Christmas Srumdidilyumptious!

Well done to Stacey for hosting the Christmas day luncheon this year. What an effort with decorations, present wrapping and Christmas table. That girl has a real eye for detail! Well done sis! I was asked to make something for the entree, so I made three different types of starters: Number 1- curried egg with spring onion on topables or melba toast, Number 2 - sliced cherry tomato, boccocini and olive tepanade and finally Number 3 - roast beef with salsa verde (consisting of parsley, dijon mustard, capers, finely diced roast beef, lemon juice and olive oil)! All totally winners. Mum also made some chicken and asparagus mornay vol au vents. Delicious of course, she is a brilliant cook! Stace cooked a great turkey and yummo vegies. So many people contributed to an exceptionally great Christmas day.

Pavers Plus

Well we have been plugging away at the pavers since the last weekend that my parents helped us. If my memory serves me correctly, it was the second last weekend of November, around the 22nd. We really took the foot off the accelarator since then, because of all the parties, weddings and general drink-ups. However, in the last couple of days since returning from a Christmas holiday in Sydney, we've returned to the paving and have made some good progress. We are still on track to have most of the work completed before the Australia Day Eve party. Anyway, enjoy the pictures for now. The bricks will be made into outdoor couches that will be rendered and possibly have some of those stacked slate tiles on them. Still a lot more to be done, but be sure to stay posted....

Drink in hand!

Well after a big first half of the day gardening, then doing cleaning up till right on party start time, there were certainly a few kindly welcomed vodkas appreciated! Apparently it was quite a sight standing around watching the boys getting the outdoor heater cranking! Lots of garden tours were the initial part of the evening and quite a few people came, but not at the same time.

I received some lovely gifts, with a can of condensed milk being a real highlight of the mix. Thanks to Maz and Andrew for the fruit, Robyn and Dave for the pav and of course Amanda and Joel for the yummy birthday cake! I had a great night, but it was a little difficult to get around and talk to everyone, though everyone looked to have a good time. Until next year...

Birthday Bolt!

Ordinarily, I would liked to have slept in on my birthday, but instead Rich and I began the day shovelling mulch in the backyard. Actually Rich worked hard to complete the drip system and I started with the shovelling, then moved onto the front yard plants, whilst I was waiting to get into the large garden bed. We were totally against the clock, cause we knew we still had a mountain of house work ahead of us for my birthday BBQ. That should end all of the large wads of soil in the back now!!

Plant City!

Monday night before Melbourne Cup Day, Rich and I got started on the plant purchasing. We bought 19 that night, as well as some stuff for the new drip system. The next morning we toddled down to Bunnings to begin the day's play and start up the spending campaign! We ended up buying 71 plants from four places, which included 7 for front yard to replace this year's earlier plant stealing fiasco!

We made a great start on the planting early, but had to go off and do a couple of laps of the 1000 steps! Maz, Andrew and I met up with the beautiful, but shingle ridden Shelley to get fit. Shelley copped an eye-full of some desperado in the car park doing something that should not be mentioned. On the way there, we learnt the fate of the Mebourne Cup, where I managed to pick up a first and a third in my work sweep!! Loving that. Got back home, where Rich was still going strong putting in the drip system. I got straight back out and got al but the front plants in. All in all what a busy little public holiday!

Friends will be friends!

I couldn't talk up enough the amount of help that Maz and Andrew gave us on the 1st November! These two are working machines and I love there 'Have a go' attitude. When Andrew the day before showed an exceptionally keen interest in wanting to shovel soil, it was rather hard to knock him back. I guess the clincher was when he said "I love soil, I'm good at digging!" I could have thought of many much better ways to spend my Saturday arvo, but it was soooo appreciated!

So the first truck rolled up with 4 meters of local soil, which Rich and I started until the troops arrived. Four people, four barrows, four shovels and four keen people, made an amazing difference to the day's progress. In fact, we ended up getting another 4 meters of top soil and got it in! Rich needed to eat at one point, so I called the work off to allow people time to rest. It didn't seem fair that a home owner be inside loving life, whilst myself and the guests kept working.

A little birdy (namingly Marian) mentioned that Andrew was keen to get back out. I wish he had've spoken up, it would have saved me some work! Just kidding! But again thanks to these two champions, who will be receiving pay back work in their garden when their potential building project gets off the ground next year.

Adding more elements!

Although there are no photos to prove this blog entry, after to speaking to many people, we ended up adding 2 meters of scoria to our garden beds. It is a surprisingly light material that is quite easy to shovel and lift.

Making a difference.

There was yet again a lot of movement in the backyard in late October. Rich and I started building a retaining wall in scorching hot sun on Sunday 19th October in preparations for mum and dad's visit on the 25th October. My god that was another busy and very productive weekend. The concrete rolled up Saturday morning at 7:10am. It came a little early, but at least we were up and raring to go. By 10:30am that morning the concrete was in and the retaining wall was finished.

This was what I had hope to get achieved by the end of the day, but with the professionals at hand to work was completed in no time. I was requested to put an order in for some soil, whilst the boys started on some boxing. Mum even cranked out a few barrows of the dirt from the last side of the garden, which is yet to be started! It was Caufield Cup Day and bloody hot. Our new tradition of heading to the pub was once again welcomed by all. It was a little hard to motivate the troops to come back out to shovel in the heat, but once again we did it! 6 cubic meters of heavy local soil to start up the fill of our massive new garden beds.

On the move again!

