All the (Aussie) Laing grandchildren

Ron made all the kids line up in age order.

So, that's Tegan, Catriona, Connor, Jonathan, Thomas, Mitchell, Xanthe, Jessamy and James.

Merry Christmas from Perth

Yesterday (Christmas eve) we had a family barbecue by the river.

We had:
Nana and Pop
Jeff, me, and our kids
Stuart and his kids
Russell with Amanda, and his kids
Tegan with fiancé Todd

And I've tried for photos of everyone. So here goes...

Here's Ron and Elaine (Pop and Nana) enjoying the very convenient seating provided by Russell and Amanda.

In the background, Mitchell and Thomas. Thomas is doing a Rubik's cube. Of course.

Catching up ...

I seem to have left a gap in this blog. Then I felt bad about it. I find that *I* like to read my blog, because that where I put my fun photos.

I had a visit to Scotland! It was for a sad reason - my father passed away, and I went for the funeral. But, it was a time to see my brother Frank, and also, see some of Scotland.

I thought it was very impressive that, with the level of tech available now, I could decide to travel on Tuesday, and be in the air on Wednesday, with all accomodation and services booked ahead. I even had a map showing me how to walk from the bus to my Edinburgh hotel, and another just in case I wanted to walk from there to the castle.

I arrived late in the day in Edinburgh, jet lagged of course, and stayed he might there before driving to Blairgowrie. Good choice,as it turns out.

I could see the castle from my Edinburgh hotel room. Nice.

I hired a car for the trip, and had a hellish drive around Edinburgh, trying to get safely to the Forth Road Bridge. I made mistakes, there was at least one closed road, and I just wasn't familiar with the place. Still, got out soon enough, and decided that wasn't so scary. So, I'm not afraid of any of that stuff any more. Interesting note - my car was a manual. If I hadn't been driving a manual here, I'd have been really, really stressed out.

Then I got to Blairgowrie and saw Frank is his excellent shop, 

Blairgowrie Cookshop

At the Crystal Castle

Last time we drove through Mullumbimby, we saw signs to the Crystal Castle. It all looked a bit hippy, and we chuckled about it.

Well, now I've been there. It's gorgeous! Mum and I had a delightful visit there. There are beautiful gardens full of amazing plants, and pretty places to relax, think and contemplate.

We called these plants "Muppet Chickens".

Mum found this terrifying creature in her salad. Oh wait, it's a tiny cucumber. My curry was just excellent too.

Beautiful place to visit. If you felt you wanted to leave money on any of the statues, it was collected and sent to an orphanage they support.

They have a garden that supplies some of the food for the kitchen. And look, someone's left a pineapple on this plant.

Most important part of the visit, the wishing tree. You are invited to leave a message on the tree. Mum wrote a note to Peter, and sent it off on one of the high branches with fresh new growth.

Back to Ballina

I had another visit to Ballina. Sadly, this time it was to go to Peter's funeral. Peter was Mum's partner for many years. He fought illness off with great vigour, and finally slipped quietly away.

This is Peter. He had a long and interesting career. He was in service in a stately home in Cornwall (so, you know, he was one of the younger footmen in Downton Abbey.). He was on the staff at a posh London club. He was a salesman. He was a caterer and waiter. Here he is running a function in Brisbane.

They retired to Ballina about twenty years ago, and went up north to Cairns many times.

I went up for the funeral, and spent a few days with Mum. So the next post can be about fun things!

Shelly Beach and the Best Creature Competition

We just had a trip to Ballina to visit Mum and Peter, and to the Gold Coast.

On the last day in Ballina, we had a bit of free time, and Mum took us to her favourite beach, Shelly Beach. We crunched in the sand, paddled in the waves, and clambered over rocks.

I announced the "Best Creature" competition - find a good creature in the rocks to enter. You know, crabs, starfish, lobsters...

The entries came thick and fast.

There were these anemones.

Jonathan found a tiny live crab.

Mum found a huge not-live crab, who agreed to pose very nicely.

Then mum entered again with a cool jellyfish.

And I took the time to enjoy watching the birds. The terns were doing that thing where they flutter into the wind, then dive for a fish, and come back up again.

I pointed this out to Jeff, and I assumed he'd join me in enjoying the pretty sight. Instead, he called Jonathan and Thomas over. "Watch this, guys". He made a gun out of his hand, trained it on a tern, and watched for the moment when it folds its wings back. Then he shouted "BANG!" as the bird plunged.

