view from the top. Make new illusions about the smiles, it is only about 5:30 a.m, we had been walking all through the night in a dust storm and I feared for my life on that little adventure.
Natural rock formation in the White Desert.
Our campsite in the Red Desert, no tents, no other people and as Vicky keeps mentioning, no toilets. It was a highlight of the tour these five days camping, truly fantastic.
We traveled by foot, donkey, camel, car, bus, boat and even quad bikes.

The red sea.

One of the funniest experiences we had was riding donkeys to the Valley of the Kings, you have nothing to hold on to, nothing to put your feet in and even though you have reins, the donkey will not follow you commands. At one point my donkey decided it would follow a farmers donkey on the other side of the road and by the time I got the thing to stop the group had already turned a corner and was heading away, funny but scary time.

Hot air ballooning with the valley of the kings in the background.

Now this last photo look I odd, I agree, but it is a lunch box for a banana, it is in my opinion an awesome invention and I have one and I gave one to Daniel when we met up in Singapore, and Amanda is going to get one as part of her christmas present she hasn't recieved yet, if anyone else wants one let me know as I will bring them back to Oz in a few weeks, they only cost $1.50 australian which is a bargain in my eyes.

Best teacher

I know competition isn't valued in our family but my attention was brought recently to a website called "ratemyteacher.com" which allows students to express their views of the teachers they've had. It's an American site, I think, but Australian teachers are included. Two Roffs have currently been ranked - myself and K8. I'm winning so far with a score of 5/5 from one ranking. K8 has attracted more attention and would be beating me but for a ranking from one student who gave her the bottom score for everything. I'm guessing it was either Lizzy or possibly John. Nick says he's going to destroy my current leadership the moment he gets to work tomorrow but I'm just letting all the teachers in the family know it's game on...

Annika Kearton, BA (Hons)

Annika had her graduation on Saturday attended by myself, Julia and Amanda. The boys couldn't come because they would have been witnessed eating in public. It was a big event at Melbourne Uni overseen by Glyn Davis, the current vice-chancellor who I taught when he was in second year of high school at Kogarah Marist Brothers. We retired afterwards to Jimmy Watson's Wine Bar in Carlton for an excellent dinner. Annika is having a break from study and has secured a share house in Richmond which has plenty of space for visiting cousins. Amanda joined us and will be graduating herself at the end of this year with a degree in creative writing. You'll all be characters in her first novel. Good on you Annika - a great achievement.

Lismore Jnr Roffs update

Photoshop photoshoot today to let you lot know how big these two are getting. Lachlan is at Preschool and loving it. Maisie has a vocabulary bigger than Fuifui Moimoi. I've got Long Service Leave owing, which makes me feel old, but I am still happy to take it. We're off to 'Paradise Resort', which is apparently a kids wonderland - Themed underwater rooms, Pirate ships in the pool etc. - for 3 nights in a week. Kelly is the head judge at Fashion in the field for the Woodlawn races next week.

Haha

Ran into this local Tafe equivilent, translated it literally says "The Noroff Institute". Clearly the travelling members of the family are giving the rest of us a bad name!

Roff AFL Tipping returns

The tipping comp returns! All Roffs who were in the last comp, are automatically in. Just put your tips in at footytips.com.au. Any new tippers can register on footytips.com.au The comp is called roff afl and the code word to access it is roff. For the record I convincingly won last year and Harry was last. I accidently invited people to join the School tipping comp by the push of a wrong button, sorry.

Do any of my siblings or cousins work?

It's great to see people enjoying themselves. No, wait, it's actually not good to see other people enjoying themselves. But it has got me thinking: what cousin members of the Roff family work? On the work side I have found: Naomi, Joe (I think), Amanda, Adam, myself, Kate and Andrew. Honourable mentions go to Nick (he appears to be on facebook so much I can't be sure if he works), Dom (casual work whilst at school) and Milky. On the non-work side are the rest. I of course don't include the Armidale Roffs in this because I like them and they're too young. I also don't include Jake in the 'working' category because, well, he's a teacher. Discuss.

So there was five of us and about thirty five camels all heading into the sunset in a desert in Egypt.

India this... England that... well i say Kebab this...

