Yandoit - Nov 13

We had a weekend with Gordy and Jodie in Yandoit. Some awesome shots of poor Molly, who is no longer with us. Sob.

Great bird life up there. Here are a pair of Eastern Yellow Robins:-

And a female fairy wren

 

And finally and Mistletoebird

 

 

Venus Bay - 17 Nov 2013

 
Venus bay is one of our favourite wildlife spots. There are always roos in one place or another...



 
 
 
 

















And we were lucky enough to meet this Black Shouldered Kite

Xmas Letter 2014

Having just checked the blog we are shocked to see that our last entry was Xmas Day 2013. This just about sums up our 2014 – too busy by half! Life is good with us in Australia and, as always, we’re busy so there is nothing new there.

In some ways we are still in transition between the UK and Australia. We’re very happy to be back in Australia, but it would be great if we could buy a home to live in. Nic is “drip-feeding” our stuff back to Australia in her suitcases when she visits the old country. This year she has managed to ‘secrete’ some wine, a decanter and a painting back, all unharmed!  However our inability to sell the house in Bristol means we are still renting in North Melbourne.

Nic continues to work flat out in her numerous jobs. In addition to the private practice, she is also theoretically runs the Cleft Service and still has her research position but she has since added a few more roles to the list. Australia clearly isn’t big enough as she now has an appointment with Plymouth University which is handy for her trips to the UK and in particular for catching up with Ian and Liz. She is also doing more freelance work including quite abit of mentoring and is currently undertaking a Graduate Diploma in coaching …..in her spare time! 

If 2013 was Stuey’s busiest year ever on the bass it has has been eclipsed by 2014. Most of the work was with Orchestra Victoria (the Opera Australia and Australian Ballet band) and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. In the space of two weeks with the Tassie ony Stuey hit some interesting milestones. Kurt Weill’s 2^nd symphony was on the program and he was one of only a handful in the band to have played it before. In Stuey’s case 36 years earlier! Now those really are the words of an old dog! But shortly before that he performed Mozart 40 for the very first time – it’s amazing how it’s not come up before now.

One of the more fun gigs was the tour of Australia and with Andrea Bocelli, and more importantly his co-star Delta Goodrem. The Auzzie readers will know of Delta much more than the Poms but she is just lovely as the photo with two chuffed bass players (both Stuarts) shows. Bocelli is remarkable. Don’t let anyone tell you he cannot sing – he can. And he is a nice bloke too. One for the memoirs

…..and it also gave Stuart a paid trip to NZ and the chance to see his brother John plus Terri and the boys Will and Joe. Much fun was had, especially with Star Wars lego!

Our chamber music group Kammermusik went from strength to strength. We performed five concerts this year, including a world premier of Stuey’s, somewhat tongue in cheek, reduction of a full opera into a 30 min piece for small string group. This time poor Tosca got the treatment. But the punters loved it! And another notable chamber concert was with the Firebrid Trio, performing the Vaughan Williams quintet in June.

The low point of our year was the passing away of our much beloved cat, Albury. There comes a time when we have to move and she was very much at that stage. We were incredibly lucky to have our dear friends Gerry and Adam pop round to “do the deed”. Gerry is a vet and was able to put her to sleep at home, which is surely that best way to do it. Stuey stayed there as Nicky couldn’t bear to witness it – we timed it for the day she was off playing a concert with a community orchestra. Appropriately she was playing Tchaikovsky’s 6^th symphony, the Pathetique. For those of you unfamiliar with this piece, he wrote at just before committing suicide and it’s full of pathos and grief. How apt! But Wodonga is alive and well. We thought he might be thrilled to be alone, and rule the roost, but he seems to be missing his sister.

We enjoyed having some Poms over to visit in the past 12 months. First the Vineys descended for Xmas. Our little town house was very full as Jason, Debbo, Frankie and Sonny moved in. It was an action packed schedule including a trip to Cape Paterson, Sovereign Hill and the highlight, the Boxing Day test at the MCG. Stuey’s Dad, Gra popped over in Jan. The photo shows the boys in Hobart, about to have a steak at the famous Ball and Chain. We wonder how tall the milkman was in Manchester 50-odd years ago!!

