The big five!Happy birthday my beautiful golden boy.Nanna misses you!

Happy landings Home to a cool, bright sunny day in San Diego, with a lovely feeling that spring may be on the way down here.
The pic above is the view from the Jumbo just before we landed at Melbourne on Saturday arvo. Nothing to do with today's post, but when I close my eyes, I can still see the inside of a jumbo from row 50 seat F in the centre section ... aaaagh!
We drove south from Los Angeles this morning, dazed and a bit stiff after the thirteen-and-a-half-hour flight from Melbourne and 19-hour time difference which meant we arrived before we'd taken off.
The hills of Camp Pendleton, the Marine Corps base, and the only section of the 100-mile drive that is not built up, were a mass of dense green, sprayed with masses of the lime-yellow flowers of wild mustard and clumps of bigger orange flowers amid the yellow that I failed to recognise at the speed we were driving.
Utterly gorgeous. Only a few weeks ago, these hills were brown and parched where the wildfires of last October had burned through, in some places right up to the edge of the freeway.

:: I was unpacking upstairs when Mum told me on the phone that Dad was back in hospital again, after a suspected stroke. Gulp. Now, a few hours later, the news is not so grim: a CT scan proves he has not had a stroke (praise be) but everyone is baffled as to the reason for the symptoms he's showing - dizziness, fainting, and a numb and floppy left leg (not the one with the new knee).
Anyway, let's be more cheerful. Here's a pic of Mum and Dad out for a stroll at Middleton Beach, Albany last Wednesday, my last day with them ...Despite the summer's day, dad is wearing the socks I knitted him in the middle of last year! They've been washed and washed, and have been darned at the toe, but he insists on wearing them.
:: And this is me having a last yummy cuddle with my gorgeous grandson, Mack, just minutes before we left for Perth airport and the plane to Melbourne on Saturday.:: I'm far too tired (trying to keep awake to go to bed at the right time to ward off jetlag) to do more than sign off and watch a taped episode of American Idol - YAY! It's back! So I'll see you later!

Happy birthday, Mack!



It's our grandson's fourth birthday. Dave and I had a little chat with him on the phone before he was off to open presents. I miss him dreadfully! Now I'm hanging out for pics of the big day.

:: Didn't write a thing yesterday - so I'm about 5000 words behind already. What am I thinking?

Family album ...

:: I thought that some pics of us from the past few months might be in order, so you can catch up with how we've changed (like Will, photographed for his school yearbook, above!), and see what a great time we've been having.
These are all in random order, but scroll away ... and remember to click on them if you want to see bigger versions.

:: Randy (one of Will's school mates), Will and Simon pose it up after bringing in the Christmas tree. I fiddled about with taking the red-eye out of Will, so he's ended up looking rather more demonic than usual. And he's now just over 6'2". Mack's on the floor playing with his cars. I just noticed Yoshi taking a sneaky sniff of Randy's leg!

:: Marnie, Mack and Simon at Disneyland, early January. Here we're on the train that does a big circuit of the Magic Kingdom. Sigh ... I do love it there!

:: On another day at Disneyland, Will and Lily wait for the ride to begin.

:: I finally got to go on the Raiders of the Lost Ark ride with Simon, something I waited ten years to do. It was FAB!

:: Marnie and Mack on a look-out at La Jolla - so beautiful there.

:: This is one of Disneyland's pics of Simon, Lily, Will and Lauren (one of our great waitresses, from Tasmania) on the rollercoaster, California Screamin', which does a 360-degree loop-the-loop. Needless to say, I never go on it!

:: Marnie, Mack and I as the evening draws in at Disneyland and the temperature drops. Mack's crazy about his Buzz Lightyear toy ... but later throws it in the water at California Adventure.

:: Dave and Les at the world's best lolly store, at Julian, a tiny town up in the mountains. They sell fantastic little cups of hot spiced cider to help keep the cold away.

:: Very happy mother and son at the Bondi opening party, January 25 (it was already Australia Day in Australia). I told you these pics were in random order!

:: While I looked after Mack here in San Diego, Simon and Marnie spent the first two weeks of the year in Amsterdam, where this pic was taken.

:: Marnie looking gorgeous in her amazing vintage boots amid the bicycles and cobblestones of old Amsterdam.