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Hello, its Marg here...back in the land of the living having been the only person who has gone to Broome without taking the bathers out of the bag. I just treated myself to a movie, namely Bran Nue Dae. I can thoroughly recommend with Missy Higgins a delight, Jessica Mauboy wowed me, Geoffrey Rush great as usual, but Ernie Dingo was absolutely delightful. I understand that Brent & Jane and Jeanette & Stuart share my view that you should get along to see it.
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 Sunday 7th Feb saw Norm combine in the team Ironman event at Geelong with Elle and Nick.
Over 1,100 triathletes descended on spectacular Eastern Beach for the Australian leg of the international Ironman 70.3 Series, the world's fastest growing triathlon series. Comprising a 1.9km swim, 90.1km ride and 21.1km run, this is the second year Geelong has hosted Australia’s Ironman 70.3 event, which also serves as the final race for the 2008/09 Australian Half Ironman Series. Snap Ironman 70.3 Geelong has attracted 1,050 individual and 95 team entrants, surpassing last year’s entry numbers. It has also attracted one of the best professional fields ever assembled for an Australian Ironman event. The "Boys & Elle" powered through the course in 5hr 3m 27secs placing them in 35th position. This comprised a PB for Norm in the swim of 38:27, a PB for Ellie in the run of 2:00:06 and Nick rode the bike leg in 2:20:39, also a PB. Norm tells me that the field swam from 28m to 55m with plenty of young kids and 3 oldies. I wonder whether he has considered himself one of the oldies For Mel and Mark's birthday we all went to Pandora. For those who have seen Avatar 3D you know what I mean. After three hours of cinematic magic you feel like you have vaulted through the trees and fought the battles with amazing creatures and horrendous gunships, all in the name of saving the trees. I could not help describing it as an experinece, not a movie.  This could be classified by the National Trust as these grumpy old men gathered to reminisce over the last 40 odd years since we went to school together. All the old stories, and a few new ones, as Bruce, Tony, Dave, Adrian and Brent caught up at Southbank on 15 January. We took advantage of Adrian "passing through" on his way from Perth and back to Canada.
 Christmas is normally a time for families to get together but this year, the Stevo's have scattered around the globe! Erin took off for her semester at Arizona University in Tucson, while Ian and Jenny spent two weeks in the UK battling the snow and checking out locations for a school tour later in the year. We got really excited when the thermometer on the car dashboard got to 3 degrees!!! They saw the stage productions of 'Billy Elliot' and the new Michael Jackson musical 'Thriller'' (all in the name of research!) before heading down to Salisbury, Sherborne, Bath and Oxford. From Oxford we visited Will Shakespeare's house at Stratford Upon Avon (he wasn't home, though) and Warwick Castle, before walking the Colleges of Oxford to see where the brilliant and famous studied. Fans of the Harry Potter movies and Inspector Morse would recognise many of the buildings and streets. Called in to visit Liz and Phil at Windsor Castle (they were't home either) before spending two days thawing out in Dubai on the way home. If you ever want to see what piles of money can buy, go to Dubai. Apparently one of the local sheiks likes animals so he made a lake and imported about a thousand flamingos! The temperatures in summer range around 50 c, so the air-conditioned shopping centers compete for customers by installing increasingly outrageous attractions; one has a skating rink, another has a giant fish tank which reaches 5 floors and another one has indoor skiing to keep the kids amused! While the shopping centers are crammed with up-market stores like Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Armani etc, the shop-keepers weren't exactly run off their feet with customers. A coffee and a muffin cost $14 so one wonders how sustainable the whole project really is? Perhaps the highlight for us was 'dinner on the dunes': after an hour or so of 4X4 hooning over sand dunes we arrived at a Bedouin camp where Ian enjoyed a sheesha and I had a henna tattoo of a camel put on my ankle. There was a belly-dancer, camel rides and all sorts of yummy food and baklava. Oh well, back to gym and the bike to wear off those full english breakfasts!    |