Melbourne I was really questioning my sporting addiction as the alarm went off at 5 am on Boxing Day morning...all in preparation for JC and I to soak up the atmosphere of the biggest days in the sporting calendar, The Boxing Day Test at the MCG in Melbourne. Marie was off to meet her relatives in Melbourne and joined us on the early flight with Karen and Alice following later that morning. With Marie duly dropped off with her Uncle en route to a wine tastin...

Christmas Day For some of us - Alice excluded of course - Christmas Day itself was threatening to pass us by. But Barnett tradition withheld and Santa was duly left his customary mince pie, carrot for the reindeer and with an Aussie twist, had his warming brandy replaced with a cooling stubble of Tooheys Beer! With help from a letter sent back in Blighty and some Tom Tom help, Santa found Alice in Sydney, delivering a stocking of fun and games plus a much wishe...

An earlyish start today for an exciting trip to the area made famous by the aussie soap, Home & Away - Palm and Whale Beach on the North Shore. It was quite an eventful journey: 1. Taxi to Manly Wharf 2. Manly Ferry to Sydney 3. Taxi to Rose Bay 4. Sea Plane to Palm Beach 5. Van ride to Jonah's. The seaplane was just fantastic with just 5 of us on board with Captain Steve. A 15 minute ride up the northern beaches and we were soon at Palm Beach, landin...

The Big Four Ohhhhhh So the Big Day arrived being greeted to a living space full of balloons, banners and pressies. Alice had been up at 6 am wanting to blow up balloons (apparently!) I was a very lucky boy with loads of cards and plenty of beach ice cream and 'cold one' money, thanks all, very kind. True to being forty there were plenty of golf gifts too with a gps watch for telling yard ages from JC and Marie and the rules of golf from the P's ( I'm not sure w...

We have arrived! After a really fast wind assisted flight(8.5 hours!)from Hong Kong we arrived in Sydney around 10am to about 23 degrees and...cloud! I didn't think it was anything but blue sky here? All a bit tired but we grabbed a cab to the house in Freshwater, which is about 5 mins from Manly, just across the harbour. This will be home and our base whilst we're here. Fabulous place ( great work KB!) just 2 mins walk to the beach with a huge hot tub in the ...