Dan and Amy

Mouses House '10

2010-09-30T09:25:00.008+10:00

Thanks again have to go to Sam and Paula for letting us in on this special place - we relived our visit of 2009 by getting into the Mouses House on June long weekend (yes, yes we are desperately trying to catch up....New York and 2 more weddings to post! yikes!).

Had a wonderful time in Dopey's chalet and had some especially cheeky visitors, who thought nothing of coming inside the chalet to see what treats we may have had for them! The Video is a special favourite - enjoy!

We made it round the Springbrook national park 17km loop for once (Everytime we seem to want to walk it, it was closed for track maintenance!). It actually probably needed to more closures as there were a few fallen trees to navigate,; some pretty waterfalls and a good packed lunch made the walk worthwhile none the less!

We also ventured to the Natural Bridge section of the national park, a beautiful waterfall where the roof has been eroded. The cave behind has lots of glow worms; unforunately we were there in the morning, so didn't get to see them glowing :( Still it was a nice walk all the same :)

Jac and Graham's wedding

2010-09-21T17:50:00.013+10:00

On Saturday 18th September, my oldest and dearest friend Jac tied the knot with her fiance Graham at Pavillions in Harrogate, North Yorks.

Having only landed in the UK on the Thursday evening, it was a mad dash from liverpool to Harrogate to Leeds (then back to Harrogate) on the Friday for dress pressing and suit hiring.. thankfully it all came together and we had a wonderful day on the Saturday.

We out did ourselves by being one of the last to leave at 1am! Very pleased with that effort. Although Dan was spotted asleep in a chair at one point :)

Here's some pictures of the day (sorry there's quite a few good ones- I couldn't narrow it down any more!).

at the hairdressers in the morning

flowers arrived

brides shoes

wedding car

bridesmaid

Groom looking a bit nervous greeting the arriving guests

Dan looking swish

Bridesmaids' bouquet

Signing the register after the ceremony

Jac handing the marriage certificate to someone she trusted...(she handed this to her sister, not her new husband which had everyone in histerics!)

Me, cousin Leanne, and friend Laura

Bride looking amazing in her dress

father of the bride, Ian

Jac after the ceremony

Great effort by Dan in photoshop (Graham had his eyes closed on this gorgeous picture of Jac!)

Beautiful cupckes

Too much hairspray = tina turner!

Gabriel's First Camping

2010-05-15T10:00:00.002+10:00

OMG a blog post! I know, I know, 4 months behind. Traveling and not having my work laptop has forced me to edit some photos for a change. Stay tuned for the mouses house part 2, great barrier reef part 3 (may have left the photos at home) and the Purdy's leaving brisbane!

Not so great waves this weekend, but we were lucky enough to be visited by Gabriel and Marie.

On the Sunday, I got to try out my birthday present from my Mum&Mal, a huge kite. It was a lot of fun, all I need now is a board I can strap to my feet and I'll be kite surfing!

Seattle

2010-03-19T15:16:00.000+10:00

In March, I was lucky enough to go on a work trip to visit Microsoft in Seattle. It was all a bit last minute, but of course I was happy enough putting up with that.

We stayed in Kirkland on the shores of Lake Washington. The lake was beautiful and great for a run in the morning. Sadly part of the run had to be along the road as they had built properties right up to the shore line.

Fortunately there some time in between meetings to catch up with old friends Rob and Brad for a beer in Redmond.

The rest of the week were meetings apart from the last day. Our men at Microsoft, Jim and Frank, gave us a tour of Seattle. First stop Jim's old university and some fantastic Cherry blossom:

It was at this point I really regretted just packing the point and shoot camera :-/

Panoramic views of the city. I was designated driver for the trip and late the night we drove out an hour from the city to the twin peaks hotel and waterfall. It was creepy as all hell out in the country and we wasted a good half hour trying to find a casino in the middle of nowhere. After that we tried to drive into the city. There were a lot of road closures and even with the GPS sat nav, it took us 7 wrong turns before we got there! We milled round the the tower, the needle, and popped into a grunge bar. Sadly the photos didn't really come out :-/

The first ever Starbucks. Honestly in those window panes above the shop it says Starbucks, but the reflection blew it right out.

The Australian guy with us, Don, had never seen snow. So we spend the last afternoon driving out to the nearest Ski resort, we went back and had a look at the waterfall in the day, which turned out to be much more of a diversion than it looked on the map!

The ski resort was closed when we got there, even though there was snow on the slopes. Maybe it's just a weekend thing. Don, Andy and Dan:

There were a couple of people around filming a single snowboarder. A skidoo would take him far enough up to get a run up at the jump. Once he got to the jump there were several people taking pictures and video of him. I was most impressed by the skill of the model helicopter pilot that would also follow him in mid air. I can olny assume they had a camera attached to it as well.

Bottom of the jump and more camera crew dotted about:

Seattle's a really lovely city - shame the annual rainfall probably is more than the UK's!

Project Finished / Obscenely large tv

2010-03-03T21:57:00.004+10:00

Breaking a rule here and mentioning work, but it looks like my project has finally wrapped up in it's initial form. Finally! I feel like I have my life back again, like I just dodged a death sentence! Been working some silly hours and I'm not proud, just happy it's over.

I wanted to be on the beach learning to surf, but the weather is terrible. So i went and bought a huge tv instead.

