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I came out from my indoor sporting activity last night to find this:

It’s not every day you return to your bike to find it under an inch of snow…  So I went to the pub with friends until I thought it was ok to ride home…

I can’t say any of them were as good as I remember other years being but a few were ok.

That’d be our second son’s website. I suppose I’ll be webmastering it for a while, until he figures out that it isn’t dad’s strong point. Maybe domain names will be a quaint memory by then. David Lau.

Mom and babe are doing great. 8lb 6oz. Has already gotten a big hug from his big brother, Trevor Lau. That makes me happy.

If your goal is go get the most cars parked per square foot, then OK, otherwise I don’t think my son should park cars as a valet. Sorry son. (close ups)

Today I made lamingtons for morning tea.

These aren’t my lamingtons.  But mine were just as aesthetically pleasing!

So what does Australia day mean? It’s a nice public holiday. It’s also during a time of the year that usually means nice weather.  It’s also known as “Hottest 100 day” because the national radio station Triple J holds the countdown to their national poll of the 100 most popular songs of the year.  I also found out (after doing my research) that this is a relatively new holiday for Australians.  The day it self (26 January) is when Arthur Phillip landed in Sydney Cove in 1788, with the first 11 convict ships to set up the convict colony that was to become Sydney.

I personally don’t like the way that this day seems to only encompass British occupation of Australia.  I’d like to think that one day our national holiday will be assigned to another date in Australian history.

My suggestions are:

3 June

13 February

Does anyone know why I like these two days??

I’ll give a hint (if you want it) in the comments…

Because it wasn’t cold enough in Oxford, we went north to York for NYE 2009.  We purchased a hoard of fireworks, which Kate thoroughly enjoyed setting off out the back of Danielle and Roger’s house.  I had a big rocket which I set off.  I did like the instructions on the fireworks.

1. Set up in a safe area (away from houses and trees)

2. Light fuse

3. Retire 10-15 meters.

“RETIRE!”… I don’t think I’ve run so fast in a long while…

Fireworks stash

It also snowed on NYE which was lovely, so we walked into the Minster and hung out with all the other idiots who thought being out at midnight was a good idea.

We also went over to Leeds to see Dave, Rach, Archie and Ella.  Archie was very pre-occupied with a new DVD he got for Christmas featuring diggers.  I must admit, it’s good watching!

Some photos (click on the thumbnails)

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In true Australian style (and on Kate’s suggestion) I roasted our Christmas goose on Webster, my Webber BBQ.  Goose is a fatty bird, from our 4.2 kg bird, we got around 900 mL of goose fat.  Even with the fat used to roast the veggies, we still had 3 large jars full. I’m sure that fat will be used in the future.

The goose arrived in a box, following our “crack of dawn” Christmas Eve trip to the butcher.

Then onto the BBQ he/she went. This photo was taken through out back doors so excuse the reflection – I think Kate didn’t want to come out in the cold. Yes it was cold. Mighty cold.

I made a 3 short movies of setting up the BBQ. Here, here and here

There’s also some more photos.

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