Gullible's Travels

I haven't blogged for so long I've forgotten how to put up a post -
maybe the technology has changed. There used to be a 'new post' hot
button.
As you all probably know, I'm back in motorcycle journalism as the
editor of Motorcycle Trader magazine. The appointment coincided with
not one but two overseas new bike launches: Harley-Davidson in America
and Royal Enfield in England.
I've never been to America before (goddamn homeland security!) but was
given a visa this time. The pendulum really swung the other way and I
now have a five-year working journalist visa. Cool. We flew (business
class, of course) first to Denver where we rode the bikes and then to
Milwaukee for the 110th H-D birthday celebrations. Part of the package
was Aerosmith tickets (Steve Tyler is Liv Tyler's dad - go figure) but
there were about 40 bands playing over the three days and I caught up
with the Doobie Brothers and ZZ Top.
What I discovered about America is that it's very diverse and it's
hard to say you know it from such a brief trip. Denver and Milwaukee
are like different countries so I can only imagine what the Deep South
and the New Mexico areas must be like. Experts tell me New York and
San Francisco aren't very much alike either.
The 110th celebrations were held in a variety of countries and, as you
can see from the picture, Pope Francis blessed the Italian riders.
England was more familiar and the trip included a ride from the iconic
Ace Cafe to Brighton Peer where the big mods/rockers riots took place
in the early '60s. The Royal Enfield bike in question is the
Continental GT which is a retro cafe racer which speaks to the early
'60s period.
Part of the experience was a walking tour around Soho to see the dives
the early rock bands played in. Eric Burdon still rates highly.
Another highlight was the Goodwood Revival where 50,000 poms dress up
as if it was the early '50s still and race old cars and bikes. The
costuming is spectacular - check out the cheeky fighter pilot in the
picture.
I'm back at work now and need to do more writing and less traveling.
The cousin's night in Sydney looks like it was a hoot and will just
make Annika a tiny bit more homesick than she already is. As you can
see from Nick's post below, Amanda is touring but we're all getting
together again soon for Paris and Lara's wedding in Sydney and, of
course, Damian's 50th. Not many more sleeps now...

This photo should replace the one of the orang-utan and the dog below, although it a pretty sweet picture of an unlikely friendship.

 

Cousin Night

The Sydney Cousins and honorary family members got together to farewell Annika back to the Philippines. Our party included Daniel, Alaine Milly, Adam, Sonya, Annika, Paris, Lara, Amber, Anna-May (you may remember there was previously a movement to set Anna and Rowan up), Simone and a few extra of Annika’s friends.

 

We started with Korean BBQ then moved on to karaoke. The song choices were off the chart and the quality of singing was rather impressive. No hospitalisations this time but poor Simone will be forever known as Scarface and her chin may never recover. The night finished with a 3am maccas stop.  

 

Annika, if you ever move back to Australia, please move to Sydney.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day, I enjoyed mine with little Joshua, had an omelet, went for a walk and didn't change a nappy all day.

Three things i miss:
1. Sleep.
2. Sleep ins.
3. Afternoon naps.

At the Movies: The Wolverine

Kimi gets a mention in the bath scene in this review:

http://www.abc.net.au/atthemovies/txt/s3798366.htm

Download the video of the episode for the spoken version.
I defy any of you - any of you - to ask her if make-up was applied for the
scene.

Europe

Hey everyone, It's been ages since I last blogged so here's what's been happening with me lately. I have been working in Perth this year and took 3 months off to go to Europe. It was great! Did some of the Santiago walk in Spain, visited Zac in Norway and then visited some friends in Copenhagen and London. Like Zac I can highly recommend Iceland - an amazing country!! Some pictures below:

Liz

The Rock!

Despite recent photos insinuating that Dad was born of Gallifreyan decent, he has, today, aged gracefully another year! Congrats! I expect the blog to shortly be filled with photos/lists of people's top 3 rocks.