When I got the to the shop the assistant told me "I don't think the tv will fit in your SMALL blue car and neither do the boys in the back"! I was a little taken a back, but quietly confident when i asked how many people I'd prove wrong when it fitted! 3

Tomorrow, who knows. Maybe gym, call of duty or maybe even Gabriel :-) I wont know what to do with myself :-)

Unsworth Family Day

2010-02-27T12:33:00.005+10:00

On December 27th Dan drove us up to the Lake District again to go to the Unsworth family day. We had a lovely meal at the Derby Arms Hotel followed by an exchange of presents for the kids. it was lovely to catch up with the family again.

Bar at the Derby Arms

Tom (Dan's cousin) more interested in cousin Clare's blackberry than all the presents he just received (isn't that always the way!). Mal in the background looking on...

Also we were so organised, secret santa for the adults was even drawn for Christmas 2010 !

Christmas Day

2010-02-27T12:30:00.004+10:00

Christmas Day was spent in Liverpool in the morning for Dan, where as I spent Christmas eve in the pub with Jac and Graham. Christmas lunch was round my parent's, it was great (especially the pigs in blankets).

Dan's Christmas tree

Dan's living room fire

Christmas with my family, mum, dad, Laura & Gary

Laura and Gary

Swansea

2010-02-27T12:30:00.000+10:00

The next leg of our journey took us to Swansea for the night to see Sarah, Al and Connor. Sarah and Al have been back in the UK for over a year now, and it was lovely to see them all settled and set up in their own place. Sarah cooked us a lovely chicken cassorole for dinner and the next day we went down to Swansea's winter wonderland to the fair (complete with big wheel which Connor loved looking at!). We then drove round the bay to the Mumbles and have lunch over looking the water. We only got to catch up for the one night, but Dan and I are definately looking forward to going back in September and having a bit more time together - pencil in going down to the local for a few while the grandparents babysit Connor!

Connor wanting to go closer to the big wheel

Al and Sarah, Amy and Connor (looking slightly worried by Dan the Cameraman!)

30 Years Young

2010-02-26T15:14:00.000+10:00

For my 30th we had a rather impromptu dinner celebration at Sono at Portside, Hamilton. We ate fabulous japanese food, had some good wine and great company....thanks guys for making it a special birthday celebration!

London and down South!

2010-02-18T12:29:00.000+10:00

After the wedding venue visit in Leeds, I caught up with my best friend Jac and Dan went off on his travels down to London. His travels took much longer than he thought (8 hours!!) and he has quite a funny story about that, I'll let him comment on that one!

Dan caught up with his uni mate also called Dan, but we'll always remember him as long haired Dan (LHD) as when he was in uni, he had a fantastic pony tail!. LHD has stepped out into the big world of parenthood since we last were in the UK, and here he is below with his new son, John Issac. Him and his partner El, are also getting married next year in September, so we're seeing if we can make it to four weddings on our 2010 trip!

After catching up with LHD, Dan also visited Kwan in London (should be some tagged pics of Dan on FB for that!), and then Dan drove down to Surrey to see his cheeky little bro Josh and sis Bethany (below), and catch up with Dave, Rachel and not forgetting Henry the dog too!.

I caught the train to London on the Sunday night, by this time the start of the mini-ice age that the UK has been in for most of December and January had started. It was certainly an interesting drive for Dan coming to pick me up from Guildford train station!

Thanks very much to Dave and Rachel for looking after us (and Dave's cooking). I have a real craving for that white stilton and cranberry cheese too, that was delicious :)

Also special thanks to Bethany for lending us her room to stay in. I hope you're still keeping those fishes fed!

Here's a few pics from the next few days we spent catching up with the Treble - Hunts: Good Times.

Winter wonderland - walk round farmers' fields behind Dave and Rachel's place

Three generations of Treble men: Dan with Grandad Bill and Dave....at least we can predict that Dan won't be losing his hair!

The wedding venue

2010-02-16T12:29:00.002+10:00

Having booked the wedding venue on line, it seemed like a good idea to verify that we had not made a terrible (and expensive) misstake by visiting Oulton Hall near Leeds, and catching up with our wedding co-ordinator at the hotel Helen.

We were blown away by how lovely the venue was and by all the attention to detail from the wedding planner (e.g. wedding planner: 'so when you come into the reception room, how would you like to be announced, Mr and Mrs Treble?' Me: (snigger) Mrs Treble that seems really weird!)

For those coming to the wedding there are other alternatives available for accommodation an Express by Holiday Inn only 5 mins down the road- click here for latest pricing.

More from Cumbria

2010-02-14T12:28:00.000+10:00

The Lake District is full of market towns and shops like this, very old and quaint and hiding some fabulous treasures inside. We spent a few hours wondering around these shops and enjoying tea in between!

Lovely olde tea shoppe in Kendal.

At the cottage, as well as the brilliant red squirrel we managed to encounter, we were treated to some beautiful British birds (including many types of tits, and even a Woodpecker!) Unfortunately they were all a bit too quick for us to take photos of most of the time...here is a coal tit enjoying some peanuts on bird table.

One morning we took a short drive out to one of the largest stone circles in Northern England, Long Meg and her Daughters. The legend is true, all four of us counted the stones and no one agreed on how many there were!

Louise and Mal at Long Meg and her daughters
Dan and I next to Long Meg

In the afternoon, we drove a little further to see one of the highest waterfalls in the UK, High Force. We also saw a couple of smaller (though no less impressive) falls to complete a fantastic day.

High Force falls, County Durham

Before the drive home on the Wednesday, we looked in on Dan's Grandma Unsworth. She's lived in Grange-over-Sands for over 20 years and has a lot of great friends there to keep her company. It was lovely to take her out for lunch at The Cavendish Arms in Cartmel and catch up on the family happenings.

