Sunday 18 October 2009

A Flying Visit Home

Coffee with friends in Williamstown
Late September we flew home to Australia, to celebrate Neil's fathers 80th birthday. It was a great opportunity to catch up with family and also do a bit of shopping....   Melbourne's winter had been warm and dry, but all that changed the day we arrived.

A cold, wet wintry week greeted us, so out came our leather jackets, winter woollies and boots.  We cheekily suggested that maybe the Melbourne Weather Bureau should fly us home so that we can assure Victoria of more rain!

Dean's 80th Birthday


Neil's sister, Julie, and sister-in-law, Maria, did a superb job of organising the party.  Brendan and two friends played cool, live jazz and we had a wonderful time catching up with friends and relatives.

Peter Langford organised a very special surprise for Dean.  Midway through the party three members of  The Society Syncopaters  marched through the front door playing his favourite trad jazz.

Dean has been a long time follower of this band, so when the two bands joined for a great jam session it was smiles all round...  Topping all this off was the wonderful speech delivered by Laurie, Dean's eldest grandson.

We spent time with Nadia (Neil's niece) and Bonnie, (Ley's great-niece) - what a thrill to see the family expanding in all directions !  We are very lucky..






Singapore Stopover


On our way back to Phuket we stopped over in Singapore to catch up with the Shaw family.  Ethan, our godson, along with the rest of the family, is moving to Singapore in December.  We had an afternoon of fun at the MegaZip Adventure Park on Sentosa Island - one of our current work projects.

Ethan and Eli both rode the Megazip, while Carol Shaw romped around the ClimbMax obstacle course.