We plan to come over to the UK together in July next and hope to catch up with many of you. It will be our 25^th wedding anniversary and yes, Nic does deserve a medal!! (NB Stuart did not authorize that last bit!)

In the meantime we wish you a jolly Xmas that’s not too hot (in Australia) nor too cold (in the UK) and a healthy, prosperous 2015.

Much love N & S xxx

 

 

 

 

Xmas Day 2013

 



Xmas Day was at Ruthy, Richo and Katies house in Edgewater, Maribyrnong. It was a full house with 13 of use present - Rich, Ruth, Katie of course, Mary (Richs mum), Margaret (Ruths mum) and John, Phil (Richs bro), Debbo, Jason, Frankie, Sonny and the two of us. Oh, and the two guinie pigs, Sophie and Rose, of course. Activities started around midday and rocked on until 9pm or so.

Cocktails - we started with alcoholic cocktails for the adults and fruity ones for the kids

Appetizer - our chemistry lecturer (aka Richo, who is getting into Heston Blumenthal and all his toys) prepared prawns on a bed of mango and cucumber salsa with garlic "foam", which was not as foamy as the chef would have liked but it tasted pretty awesome all the same.

We ate outside on the deck as it was a pleasant warm day, in the mid 20s.

Entrée - Richo again was the chef for Duck Three Ways. We had breast with port caviar (created with a pipette, as shown by the clown on the video), soufflé with truffle and Amiens pate. Yum indeed.

Exercise break - as most of the team left to walk around the lake, to make space for more food and sober up a little. We stayed in the house, had a clean up and prepped the main course...

Main course - BBQ butterflied legs of lamb with roasted veggies, by us! Not very traditional, but wonderful all the same.

Dessert - Ruthys lemon tart

Afters - mince pies, cranberry and chocolate cake or cheese.

Boxing Day Test 2013

Our first Boxing Day Test was in 1995 - the infamous test where Murali was no-balled for throwing. Stuey was so lagered up at the time he didn't even notice! We moved to Sydney to live before the test in 96 then returned to Melbourne in 99, where we went to every Boxing Day until left for the UK in mid 2010. We then missed 3 more until this year, so we have only missed 4 in 15 years, and unfortunately one of those was the last time England won the Ashes in Australia....

....which clearly didn't happen in 2013!! Awful, but that didn't detract from a wonderful day out with Debbo, Jason, Frankie, Sonny, Geoff, Abi and Olly. As the photo above shows, we were in the VERY top row of the Great Southern stand.

In the lunch break we walked around to the Members side of the ground and met up with Ruthy and Richo et al, who like us were still recovering from the feast on Xmas Day. We also met Steve, see below:-

And an amazing thing happened. We were all in the new England kits and a Graham from OPSM, one of the promo tents you can see behind us approach Stuey and asked if he would like to take part in a competition in the tea break. He didn't explain too much, except Stuey would be in the pitch watching some old Ashes appeals and he had to be the umpire and decide if they were out or not. The sponsor was OPSM, an optician.....eyesight....being the umpire....get it???

Anyway, Stuey expected to be on the pitch with a number of other contestants....not so, just Stuey!!

So to the decisions - the first was clearly not out, down the leg side. The second, as shown above was given out by umpire Stuey with the big glove. And the last decision was also given out, all correct which meant Stuey won a $50 voucher, a pair of Ray-Bans and a new iPad mini!! Woo Hoo!!

Vineys at Cape Paterson

The Viney clan descended on Sat 14th Dec and to help with jet lag we took the dudes down to Cape Paterson.


It turned into a bit of an Auzzie wildlife safari. First we wend to the mouth of the Powlet River to check out the roos, as shown on the video above. We then went onto Wilsons Prom and were treated to emus, wallabies, an echidna and lots of birds including a crimson rosella and black cockatoo.






On the way back from Wilsons Prom, Jason was keen to see a Koala. He spotted one in a tree as we drove past, which earned him the nickname Crocodile Viney, due to his bush skills.

We played beach cricket and did some boogie boarding in the sea.