I did plan to put more photos on but being where we are nothing works like it is supposed to so you will have to enjoy this one, that was taken a few weeks ago at the pyramids, since then vic and I have travelled down to Abu Simbel stopping at a few pyramids and temples and stuff, we did a hot air balloon ride over the Valley of the Kings which was amazing, then upon landing we rode donkeys (not camels) to the valley entrance which was the most laughs I have had in a long time, donkeys don't really respond to any commands, like stopping, turning or anything like that, they just follow other donkeys so we occasioannally followed random villagers on their donkeys. After that we went into the western desert on a camping trip, we slept under the stars in three different deserts and spent a night at one of the Oasis'.

Now we are in Dahab which a town on the red sea, near Mt Sinanai. Last night at 11p.m. we started climbing Mt Sinnai and stayed at the top to watch the sunrise, unfortunatly by the time we got the top a dust storm and set in and we couldn't see much in the way of anything, I though Vicky was going to strangle me for making her walk all night up a fairl steep mountain to see a lot of dust but she didn't, so in two days we will go to Jordan to see that thing in the Indiana Jones movie.... i think its called Petra or something, then travel back along the mediteranean and eventually make our way back home... sigh.

Meditation Course!

Hey Fam! Im over in Norway at the moment, with a little time to actually write a blog, so thought i would! I have over in europe for about a month now, ive been in England for abour 3 weeks, Glasgow for 1 week and Norway for a few days. The England trip basically consisted of me doing a 10day meditation course, in a technique called Vipassana Meditation. Its from India, apparently. Im not really normally into this sort of thing (you know, since its effects cant actually be PROVEN) but i figured when else do you have 10 days of your life to go sit on a cushion and not talk? So now was definatly the best time! anyway, i wrote a summary of it for some mates who were interested, but its fairly lengthy, so i dont think drowning the RoffReport is a good idea! Its at
http://jimmyandroffysworldtour.blogspot.com/
Hope alls well with everyone!

ROFFS VICTORIOUS AT ARMIDALE SHOW

Well, it's that time of the year again when the Armidale Roffs get serious about winning. Once again, Amy, Luke and Lily were well represented in the Potato People and the Fruit and Vegetable Animal sections. This year, however, some local pre-schools got in on the act and scooped the pool. Normally there's hardly any one else in it and we win everything! Lily saved the day with her entry in Miniature Garden 8 years and under, gaining a second place. The true champion, however, was our new dog Snowy who was dressed up as a fireman and paraded around by Lily in the Best Dressed Pet section. Snowy is 2 years old and comes from a farm surrounded by tough working dogs - heaven help his street cred if they saw him like this!!
Other news is I am turning 45 on Saturday and I am having a girls only cocktail party. If anyone would like to come you are most welcome (as long as you are a girl - no hairy backs please Roff men).
Love to all
Jenny

Weather or not....

Contrary to nationally held beliefs, Melbourne occasionally has some weather. Box Hill missed most of it yesterday (Saturday) but Julia and I had lunch with Amanda in her new house in Coburg in the city and we had lots of rain and hail, as well as a carpet factory fire nearby which filled the air with toxic smoke. Amanda has the biggest room in the (shared) house and is content.
On the wall in the kitchen is a list by each of the housemates (and some guests) of how many houses they've lived in. Amanda wins hands down with, from memory, 43. This includes family homes, rentals, shared houses, living in boyfriends houses and couch-surfing. She is yet to announce what she plans to do when she grows up, but has enjoyed her first week in what should be her last year in a creative writing degree at La Trobe University.
Julia is currently picking Dom up from Phillip Island where he's been earning the money he needs as a front-of-house person at a vineyard to complete his band's first CD. Before you get carried away, the son of the vineyard owner is also in the band. Good luck for a year 12 result...
Nic plays in the finals of his cricket competition next weekend and we might get to see him in action. His bowling has been better than his batting this year but he has one of those captains who gives himself 40 overs before he lets go of the ball (hello, Glenn). Watch this space for results.
Nick, Julia and I went to see "Invictus" today which is the Clint Eastwood film of the 1995 SA World Cup victory. No Roff who saw it would be disappointed but there was no mention of the food poisioning scandal and some of the actual footy was a bit dodgy. As usual, after a choc-top and four tons of popcorn, I got carried away and it's the first time I've ever backed a team against NZ. Good ol' Nelson.
Annika is at the Golden Plains Festival this weekend and we've been spared her reports on the weather as she's out of mobile range. I'm sure we'll hear all about it tomorrow night.
Adam is coming down for Easter and there's a bike event on the possibles list.
It's a public holiday here tomorrow, and we might get the final coat of paint on the bathroom. In the meantime, Dogs vs St Kilda in the pre-season competition. I know the result doesn't really matter but God bless Barry Hall. Hey, Damian - what happend to the tipping competion?

