Back in Oz for a bit...

Novemeber saw our annual migration back to the land of oz to get our yearly fix of the little things... you know, being able to walk down the street, actual coffee, drinkable water and fruit and veg that doesn't have to be soaked in bleach so you can eat it - the little things.

This year saw a few big things as well! Unfortunately we weren't able to make it back for for Mikey and Jo's nuptials - congratulations Mr & Mrs Smith!!! But we did bring some good weather back for Pen and Scoob to get hitched on the 24th. Whilst the signs of Mo-vember were still clearly visible (ranging from the iraqi fighter pilot mostache to the less prominent "baby with some fuzz stuck to it's face") it was great to see a whole lot of folk all dresses up - many of which neither of us had seen for a long time - including a couple of babies (seemes to be a new trend at the moment... congratulations to Hugh and Roz on the birth of their second daughter who shall be nicknamed "Gary Nathan Ablett Jimmy Bartell Junior The Third" to commemorate the cats fortune in the Grand Final, also to Jen and Tim on their little nugget, and to Luce and Simo for their little man)

Anyway, here's a few of our pics on the big day...

All dressed up and somewhere to go...

Mrs Whitehead, George, Mrs Smith and Dean

Mr and Mrs Whitehead enjoy an amusing speach about something or other...

The rest of our all to brief time was taken up touring the countryside saying a quick hello to all an sundry. It was great to see everyone, and I know we missed a few folk and ran out of time at the end so didn't quite get to say good bye... apologies. We were quite amazed how much things change these days, everyone's got new houses, kids, dogs, jobs you name it!! That, combined with a little culture shock - yes you heard me right, culture shock - why the fact that everything works and things are actually easy to do would be shocking is quite strange really, but we haven't left africa for just over a year, so it was all rather surprising.

Apologies must go out to anyone who saw us in the first week back (that would be everyone at Bonnie's party!) for our continual exclamations of "Jesus it's #$%^#& cold in this country!!" In my defence, it was actually cold - to the point where I bought a beanie and a jumper...

Anyway, here's a bunch of pics in no particular order

You forget that kids growing up means that they get bigger and smarter.
Ruby will be telling us how things work next time I come back...

The rest of the Holloway Clan down in sorrento (healesville won't be the same withou you all...)
Lucy, young Poppy, the latest Tom (congrats to dad, now you have someone one your team), and Simo

We managed to get to Albury for a weekend while Jane and Russell weren't working and have a great weekend checking out local vineyards, shops and just generally relaxing. Thank you both for looking after us - we had an awesome time!!

Jane and Russell in the new shed just outside albury

'twas a fine day so we thought we'd do a little "tubing" down the Murray for a few hours
- best fun you can have sitting around!!

George and Jane
(after an awesome lunch in a tine shed at some little vineyard)

The vineyard had a great view of the Keiwa Valley back up to Falls Creek

We also managed to get up to Mount Hotham and see a little nauture, breath in some clean air and just generally relax. Believe it or not, even hiking was involved (including getting soaked in a rain storm.. oh well) The one thing that stood out was the number of flys - those things were EVERYWHERE

Finally, I also managed to get up to Sydney and see the family. It had been a very long time, so I managed to fly up for a few days and head down to Bowral and see Sal and Buff and the girls. It was quite a shock to see the girls have grown in to little women - all in the blink of a eye. The weather was great, so I took the opportunity to take granny for a ride in a wheelchair aroung the streets near the nursing home she's in - 98 and going strong, amazing. It's funny how you can spend your whole life moving all over the place for work and family, yet at the end you invariably wind up in the same place - Gran showed me one of their first houses where dad grew up not 50m from the place she is staying in now. Well, it's bee knocked down and turned in to a block of flats like everything else in inner Sydney, but a few other houses were still there.
Heather, Pam and I also managed to get over to Bondi to see the sculpture exhibition they do every year where they put works out on the rocks along the cliff walk from Bondi heading south. Amazing stuff but very busy...