Australian Open 10

2010-01-29T21:00:00.000+10:00

This is our second year of making the trip down to Melbourne for the Australian Open. We had tickets for the Saturday evening and Sunday day (round 4) matches. Megan (federer's #1 fan, she'd happily bump off his missus), was most disappointed that he was playing the Saturday day time, so we agreed to go down on the (really minuscule) off chance that there were some tickets still available for the Saturday day matches. We approached the ticket booth and low and behold, three tickets (must have been refunds just given) were available in some pretty decent seats. here's how happy Megan was to see Fed (and other tennis matches that followed)....

Show us your guns Rafa

Murray

Venus & Federer

We took Steve and Cari to the Saturday night match, expecting some big action as Baghdatis was playing Hewitt (the last match they played on Rod Laver was the 5 hour match, that finished at 4am a couple of years back!). Unfortunately (or perhaps this was because they were just making up for the extra long match last time), it only lasted 35 mins - Baghdatis retiring with injury.

Oh well, we enjoyed some beers and Greek with Steve and Cari to make up for it (lamb souvlakis from Stalactites, mmm).

Melbourne laneways

More tennis at Federation Sq.Fairy penguins at St Kilda pier

Dufton

2009-12-17T18:15:00.003+10:00

A small update from England, we're travelling like crazy, trying to catch up with everyone this week and next; but we managed to squeeze in a couple of days of relaxation at a lovely cottage in Dufton, Cumbria. It was beautiful, had some great pub lunches, saw some beautiful wildlife (including the rare little red squirrel above!) and we even had a dusting of snow too.

Kickboxing : Blue Singlet Level!

2009-12-08T08:32:00.000+10:00

4 months of kickboxing at the end of last year culminated in grading night. After many scrapes and losing lots of skin off my feet it was time to get something for my efforts! Grading was 4 x 2 minute rounds sparing. The first round I was unlucky and got the one of the trainers, he didn't go easy, he made me work for that blue singlet! Fortunately the other rounds went much better.

I wore the singlet to work the next day with a pair of shorts, Scott commented "That's the most unprofessional I've ever seen you dressed Dan"!

Unfortunately I haven't had a chance to get back into it this year, but I will.

Bird i'th hand

2009-11-10T21:48:00.004+10:00

The lorikeets have been coming for what feels like years now, we've fed them from containers before, but never from our hands. Thanks to a tipoff from Clo, we now have them eating out of our hands! (The tip was to avoid leaving the sunflower seeds, the equivalent of lorikeet crack, around and only give them from our hands!)

Sometimes their claws hurt a bit though (yes, that expression is a mix of pain and excitement, that just ended up in an open jaw!)

Last Noosa camping of the year?

2009-11-10T20:38:00.009+10:00

As always it was fantastic, great friends, company and food!

Amy went off for a walk with the camera, the swamp behind the campsite:

She stumbled on a huge roo!

Mariana was kind enough to let me borrow her zoom lens, just long enough for me to fall in love with it! Here are some of the shots I took.

Whle Darryl and Stacey were body boarding, Rej buried the kids!

A Brahminy Kite:

And finally, this is seriously photoshoped but I still like it:

Can't wait till next time, noosa northshore has yet to disappoint. Thanks Kate and everyone :-)

Mouses House

2009-10-04T19:33:00.015+10:00

The Mouses House is a fantastic rainforest hideaway up in Springbrook National Park, Gold Coast Hinterland. Sam and Paula recommended we visit a while back - we had to book 3 months in advance to get in at the weekend, but it was well worth the wait!

Springbrook NP is on the Plateau of the Scenic Rim - which was formed by an ancient volcano- Mt Warning is the remnant of that volcano today, as seen in these couple of pics. We climbed Mt Warning in 2005, I could not walk for days afterward (but it was a great view from the top!). Good for some exercise guys if your Byron trip comes off and you fancy a hike!

Mt Warning in the morningMt Warning in the dusk

The Mouse's House is set back from the main Springbrook Road on the plateau and is made up of 11 cabins in peaceful, tranquil rainforest; fabulously relaxing (especially the spa bath!)

We didn't relax all the time, there's a few great walks in the National Park and plenty of wildlife to see.

Crimson rosella at Rosella's Cafe

Rainbow Falls, not far from Canyon Lookout
Twin falls walk

Top of blackfella falls - great lunch spot

Lyrebird

Couple of waterdragons

best of all lookout

path to the best of all lookout

And of course there were the night time visitors. We got told to bring plenty of fruit and veg...turns out even that many hungry possums can't eat 5kg of carrots (Dan!).

Very cute (and loud eaters!!)

Lastly we were lucky enough to hear some green cat birds calling - very, very strange !

Sunday chillin' in Scarborough

2009-09-27T19:07:00.009+10:00

Megan very kindly took us out for a spin in her new Mazda 3 a couple of weekends ago; when our car was still poorly in the garage!

We had a great lunch at The Boroughs in Scarborough, good food, and live music, fantastic for chilling out on a Sunday. We had a wander round the beach front, unfortunately missed the markets, but we'll gladly go back another time.....

Also thanks again to Megan for the lovely flowers you sent; here's a couple of shots of the bouquet!

Bridge to Brisbane

2009-09-16T20:48:00.007+10:00

Up at 4.30am we'd crashed by 5.20am, literally! It was a terrible start to the day, we picked up Darryl and made our way back through the clubbing district of Brisbane. Even at 5am it was alive, the revelers were still spilling out on to the street. We turned a corner and the next thing we knew a huge Toyota Hilux turned into the drivers side door, as we continued forward it scraped down the side of the car. Its huge bull bars tore at the metal and smashed the rear passenger window. Thankfully Darryl was sitting on the other side and avoided being showered in glass!