Last weekend there wasn't a great deal of work done, other than measuring up for some more work, going to Bunnings and ordering stuff for yet another retaining wall! We also got pipes to raise up both the storm water and the sewerage. That was fairly easy. Today Rich and I were out there shoveling more of the crappy dirt in order to fill the areas for next weekend's concreting job, when my parents once again return. Gotta to love their commitment to our garden!! Enjoy the pics.

The 10 Week Challenge Begins!

After having a long hard think about many poor food choices over the last few months, I have decided that enough is enough! I always exercise like a demon, with very few results. Quote Amanda: "Weight loss is 20 percent exercise, 80 percent healthy eating!" Maz has also decided to commit to concentrating over the 10 weeks, so hopefully we will have some great results.

After a great (yet bloody tough) session this morning at the steps, I recorded a 1.2kg loss for the week and a more than 2% drop in body fat. I was absolutely ecstatic with that result. Last weekend Rich and I planned a great healthy week of meals, of course with some yummy suggestions from mum. Pictured is probably the meal of the week: Atlantic Salmon with an egg and lettuce salad and a tomato and onion salad. The salmon was marinated in lime and coriander and was delectable!

Tip Number 11: "Eating is cheating!" Quote Jodie, "I love lettuce, I love water!" Quote Maz, "If you don't want to write it down - don't eat it" Quote me, "If you've got an issue, get a tissue!" Quote Keith (but only when you are hunched over after hill sprints and you are about to vomit!

Biking Blitz

Pictured are Maz and I along side the Yarra River, part way around the Capital City Trail. Amere 46kms were covered over the journey and we were accompanied by Richard, Myles, Craig and Ivan. Rich is looking great, but don't let his confidence fool you. I have clear recollections of him hanging near the end for much of the time. I would like him to start going to the gym again and working on the cardio! I also must add, that I don't think stopping half way around to eat Red Rooster is fair on those who are there to exercise and lose weight.

Tip Number 10: On long bike rides, make sure you wear gloves, have a drink holder on your bike and make sure you check that your bike pants aren't see-through before you head off! Think of your fellow riders!

Keeping out the rabbits!

Go you good thing, was the saying of the week! Thanks to mum for working with us over Thursday and Friday in the efforts in the backyard. Well it has certainly moved along nicely. We calculated the blocks very well, being only 9 short. Better to buy more as needed, rather than having loads of leftovers. There is only the corner cuts of the caps to do and the final 9 to put in. We pulled the pin on the work in the afternoon yesterday, as a massive wave of tiredness had come over the camp.

Next weekend with consist of: raising both the storm water and the sewerage; putting in the aggi pipe for drainage behind the walls; buying tin and nailing it to the back fence to avoid future rotting etc; digging, digging and more digging in an effort to clean up the front side of the decking and fill in the garden beds at the same time! Enjoy the pictures.

Tip Number 9: When working with blocks and bricks, make sure you wear gloves to maintain a tender touch! It is ok to use moisturiser Richard!!!!

Building the great walls.

Let the pictures speak fof themselves! We were loving it out there this past weekend. Both Saturday and Sunday were full days of hardcore landscaping. We worked really hard to get the walls started. Even though some rain held us back on Saturday, we ended up achieving a great deal more than was initially hoped! Enjoy the pictures.

Ditch the ditches!

Over the digging, but there is still soooooo much still to do! This ditch digging has been the latest gardening action to place over the past week. Rich and I have been preparing for the onslaught of Wallstones that are going in from tomorrow. However, there is still crushed rock to put in, as well as an episode with the compactor to occur, before we make any attempt at laying them. Even so, here is an update of what's been happening, but stayed tuned cause there'll be many more posts to come in the next two weeks!

Breakfast of champions.

A massive Happy Birthday shout out to Maz for her most recent turning of age. Congrats for making it this far! Once again the girls were pushed to the limit; rock and bridge formations (always a laugh), running / riding to 'The Hill,' then of course a couple of sprints up the mighty mountain and other butt firming exercises. Keith went like a whippet on Optidrene. A man after my own heart. After a long awaited shower at the end of the sess (coolish for some), the girls grabbed a celebratory bite to eat, to celebrate Mazy's birthday. It was one of the best breakfast sessions yet, with some very cheeky ratings of passers by!!

Tip Number 8: Talking about cakes around Keith, makes him a very jealous boy!

Seeing Triple!

Had the camera ready in the bag and thought that it was a great opportunity to capture the girls (Jodie, Meagan and I) looking beautiful after a big workout in the same atire! It was particularly bizarre when Jodie and Shelley wore a matching red number to their group session with Keithy Boy the next morning! I know for a fact that Maz also has this outfit pictured above! It was a very popular one to get! We're all hoping that Keith will start giving us themes for our Saturday sessions.

Concrete paradise

We started up at a little after 8am Saturday morning, as we realised that we had to dig a new trench for the electricity and watering system capability in the future. With the concrete truck's pending 9am arrival, there was some quick and efficient digging action done by the team! We potentially seemed to have broken the clothes line, but Richard claimed that its integrity was comprimised from sun damage. Hope that was a correct synopsis, cause Dad and I were the ones to blaim otherwise. Anyhow, we managed to concrete the main section and after lunch and a couple of drinks at the local pub, we sauntered out and boxed up another section!! Loving that.

Tip Number 7: When the mini mix man rocks up and claims that there's an extra charge after 20minutes, give him a wink and a smile to distract him from the time!