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Well, for those who dont know we are back in Aus, have bought a house in Toowoomba. I will keep this blog going, and I intened to add some pics of our house etc some time.

Update

Well We are in Germany chillin out for a few weeks, and I haven't updated this in ages! So these pics date back from a few weeks ago when Mum was here. There is Audley house, near our place. There is so pics in London, the minature train is at Audley too. Although we were there with Pam, Max and our little Godchild Alec, who there are also a few pics of outside the church after the baptism. The trains planes and automobiles are just the other day at Speyer Museum. and the pic of Anika on the bike is here in Landau in Germany. Enjoy. And I will finally get the compression of the video sorted to post here also soo.





me driving the train at Speyer











VW fire truck








At the Zoo in Landau with Chrissy's uncle





Old tractor for Dad, in Speyer











minature trains in Audley

















Not so minature trains in Speyer!!








Im driving can you see me?







Mmmm, my favourite Porsche ever!









Big russian cargo plane








Sub







Jumbo, see the slide under it, Anika wasn;t so into that...








Swimming in London with Mum










Mum and Anika at Tower bridge






Us eating in Germany with family.







Dad likes these Citreons, they were the 1st front wheel drive cars i believe, and they handled really well, so were known getaway cars from bank jobs.










Speyer, Mercs, Messershmidts and my favourite jag there to the right.







Mercs.









Harry on the tube in London








The leaning Chimney of Linton







Anika and Chrissy playing in the leaves at Audley house








Max and me, giving shoulder rides in the beer garden after a few pints at the pub near audley house.









mum and Anika at Audley











Harry doing a spot of Climbing on the cloud hedge, Audley








Harry having a break at Kings College, Cambridge








Harry







Slightly drunk Harry










Royal Harry, Tower Hill gates.






audley Tea shelter thingy








Us at Audley









Motor bikes at Speyer for Dads enjoyment








The girls at Audley gardens







Harry on the berry hedge










Anika model snob







Ani on the pib








Audley gardens









Again








audley!







Us at Alec's baptism









Alec and Anika









Ani at Audley







me and Anika riding the bike, she loves it!!








Anika the poo

Our Trip so far.

finally got this done! We are in Germany for a few weeks now. So i might get some pics up soon too.

ENJOY!

Chicksands

OK I am making a video of our trip so far, but whilst I finish I would like to show you where I ride. DH Cambridgeshire style (flat!) this is footage of the entire track, nothing edited out and they push up and do it twice! It's short, and it isn't me as I have never bothered setting up my helmet camera. We hit all the jumps you see here too, is scary fun :)

My hands are bananas

More coming soon, in the mean time, this is hilaereous

Espaniol! Olah

Well, Mum is over here, and thanks to her, we all went to Spain, we stayed on the East coast, just on the mainland, off the coast a bit is Ibiza, never got there though :)
A lot of great sunrises and sunsets. Got to say the place itself isn't what I thought, not that that was bad at all. I just got the impression that there was a lot of Poms falling into the develop in spain investment net, and a lot of Spanish nationals living almost in poverty, I would think there would be a real 'them and us' thing going on. Perhaps I am wrong... We stayed in our little golfing resort complex in aircon comfort, overlooking marvelous views, great dual lane roads lined with palms etc, and as soon as we drive out into the real world we are comfronted with neglected housing, potholed streets with prostitutes on the roundabouts, and vandalism and rubbish EVERYWHERE. I dunno, just doesn't feel right. Onto the pics though...








Second day sunset, different again, still just as scenic.




Third day, hazy and quite warm




Sunrise the morning we left, just as spectacular and peacefull





Harry contemplating returning to crummy Sub 15 deg English temps and rainy weather.







Stormy midday front.



Beach on the rainy first day




Afternoon storms had just hit, the mountains are just unreal around here, might have to come back with my bike!




Same old same old really.


Drive up into the hills, this was a water reservoir, not quite at the Toowoomba levels, but not looking good, at least they are already gettting desalination plants in place.


The ladies at the beach having lunch, was a really nice little resturant










Me and mum on the lower back deck, the roof was the upper main deck. where I took the sunset panoramas.









That front again. it just seemed to lay there all day, we were in the rain but could see the sunshine just over the way a little, bit frustrating!






Us on the beach.







Ani with my Fort William shirt on, cutie.









There wasn't that much rain, but bad town planning leads to bad water problems, we hardly saw any drainage on the streets, here is what happens. Even the apartment comple










entering the pyranese





The girls in the apartment








Ani giving herself a bath after first bathing Maddy the mermaid










BBQ on the top deck (in the rain)








Check out the houses, they looked really trashy, with vandalism on them, but some were nice inside, global warming may affect resale, it has already by the evidence, some front steps severaly undercut with erosion and lead to nowhere.


Me Mum and Ani on the beach

Scotland Trip with me wee lass'

Ani at blair castle
















Me and my pommy mates after riding the worlds Downhill track








Driving in Scotland









Ani and I at Loch Ness









Ani and Chrissy at Oban (near Fort bill) where we stayed.





