Christmas trip - Part VI: "I'm the King of the Castle"

On our holiday Nicky discovered something new which he absolutely loved. Being carried on Daddy's shoulders...although Kristian wasn't so fond of the hair pulling by Nicky which accompanied this!

Christmas trip - Part V

Part V of the Christmas trip - and we are only half way through! We did pack rather a lot into the trip so it was a rather tiring holiday. Not exactly a relaxing by the pool with a pina colada type holiday. Nevertheless it was a lot of fun. Anyway, from Mt Gambier we drove to the Grampians, a few hours a way. We stayed at a wonderful place called South Mokanger Cottages (check out their website if you are interested in a holiday in the Grampians: http://www.smfarmcottages.com.au/)

The countryside was gorgeous, even in drought time. South Mokanger Cottages are on a working farm, so we got to check out a bit of action in the cattleyards. I had my first experience of watching sheep being draughted (i.e separated into boy and girl sheep). We were standing in the pen where the girl sheep were being draughted into. Kristian kept reassuring me that the sheep were a lot more scared of me, than I was on them. I had Nicky in the Baby Bjorn, and he took it all in his stride.

Christmas trip - Part IV

We arrived in Mount Gambier on 30 December and we spent a few days there, including New Years Eve 2006. I must come clean here and admit that I was in bed when the clock struck 12. Unfortunately Nicky kept on waking up during the night all through the trip, sometimes a few times, and was difficult to settle...hence Kristian and my sleep suffered somewhat. The poor little poppet was out of his routine and kept being carted around to all these different places. He was brilliant during the day (most of the time anyway!) but not so great at night. It all caught up by NY eve and I just crashed. We had a lovely few days in Mt Gambier and I learnt something new about my Dad...he is kinda fascinated by "sinkholes" - a wonderful geographic phenomenon...google it if you don't know what they are and are at all interested. Luckily for my Dad, Mt Gambier has quite a few sinkholes so he was stoked!

Christmas trip - Part III

On 27 December we set off for Penola in Coonwarra (wine region in South Australia, for those of you who don't know it). There we met up with my Uncle Graham & Auntie Rosemary. We had a lovely few days exploring the vineyards of the area, drinking a drop or three of Coonwarra's finest Cabernets, having some wonderful food and indulging in more Haighs Chocolates (I stocked up when we were in Adelaide). Penola is a lovely little town with some cute shops, great restaurants and quite a few places to get a decent cup of coffee. What more could you want. And it's where Mary MacKillop set up her first school. Mary MacKillop founded the Sisters of St Joseph, a Catholic order of nuns, which my Auntie Marie (who is my Great Aunt) is a member of. There is a lovely little museum which tells you all about the life and times of Mary MacKillop.

Christmas trip Part II

Here's some more photos from the Adelaide leg of the Christmas trip.

Christmas trip - Part I

On 21 December we got a Mercedes cab to Changi Airport (ooh la la!) and set out on a much anticipated trip back to Australia. The flight went very well. Of course Nicky was a seasoned veteran traveller by then, this being his third trip to Australia no less. We left at about midnight and Nicky fell asleep less than an hour into the trip and didn't wake up until we had nearly touched down at Adelaide Airport.

The first part of the Christmas trip was spent in Adelaide. We stayed at our dear friends Cheryll and Brad's place. As it turned out, Chez and Brad left the day we arrived to go to Batemans Bay where they spent Christmas with Chez's parents. So they kindly let us stay at their place, together with Steve, Jo, their daughter Caitlin (who I met for the first time..very exciting) and Mike. It was pretty cosy, shall we say...two babies and five adults in a two bedroom place. But it was a blast.

Highlights included watching Deliverance (for those of you who don't know it, it's a 1970s classic with Burt Reynolds and others about a canoeing trip and some rather disturbing hillbillies) which became a bit of a theme for the rest of the weekend (let's just say there was lots of air-banjoing...an in joke sorry..you had to be there), Mike's cooking (yo Dog...your cooking is the Bomb!), seeing Brad, Cheryll and Dexter (albeit all too briefly), seeing Caitlin (aka the Empress..what a cutie), hanging out with my very cool brothers and my sis-in-law Jo, spending time with Mum, Dad, Grandma & Auntie Marie and of course spending time with lil Nick and Kristian....oh yeah...and Haighs Chocolates...they rock!!

Update...at last!!! Sam n John's visit Dec 2006

Oh dear....it was such a promising start...this blog that is. And now there has been a woeful break in blogging. An embarrassingly long amount of time has last past since I updated this blog. So guess I better start blogging and fill you in on the last couple of months.

Well, as the title of this blog suggests, our friends Sam and John came to visit in December 2006. This visit marked the first time Nicky had an attack of stranger anxiety. It was kinda funny because I was sitting with Sam in our living room and Nicky was moseying around and I was remarking how Nicky had never experienced stranger anxiety, which is common with babies at his age. Then John walked in the room and Nicky turned around, took one look at him and started howling! Sure, John was kinda unshaven, but he wasn't really that scary!! Anyway, every time Nicky looked at him for the next half an hour or so, he was freaked out! However over the course of the day Nicky got used to John and the two became buddies.

Sam was most complimentary, as she said that Nicky was extremely cute and was a very good advertisement for people thinking of having kids. Well I must say that I can see her point. Not that I am biased. We had a lovely weekend with Sam and John, which included a trip to the Orchid Garden at the Botanic Gardens, a spot of shopping on Orchard Rd and lots of curry puffs (Sam and John developed a slight addiction whilst they were here).