The course was amazing. Steve was the instructor/skipper and we were also aboard with Adam (who was preparing for his yachtmasters) and Blake (who was taking his day skipper). The five of us had a great time sailing around one of the most amazing sailing spots in the world – both day and NIGHT!

Once we completed our course, with knowledge on on to sail, eight knots and a desperate need for a proper shower, we headed to Hamiliton Island to meet the gang. Well, the place was stunning and the shower amazing! Em had booked a sailing excursion for us all so we eventually got to swim in the green waters, snokkled on a reef, swam with a turtle then played cricket on Whitehaven beach, messages below:

We all then returned to Sydney for a long weekend of sighseeing for Dan, meeting the family (Towells & Lyon) and as usual plenty of drinking and eating for us all! All in all, a wicked holiday which also served as half my notice as I have a new job at Yahoo!7

  We landed in the UK 6am Sat  22nd Aug. By 7.30am we were reunited with Dan’s Dad and Sandra and on the road heading north to Sheffield, where we were to meet up with all our parents. Wanting to waste no time, I had booked an appointment at a bridal shop in Sheffield so by 2.30pm me, Mum, Barbara, Sandra and Dad (very surprised at this) were in the bridal shop where I got the best-est surprise of all with the my sis and the kids coming out from the changing room to surprise me – AMAZING! After a few tears, the bottle of champagne being popped and “OMG I can’t believe it” I managed to focus to try on a few dresses and it was when I was trying on the 4th dress I knew I had found the one!

On Sunday we headed up to Newcastle where Kenny had arranged a BBQ for us and invited everyone round. We had a wicked afternoon, it was soooo nice to see everyone again. To add to the celebrations it was revelaved that Nick & KT had got engaged!!!! Crack open more bubbly!!! Like usual we had one too many drinks and I was still urging KT to have another drink at 1am when she had to be up and drive to work in a few hours!

Only back for a week I was keen to get as much sorted as possible. With my dress sorted on the Sat, on the Monday we shortlisted the bridesmaids dresses and confirmed Dan and the guy’s suits. On Tuesday with Andie and Sez we confirmed the bridesmaid dresses. Tuesday night we went to check out the venue for the first time (good job mother – well done!) and chose the menu for the wedding breakfast – all I can say is people are not going to be hungry by the end!

 Wednesday night was time to catch up with the Crammy girls which was FAB. It was SOOOO lush to see everyone and meet Molly for the first time – how cute! Thursday was a day for Mum and we set off to go and have a look at mother of the bride outfits, just to get an idea more than anything. Continuing with our successful week, Mum managed to get her outfit so it feels like things are coming together nicely.

The week home has been awesome, we haven’t stopped and as a result we’re both exhausted (me more so than Dan, as he just played golf pretty much all week!). Only having a week to plan all the major things for your wedding certainly makes you more decisive and I have to say I’m looking forward to having a few weeks off!

 Since Watson’s Bay we have managed to spot whales migrating north off the Sydney coast. On a glorious Saturday afternoon, accompanied with a thick head, we set sail from Circular Quay out through the harbour and past the heads. Within minutes the skipper had picked up the trail of a whale (a trail is basically a string of other whale spotting boats!!!) and followed it for some time. After a while of it swimming along we were pretty much over it and almost as if the whale itself knew it decided to kick (literally) into life! Check out the pics!

 Over the past few weeks “we” have been training for Kaz to run her first road race – 14km from the city, along the harbour, to Bondi. I say we as originally I did intended to run it, but we then realised that the Sunday clashed with Bear & Em being up from Melbourne so I gladly opted to give my running number to Em! The training certainly paid off and the girls crossed the line in a respectable 86 minutes which given the traffic they had to pass is a very good time!

So with Bear & Em in town we obviously got out the red paint (never a carpet!) and hit the city. Friday night was a marathon of drinking across the city and Saturday was certainly dedicated to R&R – the girls hit the spa, the boys went fishing with Sammy (& maybe a stubby or two!) and found the most amazing spot. Pictures certainly paint a pretty picture! To celebrate the run we hit Bills in Surry Hills for a late lunch and decided to wash it down with a bottle or two, or to be honest – a case!

Our final weekend before our trip back to the UK contained our first day back on the beach ahead of the summer. True to Sydney winter form, the weather was mid-to-high twenty’s and we went to Little Bay. Little Bay is where I play golf so knew it was a fantastic spot, but it was the first time Karen had seen it and it is truly an amazing spot. With eski and fishing rod in hand we hit the beach. Kaz bathed, I fished and what a fishing spot – first cast, first fish! The fish kept participating frequently with my activity and a fantastic day was had!

Oh, on a final note, we have had our 457 working visa granted so Karen will be bringing home LEGO until January 2010 at least!

We had a weekend in Melbourne with Bear & Emily which was awesome. Eat lots of rich food, drank lots of cocktails and good wine with great company – so all in all, fab weekend! We even went to the MCG to catch a AFL game and really enjoyed the game too!

