Ski 2013

22-25 August 2013

Casey sent out this email on 1 March 2013
Hi All,
I have booked the whole of 'Vaski' ski lodge in Jindabyne for arrival on Sunday 15th to departure on Sunday 25th August. It can sleep up to 32 people across the 7 rooms.
I'll probably be staying the whole week (7 nights).
Please Let me know how long you'd like to stay as soon as you can so that I can lock in your accommodation.
Accommodation costs:
Kids 4 and under are free.
Friday & Saturday nights (leaving Sunday) total cost $105 per person (adult and kids are the same price).
 All other nights (Mid-week) are $40 per adult per night, Kids $15 per night.
Eg. If you're an adult and were to stay all 7 nights, it would cost you $305. Or a Long weekend Thursday to Sunday $145.
I've offered accommodation to youse first, if I still have spaces by the 17th of March, I'll offer it to others.
Thanks
Casey

Then one month before the trip
From: Casey Tham (mrcaseytham@gmail.com)This sender is in your contact list.
Sent: Friday, 19 July 2013 12:44:33 PM
To: Baby Shirley (shirleyk@hotmail.com); Mum (loiswtham@hotmail.com); Aunty Julie (willcocks7@bigpond.com); Evan Seeto (seetoe@hotmail.com); Megan Tsui (megan128@hotmail.com); Ian Lowe (ilowe71@gmail.com); Ron Raffaelli (ronraffaelli@vinitec.com.au); Ron Raffaelli (ron.raffaelli@hotmail.com); Scott McDonald (ScottMcDonald@nbnco.com.au); Thomas Newlands (Thomasnewlands@hotmail.com)
Hi all,

It's only a month before we head down to Jindabyne and the snowy mountains.

I'll be heading down Thursday morning to arrive in Jindy mid-afternoon. Stopping at Goulburn and the big Merino for lunch.
My plan is to ski on Friday then on Saturday and Sunday to take the kids tobogganing or even try teaching Matty to ski.
The address of VASKI lodge is 38 Townsend St, Jindabyne.
The easiest way to get to Jindy is down the Harbour tunnel and eastern distributor (or towards Homebush and King Georges rd) then onto the M5 towards Goulburn/Canberra turning off towards  Cooma then keep going to Jindabyne.
Here are the room allocations when you get to the lodge.
Unit A: Evan, Megan, (Tommy and Hilary: No show) (2 double single bunks)
Unit B: Tham Family
Room 1: Aunty Julie and Uncle Kev (Has Queen bed and 3 single beds)
Room 2: Nanna (Lois) Tham
Room 3: Stuart and Thomas (Has Queen and 3 single beds)
Room 4: Ronny and Prim (Has Queen and 2 singles)
Room 5: Lowe (Ian, Louise, Evie and Gracie) Family (Has 2 Queen beds and 2 single bunk beds above the Queen beds)
We have the whole lodge and everybody is either my relatives or ex-work/rowing or church friends, many of you have come with me to the snow before so you should all feel very comfortable around each other.
The lodge has a full kitchen for cooking. And the bathroom/toilets are all shared facilities.
What to bring apart from the usual:•Sheets or sleeping bags.
•Toiletries - towels, toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo etc
•Snow gear - gloves, pants, jacket, boots.
•Any ski/snowboarding gear.
•ipad/dvd player for kids for the trip !!!!
Some other tips:
•If you are hiring ski gear there are quite a few places in the Nuggets Crossing shops that have free kids hire when an adult hires gear. Otherwise Base camp (I think it's called that) in old Jindy shops is good value.
•There is an Aldi in Cooma and a Woolworths in Jindy for Groceries.
•Good places to stop on the trip down are: Sutton's Forest Macca's stop or 27kms later Marulan KFC and Hungary jacks or 27kms later Goulburn Maccas/Subway/bakery or Cooma Maccas/KFC etc.
•Trip distances. Sydney to Sutton's Forest 120kms, 27km to Marulan, 27kms to Goulburn, 89kms to Canberra, 100kms to Cooma, 60kms to Jindabyne.
Cheers all
Casey
0413 384 381

Last minute changes and pull outs and Evan and I had Unit A to ourselves.  Needed it too, what with all the photographic equipment Evan brought down with him.