Mountains, Monks and Mojitos

As the title suggests, I have seen many awesome mountains, freindly monks and the bottom of too many buckets of mojitos. I am in Laos at moment, recovering from a night out followed by a an early morning mountain trek. It is an amazing country though and an absolute breeze after India.

I spent 2 weeks in Nepal with Daniel, "sometimes trekking, sometimes rafting". This was the chorus of the song our Sherpas made for us. I then headed into India when Daniel went back to Australia. I started in Darjeeling and saw nothing because a vast fog had settled over the northern regions. I went south to Bodhgaya, the place of Buddha's enlightenment. Here, I was adopted by a family from Bhutan on their religious pilgrimage. The head of the family was a lovable Monk who guided us around the town to all the important Buddhist sites. I dig what was Buddha was all about but I am not ready to give up all my vices. Maybe in a few more lifetimes.

I went to all the usual places: Khajuraho (lots of Karma Sutra carvings), Orchha, Agra, Varanassi, Delhi and the desert state of Rajasthan. I was alone for most of this time but met loads of people on the way and visited friends living in Delhi. I didn't really have any major problems but i was well and truly over the same conversation that I had with billions of Indians:

"Hello, where are you from? you know Ricky Ponting? Shane Warne? Come look in my shop, looking is free, are you alone? why are Australians hurting Indians?". Over and Over and over again.

I was grateful when the time came to meet Lara (Paris Forrest's better half) in beautiful sunny Goa, where we swam, drank cocktails on the beach, had pedicures on the beach and ate fresh seafood on the beach. Lara was on a volunteer program in a village in the most conservative Hindu state in India. She ate nothing but rice and watery vegetables for 6 weeks and although she was meant to be there for 8 weeks, the pull of Goa was too strong. She legged it out of there as soon as she could. We both cried when we had to leave the beach. From Mumbai we (Lara and a couple of my friends) flew to Laos.

Life is a dream here. They have fresh bread, milo, cold beer and accommodation is like hotel rooms ($5 a night). If you need transport, they make a call and a bus comes and picks you up - no dramas. Its quite amazing. Lara left us a couple of days ago to watch Paris in his stadium Muay Thai boxing fight in Thailand. We are yet to hear the outcome.

Every trip I go on ends up in photo disaster. This one is no exception with my memory card developing a virus. The only photos I have are of Nepal so enjoy. I will try and fix the virus when I get back to Sydney. Next stop is Cambodia, followed by a quick stint in Sydney, then Morocco, Dublin, Sweden, Germany and Italy.

Annapurna Ranges, Nepal

"Rafting" - its the dry season so it was more like like floating

I swam with an elephant - the cheeky bugger kept flipping me off into the river

Daniel's cabin

Does anyone else see a resemblance?

30 Rock

I don't think a Roff Christmas present has changed the life of a family member so much since Jenny recieved her favoured Mike Tyson mask!

Adam gave Kelly the first two seasons of 30 Rock for Christmas. We hadn't seen the show.

Every night since then we have put the kids down and retired to see Alec Baldwin and Tracy Morgan at work. We've since bought the third season.

We had a slightly different reaction to Rowan's Roff Christmas offering of 'Scarface' which we put on the shelf next to Nick's previous Christmas offering of 'Scarface'.

Adam, we found this American morning show Tracy Morgan interview on YouTube. Cracked us up.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MILLIE!

Amelia Ellen Roff is today officially 23 years of age. She is being taken out for dinner by Grant and Julia (her REAL parents) to some exotic Moroccan restaurant in Melbourne while her other parents in Newcastle eat spam on toast because they spent all their money raising her. Happy birthday Mil! We still love you!

In defence, a quiz regarding bushwalking

Two options for a holiday as a youngster, please choose your preferred;

a/ Bushwalking -wet socks, wearing a red poncho, walk 4 hours up a mountain only to stand next to a group of tourists who caught the gondolier, 20 minute rest, a handful of nuts and sultanas, wonder why we didn't get the gondolier, 4 hours down to camp, a splash in the ice cold stream, nice bowl of rice-a-riso, lay your head on a blow up mattress that has a leak, wake with your head resting on the ground, put on your wet socks, go again...

b/ The beach

A schmuck is a group of jellyfish.... I am not a group of jellyfish.

