On 26 October I posted this activity for us, but here is an updated photo taken by a 3rd party that just delivered it to me a few days ago. We don’t often have the two of us in the same photo because one of us usually is the photographer!
Pretty spring morning
Going into the office later than usual for the next week or so until the wife returns from her football adventures in the US. The upside of that is the sun is fully up and the Northern Beaches are looking better than ever! This is the view from the ferry dock in Manly. The net ensures the little human nippers don’t get nipped by the big fish nippers!
Our friend Lachlan Kilpatrick
Check out this video of our friend Lachlan Kilpatrick. It is a compilation of his best AFL moments here in Sydney!
Spring Cycle
Last Sunday, 19-October-2014 the wife and I took a little 15km bike ride through parts of downtown Sydney that were specially sectioned off for the Spring Cycle event. Normally I’d be doing the 55km ride, but a pinched nerve in my neck convinced me to make this a family event. Daughter stayed home; declined to join us but lots of fun for the two of us anyway. Note the TCU T-shirt and white helmet with TCU decals in the lower right corner of this picture.
And in the video below, my wife will demonstrate what can happen if you don’t keep both hands on the handlebars of your bicycle! (Crossing over the Sydney Harbour Bridge, note the opera house on the left.)
Good Dog Vs. Dirt Devil!
Our 4 month old pup before…
And after….(hose-off mandatory before entering our house!)
This is Church Point
My new favorite ride. 20 km up the road from North Manly, the ride to Church Point is a standard trek for folks in Manly because it provides a good 40km round-trip ride, and I like that there are only moderate hills to negotiate. But everything is beautiful in the northern part of the Northern Beaches!
Welcome to Ziva
So I came home from an appointment on Saturday, the 7th of September and the girls are upstairs calling for me. After walking up the steps, I was surprised to see what those two did: A 3.5 month old, cream-coloured, golden retriever puppy! They had been yakking away for days about getting a St. Bernard and when I heard that those pups cost three grand down here in Australia, I thought my squawking and counter-proposing had successfully talked them out of getting a dog until after the end of the year. WRONG! When my wife and daughter team up, they will NOT be denied! This dog is 100% puppy, meaning she requires a lot of work and it wasn’t long before my wife looked to me in exasperation and said, “WHAT have I done?” Ha! But this dog is about as sweet as they come and I must admit that I enjoy once again getting over-the-top welcome receptions when I come home from work. And the puppy phase doesn’t last long. In fact, I swear that in the photo below this dog has already grown about 20% in less than 2 weeks! And my wife pointed out that a golden retriever is MUCH MUCH lest expensive than a St. Bernard!
Ziva has also presented us with an opportunity to take her for romps at the nearby “bark park” that is only a 3 minute walk from our house. The silver lining is that I’m spending more time talking with my wife at the end of the day so that’s good! This bark park is right on Manly Lagoon and the fenced-in field is probably worth a fortune for its real estate value. But to Manly’s credit, they’ve kept it as public land. Just look at the view the DOGS get from their park!:
This is How She Rolls…
Off to school this morning on the bike, since we finally got a break in the weather after 2 weeks of rainy stuff. Dad is eager to get out as well with spring almost here and fine weather on the horizon!
Sydney Manga & Anime Show (SMASH)
Well, on August 9th my wife was supposed to take our daughter and a friend to this show, but she wasn’t feeling well so this task fell to me. This is a really different kind of event; like going to Comic-Con back in the USA. The girls were really into anime and they wasted no time in ditching the old man and doing their own thing at the show. So I took a few pictures just so I could say I experienced this thing. I know NOTHING about anime characters, Japanese cartoons, or any of that stuff. But I was impressed with the creativity shown by the kids in costume, and the artwork skills demonstrated. It’s possible that I was the only guy with gray hair there, though! Our favorite costume was the girl who transformed herself into a complex gray robot (see below). But I’m sorry…that dude in the pink dress with the Batman mask was just plain strange!
The New View
Well, we traded a view of Queenscliff Beach for one of Manly Lagoon. We made the move on 15-July and were completely out of the apt and into our rental house by the 19th. The front faces the busiest road in North Manly: Pittwater Road. But the back yard has the view you see here–that’s a golf green straight ahead across the lagoon. We’re still in the unpacking
process but by the time summer gets here we’ll be enjoying this yard! (Daughter says sh wants a German Shepherd now. Uh oh…)
The Smiths in Oz 