Here she is, bringing the sunshine with her arrival.

Ben waiting for the young lady of his dreams...

Ben and Deb's 2nd wedding location...

Winning on wonderful Wednesday

The sea was raging first thing this morning as I ran along the beach. Kris was back home following a new Yoga video. From the time I started my run the clouds began to roll in over the tumultuous waves. My timing was perfect, the rain started falling five minutes after I returned home. Yay!
I've been working on a software project this week, there's more here.
Kris went off to do some more shopping today. I guess a girl has to make the most of her time off work :)
This evening we watched the first Blade movie on video. We went to see the new Blade Trinity movie at the cinema last night. I was sure Kris had seen the first film as I've had it on video for ages. It would appear I was wrong (a rare occasion). This has now been corrected. Both films rock if you like lots of vampire slaying and plenty of blood in a comic book kind of way.
Until tomorrow...

Holiday Fun

And here we are, Back Again. Christmas day didn't start in the usual and anticipated way this year. We woke up to a warm but very cloudy day, not at all like Summer! We did wonder where in the world we were, briefly, before heading out for our Saturday morning bike ride to Shelley Beach, Manly. Nice day for a ride, too as it wasn't too hot and there weren't many people around to start with. Things were pretty quiet on the streets - lots of Christmas present unwrapping, I suspect!!. We ran into some friends of ours on the way back home for a much anticipated breakfast of Apple and Cinnamon Pancakes (our Favourite) and instead spent a very pleasant hour in their back garden sucking on beautiful ripe mangoes. YUM! The sky started clearing while we were there, too, which made things look a whole lot better and much more Summery. We had a pretty quiet day for the rest of the day - spent between eating and sleeping and reading and finishing off with what I'm told is a traditional English Christmas day event: watching the Star Wars movies.

The last two days have been spent between sleeping and swimming and long beach walks and movies - pretty good holiday stuff, really. I just HAVE to recommend 'The Incredibles' for those of you who haven't seen it yet - it was, well...Incredible!!! It was sooo much fun and very clever, perhaps cleverer than most people would have seen the first time they watched it - I figure it's one of those movies that when you see it again, you see even more than you did the first time. Definitely a good recipe for both kids and grown ups - GO SEE IT!!

I have had the chance to use my favourite Christmas treats (yes, that WOULD be all of them), too. A Huuuge beach towel that wraps around me twice - more like a beach 'Blanket' than a towel, my new yoga kit, AND a great Kylie CD from my very special and most favourite sister. That would be the same Sister who had a pretty magical Christmas herself, because she found a brand new sparkly red mountain bike at the end of her bed this Christmas, courtesy of me. It was SOOOO FUN waiting for her phone call to see if she was excited as I was about it!

And now, here we are, Tuesday morning and back into work and planning mode after a quick spin on our bikes on the balcony, courtesy of our new Mag trainers. Good fun.

Have a great day!

Furtive Friday

Kris had the day off work today, so we started the day with a trip to the beach. I did my beach run and Kris did some exercise and stretching on the beach. We finished our exercise session in the best possible way by jumping into the sea.
Although Kris had the day off I have a lot still on my to-do list and so I was sitting at my desk by 9:30 and Kris was on her way out for a Christmas Eve shopping adventure.
I assumed Kris would be back by lunchtime, but no sign of her. This was actually a good thing because I could get on with work without disturbance.
This evening when Kris returned she was very secretive about her excursions. I suppose I’ll have to wait till tomorrow to find out what she bought.
Now it is the night before Christmas and, while I am typing up this entry, Kris is busy tidying the house. I often wonder if females have a special hormone that gets released the day before ‘important’ days. This hormone races through their bodies and forces them to run around cleaning. If anyone else has studied this in more detail please let me know.
Whatever you are celebrating tomorrow make sure you have a fantastic day.

Summer Solstice

Oh yeah!.... and it's nearly Christmas. For those of you in the Northern hemisphere, it may well seem a strange concept, but it's what I've grown up with and what Neil is getting used to: Hot Summer Christmas. Mangoes and Prawns and the beach, brilliant sunshine and hot hot weather to go with it. By the look of things around here, Christmas is definitely with us. Peak hour traffic is now looking like Sunday traffic and things are pretty relaxed. More and more desks in each department are empty at work and our project is being put to bed for Christmas.

I started swimming again today. Just a little swim to get back into the idea of it. More serious work in the pool next week. The upshot was that I felt great this morning! And still do. Life Rocks!

'm really looking forward to Christmas day morning, too, as I've been fortunate enough to be able to organise to buy my sister a bike for Christmas. She's in Tasmania for the next six weeks, testing out potential living arrangements, so I'm hoping she will be excited about her new bike. took a bit of skullduggery to get it sorted out, too. Lot's of fun and excitement. Hee, Hee!!