Tim Freedman rules

The kids chucked in for Christmas to buy me and Jules two tickets for "A day on the green" which was a concert at a winery in the Yarra Valley. The event was supposed to be today (Saturday) but Rufus Wainright called in sick and the whole thing was called off. Paul Kelly was on the bill as well so we were a bit disappointed, although we got our money back and Paul was spared my advice (again) that he needs a good lyricist. Dan wouldn't have been playing with him, either, as he's in London at the moment cleaning up his next CD.
Reading the papers in bed as you do on Saturday morning, we found a Tim Freedman concert at Melbourne Zoo and we're just back. The deal is you can arrive at 5.30pm and check out the animals that are still awake before taking in the concert from 7.00pm. The show was very good with an attentive crowd and good acoustics. Tim's version of "You Sound Like Louis Burdett" isn't a patch on Andrew's but a highlight was a rendetion of one of my favourite songs: Dylan's "Tangled Up in Blue". A punter in the crowd offered $500 to the Children's Hospital to induce him to play it. Tim's actually pretty good and, as Jules got a Whitlams songbook for Christmas, I'm expecting to hear a bit more of his work around the house in the next few months.
Thanks to Amanda, Adam, Annika, Nick and Dom for a great night out.

HARRY & VICKY'S ENGAGEMENT CEREMONY

If all goes to plan, you should be able to use the link below to see Harry and Vicky at their official engagement ceremony in Taiwan. Apparently all this is "normal" custom over there. Vicky assures me that the rather unusual balloons are SWANS and not what some of you might think! Good luck!

Tood

Click here to see Harry and Vicky.

From Gero to the Milford Track

I never thought I'd say this but Joe is a smuck and Biggles was right-the Milford track is a terrific experience and worth the walk for the hardy and given the fact that I made it, the not so hardy. There was a nice bit of luxury and comfort-though the hardly drinking Aunty Jan was 'less than amused' with her grog bill at the end of it.( the kids worked out the tab system very early on) Nice flat walking for 2 of the 3 days, about 6-7 hours a day for the 3 days, and we got bucketed on the third day which was the hard day anyway. The 100 mils turned the upward track into creeks so drenching was big. Strangely everyone we speak to says in true Monty Python style ' only one day of rain-oh you lucky bastard'
Specy scenery, fantastic waterfalls, green vegetation ( we don't have that in the west), terrific feeds and good accommodation. Kate , her Joe, Zac and Liz were great company. It isn't cheap but God bless that exchange rate!!

Woodlawn Ad

Hi all. Like Liz, I haven't posted for a while. I may not be jetstting like my Contiki addicted cousins, but I did make an appearance in the new Woodlawn advertisement.

Grant once referred to me in an article of his as '..a well travelled musician pretending to be a teacher..'. This is the same article in which he referred to Milly as petulant. It was an article about the relative fame of his nephews and nieces compared to the objective fame of Joseph Osborne Roff. (He ended the article claiming more notoriety than Joe as he was recognised more readily than Joe in the depths of a Canberra Motor Registry by a 'Two Wheels' fan.)

Anyway, I think he was right about me because I am actually pretending to be a science teacher in this ad, which wasn't a stretch as I regularly pretend to know what I'm doing in Maths and P.E. classes.

Copenhagen!

It has been ages since my last blog so here is the latest...I am living in Copenhagen for 6months on a student exchange and so far am loving it! It is bloody cold at the moment and snow everywhere but I am hoping it will warm up soon.





Liz x

ASHLEY ROFF 54 n.o.!!

A big HAPPY BIRTHDAY goes out to Uncle Ash for Tuesday Feb 9th! He is so competitive that he is seriously trying to catch up to Grant. It may not happen overnight, but....

FEDERER or GRANT? WHO IS THE GREATEST?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to GRANT who turns a young 59 tomorrow, Feb 1st. "How has he lived so long?" I hear you all ask! Having just been on a motorbike ride in Vietnam with him, I can honestly say I do not know. The guide wanted to kill him, the other riders wanted to kill him, the roads and water buffalo wanted to kill him, the local kids..actually they loved him and his magic coin through the head....Julia wanted to kill him. But he survived!

Happy Birthday Bro!! May there be many more trips to come!

So who wants to come to Taiwan.....