View from where we stayed



Pano of where we stayed: Oban



Ben Nevis, Fort William




Harry at hadrians wall









Harry at Loch Ness










Loch ness




Loch ness Pano





Me and Ani after riding Fort William










Chrissy took this pic of me riding from the gondola!!







Our car, stopped to take pics








Interesting read near Hadrians wall








Anika and Chrissy, Hadrians wall








H's wall








Anika showing me Blair Castle





Blaur castle, freaky amount of deer antlers in there! Spooky freaks!





Castle in a Loch






Chrissy and Ani, board walk, Loch Ness










Gondola, Fort William









Blair Athol







Cows go "moo!" just ask Anika








MOOOOOOOO!









Duckies go "quack quack!"





Behold, Chrissy modelling Blair castle sign.

Fort William

Hey there ppls.
Well we went to fort william, scotland for the world mountain bike championships. Had a blast. Went with some mtb mates from here. Drove up in our hire car.
For those that didn't know our car got rear ended pretty bad on the way back from dropping Cad and Kev at the airport. Lucky it was only Chrissy driving (not Ani in the car) and she wasn't hurt at all!!! So we have had a hire car, whic is good because it's new and free from our insurance.
Scotland is beautiful, i will post more pics of the rest of our trip later.
Cya.

Big bad Cad and Kev the Bev

Well me sis and bro in law arrived, we hung at Oxford for a day first, just Ani me and C & K. Was a good time (although I copped a 60 pound fine in the mail the other day for driving in a bus lane damn it!)
Went on a tour and saw interesting stuff that I can't remember anymore. But lots of well known people did cool stuff in Oxford. Like Bob hawke set a guinness record whilst studying there , for drinking a yard of beer in a record time!
Then onto Cambridge for a few days, we went to a Tudor recreation day which was a lot of fun and very well done with over 100 ppl in costume, talking as per the era and with knowledge of their trade or practice to boot, fun relaxing day really!
At the pub in Cambridge, purely by accident we noticed the plaque stating that this is where DNA discovery was first announced (I where CSI would be without this pub??) it is stuff like this that I find really cool, such big events in history allaround here.
Anyway Pics!

Whatcha doin doin??

Hello fans.
Here are a few more pics of the few weeks with Pastor David Borgas, and Mrs Barbara Borgas. What fantastic times we had. We sampled the 'Miami' or 'Surfers Paradise' or even 'Monaco' equivelent here in the UK, the beautiful, Great Yarmouth!!

Not all our time was spent soaking up the suns rays on the golden sands of the afformentioned destination whilst overlooking the deep green crystal oceans. NO! We did a lot of looking around, highlights of which were Summerleyton Hall, of which the ladies were strangely interested in the mid 30's single batch owner (keep dreaming ladies,, pfft!) and puttin along the broads in our hire boat, Captain Barbsy at the helm, charting us through the high waters with Pirate Dave 'grey beard' at her side. arrhaahdies! (Talk like a pirate day is 19th of this month too, don't forget yaaarggh!)

Pics!
More about our weeks with B& D and Cad and Kev as soon as I ditch this kinked neck and migrane from yesterdays downhill goodness...

The others (aka inlaws) are ere, yah

Chrisssy and Ani










My lil girl









Opa,,, or as Ani says "poopa"









The inlaws :)





Harry Potter

New bike

Here is my new Specialized Enduro SX, haven't actually ridden it yet!
Sold the big DH bike, bought this more of an all round rig.
Next is to sell my last new bike listed below :(

LegoLand, Windsor Castle, A heap of rocks, and a beach.

Big day trip yesterday, from home down to bournemouth via Windsor and stone henge.
Big shout out to all my fans in aus. Ben and Charlene, email me, I lost your address! Hi Anne and Paul. and is Mel and curl watching?? Who else is out there?
Well finally we are having a good run of awesome weather. 29 degrees here today. just terrific. Barbsy and Davey will be here next week which we are all really looking forward to, then Cad and Kev, fun family times ahead. Stay tuned.


Stone Henge. Been ther, done that, tick it off the list.



Sheep at stone henge.









Us at Bournemouth beach, very nice day.









Ani negotiating the rocks.









Bournemouth beach







Winsor, some random river... Thames I think.








Looking up to Windsor castle.










Drive into Stone henge, how perfect is the weather here at the moment?!







Rocks.








Anika and me.








English countryside from the car.






Windsor castle. Windsor is on the go back list. It looked really nice, the only reason we went thre is we were sick of being stuck in traffic!









Windsor. Can you see the queen peering out the window there? Look carefully!










Winsor crib.






Depressing when the guard house is bigger than our own house :)







STUART!!! Check out the porshe GT thingy pinning it past us! Sounded like some howling devil zombie space craft creepy screemy thing. awesome!









Lego-daylight robbery-Land.

35 pound each?! I dont think so!!








They aren't even environmentally friendly little buggers.
TREE FELLING IS WRONG guys. :(








So we ate lunch out the carpark at Lego Land





Cruising in the Rover, sunroof open, child asleep... Aaah, the serenity.

The End of an Era.