Photo's of proud Grandparents from the West

Roff Baby Trumps Royal Baby

Harry and Vicky, Duke and Duchess of Brisbane are thrilled to announce the arrival of Joshua Stuart Lee Roff. Joshua was born at 2am on Tuesday 30 July 2013. Mum, dad and baby are exhausted but all doing well. 

Well done Haz and Vic! 

Happy 21st Dom

Dom turns 21 today.  Amanda arrived back from Europe today and suffered an epic stacks on. Dad has some sweet test bikes at the moment. We skyped annika during the stacks on. Nick arranged for a Korg Synth for doms birthday, you can see how excited he was. Very chill. It is dinner time and Milly just arrived. Dad and Julia got him a down jacket and I haven't taken it off yet.

Not to be outdone...

Zac and Liz might visit extinct volcanoes, but I will soon be living at the base of this: 

Fortunately (don't worry mum), it usually looks more like this:

As my current project comes to an end, I have just signed a contract for a second assignment here in the Philippines, and will soon be moving to Legazpi City, at the foot of Mt Mayon, the most beautiful - and active - volcano in the country. 

Don't let this turn you off! 

The Bicol Region in which Legazpi is situated is the most beautiful part of the country - best food (lots of chilli and coconut), best beaches and friendliest locals around. There are whale sharks in the region between February and April; the reality series "Survivor" is filmed in one of the island chains just off the coast; and there are countless other "secret" islands and deserted beaches for exploring in the area.

I'll be based in the region until May next year, so if you've got some leave up your sleeve, come and visit!

x Annika 

Hi!! Just thought about posting a quick update of recent events. The big ones were the Kongsberg Jazz Festival, Copenhagen with Liz, Iceland with Liz and then a music festival in the mountains here in Norway. The Jazz festival was great, although while i write this i realise that the big acts were all Norwegian, so maybe not so interesting for everyone else. Diana Krall was there but we didnt see her, but it was a fun festival!

Liz and I at an extinct volcano

Iceland is really stunning, we visited volcanos, walked on glaciers, drove over lava fields and of course the more toursity things like the Geysir, Gullfoss and Blue Lagoon. It was an awesome trip and i would thoroughly recommend it to anyone who gets a chance to go!!

The music festival i went to was up in the Joutenheimen mountains of Noway which is in the middle, its really lovely up there and we got good weather!! Top bands of the weekend were 2 Door Cinema Club and then a bunch of other Norwegian bands as well. It was a really unique festival in that the music was only a small part, and that everyone hikes and kayaks during the day, and they run knitting courses, book lectures and wine tasting. Its a pretty chill, small set up, only 4000 people, and was very enjoyable! Photo below shows the festival area on the left of the lake.

Just to make sure that Ads doesnt steal the credit, as he did for "spawning harry's child", this is Zac.....

Wolverine update

Kimi was allowed an extra ticket to a cast & crew invite-only screening at Fox Studios yesterday of a much anticipated Wolverine 2. That's 1500 in 5 cinemas. Fortunately I qualified for Kimi's ticket (I can drive). What else would you be doing at 10am on a Sundee morning, eating free popcorn and spotting the big screen. Maybe join Hillsong in Cinema 2. But spotted she is. Serious spotting. Watch out for the bath scene. Forget Scarface. Wolverine 2 is your new stocking filler. Official release on Thursday 25th. No sign of a red carpet invite (yet) but Kimi gets listed in the credits, as Kimi (like a Bono, or a Cher), and given that the list itself is limited it's quite a credit.

In between movies, as she is, Kimi has been broadening her talent pool and taken up the ukelele. And K-pop dancing (pre-gangnam style). I bought her a ukelele for my early birthday present, and she taught me how to pronounce ookelaylay. The early celebrations continued in Cairns early July at a Ookelaylay Festival. Where were the Ukeladies? I borrowed Adam's Makholo but I doubt he'll get it back as it got signed by the Sweet Hollywaians, the headline act for the Festival, from Japan. Check them out on You Tube, they are good.....

