Coming of Age Weekend

Sport Boy became a teenager recently and starts high school this week. Follwing a tradition we began with The Heir and continued with Favourite Daughter and Spike, this weekend I took him away to celebrate this significant milestone in his life.

Unfortunately I didn't get pictures from all of the things we did but here are a few from today.

We stayed at a motel near the city (Melbourne) and had a look around StKilda in the afternoon before going into town and having some dinner at Crown. Back to the motel to watch the tennis (the Aust Open Women's Final, Go Aussie Kim).

We slept for a few hours then got up and went back into town to look for a place to watch the Final of the Asian Cup between Australia and Japan. Annoyingly when the game went into extra time they kicked everyone out because it was closing time!! We had to rely on dodgy radio descriptions and texts from The Heir in Perth to keep us up to date. In the end the Socceroos went down 1-0 but they played well and could easily have won it but for the heroics of the Japanese goalie.

We got "home" at 4.30am and went back to bed for a few hours.

Today we checked out at noon and went for a long bike ride along the Yarra despite the 40 degree heat that hit Melbourne today. Thankfully I had frozen a few bottles of water last night which kept us cool as we rode.

We took the train back to town from Burnley and finished our weekend with a visit to the Shrine of Remembrance which is a sacred and fitting place to celebrate a young man's rite of passage.

Sport Boy said he had a great time and affirmed that I am the best Dad he's ever had!

Sunrise over Corio Bay

I've been on early starts this week. One of the dubious benefits of starting work early is seeing the sun come up. Occasionally this provides beautiful views of the serene waters of Corio Bay. This morning was one such occasion and I stopped to take some pictures. This is the best of them.

After work I headed up to Melbourne to rendezvouz with Chris and Sport Boy for a day at the tennis and a good time was had by all.

At the Australian Open

 Aussie, Carsten Ball, losing to Riba from Spain in a good match.

 Robin Soderling on Margaret Court Arena.

Some of the water in the relatively minor flooding around Geelong last week.

Sport Boy is going to the tennis with Chris tomorrow and I'll head up there after an early finish at work.

Mrs Holt Press and Favourite Daughter are spending the day in Melbourne then we'll all come home together as Chris is staying for a couple of days.

It's Been Wet on this side of the Country

 Overlooking Eastern Beach and the Geelong waterfront: Friday, 7am

 1pm

 5pm

 Gumby and Friend at Chapel St Bazaar

 Moorabool St: wet

and  Dry

 The Bay from the bus: wet

 and Dry

Favourite Daughter and I went to check out a few of the Seachange sites at St Leonards the other day.

The Tropical Star, ala Seachange, for sale! We were surprised (disappointed) to find no reference what-so-ever inside the hotel, which was such a focal point of the show, or indeed anywhere else in the town.

Worked all weekend (think of the money Marcus) . Mrs HP and Sport Boy are still away in SW Tassie and come home on Tuesday, (cause for much rejoicing). Fav. Daughter and I are going to try again and go to the tennis (Aussie Open) that day before we pick them up from the airport. Last night we went to the movies in the park in Ocean Grove to see "Up". Good fun.

Tennis

I've got a day off today so Favourite Daughter and I are off to Melbourne on the train and going to the tennis at the Kooyong Classic. Weather permitting we're gonna see the Little Aussie Battler play Nickolay Davadenko.

Good to hear the news this morning that the flood waters in Brisbane have peaked lower than expected.One news report this morning said they had closed the Gateway Bridge for safety reasons. That's serious!

I can't imagine the immensity of the clean-up that is going to face people across Queensland.

Fire & Flood

The floods currently devastating Queensland have a few connections for me:

My Dad lives in Gympie.

I used to live in Toowoomba.

And we were stranded in Brisbane during the famous 1974 flood.

The pictures on the news throughout the day have been stunning and the news of deaths and missing people has gotten progressively worse.

The good news personally is that Dad is safe, well beyond the reach of the flood as he lives fairly high up in the town. I have however rung him a couple of times to ask if he's bought a boat yet!

Hopefully rescue teams will find many of the missing people but it seems pretty clear that the death toll is going to get significantly worse and as the rain continues to fall Brisbane is about to be deluged and thousands of homes threatened.

Meanwhile in WA there are bushfires south of Mandurah, on the road to Bunbury and some houses have already been destroyed. The fire appears to be the work of an arsonist! The mind boggles! 

Back in this part of the world, it has been raining solidly for the last couple of days but there is no suggestion of flooding occurring...yet!

Mrs Holt Press and Sport Boy are busy being gainfully employed at Ray's cafe on Bruny Island and seem to be enjoying themselves.

I was back at work today and had to put up with a squeaking windscreen wiper for about three hours. It wasn't a worn blade scraping, it was something in the motor mechanism but I couldn't fix it,  despite drenching it with WD40, the universal cure-all for all things automotive!

This morning Favourite Daughter and I drove over to St Lennards to continue our search for Seachange venues and landmarks. We found The Tropical Star and one of the jetties.

Tomorrow she is going to cut my hair in a matter of some urgency!

Top 10 Talented Web Videos of 2010

I don't post links to other sites very often but occasionally I come across something that is so good I just have to share it with others. You may not choose to look at this link but if you do I promise you will be thoroughly rewarded and pleased you did.

It's from Time Magazine's list of the the top ten talented web videos of last year. There is comedy, drama, tragedy, stunts, tricks, and things that will leave you scratching your head and asking "How did they do that?"

There are 10 links, some short, some long- 8 mins, all are brilliant in their own way. 

Enough of the hard sell.

Go to the link and see for yourself.

PS I loved the Johnny Cash one the best!

Bruney Island Bound

Mrs Holt Press and Sport Boy have gone to Tasmania for 11 days.

They're visiting her brother Ray . He runs the local store/cafe/restaurant on Bruney Island, off the SW tip of Tassie, making it the most southerly place in Australia.

I really hope they have a good, relaxing and enjoyable time.

Hugh has flown home after four great days with us in Ocean Grove.

Favourite Daughter and I are holding the fort and looking forward to doing a few things together.

I've just finished a run of six days of early starts at work and now have three days off, woohoo! 

(Except that I am doing some overtime tomorrow night on the Nightrider service, taking party-goers home to Ocean Grove, Torquay and Drysdale between 2-5 in the morning!)

I am REALLY looking forward to sleeping in in the morning!

The hot weather is back and the air conditioner is a temperamental piece of junk: for no obvious or explicable reason it works for about three minutes once a day! At a time of its choosing! Grrr!

On an unrelated topic: Isn't this the worst ad for a radio station you've ever seen? If you're not convinced, click on the pic to "enbiggen" (thanks Pop) it. Looks worse than the back end of a bus!

What's Been Going On

Another Visitor

Hughbie Doobie is staying with us for a few days. 

We're off now on a "Seachange" tour then into Geelong to watch the Bay Classic bike racing before finishing off with dinner at the Cunningham Pier. Maybe a ride on the skywheel too!