What the fudge?

No posts in over two months? I hate websites that never update themselves......

Well, it's a pretty bad excuse but our small compact camera hasn't been working so we haven't had much media coverage of our comings and goings recently and stories without pictures just aren't as good. here are a selection of photos from my very basic camera phone telling some of the stories over the last few months.......

Katie relaxing at Christmas, the present on the sofa is actually a filtered water bottle.

In a year of unprecedented SNP inspired Scottish-ness I made an incredible Burns' supper

As I hurtle towards my 40's the body is starting to show some signs of weakness with a recent diagnosis of Coeliac disease - although I am still awaiting the results of the truly horrendous gut biopsy to confirm this. And the jury is still out - Coeliac disease might actually be a superhero quality rather than an autoimmune disease.

But it looks like it is goodbye to Pizza and Beer - and I have a farewell party to all my favourite foods the whole week before my gut biopsy.

That meant goodbye to ......................................

Lager, Doritos, Pizza, bread, rolls, sausage, pasta, kebabs, chip shops, horlicks......tons of stuff really. Anything containing wheat, barley and rye. The good news is that there is a lot of alcohol which is gluten free and that gluten free life although expensive is all round more healthy.

As part of being Coeliac you get a prescription for food from the NH of S. ;o) Once everything is confirmed I will be able to collect a prescription for bread, flour, biscuits, rolls and stuff from the chemist. All the companies are competing for this business so they are all sending me freebie packs at the moment of gluten free pasta etc. Good times. To put the expense into perspective a loaf of gluten free bread is three quid and it's only a half loaf. Whether I am Coeliac or not what I do know is that I feel a million times better than I did when I finally gave in and went to the Doctor. Stop eating gluten people - it's bad stuff. ;o)

Other notable highlights over the last few months (which don't have photos so aren't worth talking about at length yet) include:

* Katie and I setting a date (if you haven't spoken to us recently you really should get on the skype......Lorna.) More to follow on this breaking news story.

* Steph keeping his job until May.

* Bungo-rific parking issues at the flat

* Tenants installing their own satellite dish

* Katie on a mission to finish her Masters

* Katie's new car 

* Steph inheriting Katie's old car

* The payout for Steph's crashed car

* Katie's pending pay out for injury when crashing Steph's car

* Steph's bonus from the Taxman

* Katie's bonus from the NZ taxman

* Steph's impending bonus from the NZ taxman

All in all things are going well and I will definitely (now the wee camera is back in action) try to keep this updated. 

Upcoming events include heading to Paris for my Mum's 60th birthday - should be a photo fest.

Au revoir tout le monde, 

Steph

Mornington Peninsula

In true 100mph fashion we decided to give the tennis a rest and get out of Melbourne in an effort to show Paul and Lorna (both new to Australia) some wildlife and some countryside. We hired a car from a company who employed a crazy girl from LA

(here is the car)



and we splashed out the extra $10 to get a sat nav because there was somewhere we needed to go in Melbourne before we headed south that a Sat Nav would take us straight to - one of the best known Australian streets for people in the UK - Pin Oak Court.

Don't recognise it? Perhaps you will recognise it from the photos.




Yep, you guessed it - home of Harold, Madge, Mrs Mangel and Helen Daniels (not forgetting Bouncer) - Ramsay Street.

I must admit when I suggested the trip (Katie and I had been there before) I thought that Lorna and Paul wouldn't really enjoy it but they both loved it! (as you can see from the sheer excitement in the photos). In fairness, this street played a huge part in the teenage years of most people our age so it is quite something to finally stand there. (even the 2nd time) Paul was never a huge Neighbours fan but even he conceded that it was pretty cool to be standing where Kylie had once tread.

Once we had gotten over the excitement we reprogrammed the SatNav and headed for a beautiful part of Victoria - the Mornington Peninsula and in particular Phillip Island where we had some more beer and caught up with some of the local wildlife.

an unimpressed Koala (you shouldn't call him a bear by the way)


A Kookaburra





The main attraction down at Phillip Island though is the dusk penguin march - we weren't allowed to take any photos so here is a penguin photographed yesterday to give you an idea what we saw......



ok, so that's obviously not right so here is a photo I found on the net that gives you more of an idea - picture thousands of penguins running up the beach to go and meet their kids and regurgitate some smelly fish;



It was one heck of a trip and it was a quick one - just an overnight stay so we packed in an awful lot. It was back to Melbourne for our final night and there had been another surprise development in our plans. An old friend of mine who I last saw in 1996 had flown into Melbourne especially to say hi. Tanya now lives in Cairns and has two wee kids, she was asking for everyone back home and said she has such fond memories of her time in Glasgow - she really hasn't changed a bit.



So that as they say was that - our time in Melbourne was at an end. We all flew out the next day and the way things worked Paul actually flew into Wellington an hour before Katie and I got there. When we arrived we were all absolutely knackered and Paul and I only had two days to prepare for the ACDC concert (as part of the surprise Paul had also booked a concert ticket - I was already going!). So in true Brown brother style we went to the pub and came second in the pub quiz to a team of 16.

Some more Tennis action

I am not going to bore you with all of our tennis shots (we have many) so this will be the final tennis post - if you want to see all the tennis shots then go to www.flickr.com/katieandsteph88

For the rest of the time at the Open we spent most of our time soaking up the atmosphere, soaking up the beer and basically cramming in as much action as possible.