And the three of them spent the next fifteen minutes "shooting" birds. Sigh.

The new IT crowd

Both our clever sons have been offered places in an IT degree at a really conveniently place university (bit of a luxury, studying twenty minutes down the road). To get them properly prepared, our university fund has stretched to two new, shiny, pretty laptops. Here is Jeff, getting Thomas (next to Jeff) and Jonathan set up.

I'm trying to remember, and Jeff is too, who it was that helped us set up our first laptops for uni. I guess I must have been my mum.

Gingerbread Houses, Melbourne style

We make gingerbread houses every Christmas, usually as a fun way to mess around with the cousins. 

Of course, everyone's getting bigger, and this year we weren't even with the cousins. 

But we still made gingerbread houses! 

Here's three made by me, Jonathan and Thomas.

Here's Jonathan working on his. We all worked out that the cool slope-sided pattern was pretty hard to bring together. But we all managed.

And here's a tiny house, with a lego monkey for scale.

Summer in Melbourne

We didn't go to Perth this year - rather fewer than usual relatives to visit this time, with nana and pop in Canada for a white Christmas.

So we enjoyed summer in Melbourne. Here's Jonathan keeping protected from the sun on Frankston beach.

The IT guys

We invited Jonathan (left) and Thomas to spend three days on work experience at our office. They had work shirts and everything.

Smash the bunny!

Our favourite Easter game - one of those big bunnies goes into the big mixing bowl, and gets ... smashed! Then shared. It's the way of bunnies in this house.

Easter egg hunt!

Look what we found on our egg hunt! Eggs! We had to hunt all the way to the dinner table!

At 19 and 17, the Laing kids have grown out of the cute hunting for Easter eggs stage, but interestingly, haven't grown out of eating the eggs! Here they are with the traditional one large bunny each, some eggs, and a chicken for no special reason.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from the Laings! Here's Thomas (left) and Jonathan enjoying hot cross buns.

Happy birthday, Catriona!

Here's Catriona's birthday! At 19 now, we are lucky to have another adult in the house. The book is a printed version of a web comic she loves. That's where you find the funny stuff these days.

Happy birthday boys

It's birthday season here - this is ONE of Jonathan and Thomas' birthday cakes. They had two of course, on different days, to lessen the strain on the fridge! This cake has maltesers, and kit Kats. Yum.

This is Thomas on the left, and Jonathan on the right.

Happy new year from Perth

We took Tegan to see the New Years Day fireworks at Shelly Beach. Wow! A little kid was commentating for us all - "Wow, alien spaceship!"

Visiting Sheila in Mandurah

For New Years Eve we visited Mums cousin Sheila, who has moved into a cool unit near Mandurah this year.

We played some "Taboo", an excellent game for sharing, and had a fantastic lunch, mostly from the garden.

Sheila has converted her small front garden to vegetables, and a few native plants. Here's the best butternut pumpkin so far.

And here's her dog, Lady, who was found as a stray. Much searching failed to find her owner, so Lady came to live with Sheila. She was obviously a trained sheepdog.

Sheila lives right on the estuary, so she can walk there any time, and Lady can splash in the water. Here's a stilt feeding just near Sheila's house.

Ron's first computer!

While we are here in Perth, Jeff is helping Ron get set up with a computer. After some discussion, he decided he wanted a laptop, and was happy to try an Apple.

Here is Ron confidently ready to open his FIRST computer! That tooth is getting fixed soon, by the way.

And here's Jeff showing Ron and Elaine just how nicely a new Apple computer is packed.

Gingerbread house, apartment style

We like to make a gingerbread house every Christmas. Well, there's a double batch of tasty gingerbread dough chilling in Nana's fridge, but it's hard to know when we'll get there to make it into a house. But the easy kits were on sale in the supermarket. So, here we are building a village.

Then we decide to abandon the nasty tasting lollies provided, and replace them with gummy bears!

Ta dah!

The building in the top left has a helipad in top. Of course.

Lots more Laings

I finally got my hands on this great photo Pop took.

We have - Stuart, Connor. Pauline, Jessamy, Tegan, Xanthe, Catriona, Russell, Jonathan, Jeff, Thomas, James and Mitchell. All on the balcony of Nana and Pop's new apartment.