It's a blog readers worst nightmare. Somebody putting indulgent pictures of their cat hoping that other people share the same interest as they do in their furry friend. But we're different because we live with Chloe and she's the most special cat in the world. 
She likes to warm up our plates
read the occassional classic
Iron our underwear and put on our favourite DVD's
and after a hard days work, it's time to chill out in the hammock
so whoever said cats are lazy must be crazy
It's been almost 3 months in the new job at channel Ten and finally I believe I am getting my head around this whole American crime drama initial thing. NYPD, CSI, NCIS, SVU, CI, NFI ...
foot with towell
bungalow days
Kate (and baby) hanging on
the most passionate chef in Thailand
Some of you may remember my blog of January 2006 concerning the rise and rise of one of the great fast food franchises the world has seen. One year on and we can report that the handsome sandwich empire is going great guns. In fact the buisiness now not only makes the finest sandwiches this side of the pacific, but has branched out into a laundry empire and gasoline franchise. In another great marketing campaign, customers can now get their shirts washed leaving them "clean and good smell for ten years" The Handsome gasoline product line even makes your bike run fast. Needless to say the tshirts, sandwiches, boat trips and gasoline are all going out the door quciker than you can say, double cheeseburger extra bacon. Jan and myself were so impressed by recent events we both bought our second T shirts... Hooray for Handsome
John Howard, our beloved, hopefully soon to be ex prime minister, descibed it as the technological and innovative centre of Australia. He was of course talking about North Ryde. To foregners, think of the Sydney Opera House and head away from all the tourist sites, bars, restaurants towards the new age christian districts in the outer suburbs and you'll find Foxtel the current place of my work. It's a place of space age light fittings... except those aint lights and serve no purpose except to pretend to staff that you arent in the middle of the suburbs surrounded by expressways and the closest restaurant a 10 minute drive. Blended in amongst the walls are little inspirational lines such "never say never", "achieve your best" "act decisively without reserve". 
To be honest I will miss the people out here, but will not miss the politics, the drive, and the heavy depressing feeling about being in an industrial park in the middle of nowhere. Give me ten anyday.
Now for those of you unaware of Chinese astrology, this year is not just the year of the pig, but the year of Golden pig. It's all terribly auspicious what with Kate herself being a pig, and the baby to be born a pig it all seemed so impossibly lucky. That was what we were thinking on arrival in Bangkok airport until the customs officer singled us out ala shapelle corby style. But just as I was about to abandon Kate and deny all knowledge of this criminal, the customs man gave me the thumbs up. The sort of right on look a bloke gives another bloke after he's come back from a successful first date. 
And from that moment on the lucky buddha and her escort were greeted as Thai royals everywhere we went. The Thais love kids and pregnant women and they love it even more when westerners bring their kids along. 
Our last ditch life before screaming child comes along holiday was mainly spent at Thong Nai Pan Noi Beach in Koh Phan Gan and is the best little slice of paradise I've ever come across. We were joined for our little adventure by Jan the swedish hitman who travelled all the way from Scandanavia to worship at the altar of the Lucky buddha. I'd love to tell you about all the wonderful daytrips, adventures, dives, fishing trips and kayaking that we did but no all we did was good old fashioned nothing which was just what the doctor ordered. So if you're looking for the best place in the world to do absolutely nothing... here it is.... as for me... I feel like I've been away for 6 months. If I remember correctly the word hammock pretty much sums it all up
After giving up on losing our photos from Ecuador, thay were recently recovered from Kate's mum's bottom bedroom drawer, along with all the missing socks in the universe. So here are a few highlights
Arent reptiles just sooooo cut.....
That's be an albatross
Kate versus the bug
another local fiesta
and another...this one to do with hats
the condor in action
another crappy fiesta part 50
Galapagos mud
two cuties who followed us for miles
the lovely albatross
So there we were admiring the view at West head, when quite remarkably the view behind us was even more surprising. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a man of burmese appearance who looked quite familiar. It was one of those moments when worlds collide. I approached the man and asked "Do you by any chance come from Burma?" A very surprised "yes" was the answer. 
The monkey like appearance has led top a range of Newspaper headlines around the world. The Sun in England referred to her as "Planet of the Brownes" . The Mirror went for "Baby Browne in the mist", while the more conservative Guardian led with "human mother to give birth to Monkey". 
Behold mother nature in all it's terrifying beauty. The snake in the above photo, Carpet python to be exact, has just devoured a baby wallaby. 
We spent three nights at Pittwater YHA, a gem of a place in the Ku- ring Gai National park and to celebrate our arrival, Craig the carpet snake put on a bit of a show. Right next to the kitchen, he decided to spend the next 3 days recovering from his own christmas feast. 
After loading up with food we headed down to Church point where we got a ferry to Halls Wharf and headed up the hill to spend the next few days with an assortment of Australian native wildlife. Aside from Craig we saw his brother Terry the carpet snake, who surprised us on our walk one day and far from being scared, he moved steadily towards us which meant we had to abandon our walk due to sheer fear. (this was before we knew he was a friendly old carpet python).
Santa came to Leichhardt this year and splashed orage paint all over our walls. Yes we now have the suburbs happiest house as seen thru the eyes of the idiot above. 
Kate hosted her family Xmas which by all accounts went swimmingly( except the odd complaint from a pregnant woman who had to stand up all day long preparing everything while the in laws stood around watching her and chattering). 
Question.... what causes more pain? the western ascent of Everest without oxygen or kitchen renovations? I think anyone who has had tradesmen beat a path to kitchen base camp at 7 each morning will agree that renovating is a total nightmare.... But alas, we have made the transition from sauna to caeserstone
must admit, thought I'd be a little bit more inspired about this blog but no.... i think all the inspirtation was taken out by tradesmen over quoting, and finding last minute problems that need vast amounts of plastic money to fix.... ahh...the sacrifices to have those pull out pantry's.
Chloe the cat was'n't too fussed by it all... as long she got her daily quota of tins
