Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary come to stay

Both The Queen Mary (in all her enormous girth - she's one big girl!) and The QE2 spent a night in port in Sydney this week - to the excitement of all.

As the eloquent Morning Sydney Herald said:

TWO queens came to Sydney yesterday and their loyal subjects lost their heads. Crowds swarmed, roads were clogged and buses stalled late into the night as the Queen Mary 2 prepared to leave the harbour after a rendezvous with its sister vessel the Queen Elizabeth 2.

The scenes were reminiscent of the heady days of the British Empire, when ocean conquest was often followed by a spot of tea. At 23 storeys high, the QM2 took possession of Sydney Harbour. Too tall to sail under the bridge, too long to berth at Circular Quay, it made the Opera House look like the outhouse.

We got to see the QE2 across the harbour close to our apartment and a sneak of the Queen Mary's chimney accross the way (she was too big to come into the harbour).

To celebrate having such esteemed guests to stay, we then got to enjoy a great fireworks display.

Aren't they cute!!

More Aussie bird portraits

The spiders are breeding in Sydney at the moment...

... they are everywhere!

What to do with your Pooch while you go to the restaurant...

You know you are in Australia when...

Playing with the Rebecca, Abigale and Ella at Manly

With parents Neil, Susanne and Brendan in tow...

A child after my own heart!

Russel hits Hollywood!!

Russel is an extra at the moment for a big budget French Fantasy movie being filmed in Cape Town. Its sort of like Stargate, with someone slipping into a parallel world, and there are 2 warring tribes.

Russel is starring as a Begamanian, a tribe of simple peasant farmers who get eaten buy the nasty Zoltanians.

In Russel's words:

"Its fun as we get to wear funky outfits, and I look fab with a dash of heavy eyeliner! Whats no so fun is the heat and sandstorms, and the itchy wigs. The outfits get darn hot, and it was over 40 the other day, with people fainting from the heat.

We have filmed at a wine farm in Somerset west, where we got to meet the lead actor, Jammie Plaza and today on the atlantis dunes, where we had a big fight with the Zoltanians.

As 3 stuntmen did not arrive, I got enlisted to help withthe stunts in the fight, which was great fun, and pays a lot more (I hope!)

Also filmed in an underground village thy constructed in the 3 arts, and a day at Cape point on th beach. What is not so fun is the 14 hour days, starting at 4:30 in the morning sometimes.
There is another big hollywood movie called Doomsday , with bob Hoskins,starting filming soon, so I hope I can do some of that too.

Go Russel go! Doesn't he look dashing in his costume!