Thursday:
I went shopping at Costco with Lily and Janet to buy the the already cooked roast chickens. The night before I had gone shopping with Janet to Aldi to buy our groceries.
Evan was late in coming and then we had noodles for lunch before heading off.
We left around 11.30-12 noon after packing up the car. Because we had already eaten lunch there was no reason to stop so it wasn't until we got into Cooma, that Evan stopped to fill up petrol. He was ok to keep driving so he continued all the way to Jindabyne.
The drive up was non eventful, with periods of rain and sunshine.  Casey's ski bag went through the rinse cycle.
Arrived in Jindy around 5.30pm, unpacked the car and the decision to eat out was changed to eating in with the family.  Aunty Julie was warming up the lasagne and Nanna Tham had made a mushroom quiche which also just needed to be heated up and A. Julie also made a salad to go with it.  The kids feasted on some of the roast chicken. After dinner, Casey took out the board games and some of the men folk played Ticket to Ride. We had egg custard tarts, chocolate muffins, mars bars slice and caramel slice for dessert.
After the game, Evan and I set up our own movie theatre and watched The Hunger Games in our room.
Went to bed just after 12midnight.

Friday:
Had a sleep in, as Shirley said they planned on leaving later. Got up around 8.30am to make breakfast. Had fried farm fresh eggs c/- A. Julie, pork sausages and baked beans on toast. One of the eggs popped and sprayed over me as I was frying it up.  Noticed that it had a softer shell than the others.  Found out later that one of A. Julie's hens tended to lay soft shell eggs, which weren't too good for boiling and it seems frying. Shirley got the kids breakfast. A. Julie, U. Kev and Nanna Tham had already had their breakfast.
U. Kev and Casey left to go skiing, but the weather was not looking promising, it was windy down in Jindy.  Before we left, Casey had rung Shirley to say that it was very windy in Perisher. To go or not to go? The Lowe family were also heading to Perisher to go tobogganing and Matty and Evie were all excited. So we decided to go and so Shirley drove with A.Julie, matty and Izzy, the Lowe family in their car, and Evan, A. Lois and I in Evan's car. Got the the National Park entrance around 10am. The Lowe family had to stop and put on chains.  The car park wasn't full yet, so we were able to park close to the toboggan slopes.
But it was so windy and the snow was falling and it was becoming more blizzard like. The little tots, Izzy and Gracie did not like it one bit. Casey was determined to take Matty up the slopes, so we trooped through the soft snow, sinking up to our knees and fought the wind and snow. Needed goggles. We all had a go tobogganing. Raced Matty down the mountain. Even the Aunties had a go.  But then it was getting too hard and the wind was not letting up, so we decided to call it quits and instead, headed back to Jindy for some hot food, pies at the Jindy pie shop.

What goes better with pies and sausage rolls, a hot chocolate, although by the time I got it, it was luke warm. Gave the kids my marshmallows.
By the time we finished it was around 1.30pm, so Casey wanted to hire some skis for Matty and at the same time they talked Evan into accepting a snow board hire from them too. Fingers crossed that tomorrow would be a better day.

By the time we finished and got back to the lodge, it was only 2pm So early.  Had some snack foods, chatted and drank some tea.  I prepped the beans for dinner. The chalet was getting quite warm, so I decided to go for a walk.  Evan was busy taking photos of the others as they sat around. Casey got some of the guys playing the Bean game. I found a track leading down to the lake and followed it around till I decided to turn back. When I got back, some of the others decided to go for a walk, it was getting cooler now.
Time to put the dinner on, reheated the chicken curry and blanched the beans.  A.Julie and A. Lois got back in time to lend a hand.  A.Julie wanted to help heat up the roti, which they hadn't heard of.  Dinner that night was Malaysian chicken curry, roti, rice, beans and roast chicken. Because we ate so early, 5.30pm, by the time 8pm came around, everyone was ready for bed.
After our showers, it was movie night again, this time we watched Django Unchained.  Finally I got to hear and see the movie in it's entirety with no interruptions. Finished around 11pm. Early night.