Notable tennis highlights were:

1) Seeing Andy Murray play a few times and getting our Scotland flag signed.
2) Queueing for 3 hours to get tickets to the Rod Laver to see Federer.
3) Seeing the William's sisters play doubles.
4) Recording a segment for Eurosport where we had to walk towards the camera and shout C'mon Murray. I am not sure if it was ever broadcast but Lorna's brother said he did see us in the crowd at one point.

Here are the final tennis pics







I almost forgot - Prince William turned up at the Federer game - I'll bet he didn't queue for 3 hours.



He seemed like a good laugh though and when someone n the crowd shouted "give us a wave" - he laughed and did indeed give a wave! Good lad.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you all!

Here are some photos from our crazy New year with Iain and Lorna - the highlights were:

1) Free bubbly in the bar we went to

2) Iain and I attracting attention in our kilts

3) Talking rubbish to anyone who would listen

4) Dancing until 5am

I'm sure I will share some stories soon - I am sitting up just now watching the Rangers v Celtic game online on Al Jazeera 3 - who said these guys were bad guys? I just hope they don't interrupt the game for a live beheading or anything!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone - we made some videos to post on the blog but I can't seem to convert them to a suitable format but as soon as I can I will have them on here - there will be a way!

For now though here are a few photos from Christmas day on Matai Bay in the Bay of Islands in the North of the North Island - our good friends Iain and Lorna shared our sunny day!

trip to auckland

I said you would get more about the trip to Auckland for Lorna's 30th and here it is....

When Katie and I arrived in Auckland I can honestly say that it felt like we were folk from the wee village visiting the big city for our once a year visit. It was busy, loud and exciting and made us realise just how small (compact ;o) Wellington really is. You can be out for dinner in Welly and meet 10 folk you know through work - it felt good to be in Auckland and have the power of anonymity once again. It's amazing how much I have missed that!

Anyway, Katie and I spent the first half of our first day marvelling at the choice of shops, the almost normal fashion sense and mainly at the fact the wind wasn't blowing. We spent the rest of the day and night in the pub with Lorna, Iain, Julie, Paul and anyone else that wanted to join us. Iain and Lorna took us to a bar called the Patriot that catered for all of the British isles and served Tennents on tap. I must say that the long journey hadn't improved the taste much but it was like an old friend paying a visit. (it was still better than the pint of TL in the Clachan though)

We pretty much spent the rest of the weekend having a great old time seeing the sights and staying at Lorna and Iain's "jungle house" - so named cos it really did feel as if it was in a rainforest or something - surrounded by trees and plants. Twas a pretty cool spot - and only 60 seconds from the beach.(which was where it wasn't like a jungle - unless we are talking about a jungle on a tiny remote island where most of the island is a jungle with only a beach separating it from the sea.)

We went out for dinner on the Saturday with Geoff from Iain's work - and his wife Adine - both of whom were really nice. And once again we got drunk and took silly photos which you will now find on flickr.

We also went hunting on the Monday for a karaoke bar - Lorna was keen to give us another rendition of Wired for Sound whereas I was all about some more classic rock with one hand shoved in my pocket. Alas though all the karaoke bars were the type where you hire a private room and Lorna and I really felt that our performances merited an audience so we went for more drinks instead.

All in all, we had a great time in Auckland celebrating not only Lorna's 30th but also new jobs for Iain and Lorna. Iain now has a fantastic job wih the Auckland Blues rugby team and Lorna now has a full time teaching post - well done by the way guys.

I am heading back to Auckland to see their new house in a couple of weeks when I will be in town to see the mighty Pearl Jam. Awesome - cannae wait.

SB.

Macca's birthday

These photos are from our hilarious trip up to Auckland for Macca's birthday. more of the the story to follow.......

Ski time

I've already mentioned the ski trip but didn't go into detail really so here goes!

We travelled up towards Mount Ruapehu (the town we stayed in was Ohakune - which sounds hilariously like "oh I couldnae" in a West coast-ish accent. Ok, so you had to be there) to meet Iain and Lorna, Clare, Barry and Kaz - it was a long blinking drive but when we arrived we were really impressed by our accommodation and the sight of the fellow Scots. Twas a 5 bedroom villa with all mod cons - another good choice from Katie.

The ski hire shop was open until midnight so after a few drinks and a bit to eat we walked 5 minutes round the corner and got all of our gear for the next day. I was amazed at how cheap it was - we had borrowed gear from colleagues and friends but the shop would have hired us all the warm clothing for $25 for a day. (£10) The board itself (or skis) came with all the boots and bindings and that was only $25 too. Really cheap and really easy to organise.

It was off to the slopes the next day and again, it was all surprisingly easy - it was busy but really simple. We turned up, parked the car and headed to buy our passes - $90 (£36).

Katie tried boarding on the first day but didn't really love it ( fallin on yer backside and taking the board off every 5 minutes does get old fast) so opted for skis on day 2. I was boarding all the way, bruised bahookie and all - and, as I have always said, I feel a lot safer when my legs can't go on either side of a comedy tree on the slopes (I didn't see any of those by the way.) I once saw a video of a skiier falling down and his left foot hit him on the back of the head and his right leg hit him in the face, both legs snapped to pieces - can't really do that on a board.

Anyway, back to the action - my highlight of the weekend (although there were many) was when Lorna and I decided to throw caution to the wind and go all the way to the top. There we were at the top of the mountain at the start of a run called Vertigo - I was of course not frightened at all (aye right) but we both made it down and looked super cool in the process if I must say so.

In the next episode of "My 3 week winter holiday from school" - I will be giving you an hilarious report on our South Island visit with Clarey Doll. I will also be trying to seek out some ski video footage from Lorna - and some footage of me doing the best ever tennis smash.

Steph