The Horse Whisperer

Sneaking in just under the 60 year old barrier - here's a photo of Mrs Hawkins Snr out today for her first EVER horse ride. With the video camera at hand for any "Beadle's About" type mishaps, Maxine took Mam out to tackle an ambition to get on a horse. Sadly, for us anyway, there were no outakes for comedy falls into the dust to earn 200 quid but at least it meant she kept her bones intact. Dad will have to give it a go next time. Probably not on the same horse though as his legs might be dragging along the ground ! Well done mam !

Coldplay, earthquakes, food festivals & travel

The title pretty much sums up some of the activity the Hawkins household over the last couple of weeks.

Maxine & I went to see Coldplay in Melbourne a couple of weeks ago one hot autumn night. They were excellent as usual.... Then when we were having a curry one night a 4.6 level earthquake shook the house. Came back to a petrified, white faced mother. We didn't feel a thing. 2 weeks later, Martin was in Auckland .... same thing again (he must know when to avoid being at home). For a place 1500Km from the nearest plate boundary, they're not bad earthquakes. Other stuff has included the Melbourne Food Festival visit as well as a trip on the Yarra river with mam and a trip to Sydney for Martin with work. We managed to squeeze some work in there too.... only just.

Curry Collapse

Now it might of taken me 25 years, 10 pints on Newcastle's Quayside in a night followed by a 2 a.m. "Ruby" to master this look ...... but as you can see my youngest offspring can manage it by 5:30pm on a Sunday afternoon !! Oh, how your kids can make you proud. That's my boy.
The funny thing about it was, when I woke him up again, he immediately started tucking into what was left of his curry ! Classic.