 

 

 
 

 

Xmas letter 2013

Can’t believe but here we are again – another year and 2013 was a huge year of transition for us. We began in the UK but not for long as it was the start of our move back to Australia. It began “interestingly” when Nor (Stuey’s mum) broke her hip just after Xmas 2012. She had one dodgy hip before the accident, but Sods Law dictated that she broke the good one! So January involved a lot of miles seeing mum and helping her recover. Ah the UK motorway network in winter…..we wont miss it one bit!

 

Stuey fled the UK first in late Jan with Nicky following a few weeks later. She finished her work at Manchester Kids Hospital and since then has had a ‘portfolio career’ to coin the business school jargon. It’s the first time she has not had a sole significant job/title and she is adjusting well. She works two days a week in private paediatric practice in Melbourne City and Geelong, a regional centre about an hour away. After years of rejecting Stuey and the accountant’s suggestions to flee the public sector and go to the “dark side” of dentistry, she is really quite enjoying it. So are Stuey and the accountant! She does what she is best at – treating kids. Someone else looks after all the business “stuff”. Perfect! Another two days of her week have been in a research position at the MCRI, the research arm of the Royal Children’s Hospital. Towards the end of the year she landed the title Director of Cleft, so she has a posh title and all the associated hassle once more!

Stuey has had his busiest year ever as a muso. It all started with a three month contract with the Tasmanian Symphony, a big chunk of work with MSO (including playing to the film Lord of the Rings – The Twin Towers and the Orcs almost killed him) and lots of Orchestra Victoria work, including Prokofiev’s wonderfully quirky ballet Cinderella with the Australian Ballet and last but by no means least Wagner’s epic Ring Cycle. A little like Nicky’s writing style Wagner could be summed up with the phrase, “why use 10 words when 37 will do fine?!” It’s huge and challenging but wonderful.

 

 

Towards the end of the year our chamber group had a rebirth and a new name - http://www.kammermusik.com.au/. The concert almost killed us both as there were lots notes for Stuey and Nicky had to do “rhythm”!

Nicky reached her half century this year. Only 50 more years until her letter from the Queen or more likely from a King. We celebrated with around 50 friends in the Great Northern Hotel in Carlton North. It’s a bit of a regular for us on Tuesday as its steak nite – the place is packed with punters chomping down great steaks for $15.

Albury and Wodonga are now officially frequent flyers. They returned to Oz and had to suffer they ignominy of quarantine for a month. Stuey had to do the “parental visits” as Nicky couldn’t bear to see them locked up in a concrete cell….which was actually fine, but way below they lifestyle they have become accustomed to ie the run of a massive Georgian terrace in Clifton. They now have passports and three microchips each – just don’t ask how much, it brings Stuey and the accountant close to tears.

The UK housing market was as flat as a tack when we left so we have not sold our wonderful house in Clifton. We have been lucky to have great tenants; first Scot and Lisa from Seattle and now Nicola and Michael. Our good friend Michelle has been in our ‘basement’ for the past 2 years but has recently moved out to live with the new love of her life! So we are now getting to know, Jack.  We plan to popping the house back on the market in March 2014 as there are encouraging rumours of green shoots appearing in the UK economy. Glory Be! We became nomads this year - by early March 2013 we had spent the night in over a dozen places across the globe. We are currently renting a town house in O’Shanassy Street, North Melbourne, our 2^nd rental place in Melbourne this year! O’Shanassy St was going well until the entire ceiling fell onto the floor of the main bedroom in December. Luckily we were not in it at the time, but Nicky was confident she would have been OK, as it would have hit Stuart (and his belly) first!

Our beach house continues to be a mental health haven and even Albury and Wodonga have enjoyed a few weeks vacation down by the beach to help them in their transition. We have been engaged in some rennovations as the weather has seen the outside weatherboards deteriorate over the 10 years that we’ve own it. Nic has been busy pruning, mulching and planting in the garden – as always a great distraction to the business of life. We have also managed to take Kammermusik to Cape and relaunch Classical Cape, our regular chamber music concerts in the local village hall.

So now we send you all our love and good wishes for 2014 – we apologise if we have not been really good at staying in touch. People keep saying that they’ve not seen much of us recently – to which we respond ‘don’t worry we’ve not seem much of us either!’ We hope that 2014 will be alittle calmer and look forward to chatting and seeing as many of you as possible.

Wishing you a Merry Xmas and a safe, healthy and jolly 2014

Nicky and Stuey