Australia Day at Callala!

As usual, Friday night at Callala Beach went off with a bang!

There was Chair porn.....

...There was trash talkin' about the impending croquet game......There was posin' from the sexy.......and of course it didn't end till we watched dawn rise over the water.

And what a day that dawn brought with it! Glorious blue skies, beautiful white sandy beach, green grass perfect for lazing around on and plenty of dark firm soil to stick croquet pins into.

As the day wore on and the festivities approached, we got into our green and gold and with a little help from the party master, got things under way for the annual Australia Day barbie.There were these very cool little clams that pulled themselves across the beach at dusk leaving weird wormholes in their wake.

What are they photographing you ask?...Noodle and Mattwa's romantic stroll of course!Mattwa and his biggest decision of the day...gin or bourbon?Jeff (the sepo) brought with him a truly Aussie inspired thong!And of course the obligatory fire...we didn't get any shots of the "spectacular sparkler run and fling" (another tradition that sees 10 majestic leaping performers bolt down to the beach waving and swirling sparklers only to culminate in 20 sparklers being flung high into the air in what can only be compared to something performed by cirque du soleil) and all to the tunes of Farnsey.

Sunday brought with it a little bit of "me time" as we recovered (some from alcohol, others from severe sun burn!). I say let's do it all again next year....hopefully we'll see even more SRFers...you'll like it I promise!

P.S Thanks for the photos Lady, I borrowed some off your FB, hope you don't mind :)

Governmental Challenge

So I put out the challenge

Is there a less friendly, harder to contact, more threatening, soul devoid government department than immigration?

I love this trend of "our operators are too busy - call back later 'hang up'"

The on hold music that i now have listen to for several mind numbing repeats tells me to the stylised background of crap digeridoo music the success of there well planned migration programme - those who haven't suicided by the time they answer the phone get in. Then there is harmony day were the department celebrates there overwhelming success - of not talking to anyone. It also reminds me not to dare come to an office with out first speaking to someone on the phone - wouldn't want to miss an opportunity to screw you over twice!

Though in the time i have been on hold I have managed this blog post and found out how to dob in an illegal

See below - I love the bit about the name of the dogs


Immigration Dob-In Line
Immigration Dob-in Line: 1800 009 623

Use this toll free number to advise the department about a person working or living illegally in Australia.

Hours of operation: Mon - Fri 0830-1630 (voicemail facility available out of these hours)

Alternatively, you can fax information to the department.
Fax: 1800 009 849

Information from the public provides important support to the department in its efforts to maintain the integrity of Australia's borders and immigration programs.

The department can investigate allegations about a person working or living illegally in Australia if you provide all of the following information:

* basis of your suspicion that the person is working or living in Australia illegally
* the name of the person
* their age or date of birth of the person
* their nationality
* their address (residential or work) - or place to be located and when they are likely to be at the address.

Any of the following information that you can provide will also help in an investigation:

* name of employer or the person's business address, type of business/employment and hours worked, including any rostered days off
* date person last lived or worked at the address provided
* gender
* physical description of person and any distinguishing features
* character issues
Example: criminal history and/or violence
* passport number
* date of arrival and type of visa held
* personal circumstances
Example: living with spouse/children/parents
* vehicle details
Example: registration number, colour
* any pets (especially dogs).

The department will treat any information provided by members of the public about people working or living illegally in Australia in the strictest confidence.

For privacy reasons, no information can be provided on the outcome or the progress of our investigation.

RIP Heath Ledger

Not much info yet, just this...

In advance - SRF event

In honour of the fun we had with our friends down on the farm at March's end last year, Noodle and I thought we'd take a camping trip by the Tumut river at Quidong this year, and invite some guests back to the scene of the crime.


A long weekend is best, as it allows us to set up in daylight on the morning we arrive, spend two nights in our self-built abodes, then pack up in daylight and head back to the big smoke with lots of time to straighten out before the working week creeps around again. For this reason, we have nominated the ANZAC day long weekend, 25, 26 & 27 April 2008. The weather will be cooler. Also, camping could be a fitting ANZAC celebration. We could pitch camp at lunch time on the Friday and vacate on the Sunday.


Some of you will remember the set up from last time...



Make our own fire, build our own shelter, bring our own food and water in, take our own rubbish out, 1s in the bush, 2s up at the house, showers are optional. We can even scrape some of the filth off ourselves and check out the ANZAC festivities in town if desired.


Anyway, say if you'd like to come, block out your April long weekend and we'll plan it out!

Brace yourselves folks...

... I'm coming in for landing!

ETA: 06/03/08 2135h

FREEDOM!

As I was signing the forms my newly engaged accountant Mrs J Allinson of Newport (she came highly recommended)had sent me, I noticed something marvelous.

I'm HECS debt free!

So fitting that in 2007 John Howard first year gift to me - Higher HECS fees for Science Student has ended as did he!

Now for the credit card....

A Very Flitcroft Christmas (Finally!)

I know it's long overdue, and Jen's post put me to shame, so I thought I would make use of a quiet Sunday night to blog about our wonderful Christmas/New Year in freezing cold climates.

First up we arrived in London, we were meant to be staying at Mark's, but his boiler had broken that day (apparently everything breaks around Christmas as we were to find out) so we stayed at Kristy's instead, not far away near Tulse Hill. During the days we shopped, walked, saw the sights, walked some more, drank, froze, walked, visited museums, ate, froze and generally had a lot of fun. At night we caught up with friends, drank, ate, drank, ate, saw more friends, met strange Dicken's characters, drank, laughed and generally found ourselves in very interesting and different venues.

