Hello everyone
We're in melbourne, back in the big smoke after a couple of days in the capital city (canberra) where we meandered around museums and cycled around the lake.
We head off to the great ocean road in our hire car in a day then to philip island to see the penguins on sunday then back to the city to see geraldine off.
We're all fine, its hot here
we'll do this properly next week promise
xxxxx

Hi kids!
Happy new year! Glad Oz seems as good as it gets. have a great trip 'down under down south'! Claire you'll be happy to learn that old AZ is back with us. We feared the worst but it was just a tummy bug. Tail's rewagging. Ball's being chased!
The bedroom floor is coming along and it's mild and sunny so the garden's very tempting too.
lol
westbymumandad

Ste & Zarina. Sounds cool, and a bargain van hire too you lucky b*****s. We'll be in Melbourne at the same time. We leave on the 22nd to go to Perth so we'll see you there too. We'll call and arrange something (maybe a $5 meal and a play on the pokies). Happy New Year.

Merci les Boudinots, Bonne Annee. (Geraldine is in the park sunbathing today, we're sorting visas out for India, we'll pass on the messages)

Ian & Claire

Bonjour Géraldine et BONNE ANNEE 2005 !

Nous avons vu ton message ... alors comme ca tu bronzes ??? mais ca va te changer !
Ici on se les gèle (les oreilles évidemment) mais ca ne dérange pas la faune locale toujours aussi nombreuse.
On n'a pas fait de foie gras à Noel c'est promis, Oscar remue ses grandes oreilles quand on lui dit bonjour de ta part, Marquise et Nikita te font de gros ronrons.
On espère te voir dans notre trou vert au Springtime sonnant autour d'un BBQ qui ne sera pas non plus de l'autruche c'est juré, mais une truite sortie de notre rivière.
De grosses bises de la part de tout le monde (Axelle est là ce soir) et amuse toi bien !

La famille Lefeivre

Claire, Ian and Kevin,
Happy new year to you. I wish you plenty of other good projects for 2005.
Regards

Geraldine,
Encore une fois bonne annee, ... et bon anniversaire! Profite bien de tes vacances d'ete...
Grosses bises

Joyeux anniversaire Geraldine, grosses bisses. Bonne année et amical souvenir à Kevin, Claire et Ian.

Happy New Year to you both! Hope you had a good Christmas and a great New Year. We certainly did! We partied all night here in Surfers, then watched the sun come up on the beach! It was wonderful! Well, we will be leaving Surfers Paradise in a few days, and have booked our trip back to Perth, where, hopefully, I can get my old job back (I am still negotiating). We are re-locating a couple of KEA Campers for them. We pick up the first van on the 10th Jan, and drive it to Melbourne. We then have a week in Melbourne before we pick up the second van and drive it to Perth! We have got 10 days to do this leg of the trip - so there won't be much time for sight-seeing, but it will be a great experience! We will get into Perth on the 1st February! The beauty of this deal is that the vans are only costing us $5 a day to hire!!!!!!!! Anyway, it seems that we will be in Melbourne at the same time as you. We get there on the 14th Jan. Perhaps we can try and meet up for an afternoon! Let us know what you plans are! Speak to you soon, Steve & Zarina. P.S. We feel kind of guilty about the phone cards we reccommended you buy when you were here in Surfers. We have since found out that their UK lines were down before Xmas, and they are still dodgy now! Their customer service is a waste of time too! We had to buy another card! Sorry!

Happy New Year Everyone
We've had a great time
My Birthday was lovely, we went to the Aquarium and had drinks then we went out to Balmain and had a fantastic meal and drinks, feeling old....
On New Years Eve we took a picnic and lots of wine to Balmain park with a perfect view of the bridge and sat and watched the fireworks with hundreds of people.
We're off to the Blue mountains tomorrow for three days then back here then off to Melbourne on Saturday, Via Canberra for a day or two.
Great to talk to people and hear from everyone
Take Care and have a great 2005! and stick to your resolutions
Claire & Ian
xxx

Happy birthday Claire for yesterday, hope you had a lovely time in the Blue Mountains. Here back in sunny (not) W'ton the football, cricket and racing sport seems to be dominating the TV. Or is it just our TV?? We went to the dogs on boxing Day with Tina, Ant and family, even baby Cara enjoyed it. Managed to win a little bit - only 6 dogs per race and we had 2 bets per race - not difficult to win then is it ! Hope you have a great time in Syndney for the new year. Very sad news for so many countries with the terrible earthquake, makes you feel lucky to be safe and well here in the UK. love mom xxx

Hi guys thank you vvvv much for the number I'm so sorry I left it up north. I will give you a ring on your bday Claire so Mitchy can sing Happy birthday down the phone to you. Mitchy still has 1 pressie left to open can you believe it. Mark and I bought him a Thomas train set and he's not stopped playing with it, the trains even have to come to mealtimes with him. We've had a great christmas though Homer and Martyn's dog Tom are permanently separated as after 10 mins of Martyn and Zoe arriving on Xmas Eve they had a complete barny. Homey is now sporting a split ear and a very fetching bandage due to a puncture wound on his neck. Tom came off quite lightly just a loss of hair on his back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyway mate I'll speak to you in about 36 hours Take Care Thomi

salut tout le monde je suis enfin arrivee a l'autre bout du monde j'ai bien failli rater le vol pour sydney et restee bloquer a hong kong mais tout va bien il fait chaud mais c'est suportable pour le moment sauf qu'ici il leur manque la couche d'ozone donc on brule en une demi heure joyeux noel a tous j'enveraie des email perso dans qqs jours j'espere que ca n'est pas trop dur de trouver le site .gros bisous a tout les papillons blancs et aux collegues.serge j'espere que tout va bien a la maison et que tu es bien instale et bien sur que mes deux terreures de chats vont bien .gros bisous a tout les boudinots allemands et perigourdins je vous embrasse tous et a tres bientot pour un prochain message je reste a sydney jusqu'au 8 janvier puis en route vers melbourne et la grande route de l'ocean avant le retour le 18 janv.

Hello Everyone!

Thomi, I called and youi werent there..........and your phone is disconnected I stressed but guessed you'd gone to Torquay I dont have the number.
0061295184687 Phone us....we'll be there till the 8th Jan we're 11hrs ahead
Happy Christmas

We had red snapper, abi's potatoes and a huge salad, it was great and santa came nice chocs and finger puppets from peru and geraldine managed to sweet talk the authorities and we had foie gras. Oh and lots and lots of wine.

Caroline, great to hear from you I lost your email address, what is it, hows your back? Becca doesnt reply to her work adress either, do you have a personal one for her? Any news about the twins? Abi.....I've sent loads of cards and Mia's present for her birthday and the number, its slowly dawning on me that I have the wrong adress for you, call me....miss you loads want to know when you leave etc.

Catherine, thanks for the message, sounds like a great trip, and we wont recognise the house! You'll love NZ and Oz.

Great to hear from John (Williams, Ians cousin) Really try to meet you in Goa, could well be the same time, although we havent booked our flights yet.

Dave, Marg, andrew and edward Great to hear from you guys too, merry xmas and look forward to catching up with you properly when we get home. Keep in touch.

The Westby Family, hope you didnt get as drunk on christmas day as on christmas eve, and that the turkey survived and santa was generous and you had a lovely white christmas.

The Jeavons/Hene Family, we hope you had a lovely christmas, all doting on Cara of course. xxx

We promise we'll do photos and journals and all our work stuff another time, for now its our holidays so fun and sun and seeing the fabulous sights od Sydney and the lovely house with Kev and Baz and Geri.

Lots of love everyone

Claire & ian
xxxxx