Kayaking

Sunday afternoon and my friend John suggests we head down to the waterfront to try out the kayaks.

Picture postcard of the Hobart waterfront

John has obviously done this before

Simon has a go. Notice the angle of his kayak

Cool in any setting

Rachel came along also but chose to keep her feet on firm ground. Rachel leaves us tomorrow and returns to Melbourne.

The other event this weekend was Bike for Bibles coming through Hobart. It bought back a lot of memories of my rides with Bike for Bibles in the 90's.

Bruny Island Charters Adventure

It's a trip that I have always wanted to do. Bruny Island Charters run a boat trip starting at Adventure Bay on Bruny Island and running right down to the lighthouse and the Friars at the south end of the island. Along the way is some of most spectacular coastal scenery in the world. The only way to see it is by boat. The whole trip takes about 3 hours and you spend all of that time time on an inflatable boat with 900 horse power on the back. It is definitely not for the faint hearted and not your typical pleasure cruise by any description. It is a high speed adrenalin rush all the way - although there are plenty of pauses along the way to look at wild life and enjoy the scenery. I decided to take my good camera long and was glad I did. I needed plenty of water proof wrapping to protect it for much of the trip but it was great to try and capture some of this magnificent scenery in photos.

This last photo is of a rock face called, 'The Cathedral' It has the highest sea cliffs anywhere in Australia.

Oh, you might wonder what happened to Jo. She came with me to Bruny for the day along with Sarah, Rachel and the dog - but they all spent three hours on the beach at Adventure Bay. Oh well, each to their own.

By the way - There are a whole lot more of my photos of this trip on Flickr. You can find them with a single click right here

Living the present moment

Hey it's that time of year again. The period that comes immediately after Christmas each year. Up to Christmas it is absolutely crazy with a million things on - then after you get to Christmas Day life becomes pleasant slower and cilvilised for a period of about three weeks. Church activities all but stop. There's no meetings to go to and no deadlines to make. You have time to relax and unwind. So much so that you find you even have time to watch the cricket and invite people for meals. I begin to wonder why can't we live like this for the whole of the year. I know that very shortly the whole catastrophe will begin again - but until then I am determined to live the present moment. I thought I might include a few snap shots of what we have been doing these past few days.

Sunday night before Christmas we planned a big event. It was Carols in the car park - the only trouble was it rained and we shifted the whole thing inside. A fantastic night all the same and you might be able to spot Simon in the band (second from the right)

Christmas day at home again this year. We decided to make it open house for Christmas dinner and had a few extras along. This was the table prior to us messing it all up.


As most people seem to do, I think we all ate way too much and continued eating Christmas left overs for several days. Here it is over two weeks later and we still have chocolates uneaten.

I was very determined this year to be there when the first yacht from Sydney arrived at Hobart. This time I planned it right. Just as I got down to the docks the tall sail ship above was leaving for a breakfast trip out to Tasman Island to meet Wild Oats coming in. I managed to get a ticket to board and we set off. It was a morning I will remember for a long time.

We certainly met up with Wild Thing and followed them right into Hobart, we then did a U turn and went back out to meet the next yacht 'Leopard' which came in second.

Of course along with the yacht race is the annual summer festival in Hobart. The premier event at the festival is 'The Taste'. I love it. You have to fight the crowds, but it is delicious food and fantastic wine all around. Jo and I got to the taste three times this year and enjoyed very different fare each time.

The same day as the yach race finished, the Blues Brothers were playing in town. I tried hard to get someone to come with me, but ended up going on my own. They are fantastic.

For New Years Eve we set off to Bruny Island. We have been there many times, but never for New Year. We invited a whole bunch of friends to join us and stay the night on new years eve. It was a really great three days we spent there. The crime was having to leave.


An early morning walk on Bruny - could almost pass for three sisters.

The day after we got back from Bruny my niece Rachel (Ingrid's daughter) arrived to stay for a while. We took Rachel to a open air concert at Salamanca and then the next morning to Salamanca market



On Sunday night we had our good freinds Andrew and Robin over and after dinner we set about making some home made liquors. We mixed up a few bottle of Irish Cream and then had a go at making Lemoncillo. The Irish Cream is finished and tastes quite good. The Lemoncillo will take another week before we get to try it out.



To top it all of, this afternoon Rachel, Sarah and I had a ride on the 'Wild Thing' It is a high speed boat that churns through the water and is not for the faint hearted. I think we all came home 'shaken and not stirred'. I'm just glad that Jo didn't decide to come with us.


Now what shall we do tomorrow! That's a long way off isn't it!

A very flash Christmas

Just before our trip to Israel I purchased a new digital SLR camera. It has been an amazing toy to play with, but I very soon discovered that it really needed a flash to get more effective indoor shots. This week I have added a new flash to the camera bag. They say a bad photographer always blames his camera. It must be getting close to the point where I can no longer do that!

As soon as I got the flash out of the box I tried it out on our 'Christmas bowl' This is a very unusual bowl we have had going for the advent season. We encourage people to take from the bow and also give to it as they are able. This means the contents of the bowl change almost from day to day. Of course, because of Jo's strong influence in the kitchen we also offer a healthier alternative.

By the way, did you all read the amazing story of what Ali and Nathaniel did for all the units in their high rise building for Christmas. Have a look here

Well done Nathaniel and Ali.

We are once again celebrating Christmas in Tassie and will therefore miss the family gatherings. This is a significant cost to us - but we are very much looking forward to the wedding in just a few weeks time. We will all be there for that one - with bells on!!

Have a happy and blessed Christmas everyone. We love you all heaps.

Larry & Jo
David, Simon, Emily and Sarah

The years have been kind to us

The Sun Princess leaves town

I was just sitting down to watch the news and I heard a ships fog horn sounding a long blast. I looked out the window and caught site of the cruise liner 'Sun Princess' leaving Hobart. It was a somewhat brief visit staying just one night in Hobart. The newspaper says that it carries 2000 passengers who were expected to leave a total of $350,000 behind. What's that work out to - $175 each. Must have a good night. I managed to snap these pictures out my kitchen window. I suppose I could have driven down to the waterfront to get a closer look.

Mile stones along life's journey

Life is full of mile stones. We celebrated one yesterday. It was the 26th anniversary of our wedding. There may be many mile stones in life, but I reckon that they need to be celebrated all the same. Celebration is what makes life worth while. Some do it better than others. A life without celebrations would be dull and boring indeed. We celebrated yesterday in a very traditional way. A quiet dinner out for two at a local restaurant. We chose an African restaurant in Hobart and enjoyed a delicious meal as we pondered the significance of 26 years together.

This coming Saturday we celebrate another milestone. Sarah is turning 15. She is looking very grown up these days and we watch and wonder where the years have gone. Happy birthday Sarah.

Jo's garden

Jo has been talking about extending the front garden for some time. Today she made a start.

This was Jo's last project. When she started it was just an overgrown weed bed.