We pulled off the road and I grabbed the details of the driver, I wont say too much as I'm not sure it's all settled yet. Although he managed to hit us and a taxi, I think he's claiming it's not his fault.

Anyway, here's the damage.

The assessment centre wouldn't let me drive the car home, they said the pillar was twisted and it wouldn't provide any protection in another accident.

Our car isn't worth much and we were hoping it would be a write off, we even spent a couple of afternoons looking for a new car. Nothing too serious, just a bit of web window shopping.

Sadly it's going to live, the garage called us, they'll have it fixed in a couple of weeks :-(

Back to the morning of the race, Amy took the car home. The drivers door wouldn't shut by itself, it was all bent out of shape. Fortunately with a little persuasion Daryl managed to shut it, spilling glass as he slammed it and attracting attention from passing drunken revelers!

Darryl and I jumped in a cab and snaked our way through the suburbs of Brisbane trying to avoid the traffic. We had a very reluctant taxi driver, every time he hit a jam he's encourage us to get out and walk to the start of the race. I'd ask him how far we were and he'd reply about 4k! We managed to persuade him to drop us a bit further and winced as he nearly had a couple of accidents himself.

Once we got to the start, we were pretty late and found ourselves starting with the walkers. Having said that we both did really well.

At the finish.

I was really pleased with my time, especially with the circumstances.

I spent the whole run worrying about Amy, she was pretty shaken up after the accident. I was delighted to find her at the finish line:

Worried, before finding Amy.

Excitement of finding Amy on the finish line!

Survivors!

Citzenship

2009-09-16T20:47:00.002+10:00

It's been a long time since we first arrived in November 2004, not quite long enough that we'd consider ourselves Australian, but the government are willing to.

I wasn't looking forward to the ceremony at all, but I was wrong in assuming it would be as boring as a school prize night. We had Aborigional performers, who lit a fire on stage, along with a brass band and African performers. Very multicultural. The mayor and other councillors spoke with it cluminating in us making a pledge and singing the Australian national anthem. I was dreading the pledge, we elected to go for the non god version and heard very few people chose this godless path! Fortunately about 40% of the people there chose the same option, so we were in good company.

Singing the Australian national anthem as my own was a very weird experience, it was good though and felt slightly emotional. It felt really good to be accepted by another country, almost like I'd tricked them into taking me!

Everyone was given a gift to welcome them as citizens, we were both hoping for koalas, surely anything else would be unaustralian?! Sadly all we got was a pair of bottle brush bushes (callistemon endeavour), we'll try and love them just the same!

Passport applications are in, soon I get to say to the immigration officials "choose one" :-)

Paula's Birthday

2009-09-16T20:46:00.001+10:00

Sam organised a surprise party for Paula at O'Reilly's Canungra Valley Vineyards winery. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful setting. We sat by the stream and chatted, drinking wine and eating the picnic basket the winery provided.

Happy Birthday Paula and thanks, we had a great time!

Girls Night Out!

2009-09-16T20:45:00.001+10:00

Hi girls,

Sorry it took so long to put up, but here's a few piccies from the night out we had when Cari came for her impromptu visit to Brisvegas in August....I want to know when we make our impromptu trip to Melbourne for the same thing!! Excellent times....

Nanna Winnie

2009-09-16T18:08:00.004+10:00

You could never meet a more lovely person than Winnie, our Nan. I remember walking to the post office in Filey Road on Saturday afternoons as a child, and you could almost guarantee we’d get stopped for a chat by one or two people on the Estate; we’d be on the way to see Frank for the pension (and a quarter of pear drops and the latest copy of Smash Hits if I was well behaved!). She had many friends.

I don’t know much about her early life, but it seems she had a pretty tough childhood, growing up in post World War I Britain, not really knowing much about her own family and where she came from. After volunteering herself to be part of the Land Army in WWII, she met and married my Grandad Wally in Hatfield, and moved up to Grimsby to start a family of her own. She went on to raise four children, though sadly this was not without tragedy, as she lost her youngest son, Robert, in a motor cycle accident when he was just 17 years old. Despite these difficulties in her early life, and trying times as a wife and mother, she was the most wonderful, caring person. I don’t ever remember her raising her voice to us grandkids once-normally Grandad would be the one shouting ‘Stop running up and down that passage!’. She always had a smile on her face.

Nanna worked at the old Birdseye factory canteen for many, many years, which meant she was a great cook, especially her pastries. She’d always have baked something for the family gatherings at her house on Saturday afternoons, whether it be sausage rolls, coconut cakes, or my personal favourite, jelly and condensed milk, sometimes with tinned oranges if you were lucky-though I think she just did that one just for me…

After Grandad’s sad passing in 2001, Nanna enjoyed some of the freedoms associated with single life, and I am very glad that she got the opportunity to explore new places and make some new friends. She had easily four holidays a year, every time you spoke to her she was off on another coach trip!

Nanna also seemed to have a knack of winning at cash bingo too, you could guarantee that her and Audrey would be sharing a line or full house down the Gala when you asked her. I also credit her with my helping to develop my memory skills through playing pairs with the old Mr. Men cards, and also teaching the grandkids how to gamble at an early age with pennies in the kitty, playing Kings.

Sitting here and writing this now, I look back at all those Saturdays spent with our grand parents, and think how much I enjoyed that time, and how important they were in making us who we are today.

Nanna Win, if I can be half the Nan you were to my grandkids in the future, I don’t think I’d have done too badly! You will be sadly missed.