Last week we eventually got ourselves to Watsons Bay for fish & chips! Oh, and the weather that day was awesome! Middle of winter and low 20′s! Some people were on the beach in swimmers and applying sun cream, others where in hats and scarf’s! The fish and chips were simply beautiful too!

Check out the pics (especially the one of Mr Benbow + 20 years!), catch those in the UK next month for a mad week of catch up!!

We also had a wander about town as part of the Vivid Festival – a light festival across town. Some of the pictures we got, we think, are amazing! Check out for yourself!

We decided to have a return trip to the Hunter Valley with Dave & Sian. We also decided to get back to a roots a little and booked to stay on the caravan park which was great – an awesome setting to win by A$40m at Electronic Australian Monopoly! After having a rather large night on the sauce getting to the Hunter and then playing Monopoly we were all rather hung over the Saturday morning, some more than others, but by noon we were at the first cellar door and into the wine! By the third cellar door I had bought a case of wine and signed up for a wine membership – it would be a long & expensive weekend!

The wine was great, so much we brought back three dozen bottles! We visited some old favourites: Audrey, Pepper Tree, Tinklers and found some new gems: Tower, Piggs Peake to name a couple.

Fo the Monday we headed north again and went fishing in a tinny. Although my venture with the rod was fruitless (again!) Davey boy did catch a couple and almost promptly stepped out of the tinney to avoid the fish on the end of HIS rod! Needless to say, I had to un-hook his prizes and release back to the wild!

A top, top weekend! And we have something (for a while) to remember it by…

The journey to the BM passed quickly (only 2 hours) and when we arrived we were got quite a fright at the drop in temperature – OMG it was freezing – hmmm, not sure if we need the shorts we both packed! This was the coldest we had been since Mongolia and it really felt like we were back in the UK.

After a leisurely breakfast on the Saturday (more so due to the ‘laid back’ service than choice) we wrapped up and headed out for a walk along the cliffs of the BM, down the ‘giant steps’ (all 900 of them), past the ‘three sisters’ making our way to catch the Sky Train back up to the top to our destination Echo Point. The Sky Train was terrifying, it’s the steepest railway in the world (we are certainly ticking them off – longest, fastest, now steepest!) and although not very long you are pretty much vertical. I can’t really say how the views were as I had my eyes closed most of the way – but the views from the Sky Way (little cable car from one mountain side to the other) were pretty impressive, especially standing on the glass floor looking down! After our bush walk we eventually managed to find ‘Echo’s’ – a fab boutique hotel / restaurant recommended by Sam & Marissa, where we rewarded ourselves with a drink. The hotel was fabulous and so we decided to treat ourselves and headed back for a bit of fine dining that evening – we couldn’t have been at more opposite ends of the spectrum – hostel accommodation, most expensive restaurant for dinner!

On the Sunday Dan had booked us in to go White water rafting at the white water centre, which was built for the 2000 Olympics. To say I was nervous is an understatement, but after being in the raft for all of 5 minutes and it overturning after the first rapid, I soon faced my fear! Thankfully the weather was much warmer in Penrith than the BM and we had a great day – a complete thrill and something to definitely do again with a gang of us!

Once we were in the girls set about drinking many glasses of bubbly and the boys, well, lining the pockets of bookies of course! We did have a couple of wins, few more losses and one missed opportunity to win big (the single missed ‘tip’!) but all in all a fab day out.

We finished the evening with drinks at the Beresford, Vietnamese food a some good Scotch!

Rest of the pictures are here…

Our preparation was of course how to smuggle grog into the event! Now, in Australia the eski is king – so armed with three types of eski we split our risk and managed to smuggle a wine goon bag in as a chicken, another goon back in as a plate of sandwiches, another goon bag (this time full of rum!) in as more sandwiches and of course some vodka in as water! We even had ice!

Once we were past the relaxed security checks we made our way to one of the two viewing hills as we only had general admission tickets. Once we had bagged a significant space we had a beer to celebrate – its was 11am The girls turned up in due course, distracting security with Krispy Creme donuts (how prepared we were!) and we settled in for a fabulous spread!

After the warm up of Ford Fista’s, Aussie racing cars (driven from the back seats) and the driver parade lap (each driver driven around in a fire truck to give praise to the victorian fire service) we were set for the F1 race – and Jenson was on pole As expected we got glimpses of the cars as they hurtled past but this time we had the benefit of the screen to watch the race elsewhere on track.

I became obsessed with my Union Jack (honestly, the photo’s have been pruned) and we celebrated extensively Jenson’s fabulous victory. After the race and presentation (more flag waving) we walked around the track (falling off into the gravel trap!) to the paddock to have a look’sy – we even spotted Jenson! But I could not get to the fence in time to give him my flag.

From here we had our second spread of the day – roast chicken to be precise – then rocked out, with flag of course, to The Who!

The next day we went to the Stoke House for birthday dinner with Emily and were pleased to see Jenson turn up! Although the girls wanted a picture, they were too shy to ask – so I took the opportunity to shake his hand, congratulate him, then snap him with the girls. If only I had given him the flag the night before I could have asked for it back!!!