Well, that about wraps up today. Time for bed so that I canlook forward to a new day.

Cheers!

Top Tuesday

Another slow start for me today, but Kris was out and at work by 8:30 am. I got my walk on the beach while listening to PodCasts on my phone. My work day didn’t start until 10am.
I am mostly doing review work this week. Reviewing the first edition of my book for any issues and reviewing the manuscript for someone else’s book. Reviewing documents is so great on the Tablet PC! I’ll probably write some more about this on my other site.
For all our readers in the northern hemisphere celebrating the winter solstice this week I’d like to tell you how totally gorgeous today has been. Skies so blue and sun so shiny. The glistening of the sea and the warmth of the air. :)
Talking of the sea, this evening we went out to see Ocean’s Twelve. This is a great movie, slick, fast paced, loads of fun and overall good entertainment. I think it helps to have seen Ocean’s Eleven before hand, which Kris hasn’t. But she still enjoyed the movie immensely.
Until tomorrow...

Monday,Monday...

Today started off with a good workout at the beach and a quick swim in the surf! Woo Hooooo!
I have to say that I don't believe there's a better way to start off any day, unless perhaps you're somewhere that the weather's cold and the water temperature is likely to cause snap freezing of anything placed in it! That, as I'm sure you're aware is not the situation we've placed oursleves in, so I'll stand strong on the 'best way to start the day' claim, particularly as we both started off the day feeling a bit rough around the edges and seemed to come good after spending a few minutes in the healing Ocean.
Having had our morning playtime, we headed home to get ready for the business day that waited for us. The Project in North Sydney continues and so I headed off there after taking my 'to-do' list in hand and wiping some of the items off, and Neil settled into his computer here at home for most of the day.

With my working day over and Christmas approaching fast, I stopped in at the local shopping Mall to take a look at a few ideas I've had. Expecting to see it seething with people in that mad last-minute Christmas dash we all know so well, I was very pleasantly surprised to find that there were no queues! I don't know where the people are, but they weren't at the Mall this evening, or yesterday, for that matter. So I had my pick of the shop assistants and got a few things done pretty quickly before getting home here to cook up a great meal of vegies and tofu.

And now, Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, that's the end of today's Kris and Neil story. :)

So very Sunday

Today has been more Sunday than I can remember a day being in some time. A warm (hot?) breeze blowing from the north and clear blue skies meant we had “maximum fan-assisted oven” temps. Perfect. After breakfast I stretched out and had a nap till midday.
Midday is for “mad dogs and Englishmen” and I certainly fall into one of those categories. So out we went into the sunshine and down to the beach. The surf was lovely. The sea is starting to warm up now and it must have been around 20C.
We spent a couple of hours in the afternoon at the mall. Kris was shopping for clothes which she failed to do. She did however try on a number of outfits, which she seemed to enjoy.
The evening presented us the choice of going the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron for some sailing awards. Every New South Wales Olympic sailor had been nominated for one award. It was fairly clear who would win it though.
The event was sponsored by BVLGARI. There was a lot of overpriced ‘stuff’ (I’m not sure what to call a collection of watches, perfumes, jewels and handbags) around. Kris bought a raffle ticket to win a watch. She bought the wrong ticket.
This makes three nights out in a row for Kris. It’s that time of year, with Christmas approaching at the end of next week. The preparations for celebrating winter solstice in the middle of summer are well under way in this upside-down back-to-front yrtnuoc.

Salmon Saturday

Ok, so it's Sunday while I'm blogging - its the Weekend:) !! I have to tell you about yesterday's breakfast which we shared with two of Neil's friends at the South Steyne Cafe, a favourite treat food haunt for Neil and I. It was a perfect Summer's morning setting with plenty of conversation and amongst other things, our friends asked if 'doing breakfast' was a regular thing for us. It isn't, although we did have a very late breakfast there with some new friends of mine about two weeks ago and we had to relate the 'ordering' story to them which was quite amusing at the time: Two weeks ago I ordered last (it's generally the best way to do things when you want a variation to the menu's offerings). I ordered a Mushroom Omelette with no other additives. The waitress then confirmed my order for a SALMON Omelette and I of course corrected her saying, "No Salmon, thanks, just a Mushroom Omelette". She then reconfirmed that I wanted a Mushroom AND Salmon Omelette, and I asked again for a Mushroom Omelette only, no Salmon. This went back and forth four times! Somewhere, that waitress had Salmon on the brain and she couldn't shake it. It was pretty funny and we had a good laugh about it at the time.

Having related this story to our friends, it was time to order. I ordered second-last this week and while I was ordering my Mushroom omelette with an Avocado side, Tammy suggested that I might like Salmon, which I ignored until after I'd given my order and the waitress had confirmed it as a Mushroom omelette. Marty ordered last and requested an omelette with spinach and tomato. All ordering done we resumed our conversation until our meals were brought to us........and YES, there was a Salmon Omelette delivered....for Marty!!

