Henry comes to dinner

Big fam dinner in honour of Henry Thomson and friend Peta. Marcus Thomson and 2 mates has arrived. An old friend of mine Peter Kirakov turned up by chance and a chair found.
Megan Thomson had started cooking the roast beef yesterday so it was uber tender and teamed up with vegies, white sauce and gravy. Marcus produced Yorkshire pudding. We believe Peta has brought the makings of Pavlova.

Indeed the pav is a reality.

Megan whipped up a chocolate pudding and in an interesting coincidence, it turns out that she had received the recipe from none other than Peter Kirakov a gazillion years ago.

Peta

Peter

Chris - Targeting a PB in weight.  His weight!

Jemma concert

Jemma concert at OSS

Lucy back home

Lucy snuck out yesterday.

I came home to grab some lunch and she was back - thank you kind neighbour whoever you are.

Guilty face all over!

Pupil Free Day

Pupil free day. I'm taking a day off.

Started at 4:30 taking Chris to rowing then I went to Urban Rowing and did the "ergo plus" workout circuit thing. Lesson 1 was a reminder of the importance of hands away before body over. The erg was on sliders and to start with I was crashing back and forth. By the end though I was dripping with sweat and the technique was much smoother.

Then breakfast with Chris at the mango tree. Omelette and coffee at the mango tree.

Home.
Lesson #2 - A reminder of how Chris just gets so much more study done during rowing season.

Dan and Jem separately decided cooking was the go. I had to do my duty tasting and to compensate for the sugar, lunch was fruit and yogurt.

In the middle of all this, modern tech keeps me connected to work. Did I say I was taking the day off?
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Nothing to do with today.
Last night, I bought Fish and Chips from Chompers and blow me over if it was not Dan at the controls.

BGRC Presidents Lunch

Saturday afternoon and evening was the Grammarians "President's Lunch" (dinner?).  Live covers band great food & wine.

Georgie is the strongest and fittest woman I know.  Just saying

Will I get done for defamation.

Movie - The Martian

Jemma and I went to see the Martian in 3D last night.

Really enjoyed it.  It seems petty realistic. After the movie we had pizza and while we were waiting, checked a few "facts" on the net.

Turns out potatoes and poo is a viable choice on Mars.

Likewise a plutonium heater seems also plausable.  I had assumed he would have gotten radioactive poisoning.

A "Sol" is indeed a martian day.  Just over 24 earth hours.

Pondered what speed of rotation one needs on the Hermes space craft wheel to simulate gravity?

Can one really take off without a nose cone?

Why were the Chinese in the story?

Weekend just gone

Fri Night - Dinner with Paul, Sean & Phil to celebrate Phil's brithday.
Sat 3am text arrives from "7" asking if I can sub in the HB's.  Replied "yes" in a some random fashion and went back to sleep.
4:15 am Sat - Rise & Shine.
Sat 5am - Dropped Chris at BGS shed.  Went rowing with HB's.
We rowed up to the tennis centre and then met up with two commercial crews and did three opposed pieces on the way back.  Piece 1 OK, 2 crap and 3 was much better.  For me though a really good row.
7:30ish - Breakfast at the west end markets.

10:00 - Helped mentor / coach BGS kids rowing.  John Cafferkey and me went out coaching some Gr7 kids.  That was fun.  Cox - excellent.  As these kids were novices and because I believe at this stage we just have fun, we did not apply any logic to the seating positions.  By accident, we started off with Bow and 2 being good rowers, 3 ok and 4 was not a suitable stroke.  Rowed in pairs with bow pair much better than stern pair.  We had an extra in the tinnie.  Half way through, we swapped around.  The really good cox wanted a ride in the tinnie and the not so good stroke wanted to cox so that was easy.  Moved 2 to 4 and 1 to 2 and put the new guy in at 1.  A bit more rowing in pairs then did a U turn and got them going as all 4.  We found that we could get 10 decent strokes before it fell apart.  So we just kept doing that.  10 then a rest then do it again.  Worked pretty well.

12:30 Megan picked me up in Scott St where I had parked the ute.
Drove to her parents.  Had BBQ lunch with them
Chris and I went with Ian and picked up some very heavy pot plants.

5:30 dep Elimbah.
6:30 arr west end.  I got out and went to the CRC ball.
I knew a few people there - Wade & his wife from Urban rowing.  It took me a while to work out how I knew his wife - I had sat beside her at last years HOTY dinner.
Jodie (BGS teacher & rowing coach), Georgie Gardner (Incredibly fit good rower and all round nice person),

11:00 home in bed
SUNDAY
5:15 rise and shine
5:45 Rowing with GenD - Amazing improvement.  Last Fri we had rowed and it was crap.  Today's row was by comparison good.  We did
1 min on, 1 min off for 15 min.
rest
1 min on, 1 min off for 15 min.  Including U turn at the aerial.
rest
A couple of start + 30 strokes.
Set off on a 30 min piece of 1 min on, 1 min off.  We had a couple of stops on the way due to city cats and so on.  Very welcome.  The 1 on 1 off is great because people know that "it is only a minute" before they get a break, they concentrate and keep the accelerator down.  By the end of each piece I was exhausted.  Today sore thighs.
Breakfast Coffee at Albertos.
Home
Over to Jeff Clark's place for a beer and a welcome chat.
Home.
Everyone out - Chris has gone to see a movie with a yet to be seen gf.
Dan at work (Chompers),  Jemma at Ellie's,  Megan gone to church.
Went and saw "The Martian".  Good move.  Well done.

Rocktober 2015 - Lucy & Harley

Lucy & Harley

Cycle - I throw the ball and lucy beats Harley to the ball.  A chase ensues.

The dogs learn that to have fun they both need to give a little.  Lucy eventually lets Harley get the ball

The game continues.  Harley protecting the ball.  Lucy keeps her eye on it.

If Lucy attempts to get it, Harley put a paw down on it.

Rest break!

And we are on again.  One dog then the other takes dominant role.

Finally Lucy gets the ball (does Harley give it up?  :) ).  And the race is on in a different way.

2015 Rocktober Storm King Dam