Jarrod's Australia Day BBQ

Nick & Kelly invited us over for a BBQ to celebrate Australia Day. It was also a belated celebration of Jarrod's 1st month. Jarrod spent most of the day sleeping through the celebrations. Casey held another weigh in for all the Biggest Loser contestants. Lots of yummy food including a profiterole cake. Too much temptation for those of us in the contest. Matty was showing off his new trick of eating pieces of bread (as can be seen in pic).

Nathan's 24th Birthday

Jana & Silvia's Tea Ceremony

They thought they could get away with not having a formal ceremony, after flying to Thailand and getting "married" on the beach, but the family had other plans. They wanted a tea ceremony. So on 18 January 2009, after a quick backyard renovation, Jana got his posse (Brad, Ken, Evan, Me, and 3 other family friends) together to go get him a bride. We drove from Carlingford to Silvia's place, near Cabramatta. On arrival, Jana was served tea by a little boy, while the rest of the posse carried in the offerings. Brad had to do a lot of talking in mandarin, while Jana was trying to break down the door. Eventually he was let in and the tea ceremony got under way. After the family photos were taken, and the food eaten, it was time for the party to drive back to Carlingford & Jana's place for another tea ceremony.

Jana and family had set up a huge marque with dining settings, as well as an altar up near the pool. Lots of food, satay sticks, curries, rendang, char kway teo, and desserts galore. William was dressed in a suit as the page boy and Amelia looked so cute in her white dress. Emily had baked for days to make the 100 or so cupcakes for the "wedding cake" which was decorated with a dragonboat (loaned from Jacq & Rich)


The ACCA gang were there to help celebrate in the day, as well as start the Biggest Loser Contest weigh in. Everyone tried to eat as much as they could, so that they started with a heavy weight.

Port Macquarie Holiday

Day One: The day after Linda's wedding we set off to Port Macquarie.

Janet and Fiona flew up in the morning and caught a taxi to the resort, whilst U. David, A. Cath, Evan, Kaylene and myself drove the Tarago up.

Before leaving Sydney, we popped around to the Li's to give Jacq her present and wish her a Happy 30th Birthday. We then made our way leisurely up the coast stopping at Hungry Jacks for lunch. I drove the first leg, and Evan took over the rest of the leg. We were both pretty tired.

Day Two: Had breakfast and then headed off to Settlement City Shopping Centre to stock up on groceries and do a bit of shopping at Big W.

Day Three: Explored the resort, checked out the lagoon, swimming pool with Evan taking photos of his models, Fiona & Kaylene. Fiona spent most of the time sticking stickers in her sticker book and Kaylene coloured in and painted.

Day Four: Went shopping at Port Central and had lunch up in the food court. Walk the streets of Port Macquarie looking in Reject shop and $2 discount stores. Borrowed jigsaw puzzle from resort to pass the time. Had BBQ for dinner

Day Five: Played a game of tennis around midday then went for a swim and paddle in the lagoon. Had Spaghetti Bolognaise cooked by Evan for dinner.

Day Six: 9.30am checkout. Evan drove all the way. We stopped at Forster to buy some oysters before getting home at around 4pm.

Linda & Tony's Wedding

An early start to the day, I went and got my hair shampoo, cut and styled. Squeezed in my dress with help from Janet, Kaylene and Lily. It was going to be a nice day.
Got to the Regina Coeli Catholic Church, Beverly Hills, early to tie the ribbons to the pews with help from Janet and Alex.


Tony was already waiting at the church, but he was cool and his nerves were steady. Linda arrived fashionably late and looked radiant walking down the aisle.

With so many family and friends attending, it took Jacq, the Wedding Co-ordinator to tow the line and all group photos were done in precision time. As usual, the ACCA friends group was last in the lineup. While waiting, impromptu groups took photos...same at the reception.


The Reception was at Oatlands House and commenced at 6.30pm. We just had enough time to rush home to pick up the present (card with lai si) which we forgot and had to back track for, but we still managed to get to the reception on time. Nathan was DJ-ing, so had taken the Tarago, loaded with table, speakers, turntables, lights. We, Janet and I took Nathan's car.

Jacq and Rueben did a marvellous job MC-ing the event, and with Linda's running sheet, things almost ran to time. As usual..lots of yummy food, lots of speeches, dancing (loved Linda's & Tones impromptu/practiced dance routine: We should get Married) and photos taken.

New Years Eve/New Years Day

On New Years Eve, Evan, Justin and I took the train out to Darling Harbour to watch the 9pm fireworks. Justin got bored really quickly and wanted to go home, so after the fireworks, we left Justin at Town Hall and made our way up George Street, which was closed to traffic.


We walked through the pedestrian mall up to Martin Place to check out the giant Christmas tree, before heading to Circular Quay.


Got to Circular Quay to find it all fenced off. Unless you had a ticket, you couldn't get in, so our fall back option, which was to use the tickets, Ken had gotten for the 12pm fireworks on the Cahill Express came in handy. We made our way up to the Macquarie Street and onto the Cahill Expressway. It was already filling with people. We managed to spot a break near the railings and this is where Evan set up his tripod. Although the view was only of the bridge, many others crowded around, when if you went further down the Cahill, you would have had views of the bridge, opera house and surrounding fireworks. Here are two shots that Evan took on the night.

On New Years Day, U. David invited us out to dinner at Hurstville RSL.