Galavanting Around

Well as the title suggests the last 2 months have been crazzzy for us, but so much fun! We headed up to Port Macquarie to see my sis and her husband Duncan and had a great time 4wding, watching dolphins, enjoying the fab coffee at gordon st cycles and walks along the beach. The 6 of us foodclubbers couldn't resist a Christmas in July; here's Craig, Danielle and Aaron Young, Susie and Ben Edwards. We started the night with cosmo cocktails and by the end of the night...well...i had the joy of listening to the purr of snores as i washed copius cocktail and wine glasses...sigh. here's my individual homemade christmas puddings with brandy custard and poached cherries. For a couple who used to tell me they were just friends i'm still wondering why Simon and Daisy decided to throw themselves a wedding - it's always good for presents i suppose. haa...was a beautiful day at St Hills followed by a beautiful reception at Waterfront under the bridge. Here's Craig and I with Phil and Fiona. We headed straight to Manly to Matt and Roby's engagement party; a very funky party at a very funky venue...so funky i've forgotten the name...but i ran into Tory (from school!hi tory!)

Phil and Fiona headed to Fiji for a well deserved holiday so this is us in our last minute dress-up for fijian connect group. The winter chill brought on the desire to head to the Hunter for a day trip, so a bunch of us (unofficially, our connect group) hired a mini bus for the day and had an absolute blast touring the green hills of the valley, trying champagne, chocolates, cheeses, olives, oil, wines and anything else the place had to offer. Here's Craig and I, and Ian and Craig tasting at Peppertree, and Jill and I - darn we look good haa. Jamie organised a private tasting at rosemount which was fantastic-they opened some really nice bottles...much to our delight!

here is a before and after shot of the group...haaa.

The cold front hit and it was off to the snow-finally! Our new brother-in-law's brother(ya with me?) Glenn made a special trip down from the sunny gold coast to join us for our adventure to Perisher, where we met up with Dunc and my sis Tanya. (we all know it's about how you look right?). craig hadn't skiied in...let's just say a really really long time, but after a few good stacks he quickly got the hang of it. i think he was getting in the spirit of things at breakfast time. His wisdom teeth were giving him grief but he pressed on. It was around 11.30 on the first day (just after our buck fifty hot choccie at mid station), when Glenn thought it would be really funny to dislocate his shoulder (show off ey?)

YYOOUUCCHH. He made some pretty strange noises suckin on that dopey stick they give you, and the poor guy ended up in the pub for the afternoon with his arm in a sling. The snow patrol reckoned it was his very early 90's fluoro bib and brace (see left) that caused the accident hee. poor fella. there are some things that just need to be put to death and i think those pants will be facing their's before next season. I finally nailed my turns on the snowboard and was cruisin down happy and pretty valley absolutely lovin it (yeh i know they're aren't black runs but i'll get there ok!) Dunc and Tanya thought it would be fun to venture over to...oh i can't remember the name of the run (ayres?) but i can tell you there were lots of chair lifts and t-bars and dorothy was a long way from home toto...i was thinkin, will i ever get back? i have to hand it to the adventure boarders who go heliski...it ain't my thang at this stage. We had the pleasure of a visit from Craig's cousin Rosemary and her aussie husband Martin from England in late August. Here's a pic of the family...a silly one of course! (Martin, Karen, Craig, Mavis, Rosemary, Bianca, David, Deb and Brandon). Soon after this Craig had his four wisdom teeth out, but has remained as wise as ever...and enjoyed his first steak in 3 weeks yesterday. My girlfriend Stacy had her bub no. 2 and i scooted up to Nelsons to surprise her on Sunday and have a good catch up. Well, there's more to come but I'll write it in the next episode of the adventures of craig and amy. love ya

Wild Wild Weather

What a crazy few weeks of weather we've had! We headed to Nelson Bay for the long weekend for Stacy's 30th (what happened to it being 21sts?). It wasn't quite the adventure we'd been planning, in fact, quite the opposite, but we had a blast.

This is the ocean, a usually calm spot - it resembled a squillion litre washing machine and the waves were seriously pounding the rocks.

And here we are with Stacy, her Craig and Felicity.

At 4.20pm just as Stacy and I were getting ready the power went out. Just what you need when you're the one doing the food for a party and they arrive in 70minutes hey. I think we were all really hoping it was going to come on after an hour or so but it didn't. Thankfully craig remembered they own a 2 burner portable camping cooker, so out it came and the challenge began. Just as well Stacy's brother in law could play the guitar, admist 40 or so tealight candles which had the place looking beautiful...but weren't enough to keep the oven going. Here's Craig and I,

and Stacy (and her baby bump) and the cake.

