Emma's birthday - by Zappa

My first blog. How exciting for you all.

Today has been Emma's birthday so I took the day off work (helping Ray our byron bay friend and host building a shed) and told Em we could do anything she wanted. We were deciding between snorkelling at Julian rocks – a short kayak ride from the pass in Byron, or going for a surf. After much deliberation we decided we’d go surfing on big yellow – rays 9’8” Malibu (which I have nicknamed big bird).We packed the boards and ballon animals and away we went.

The conditions were beautiful – the water was clear, the sun was shining it was amazing. Look see:

Em got some great rides – one of which she took this video of:

Check her out – groovy surf chick she is.I had some good rides on big bird so decided to get my 7’6 board out and have a little ride as I’ve been riding Ray’s custom Geoff Macoy’s (two beautiful and amazing to ride boards) and been making some good progress. Getting on my board made me realise it’s a bit too small and hard work for my abilities. It got me thinking – I should really trade this in for something a bit more sensible.... I probably shouldn’t tell Emma as she’s the sensible one when it comes to money.Anyway, after a great little session we went to buy Emma her favourite (gluten free) burger from in town. As she was so excited she obviously had to take a picture:It was sooo good and feeling very satisfied we decided to go home – but we thought we should go see Mad Dogs surfboard shop on the way home – Ray said the rafters contain an awesome surfboard museum. It was amazing, the history of surfing was all just there on display - old plywood boards and older surf skis.
Emma passed this and had to take a picture as its so pretty.

Then i spotted it. 9'6". Macoy. Immaculate. Dangerous. I was convinced Em wouldn't let me as it was $750 (prob over double that new). But she was as enthused as I was. I spoke to Mad Dog and left the shop to go seek out Ray for his advice - he successfully convinced me about a week before not to buy a beaten up old longboard so i was convinced he'd try and slow me down. Ray being a Macoy rider himself and loving his board was just amazed we'd found one so cheap and was as excited as we were. So anyway 10 mins later we were back selecting board bags and leg ropes to go with our new board and left my little board behind to find a new owner. It took us a good hour of sitting at home staring at it and pinching ourselves to be convinced it had all just happened.

So naturally - back to the beach:And then off out for some amazing sushi.I certainly enjoyed Em's birthday - particularly the present we bought ourselves. She should have birthdays more often.

Emma says: 'I had the best day EVER!!! I love EVERYTHING!'

Non-basking

I forgot to talk about the weather yesterday, which I am shocked about being British and all.

It's cold!

I wore my ski jacket to the beach the other day, and I am currently sitting in bed with an electric blanket on. And I don't have enough clothes. I hear it's positively Mediterranean in the UK. Well mehhhhh.

Last night we had Lee's party! So much good food and lovely people. Later on at night it started raining, and hasn't stopped since. And there was exciting thunder and lightning. And we lost the cat. It still hasn't turned up.

The morning after.

A few minutes after this picture was taken the gazebo buckled under the water and is now scrap metal.

Bye, Buriton

On Saturday the Lymns threw us a goodbye party!

Some people will use any excuse to dress up.

We had so many people come from ages away, Jude, Russel and Tiffany from London, my Mum and my brother, even some climbers from Nottingham - Alice, Chivers, Tony and Sam Keyne. Chivers had got himself a splendid camper, which had already authenticated its camper van status by breaking hugely, costing a lot of money, and using up half of a recent camping holiday stood in a garage getting mended. Fantastic.

Some rather good-sounding funk started playing out of the workshop, which on investigation was of course my incredibly talented brother, Dave and Adam.

We were all a bit/very worse for wear the next day. Pete couldn't say anything apart from 'You guys.....that steak was so good last night' until about lunchtime. Luke was a shadow of himself until he got on a swing and swung in wide circles, which made him feel temporarily normal. Mum seemed to be the only one unscathed which was deeply unfair as judging from the night before she had absolutely no right to be.

Chivers and Alice had someone knock on their camper door in the middle of the night. When Chivers went to see who it was he was confronted by a girl demanding she saw her cheating boyfriend, clearly sure she had caught him in the act. Chivers tried to convince her her boyfriend wasn't in there with him but she insisted she see him. Eventually Chivers showed her his naked Alice. She went away.

If you suspect your boyfriend is cheating on you with a random bloke you've never met, chances are your problems won't be solved with a confrontation.

Enough lessons.

We are so lucky to have all these lovely people willing to put so much effort into sending us off. We're going to miss you all so much.

Barrels and Birthdays

Nick got the cider barrelled!

The barrel and apples, soon to become one.

He and Pete had to do an extra day of scrumping to fill the tasty-looking 50gal barrel he then purchased from a proper Somerset bloke with no front teeth (Pete took pictures: www.peter-wright.co.uk ).

mm tasty

On Friday 23rd September Steve turned 23!

I marked the occasion by flashing the whole pub, helped by Matt.

Thank you, Matt.



Goodbye Somerset

Mum threw me a Somerset goodbye party.

Together we made...

...an Australia cake!

Australia cake after accessorisation. It's wonderful what you can just find in Mum's cake decorating box. Look look, where Sydney is, there are two flip flops, with a heart, cos they're in LOVE, cos it's US! Do you get it?

Mum also made AUSTRALIA CUPCAKES!

There was a whole load of gorgeous food, including a piece of beef as big as me and Grannie's blitztorte! Dad made a speech and announced we were all going to sing Waltzing Matilda. I didn't know the words so I was glad to have the matter cleared up. For future reference:

Waltzing Matilda

WALTZING MATILDA

Buh buhbuh oo come a waltzing with me

Huh buh ehh shumpfer merrr, uhhh....

egnbnngn

eerrguh YOU come a waltzing with meeeeeeeeee

WOOOOO

Then Gig said as I wasn't going to be here for my birthday, we should light the flip flops on the Australia cake and sing me happy birthday. So they did!

Then mum started everyone off on We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

Then Anne started Auld Lang Syne.

Haha.

I had the best time. To be honest, I'd been feeling a bit daunted about it as I haven't been feeling too special, but I had the nicest evening, it meant a lot to see all those fantastic people I love so much.

Mum assigned Pete the role as official photographer, as he is the most qualified and all.

yeeess...

He managed to get this one of some of the young uns:

Thank you so much for coming everyone, and giving me such a nice send off!