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Celebrations are afoot here, although there is a bit of controversy around it. One of the many things that makes Australia great Two hundred and thirty-eight years ago, the First Fleet came ashore at Sydney Cove, Port Jackson and ended up establishing Australia as a country.  As there was already a native people here, it was an invasion and a fair bit of violence ensued. The fact that the invaders decided to rename the land Australia and took to celebrating the new culture that arose from the initial clash on THE ANNIVERSARY of the first landing does ruffle the feathers of the descendants of those involved. It might be more sensitive to move the date of the celebration to another date, but I'll leave that to the resident population to work out.  There seems to be lots of flags and other symbols of happiness and gratitude about being connected to this sunburnt country , so I'm just going to run with "standard operating procedure until notified otherwise" and ...

Ross, a childhood friend of Kate's, bought a new yacht in Pittwater (just north of Sydney) and wanted to bring her back to Melbourne.  Due to the Sydney to Hobart yacht race, it seemed all the professional skippers in the country were committed to racing or delivering Hobart yachts.   So, who do you think he called? The good ship Vámonos After a couple of conversations with Ross discussing logistics and the like, we found ourselves winging our way to Sydney. We met him and Vámonos at the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club so we were able to say a g'day to Popeye! Vámonos is a 2004 Sayer 44, an Australian-built, aluminium, lifting-keel, blue water cruiser-racer - with a tiller!  We had a great deal of fun crawling around, opening lockers and generally poking about.  She was extremely clean and tidy, well maintained by her fastidious previous owner.  As Ross had only spent a couple of days aboard, we checked all the safety gear, radios, bilge pumps and e...

  My sister Susan has a stunning holiday house in Port Douglas in Far North Queensland so putting it to good use, my mum and sisters popped up for a holiday.  Its tropical lushness and hot, humid weather was great change from the chilliness of Flinders.  With the Great Barrier Reef within sight off the coast and the UNESCO listed Daintree Rainforest to the north, Port Douglas is a wonderful place to spend some time. There are so many activities to keep you busy, delicious restaurants to feed you and some gorgeous shops in which to spend all your money.    Floating on a lilo in the pool - not quite a high-octane activity but a favourite nontheless! Anyone for tennis?  Also a handy place to do a pump class! Running on the beach is a favourite early morning activity, plucking mangos from the tree for breakfast on the way home But swim only in the netted swimming areas.  Being Australia, there are stingy things that can kill you at this time of year! Great...

  Haven't driven one of these in years! I headed to Flinders while Sean stayed in Canada - both of us to spend some time with mothers specifically and family in general.  So tucked up in my childhood bedroom, the fun begins! The Bunnings Sausage Sizzle The Bunnings Sausage Sizzle is iconic.  Bunnings is a hardware store similar to Home Depot and community groups run the sizzle to raise money.  Bunnings has strict guidelines so no matter who is running the show, the product and pricing is always the same.  Oddly, we always seem to 'need' something from Bunnings around lunchtime! Hmm, that's a lot of mulch that needs spreading Weedy Sea-Dragon mural on the Flinders Motel Hello Cockie! It was with great excitement we welcomed a new family member, Madison May East, the first great granddaughter for Mum and my third great-niece! Congratulations to Sam and Emily. The newest member of our family.  Welcome Madison May! One thing I have been struck with are the bird...