Boys Night Out

We went to Telstra on Saturday to see Collingwood play Sydney whilst Rach went to a party at Sal's house. The 13 point win by Collingwood flattered the Swans who were more than ordinary. I know they can do better starting this week against the Dockers. 

Good Old Collingwood Forever

Wayne singing "Good Old Collingwood forever...." As far as Collingwood supporters go he is more balanced than most - but still I should have clocked him. Mind you I can't blame him if Sydney play like hopeless jokes. 

Mike's mates Bruce and Wayne at the footy. It was Bruce's first AFL experience so it was recorded for posterity. 

Wayne and his boys Callum, Declan and Ethan. They haven't seen each other for a while and they were wrapped to be all together again. 

Mike's Godson Ethan

 

Pretty Clever My Missus

It will come as no surprise to many of you that Rachel is pretty clever and this was particularly evident at a recent "Degustation Event" that she organised for our friends Greig and Amanda. I think the word "event" is appropriate given that she organised a 10 course meal (5 mains and 5 desserts), each with a different table setting and different topic of conversation. The meals ranged from a bread soup to lamb cutlets to risotto to pasta. The desserts included mandarin and maple syrup pudding, quince delight and lime and basil something or other. All of them were exceptional. 6 hours of gourmet food and rich conversations resulted in the blink of an eye. 

 

 

 

Burn Baby Burn

The dynamic duo of Gloria Jeans Epping. Amanda kindly bought Rach this blowtorch for domestic purposes and Rach thought it would be fun for each of us to "burn up" our creme brulees. All of managed to succeed with nice crispy toffee on top. This particular course we all read from one of our favourite books - hence the table decorations. 

No football talk allowed

Greig and I (Mike) often default into mandatory talk about various codes of football but we were under strict instructions this night to avoid all sporting conversation topics. 

So what exactly does Mike Do For a Living?

The other half here.

Thought I would share with you one of our projects that we have just completed for the Uniting Church - mainly because it was a bit out of the ordinary. Today we went to the official opening of a new church for a Samoan congregation which we helped build. This particular shot is actually from the celebrations from the day before (Friday) which were held in the traditional Samoan style.

I'll give you a quick overview.

On completion of a new building all of the Samoan congregations (including some from interstate and overseas) are invited to participate in the completion of the new building. Each congregation comes along does a dance and speech and gives a cash gift and a fine mat (shown in the photo) to the congregation completing the project. This particular festival started at 6am (in the dark) when the temperature was 4 degrees C according to temprature gauge in my car. The dancer is often in traditional dress which includes no shirt or shoes as you can also see from the photo. It is a very traditional part of the Samoan culture with great significance to them. When I left at 8am there were several hundred people who had turned up (often for only a short time) to present their gifts.

I have learned a lot about Samoan culture in this particular project. They are amazing people who are role models to us in terms of what community and hospitality can mean. They are not wealthy people but "church" and "generosity" are fully integrated into their lives.

It was fun working with them. 

This is a picture of their new church (from the park where the celebrations were held). It was a project which took the congregation over 20 years to complete. It was very important to the congregation that the building had a Samoan architectural feel. That one feature probabaly cost the project over $200k. May not have been my choice but the good old Uniting Church encourages diversity and has a very non paternalistic style of governance. The builder wants to enter it in a competition! 

A congregation presents to the High Chiefs and Orator Chiefs of the host church and ministers who are sitting in the tents. In return for their "gifts" the host church gives fine mats and food. The truck next to the tent has beef and pork carcasses stacked to the ceiling. In addition there was over $40,000 of food purchased for gifts and celebrations much of which was given back to the presenting congregation as gifts. If that sounds a little extravagent bear in mind that they raised over $350,000 in gifts on the day of the celebrations from congregations and families. I was told that no one will be going home hungry. 

Matts 30th

A few shots from Matt's 30th - you guessed it the theme was "white". Much fun was had by all. 

 

Birthday Boy

Even though his birthday was the weekend before I organise a weekend away from Sydney life on a houseboat up the Hawkesbury river. We only drove about an hour out of Sydney but it felt like a continent away. The houseboat company rang a few days before to say we could have it for an extra day at no charge so...we were beside ourselves with excitement. They take the boat into the open water for you and the navigation is yours for the next 3 days. We cruised 2 hours down the river (at 2 knots it's really not that far!) and found spots to fish and read books and drink whatever we wanted to. So beautiful. 

Food for the road

About 10 minutes into our first journey we started on the first of many antipasto plates. Greig and Amanda packed us up to our eyeballs in gourmet delights. Greig also sent a text telling me to do whatever the captain ordered. Ok! 

This is where we set up camp on the first night...a little 'nook' in the river all on our own. Isn't he gorgeous? 

In the Galley cookin' dinner

 

Captain for a day

By the way Carmel, I've got your jumper! 

Rally driving

M took this to show the path I carved up in the river...it's not as "straight forward" as it looks. He wasn't any better but I didn't take photos of his work. The river is wide for a good reason. 

Nice

There's great little villages to row into along the Hawkesbury. We did this on Saturday morning and bought 2 cappuccinos, some teabags, a piece of cake and a paper. $25 dollars later we realised these little places aren't accessible to the poor or disadvantaged. You need a boat, you need money, you need time to travel. 

The open waters

 

Same river, another day.