ha ha....

SMartys House....

Oh my gosh....suz and marty just bought a house! What? you say, Suz your last blog update was a house warming party in Forest Hill...well all I can say to that is, oops guess I will just have to have another house warming.

So excited...the address is 20 Birdwood Ave Upwey, we wont move in until the end of August tho. Its a 1/4 acre, amazing view of the dandenong mountains, 10ft ceilings, fantastic balcony for bbq's, hot spa bath in the bathroom, kitchen is all jarrah wood...ahhh will have to wipe the smiles off our faces soon I suppose but until then :)

P.S. No we are not going to buy a dog!

Housewarming party!

Well I have been in my new place in fancy ForestHill for 5 months now...and finally got my act together for a housewarming do! Apart from really crappy weather it was lots-a-fun :) much eating and drinking and even some dancing thanks to the crazy netball girls. Marty's world famous taziki dip once again was a big hit, I think we all need a garlic detox now.

I dont know if this is a sign of old age but I noticed that almost everyone was drinking wine all night, I only found evidence of four beer bottles the next morning...hmmm very concerning. I may have to have a second 'beer-only' house-re-warming party to remedy this.

Clockwise: suz and lil's, suz and lauren, adam and nicole, keith and irene, matze and lils, netball girls providing entertainment!

Weekend on the town....

OMG Matze's b'day was fantastic, we went out and about in Fitzroy first to Ilk bar then to Peel...so much fun but what a random mix of people! BTW do you like my new haircut?

A wander in Sherbrook Forest is a lovely way to spend Sunday afternoon (esp after the night before) . Followed by a really nice dinner at Baden & co. place in the Dandenongs, they have such a cool house.

Look I have not one but two new papers!

....and one is a front cover :) (thanks my lovely artist x)

....stay tuned

Keep watching, I promise there will be a new exciting blog update soon!

Tassie - "Hiking in Freycinet"

Went for a fantastic four day hike around the Freycinet Peninsula on Tasmanias east coast, better known for Wineglass bay which appears on pretty much every ad for Tassie tourism.

Day 1- Carpark to Hazards beach. After an hour or so of tourists milling around the beginning part of the track we managed to escape to the beautiful Hazards beach. In the far yonder part of the beach is where we set up camp, couldnt ask for a better view...much better than any five star resort.
Day 2- Hazards beach to Bay. After a very nice short stroll to we set up camp in definitely the best spot on the site (you can see Marty perched on our front door step). We thought again we might be virtually alone here but in the late afternoon we were over-run by ten or so tents but I suppose it was a Saturday night. I was going to swim here but we spent all afternoon watching some stingrays swimming around so gave it a pass - even though they are pretty harmless all the recent publicity still sits in the mind. Again a stunning sunset, awe how romantik!
Day 3- 'The killer walk' - Bay to Wineglass bay via Mt Grayham. Well we knew this would be a hard day of 5-6 hours up and down hill and we were correct, but the views of the whole peninsula were stunning at the top. Marty by the way is only a small way up the first hill and looking absolutely stuffed!

Day 4 - Wineglass bay to the carpark. Waking up at wineglass bay is just amazing, go do it if you can! The end............oh and here are all the critters we saw along the way. Featured are 'Wally' the wombat, a confused wallaby, a very hungry Echidna and some very cute Penguins. I wont even bother mentioning all the birds!

Tassie - "The IC07 Conference"

Nice two week break in Tassie due to a rather convenient conference....as per usual decided to tack on a nice holiday after the work was done. Started by bringing my car along on The Spirit of Tassie where to my joy there was only a lovely 1 meter swell. Passed the day happily with Adam and Soph learning new card games and staring at endless ocean. Camping in Davenport the first night was to our surprise very nice with our own personal beachfront tent accomodation. The only problem was finding dinner where a lovely local told me "sorry love this is Davenport"....hmmm, by the way this was 8pm Saturday night, gotta love taswegians!!

The next day we drove through the middle of Tassie on route to the conference in Hobart, where we took a nice scenic drive through the Highlands, where we saw pencil pines and cushion plants, the only problem was that a great deal of the road was dirt....hmmm by the way this was the A5, only in Tasmania!!

Finally arriving at the conference, many talks were listened to and crosswords mastered, but most of all much beer was drunk in order to fullfill the young chemists role in attempting to drink the town dry and never be invited back again. Outside work time we managed to see the sites from Mt Wellington and go to the Cascade Brewery, where we almost wet ourselves laughing 'at' not 'with' the over exuberant tour guide. I think we suceeded, well at least in part...hmmm, by the way pubs shut at 11pm all week long, where are we again?

Aussie Day weekend at the Mornington

Had a lovely Australia Day weekend at the Mornington Peninsula at The Duriska's very 'European' holiday house. Great way to avoid the crowds we thought, little did we know throngs of Melbournians had the same idea....the drive took twice as long!

Mandy and Dimma came for the day and we gorged ourselves on wine and pizza at T'Gallant winery. Marty then finally had a chance to play with his new camera toys - some filters - at our favourite winery destination 'Tucks Ridge'

We spent the next day getting back to nature with a walk/ bird watch along the coast at Cape Schank. Marty found himself a very dead hawk which he is still yet to identify? Followed by some awful windy/rainy weather which didnt deter us from an amble around a very big Homestead which had some fab birds (even for a not very interested bird watcher like me).

