We had a good night last night down at Ocean Grove caravan park with John and Bec and their extended family, who stay down there for 2-3 weeks every year. Fish and chips for dinner, a few beers, some ridiculous conversation and some cards a bit later. Then up early for a surf this morning, and back to the caravan park for lunch and a walk on the beach in the afternoon. We love camping and are looking forward to doing a whole lot more this year.
Didn’t take many photos (too busy having fun) but here’s one of Bec all rugged up last night (it cooled off when the sun went down), and a couple of John, Bec and our godson Isaac on Ocean Grove beach this afternoon.
My old friend Saul is cycling the Tour de France route for the next few months and he’s keeping a journal of his adventure. Follow his trip at http://saulfollett.wordpress.com/.
Just back from a weekend in Melbourne celebrating the wedding of our friends Jeremy and Gita. On Saturday we enjoyed the lovely simple ceremony and low-key party with around 50 guests at The Commune in East Melbourne, today we had morning coffee with John, Bec and baby Isaac, and then drove to Ikea in Richmond for the afternoon. (And it really was for the entire afternoon. But it was OK. We bought some stuff.)
Jed and Gita have been engaged for around three years, so there were plenty of jokes in the speeches around it being about time they finally tied the knot. Sadly it was also a farewell party – they’re off to Indonesia next week to live there for a couple of years. We’ll miss them, but we hope to get over there for a visit sometime next year.
Our friends James and Lou bring their puppy Ellie down to the beach most weekends and she has learnt to enjoy the water, but she’s never actually swum – it’s risky letting her get out of her depth in the surf.
So this morning we walked all the way up to the Barwon Heads bridge so that she could swim in one of the small channels in the river. James picked her up, walked out to the middle of the channel where it was thigh deep, and dropped her in. Naturally she swam to the side like she’d been doing it all her life. I guess it’s hard-wired into a dog’s brain – particularly a Golden Retriever’s.
Swimming like a champion
Happy to have reached the water’s edge
Max showing her how it’s done
The channel at Barwon Heads – perfect for a dog’s first swim
Headed out for a quick wake session on the bay this morning with Iao and Jed. I was a bit tentative – it was my first time back on the board since I tore my ab muscles – but Iao and Jed were sliding around enjoying themselves. Jayne never goes in the bay (sharks, jellyfish, seaweed, plankton) but was content to drive me when I was riding and then lap up the sun for the rest of the time.
We had a minor incident with the boat (which we still haven’t named properly – Tasty / Muchacha / Tight Squeeze / Povvo Pack). After we’d finished riding we decided to zoom out towards Clifton Springs to see if the water was flatter over there, so I opened up the throttle and we whizzed along flat out at around 5,000rpm (55km/h) for 10 minutes or so. Then, for no apparent reason, the revs suddenly dropped, the motor cut out and I couldn’t start it again. Wouldn’t turn over. Apart from the obvious disappointment that the motor was buggered I was slightly gutted that we’d have to row the thing back to the boat ramp, given that we’d travelled roughly 5km.
Then a couple of minutes later she started, so I carefully stuck it in forward and crept along at 1,000rpm for 30 seconds … no problem … then tried it a bit quicker … no problem … then up to 3,000rpm … no problem … back to idle … no problem … back to 3,000rpm … no problem. She was as smooth as silk again.
No idea what happened, but my guess is that the old Chrysler got a bit hot and said “I’ve had enough of this”. It’s 30 years old, after all.
Anyway, doesn’t seem to be any harm done. She started fine when I flushed it out when we got home. Any ideas Matt?
Our friends John and Bec had their baby on Monday morning. Isaac John was born 8lb 3oz and healthy. We went to see them at the hospital for a few hours on Wednesday evening. Here are a couple of photos…..
Every 12 months or so my golfing friends and I head to a fancy golf course for the Blue Jacket Masters. Previous winners have been Adrian, Jon (The Dunes), Adrian again, then Matt. I can’t remember the courses that Adrian and Matt won on. Maybe they’re reading this and will record their past glories in the comments.
Anyway, this year we were on the 13th Beach beach course (not a typo, it’s called the beach course), which is a tough layout and is rated the 17th best course in Australia. Here’s one of the holes. Scary when there’s a four club breeze blowing across from the sea.
We had yet another great day and this year John triumphed – his 36 stableford points off a handicap of 27 just beating me on 34 (off 20). Nice one John! Here he is in front of the 13th clubhouse, proudly wearing the Blue Jacket.
P.S. That’s a cameraphone pic. Takes a nice shot, does the new phone.