Well, I just sold my Yeti DH9. The white one. Parting was a little sad, but it's ok, I haven't ridden it since I got here and we could use the money.
Here are some pics of me at work. Ani running around with my Yeti cap on, and her new chair I bought her of the work intranet for 10 pound! The dry ice i got from an order I had placed at work, this special adhesive required shipping from america at -60deg celcius. hi Tech stuff Licenced from NASA. Funny thing is I don't think I need it now....
Enjoy!



Mmmm Beer chilled in dry ice! Pitty it was frozen solid after 5 minutes. Oops!
















Mmmmmm, it just looks like on the ads.









Malik starring here, he is a froggy, he is from Les Gets!









Cheeky squirels everywhere. In the background is the radiography lab, hence the earth built up the walls to protect little me from getting fried by radiation :)







Anika's put her foot in it this time, eating the pasta sauce.









Chrissy drinking the spell i put on her, hubble bubble toil and trouble.








Anika knows better than to drink anything Daddy gives her.








Aaaah, if only that were a beer. But she is too young for beer...Give her a few months.








Homy Ani in da house.








"Ice Ice baby"








I need a haircut, looks like I am from Liverpool.





Don't worry, I really don't know what i am actually testing with the multimeter! :S

Nice is very Nice

Just pretend the title is unique and very witty for a moment.
Well We left for Nice on Wednesday night a 2 hour flight.
Our neighbours are in the same boat as us, Natalie and Stephan were nice enough to
insist we go and visit their house whilst Stephan was there doing some Reno's ready to rent the house whilst they live here.








View from StPauls.
"At the fall of the Roman Empire (476 AD), Provence went through a difficult period littered with epidemics and barbarian invasions. The somewhat fragile economic and demographic equilibrium was shattered, causing an overall feeling of insecurity. The peasants drew closer together and "perched villages" started to appear.

Saint-Paul was founded in the 9th century. Before long, castrum Santo Paulo (the château of Saint-Paul) dominated the entire village. The only surviving part of the castle today is its dungeon."< /p>

View from StPauls




Us at StPauls. Just a nice little walkway.










A photo of a painting of Venice at StPauls. I recognised the view from our 2005 trip









A horse made from horse shoes, again at StPauls.








Same wlakway; less us.











Us at StPauls again.







I like this pic with the old citroen parked at StPaul.








Mosaic style paving at StPaul











more art gallery StP's























more...











Nice walkways at StP's







And More












Sunset at Nat and Steph's










AniBunny, been rubbing her eyes heaps she was so tired and hot.










Nat and Steph's 'dungeon'






Natalie and Stephan's house, was really cool on steep land carved from rock with many levels, and almost hidden rooms.
Me in the pool at their place enjoying the view.








Us at the front porch in the afternoon







Stephy babey, Maree the au pair. and one of their daughters julie

and olive the dog



The view from our bedroom window. we had a little flat of our own, carved under the house and to the side.






The markets at Nice








Nice markets.

















Can you see the end of the railway bridge? bombed by guess who? YES Hitler does it again, his trail of destruction very apparent where ever we have travelled...










Stephan, on his wood fired gas bbq?!










Me and my girl in monaco.









Nice beach. The postcards are real, the water is just amazing!







Now look carefully! That's what I call a seaside cafe!











The infamous 2 again :)



Nice beach!







and again!Anika loved swimming, the water was really nice. A bit cool, which was perfect after walking all day in 35deg heat.





Monaco old town





Overlooking Monaco.










Sunset from the porch at Nat & Steph's






Nice beach again. Funny story, we walked there from the train station and stopped at the mall, Maree came with, we asked her if we change at the mall toilets or if there were change rooms at the beach. She replied "you just get changed at the beach"
Didn't realise till we got there that she actually meant that literally, just change on the beach! I was fine as I was already in my boardies. but chrissy is now known to a few hundred more people :) lucky she had a skirt on so she could change her bottoms easily. but the top was a little more impossible.





This is up infront of the casino in monaco. fair to say a lot of people who go there have a lot of money to waste!




again: casino monaco



old town monaco view



StPauls, oops! Out of order, but a good pic, and too hard to move it here sorry.





St'p's again





Monaco, over the other side (looking South)


























Up at the casino again. a few million $$ worth of cars.








I love this pic, but it isn't hard to take a nice picture with such a beautiful scene.





Chrissy enjoying the view.







anika played in the park at Vence, just outside Nice. She had fun, but we exhausted her the poor little girl. We have to re-think how we travel as she becomes a bigger girl.









here you go barbara Sandles and socks. what a dag!









Chrissy, Ani and Maree.







View from Vence looking back towards where we stayed.

How clear is the water!? I thought at least the marina would be murky. But you should be able to spot some fish there...







Brand new model Lambo. I read (/dreamt) about this before I left Aus. To see it in the flesh was great, check out the car in the background, what a fluke!

FLASHBACK. Stories from the past.

