By the seaside

On the last day of our long Christmas holiday we decided that a day at the seaside would help body (Jack's been having a particularly bad time with the latest round of chemo) and mind (it's been a Hellish few months for all of us and we are all upset at the prospect of Jay and Mark having to return to work and leave Jack home alone).

Jack loves the water and couldn't wait to wade in, and then thoroughly enjoyed getting sandy afterwards. A spot of snooping at the other dogs frolicking in the surf followed, before a drive to the nearby marina where we ate an early lunch of fresh fish and chips, straight off the trawlers. Mark did some snooping of his own - at luxury boats - and then it was back home for a long, lazy afternoon.

Jack's 12th Birthday - Picnic By The River

Jack's 12th birthday was a fun day full of family, friends and fans of the two, three and four-legged kind. There were lots of canine friends in attendance and everyone brought something to eat and it was a long, lazy day by the river. Jack was exhausted by the time we got home, but really enjoyed making lots of new friends and basking in the attention and adoration.

Mark worked hard on a three tier cake for Jack's birthday

The finished cake had two tiers of fruit cakes for the humans and was topped with a cupcake for Jack, with bacon

Doggie treat bags for all Jack's four-legged friends

Jack, in the car and ready to go to his birthday picnic

Opening presents, but also keeping an eye on the his guests

Mark with his amazing creation, topped with a sparkler

The birthday boy

Party animals!

Relaxed and peaceful, long and lazy afternoon in the park by the river

Keeping an eye on what the other four-legged guests are up to

Family, friends and fans, of the two-, three- and four-legged variety

Christmas Lunch

Our traditional Christmas lunch with all the trimmings.

Hasselback potatoes

Turkey with chipolatas

Festive Brussels sprouts

Bread sauce

Stuffing

Christmas lunch

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Christmas present from Tania and Mike: Dinner at Lure

Lure at the Coro

21/12/2012

Tan and Mike (avec Cosmopolitan) 

Jay and Mark 

Sourdough bread with olive and pistachios 

Mike with a dozen oysters, natural with lemon  

Tania with oysters kilpatrick 

Mark with tasting platter 

Jay with seafood chowder 

Tan with Moreton Bay bugs and scallops 

Mike with snapper with bok choy and prawns 

Mike with snapper with bok choy and prawns 

Jay with Moreton Bay bugs and scallops 

Father's Day Lunch

Atlantic salmon, garlic prawns, Greek salad and thickly buttered baguette.

Mark's Birthday (part 2 - 25th August)

We finally managed to reschedule the whale watching trip, originally organised for Mark's actual birthday, on Saturday the 25th of August (over two months after his birthday!!!). After several weeks of wonderfully sunny weather the day before the scheduled day was overcast and gloomy and we were worried the expedition would be cancelled again. Luckily, however, the Saturday of the trip dawned without a cloud in the sky and we had a wonderful time and saw turtle, dolphins and plenty of whales.

Our captain and guide, from Whales in Paradise, was very informative about the houses of the rich and famous, even if he did crack some terrible jokes ("Kylie Minogue owned an apartment there... I should be so lucky!").

Trawler going out for the afternoon.

The birthday boy enjoying his belated birthday outing. 

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The day ended with a quick bite to eat at Surfers and then it was back home.