New Off leash dog park

A flyer in the mail box as well as some notices around alerted me to the erection of a temporary off leash dog park in Brooklyn Reserve (opposite the unit) It is at the pointy end of the triangular park.

The launch was to be at 10am and some kids activity as well with the lane access to the Federation Trail being closed for the morning  

The area in front of the park

An official launch with temporary fencing behind 

Spencer roaming, uninterested in the other dogs!

The park was from State funding to Council who put up their hand for community led projects. This was one of them. Locals have been lobbying for a park for a while but had objection from every suggested site.

There are request for lighting on Federation Trail, seating, as well as a local cafe!! 

And with all proper Aussie events, a Coffee cart
and free coffee to first 100 people!

So dogs and neighbours were out and we had labels with our name and street, so was easy to chat to people.

Just as the official welcomed us and 'also the dogs" two big dogs, a shepherd and a mastiff started barking and lunging at each other, (all on leash outside,) well that set the dogs off and there was a veritable chorus for a few minutes!! Everyone was laughing. Spencer just looked at me.

 The laneway decoration was templates of the neighbourhood streets and kids and adults could stencil the designs

Spencer contributed by walking through the orange paint and has  left a paw print for posterity, when a young girl begged me to let her take him for little walk!

A day with Bridie.

Bridie had Friday off, as she had to go to Orientation for Max in childcare. She had to attend for 9 times!!! She is working full time so its a bit impossible.
But we were going to go for a picnic to the Lake, but Friday was our most rainfall in weeks, so we will do that another day.

Dylan was wandering around playing with Lego or whirling this thing

Walking everywhere now

he hammered and reset this endless times  

Airey's bathroom

We decided to improve the bathroom at Aireys before Celia comes home. It has a poky shower and outdated colour scheme and way too many cupboards.

The Brief to Marko was clean , crisp lines, a walk in shower Multi function shower rose and a basin and drawer or cupboards unit.

 Marko suggested we take off some of the pine as it made it all so dark,and that we have a door to close the laundry area.

So that's what we have.

Marko worked on it after Christmas and his wife Kate and kids Beth and Natal, spent the time down there enjoying holidays at the beach as well as running to Bunnings as needed.

Jo and Paul were down sorting out their parents’ house in Adelaide and came back via Melbourne, and I caught up with them at Aireys before they went back to Yamba.

The first job was to get the floor tiles up They were GLUED down!

Then as he  removed the pine he found that they were just nailed top and bottom no wall struts etc So he had to build a frame for the Gyprock. The taps of the basin were actually inserted in 2 cutouts in a cross beam, not above or below!
He also had a worry finding the drainage for the shower and was worrying it would come out on the top shelf of the pantry --Inaccessible, but it's in the middle of the kitchen ceiling.
He said not to ask about the piping for the inbuilt vacuum!
The result is great!!

I've since move this to beside the basin.

Laundry (new machine) awaiting the doors.

Basin Awaiting a hand towel rail and fixing the mirror

The plaster with some pine still above it.

San Diego

As Celia will not be home for 18months we decided to spend Christmas together again This time in San Diego.
We stayed for 13 days at the Manchester Grand Hyatt (coincidentally where Andrew et al were last year !)
the weather in Winter is famous for its av. Daily Temp of 20 degrees.
Dont believe it!!  It was more like Melbourne mild winter  13-16 most days with one day of 27.(so we did get the t-shirt out!
So just a small taste of our trip

We met at the Airport ( Celia saying she recognised my legs walking past on the upper level!)  San Diego is only 15minutes from the airport so we were quickly settled .

We discovered  the best things to do in town and promptly drew up a plan; Including finding a spot for lunch on Xmas Day.
We ended up at Bertrand at Mr A's with views of the city and bay  
We set up some lights and a cardboard Xmas tree I brought form home with our Xmas stocking to each other (a tradition) and the table piled with gifts (for me to bring home as well )

In my Christmas present T shirt
Note the red Fitbit. We did 10,000 steps every day 

In Balboa Park 

one side of the Spreckel's organ Pavilion in Balboa Park

On New Years day we met up with Marie-Liesse and Ludo Labat, a French couple who were members at PMYC.  They and their 3 boys are in USA for 2 years on a work thing for Ludo (they had come to Australia for Marie-Liesse to work at Walter and Eliza Hall.)

we went on a walk to Torrey Pines Nature Reserve 

The 3 boys. Arthur jumping for joy!
They speak French to there parents but english to each other 

We had a great time, spending time talking about our plans for the coming year, as well as our mutual weight loss admiration society (7 kg each so far)

the skinny sis!

Lots of murals around town 

along the Embacadero 

USS Midway Now in the  maritime museum area 

The Times square Kiss Statue 

Celia gave me a night Bites, Booze and Brothels tour of the GasLamp District  Didn't go into any brothels though 

The Grant Hotel

I gave Celia a 3 hour Jeep tour of Borrego State Desert Park with a local photographer, about 2 hours north inland of San Diego. So we hired a car and stayed the night and came back through the mountains via Julian, where there was snow!Thankfully not on the roads!! 

The Cholla cactus 

A walk through the slot Canyon of Badlands area 

Fabulous statues of the main road  

the Pillar cactus

We went over to Coronado Island on the Hop on Hop off Bus and decided against Xmas eve dinner  at $195 pp (maybe worth it, but after US Tax 2% and tip 4%, plus wine we felt we could fly to New York on what we saved! 

Mr Sandcastle at work 

The Hotel Del Coronado  

 We also did a day trip to La Jolla
  Started in driving rain that stopped by the time we arrived

colony of seals on the beach and some Yellow headed Pelicans