EKKA Day on the Sunshine Coast

2009-08-12T18:31:00.005+10:00

Dan and worked out it was at least 6 weeks since we had left the city, so we took some much needed (for me!) time out from work, and drove up to the Sunshine Coast today.We made a quick stop for lunch at Peregian Beach
then off to Noosa Heads section of the Noosa national park for some koala spotting....it wasn't too hard, this guy was snoozing just outside the information office...

Ice Skating

2009-08-03T22:46:00.003+10:00

On Saturday Stacey organised a trip ice skating, it was loads of fun. Amy and I have only been before a couple of times and not in years, so we were pretty nervous to go with a bunch of Canadians!

Sadly the photos didn't come out so well. Fast moving Canadians (and Morgan who turned out to be a natural) in low light is a bad combination. I'm hoping Stacey or Clo's photos came out a bit better.

Rej was second to last out at Red Rover, beaten only by a figure skater with smelly feet.

Rej wooing the crowd

3 people tried to teach me to skate backwards, 3 people failed! Next time I'll master it, or at least give people a good laugh trying again :-)

We need not have worried and despite some doubts, Amy even came back with all 10 fingers!

Photo Practice!

2009-07-26T18:04:00.009+10:00

While Dan and Rej were partaking in some mountain biking this weekend, Clo took me on a walk round the reservoir near their house for photo practice. Here are a few of the better shots I took on the walk, and back at Clo and rej's in their bird filled garden (which I love!).

I like the photo through the fence - though I could have probably framed it a bit better and got the alpaca in a bit more focus - he (or she) is still looking a bit more fuzzy than usual close up!

These couple of pics look a bit washed out due to the fact the sun was behind the hills at this point - but we got the birds to feed from our hands so I had to put these ones up! :)

Origin

2009-07-16T07:41:00.004+10:00

Amy did really well to get tickets, they sold out in 10 minutes and I can understand why the atmosphere was amazing. My voice hasn't really come back from all the singing and cheering we did! Queensland could really do with more variety of song though. "Queenslander, queenslander, queenslander" repeat till voice lost!

Would have been a bit better of the series was still open, but it was a really good game anyway, well at least while it looked like we were coming back. After that hope went the players resorted to entertaining us with boxing, bonus :-)

Quick mobile panorama.

On an unrelated note, best (bought) cup cakes ever. Thanks to a recruiter Amy's office was using, that didn't stop me helping eat them or us taking them round to Kate and Morgans :-)

Yes, I ate the one with the flake on the top first. Which begs the question, which cup cake would you have gone for?

More Marathon!

2009-07-08T22:42:00.005+10:00

Sorry. Yes, I know, feels like I'm milking it a bit! I bought these pictures online and some of them came out well.

I promise that's it now.

Gold Coast Marathon

2009-07-05T19:48:00.007+10:00

6 months of preparation and it all seemed to go wrong in the last couple of weeks. For the last 3 weeks, my right foot has been far too sore to do much running, and this week I got a bit of a cold. Still, I wanted to run, I'd put in a lot of work.

We had an early start at 4.30am to drive down to the Gold Coast.

The plan was to pick up the shuttle service at 6.30am from Runaway Bay sports center. After 40 mins there was still no sign of the bus, we started to worry, the queue of people became restless. Thankfully Amy saved the day by persuading another bus driver to take us down, there was no way I was missing my marathon!

The run itself went really well. I had signed up to be in the 3.45 pace group, but quickly found myself with the 3.30 group and I stuck with them. The drink stations were a bit hairy, I almost tripped over people as they crossed. Water and endura sports drink were available. I must have spashed 4 cups of that endura all over me, I really should have practiced drinking from a cup while running! I went well till 30k, then it got tough, by 35k I was starting to lose the 3.30 group.

Really, really pleased with my time. I completly surpassed my expectations. As the soreness subsides, I'm able to enjoy it a little more!

Big thanks to Amy for putting up with me waking her up to go running for the last 6 months and for getting me there, looking after all my stuff, taking photos and nursing me better all day!

Thanks to everyone who wished me well or went running with me.

Thanks to Amity and her dad Dave for letting me have a shower in the Marriott as well, at least that way Amy didn't have to smell me all the way home!

Time

#	Bib #	Name	Time (Gun)	Time (Net)	Place	Gender	G/Place	Category	C/Place


771	M1283	DAN TREBLE	03:32:22	03:31:16	771	MALE	664	M25-29	81

Splits

No.

Name

Cat

5km

10km

15km

20km

Half

25km

30km

35km

40km

Time

M1283

DAN TREBLE

M25-29

00:26:15

00:50:36

01:14:01

01:39:24

01:44:41

02:03:46

02:28:19

02:53:24

03:20:08

03:32:22

(00:24:21)

(00:23:24)

(00:25:23)

(00:24:21)

(00:24:32)

(00:25:05)

(00:26:43)

(00:12:14)

Stats

Menagerie on the balcony....

2009-06-19T07:46:00.005+10:00

Couple of pics taken by Dan yesterday on the balcony - the regular honey eaters had some new faces to contend with!

Trying to get back into being a bit creative...

2009-06-19T07:18:00.003+10:00

I've been thinking lately that I should do some more practical stuff in my spare time, and my recent trip in England inspired me to do that.

After seeing Helen's fab earring holder and accessories organisation at her house in Leeds, I set about the task of organising my own jewellery, which is currently all over the place and rarely comes out (cause it takes me half an hour to find a pair of earrings which match!).

Before

$15 and an hour later.....