Saturday:
Woke up early, was too warm to sleep, but too lazy to turn the heater off.
Made breakfast at 7.30am, thinking Casey would make an early start, but we didn't leave until after 9.30am.
Today was looking to be more promising. No wind to start with and the sun was shining.
We all went to Thredbo. Got to the National Park gates around 10am, same time as the day before. The parking lot was already full and we just manage to get a spot but would have to walk the length of the car park to get to the entrance. With normal snow boots, it's a lot easier to walk than to clump around in ski boots.
Shirley enquired about free places which wouldn't require lift passes and U.Kev went off to get his ski legs back on the Easy Does It Quad chair, which he complained later was so slow.
casey got Matty onto his skis and we headed to Friday Flats.  Watching Casey trying to get Matty up and ski-ing was painful.  Looked like tiring work.  He managed to just push him up to the flatter area, where we parked ourselves and gave up and we threw snowballs instead.  Matty was fine until I landed one on his helmet and some of the snow/ice went down the front of his shirt and wet his tummy.  He got so upset over it, you would have thought I had pelted him.  But it was quickly forgotten when he started throwing snow balls back at me. Casey decided to give Matty another go at ski-ing, this time with the help of Shirley. Casey in back, Shirley in front and he was a lot better.  I was left minding Izzy who was engrossed in the snow/ice.  Evan was just clicking away at Matty.  We found out later at lunch that Shirley bribed Matty into doing 3 long runs before he was going to call it quits. 1. Hot chips, 2. Chocolate milk and 3. Lollipop in the car ride home. Casey gave Izzy a ride down the mountain, carrying her like a football, telling her to put her arms out and fly like Superman.  He said when they got down she asked him "more?"

We had lunch in the Bar and Bistro, Casey shouted us hot chips and wedges with coke and we snacked on Grain Waves. The back on the snow for another go just to reinforce what Matty had just learnt. So they took him back up to Friday Flats. The two aunties followed to see what progress Matty had made. Evan went to take photos and I was left walking slowly back up with Izzy, who was mesmerized by the snow and would stop, bend down, grab a hand full of snow (which was very hard to do with mittens on) and then continue walking up the slope.  By the time we got up and got settled, Matty had called it a day and Casey was ready to give Izzy a ride down to the bottom again.
Another early day, got back to the lodge by 2pm again. Evan prepped his pasta sauce.  I made a big bowl of salad. Then Evan set up his flash lights so we could get a group shot on the balcony of the lodge. Found out that VASKI stands for Veteran's Affair Ski.
Early dinner again 5.30pm, tonight the Lowe's joined us for dinner, but there was a lot of pasta, chicken and salad left over. A.Julie and A.Lois reminisced about past holidays and the troubles A. Lois would get up to (putting her foot into horse poop, sitting on a chain railing and breaking it, getting dizzy and hysterical on the pirate ship) making us all laugh.
Early night again for everyone. A.Julie, U.Kev and A.Lois were going to be making an early start for their 12 hour drive back to Armidale the next day. Chatted a bit to Shirley and Casey and then made tracks as well...last night of movies and we watched Skyfall.  Halfway through the movie, it all came back to me and yes I had seen it before. So didn't watch the end but went to bed around 11pm.

Sunday:
Would have slept in, but was woken up by Shirley sms-ing me about the noise the others were making as they were leaving. It wasn't even 7am. Very hard trying to get back to sleep after that.
Evan made breakfast that morning and fried up some of the left over rice with egg for his breakfast as well as some eggs and sausages.
Then it was time to pack up and clean up. 