Well! Howdy do? This week we are off to Nice and monaco and Cannes.
Who apart from Brad is going to make a comment? It's easy comooon!
Below from the bottom of this post to the top is the journey of the first week of our life here. Thinking back it was very hectic and exciting.
Here's how it went.
Flew into London Good Friday, Paid 50 pounds (times 2.5 for AUD!) for a taxi to our Kensington hotel.
Looked around London the next day. Went to the Lady Di memorial (for my mum's sake mainly, here you go mum). So many awesome cars in Kensington, Maybach's, Merc SLR's, Lambo's, Ferrari's Rollers etc, unfortunatley I lost most pics (as mentioned earlier post)
Met with Simon Burger and Helen (see pics). Went to their church Easter Sunday.
Amazing service, loved it! (pics of the church)
Hung out with Simon and Helen at Hyde park (See pic of Anika with 'floers') eating olives and cheese etc, drinking wine and beer.
Wasted half a day in Harrods (again).
Hired a car and drove to Cambridge (2 pics from car) on the Tuesday.
Got food poisoning like never before just in time for job interview Wednesday.
Got job, went back to toilet/bed for a day.
Bought the first car we saw; funny when you just need a car then and there, the hire car was due to be returned the next day, and we had to pic up our luggage from Germany.
Thursday returned Hire car and drove new car to Germany (see pics).
Horse is historic, taken from UK side of Eurotunnel.
Have a look past the (impatient german) black merc wagon, you can see the train and a car driving in.
5 countries in 10 hours (actually 12 hours there, heavy traffic, see balloon pic).
Quite proud of the pic of the cows and barn, I took that out the car window whilst in a traffic jam.

I am making a video too. Will compile and upload after France.

Ooh, notice in the balloon pic there is 'old yellas' foreign cousin 'ol greeny' :)

Hugo

Well, a while back I mentioned that we traded ol blacky in on hugo. I little old man car, well behaved. There is no way you would catch hugo sky diving, downhill mtbing or even drinking anymore than a cheap red on a sunday. He is your typical braces and shiney boots old man type car. But you can rely on him.
While I was there taking pics i noticed we had a lot of flowers. So another pic of our little house too.

what can change in a week?

Well, not much really.
I took old blacky in for his wheel bearing, and the doctor charged 190.00 pounds! Damn! So on the way back out I spotted I nice little red rover (pics to come)at the car yard. Went in and had a talk to the salesman who was actually genuine and nice (SHOCK!!) And basically walked out with a straight swap to a one owner rover 5 door hatch, electric sunroof, full service history. Really missing having to cringe over every pothole as old blacky felt like he was going to break in half, I miss the intermittant brake warning light, I miss how the brake pedal sank to the floor on startup. NOT! Blacky served us well, I will never forget him, aah, that one afternoon on the way back from a ride when he gave me an ABS fault, leaked on me (how does a roof leak without a sunroof?@!) emptied its brake fluid, and then proceeded to emit a burning smell from the vents which ended up being the blower fan (I assume since it never worked after that) then drop a wheel bearing a few days later.

So Hugo the Red Rover (thanks Cad for the name) is a lovely little old lady,quite polite and very well mannered.

What else:
Aah, the pics! Well I rounded up some crew from work and we went to Duxford, the largest air mueseum in Europe, and the largest WWII air show on earth (well so I am told).
Impressive! I have to say the jet at the start was awesome (F15) and I am not sure if Anika was just so absolutely petrified she didn't cry, or it really didn't bother her. We covered her ears, but it makes little difference when the ground is shaking!

I thought of how much Dad and Stubro would have loved the afternoon. Yes, that's the Memphis Belle there guys! A lancaster from dambusters too, spitfires (around 12 all up) Messershmitts, Mustangs, Seafury's.

The panorama sunset is one i have just taken, the weather has been fantastic here since Saturday, I got up at 5:30 Sunday morning to go MTBing. Was a nice start to the day, I was the only one at the MTB park too (lazy poms).

Chrissy did a function on Saturday that had a face painter, she came back home all pretty with flowers on her face.

Cheerio old chaps! Dont forget you can comment! Would love to here from you guys (is anyone actually reading this??

Toes and dirt

Well "Ol Blacky" or "The rattle Box" whatever you like to call our car has a very bad rear wheel bearing. so no driving for us this weekend, which made it hard to go look for a replacement car. Oh well, fixed tomorrow.
Today we washed it (first time ever) and took some pics.
Not very interesting for you guys to look at though. So after that I went to explore the local area on my bike.. And got into some seriously muddy situations. And I loved it. Had my good jeans on though (not for warmth but for nettle protection, there are so many nettles!!!
Chrissy was painting her toes and Anika just kept saying "toe, toe!" amazed by the pretty colours. So Chrissy gave in and painted hers too. She sat there and didn't mind, and pointed after to her pretty toes, then to her mummy's.
There is also a pic of my beautiful wife there too, sitting on the futon. just so you can see she is here (due to popular demand).
BY THE WAY Friends and family can now comment without any special logins. So lets here from you!