Jules freezing outside St Paul's

Catching up with Kenny in South KensingtonWe had to do this....Catching up with NomesWe even had time to track down some of Mattwa's ancestors!

Then it was up North to see the Fam and share a very Merry Flitcroft Christmas. As promised, we were woken on Christmas day with a Buck's Fizz and Santa Sack. It just got better from there! Jane and Zak came over about Midday and we unwrapped presents, we all took it in turns to let Zak beat us at pool (on his new kids size table), we ate till we felt we'd explode, we drank till we were all a little silly, played Charades (very interesting/challenging when the 6 yr old has to know all the titles) and then capped the night off by heading over to the Bilton's (family friends) for more silliness at "Family Fun" night.

The FamZak and Neville light the pudThe boys enjoy their gameshmmmm...

After long enough with the relos we drove to Manchester to scratch an itch. City (or properly pronounced it's "Sssssiddy") were playing Blackburn. Since City had not lost at home all season and Blackburn hadn't lost at this ground before, we were in for a nailbiter. My new favourite player is Petrov (he's number 15 with the black gloves)Jules outside City of Manchester Stadium - Home of the Mighty Blues!

Petrov and the team. We had pretty good seats. I tried taking a photo of Sven, but it was too blurry...those pitches are very wide and my poor 3X zoom couldn't cope.

After our sojourn to Manchester, Flit decided to pop down to the beach to look at an art installation. As you can see, the weather was a little grim.

The Eurostar took us to our next destination...Jenny and Alex in Paris!! What a beautiful sight to see them both grinning at us as we got off the train. The next few days were filled with Stairs, good food, excellent company, silly expats with hats, cocktails and the odd fat shop.

Jules got the little procelain king in the epiphany cake....ask Alex....The obligatory Eiffel Tower shotDown the Champs Elysse from the top of the Arc d'TriompheMad French people trying to driveSaucy hat wearers heading out to the New Years Eve party, loaded down with every kind of alcohol...ask Alex...and a savoury cake!New Years Eve PartySince we were only in Paris for a short time, we had to make the most of it, so on New Years Day, we dragged our tired and hungover arses out of bed and went to see more of Paris. Off to the Louvre we went , and Jen and I practiced just in case they needed back up dancers at the good 'ole red windmill.This picture is more in the vein of WTF??? I kid you not, this is a legitimate shop near Euston station in London. We had just gotten back in to England and were wandering down the road to find our hire car (the trains were all cancelled!!) and we saw this shop front!!! (This is where one would make a Mattwa joke, but seeing as he is such a hot date, I thought I'd cut him a break)

We had an awesome time. Thanks Jen and Alex for our delightful tour of Paris.

Go Deano!

Well it's UAC day. And for the first time in many a year I'm am not sitting here with a sense of pride as i look up what Uni my staff got into.

Luckily Dean attempted to fill that void last night when he rushed home from the pub at 9pm logged on to the Net (I was going to explain how we drove down to the Post Office at 7.00am to get ours but it just makes us look old) 10min later he was back and beaming (not even the knowledge that John was doing his washing up could dampen his mood)

Congratulations Dean!




I hope you enjoy your four years at Kenso Tech mastering the art of paper airplane production.



And remember first year maths is much more exciting from a coffee shop or a hand ball court.

Don't forget...

Sailing BBQ

At John & Sharis place, this Sunday at 1.30pm. (If it is raining too much, may be better for us to move to a nearby pub instead of bespoiling the residence with our many-ness?)

Gaudi-ing one off

A big hello from the sud de France where I am currently wintering. As some of you may not remember me I thought I would re-introduce myself with some tales of my travels. Last w'end I packed a miniscule bag and de-camped from my semi-permanent hotel room to a 'holiday' hotel room in Barcelona - a city not previously visited.

For the rest of this post I will give a largely pictorial account of my visit... First up is the Nou Camp - home to Barcelona FC who I watched demolish Murcia - it must have been tough for them without Ronaldinho (amongst others) but Samuel E'to'o, Gudjohnsonn, Thierry Henry, Zambrotta, Thuram, Gus Poyol, Sylvinho (amongst others) just about scraped home 4-0. The Nou Camp for those unfamiliar is the largest ground in Europe at around 98,000 capacity - there was probably only 70-80,000 there that night so pretty quiet really.



The next day dawned and I headed out for a different cultural view of this famous city, having limited time I headed for Gaudis most famous (and as yet unfinished) building the Sagrada Familia, I have to say that on seeing it my first thought was 'that is just how I image the Aliens' (from Alien, Aliens, etc... etc...) pied-a-terre would look, then I got closer and it was a bit more religious based than that - hey-ho.


Sometimes you need to have a picture taken of you just to make sure you actually exist...


Sadly it was back to Montpellier and back to work on Monday. Strangely enough the labs I'm in have corridors that are so long; if someone was stood at the other end you would only see them from the waist up due to the earths curve...



There are benefits to walking these halls of the damned though, computer porn...


Well that's all from the Southern Hemisphere - of course a big hello to my French neighbors Jenny and Alex to the North of me and I shall see the rest of you soon with my moon-tan.