Left around 10.30am. Too late to do the scenic route, and I wanted to stop in at Bredbo to check out the Christmas Barn, which A.Lois had suggested we stop in to see.  It was an Aladdin's cave of Christmas delights.  So many ornaments and decorated trees. Could have spent all day in there, but others were waiting, so I bought a few ornaments as gifts and hurried out.  The others had gone to the local markets which turned out to be very small, but Casey bought some biscuits and local made items. the kids played in the playground and then we were off again.
The plan was maybe stop in at Canberra to check out the gardens, but if we were going to make it to the Mount Annan Botanic Gardens, we'd have to keep going, so we didn't stop and kept going.  Stopped at Marulan KFC for a late lunch around 2pm. Casey and family arrived not long after and also had lunch there. Evan bought some wicked wings and a wrap to share with chips and we had some of the left over salad.
It was getting late and we still hadn't come across the gardens...didn't realise it was more closer to Sydney than Canberra.  Anyway, closing on 4pm and it would have been too late to go, so we kept driving home. Got home around 5.30pm.

Penshurst

This is a Google Map aerial view of Penshurst. Snapshot on 21 August 2013.

The stars represent, my home, my public school and my high school. All within walking distance and that's what I did my school life, walk to school, walk back home.  The only time I took public transport was to go to Hurstville, to use the library. Otherwise I would walk to Olds Park and use Penshurst West Public Library.
I use to take the kids to the park, walking the track with them in the stroller in the afternoon, after work and then letting them play in the park.

Photos from the past

I don't have many photos of me when I was growing up in Lae.  But I do have some with my dad, who I loved and looked up to.  He was a former carpenter who became a merchant trader and had his own trading store in Lae on Air Corps Road overlooking the old Lae airport, but in those days was the only airport.

My birth extract says I was born in Angau Memorial Hospital.

I went to school at Lae "A" Primary School, up until the middle of 4th grade and then we migrated to Sydney because Papua New Guinea gained Independence from Australia in 1975.  My parents deemed it unsafe to continue living in New Guinea, so we upped and moved to Sydney. 

We lived with my Uncle David and his family at 1 Cairns Street, Riverwood, until, my parents bought a block of units in Penshurst and we moved there in 1976.

Riding Along...

Sunday 18 August 2013
The weather has been unseasonable warm, so we decided to take advantage of it and went bike riding on Sunday.  Only Evan and I, as Kaylene had to go pay her respects to her Yeh Yeh and Por Por and Goong Goong. She was also heading out to a Youtube convention that afternoon.
Evan came over around 11am, and we drove to Victoria Avenue parking area, North Strathfield.  Decided we'd go the opposite way to our usual ride, so we rode around to Lake Belvedere and did one loop, stopping at the Cafe near the function centre, but it was still early for lunch, so back on the bikes and rode to Maccas. Evan treated us to Big mac Meals and nuggets, which we ate sitting on chairs and tables which had been set up on the opposite side of McDonalds. I had forgotten to bring my camera, lucky I had my ipod touch with me.

After our lunch, we rode to the Brickpit, home to the Green and Golden Bell Frog. Overheard at Maccas, a young boy telling his friends of this "mad place as tall as the stadium, with panels all around it and a big pool of water at the bottom". From the soaring circular walkway (18.5 metres high), you get a bird's-eye view without disturbing the tiny residents. You're not allowed to ride in the walkway, so we walked our bikes to the other entry/exit and then made our way to Newington Armoury via the Archery centre and Woo-La-Ra.

Cycled to the Sydney Olympic Park Ferry Wharf, brief pit stop, then cycled to the Armory and beyond to the Silverwater bridge. Up and over the bridge to the other side. Followed the cycle path to George Kendall Riverside Park, then through the mangroves and past Meadowbank Park, where they play netball, to the Meadowbank Ferry Wharf.
Cycled up and around to the John Whitton Railway Bridge. Almost gave up and walked it, but the thought of making the two riders behind me stop as well, spurred me on and I successfully manuevred the hairpin turn and cycle uphill. We did however stop at the top to get our breaths back and take some photos.