Of course I won the lolly jar guessing competition, but i donated it to the next in line which was Stacy's father in law.

The following day we headed down to Newcastle to see the Pasher Bulker (along with everyone else it seemed!) and it was amazing. Did anyone else know there was a Harry deWheels in Newcastle? Yum...

We then popped in on my cousin's in Chittaway Bay which was mostly under water. Thankfully their newly completed home was out of reach of the rising water, but not by too far. Never seen anything like this in real life.

Jillian and I went off to the Food and Wine Show which was fantastically fun as usual. Lots of well...food and wine to try, and the annual pic with donna hay, but i guess she was chatting when it was taken.

We headed to Surfers on the weekend for Craig's sister Karen's wedding to Mark. Had a great time and met some of my nieces and nephews.

This is one of my beautiful 'great' nieces, Lara

Zahlia, Rusty and Me!

Mr and Mrs Mark and Karen Ayrton

Deb (sis in law), Me and niece Bianca

Was just starting to warm up as we left, but it's still always a pleasure to be on the Gold Coast.

That's the latest from us, over and out! Love Craig and Amy xoxo

Mexico 2007

Hi there! I decided to keep Craig and I up with the times and create a blog. With all the trips we do I never get around to sharing our pics or anything, so here goes.

I've just returned from warm, sunny Mexico to freezing Sydney. I was there for 8 days at a conference (of which I didn't have to attend much of) with my boss Rosemary. The area we stayed in wasn't highly cultural, but we didn't leave the resort alot, which was probably why. The nachos is good though...and I'm hardly going to complain about sitting by the pool sipping cocktails now am I?

We were staying at the Aventura Spa Palace resort in Playa Del Carmen, just over an hour south of Cancun airport. The pic left is one side of one of the massive pools that was there. You've got to love a swim-up bar. You could order whatever you wanted and didn't have to pay a cent. The hotel was an all-inclusive resort, which meant even room service and the mini bar, as well as dining at any of the 8 restaurants, bars or cafes was free (cool huh!)

This is the main shopping strip in Playa (called 5th Avenue). The area is catered extremely towards American tourists, and unfortunately has lost a little of it's traditional culture, but it was a beautiful shopping strip, with lots of jewellery and tobacco shops.

The beach at Playa Del Carmen

These are a few of the great aussies I met on the trip, Pav, Kelly, Ben, Monique, Don, (?oops), Ellen, Bill and Kyle. (we're at the International Dinner by the beach). I met lots of nice people...the aussies were definitely the best party people out of the crowd.

One of the tours we all went on was to XCARET, which is a mixture between a zoo and a marine park. It was really hot, so everyone headed for the limestone swim throughs. It took 50 minutes to swim all the way through, but it was so beautiful and the water was so clear. You could also snorkel, or book in to swim with the dolphins - we could've easily spent a day here, but we only had the afternoon.

There were these big beautiful birds all over the park...they were pretty friendly too.

In the evening we headed to this massive covered arena where we were all seated to eat dinner and watch a cultural show. They started out with ball games using flaming balls, then headed into native singing/dancing etc. I think the Mexican's were blessed with the same vocal abilities that the black americans were (jealous!). It was really entertaining and I enjoyed it alot.

On one of the days I went for 2 dives in the Caribbean Sea (just sounds divine doesn't it?). I saw some pretty cool things - a huge crab, lobster, squid, lots of tropcial angel fish, parrot fish, and barracuda. The water temp wasn't too warm where we were. So I was a little cold in the water, but it was a fun experience.

We also went to Tulum Archaeological Site to look at Mayan Ruins. They are all limestone temples, built right on the coastline. I'm surpirised anyone could worship in them because I would've been distracted by the amazing view. We were able to head down the big timber stairs to the beach to swim here. The water temperature was divine and the sand was like paste (free facial anyone?). And the colour of the sea was so Aqua it looked fake. I would fly back there again just to swim in the water.

The last night was a Caribbean Night, and this is Monique and Kath.

It was a real treat to see Craig at the airport when I arrived in Sydney...for a few short days before he headed off to Malaysia. He'll be home tomorrow, so it's not so bad. Well that's all from me. Quite a long first blog I suppose, now I just have to figure out how to forward the darn thing haaa...