Christmas 2006

We celebrated Christmas 2006 with our parents at our home.


The day unfolded, with present opening (Mikey got a remote helicopter) and of course a glass of pink champagne.
Then Mikey got to try out the BBQ, 2 inch steaks, 1 inch swordfish steaks and calamari, and fried rice on the side burner. To accompany the above we had prawns and salad. Lots of wine poured (Johanna having the most I think!)
4 games of Yahtzee (of which I won 2!).
Dessert was homemade dark chocolate star cups with vanilla ice cream, cherries, strawberries, blueberries and raspberries (yummy).
We finished off the night watching "Cars" very cool movie!

Gallery can be viewed here.

Early Christmas

On Sunday 17th December we celebrated an early Christmas lunch with Russell, William, Alex, Rosemarie, Malcolm, Maria and myself at Rosemarie's and Malcolm's place.

Below are a few photos. Gallery can be found here.


Group Photo


Samson with gift


Russell and William


Alex

Swingin at the Oasis, December 2006

Saturday night we went to Ray's Final Swinging at the Oasis Shopping Mall, Broadbeach.

Since it was the final Oasis from Ray and Christmas was approaching we decided to dress up a little. The Girls went as Cigar Girls while Nick and I dragged out our Fess's and New Year Eve shirts from 2002 (?).








The full gallery can be found here

Happy Birthday

Last Saturday night we celebrate Nicks Birthday with a "Prehistoric" Themed party.

Photos can be found here.

Happy Birthday Nick

Gallery update

Finally added photos from the "Last Bastion Fishing Club" Moreton trip.

The gallery can be found here and a map based gallery here .

New addition to our family

Yesterday we welcomed "Barbie" (Rinnai Impresser 8 BBQ) to our family.

The BBQ was delivered late yesterday, and today the owner of Aussie BBQs came over and helped me assemble her.

Maria and I christened her earlier tonight with a nice beef steak (for me) and a lamb steak for Maria.

I am now looking forward to smoking some ribs on Sunday.

Penultimate Oasis

On Saturday 18th November 2006 the penultimate Oasis Swing night was held. I was too busy talking to everyone to take many photos but I have a couple of Vicky, Sue, Dionne and Maria.

Enjoy


Gallery

Slim Jim Phantom

On Friday 17 / 11/ 2006 we went to the Slim Jim Phantom concert at the the Tivoli in Brisbane. A good night was had by all. The doors opened aroun 7:30 pm and the last act finished aroun 1:30 am. In total we saw 4 great Rockabilly acts.


Gallery





Anyone notice that the girls are all wearing black?

Sambal and Apple Pie Recipes as requested.

Fish Sambal

This is great on fresh rye bread or as an entree served in ranakins.

1 tbs Samba Chilli
1 tub Light Philly Cheese
1 Onion finely chopped (red or brown)
100 g Smoked Salmon / Trout
1 tps Lemon Juice
2 tbs Light Cream / Sour cream
0.5 tps Ginger
1.5 tbs Finely chopped chives

Blend all ingredients until smooth and consistent in colour. Spoon into ramakins. Refrigerate for 1 hr, then top with a seedless berry (any berry) conserve.


Apple pie

Pastry
2 cups Plain Flour
150g Reduced-fat butter
2 tbs sugar 1 egg yolk
1 tbs water
2 tsp sugar, extra

Filling
6 Granny Smith apples
.25 cup sugar
2 tbs custard powder
.25 tsp ground cloves

Pastry

1. Sift the flour into a medium bowl/ Using fingertips, rub the butter into the flour until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
2. Stir in the sugar, add egg yolk and water. Mix to a stiff dough. Wrap in plastic wrapand refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3. Preheat the oven to 190 degC. Between 2 sheets of baking paper, roll out 1/2 thepastry to fit a 20cm pie dish. Arrange pastry in the dish.
4. Spoon the apple filling over the pastry base, cover with the remaining rolled-outpastry and press edges together. Cut steam holes in the centre of pastry. Trim and crimp theedges. Brush lightly with water and spinkle with sugar.
5. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes or until pastry is golden. Test the apple to see ifcooked. If not, reduce heat to 180 degC and bake until tender.

Filling

1. Peel, core and slice the apples. Combine with the sugar, custard powder and cloves.

"Surprise" Birthday Party

Last Sunday Maria organised a surprise birthday party to celebrate my 37th. I knew something was up as Maria and Sue had organised a BBQ at Hope Island, but Maria wouldn't give me answers to simple questions like "Who else is coming to the BBQ".

Its seems another group of people had booked the site of the party / BBQ at Hope Island but Sue had a backup location at Jabiru Island.

In the end a Good day was had by all, with bit of cricket, kicking the footy, and the throwing of a Vortex keeping the boys amused.

I would like to thank Maria for organising the day and to "Sue & Mark, Nick & Dionne, Peter & Lesley, Michael & Vicky, Baz, Jenny & Madeline, and last but not least Des & Vanessa"


Photos can be found here.

Holidays

Last week Maria and I celebrated my birthday with a holiday in Palm Cove, Qld.

We stayed at the Novotel Palm Cove which is about 20 minutes north of Cairns and 40 minutes South of Port Douglas.

Photos from the trip can be found here, and a map of the trip can be found here.

The Highlights of the holiday include-

Michaelmas Cay

I had a great dive, while Maria had a guided tour of the reef by a turtle (not me) while snorkling.


Kuranda Scenic Rail and Skyrail



Jungle Surfing (flying fox) at Cape Tribulation


Video of Maria and I in action (Flying Fox) click here.

Famous friends

It looks like we have some famous friends, taken from a paper on the Gold Coast



photo from the Big Band Swing Night (Breast Cancer Charity Ball) 30/Sep/2006

Malcom's Birthday

On Sunday we celebrated Malcom's birthday with a dinner at the Thai Jasmin.



Happy Birthday Malcom.

More Photos

Photos from Stanthorpe 2006

Big Band Night

Hi went to the Big Band Band Night at The Gold Cost Convention Center to watch Maria and our friends compete in a Swing Dance contest.

Well Done Everyone! Congrats to Danni and Carey for winning the competition.

Photos from the night can be seen here


Group Dance Performance

Approx 8MB.

Dance Practice

Video From Dance Practice


Group Practice (4MB)


Maria & Ken (1.6 MB)

A couple of Photos from Hervey Bay, Qld, Australia

between 11-14 September, Maria my Mother and I visited Hervey Bay to look at the Whales.

Unfortunatly the weather was pretty bad with high winds and a few showers.

The whale viewing was disapointing compared to previous whale watching trips in Moreton Bay. The whales did nothing exciting.

Photos from the trip came be seen by following this link. Click on the map link to see where each photo was taken. The numbers that you see indicate how many pictures are located in that location, zoom in and the should separate, or click on the number to view the photos at that location.

Over the next few weeks I'll add more photos to the blog.


Till next time.

New Blog

Cool,

We finally have a blog.

Will post some photos soon from Harvey Bay