Been a good weekend so far. Up early for a surf on Saturday, a lazy breakfast with Kate, Bec, Damian and John in Barwon Heads, home to hitch the boat up for a wake session in the afternoon, back home again for a BBQ (in the rain!), some Texas Hold ‘Em, up early-ish again today for another surf, home for pancakes, then a solid afternoon’s gardening. I’m surfing again in the morning (4-5ft offshores, which should be good) and then we’re heading to Sim and Bek’s in the afternoon for Mexicana night. Phew!
The wake session wasn’t great (lots of chop) but all the Skandia Geelong Week boats were out so we joined the flotilla and watched the monster yachts as they approached Geelong instead. We had to stay out of their way though – they were moving pretty quickly ‘cos they had their main sails up. It was an amazing sight and great to be out there less than 50m away rather than watching them from the shore!
Our friends James and Lou have a new puppy, Ellie, and this morning they brought her down to the beach for the first time. It was also the first time she’d met another dog (i.e. Max). She looked like she was having a ball – not afraid of the water (but a bit wary of the moving waves), sniffing and playing with the seaweed, running around with Max and so on. It even seemed as though she was copying him when she was on the lead by walking along properly. Not bad for an 11-week-old!
I’ve been slack with the jayneandmarty.com posts over the last few weeks. No excuse other than I was on holidays and didn’t really feel like sitting in front of the computer. But I’m back now, so here’s a round up of what we’ve been up to.
Wakeboarding day trip to Eildon, 29 Dec 07
On Sat 29th Jayne, me, Jon B and Iao went to Eildon for a day’s wakeboarding. Jayne and I left Geelong at 6.30am with Georgia and Lindsay, who had stayed an extra night with us. Paul and Catherine (and Nicki) were at Eildon for the day too, so the plan was to drive the girls up there and hand them back to their owners before meeting up with Jon and Iao and heading for the water. The drive up took us just under 3 hours (we went the Princes Freeway/Ring Road/Hume Freeway/Seymour/Yea/Alexandra route, which was smooth and easy) and after a bit of stuffing around at the Eildon shops and a wait at the busy Jerusalem Creek boat ramp we were on the water by 11am.
The lake’s at about 23%, which is around 20m below full, but there’s still plenty of water there. We tooled out of the Jerusalem Creek inlet at the obligatory 5 knots and headed right towards the Big River arm looking for some flat water. There were heaps of boats out on the water (understandable, as it was at least 35 degrees, Christmas week and a Saturday) but we managed to find a reasonably sheltered bay and shared it with only three or four other boats, one of which was a Pride Cheetah like ours called Herbie.
On Jon’s second run he had a big stack and ripped his boardies up the side. The rip got progressively worse as the day went on and by 3pm we were keeping an eye out for the water cops in case they busted him for indecent exposure. You can see the rip in the photo just before the “I’m the King of the World” one in the slideshow. At about 3pm we met up with Paul and Catherine. I had a go on their biscuit behind Nicki’s boat and Lindsay had a board behind our boat (video below). We finally pulled the boat out at about 4.30, all of us stuffed. After a quick feed from the Eildon bakery we cruised home, arriving just before 9pm.
It was a big day, and I’d do it like that again, but even better would be staying up there for the night. It was a bit like driving to the snow for the day – by 5pm all you want to do is relax in the pub and talk about the day over a beer or two. The last thing on your mind is driving home.
Picasa slideshow
Lindsay’s wakeboarding video
Golf with Peter and Christine
On Jan 2 Peter and I went for a hit of golf at Queenscliff, and Christine came too to drive the cart. Apparently she’d never been to a golf course before, let alone driven a cart, so it’s no wonder that she was VERY cautious on the throttle for the first three holes. By the fourth, though, she’d got the hang of it and was tearing around like a veteran with a big smile on her face (witness Peter holding on for dear life in the last two pics).
More wakeboarding
On Saturday we went for another board, this time on Corio Bay with Iao, Jed and Gita. The wind was up a bit but we zoomed over to the northern part of the bay to look for shelter and managed to find some reasonably flat water. Jayne won’t go in the bay (sharks) and Gita was just along for the ride but Iao, Jed and I all had a crack. It was Jed’s first time and he (a) managed to get out of the water first go, and (b) looked very comfortable on both edges. He was all smiles whenever he pulled off a decent carve.
Unfortunately I hurt myself on my second run – I caught the front edge, overstretched and then faceplanted. Before my face had even hit the water I knew I’d ripped one of the muscles in my abdomen but I also must have smacked my head around a bit because for the rest of the day and through Sunday I was nauseous and dizzy. This morning I went to the doctor and she confirmed a muscle tear and some ear trauma. Nothing too serious though so I’ll be at work tomorrow.
All in all it was a great couple of weeks off. Having Greg and Donna with us meant that the house was full and busy most of the time (sometimes a bit too busy!) but we all managed to find our own space.
Jayne and I spent plenty of time with each other at the beach, on the boat, with friends and family and just enjoying the hot weather … summer’s great!
