Uncle Darren in Oz

Darren arrived safe and sound, even managing to stay awake all day when he got here. Thats no mean feat. Already we've been down to Mornington beach, shopping in the city, taken in a Melbourne Victory football match, consumed several pints and is now off with Maxine to Sydney for a few days on a fortunately timed business trip(!) The weather has been very warm lately, so we've even managed to put him to work to earn his keep by helping build the 3rd veggie box (yes count 'em). So its been an action packed few days for the lad! He has brought with him a huge slice of bad luck in the sports stakes though as we watched "Victory" get stuffed 0-2 by Sydney at the Telstra Dome and then got back just in time to watch Sunderland beat Newcastle at the stadium of plight for the first time in 28 years. Given that we've got tickets to the Rugby League World Cup match between England & Australia on Sunday, I'm not hopeful of a win with Dazza "Bad luck" Sutherley in tow ! Here are a few snaps of the kids at the beach & at home.

Links at the Lough

The time has come when my next project is unveiled.... Bored with waiting for the swimming pool area to be finished (and the fact that there was some spare concrete to build a tee!) I've now ventured into being a Nick Faldo type golf course builder. The back yard was in much need of it I've assured Maxine. SO - off I set on my internet research for golf course suppliers to get my tee, flag & some range balls. Got them, next for the hard part - trying to build the 18th. Flattening the area has been somewhat troublesome. After 4 days of stomping, 5 cubic metres of soil, digging up blackberry runners (I think I may of missed a few) ... and lots of sweat, we were ready for seed and water. Now done, nature just needs to take its course and I'll then be playing like Tiger Woods on steriods. So next time I'm in town, thats it folks, the gauntlet has been laid. I WILL be deadly from 50 yards.... and no boys, thats nothing to do with how far I can fling a club. See the toil here.

Simply Splashing

As you can see from the picture, we're now in the pool as predicted! The season of barbeques has arrived at last with our first one last weekend. We've had our first real taste of the summer approaching with two pretty good spring weekends. It hit 31 degrees yesterday! The pool area is still no-where near finished (as you can probably tell) with various supplier problems for the materials - but at least we can still use it. The pool hut construction started on Friday and at least that should progress quickly now. You can see a few pictures of the area here. We've been out today looking for 'feature trees' at a garden centre specialising in tropical plants, we came away with lots of ideas, but so far no trees - the choice is a bit daunting. Expect to see a new palm tree of some type with us supping beers underneath it in the not-too-distant future !

Myuna Farm

Today we went to Myuna Farm at the insistence of Aidan. As soon as anyone mentions seeing any animals he's there like a shot with his Moos, Baas, Neighs and Quacks filling the car on the way. This is one of the better shots of me on the day..! (*See more here). I think we may as well buy a few farm animals for home ... it would save us on the petrol going to farms all the time. There you go son, instead of that Star Wars Lego you wanted for christmas, heres a pig instead. Job done.