On the way back to Rosebud I was so excited when we saw a koala feasting on some gum leaves, and in true Australia Day weekend manner stood there with all the other Aussies gawking at it while it sat there eating away not in the slightest bit interested in us...but so cute and fluffy, I wonder if they bite?

....more exciting things in Sydney

A whole week in Sydney and lots of things to do (other than catch up with rellies, poor Marty!). Managed to fit in some rockclimbing with Matt and Freida and with Jrod. A quick drive around the northern beaches which had some really big waves, a lovely but tiring walk around west head and a catch-up with Kirsten and Chami in their new house where Marty took a lots and lots of pickies of their new puppy!

Top: Marty, Matt and Freida rockclimbing
Bottom: Great waves at DeeWhy, Mum and Dad at Westhead, Kirsten and Chami's cute doggie!

How exciting NYE.......

Oh my gosh this was the best new years ever....look at the view we had (and the sexy photos Martiman took!). We had a fantastic picnic in the Botanical gardens (specially people only allowed...) courtesy of mum and sat back, relaxed and enjoyed :)

Xmas bbq at the Nevilles

A quick catch up with the Sydney boys and Girls (Xina all the way from Japan, Dr G and Mikey before their overseas adventures, Jrod in the midst of writing up and Kathy just being Kathy)

Clockwise: All of us eating again, Greg and Jrod, Keep on trying Mikey.....

Neville Xmas in Melbourne

Mum, Dad, Matt and Freida made the long car journey down to Melbourne for Xmas.....we ate and drank our way around the world with lots of yummy delicious creations.

The Xmas activities (clockwise): Suz and Marty, Frieda and Mum modelling the latest xmas fashion whilst opening presents. Suz stuffing herself on rasberry souffle, the souffle and Matt checking out his beer collection from around the world.

The pre and post xmas actitivites (clockwise): Mum and Matt, and Dad at the Mornington Peninsula, Mum and Dad getting lost in a really cool hedge maze. Matt and Freida at a yummy Chinese restaurant, the fam posing in Melbourne, Rudolph at the Museum.

Weekend of food....

Oh dont we love this time of year....endless food and drink, yum yum. This weekend is the first of many to come .

(1) Cuckoo restaurant in the Dandenongs : smorgasboard of German food, oh dear I nearly had to be rolled home.(2) Cherry picking....do you think 8 kilos will last very long?
(3) Wine tour in the Mornington Peninsula. After eating at the Cuckoo the day before the last thing I felt like was more food, but suprise suprise I managed to stuff myselft again with the yummy food at the wineries. Oh and lots of wine also.

Borat......

I havent put any movie reviews on here before but Borat has hit a nerve with me. I'm shocked that this movie has been getting good reviews and it takes alot to shock me! ....Borat is totally and uterly disgusting, racist in everyway possible and offensive! I can see the point of the film but here is the line ___ and he well and truely crossed it. I hope he does get sued by every American, Jew, gay, female etc. person out there.
It gets no stars from me....

Bordeaux in Winter...

Well another exciting trip to Bordeaux, cant say the weather/atmosphere was as spectacular as last time during the summer/ bordeaux wine festival/world cup finals...but who can compete with that. This trip consisted of baguettes, canelles (a specialty from Bordeaux, yum yum), intricate naughty creations from the patiserie and fiascos with our one attempted day of being tourists at St Emillion.

Here are a few pickies (clockwise)...Suz with Baguette, Jo eating delicious chocolate breakfast, Suz and Jo (awww), Greg and Natasha strolling around town, Greg checking out the heights in St Emillion, and Suz and Jo again doing what Europe is good for.

How Exciting - Moving House

Well the time has come to say my good byes to Elwood and move onto bigger things....the parents decided to come and visit on the weekend of my move (how kind) and with the help of them and my personal muscular removalist (aka. Martiman) the move was all too easy. Oh and dont let me forget to mention the fantastic sparkling new removal truck from Thrifty with a cool hydrolic lift at the back that provided many hours of entertainment for Dad and Marty...boys, boys, boys!

'The Truck'The boys playing with 'the truck'

My handy helper

......and the new house, happy housing to me!

A Day in Brisbane

Here are a few pickies from my one and only day in Brisbane for a med interview....still havent heard if I got in? I had a few hours to kill before flying back to wonder around town, think I may have seen all the sites now! not that I'm saying there is anything wrong with Brisbane, its just not very exciting....OK I'll stop now before I dig a bigger hole.

good things come in threes

Been to lots of exciting concerts lately....the cat empire and the whitlams were absolutely fantastic but I dont have much to say about Little Birdy other than never again......

Torquay Netball Trip 2006

We were on top of the ladder for the whole season but come finals time no luck :( oh well atleast we didnt stack our team for the finals. Here are some pickies of our end of season trip to Torquay where all sorts of fun and games went on!
Including a very amusing outting to the 'local' in our Charlies Angels gear.....
.....a day of mini-golf that even Greg you would find difficult!

and many other stories which I'm not allowed to tell :)