....As are things in Kimi world. Having no interest in cricket helps a lot too. She thinks Jackson Bird should have been in Test 1 or 2, the ookulele was tuned, and she was singing…it was Jackson Bird in mid-July, just hit town and my throat was dry…
Brendan

Ken's 90th

Sorry for delay in this posting. Busy busy. Thanks to Grant for his description of Dad's birthday party. Sterling effort to fly up for his Uncle Ken, revealing the scars of his Viking heritage. All pre-event messages were relayed, the John photo raw and photo-shopped image waved under his nose, and appreciated, and a gathering of as few as Dad would concede to have. Not one for flying his own flag - nobody in the village was invited. Runs in the family. Martin turned 50 on Saturday and flew to Tasmania so nobody would notice. Catered for 25 at Dad's – it's hard to find friends when you are 90 - so Grant might have had some double vision tucking into Martin's cellar offerings. Mum tucked into her roast lamb, quite remarkable. I floated some pictures I have now inherited of early Dad years, Dad war years, Mum and Dad years, sometimes with children, and later Dad years usually with Mum and grandchildren, sometimes even with Neil and Eileen. He was an impressive figure in his day. Joining the historical dots is a difficult process though. Here is a sample.

 

         
You can work out who's who. You're all invited to his 100^th. There is a book open on who issues the telegram.

Brendan

SAVE THE DATE...23/11/13

Hi Everyone
I haven't been on the blog for quite some time as I defected to the dark side of facebook whilst in Canada to keep in touch, but now realise that it leaves out many of the older family members who can't get their heads around modern technology... Damian included!
Anyway...just had a lovely visit form Glenn and Sue who came to see Amy perform in the Wedding Singer musical last night which was fantastic! Amy has actually been accepted into the Hunter School of Performing Arts in Newcastle from next year for years 11 and 12. She would live with my sister Kathy, so we are in the process of deciding what to do...a wonderful opportunity but still a bit unsure!
Now the real reason I decided to blog was to remind all of you to save the date of Saturday November 23 to celebrate Damian's 50th birthday at our house in Armidale. John has already booked tickets so hope you are able to make it too, and I will send out a more official invitation sometime soon. We will set up a stage on the back verandah, so be prepared to share your talents with the guests.

It will be great fun and a good chance to catch up, so put the date in your diary now.

Take care
Love Jenny xxx

Half an Update

Harry and Vicki is old news. We all know that, to quote Stuart Roff, "where it is at" ismy life because I will very shortly become an uncle. Which is obviously hugeand new news. (Stuart, I don't care what Milly says, you are definitely "with it".)

I'm actually writing this from work instead of, you know, doing work largely because I can. I should also say I am writing this at work instead of, you know, doing work largely because I canand I have just been handed a glass of wine. (It turns out that when I delegated to some of my existing staff the responsibility of hiring new staff they very sensibly chose as a new staff member a person whose father owns a winery.)

At the moment my work consists of turning up to a building every weekday, looking at cats and cat-related things on the internet until I get hungry, going to get some food, going back to the same building when I am no longer hungry because I have eaten some food, researching on the internet whether or not penguin would taste like chicken, fish or a combination of both, and then walking home in the afternoon. I also have to make sure that my staff pretends to be busy when I stop looking at cats and cat-related things on the internet. Sometimes I mix things up by stopping off at a pub on the walk home. Variety is the spice of life after all. On very rare occasions I will completely shake up the routine by doing stuff.