Too funny! We're now convinced that the South Steyne Cafe either has just one Salmon Omelette they're trying to get rid of, OR there is some kind of 'Gary Larson' indoctrination going on there along the lines of...'Seeeell the Saaalmon....Seeeell the Saaalmon...." Given the beautiful quality of the food that comes out of the kitchen there, I very much doubt the former option.

The error was quickly corrected and we enjoyed the rest of our breakfast time together on a perfect Summer's morning by the sea at Manly, before riding home again to Dee Why and getting into the sea ourselves.

The rest of the day was spent doing the grocery shopping, sleeping and enjoying a Hen's night dinner for a friend of mine at a Spanish club which didn't finish up until the wee hours of this morning. All in all, another very full and fun day in perfect summer weather.

Full-On Friday

You know the day has been full-on when it starts at 05:30 and you don't get home till gone 23:00!
Kris went to work early and I started the day with a walk and run on the beach. The small white fluffy clouds burnt off as the morning progressed. Leaving a bright blue sky as far as I could see.
After my beach run I was charged up for the day. Good job too because I accomplished a huge amount and I'm now on top of all my deadlines. Not that I don't have a huge amount on my to-do list!
After work Kris came home to pick me up and we went to her work Christmas dinner. It was good to meet the folks she works with, but I can't really remember any of their names or faces now it is the following morning!
Well time for another super Saturday so I guess Kris will tell you all about it later today.
Where ever you are, enjoy your weekend! :)

Therapeutic Thursday

neil says today was Therapeutic Thursday 'cos nothing much happened , which technically makes it a rest day in his books. To be fair, it was an almost nothing day, today, EXCEPT that I got to meet up with my Coach for a few minutes this evening! :) What a treat! Didn't get much time to talk as he was in between sessions, but it was very refreshing to see him again as we haven't caught up since just after the Games finished. Although there's nothing else significant to report, the day was far from boring with my brain still being stretched at work and plenty more stretching to come!

Neil waited around this morning for UPS to turn up with more of what he describes as 'dead tree', so he missed out on his morning beach walk and is looking forward to tomorrow, as we both are.

Wondrous Wednesday

We had an early start again today. As the sun was rising of mostly blue skies and a sparkly crystal sea I was walking along the beach and Kris was driving to work. After my beach walk/run I went to work. Work for me involves a lot of writing at the moment. Another article went out and I’m doing some preparation for training courses I plan to give in the New Year. It’s all good stuff.
I received a fabulous package from UPS today, my new book! :) Finally I have it in paper form. This is the first ‘real’ book I’ve written, the others being E-Books.
Kris also got some packages in the mail today. Some motivational training tapes, they look like they might be good. We’ll listen to them in the coming weeks and let you know.

Terrific Tuesday!

Today started off nice and early with plenty of glorious sunshine and crystal clear blue skies after the storms of yesterday evening. I had the pleasure and excitement of watching those storms roll across Sydney's sultry skies and drop the rain and hail that was in some places quite devastating. No damage in North Sydney, though.

Back to today: goals kicked with deadlines met by 0842 hrs this morning for me - Woo HOOOO! What a GREAT way to start off the day. AND I left work at a sensible time, which meant that not only was my brain fully functional for all of my attendance at work, but that Neil and I got to get out into the sea for a quick swim this evening. Tomorrow will be another interesting day at work as we move into the next phase of the project, so more learning for me.

Wherever you are in the world, enjoy your today. Hope to catch up with you soon. :)

Monumental Monday

Today has been monumental in more than one way.
Firstly it has been monumental the same way that a 20 meter stone phalus pointing towards the sky is monumental. Why? well Kris left for work at 6:30 this morning and only just got back at 8pm. This was real work at her 'new' job. Running around a field getting people fit was not involved in any part of it. This was a monumental marathon of sitting behind a desk doing software testing.
Secondly it was monumental in the same way that I feel some symbol of my achievment should placed in a dominant position for all to see. Why? Because I have completed a load more work and my task list is starting to become managable again. I finished an article that has been hanging around for some time and made good progress on another series of exercises that I'm putting together for my eXtreme .NET website.
Thirdly it has been monumental in that my inbox is actually empty. During my long flight to Singapore and back I managed to sort through all the email in my inbox and that is a big step forward. I haven't had a clear inbox for nearly a year now!
How has your day been monumental?

Hey there everyone!! Long time no write,no read. Things have been pretty busy'round here and not to the regular pattern. Neil left here for a few days in Singapore on Wednesday morning and returned last night. I'm sure he has plenty to tell you about and will leave it to him. As for me: with Neil away and the project at work hitting a bit of turbulence here and there, I thought it wise to spend a little more time working into the evenings than I have been and wasn't getting home until quite late at night. I'm the first to admint that blogging wasn't ranking amongst the highest things on my 'to-do' list after a long day at work.

