MORE CRUISE PHOTOS

More photos. These were taken on the formal night when we all dressed for dinner in the Palm Court Dining Room. Also the wonderful easter eggs and fruit and vegetable carvings made by the chefs.And last but not least the four of us won the tv theme's trivia contest in the piano bar on the last night - our prize - you guessed it drinks from the bar. More cocktails to end a wonderful night and a great cruise.

CRUISING

Some more photos from the cruise. Phil and I outside our stateroom, our stateroom and the passageway that went on forever. Also a couple of photos from Noumea. Us on the grand stairway at about 12.00am in the morning.

HARRY CONNICK JNR

Last night Trish and I went to see Harry Connick Jnr at the Palais in St Kilda. Trish had bought the ticket for me for my birthday and I have to say it was a great night. He has to be one of my favourite performers and it was wonderful to be able to sit and listen to him sing and play for just over two hours. The music was pure New Orleans blues and the trombone and trumpet players were in a class of their own as were the rest of the band. Harry as always was in his element playing his favourite music.

Thank you Trish for taking me and giving me such a night of music pleasure.

CRUISING

We have just spent a wonderful 7 days aboard the Pacific Dawn cruising to Noumea and the Isle of Pines.

As you can see from the photo it was a lovely afternoon when we headed out of Sydney but unfortunately the weather didnt hold up and by the time we reached Noumea it was raining heavily. We did a coach tour of Noumea and visited the aquarium there which was good. After we had lunch we did a walk around the city area and looked at the shops. Things are very expensive in Noumea so we didnt do any shopping there. Back on the boat the Captain advised us that there was cyclone approaching and that we would be now heading for the Isle of Pines and that hopefully we would miss the worst of the cyclone which we did. As it was raining when we reached the Isle of Pines we didnt go ashore deciding to have a quite day on board. The following day we arrived at Divine Island and this time we went ashore. Beautiful sandy beaches and blue water.

We have eaten some fantastic meals, been waited on, danced the night away in the Dome, seen some wonderful artists performing, played trivia, had dancing lessons and met a lovely couple Lyn and Jeff from Sydney who we spent a lot of time with. Thank you Lyn for introducing me to the delights of the cocktail hour and the piano bar. Even Phil had a go at drinking a cocktail or two.

We are now back home, I have returned to work and life is slowly getting back to normal.

MY BIRTHDAY

Thank you to everyone for making my birthday special. The flowers and chocies from Brenda and Tammie, the Clark's for the ticket to see Harry Connick Jnr, the Kellys for the voucher to A & G, more books, Mel for the new knitting basket and baubles and Dearne for the lovely travel journal for our trip. Thanks also for the cards, visits, phone calls. And last but not least to Phil for the next lot of Foyles War dvd's and a lovely shirt and a cruise to Noumea.

Now I need to go and pack for our trip.

So keep an eye out for all our holiday snaps when we get back next week.

RACING PHILLIP ISLAND

MORE PHOTOS

Some more photos Ian took at Phillip Island.

ECHUCA

MORE PHOTOS

Some more photos of the units. These are of the older style ones.

ECHUCA

Today Ian & I went to Echuca to have a look at some retirement units. We spent about an hour with the agent going through the various units for sale, some are preloved and there is also several new ones available as well. After that we went into Echuca for lunch at the Beechworth Bakery where I ran into a work colleague and her husband who were spending the long weekend up there.

We had a good drive both up and back and all in all a good day.

Have enclosed some photos of the different units.

IAN'S VISIT

MUMS OLD HOUSE

One of the things Ian and I had planned to do while he was here was to go and look for the house that Mum lived in Essendon as a young child. So after a very lazy Saturday morning we headed off just after lunch to firstly checked out Borders store at Highpoint. Had a look around Borders then headed off to do a few shopping tasks, then back to the car and off to find Scott Street, Essendon. Its amazing how you remember places and it didn't take us long to find our way there,then the slow drive along the street looking for number ten and then finally getting to it, to discover that there is no parking as it is directly opposite the bowling green, and there is a car right up my rear, so slowing down to a crawl we look with amazement to discover the original house has recently been demolished and someone is building a new house on the block. Oh well,that is life, but we were able to look around and see houses of the same time period so got an idea of what it would have looked like.

After tea we went around to Trish's for coffee and a chat which was a nice way to end the day.

PHILLIP ISLAND

Phil and Ian have spent the day down at Phillip Island looking at classic racing cars. They had a good day and Phil's comment when he got home was that Ian knew nearly everybody and that he was truly in his element.

Ian took this photo of Rob Southouse's car which reminded me of Ian's early racing days in an FJ.

VISITOR FROM THE APPLE ISLE

Today Phil and I went over to the airport to collect my brother Ian who is coming over to spend a few days here. One of the reasons for his visit is to go down to Phillip Island to see the classic cars race down there, unfortunately Phil now has to work the long weekend so the boys will be heading off tomorrow to see the cars.

As the kids hadnt seen Ian for awhile we had a family gathering at the local pizza place for tea and all thirteen of us enjoyed ourselves. Simon was also there for tea and he took Ian for a spin in his Mercedes convertible and then came back home for coffee and a chat. All in all a good night.

ALL HOLDEN DAY GEELONG

After having missed several Holden Show & Shines recently when Phil found out about the one in Geelong on Saturday there was no way we were going to miss it.

Have to say it was a much bigger turn out then we expected. There were cars from FJ/FX's right through to current models. Some lovingly restored, others in the process and all loved dearly by their owners.

After having spent a couple of hours looking at cars, we then moved on to looking at caravans. Oh boy! So many models and types, prices from the affordable to outrageous. Still we have time to spend looking and hopefully by the time we are ready to buy one we will know what we want.

FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL

We headed off to the Telstra Dome to see St Kilda and Essendon in the semi-final. Was a very good game with a crowd of about 26,000 watching a very entertaining game. St Kilda finally won a closely fought game in the last minute when young Armitage kicked the winning goal. Good night had by Steff and her girlfriend. Nanny and Phil had a good time as well. Go Saints.