Bordeaux food and Wine v2.0

St Emillion Degustation

To be truely tourists in Bordeaux during the wine festival we took a tour out to St Emillion. Other than the extreme heat that day and the somewhat hung-over group that we were we enjoyed a day of wining and dining.

Who can resist a pictureque moment in an old town!

Wine wine is everywhere....and all the more to drink!Hmmm frogs legs, dont know if I'm a fan....they look very cute though and we ate them all!

Bordeaux Food and Wine v1.0

French Group Outing to the 'Beach'

Arrived in Bordeaux again for 'work' however the Frenchies had another idea. Day 2 consisted of a group outing to the lake which went for around 12 hours. They certainly know how to entertain...firstly we had about 10 different wines one for each course, by then we were all a little toasty and cautious not to make fools of ourselves. Then many hours of games and swimming (they were missing the Aussie essential cricket set though)...then we moved location to have a bbq at someones house where the drinking began again...I give them a 8 out of 10 for good bbq cooking, but there is something wrong with drinking good wine at a bbq and not bottles of the cheapest beer available!!

Mark and Suz showing off their sexy bodsProf Jean-Franc., Bleita and Jrod sampling the fine wineThere were even some spedo's out and about!!And the Frenchies cooking up a feast.

London visit with Jo and Gareth

So back in Europe again...for work, he he!! First stop London to visit Jo and Gareths new humble abode. We ran around taking some tourist photos for a few hours with Ben our cousin for Grandmas 80th (yep thats as far as my tourist adventures there went). We also went up north to an air and music show where we worked on being relaxed playing golf, swimming and picinics. Its nice being back in Europe and not feeling like a tourist just experiencing the culture instead. Hi Jo thanks for letting me stay....

GO Aussie GO!

Aussie Soccer in Fed Square
Australia 3: Japan 1

Cocktail Party Theme "uniforms"

Well Monash Chemistry certainly put on a cocktail party to rival the Sydney Uni Alchemist balls. We drank all sorts of cocktails from centrifuge tubes...guests included; sporting starts from all fields, medical staff, cross-dressing school girls and nuns, marty in tights, suz in lycra...and much more!
There were also many games to be had throughout the evening!

Look who came to stay!

Warren Miller - Higher Ground

Now I'm really looking forward to this ski season....the movie must have worked as I'm not really a very big snow fan. However, there is no way ever that you will find me on top of a big mountain like some of the idiots in the film...do they have a death wish?!?

I think this year it is time to move on and try snowboarding!! as my skiing is really not getting any better and really the snowboarders have so much more style! I'm not a fashion victim I promise :)

Dutch paedophiles to launch political party

Oh my God are they serious!!!!!


Last Update: Wednesday, May 31, 2006. 7:35am (AEST)

By Stephanie Kennedy

Paedophiles in the Netherlands are launching a political party to lobby for a reduction in the age of consent from 16 to 12 and to legalise pornography on television.

The Charity, Freedom and Diversity party plans to officially register as a political party in the Netherlands today.

It is calling for a cut to the legal age for sexual relations to 12 wanting to eventually scrap the limit altogether.

The party says private possession of child pornography should be allowed and it will lobby for the broadcast of pornography on daytime television.

Other issues the party plans to take up include legalising sex with animals and allowing people to go naked in public.

The party's program also includes legalising all soft and hard drugs and free train travel for all.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200605/s1651419.htm

Sing Star

Sing Star...ah what a great invention, many great nights have been had making a fool of ourselves. Anna and Dave had their un-official house-warming do recently, and here are some happy snaps of us all pretending to sing well...I think the verdict may be that Anna gets the Sing Star award and Adam gets the very Amateur award! but hey being able to sing isnt everything?!Pia and co.
Dave and Ute trying to add a little dancing into the singing.
Anna and Faye in a close contest (can you tell by their serious looks)
Marty and I
David and his favourite toy
Adam and Nicole looking very pleased with themselves for some reason

OK yes I'm a nerd!