More Anika

Baaah, lets face it, that's all your interested in seeing anyhow.
We are off to buy another car tomorrow. Will we get a Volvo?!! You will have to wait and see.
Chrissy is working again tonight, I have been doing the same here, working for Aussie client. Spent the day at work assembl
The pic is Anika watching her elmo video. This was taken by chrissy, and is not a setup, that's just how she hangs, tummy out, slouched back, milk at her side, shoes half off. Gets it from her mum right

"AniBunny: She's so funny!"

Well she is!
Today she walks around talking on her phone (lil plastic one). Yabbering away, I saw only a bit, Chrissy said she was doing it all day.
This is her dancing. She had been bopping away on her own, so I put her up to doing it again for the camera.

Duxford Imperial War museum

Today we went to Duxford, an impressive air museum just 15 minutes away.
This is where they hold all the big air shows, in 2 weeks we will be going to watch the legends of air air show, all the old spitfires, mustangs lancasters etc.

This place is pretty amazing, I could go on but I would bore some of you to death, kinda like Chrissy was today :) She claimed she enjoyed it and found it interesting though.

The Concorde was cool, it was a prototype. Setup with avionics and instruments (including on board cameras near the jets etc) to record how it all worked.
The B52 was so massive! Can you see the pic of the tail with all the other planes around it?! The pic up the wing?
The big piece of round metal under the wing is actually a part of the worlds largest gun that Saddam was making before he got busted. There were companies all around the world making parts for it unknowingly, this part was made in the UK. Would have been ironic had he pulled it off?!

By far the most impressive craft was the blackbird (looks like a sting ray according to Chrissy)
Dordles along at 3.5 the speed of sound 25 k's above the earth.
A pilots perspective was written on the plaque describibg being able to look out at the stars that seemed 3D, then look down and watch the tornadoes over the ocean. Imagine how quick the countries slipped by at that speed!?
It had a computer that navigated by the stars above rather than radar, this avoided any detection.
The black paint turns blue at speed (heat activated)
The plane got so hot it needed a special fuel. then it used so much that they had tanks everywhere.
someof the tanks wrapped around where the wheels went inside to keep them cool.
The wing tips were around 900 degrees!
There are a lot of panels on the craft that are rippled like corrugate. This is to allow expansion.
After the plane landed it couldn't be touched for 1/2 an hour, so the pilots had to sit around. this is because it was so damn hot! They had massive fans to cool it all down.

didn't know Dan (Rohde) ran his own airline over here neither? Where are mates rates tickets Dan!

Over and out!

Some more pics of my work

Well due to unrivalled popular demand, here are a few piccy's of my work.
On the samples table there you may spot formula 1 car exhaust manifolds, the odd car panel, a subframe from the lotus elise, a motorbike?!, in the cabinent mobile phones (dont know what we have to do with them? maybe plastic welding)

Some really cool processes here are friction stir welding (wikipedia is your friend) and electron beam welding.
Unfortunately I have only had a bit to do with the ultrasonics division, but I would love to nose around this place.

Did I tell you we had our own railway?? Weird, (I think I did).
Off riding tomorrow after work Woohoo! Loving it.
Which reminds me, a pic of my bike is due.

aWWW, i GOT MY FIRST KISS TONIGHT!

Anika and I are hanging out together, watching moutnain bike videos, reading books, and drinking "Miwk". I asked very nicely, if I could have a kiss. And I actually got one, 2 then numerous more! FYI Anika has naver given anyone a kiss before. Amazing, I was so chuffed I had to get it on video to rub it in to Chrissy :)

(Yeh yeh, it's not my best angle, and low light detracts from my impecable good looks, so rack off!)

We went to Kings College today.

A bit of a showery but mostly fine day here.
It was my dad's birthday today (happy b'day dad!) so the day started out talking and web cam-ing to Home.
Here is a little bit of info for you all, this time a year ago, we were in a park also.


Anika, Web park, just by fluke I saw the date.
Anyway, some pics:

aND SOME vID

Anika is walking!

Well, when she feels like it she is!
Our little girl is growing up. Talking away and walking too.
More later, I am off to bed!

A day with Simon and Helen

Yesterday was a magnificantly stunning beautiful day, so we went into Cambridge to look around and meet up with Simon Burger, and his lovely partner Helen.
Picnics by the Cams, visiting art galeries and walking through the markets and shops.

Anika loves her new shoes "shoe" she says, pointing to them, her first outing in them, I put them on and she stood up looking down explaining how much she liked them;
"wooowowoow woowowowow"
Very cute, melting her daddy's heart all the time.
Some pics of her in the park beside the market. I have video but need to sort out the codec to actually see them.

The humble abode and surrounding

The pics you see here:
Chrissy and Anika walking through the old part of our village.
My work driveway and trees.
Another street of houses in the old part of our village.

OUR HOUSE!
OUR BACKYARD.

Catching up the Blogness

Well, it is the end of a long weekend, and we are about to sit down and watch some Heroes.

The weekend has been fairly non-eventfull. I spent all day yesterday re=installing my computer after a little mishap with a registry editing program deleting all my windows dll's! (end nerd talk).
Today I spent working for MidWest.