I need another board to fit more things on, but its a start!

Last day in England (and it was a beauty!)

2009-06-01T16:51:00.004+10:00

I knew this would happen...the nice weather finally arrives at home and then I have to leave! It was probably a good job with hindsight, as I had forgotten to pack any suncreen, and I wasn't sure how much more my skin would take!

Here's some pictures of Laura, Gary and I in Weelsby Woods, near my Nanna's.

My sister and I had our photos taken on the Lions that guard the entrance to Weelsby Woods about 15 years ago (it seems all the grand kids have a Lion photo!), hopefully I can update the post with the earlier one if my sister can find it at my nanna's house!

A bit more from Blighty....

2009-05-29T03:28:00.009+10:00

Just a few more pics from the last week of my holiday for you all:

Feeding the ducks down the Boating Lake, Cleethorpes:
Bank holiday weekend Friday: Helen and I managed to blag some free tickets to watch Maximo Park playing a sold out gig at the Leeds Academy. Dan and I have seen these guys play at The Zoo in Brisbane in 2007, they are awesome live!

Sat night out down Call Lane, Leeds, with Helen and Jac.

Getting over the hangover on Sunday at Yorkshire Sculpture Park with Jac.

Strange strawberry shaped like a handbag..!

Monday: Day at Brimham Rocks, North Yorkshire, with Jac and Graham.

Slipped, then hit the wall running!

2009-05-23T12:52:00.004+10:00

It's been so wet lately I haven't got as many runs done as I'd like to. I saw a break in the clouds this morning and decided to go for a long one. It was still a bit wet though and around the 8k mark I slipped :-(

I picked myself up again and managed to do 36k total in 3h8m. Which isn't too bad at all! More importantly I hit the wall. That's the point where your body has run out of readily available energy and has to get all your energy from burning fat. Burning fat alone doesn't get your muscles nearly as much energy as they'd like so you feel really drained. In the actual race I'll have to have sports drinks or gel packs to avoid hitting the wall. I just wanted to do it out of experimentation, hopefully it wont happen in the race, but a least I know what it's like and that I can carry on running through it.

More shopping...!

2009-05-21T20:01:00.004+10:00

The last few days, I've been hanging with my sister, mum and dad. On Tuesday, my sister and I had a fab day trying on some wedding dresses; I didn't realise they actually take 6 months to order and 12 weeks to fit, so need to be planned way in advance! Here's a couple of pics (obviously not including the ones we really liked!).

Here's a couple of pics of Cleethorpes beach, approx 1 mile from my parents house. These were taken at 8pm, its fabulous having the light summer nights.

Shop Shop Shopping!

2009-05-19T03:16:00.003+10:00

Laura and I took the trip over the Humber to Hull today to go shopping. There's a few more shops and generally just bigger stores than the ones in our home town, so we went on an hour's bus ride across the river....

Some key trends in the shops for summer 09'10 I spotted today were:-

1) Floral; which was kind of round last year
2) Big print maxi and midi dresses, teamed with studded/gladiator sandals or platform wedges
3) Flouro and brights (blue, pink, yellow)- (er, some things were meant to stay in the 80's)
4) Over long t-shirts/cardigans/sweaters, teamed with belts, and skinny jeans or leggings
5) Lots of things in coral (pale orange, you'll be pleased to hear Clo!)
6) Nude shades
7) All in one short jump suits - definately only made for size zero ladies, I would have taken a photo of the one I tried on but it I would never have lived it down, it was hilarious :)!

I will try and take some photos to post, though not sure I can do this tomorrow, as Laura and I are going to try on some wedding dresses!

TTFN
Amy x

Day 2 - more family stuff

2009-05-17T20:23:00.005+10:00

Saturday, the weather was beautiful when I got up at 7am, unfortunately it turned into another day of sunshine and showers. Now I remember why we spend so much time inside here!

I spent most of the day catching up with family, then Laura and I paid a visit to Mr Valentino for dinner, then had a few drinks down Cleethorpes.

Back home by 11pm, honest!

Laura's been raving about her Sunday roasts for ages, so I'm finally going to get to try that this afternoon, (roast beef and Yorkshire pudding) after watching the Liverpool game. The plan for Monday & Tuesday is to shop, shop, and er shop!

Surprise!

2009-05-17T02:59:00.012+10:00

After travelling 10,000 miles, I was hoping that the two weeks of sunshine they'd had at home in the past two weeks would continue...alas I was a little optimistic, but the train journey from the airport was great, just for the greenery and brooding skies!

It was so wet, my nan's cul-de-sac had some unusual vistors!

Laura did the good thing, and as soon as she picked me up from the train, took me to a greasy spoon for a proper lunch (or was it dinner or breakfast, I wasn't quite sure!!).

Lunch for two ₤4.10 (less than $9!). Brilliant!

Laura and I did concoct a plan to jump out and surpise my parent (complete with video), but unfortuantely that plan was scuppered by my mum insisting on leaving the house....So here's a quick pic of me with the parents just after!

The rest of the day involved a proper Friday supper, and trying to stay awake as long as possible to avoid the jetlag, which appears to have worked, I feel fine today (Day 2).

Proper Grimsby fish and chips!

The Piggott ladies

Marathon -9 Weeks

2009-05-09T10:34:00.003+10:00

Not a great week of running, but hopefully rescued today by a 28k. Unlucky for Amy, she has to listen to me moan about my sore legs all day!

Thanks to Tim for pointing me to mapmyrun.com it's a cool site and I've spent ages drawing out my routes! I'll try and work out how to get it on the blog, then I can stop boring everyone for the next 8 weeks!

