Happy Birthday Harbour Bridge

The bridge is 75 years old today. Craig and I thought we would go and check it out. It was especially lit for the occasion. We watched the "Building the Bridge" doco tonight on ABC. It is still fascinating to think of the spectacle it must have been back in 1932, without the city and North Sydney to balance it out.
I have posted a few photos at my web album.

Sydney Harbour Bridge 75th Birthday

Wildlife World, and the Web Album

20070101 Wildlife World

On New Years Day, we all decided to go to the new Wildlife World in Darling Harbour. As I remember it, Shane in particular had enjoyed the previous day's exercise so much his knees were really happy to be going walking again... well, after a couple of decent cups of coffee anyway.
Craig and I decided to host a little bit of a party for New Years Eve. With the weather forecast advising rain for most of the weekend, we opted for NYE fireworks from our own spot by the harbour, Pyrmont. That decided, we had Craig's Mum Lorraine and brother Neville come in from Penrith to join us. And from Wyee, my sister Lisa and family - Shane and the two kids Haydon and Erin. Our apartment is not so big, but, we worked out there would be just enough room for the four from the Central Coast to sleep on the floor to avoid a very late night drive on the freeway.
Once all the visitors arrived early afternoon it was time to catch a movie courtesy of eight free tickets from Michelle. (Thanks mate, we used'em on the very last day!). We saw Night in the Museum - quite funny. If you like Ben Stiller. I think Ben Stiller is hilarious, ever since Zoolander. However, some people have recently advised me that they cannot stand Ben Stiller. I do not think these people are very hilarious, however, I will respect their right to miss out.
We walked up and back from Broadway, a distance that Shane's knees measured at 10km each way. Google Earth tells me it is more like 2.5km each way. I guess your knees are four times worse than "standard" - so sorry for making you walk it Shane :-)
Back at Pyrmont we had time for a bit of a rest and some dinner and then a fireworks show!
The midnight fireworks lived up to expectations of course. How to blow a couple of mil in 10 minutes. It is a pretty good view from the top of Pyrmont Point Park. We're on the "back" of the bridge on a bit of an angle, but plenty close enough. We could also see (or glimpse in some cases) the four pontoon locations up and down the river - to quote my niece Erin halfway through the main event "they're all the same". After a short moment I realised she was not bored, she meant that they were synchronised!!
It was an enjoyable day/night. Followed by some enjoyable coffee the next morning. Introducing the COFFEE MACHINE! My chrissy present. You bung in the beans and press a button. You steam the milk. You add a little powdered chocolate.... mmm delicious indeed. Better than the cafe makes.
And after the coffee, it was time for Wildlife World. Check out some pics in my web album, via the link above. It was very cool. The web album is a story in its self - essentially, they broke blogger! The picasa upload to blogger option is broken (I asked for a refund on every cent I paid for picasa, and they gave it to me). Then, frustration vented I moved on. I tried the other option for single-click photo uploads to share my favourite photos - picasa web album. The web album seems to work pretty good, and does not require any more work so I am likely to use it. You know, updates and stuff :-) (If I was paranoid, I would theorise that in fact this is Googles plan, to stop me posting photos on blogger and force me onto web albums. I'm not too paranoid today, so I'm sure Google wouldn't do that to us loyal members).

Karen's 30th Birthday

My cousin Karen turned 30. In true "Karen" style, it was not going to be a regular affair. She went for a masquerade ball! Well, it was held at the Firefly bar/restaurant on Hickson Rd so there wasn't really a ballroom. To see us in our masks, you'll have to find my web album.

Harbour Cruise

Craig and Kerri on a Harbour Cruise! Back on 23rd November 2006, it was a great way to spend a Thursday evening.

First Swim of the season : Cockatoo Island

The scene: Dawn Fraser Pool, Balmain.
It was a beautiful morning, sunny, warm and calm. Well worth the early rise on a Sunday for me.









The first leg out to the island, then a left turn around the orange buoy, thats heading up towards the Parramatta River.
It was high tide before we began, so there was an extra challenge swimming into the current. The challenge was however equally balanced by the assistance provided by said current down the back of the island.





The homeward leg around the last corner of the island, then back through the orange buoys and home across the channel. It looks so calm and peaceful, but the runout tide as we rounded that last crane meant the island was passing reaaally slooowwly again as I swam.







Kerri post-swim : Dawn's Pool on the left, Cockatoo Island on the right.

Blue Mountains weekend

Craig's birthday weekend away - a stay at the the Hydro Majestic, a little bit of Blue Mountains walking, and to cap it off, back to Penrith in time for the Sunday arvo footy match! 

The 'G... thats the MCG

Phew! Life has been busy. Now its time to post a few photos of recent events... here's the first - the MCG, Sydney (soon to be premiers) defeat Hawthorn in the final round of regular competition. The MCG is an awsome place to watch sport, probably particularly for AFL sitting up high as we did gives a great view of positions on field. This was actually my second visit to the 'G, my first was when I was ~8?? on our trip to Victoria. I don't remember much from that visit though, although the impression of walking into the cauldron came back to me.
I was impressed by the sporting spirit of the Melbournites - they really love their AFL! This was a final round clash between a top team and a bottom team, and this seemed to make no difference to the Hawthorn fans. We were sitting in front of a father and son decked out in their Hawthorn gear, and despite their loss, father was explaining that they were here for their last chance to show support for their team this year, they would congratulate the winners, and look forward to their team being back stronger in future years. I was impressed and felt like sitting a little straighter in my chair to hear such passion and fair play. Did I ever say a bad word about the Newc. Knights and their wooden spoon performance this year? I hope not.
An amusing thing we noticed on the way out of the MCG - there was a Sydney Swans merchandising table setup, big crowd around it - they already covered in red and white Swans gear! I'm not sure what they were buying this time around. Did I mention they really love their footy in Melbourne.

IPAQ World

So I have introduced myself to the world of PDAs, Pocket PCs, IPAQs! My new toy is the HP hx4700 - 4" VGA screen, 624MHz processor, CF and SD card slots, built-in wireless and bluetooth, and here on known as "Buddy". He he!
Buddy has become very useful around the house. Internet, email, and skype right from the most comfortable reclining position on the sofa. Of course, I'm still trying to learn exactly how to get the best out of Buddy... it's been two weeks and I'm still deciding on a case!
The interesting part is discovering a whole new world of the internet that I didn't know existed - Pocket PC land! Common webpages and resources have a PPC version to format the page more suitably, for those that don't there's other pages that will format them for you. There are a few things I'm still "learning" about... since I've decided to dedicate this page to positive, non-problem related things only, I will only mention them when I learn them!!

A find from walking around the three sisters, Katoomba.