Ok, so I know it is very late notice but in three weeks Vic and I are having a very traditional Taiwanese Engagement Party..... It is a very complex procedure and normally the bride's sides celebration, but in the interest of being culturally open I am inviting anyone who wants to witness something truly different. If anyone was to come to Taiwan for the 14th of Feb and Chinese new year that starts the same day you are most welcome......

To describe the procedure would take a while but, as I mentioned in a previous blog we had a professional photo shoot for the party and these are a taste of how it turned out....

Last days in Vietnam

Geeze, where did that three weeks go? I visit the tailor tomorrow afternoon to see if my new suit fits (fat chance, and I use the word "fat" advisedly) and we fly home from Tuesday lunchtime. Should be a great suit: one of those high-collar jobs with shirts to match. It will be nice to have a couple of shirts where the sleeves actually come down to my wrists. Julia is having some pants and shirts made as well and if it all works out, we'll post some dress-up pics when we get back to the peace and quiet of Box Hill.
I've spent the last few days visiting war museums and reading (again) the Lady Borton biography of Uncle Ho. It should be compulsory reading in Australian high schools. Julia is currently reclining on the excellent bed of our $30 a night hotel room watching the fourth round Andy Roddick match on TV. Cool, eh. Tonight, the remnants of the bike trip, Guy and Margaret, will join us for dinner in one of the old quarter's million restaurants. The bloke we hired the bikes from has invited us to dinner tomorrow night so we'll fly out well fed. Hope everyone has a happy Australia Day. Nick is having a party the day before we get back and is currently organising cans instead of bottles because he's just remembered the "no glass in the pool area" rule...



Two hundred and fifty kilos seated on kids chairs waiting at a curb-side eatery for our Pho to arrive. What could go wrong? It was very tasty.
There really was white water in Laos but, of course, you can't take pictures when you're trying to stay above the water level. We got wet but not drenched.
Julia feeding one of the 1600 remaining elephants in Laos from a herd that once numbered two million. A conservation program is in place which seems to have stopped the decline.

How to post video to the blog

Hi all,

A few people have asked how to post video. If you have a video file on your computer just click on the image above and follow the instructions. Basically, it is the same as uploading a photo (the video icon is next to the photo icon).

If you want to post a YouTube video you need to look for a little box that says 'embed'. Copy the text in this box and past it into your post as below. Happy blogging!

- Ad

News from Laos

We're in Luang Prabang at the moment, a UNESCO heritage-listed town in Laos. It's beautiful and although the French were lousy colonialists, they certainly know how to bake and prepare meat. Looking forward to catching up soon.

Grant and Stuart teaching the guide how to play "Stacks on". We broke a bone in one of his hands...
Stuart making friends with the locals. One of the kids is holding up a leather kangaroo. Andy, one of the trip participants, had 1000 of them stamped out to give to local kids. They were a big hit.

Stuart and Grant standing behind Stu's mighty Honda XL125 on which he conquered Vietnam.

- Grant

SE Asia tales

Julia and I are currently in a UNESCO-listed town in northern Laos named Luang Prebang having a four-day rest after the epic bike trip. No, I don't know where the money is coming from, either. It's a beautiful town and very different from Vietnam. We've done a bit of white-water canoing and lots of walking (and eating). The French used to run Laos and were very poor landlords but great cooks. We're back to Hanoi on Friday for a few more days of hectic city life and then home on January 27. Guy Allen will be doing an update of the video posted below with a surprise ending and some romance to add a bit of spice to the relentless bikes going up and down roads. It was a great trip, though, and Tood fitted in like a hand in a glove. The rest of the group would have voted me off the island before him. I'm having a bit of trouble loading pictures but I'll try in a new post.

Grant, Julia and Tood in Vietnam!

Hottest 100

Votes close this Sunday! What did everyone vote for?

If you want photos, go to an art gallery of facebook

When we were young, Stuart took all of his children on a walk to the top of Mount Koszciousko. The important thing to come out of the trip wasn't the fact that we made it, but that Milly - who was eight years old - knew more swear words than you could learn being Kevin Rudd's assistant. And that is a lot. Which is the complete opposite of Alaine.

We recently spent two weeks in Nepal and I think the only time I heard her utter anything close to an offensive word was when she saw my face after a run in with a gate at about 3am following a few too many drinks of the local wine. And whisky. And beer. It did confirm something for me though: gates are the natural enemy of drunks and zombies alike. Seriously, watch a zombie movie and they are always thwarted by a gate.

