The move South

We left our house pack until Christmas Eve day as we had the McGlinchey clan visit from Townsville during the week prior. We had an excellent week, with lots of fun and mayhem. Prior to their arrival, I drove the motorbike to Canberra and flew back to Brisbane. We needed to do this, as we didn’t have a house to move in to, and I needed the bike as soon as I got down here.

MacK loved having Caitey and Riley in situ, and has talked about their visit regularly since. Just before we left Brisbane, we discovered a lovely restaurant at Southbank called Ole. It is a Spanish Tapas restaurant, and the slow braised lamb shoulder is lovely. The first time we visited, Jane had the octopus and chorizo, which was also lovely. We spent a lovely afternoon in the Southbank pools with the McGlincheys before a lovely relaxing meal at Ole.

 Our wee man is growing up!

 MacK and Riley 

 Caitey - MacK's first great love!

 Tim & Jo - great friends from our time in the 'Ville

Come on Jo - time to bounce!

The move went well, with a great bunch of lads responsible for the pack and uplift of our furniture. We managed to secure a house in Wodonga, so went into Christmas Day with a plan for the rest of the move.

We did a bit of driving on Christmas Day, but managed to see all of the important people. We had a really casual brunch at Mum and Dad’s on the Sunshine Coast (Nanny and Poppy on the coast, as MacK calls them) before travelling to South Brisbane for a beer, swim and excellent ham with friends in Tarragindi. Despite being full, and needing sleep, we accepted an invitation to drive to North Lakes to have Christmas Dinner with cousins of mine. We had a couple of really nice wines and a roast duck dinner with cherry sauce. We slept very well that night!

 Tyson & MacK. Every uncle loves to give a water pistol…

 MacK showing Jane the ONLY hippopotamus she is allowed in the farm!

 Hudson, Ty & Harri

Tiff & Mum - Christmas day

Boxing Day saw us up early for our drive south. We stopped in on the Gold Coast with Fred and Raewyn to see all the Tickelpennys. We had a great breakfast, and finally got to meet a couple of new tiny cousins. It is really good to see the family growing - our generation has been a bit slack on the progeny front, with most leaving it to the last minute! We drove to Kempsey, and then on to Sydney. We spent a couple of days with family in Sydney where we managed to catch up with a couple of friends. From there, it was off to Canberra for a much required ten day rest.

I found that with the move into daylight savings, we all slept much later in the mornings. It was quite unusual for me to be asleep at 8:00am, but I did manage it once. I can see Dad now, saying “Get out of bed, you lazy bugger!”

After last years New Year’s Eve shenanigans on Sydney Harbour, it was Clare’s turn to organise the night this year. We ended up having a really good fun night at Clare’s with a couple of beers, some snacks and cards. We didn’t even notice that midnight had come and gone, and so commenced 2014 in the best fashion possible – plenty of laughs, some smart arse comments (and not all from me!), a couple of drinks and the best company possible.

We also organised another afternoon session. We had so much fun playing cards that we wanted to do it all again. Leigh had some octopus in the freezer, and we decided to “Get our inner wog on”. We fried octopus, calamari and haloumi cheese (not together), and had fresh bread, cheeses and dips. We drank pastis with ice and chilled water, and the girls drank a gin based cocktail that we had tasted in a restaurant previously. It was a lovely afternoon, whiling away the time with cards, food and booze. I would that every afternoon could be as good!

From there it was off to Wodonga for our new home and the start of my work year. The house is fine, except that there is a paucity of storage, and that the ensuite and I can’t be in the ensuite at the same time. The offload of our furniture went well, and the few damages we suffered were relatively minor.

MacK had his first sleepover away from Jane, and had a lovely night. He spent time watching an Everest documentary of Phyl’s, and now wants to climb in the snow with George Mallory!

He came down with Peter and Clare who helped us unpack. Clare wanted to unpack the books, but struggled with the referencing system (being mine, of course). We resolved the issue by agreeing that we have different OCD requirements, and she consoled herself by alphabetically sorting the CD collection.