Newcastle, Australia - Ninth best city in the World!

It's official our very own Newcastle, New South Wales Australia is the ninth best city in the World!

 

New York topped the Lonely Planet list, I'm not sure who was awarded second to eighth place, but I'm sure that Plymouth would have been well up there. Newcastle is one of those quite unfashionable places for Aussies and international travelers... long may it stay that way I say... but it seems to be building a great reputation as a great place to live and visit but then we knew that anyway!  

Link : NBN News.

The Amber Necklace...

Now if you read the title of this post in your normal inside your head voice we need to stop right there... back up think about magic, wizardry, Lord of the Rings etc and then read it again in your best movie trailer voice.... That's it much better!

Right moving on. It would seem that there is more to mothers group than lattes and caramel slice/raisin toast... I know this was a shock to me! It is apparently also an opportunity to share the most bizarre child rearing tips and tales. Apparently the more distant your relationship to the person who has tried (insert tip here) the better. It goes something a little like this...

"My cousins, friends, sister in law twice removed was having real trouble with her child not sleeping because he was cutting teeth. Well one day she accidentally smothered him in Vegemite and guess what now he sleeps twelve hours straight. She's done it every night since... Maybe you should try it... "

Additional points can also be scored for the least scientifically plausible solution to a problem. I'm an open minded person when it comes to complementary medicine but an Amber Necklace! Purchased from a (still laughing now no doubt...) seller on eBay this special necklace, which incidentally has each bead double stitched for safety, cures tooth pain...

The result: Does it work ... maybe!

... however if it does then the effects of the Amber are long lasting as he was still able to get some shut eye while it hung in the bathroom for over a week!

If you are reading this and thinking hey maybe we should try that, then we have one for sale. One careful owner all reasonable offers considered. ;0)

Show me the way to Armidale ...

Much to our disgust (but with our full support!) Amy and Mitch the SPAREnts have moved to Armidale leaving us to look after our own kids! ;0) Having given them some time to settle in and find a home for everything it was about time we packed up half of our house and paid them a visit! Now Armidale is a country town about five and a half hours away... not too far when you remove the fact that we have two young kids and we're English and therefore consider a yearly trip to Butlins Minehead from Plymouth a road trip. Still I diligently went to Google maps, scribbled something about left and rights on the back of an envelope and jumped in the car.

How hard could it be? Newcastle to Armidale ... its just up and a bit left!

We reached half way, let the kids out for some fresh air and had lunch. After the stop we checked out the Barrington Tops which are beautiful at this time of year. However this was a good two hour inadvertent detour in the wrong direction, on dirt tracks in the rain, no phone reception, no food and half a tank of petrol in an area where New South Wales' serial murderer and most wanted man has sought shelter and is yet to be found!

If you stare at this image long enough you can almost hear the sound of hysterics coming from a black 4x4!

Beth and I were thankful that our relationship is a strong one as we slipped and slided out of the mountains and back to the town we had rested in about two hours earlier! Having seen the error of our ways we eventually arrived in Armidale after nine hours. Yes that's a nine hour .... five hour car journey...

Anyway moving swiftly on we had a great time with Amy, Mitch, parents and friends. We checked out Mitchell's new work place (conveniently a bar/club!), some of the sights and an indoor play center. There we managed to do some bowling and escape from the rain which seemed to fall throughout our visit.

We didn't let the weather dampen our spirits and we had great time, and we came away feeling that Armidale isn't that far away... I mean it's not like its nine hours or anything! See you soon guys.

Check out the Armidale Tourist Information Centre.

Chick, chick, chick, chicken...

The two chicks that Alfie and I looked after for a couple of weeks are doing well, in fact they are already getting their adult feathers. Last weekend we went across to see how they were going...

Now what I forgot to mention last time when posting about the chickens is that it proved to be an excellent opportunity to have some father and son time. I took the opportunity to explain some Rooster and Hen stuff. I waffled on about boy chicken and girl chicken for a while and I could tell that Alfie wasn't really listening. After I'd stopped he pointed to the Rooster with it's red triangular cones arranged on its head and said "Daddy what about the Dinosaur chicken?" I had to laugh up until the point where he went to the veggie patch pulled up a healthy corn plant, looked at the roots and said "Nope. No carrots here!" Kids say the funniest things!

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