Running these longer distances it's become apparent that doing the marathon is going to be as much of a mental battle as a physical one. I always picture myself successfully at the finish during the run, this seems to help a lot, staying positive. It's hard staying positive for that long though. By the last lap all I could think was thank f... it's the last lap, thank f... it's the last time I have to run past this stuff!

Wed:14k
Fri:7k
Sat:28k (2h36m)

Total: 49k

Good luck tomorrow Stacey :-)

My 7k loop. It's really good, hardly any roads or traffic, beautiful river and city views.

7k Loop
Find more Runs in Kangaroo Point, Australia

Marathon -10 weeks

2009-04-28T08:32:00.003+10:00

It looks like I'm committed to it now, I've told enough people I'm going to do it deliberately so i have to! I had my best week yet of running last week, 45k in total with my longest run of 14k. However checking this against even the easiest of marathon training schedules says I'm way off where I need to be. I should have had at least one attempt at a >30k run by now and should be doing ~60k a week. So I need to pick it up a bit, quite a bit and not get injured.

Things are looking up this week though, I got some good runs in:

Mon 21k ~2h
Tue 3k
Wed 14k
Thurs Snooze
Fri 14k 1h14m

52k total. Now all I need to do is enter the thing :-)

It's all down to luck...

2009-04-21T22:35:00.002+10:00

My cousin recently posted this link on Facebook; his dad (my uncle) wrote it up a few years back from my grandad's old journals. I read it for the first time this evening and it made me think how lucky I am to be here....thanks Private Walter Boldock and all the others who have perished in the world wars.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/50/a3220750.shtml

Amy x

Australian Open - Melbourne

2009-04-19T21:50:00.004+10:00

In January we went with Megan to Melbourne to watch some of the Australian open. We went to one day session and one night session, Amy managed to score us some amazing tickets. We got to see world men's number one and two, Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer play. We also saw 3 of the top 4 ranked women Dinara Safina, Elena Dementieva and Jelena Jankovic.

Nadal:

Federer
Obligatory panoramic :-)

Enjoying coffee in the cool back streets of the city.

New Zealand 2008-09 Day 7

2009-04-19T20:02:00.003+10:00

The Bay of Islands

While booking a cruise round the bay of islands the tour operator recommended the local chemists home made sea sickness pills. Now I can't resist a bit of drug experimentation, so we skipped off to buy some! We met the pharmasist himself and he enthusiastically sold us some with some lengthy instructions.

Sadly the sea sickness pills knocked me out, I could have slept with someone standing on my head. Ironically they claimed to be none drowsey. I didn't see much of the bay of islands.

But i did wake up to see some dolphins playing

New Zealand 2008-09 Days 5 and 6

2009-04-19T18:55:00.006+10:00

Day 5 started with some fantastic hot spring baths, each one was just a degree or two hotter. Turns out there is a huge difference between 38 degrees and 42 though. 42 was unbearable!

After relaxing in hot springs the obvious thing to do is a jet boat ride!
And a random emu.

We drove to Auckland for new years eve and to spend a couple of nights in a fancy hotel. We ended up in a really nice and reasonable Sushi restaurant in the viaduct harbour area.

Day 6

Up the sky tower

( and watching people get dropped down the side of it on cables )

An of course, a great excuse for a 26 picture panorama.
Scary deformed Santa.

New Zealand 2008-09 Days 3 and 4

2009-04-06T21:24:00.010+10:00

The rental car we picked up in Auckland only had 7k on the clock when we drove it out of the airport, it was brand new. Arriving at Hooker Falls, Amy jumped out of the car in the pouring rain, only to realise we had a puncture. The rear left tire hissed as we stood round and watched it deflate, we contemplated removing the glass, but decided that would only let it down quicker. I was all ready to swap it for the spare, but I didn't want to have to pay out for the damage, so we called the shop and they sent someone. I didn't buy the premium reduction insurance, I have a theory if that I go my whole life without paying it and something bad happens I'll break even. Touch wood nothing bad ever happens and I win :-)

The repair man said he'd never seen a puncture like it!

Now I have to apologise in advance, I went a little overboard on the panorama front. I worked out how to fix the exposure on my crappy little camera so I could take panoramas.

Hooker Falls were nice, if a little rainy

Then on to our first geothermal park, Craters of the Moon. It was eerie, it looked like a 2nd world war smoking battlefield.

We had lunch overlooking a geothermal power station and in the afternoon we stumbled upon this cool hydro electric dam! We were looking for a jet boat ride, but it didn't seem to be running. Twice a day, for a reason I have yet to come up with they open the dam gates and let a whole load of water down the stream they damed. Sirens go off before the gates open and gradually each pool along the stream fills up and flows into the next. It takes a while, but it was really satisfying to watch.

Before

After

Day 4 we left Taupo to drive to Rotorua and on the way we stopped at another geothermal park. Sadly the weather still wasn't so good an the colours in my pictures looked nothing like the ones in the gift shop.

It took us a good 2 hours to walk round the park, there were so many stinky steaming craters and pools!
Fortunately there was a good variety of stinking craters and pools!

The funniest thing we saw in the park was a couple of tourists clearly read the "Hot! Don't stick your hand in this boiling hot geothermal pool" only to then stick their hands in, shriek and proclaim how hot it was. Hilarious. I wish I had it on video.

Sadly I didn't get a mud bath on the trip, but we did find these mud pools. The mud made cool shapes and splat noises when it bubbled.

In the afternoon we went on the luges at Rotorua. Helmets on!

