Goodbye gatherings.

Thanks Mum for helping to organise the Glogg and Aebleskivier (or as Ian calls it, 'hot wine and donuts!) We've never had 30+ people inside our house before, which included the 11 stampeding children upstairs!!



I missed the hockey knees up so it was nice so many of the girlies turned up for pizza and buffet...we have only just finished the rice today!! We played a game of Notability...what marvellous rhythm and timing on the mini piano to plonk out those songs!! The concentration required to play and work out the tunes was a picture.(It's cheap on e.bay at the moment!)



Another super curry, Paul. This was the fourth attempt at getting Paul to smile....was it the four hours preparations time in the kitchen or our company??Or was it the camera thing?



How will the boys manage..a year apart? They are already, according to them, step brothers! I did explain why this was impossible and what would have to happen for it to be true!! Anyway, we bought Dominic a friend to keep his company and annoy Paul and Nikki......a Tamagochi!
He was delighted and gave us regular bulletins all evening on it's toilet functions and what he was feeding it etc.



Alex's Farewell and early birthday party....14 jolly children ganged up on Chris and Allen, while Chantelle and I looked after the bar!

Who is that infantile spod in the background? Most surreal moment of the whole Lazer Quest experience?

You expect to stalk around inside to some banging techno drum n' bass track or at least the them tune to Crystal Maze. Well at one point I was kicking Alan's butt and sneaking up on poor defenceless six year olds whilst Chris Rea blasted out of the sound system, singing Driving Home for Christmas. It suddenly reminded me that I was infact on a Southampton industrial estate, rather than the outer spiral oupost of the Galfralian Galaxy

More goodbyes and final preparations.

So here is... toilet seat(mark2). We had to return the last seat when it broke after only the second bottom!!(and that was a small one...honest!)
Chris 'poo,pooed' my choice of seat, but I'm sure it will make our Australian friends right at home!!



Goodbye..hockey chums..keep winning without me!!
A good 4-1 victory on Saturday.




The whole team as South Park characters...well done Byker!!



The kids did the tree and then we put things where we wanted them....I'm my mother's daughter!! We had to get the Danish flags on...it just wouldn't be the same without them!!

Farewell to Kettering

Sunday afternoon 24 days to go. The countdown is definitely in the closing stages when you are saying goodbye to close family members. So Christmas came early to Kettering as Auntie Mandy put on a fine vegetarian spread. I didn't miss the turkey much. Presents were exchanged
and sad farewells were exchanged. I was starting to feel a bit emotional up until the point that Tina started swearing after she'd stepped in something canine and unpleasant. Then, like Paul Gascoigne, it was time to leave before we knew it


"Oh crikey what have they bought us this year?" thought Jean and Ralph.


The Chappell brothers. What a fine collection of Northamptonshire manhood!


It's another of those "Hurry up and take the damn photo" moments.

Seeing folks for the last time

Pre Christmas or going to Australia, suppose a combination of both. Anyway for whatever reason the social calendar has been picking up in the last few weekends prior to departure.
The most recent was a "What I want to be when I grow up" fancy dress theme. Now our house is usually well supplied with fancy dress costumes due to the fact that Tina loves being creative and wandering aimlessly round charity shops but all such creations are now in the loft. So Tina got some scrubs( thanks Mark) voila instant vet. As for me complete "I want to be a footballer"
cop out maybe but add a letter K , a joker and a bucket and you've got an It's a Knockout contestent. Maybe not but I really wanted to do that. Sad isn't it?


It was the third cocktail that really finished me off!


The Plumleys and Chappells line up for a mug shot.


Now up above is Caroline (on the left). Ex fellow hockey player and long suffering Saints supporter who kindly put together a little send off for us. Another pleasant evening where we went around forcing people to smile in a "if you must" kind of way at the camera. One thing you realise after nights like this though is a year is not really so long. We were wished all the best but at this stage there is no sense of people feeling the need to say "We'll miss you". A statement based on the fact that seeing most of these friends once a year is actually quite an acheivement.



Now will they miss the "Moosey" games? That's another matter

Who lives in a house like this?(part 2)

Neighbours, everybody needs good neighbours......


Anyway, we get this......one more room than ours, a 'rumpus room'and my art studio is going to be in the garage.........how exciting is that?



This beach is apparently close by but Tina might be far too into the interesting rocks and might be inspired to compose another work of art.....!



If in doubt...throw another shrimp on the barbie....mate!

Who lives in a house like this?

so...this is what the Australians are getting (complete with our lovely weather, although, actually they are really excited about the cold weather and are hoping for snow!!)




They are probably getting a good deal on the kitchen, which we will still be paying for well into next year.



Thank the Lord for Sharps bedrooms. We will particularly miss the water bed. Looks wonderfully calm..doesn't it? You should see it in a storm!!

Mercenary little monkeys- Nov 25th

The manic expressions displayed below are supposed to be feigned greed. People keep asking us if the kids are looking forward to it . We basically think they have no idea what they are in for. They'll probably think they'll be coming home after ten days. 24 hour plane flights and being away for a year is not something they can quite comprehend. "Is it christmas in two days" asked Alex tonight. So we dutifully made a countdown calendar to get it into his head. The 100 dollars displayed above is the first Christmas present the children received. Another 30 of those would be great thankyou. Then we can buy the children a car. Alex was more interested in money having a window in it.