Home again

Finished up in Sydney last weekend with a quick trip up to Bathurst to watch Josh in his Under 10s grand final - taken very seriously by all the kids and families - pom pom girls and balloons and Josh's well coached and disciplined team played their hearts out and won to great excitement ( especially the fathers!) - lovely to be there! After an enjoyable couple of days I had to get the train all the way to the airport and home.

All well at home - Daffodils are out and now so are the irises - Peter had bought another station wagon - hopefully to fit all the family at one time and the bus was almost ready. We delivered it back to the external repairers for them to sort out some stuff they had damaged earlier. Hopefully not too long now before we get it back properly and can take off again in it.

Went to my quilting group on Tuesday and some of the ladies had done great things - I am very behind and will just do what I can when I can - it is for fun! The work in this photo is NOT mine.

Still have lots of work going on - and offers of more for next year - I guess the dilemma of deciding what to do is better than the dilemma of not having anything to choose between!

Auckland is Rugby World Cup mad, lots of cars with flags on esepcially in South Auckland where Tonga, Samoa and Fiji have lots of supporters - we even have an All Blacks flag on our car! Keeping my fingers crossed for the All Blacks France game tonight - the country will be in all black if we lose!

Catching up on a bunch of news

Well I got back from Geelong and had a busy week at home getting ready to go away again - my brother Randall from Brisbane was over to play golf and he came out with little(!) brother Gilbert for dinner after an afternoon spent showing Randall round the new Auckland Viaduct recreation area - all done up in time for the World Cup - going to be a real asset to Auckland. It was lovely afternoon and evening topped off my rendition of one of Mum's favourite puddings - self saucing Lemon Delicious - and it was yummy.

Then a few days later and Gilbert had his 60th - I stitched madly in between finishing off a bunch of academic tasks and finished the table runner as shown which looks lovely in his house. All his family were looking really well - lovely to see grandchildren and his long time friends. Lovely people and they dont look faintly like slowing down.

Then I was off to Sydney - and up to Bathurst to see Samantha in her first Eisteddford - dancing in the 5 and under with her dancing class. She thought she was just great in her beautiful pink dress and she did remember to dance - some of the little ones just stood there awestruck. Josh's football match was on at the same time so we werent able to be there to see him kick the conversion which put his team into the "grand final" but I am going to go back next weekend and see this grand final.

I was off to Perth to talk at four universities about the project I had been working on in 2010 and it was really interesting hearing from them about the innovative course structures and new buildings and layouts that were being put up to enable students to do more group and interactive learning. The beautiful new building Peter and I had seen being started seven years ago at Joondalup looked magnificent.

BAck now in Sydney and yes, I was a bit tired but I have caught up on sleep. I am trying to catch up with friends but also now need to work flat out on the project I am doing here, so that I can go up and see Josh play football next weekend.

The weather today was beautiful with clear blue sky so I took advantage and went over in the ferry to the Open Day at the residences of the Governor General and Prime Minister of Australia. They are lovely old homes, and they really are homes, not just showplaces. Lots of people there, but the most fantastic views back across the harbour - what a place to live!

All well at home, Peter's daffodils got prizes in the gardening club and he had a great three days babysitting two corgis who devotedly followed his every move.