The weather here is pretty well what you here about over there. Drizzly, windy and fairly cool. Missed home a bit today, working for an Aus client brings back memories, you sort of go through stages we are finding. We love it here though, makes us appreciate everything and puts a fair perspective on what is important in life.

Anika is her usual hilarious self, she is just sooo cool. She took one step today, But really she is just pretty content doing her thing, like her mum, nothing phazes her.

Like I said before, I went for my first ride yesterday, and I felt really good, hit a few bigger double jumps (I think I haven't ridden for so long I have forgotten the pain of crashing!)

I went riding here.

Anyway, here is a vid of me on the Autobahn when we were coming back from Germany.
We had our entire lives in that car, bought the old peugoet 406 HDi the afternoon before the morning we drove to Germany.. Spent the trip getting to know the rattlebox.
Its actually a very comfy car, a heap of features.Electric seats, front / curtain / side arbags, Stability control, digital climate control, trip computer. Plus around 50mpg! Thats from our door to Landau in der Pfalz in Germany on 3/4 a tank of fuel. 5 Countries on 3/4 tank is incredible.

Pics

Here are some pics, its late, so i will write later!

Enjoy.

Quick News:
Anika can stand by herself now, only when she wants to theough, and she claps herself when she sits down.
She says "Puppy!" now, and then "wooof woof" wich is quite funny.
She has 4 teeth, 2 top front (one very front, one to the side)
and one front bottom (like normal babies)
and one back base, almost a molar.

I rode my bike for the first time since leaving Aus today, and I had a blast!!
The stream is on my walk home.
Anika likes putting our sunnies on then she can be cool like we are :)
Cambridge, yeh its pretty,,, very pretty.
Swing and park in Cambridge we found walking down the Cams.
Local MTB dirt jumps.
Anika loves watching the washing machine. Especially when Maddy the mermaid is getting washed,, hahaha thats a funny sight I am told by Chrissy.

We are all well, work is great, but we do miss you all!!
Word is on the street we will be here a while. I will post more soon with our house pics I took the other day.
Cheers
Greg

This is my work for those interested.
http://www.plantintegrity.com
A subsidary (and same worksite) of www.twi.co.uk

We are based in Granta Park. Here are trhe google earth co-ordinates
52° 7'1.21"N
0°13'43.43"E

And our house:
52° 5'59.44"N
0°17'14.82"E
The building houses 3 houses. Ours is the far West one.

hi guys!!
Just a quicky, will post more some other time.
We are settled in a village called Linton, just outside Cambridge (google earth search CB1 6YR, UK) My job is great www.twi.co.uk and Anika is great too.
Post again within the week when I get internet at home!

Cheers
Greg

Another Pic from Singapore I forgot

Here are some more pics of today:
Dinner at the castle, what I ate, that ball contains liver amoungst other things, and yes I ate it all!
I thought the toilet was rather entertaining too! Anika eating a cracker with my Yeti cap on, she is such a cutie!

Happy Birthday to me!
Today I turned 30. We spent the morning with Oma and Opa driving around the black forest. Went to a nice castle for lunch and now I am back in Landau sipping some fine local produce (that smells of bad meat?? but still tastes ok... Hope that is normal!)

Singapore... Beautiful one day, perfect the next.

My computer just crashed after I wrote all about Singapore, I will write more some other time!

Anika's 1st, My 30th and going away party

On the 17th of March we had a bit of a shin ding out at dads (thanks Dad)
First it was Anika's party, then on to mine. We had a great time, the theme for mine was "nerds and bogans"
The pics say it all I think!
Thanks to all those who came and helped us celebrate. Especially Mel and Curl and family from Biloela, Barbara from Warrnambool, and Sarah, Georgia and Abby from Cairns.
Also thanks of course to mum and dad for all their help, and to Dan and Brendan for helping me setup the tent. Can't not thank Chrissy for all her work and Anika too off course. :)

Anika the Elf

Bet you didn't know Anika was an Elf. BIT FREEEEAKAAY!

Merry Christmas!!!

Well, it's about time I updated this again.
Christmas is here again. And it is off course Anika's 1st Christmas and therefor the first Santa!
Yesterday Anika and I went out with the Smith boys for a ride in Scott's ski boat.
She wasn't too sure about the noise ad bumpy ride... She didn't hate it, but neither did she love it.
There is also another new vid here of her in the bath, she loves the water so much.

We had Brendan & Amanda, Dan, Rach and Blair over for pre Christmas dinner last night. Good times were had, as usual Chrissy cooked up an amazing feed of beef Ruladen (spelling is wrong I know!)
There is a pic there of Chrissy and Gretch's mothers group. as well as a nice pic of Anika admiring her mum's impeccable good looks whilst lying together on the floor.
Ani is on my lap at her Aunti Caddie's belly dancing concert there too.

The other day we went out to see some Christmas lites, Ani loved it, saying "Wow wowowow wow!" a lot, which means "Wow, that's cool!"

Blair had his 3rd Birthday the other day, and they went to a kids indoor play gym for a party. Can you spot Anika in the ball pit???!! I wasn't there, but apparently she was quite content lying there burried. Very cute pics.

