Indelible Adventures

I love walking in the door at home and inhaling the wonderfully rich and warm smell of baking!    Who doesn’t - right?   J     I wish I could say that it was mine, but as you know Sami is the baker in our family. Whenever I find myself at the local Longo’s (yes, my new favorite store) I’ll be walking in with my reusable bags (Mr. “Environmentally friendly” if you please!) and calling Sami with my free hand to find out what supplies she needs for her next baking extravaganza.    This is without fail. Sami's delicious cheesecake brownies!   OMG - they were so good As you can see I’m really just playing the supporting role on this venture, by bankrolling the purchase of key ingredients.   Clearly, with Sami taking full control of the kitchen and I’m off the hook when it comes to producing anything in the baked goods department.    Thank goodness cos’ she’s become quite adept at baking over the past year or so, both enjoyi...

This week I had the opportunity to go watch Zach play rugby for his school, and let me tell you what a treat it was!   When he came to me this time last year and said he was trying out for the school rugby team I was happy that he wanted to try out and although I had played in Darwin , Australia I was adamant that I wasn’t going to push him into playing or make him feel like he had to just because I had.   No siree! So when I went to watch him play in a school tournament I was astounded at his natural ability and his innate feel for the game.  He was a try-scoring machine racking up four tries for his team in a losing effort against the best team for his age group in the city.    Zach at the opening kick-off against St Andrews College So this year when he said that he really wanted to play club rugby as well as for school I encouraged him, but also tried to temper his enthusiasm….it’s one thing to play at school but a completely different thing to pl...

April 25th is  a poignant time of self-reflection  in Australia.  It's a day when the nation stops and takes a hard look at itself, indeed at what its become.  To the outside world Australians are happy-go-lucky and gregarious lot by nature, but on a day like ANZAC day it's a solem and subdued affair.   As many of my readers know my Grandfather (Henry Montgomery Foxley-Conolly) was a soldier in the Great War (WWI). This week was ANZAC day and it  really crept up on me more so that at any other time in my life and got me thinking about why a 35-year-old man would enlist in the army at the height of the war when he has a wife and four children at home.   There are likely a number of scenarios that could have been playing out at the time. Firstly, we know from my past stories he was a bit of a “jack-the-lad” with a keen sense of adventure so that definitely could have been obvious reason.  Another may have been that he was ...