Sunday 22nd February 2009

It is always a worry when the three sisters are in town - especially for the long suffering spouses.

Lyn & Richard are here this weekend on their way to their caravan at Diamond Beach for a few days R & R. Kay is here to see her newest grandson. Clay & Belinda live on the Central Coast so North Gosford Hospital was the chosen place for the birth of their first child Alex James.

Saturday I had an intensive gardening day to get the gardens up to scratch between holiday jaunts. Lyn volunteered to do the back yard which was very daunting but managed to fill a couple of green bins for me while I concentrated on the front gardens. Saturday night we had a "Mum's Roast Lamb" and played a new board game that Lyn & Richard bought with them. (photos attached of the girls doing the hard yards at the kitchen sink later - with much hilarity)

Saturday afternoon we visited Alex, Belinda & Clay at North Gosford Hospital for a cuddle of the newborn (see previous posting).

Sunday we opted not to play golf as there was so much to catch up on not to mention family visits. I finished off the gardens in the morning & prepared for the next holiday jaunt. Our golf gear has to be in pristine condition to travel & our clothes had to be appropriate for NZ weather.

I looked up the weather in NZ and found it was anywhere between 4 degrees and 16 degrees so I went hunting through my wardrobe for the winter woolies. Meanwhile Kay & Lyn went to the movies and to do another baby visit.

We all met up at the Golf Club for dinner - killing two birds with one I also caught up with the results of the week for the golf blog & had some catch ups with the local golfers.

Images attached: Kay, Lyn & I on kitchen duty Saturday evening; Lyn, Kay & I at the Golf Club on Sunday Evening.

Alex James Dawson - born 19th February 2009

Alex James Dawson was born to Belinda & Clay on Thursday 19th February 2009 at North Gosford Hospital. Weighing in at 7lbs 8 oz; 50.5 cms long and extremely handsome as you can see by the photos.

We visited North Gosford Hospital this afternoon with grandmother Kay to have a cuddle of the new arrival.

Attached are photos of the very proud parents and grandmother.

Friday 20th February 2009

It was a huge week after recovering from our three day excursion to Katoomba. There was not a lot of rest as the cases had to be repacked to head off to Salamander Bay on Monday.

Friday was a very heavy day of rain following up the deluge that we had already had. I had a busy day taking care of business that had built up while we were away including the final matters of the Estate.

Saturday I made some inroads into weeding the garden & filled up a couple of green bins with the build up of weeds that had grown profusely in the wet weather.

Sunday we cancelled golf as it was just too wet and the course was closed in any case. Mark & Anne Stimpson called in for morning tea & we got Peter's flight for his week of golf in June at the Gold Coast booked on the internet via Virgin. In the afternoon Barry & Dale arrived & we had a good time catching up with them. We went to the "Trackside" Restaurant for dinner that night. The meal was good. We ordered our food on a red hot stone on which we could allow the food to cook to our liking. It was a rather unique way of cooking & my first experience at this type of meal.

Dale & Barry stayed Sunday night and continued on home Monday morning.

We left later in the day for Salamander Bay for three days of golfing. The weather had been so bad we were thinking that it was a bad idea as all the golf courses were rain affected.

We met the rest of our group at the Colonial Ridge Resort at Salamander Bay. We were sharing a unit with Ray & Wendy. Doug & Robyn were sharing a unit next door with Fay & Wally.

The units were well set up with two large bedrooms, good size kitchen, laundry & lounge room.

The bathroom/toilet was a good size but four people sharing one bathroom does get difficult when we have to all be ready for golf at the same time. It was good value for money & was quite suitable for what we needed for three nights.

Monday night we went to Soldiers Point Bowling Club for dinner which was good value.

Tuesday we decided to play golf at the Muree Golf Course because it was not as rain affected as

The Dunes which was too wet to play. Muree was a lovely course. We were not allowed to have electric carts so we had to settle for push carts. It was hard slogging but we got 18 holes in & only had a bit of occasional rain. Tuesday night we went to the "Oceanic" Chinese restaurant at Salamander Bay. We had a good meal there to finish off the day.

Wednesday was a bit better day. We had an excursion morning to Nelson's Bay to have a look around & then went to Horizons Golf Course where we played 18 holes. The weather held for us and we were allowed to use electric carts on the pathways only because of all the rain in previous days. We were lucky & did not have any rain to speak of & we all had a good day. As we played golf later in the day we decided to go straight to the Soldiers Point Bowling Club for dinner.

