Fishing with The DuffMan

Doug Stewart (Emma's dad) and I love fishing so we booked in a few hours with Lake Jindabyne's fishing legend Mark Duffy. Doug and I started at 5.30 am and by 6.30 am we had 3 Brown Trout under our belts. The first fish went to Doug landing a 1.2 kg and 10 mins later I landed a 1.7 kg and Doug pulled in a whopper at 2.7 kg. We then moved spots to do some Rainbow Trout fishing and Doug snagged and let me reel in a 1.2 kg Rainbow Trout plus I caught a small Brown Trout but we let it back as we had 3 big ones.
In the photos Doug is holding all our fish as I don't like touching them but I held my 1.7 kg Brown Trout on a very long stick.
I would like to thank Doug for putting up with me all week hasseling him to fish at every opportunity plus Yabbying and Pete Hughes for letting us use the Tinny's.
I would also like to thank Doug and Terry for cooking the Trout for our dinner , which their were loads of request for more but we only cooked the little fish as Hamburgers where already organised. The fish was really lovely.

All work and some Play

With all the hard training the girls have been doing their Super Coach Pete Hughes gave the kids a treat by booking in an hour of fun of HotDogging. The kids all took turns being pulled behind a speed boat sitting on the HotDog. All of the girls had an excellent time and the bonus was that no one got injured.
Taylor and the other coxswain decided to add extra fun by wearing their fun Spider man outfits that they wear for a joke when they are training with their crews.

Jindabyne Rowing Camp

Taylor went on her first rowing camp for the year down in Lake Jindabyne. Lake Jindabyne is down in our Snowy Mountains, it is a town based on a very large Lake and is the most popular stop for when going skiing as it is easy to get to ski fields like Thredbo, Perisher Valley, Blue Cow and Smiggins.
The first part of the week was very cold with temps only reaching about 14 degrees and nights of 6 degrees. The kids had very early starts starting at 5 am for core work exercises, then a few hours rowing back for breakfast, then out from 10 am till 1 pm hiking or running back for their lunch and out again at 2 pm until 3.30pm and on the water 4.30 pm till 6.30pm. Full days and hard training.
Taylor was lucky to be coach by a new coach from Ireland, her name is Clara. Clara took Taylor's crew out to train them with some new exercises and techniques and I went out with her on the tinny to photograph a few of the training sessions. I have to say that I loved it everytime Clara would say "Glide on the Slide". Taylor's crew are under intensive training to get them in shape for US Nationals. The crew is suffering with a few injuries, so I hope they will be fit and well enough. Juliette has sore back, sitting in 1 seat at the bow (front of boat), Rebecca has a injured back and a popping shoulder, she sits in 2 seat (stroke side), Channel in 3 seat (bow)is well and Daisy in 4 seat (stroke) has a hip and wrist problem and Taylor they are trying to fatten her up so they don't have to use weights in the boat for racing, she is still 41 kg and has to reach 45 kg for racing.

Dinner at Sandy and Michael's

Last night we had a wonderful time visiting our friends Sandy and Michael - who also are photographers and they own a studio in Chatswood called Michael Chetham Photography. They specialise in relaxed family and kids photography and they photographed our family wonderfully last year.
Sandy and Michael prepared a restaurant style meal of BBQ Lamb and sausages with pumpkin, feta, pinenuts and spinach salad this was accompained by a couple of bottles of The Arrogant Frog- French Rose as the sun was setting over the trees.
Our kids spent the time trying to get to know their kids downstairs watching every scary movie they could get their hands on, while us adults chatted to the wee hours of the morning. Thanks again Sandy and Michael for a wonderful night out.

Cocky and Dillon Update

Good news! I did a letter box drop to see if anyone lost "Cocky" and a neighbour two doors up claimed him as the owner was away in Melbourne and his son checked on him and found he was gone but saw my notice in his letter box. Another happy ending.
Dillon's foot is starting to look better, she still finds it sore to walk on and has been stuck between lounge and bed for two days. She still has some swelling and her foot still looks a bit blue. Very sad.

