Email to Kerri (Oct 2013)

Hi there Kerri

Would you believe it, it's me, a blast from your past!! I was thinking about you the other day, as I often do, and I just wanted to send a quick email to say hi.

I'm so sorry about my silence over the past few years, since Ally and I split up.  I've always been so very fond of you, and what happened between me and Ally never changed that in the slightest. But after our break up, I went inwards and shut off from reaching out to anybody.  And then weeks turned to months to years as so often happens.

Anyway, I just wanted to say hi and that I often think of you and always enjoy getting news about your life from Ally. I've also got some news from my mum - thanks so much for sending her the emails that you have. I heard from Ally the other day that you're working on the coca cola account - that sure is an iconic brand to have on your CV!!  It's great that you're working in North Sydney too.  Aren't we lucky, not having to cross the bridge every day!

Life on my side is good. I'm doing work I enjoy with plenty of free time to go hiking and camping on weekends.  I have a passion for tennis and play every week. I meditate every day and it's made such a huge difference to my anxiety and blessed me in many ways. I still enjoy photography.  Mack is also still the great love of my life - he's as gorgeous as ever and hardly slowed down at all, still full of energy and always got a drop of pee for every bush on his walks. Thank you so much for bring Mack into my life like you did - I just can't imagine how much poorer life would have been without him!

There's no need to send a long reply to my email, I know how busy things are. But know that I wish you all good things including happiness, joy, laughter and fun.

Love,
Graeme

South African evening

We had Greg, Ellen, Charles, Pascal, Kerry and Cora over for dinner last night. Greg and Ellen are off to South Africa on honeymoon in a few months so that was the theme of the evening with boerwors, Babootie and peppermint crisp dessert on offer. Cora (below) is a new friend of Ally's from cooking class - she's lovely. As you can see from the bottom photo, everyone was totally stuffed by the end of the evening and the reclining position was the only comfortable position to be in.

Fun at the Belgian Beer Cafee...

A kilogram of mussels,a plethora of delicious sauces to choose from and a large side plate of crispy chips (with mayonaise of course) all for $12. What a great evening out. Plus I got to try out Charles super duper new camera - see photos below. The camera is so sensitive to light, I did not need a flash...

Ally's birthday lunch

We invited Kerry, Charles and Katrin over for left overs from our dinner the night before.
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Christmas 2008

We made the most of our new home this year by inviting all our orphan friends (i.e. those without family in Australia) over for Xmas lunch. Ally as usual outdid herself with a veritable feast (I'm still stuffed 5 hours later!) The glazed ham was the highlight. The barbecued lamb and prawns were also pretty good. Dessert was a wonderful joint effort with Kerry doing her famous lemon cheesecake, Ingrid her delicious Forest Chocolate Cake and Eva her orgasmic mango icecream. I can't wait to tuck into the left overs tomorrow...

Canooing trip through Kangaroo Valley

We have just returned from a fantastic weekend canooing through the Kangaroo Valley. The scenery was gorgeous and we were with a great crowd (Kerri, Katrin, Charles, Ellen and Greg) and all was fun. Except the first day's paddling! We had the strongest head wind imaginable and even the most frantic paddling didn't seem to help us make headway. 13 km's we rowed, against the wind, and by the time we hit camp, we were beyond exhausted and feeling very sore indeed. After a delicious meal (Ally excelled herself with a chicken and chorizo salad), we hit bed just after dark (after watching a stunning sunset.)

Then at first light, we discovered that (of all the places we could have settled), we had set up camp on a 4wd track and we woke to the thunderous roar of 4 wheel drives coming down to the river to launch their boats. But it was the most beautiful still morning without a hint of even a breath - so we were delighted and relieved.

Rowing along the crystal clear water with forests and granite rocks on each side was a wonderfully relaxed experience (without the wind) and by the time we arrived at the end of the stint, we were all ready to come back again (having forgotten the agony of the previous day.) Enjoy the photos below - they were taken with my small camera as I wasn't brave enough to bring my Cannon SLR. In retrospect, it would have been fine - there was no capsizing by anyone.

All in all, a great weekend...

Weekend at Jervis Bay

Kerry goes national....

Kerry designed two bottles of wine for a big brand here in Australia using a Chineese dragon theme. Needless to say we've sampled the wine and its very nice. The bottles are now available in bottle stores all over Australia. Well done Kerry on an excellent design.
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Ally's birthday party

We had a great part outside our flat, on the lawn overlooking the harbour bridge and Opera House. Ally put on the most fabulous spread including blue cheese quiches with caremelised onion, sundried tomato and basil quiches, Satay chicken, salmon in filo pastry, lamb sausages, beef meatballs, prawns in pancetta, fruit galore and crisp fresh veggies to dip into a mint dip. Then up to the flat for Bree Cheese with caremelised macadamian nuts, Kerry's now famous cheesecake, more fruit and coffee. Needless to say, everyone was totally stuffed by the time the party was over!
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Christmas 2007

This Christmas, we drove up to Brisbane to spend a couple of days with our Australian side of the family. We had a great time fully of festive fun and lots of delicious food.

One of the highlight of Xmas for us was having our faces painted! Carleen has turned her creative genius to doing face paintings at parties and after a very short period of time, she has become extremely good at it. Here, as per our requests, is me as Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Kerry as a Tiger and Ally as a Polar Bear. Carleen's has a face painiting site where she has lots of examples of her work. Really fantastic.

Another highlight for me was giving Beth and Richard framed pictures of some of my bird photos (male and female fairy wrens). This is the first time I have ever printed one of my photos and it felt very special. Richard and Beth like their birds and touched with the gift. They insisted I sign it!

On Christmas morning we were up early to watch the kids open their presents from Santa. Then we headed to the beach for a breakfast picnic. One of the presents was water pistols for each person (an inspired gift!!) and we spent a good chunk of our morning shooting at each other. Great to be young again! No photos of the action unfortuntely. But plenty of Glen and the kiddies frolicking in the water and sand...
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Another popular present was this large bubble maker. Ally and Kerry won the prixe for the biggest bubbles...
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Here is the family all spruced up to goto Xmas Carols at the local school...



...and more photos of the kids. They are absolutely adorable, I am sure you will agree....

...particularly this little one...




Here is one of the famous landmarks on the way up to Brisbane - the "Big Prawn". There is also a Big Banana, Big Pine Apple and Big Marino in Australia but we have yet to tick these exciting icons of Australian culture off our list. Oh, its great to have purpose in life!
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