Thursday we decided to play Horizons Golf Course again as we had all enjoyed it the previous day. The Dunes was still too wet to play. We were lucky with the weather & got a fine sunny day which helped a lot. When we finished golf we had a couple of drinks and then headed for home.

The three day golf excursion was a big success considering we were lucky enough to scrape in some good weather.

Friday was a catch up day with washing & ironing, hair appointment & a shopping excursion with Anne to check out & buy some new baby gear.(12 weeks to go!!!) - not that we are counting!

Lyn & Richard arrived in the afternoon to stay a couple of days so it is good that the weather has fined up.

We had a bottle of wine with dinner to celebrate the birth of Clay & Belinda's son "Alex James" Dawson born at Gosford Hospital yesterday, 19th February 2009. Proud grandmother Kay is arriving tomorrow so we will be visiting Gosford Hospital tomorrow for a viewing. Watch this space for more reports & a photo of Alex.

Photos attached: With Dale & Barry; our group at Soldiers Point Bowling Club; various photos of our accommodation at Salamander Bay; photos of Muree Golf Course; our group at Nelson's Bay; various photos of Horizons Golf Course including a pile of golf balls found in a wet low area of the course and a Koala Bear in the trees on the course; our group at Horizons Golf Course.

Leura - Thursday 12th February 2009

We were due to have another game of golf at Katoomba today but it was the same story - rain & fog. The course was open but having never played there before and such low visability we thought it was too much of a challenge. Rain started so we decided to head for home and stop off at the next town of Leura for a look around.

There were a lot of charming shops to walk through & I made the mistake of looking in the Alpaca shop which had some beautiful things. Greg had bought an Alpaca jumper in NZ about 11 years ago and it is still in great condition today. The Alpaca seems even more resiliant than lambs wool. That of course justified me finding a vest and cardigan - on special of course!

We made our way home through the little towns of Wentworth Falls, Lawson, Hazelbrook Woodford, Faulconbridge & Springwood to eventually make our way back to the Sydney traffic & reality.

We found that it has been raining non stop here at home while we have been away which has been great for the parched gardens.

Jenolan Caves

Wednesday 11th February was to have been a golf game at Katoomba. The weather at Katoomba was very foggy and raining so golf was out of the question. Looking at all the options around Katoomba a trip to the Jenolan Caves was about the only option. We never at any time had a chance to view the "Three Sisters" as the fog persisted the whole time we were there.

We travelled about an hour an a half to get to the caves through countryside that was very dry & in need of good steady rain. It had been many years since I had seen the caves & they were a very distant memory to me. I was amazed to find that it is now believed that the caves could be up to 340 million years old and are the oldest open caves in the world. I have been in Europe and been in awe of things that were several thousand years old and been thinking of how young our own country was. This was something quite different, older and here it is in our own back yard.

With that information at hand I had a new appreciation of the caves. We opted to take the Rivers Cave Tour which was two hours and 1294 steps. It was a good tour as we got to see the still water pools that were crystal clear and a lovely aqua blue that had the most magnificent reflections from the lighting effects put in by the management of the caves. This tour also includes some magnificent crystal formations. My digital camera could not capture the true beauty of it all.

This was something that we did by default and at the end of the day I was pleased that I could view the caves again through more appreciative eyes. Having been there before, albeit in my youth, they were never on my "Things to do list" & by choice I would never have made the effort to get there again. Sometimes things do get to turn out for the best.

More about Byron Bay

These a a few of the photos taken over the two week holiday at Byron Bay. As you can see by some of the photos - You do not have to be 'mad' to mix it with this group but it would be a big help to be a bit 'twisted'. It was a good holiday with a good mix of entertainment. We did have some rain but it came & went very quickly & sometimes only rain at night with lovely days around 28/29 degrees. We had some nice days at the beach, playing golf, playing tourists at nearby towns like, Channon, Brunswick Heads, Nimbin, Mullimbimby and Bangalow. It was a good fun holiday with some special days such as Carolyn & Garry and Dot & Jim both having their 42nd wedding anniversaries on the same day which put in motion a mock wedding & wedding cake. We also caught up with some of the old Gosford Townies football players that now live in this area so that was cause for celebration also. Some of the girls had a morning + lunch at Olivia Newton-John's Gaia Health Resort & Day Spa & enjoyed the spoiling. We had a couple of days at the local markets, the Byron Bay Golf Club and Ocean Shores Golf Club, Byron Bay Pub and Byron Bay RSL Club, Fishheads Restaurant were just a few of the places. We found some time to visit an old friend Gwen Gardiner at her Nursing Home at Bangalow.

This is just an overview. You can view more photos and a full report on my travel blog.