Finally there are some pics of her in her in a pretty blue dress I took just because!

Well I am sitting in bed at the moment (lazy Sunday) Anika is here beside me and has just awoke. Sitting here saying "dad-dad-dad" gets me everytime :)

Have a Merry Christmas, relax, drink eat and enjoy this special time.

Still no teeth

More to come...

Anika is teething

Well, the posts are coming in thick and fast now hey?! Well I have the computers and my mobile phone at home set up so nice now, it is just all too easy :)
We believe it's official now... Anika is teething. She is pretty grumpy. But at the same time she is taking on the world at a great rate, over the past few days she has become so much more interactive with her sounds and mocking us.
We also tried out MSN live calling with Anika's Oma and Opa today, first Barbara and Chrissy (pictured), then Barbsie and Anika.

Well today I setup the 2nd laptop as a media centre (less digital TV tuner, but it will come soon) The plan is to sell of all our old stereo at the "Tender Centre". I "had to" do a few mods to the cabinent to keep things cool. (Brad will be proud :) ) I cut 2 holes in the 2nd shelf and added some 4" thermo fans, the computer (which has a very noisy fan of its own that only engages when the computer gets hot) sits on top and sits on top of the 2 fans, then a fan 3rd fan goes between the folded down screen and the computer (screen is unscrewed from its hinges).
The 3 fans run from an old 240/12V transformer from a cordless drill battery charger :)
So now we surf the net, MSN (with webcam) watch DVD's listen to music etc etc. all from the computer, through the TV.

Some more pics of Anika at the Warrnambool wildlife park.
She loved the Wallaby! The last pic is of Anika with her 2 cousins, Abby and Georgia.

Well I found out how to make it rain here!
1) Borrow a really expensive frame from my pro racer mate, and build it up with all the gear from my bike ready for the weekend. Christina and Anika were still down in Adelaide, so the lounge room became the bike workshop :)
So I was looking at buying this bike. But decided I was better off building my own.

None the less, it is an awesome bike, and for the non-mountain bikers, having this frame in my possesion gave me some MAJOR bragging rights!

Turns out it rained the entire weekend, so I didn't even get to test this beauty out!
. (You know your pro when the serial number is your name ;) )

Some more pics, showing Anika's new bike trailer. and her with my cap on :)
Then out to lunch in Brisbane and playing with Aunty Caddie.

Still no teeth.
Can sit up and grab things really well.
Talks jumble "mum-mum-mum" "dad-dad-dad"
And LOVES Ebby to death!! Whenever Eb enters the room Anika just screams. We have been telling her "Ebby" whenever she sees her, and the last fews days we both think we have heard her say "Ebby". So although not 100% confirmed, Eb gets the prize for the first word/association.

Well, at the end of October Chrissy, AniBunny and I went down to Warrnambool to visit the in-laws. I really like it down there, I guess because David always has a healthy supply of "Aldi's" Premium beer, and because I can relax.
The pics in this post are actually from later on in the week, I went home, but Chrissy and Ani went on to Christina's Grandpa's 90th Birthday in Adelaide.
There are pics of Ani and her great Grandpa, and Suzanne, etc. I will post up a Youtube link here too.

It was a big day for AniBunny last Sunday, first Church, where she had her say on the womens ordination sermon. Then onto Grandma's to give some home renovation tips. Then home to get changed into her swim suit and down to the pool for a swim.
Off home for a quick nap, then out to Grandad's farm for the first time.
She went for a ride on the sheep, pulled its nose, then on to Grandad's almost finished 1929 Chev. A great day, but a big one. I will post Anika's first swim lesson next, that was the Thursday before this. Enjoy again.

Anika and Nan
Well Nan was in hospital after a hip replacement. So we took the opportunity to visit her. Anika is her 30th great grandchild!
Enjoy the pics and vid!
Anika is giggling now, soo cute! Yet to catch it on video though.

Well Chrissy and Anika are away for the week at Cairns.

Here is a video of Anika for all her loyal fans. She says Hi!

More to come when she comes home from her tropical holiday.

Here's some more.

Anika's telling us all sorts of stuff now, it's very cute! :)

She has found her hands, but still hasn't decided to suck her fingers or her thumb. Also grabbing her hanging toys and pulling them around. Smart lil girl she is :) Tall too! she is taller than 95% of all other babies.

So I am adding some more pics from Anika's Baptism
They pretty well speak for themselves I think. Might go and compress some more and post them up now.
We spent the weekend hanging out after driving down to Coffs Harbour Friday night, and after some car dramas coming straight back Saturday :S
Anyway, enjoy the pics!

Finally I have posted some more pics.We are all well, Anika is sleeping well, not right through the night yet though.We are all lying in bed (Sat morning) as I write this.The pics start from 6 May. Anika and Eb get along well, Eb is quite watchfull over her. Christina takes her down to Lake Annand to look at the ducks and get some sun a few times a week. More pics to come!

