James birthday

James showing off his presents at his birthday celebration during Jum Cha at Chatswood 

Bilpin

We went to the Apple Bar at Bilpin to meet up with Lisa and Rob ... a hot day .. but the pizzas, prawns and mussels were well worth the drive. Laura and Felix had the best deal with huge pizzas, Rob and I swapped prawns and mussels, while Lisa and Chand polished off a four cheese pizza.

We all went for a bushwalk afterwards and I sure enjoyed it despite the leech attach. Well two leech attacks, one on the ankle that I caught early and another on the chest .. that bled all over the place. Lisa found blood behind her knee, but her friendly leech had already departed. Rob did not find the one on his foot till returning home.

Berrima Cafe

We called in for a meal on the way to canberra and the owner of Berrima Cafe who has seved us coffee and food over many years was telling us that he might sell the cafe and retire.. 

Hazo birdlife

the King Parrots on the front deck at Hazo 

Sword Camp

For one week we gathered at the Blue Mountains Christian School to learn swordsmanship. Laoshi Scott Rodell led us carefully through basic cuts, two person drills with a daifung and the first four sections of the Yang Style Jian Form. The enthusiastic also trained in the miaodao form using improvised bokken.

Six hours a day at first strained the arm but awoke the martial spirit in the participants from NZ, USA and a few of the states of Australia. Enthusiasm for free play was apparent as the week progressed. Saturday saw a weary group complete the fourth section of the form and enjoy a well earned meal in the Blackheath Ivanhoe Hotel.

There are more photos here.

If you attended the camp and require
a complete set of photos email me.

The camp had representatives from

Great River Taoist Centre
Tai Chi Chen
The Traditional School of Martial Arts

OTVA

Attended the OTVA meeting today. Lots of events for the this year on the calendar. Special events because this is the 50th year since the OTVA was established.

The major disucssion was about the DVD and venue for the special commemoration event in November.

Agreement was also reached to have the next meeting as a "Back to Paddo Day" sometime in March. The AGM mid year and a visit to the Telstra Bansktown Telecommunications Museum in the third quarter.

committee members
reviewing DVD material
provided by Martin Ratia

upwords

We sat down to play upwords with Viv this evening, my very first game .. well of course Viv won .. and I came last.

At least on the rematch I managed to finally figure out some of the scoring rules and clawed back to a winning position on the game. Its fun, a lot different to scrabble and amazing that I have never played this one before.

Oh well something new and it gets the brain working.

Four Generations

Four generations in one photo.

This will be one to cherish.

Photo courtesy of Mick Macnamara

jamaica blue

chand bringing coffee at Jamaica Blue in Penrith Plaza 

Marg Preston in the Berowra Garden

Margret Preston painting in her garden at Berowra in the 1930's. Her name and work keeps coming up as I browse the Berowra info to keep up on happenings in the old village.

auction action

called in for a quick look at the First State auction in Parramatta.. 

New Years Day 2006

Stinking hot day .. anyway I rose early and lit some incense sticks to commemorate the 25 years since Sue did not come back from her swim at Harbord.

I also put some photos up on the web from the old photo albums. Good memories, time I dusted them off and let them live again.

Bali

So i arose early and
lit three incense sticks for Sue ...
and looked thru an old album of pics ...
no tears ....
but i did renew some memories

of beaches and skiing
of ironing and the "cool it" hat
of mu-mus and sarongs
of frizzy hair and quirky smiles

Snowy Mountains

I remember sailing
in the Whitsundays
of biking in Bali

there we were in a motel
there we were at the twelve apostles
taking photos
taking time
being us
in a world
rich with adventure
and promise
all fading
in a photo album
but alive still
for a brief moment
while the incense burnt
and the cat lay content
upon her back
in the rising heat
of a new years morning
25 years after its all come
and gone

Harbord Beach