They were brilliant, screaming down the mountain in a little go cart. I was having far to much fun to take any pictures, so I'll steal one from the website:

To top off a big day we managed to squeeze in a 'cultural' evening with glow worms as well.

New Zealand 2008-09 Days 1 and 2

2009-01-18T21:55:00.011+10:00

Day 1 - Auckland. After a long day, we finally arrived at Conifer Grove, Auckland, and stayed the night with Phil, Julie, Rich and Rob.

The Morgans have lived in NZ for five years, and they took us on a walk round their area, Takanini, which was very picturesque. In the evening, Phil cooked up a mean Moroccan chicken for dinner which was gorgeous, followed by a controversial tequilla trifle, which also tasted factastic!

Day 2 - Lake Taupo

We drove to Taupo in the morning, and in the early afternoon, met up with Jac and Graham, who were in the middle of the a three week trip around NZ. After a late lunch, we decided to hit the water and go fishing on the lake. It's illegal to sell trout in NZ, even in a restaurant, the only way you can eat one, is by catching it yourself, and then cooking it on a BBQ!

It was quiet a relaxed affair....there was some beer....

whilst we were watching the rods, waiting for a bite....

Then the fish started biting.....

Everyone managed to land one....except Dan! At least he had fun driving the boat....

At the end of the afternoon, we'd bagged enough for dinner...

put it on the BBQ, and had a fantastic night!

Christmas 2008

2009-01-18T21:02:00.007+10:00

So here's what we got up to over Christmas 08':

Pre-Christmas dinner: Since we were not going to be cooking our own Christmas dinner this year, it felt a bit wrong not to have a turkey of our own, so we made the whole spread the weekend before Christmas-Megan came round to enjoy it with us, and brought her homemade Australian trifle. Dan got the opportunity to practice his mum's brussel sprouts with cream, bacon and almonds, and my word, those sprouts were the best we have ever tasted!

Christmas Eve had a south American flavour, as we had a BBQ with Aldo and Mon and their Brazilian family. The meat was amazing (brought to brisbane in a suitcase from Sydney Aldo's parents live), and the bean and chirizo rice was amazing aswell!

So, Christmas day, we made our way over to Sam and Paula's place in Fig Tree Pocket to have an amazing Christmas dinner.

I swear I'd never seen so many roast pototoes!!

It was so warm, afterward we had a great stroll along the Brisbane river and an ice pop to cool down when we returned! Then the girls beat the boys at a round of Cranium (which happens to be a great combination of pictionary/charades/trivial pursuit all rolled into one-on my christmas list for next year I think...!).

Byron Escape

2008-12-22T21:29:00.007+10:00

By hook or by crook the boys took Tuesday off work and escaped to Byron Bay. On my leave form I wrote "mental wellness day", I thought that summed it up nicely.

We had a great dive, the visibility at Julian Rocks was the best we'd seen it. No sharks this time, but plenty of turtles, rays and lion fish.

Here are some of the better photos from the trip:

Manly

Steve - all thumbs

This turtle came right for us

He swam right under me

We saw a Wobegon much bigger than this one, as big as us, but the photo didn't turn out.

Ray

Lion fish, we saw a pair of these, lion fish are cool.

Fish are useless at giving directions.

Aussie Christmas 2008

2008-12-14T07:29:00.011+10:00

We finally got round to putting our tree up yesterday (the poor thing never even made it out of the box last year, hence it had that nice fake christmas tree fusty smell....)

It seems that Australian's don't go in for the traditional star or angel atop of the tree, so when we needed a new show piece, we went for something a bit more local....

3 Christmases Later

2008-12-12T20:55:00.004+10:00

3 jobs,
1 engagement,
6 trips home,
2 games,
8kg,
lots of sunshine,
and a few injuries

later...

Sam & Paula's Wedding - Heron Island

2008-11-28T23:27:00.012+10:00

A couple of weeks ago friends of ours got married on Heron Island, I'm so glad we went. The wedding was lovely and the island is an amazing place. Heron Island is part of the Great Barrier Reef, it's a 1 hour plane journey and a 2 hour boat ride from Brisbane.
Heron Island famous for turtles- between October and December each year, Green and Loggerhead turtles head up the beach to dig their nests in the sand dunes and lay their eggs. Only 1 in 1000 eggs ever makes it to adulthood to reproduce themselves (how sad!).

Spanish Dancer

Baby lion fish

The diving and snorkelling are fantastic, visability well over 20m, and you can pretty much see everything right from the beach! Shark Bay really lives up to it's name.

Snorkelling we saw too many sharks and rays to count!

Black tip reef shark

Lemon shark

bull ray Shovel-nosed ray

Australian Animals 2004-2005

2008-11-09T20:03:00.007+10:00

Feeding the dolphins at Tin Can Bay (Qld), being closely watched by the pelicans!

The Seal is technically an import, taken in New Zealand (Caitlins National Park, South Island)

Red back spider (Outback toilet, Kimberleys, WA - don't worry I spend the entire trip looking for one of these suckers, they are tricky to find!)

Toothless croc (yes he is real!) Daintree River, Far North Queensland.

Tree Frog was hanging out in another toilet (less out-backy), Stuart Highway, Northern Territory).

Happy looking lizard (well he is in Alice Springs, Northern Territory).

Pot bellied koala (Australia Zoo, Sunshine Coast, Qld) - here's hoping she has a bub in the pouch!

South East Asia October-November 2004

2008-11-09T19:27:00.005+10:00

Sorry guys, we're so behind the times with this blog thing, I thought it was only right that we start at the beginning of our Australian adventure.....way back in 2004....in South East Asia.