Visitors Wreak Destruction

We had the pleasure of Ross and Kirsten's company on the weekend. I met Ross many years ago in his first incarnation as director of Warriuka camps at Scripture Union. The wheel has turned full circle because he is now back there doing the same job. In between time we worked together at Chip Inn, the drop-in centre at Warwick I ran from 1989-1994, and also did a couple of RYLA seminars together. We were at Ross and Kirsten's wedding, my strongest memory of which is that in his speech Ross said he knew he'd found the right partner when he realised that Kirsten could back a trailer. We haven't seen much of them over the last 10 years or so but Ross has become a keen swimmer and entered the Busselton Jetty Swim which was held on Sunday morning. He asked if they could stay the night prior to the swim and we gladly said yes. Unfortunately I had to drive the cab on Saturday night so they weren't here long before I had to leave for work but as luck would have it Sat night was extremely quiet and I was able to park at home and chat with them on the front patio whilst keeping one ear on the cab radio. I went a full 2 hours without getting a job so we ended up having a decent amount of time to catch up. I did the graveyard shift, finishing at 6am so I was sound asleep by the time Ross was plunging into Geographe Bay for the jetty swim. There was a bit of a mishap on Sat. night when the kitchen stool Ross was sitting on disintegrated beneath him! It was loose and in need of re-gluing before that but it had never collapsed so completely. Luckily he wasn't injured and was thus able to do the swim unhindered.

Other headlines in the Holt Press World:

The Heir has gone to RYLA this week, the Rotary Youth Leadership Award seminar, at the Baptist Camp on the Holy Mile. I directed RYLA camps for 6 years in the early 90's so it is pretty cool that one of our kids is now old enough to attend RYLA.

Sport Boy and Fashion Boy went back to school today. To celebrate the end of the holidays we went out for dinner at the Dynasty Chinese restaurant last night. (Colloquially known as the Die Nasty amongst the taxi driving fraternity) we had a great meal and a really good time together as a family, including a brief walk down at the beach before the elements became unpleasant.

Sport Boy was extremely excited this afternoon because after months of saving he was able to buy a "RipStik", a funky type of skateboard that he's had his heart set on for quite a while. He spent the next couple of hours mastering the basics of RipStikking and only sustained one grazed elbow.

Favourite Daughter was commended by her boss the other day and offered a full time job. He gave her a bottle of wine as a sign of his appreciation for how well she's been working. She's not sure if she'll take up the full time job offer, she still struggles with tiredness and lack of energy.

Fashion Boy spent a couple of days in Perth with friends late last week, a final fling before returning to school this week.

Mrs Holt Press has been hard at work domestically and the house is looking and feeling great. We just need to get the new shed erected now so we can really clean up and tidy the carport and patio.

Sport Update:
I've neglected to mention the stupendous 5-1 victory Spurs had over Arsenal in the League Cup semi-final, putting them through to the final against Chelsea on Feb 24. Spurs then lost to Manchester Utd in the 4th round of the FA Cup and followed that up this weekend with a 1-1 draw at home to Man U in the league, having led the entire game until the red devils equalised in the final minute oif injury time!

I'm in a media/news blackout zone at the moment, waiting until 10:50 tonight when I can watch the replay of the SuperBowl. My team the NY Giants were trying to beat the New England Patriots who have won 18 games in a row and are undefeated this season. I don't expect the Giants to have won but I'd still rather not know the result before watching the game. I was supposed to go round and watch it at Dave's at 7.00 but he misread the program and forgot to subtract the 2 hour time difference from the eastern states schedule! By the time he realised it was on it was well into the last quarter so I decided to stay home and watch the late replay.