New Year's Day

New Year's Day started out the perfect day with the weather being at temperatures of 27 degrees and no wind. As Darren and I were having our breakfast out the front of the house a visitor came in the form of a Sulfur Crested Cockatoo. At first I thought he was a wild bird as we have them nesting in the neighbours tree and there is a lot of them in the neighbourhood but I went for a closer look and found that he greeted me with "Hello Cocky". Hmmmm I said this does not seem wild to me so we carried him into the front yard so a dog or person would not hurt him as he is really quiet gentle. Of course Oliver (the cat) and Chloe (the dog) were also very keen to check him out also. Oliver is feed way to much food to think about hurting a bird - I mean why go to the effort when food comes to you.
He spent last night in our front yard and my neighbour Bill said he would keep him until someone claimed they have lost a pet cockatoo mean while Darren was not interested and went to spend his New Year's Day floating in the pool until he got the call about Dilly's foot- poor thing she can hardly walk, but the medicine is kicking in and I don't think she will have to go to hospital.

Dillon's Foot

For 2008 Dillon has already started out on a bad foot- literally, she woke this morning with a very inflamed swollen foot. She was sleeping over at her friend's house and Darren picked her up and took her straight to Concord Hospital. The doctor informed her she has Cellulitis and has put her on a course of Oral Antibiotics - but he said if it does not get better tomorrow she will have to have a combination of intravenous and oral antibiotics. Bed rest and elevation of affected foot was also recommended. Poor little Dilly!
She got a blister and picked the top of it and I put on antiseptic and blister spray to protect it but she picked that of as well and the new scab saying it was itchy. When will kids listen to their mother.

Happy New Year 2008 from Den Helder

Paul Jan and the family spent a nice warm evening indoors by the look of it. Thanks again for keeping us informed. Happy New Year Van de Wints!

Happy New Year 2008

Taylor and Darren decided to venture into Sydney via ferry boat to watch the 9 p.m. fireworks that Sydney put on every New Years Eve. The fireworks are such a big deal here people wait for hours minding their foreshore vantage spots to get what they hope is the best view of the best fireworks display in the world.
The fireworks pictures are not taken by Darren but by our very talented newspaper photographers - Peter Morris, Domino Postiglione, Rick Stevens and some from Reuters. They have really captured the spirit of our fireworks.
Taylor looks very beautiful with her sun-kissed skin from a few days a Bondi and the local Kiwi boys think Darren is one of them with his fabulous tan- I am so jealous as I just go red.
Sydney have two sets of fireworks a 9.p.m. set for the kids - this years theme was "Time of your life" and the 2nd sets is of course at midnight where most of the Sydney-siders are well into their cups to actually see the fireworks.
Happy New Year everyone and a safe 2008.

Christmas in Den Helder

Thanks to Paul Jan in Den Helder we have more beautiful family photos. How cute are the little elves in their wonderful Christmas clothes - even Bully (dog) is in the Christmas spirit.
I noticed a little bit of Harry Potter in the presents. It is also wonderful for the kids to have both grandmothers their to see their little excited faces - that is very special and so Christmas.
It is really lovely to see every one enjoying a excellent family meal and I am sure it was also full of very funny stories. The family also had many thoughts and feelings about the close family they lost over the years. Christmas dinner was celebrated at Rietjes place, where I am sure the meal was exceptional. We noticed in the table photo the phantom (Gijs) was not there - but were happy to see Rietjes mum and Roya's mum and cousins there as well. Hope everyone had a great Christmas!
The second day they all had dinner in Paul Jan and Roya's new house with one of the best sunsets we have seen in a while.
Thanks again for the photos - I love getting them so I can print off and put into albums. the kids love it too to show off their family in Holland.