Our trip was fantastic and we did all sorts of trip-like things. These included walking from one place to another, looking at various interesting things and eating food. I'm even going to go back to do the Everest Base Camp trek, if anyone is interested in joining me.

It is also a place where great literature can flourish in a most appropriate manner. In my case, we'd finished the first day of part of our trek and I had with me, as I went to use the squat toilet, the wonderful Christmas present I'd received from Julia: a copy of Grant's favourite novel, "Ulysees". I learned from that point on that each tourist in Nepal must take to the bathroom the right material for the task they are about to perform. And I certainly had that. Thankyou, Julia.

Daniel.

New Zillund!

Hey all! The WA Roffs have just spent a couple of weeks invading Kate and No-Hands-Joe's home in Christchurch. The visit revolved around doing the Milford Track (which Joe Roff is a sookie la-la for complaining about) but for the remainder of the time we were hanging around in Chirstchurch and Queenstown. Ill let Dad do the post for the actual walk itself, but here are some shots of the family enjoying the wonders that Christchurch has to offer.

The Fam

Dad can sniff out any racecourse in a 500mile radius.
Kate and Liz enjoying some paddling down the massive river Avon in Chirstchurch

ROFFS in VIETNAM

Grant, Julia and Stuart are in Hanoi and just about to start our "Excellent Adventure" setting off for the hills for six days. Julia and Stuart are behaving themselves. Grant on the other hand..........(look for photos of Grant in the midst of an unsuspecting wedding party). Damian, we have a big pencil for you so relax! More news later. To infinity and beyond....!!!


Tood

We will miss you Grandma.....

At this time of celebration, I ask everyone to spare a thought for Marianne and her father and brothers. Last week, Rae Kennedy or otherwise known as grandma, passed away in the night. For her it was a long battle with cancer but she did not give up a fight. She was a great grandmother to all of us and she loved to cook the biggest meals you have ever seen when ever we went to visit her or, if she came visit us.

Grandma was the kind of lady who loved a few glasses of wine and a good gossip about all affairs, she was kind hearted and loved to take care of all sorts of animals, big and small including the lizards that lived under her outdoor fridge and the birds and geese that lived around her home.

I was hoping to post a photo of her but I do not have one. Her funeral service was last week, and although none of us Roff kids could attend, Mum and Dad said it was a lovely ceremony filled with about 200 of her friends and family.

Vicky and I believe that she paid a visit to us in Taiwan on Friday as we had an engagement party photo shoot. This is a Taiwanese tradition where the couple get dressed up and taken to various locations to have a professional photo shoot to show the guests of the engagement party. It was the only day of sunshine and warmth we have had in a while, and it happened to be the day after Grandmas funeral. Although we don't have the actual photos yet, I did manage to take a few photos of Vicky getting ready for them, or check out her facebook.

The photographer, and the helpers faced two challenges all day, the first one was making me look semi ok and no double chin in all the photos and the other was keeping all the kids out of the way, at one point there was about 10 kids under the age of 5 all trying to get a real close look at Vicky, it was quiet entertaining.

Harry

Happy New Year of the Tiger

Hello to all and welcome to 2010.

All sounds good in your worlds despite some mush and grumbles.

Below is a link to a Christmas message from Betty and Ken wishing you all well 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC1JBmAF5mk

As I am dabbling with a new (borrowed) camera, you might need to put you ear close to the speaker.

This was post Christama lunch at Anne and Neil's. You might not actually get a mention but they have a lot to remember these days. Of course recent announcements might usurp those mentioned, and congratulations to Harry and Vicky. Grant of course would have called his Unlce Ken from the MCG to discuss the state of play..... wouldn't he have.

Kimi and I are in Japan for a traditonal Japanese opening to the year of the Tiger. Congratulations and good health toasts with beer and sake at 10, a meal of fish and lower life forms from the sea, sozzled and back on the futon at 11. I attacked the garden yesterday (in the snow) for a clean-up in preparation for today, 150 years of intricately trimmed trees all cut back to size in an instant by the infidel with good intentions and poor technique. Last night was traditional NYE TV which included an appearance by Susan Boyle in case you might be wondering what she was doing. The Japanese relate to her Welshness.

We start on our great adventure from tomorrow and meet up with a gang of mates I have known since grade 3, and their partners & some offspring.

Best wishes

Kimi and Brendan