One thing I did make time for this week was taking a look around my work environment and realising just how tough my new life is. hem hem. One of the things I've failed to mention is the fact that I'm on the third floor of a tower building in North Sydney. We have GREAT BIG windows that just happen to look right across the harbour to the Harbour Bridge. In the left corner of the window is Luna Park and in the right 'corner' is Pier One and further right still, are all the little coves of the harbour as it winds it's way westward to become the Parramatta River. Mmmm. Yep. Tuff Life. NOT.

Magic Monday

Another fine day with blue skies and warm summer sun making everything sparkle. Kris made a leisurely start to the day as she didn't have get folks running around this morning. I did a gentle exercise session this morning. I cant go too hard until my neck is 100%, which thankfully it very nearly is.
This morning I did some writing from home before going into the city for a couple of meetings. As Kris had the car I ventured on the bus this time as it's faster than the ferry, if a little less fun.
My Tablet PC still seems to stop meetings dead, come on guys Tablet PC's are old hat now. Both Kris and I have a Tablet PC each and they feel like the norm for us.
Kris got back some time after me this evening, so I've had some time to catch up with listening to PodCasts and reading the news.
This evening everything has cooled down considerably as a breeze is blowing and clouds are gathering overhead.
time for dinner now, so until tomorrow...

Power Blog!!

Well, here we are on an absolutely sensational, sunny Sunday, after a pretty good Saturday filled with activity and before that Friday, during which some more of those trillions of neural pathways seemed to have connected:- meaning that I'm starting to make some sense of the 'greek' I've been wading through for the last week. All is good. In fact all is Spectacular. To top it off, I've just been distracted from this blogging task of mine because I was able to chat (IM style) with a special friend of mine in Seattle - Mayna. I always feel so good when we get the chance to chat!

It's around midday on Sunday here, and we've just re-installed the 'One Tonne Breakfast' into our lives after a great bike ride. Yes Folks, this cereal and fruit breakfast weighs in at a whopping 1000 Calories (give or take 30-80 cals) and was discovered accidentally a few years ago when Neil and I were both trying to drop some weight and wondering why we weren't. The ensuing energy count discovered The Truth and made us laugh A LOT!! :)

Yesterday was spent doing some of those mundane and yet often difficult to avoid tasks like cleaning the house and washing the clothes. These tasks seem to take an extraordinary amount of time in my books, but anyway, with them out of the way, Neil and I headed down to Manly for a late brunch with a couple of new aquaintances who were in town for the weekend. It's always interesting meeting up with people you've only seen suited-up before, but perhaps a measure of the potential for friendship was that we did recognise each other at the rendez-vous point, without having to look too carefully. Brunch was interesting and activated, with all sorts of conversation topics being covered and questions being answered as we learned about each other, each other's ideas and our views on the world. With that finished, Neil and I headed off to the Mall for a quick shopping expedition to increase Neil's shorts and shirt wardrobe before his trip to Singapore next week. We got home in time for me to leave for a Christmas gathering being held at Coogee by "Playtime Fun & Fitness" owners, James and 'M', from whom I am looking to purchase a License to operate the Playtime activity groups in the northern beaches area here in Sydney. Busy Day with lots of fun attached!

On my way to a meeting by ferry. Another hard day at the office.

Thoughtful Thursday

As Kris mentioned yesterday this was my first big day out after my sore neck incident. Well it was a good day and I did a fair bit of running around having all the meetings I had postponed earlier in the week. It’s great to go to a meeting by ferry.
For Kris it was another day of learning at her new contract and it seems like some of those neural networks must be starting to establish themselves.
We had to get home reasonably promptly this evening as some of Kris’ gear from the Olympic campaign in Europe this year was being dropped off at home. I picked Kris up and we headed home.
Unfortunately Kris now shares the same experience as me when it comes to shipping stuff around the world. Some of the things you ship mysteriously disappear. I guess it must be the shipping equivalent of the sock monster that eats random odd socks. The freight monster eats random items that you send around the world in crates.
Untill tomorrow...

Windy Wednesday

Hi there everyone! Today in Sydney started off hot and windless and finished up cool and VERY WINDY due to the welcome arrival of the Southerly Buster after three days of baking hot weather,which we've enjoyed immensely. For me, today was another day at the inside offices of my latest employer and another day of loads of learning. Somewhere in my brain there are about a TRILLION neural pathways that are about to all link up and I CAN'T WAIT!! :)

For Sore Neck Neil, things are looking up after a visit to our favourite Physio, lots of ice, sleep and Nurofen, and he's looking forward to getting out and about tomorrow in the big wide world.