Latest pics are from Barbsy's camera and go back a fair while (Christmas) One is a little 'modified' I was bored, and Barbsy' Chrissy and I are sitting here in the lounge room and it was such a laugh I thought i would post my work.
the other pic is of me at christmas bathing Georgia, check out my legs! Man that hurt. I burnt them rock fishing with Ben, I thought i would be right cause it was cool and overcast... Damn hole in the ozone layer!!! :( I had a bank of blisters about 3X5sm on my thigh near my knee.
The other pic is my 2 beautiful girls at Burgers for lunch today.
I didn't go as I was really enjoying playing with my bike. Has been a while since I couldn't even do up a bolt with my collar bone.
I was so excited that I asked my Bro to take me for a few runs of Flaggon (local DH track) It was soo brilliant to feel that dirt drifting under my wheels, I felt fast but probably wasn't lol :)

About time mum and Anika had some pics together! So here you go. Feeding time this arvo.
The other pics are mainly for my geek friend Brad (and Di). Although it is a worthy post as i love my new computer, and you all should too, because this blog wouldn't be here with my old computer (too much hassle)..
Ok so you can see the cool Qosmio mouse pad, and the fingerprint security and anodized aluminium case etc.

So last night I fed Anika. Chrissy's Milk bar is closed for refurbishment, so expression and bottle feeding is the way to go for a few days. Which meant Dad could feed her during the night.
Dad's Birthday started at 3am with his daughter.
Now it is 9am, (I have slept a fair bit in between and Christina has been up) and I am watching my birthday present from Chris, Anika and Eb A mountain bike DVD called Earthed 3 (I have 1 & 2) it is awesome, but brings a tear to my eye as I miss riding so much :(
Anyway, above pics are a bit old, but needed to be added,
Featuring, the Mitchel's (all 2.75 of them) the Smiths and Grandma Geldard, Unka Stu, enjoy!

BIKES:
EDIT: The Pink bike is Chrissy's Jump bike, itis actually fluro pink with a candy/pearl overcoat. it looks really cool! I am going to enjoy riding it :P

True to the title I have added my Bike to the babies and bellies :)
This is the pride of the fleet (I have 5 bikes, one for road, one for cross country mountain biking, one for downhill mountain biking, one for dirt jumps and street mountain biking, one freeride mtb). My Yeti DH9 (Downhill bike). I love it but haven't been able to ride it since i broke my collar bone :( Maybe next weekend I reckon (don't tell christina ;) )

PICS ABOVE:
Anika's room, elephant light and all.
Our lil girl sleeping so cutely!
Dad decked her cot out with all her teddies up on the top rail to watch over her. And her aquarium off course (Ben Pohlner you would love it.
A close up of the aquarium Dad bought her yesterday while supposedly being out getting some 'essentials' and upgrading his computer hehehe:)
THE AQUARIUM:
It does some cool stuff, bubbles float up in the water as`the fish swim around and it playes some lulabies. you can set it to just have the tunes or lights and tunes, or bubbles etc. Anika is very alert, so she lies there and watches it which I think is pretty amazing!

ALL HOME AND SETTLED!
We all slept well last night! Amazing! Woke up at 1am after putting her down at 9pm.
Then only woke up at 5am. Anika likes her new home. No wonder.. I sorta went shopping for a foot rest 'poof' yesterday arvo, and also got an extra gig of ram in my new computer (it flies now for all you geeks who care)

In an effort to keep some very interested readers happy I am posting up some more pics.

We are at home now! It is so much better than having to drive to the hospital (then walk from the carpark).
And Chrissy is much more content I feel, we are guessing Anika will sleep better tonight without the other babies disturbing her, she went down well this arvo.
Chrissy is feeding her right now while i write this, after this I burp and put her to bed while Chris has dinner ( bbq chicken myspecial marinate)..
more pics of others soon, no particular order here.
I am tired, and going to bed for a bit (i assume it will only be a bit :S )
Pics of Stu and Mum coming...

To explain the pictures: Clockwise:
Me on the bed early on in labour, well Chrissy wasn;t using it! :)
Chrissy and Anika about 1 hour after she was born.
Anika and I the next morning.
The bottom pic doesn't really capture the moment that well, Chrissy had just started hooking into the nitrous, She was pretty trippy it was funny, comparitively speaking she wasn't in that much pain at this earlier stage of labour hence the smile :) That went away about an hour later :S
And off course I never breathed the Nitrous in while Christina wasn't using it, No way! Not me. I just held it for her, after all it would only make me feel giggly and light headed and funny, and who would want that ;)




Here She comes!!!
Chrissy started having contractions 1 bit after midnight Friday morning. She only woke me up at 3am (Yay for sleep!) Now we are parents! Anika FAITH Geldard (EDIT: I was tired, and we were considering Grace, and changed our minds) was born Friday night at 9:48pm, (8 pound 11 ounces, 54cm, a chubby bubby :) )
You do the math! That's a long time to feel uncomfort and pain! In true Chrissy style she just went about dealing with what she had to do (with some weak moments thrown in for good measure here and there!)
Anyway, pics!!
I am off to the hospital soon, so will come back here at another time and post some more news.

I thought it right to dedicate my first post to Chrissy's belly as it is playing such a big part in our lives at the moment.