One example of the stuff I occasionally do includes going to Jake's 40^th with Alaine, Nick and Rowan. We started from Marianne and Stuart's house because we know Marianne owns a car and while Alaine distracted Marianne by performing a jig Nick stole the car keys. At one point during the trip Rowan took off his headphones and referred to our group as "The Awesome Gang" and then said, "Wow! How good is this? The Awesome Gang go on a road trip!" At which point Nick suggested Rowan should put his headphones back on and then when Rowan put his headphones back on Nick said, "We should stop for petrol, let Rowan go inside and pay for it and while he is doing that we should drive off. Without him. Just to be clear, we should drive off without Rowan." Alaine and I agreed. But who knew Rowan was resourceful enough to actually make his own way to Lismore from the service station one kilometre from Marianne and Stuart's house where we had stopped to get petrol in order to get to Lismore? Once in Lismore, and after apologising to Rowan for the misunderstanding, we had a great time. There is some footage floating around somewhere on my mobile phone of a dance competition between Glenn & Sue and Rod & Sharon, as well as some stellar footage of Band 6. We (Damian and Joe included) also drank beers made by KISS. That's right, the KISS. I can't be sure how much involvement Gene Simmons has in the brewing process but the beer makes you want to "rock and roll all night and party every day."

Another example of the stuff I occasionally do is go down to Melbourne where I get treated to lunch by Grant and Julia, drink all of Nick's beers, have Dom give up his bed for me and then not sleep in Dom's bed and then get into an argument with the woman at the Tiger counter when I am told I missed the 45 minute cut off point for checking in because I have been waiting in the line to check in for 45 minutes before the 45 minute cut off point.

My suggestion for the name of the spawn produced Harry and Vicki depends upon whether or not it is a boy or a girl. If it is a boy my suggestion is Rudy. If it is a girl my suggestion is Rudy.

(Aunty Sue, I got the article from The Australian about hipsters. I'm even more of a hipster now because I have a beardand thick-rimmed glasses. How was the Larapinta Trail?)

Halfie update...

Vic has been waiting patiently for nine months now and as the build up came to her due date today, I had not really prepared for nothing to happen.

We have been busily painting, decorating and cleaning our house for the arrival of the little one and are enjoying our last few moments of relatively little responsibility.

We will keep you all informed with updates.

The DSR

The media keep blaming the DSR for the Ashes loss. I refuse to let them badmouth my charismatic cousin. We need more of his kind.

Uncle Ken's 90th, among other things

I've declined from posting on this because I thought Brendan or Martin or any of the others who took hundreds of photos would eventually get around to it but, without pictures, I should tell you what happened.

It was a great day for all concerned. The advance advice was that Aunty Betty might make a guest appearance but she was there for the entire three hours and thoroughly enjoyed the company. The party was held in the kitchen/reception area of the village and the area was decorated by balloons and streamers. All the hard work was done by Brendan, Kimi, Martin, Jenny and Martin's kids.

Guests arriving early (me) had access to the bar and the beautiful snacks only Kimi can produce. Martin had plundered his cellar and we enjoyed the best South Australia has to offer.

Uncle Ken and Aunty Betty arrived early but the room filled quickly with around 30 - 35 guests including old friends from Orchard Street, Pymble, where the Seages spent most of their lives. The Roff boys were remembered by many as all of the older ones spent considerable time in our younger years as guests of the Seages.

There was a smattering of relatives as well, including in-laws and at least one Newton. It was a sit-down dinner and the food was excellent - who doesn't like a roast?

Neil Seage was overseas but his son was there along with the Tony Seages, including the legendary music producer, Mick.

The Roffs were represented by myself and Adam.

Brendan delivered the main speech which was largely a summary of Uncle Ken's life. Brendan - any chance of you posting it for those who weren't able to attend? It was fascinating although regularly punctuated by Brendan saying he wasn't sure if some things he claimed actually happened - despite Uncle Ken sitting there neither agreeing nor disagreeing with what was said.

Uncle Ken responded with the grace only he possesses. Not bad for a man of his years. He enjoyed Martin's red wine as much as me and I'm guessing his afternoon sleep was unusually deep.

The Seages, as we all know, are an exceptional family and a blessing to the family tree.

Long live Uncle Ken.

Grant xx

Annika and Amanda, you've got nothing on this wild Roff party...