From there it was an easy cycle along the waterfront back to Rhodes and then through the park back to the car. Probably would have stopped at Rhodes for an Ikea soft serve, but the thought of chocolate mousse at home made my mind up.
All in we cycled about 22km. Finished about 3pm in the afternoon.

Ferragosto 2013

Sunday 11 August 2013

I've worked in Five Dock and Burwood, lived in Strathfield and in 15 years have never been to the Five Dock Ferragosto Festival, but this year, in it's 16th year, I finally got to go. 

Evan, A. Cath and U. David came over to our place first and then I drove to Five Dock with all of us in the blue tarago. Lily, Janet, Kaylene and I and the Seetos.  I knew that parking would be bad, but it was worse than anticipated.  I was initially going to park near the Superbarn, but with so many cars turning up into that street, I decided maybe the streets on the other side would be better, but they were also chock full of cars.  Having circled 3 times, I decided to drop them off as close as I could, before venturing to find a parking space.  Evan kept me company and we circled the streets again.  Finally we saw a dad and his kid who looked like they were leaving.  They were, but would be 15mins, so we waited.  And waited and waited.  In the meantime, cars were impatient and beeping me, but I just waved them around me.  I was not giving up this parking spot.

Eventually the family got into their cars and there were 2 parking spots to be had, but we only parked in one. It was a short walk down to Great North Road and the festival.  By the time we met up with the others they had already walked one end of the street and were in a chemist shopping. I also went in looking for bandages to strap my knees, but they didn't have the ones I wanted. I came out and ended up buying 2 chicken yakitori skewers for $6. They were still in the chemist, so Evan and I walked down to the end of the street to check out the stalls, cars on displays and food on offer. Came back and they were eating gozlemes.

Then we walked back down towards Lyons Road. Bought 7 rolls with 5 steaks and 4 sausages, care of U. David and that was our lunch. With all the other food on offer, did we try pizza, pasta, gelato, nope :(.

Nothing good to buy, so walked some more and then left.

Oh we did bump into Dan, Mandi and Joshua.

Marion's 33rd Birthday

Saturday 10 August 2013

Mare invited us to help her celebrate her 33rd birthday at the Bakehouse Garden, North Strathfield.  the name is very deceiving, not a bakery or cafe, but a Korean restaurant. We were having "Wollamssam" - wrap your own rice paper rolls for $20 all you can eat buffet.

Lily, Janet, Kaylene and Evan also were invited so we joined Mare and some of her family to the buffet.

Kaylene and Lily filled up a huge plate with the salads to go into the rolls. Bowls with shabu shabu (thin beef strips) were also added to the table, along with a plate of rice paper rolls and dipping sauces.

To make it worth the $20, we calculated that we would have to eat at least 10 rolls. Kaylene and I managed to make and eat 11 rolls.

After lunch, we were invited back to Linda and Tony's for afternoon tea, coffee and chocolate (woollies store bought) birthday cake. Linda got plant advice from Janet and Jordan entertained us with his toys.

Aunty Cath's 71st Birthday

Sunday 4th August 2013

The Seeto's invited us over for dinner to celebrate Aunty Cath's 71st birthday. 

Evan prepped and cooked a roast pork dinner with roasted vegies.

 We gave her a rectangle glass vase and a handbag organiser (bag within a bag) as a gift. Fiona gave her a gift card voucher.

 

After dinner and cake, we had to drop Fiona back to Kirrawee.



Picanini's Park Ride

Saturday 3 August 2013

We rode from North Strathfield side of Olympic Park to Rhodes, along the promenade to the bridge, across the bridge to the other side, then along the cycle way to Silverwater Road bridge and back across to the Newington Armoury and met up with Linda, Tony, Jordan and Jordan's childcare friend, 'Jaikai" and parents.

They were already there having a lunch of a seafood platter.  Jordan had gotten a splinter in his finger and so the first thing Linda asked us was did we have a first aid kit or needle or tweezers. Evan by chance, had a pair of mini tweezers, but Jordan wouldn't let Linda near his finger, until we asked him to show us. Grabbed a hold of his finger and Linda managed to prise the splinter out.