Look what I did today....a real column with fractions and tlc plates and everything!
For all those who have no I idea what I'm going on about just notice how professional :) I look in a lab coat!

Wilsons Prom

Marty, Adam and I spent the Easter weekend tramping (yes NZ word I know!) around the Wilsons Prom...here are some happy snappies of our adventures. We intended it to be a nice and relaxing trip but ended up walking around 50k's in 3 days, some were less happy about that than others...however, I claim that the VIC parks people cant measure distances correctly. Somehow, according to their signs walking, to the lighthouse is a few km's longer than the way back, even though its along the same path hmmmm.
There were fires through the park this time last year caused (so I hear) by back-burning gone awry, very awry! falling asleep on the job is alright in some occupations but not this one. Anyway, we spent most of the time walking through the burnt section of the park but the up side is that the water views are much improved.
nice tights!
an exhausted Suz after the lighthouse journey

wow the new and improved view...
and the infamous lighthouse.South point...funnily enough like the name sounds its the southern most point in Australia

Our lovely campsite at Roaring Meg...which I havent decided if the name is from the roaring trickle of a creek or the roaring wind that threatened to bring trees into our tent. Oh and look my nice new blue tent isnt it lovely!

Melbourne zoo

I was a bit hesitant about what Melbourne zoo would have to offer, not that I think Sydney zoo is that fantastic (except for the view) but my experience of zoos around the world shows that the smaller the town the worse the zoo. However, all the animals looked nice and healthy and came out to play....here are some snap shots of the aminals! I would love to claim that I could take such good pickies myself but sadly not, they are all by Marty with his snazzy camera. However, as I was there when he took then maybe I can claim 'artistic influence'.

This is the only animal I really wanted to let out of its cage, it looked so sad!This (kangaroo of some sort) has to win the weirdest animal award...I do have to say though that its fur looked nice and soft and warm.

OK, I dont know what these monkeys are on but I want some!

Comm Games

Well I the comm games are over, I suppose there's no excuse to not be doing work now...here are some pretty pickies from the Athletics and the Rugby 7's.

















Suz and Marty and special guest Andrew (from Syd) at the Rugby 7's.
















Full house at the MCG






















Gab (Marty's training partner) and the others in the Hammer















The mens 100 m final

Destruction...

I went out on Saturday morning for two hours thinking it was just another normal day, but to my surprise when I arrived back the house next door was being eaten up by a crazy claw! It took me a while to work out that the house had not just fallen down but was being demolished. Why they would want to do that baffles me it was a really nice house. Anyway, apart from the noise and dust everywhere I suppose its alright (note: very strong undertone of sarcasm) I now have a perfect view into my new neighbours lounge room when before my place was perfectly private. Also, I can just imagine the block of units I suspect will be built there will give me even less privacy. Hmmm, maybe its time to move.

View from my kitchenView from my bedroom

Final word on the overland track...

I should mention that all the pickies were taken by Marty on his snazzy camera
http://elario.deviantart.com/

Day 6: a big juicy steak here I come...

We woke up bright and early to make it to Lake St Clair in time for the ferry. We saw an amazing sunrise and many new birds for Jarrod's book...finally arriving at the ferry they told us it was all booked out too bad, but I managed to talk them around to sending us another one. Lake St Clair certainly was in brilliant form for us, we were told that its very unusual to have sunny blue skies for more than two days in a row but we got five, cant ask for more than that. A bus ride later we were in Hobart and feasted and drank for three days to our stomachs content. Bye bye overland track..until next year!
Sunrise outside our tent over windyridge.Mt Olympus and Lake St Clair at the end of the trackPicture perfect
Suz, Marty and Jarrod.

Day 5: a nice easy stroll past waterfalls

After climbing hills the day before I was very glad to have a nice relaxed day walking to the next hut...we passed lots of waterfalls and would have seen them all but the privateers were blocking our path (seriously those people talk too much). The best part of the day was a splash around at the waterfall base, man we are all getting a bit stinky!
Post splashing around bliss!