Evan and I went to buy our lunch, meat pies and chips and I also asked for a bandaid. for Jordan. We also managed to finish up Linda and Tony's lunch too.

After lunch we went for a scooter/bike ride to the Ferry, Woo-la-ra and back.

 Jordan was tired, so hitched a ride with dad on his scooter, whilst Evan carried his scooter and rode.

 

Left them to enjoy their ice cream, while we cycled back to the car, as Kaylene was going out that night and needed to get back to get ready.

 

Memories of a life in Lae

I'm now 47 and it's been 38 years since we moved to Sydney from Lae, Papua New Guinea. But I've been busy working on my family tree and I've always been interested in my past, but because I was only 9 when we left New Guinea, I don't remember much and we don't have many photos of our life in New Guinea. But here goes with my highlights of growing up in Lae.

1. Climbing trees. We had a tree which was right next to our house, and was accesible from the oustide verandah.  My dad put some boards in it, so that we could use it as a tree house.  My sister Janet could be found there.  We also had some guava trees, which we could climb.  Oh the fruit from those trees were yummy.
2. Chasing chickens. We even had one which my mum had helped hatch, which we called tweety, but I think we ended up eating it when it was big enough. They are so much cuter when they are small baby chicks.
3. Our backyard was huge, at least to a small child it seemed huge, we had so many trees and in one corner was a rubbish heap, no weekly rubbish collection, everything was dumped out the back.  I sometimes think it would be a great place to dig up our history, but have no idea what is there right now. We'd help our dad collect betel nut, bun nong (chinese) or buai (pidgin) and the other bean-like green called mustard (daka) which we used to sell to the natives, their drug of choice, which they would chew and that would give them a red mouth/teeth and they would spit out the residue. Not too keen on it, never tried it, but loved climbing ladders to collect them. We also had a lot of mango trees - delicious long green mangos which would be juicy and orange inside.
4. The native house was sometimes scary, but also a place to play in. Sometimes the natives would be scary, but we had our favourites. We were essentially brought up by the natives, with mum and dad busy looking after the shop. Whenever I visited my friend Tania, who lived in the same neighbourhood but several streets away, I'd have a native walk with me there and back.  I wonder now what he did, while I was playing with my friend.
5. Going for car rides to the post office to collect mail with my dad at night.  I think we'd all fight to ride shot gun, no seat belts. That would be so exciting for us, and it seemed like a long drive, but probably only took 30 mins. There were two ways to get to the post office, the coastal way or the inland hill way, but usually my dad would do a round trip. I can still remember our post box number 205 as well as out telephone number 424581. When my step-brother, Ray got a pickup truck, we'd scramble to ride in the back, holding on to the cab tray edge - so much for safety.
6. Fireworks. They weren't illegal, and my parents sold them in the shop and we'd be allowed to light them.  There was one time though when a fire cracker backfired and my palm was burnt. Instead of shooting out and firing into the sky, the balls came firing out the back right into my hand, yes I was holding it.  So much pain, but from then on, the fire crackes were either placed in bottles or on the ground.
7. Exotic fruits - my dad grew a granadilla plant in the back of the house.  So yummy, haven't had one since, but we used to love eating this fruit. As mentioned previously, guava and mango were also backyard delights. Another yummy delight is the galip, garlip or canarium nut - sweet, crunchy and nutty. The skin and flesh are edible after soaking in warm water, but we'd peel the skin and eat the nut.
8. Every Sunday, my dad would cook a roast chicken with root vegetables, taro, sweet potato with ibica (a green vegetable) which we'd have with rice.  The chicken breast was usually left over and would be used to make our chicken sandwiches to bring to school.  I remember trading my chicken sandwiches for my friends, Tania, chicken sandwiches - hers always tasted better, they were toasted with some mayo probably, but we'd swap and she'd eat mine and I'd eat hers.